the Infidels, but also for the destruction of the Empire of the East. Constantinople was taken, and Baldwin made emperor; but after five Latin emperors had succeeded him, the Greek emperors, sixty years afterwards, again recovered their government. The Fifth Crusade, A.D. 1217, led by the King of Hungary, came to a miserable end in Egypt. And the Sixth Crusade, A.D. 1228, procured a restitution of Jerusalem and other cities from the Turks; the Christian princes, however, being unable to defend them.

At this time, Genghis Khan-who, with his stupendous armies of Tartars and Moguls, had invaded China, and added its northern provinces to his empire-broke down upon Transoxiana, Persia, and Syria; massacring indiscriminately, Turks, Jews, and Christians who opposed him.

Palestine was saved from these invaders by the Seventh Crusade, under Lewis the Saint, of France. After four years' preparation, this monarch set out for the Holy Land, A.D. 1248, and began his attack on Egypt ; but after some considerable successes, was at length utterly defeated. It is computed that, in the whole of the Crusades to Palestine, no fewer than two millions of Europeans were buried in the East.

Fifteen hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars were inscribed on the military roll of Genghis; and a third of this number passed the Volga, the Don, the Vistula, and Danube. They spread from Livonia to the Black Sea, and reduced both Moscow and Kiow to ashes. They then overran Poland and Hungary, only three cities and fortresses in the latter country surviving the invasion. The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage hostility; and since the inroad of the Arabs, Europe had not been exposed to a similar calamity. The Roman pontiff attempting to appease the invincible Pagans, received for answer, that it was the Divine

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mission of the Khans, to subdue or extirpate the nations. Alarmed, however, by the preparations and approach of the Franks, in defence of the West, the Tartars finally retreated.

After these wars between Turks and Crusaders, the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, the re-conquest of the capital by the Greek emperors (already named), the incursions of the Tartars, and the subdivision of the dominions of the Eastern empire, the famous Othman forced the passes of Mount Olympus, and founded the present Ottoman Turkish empire, A.D. 1298. The renowned Bajazet the First united the Turkish sovereignties in Asia Minor, revived the ancient kingdom of the Seljukians, and established. his power from Boursa to Adrianople, and from the Danube to the Euphrates. He conquered Macedonia and Thessaly, penetrated into Greece; and defeated the Hungarians, Wallachians, Germans, and French, in the great battle of Nicopolis, A.D. 1396. The empire of Constantinople was then comprised within its walls, which were invested by sea and land; but the descent upon Syria of Timour, or Tamerlane, the Tartar (a descendant of Genghis Khan), —who had acquired the dominion of Asia, from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to Damascus,— and the subsequent defeat of Bajazet, saved the city for half a century longer. A second time, the Turks were diverted from this object. But in A.D. 1453, Mahomet the Great assailed the ancient seat of government by sea and land, and breaking down its walls with fourteen batteries of cannon (invented not long before that time), including some immense pieces of ordnance which were important objects in the history of the times,-entered sword in hand, and massacred the inhabitants, who made but feeble resistance. The emperor was slain, the imperial edifices preserved,

the churches converted into mosques; and Constantinople, the last seat of imperial Rome, became the metropolis of the Ottoman empire.

Let us now read an epitome of this historic era, in the words of the Apocalypse. "And the sixth angel sounded, and I

heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates."-Revelation ix. 13, 14.

It will be observed that points in which this Turkish "woe" resembled that of the Saracens, are intimated in the prophecy :-both were distinguished by their horses, they came from the East, and had power to injure by their tails. But, instead of having only one "angel" over them, the Turks have "four angels," -corresponding with the distinct dynasties and tribes of invaders we have just described; whereas the Saracens' conquests were achieved under a single ruling head. The “four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates," denote the Hungarians, Seljuk Turks, Mogul Tartars, and Ottomans; or else four sultanries bordering upon the Euphrates, established in the latter half of the eleventh century; and indeed, the duration of their ravages (to be mentioned presently) seems to fix the commencement with the Seljuk Turks instead of the earlier Hungarians. Perhaps the four khalifs, or the four imaums, or the four chief sects of the Turkish faith, may be prefigured. The number four, however, may be understood in various ways.

The reference to the river Euphrates plainly marks the East as the locality from

(1) Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: and he

which the incursions were to come. Isaiah employs the same figure to describe an Assyrian invasion.()

;

The imagery in the description is peculiarly applicable to the hosts whose numbers and conquests we have related. "And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, 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. 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."-Revelation ix. 15-19. They consisted of almost innumerable horsemen; "the number of the troops of cavalry" (it should be rendered) "was two myriads of myriads," or two hundred millions. The custom of the Turkmans was to number their armies by tomauns," or myriads of horse. The horse's tail is still used by the Turks as the chief ensign of honour and command. It is the ensign of one, two, or three horse-tails, that marks the rank and degree of the Ottoman pasha; and in this allusion may be understood the description of the horse-tail heads inflicting the "hurt." The breastplates of "fire and hyacinth (or the precious stone ligure) and brimstone" present

shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.-Isaiah viii. 7, 8.

the scarlet, blue, and yellow colours for which the Turks have always been remarkable. The smoke and brimstone may, possibly, be an allusion to their use of artillery; as well as heightening the picture of their wholesale and exterminating destructiveness.

It is not clear whether the singular formula of the fifteenth verse-" the hour, and day, and month, and year,"-is merely a solemn designation of the time spoken of, just as Christ said "of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man ;" or whether, coming as it does, after the "five months" of the preceding trumpet, it predicts a set period. We take it in the latter sense. Reckoning 360 days to a year, this prophetic year, with its aliquot parts (counting each day for a year), will amount to 391 years, 15 days. By the Jewish year of 354 days, the period would be 385 years, 15 days. Whichever number be adopted, it will extend either from the first invasion of the Seljuk Turks, A.D. 1050,—or from the signal victory of the Turks of Roum, over the Emperor Diogenes in Armenia, A.D. 1071, followed by their seizure of Syria and many provinces in Asia Minor,-to the Ottoman destruction of Constantinople, A.D. 1453; to the subsequent conquest of Servia, Bosnia, Albania, Greece, and the whole Peloponnesus, or Morea, as well as the islands of the Archipelago; or to the still later conquest of the Greek province of Trebizond, on the coast of Asia Minor, A.D. 1466.

“The third part of men was killed;" and those who escaped the destruction of the Turkish " woe," still persisted in the idolatrous worship of demons, images, &c., of the Greek and Latin churches.

"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

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of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of 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."-Revelation ix. 20, 21. The remark, or reflection, in these verses, refers to a time intervening between the desolations of the sixth trumpet and the opening of the seventh; in which interval God provided an opportunity for the fruits of the chastisement of the sixth trumpet or second "woe to appear.

If we consider that the purpose of the fifth and sixth trumpets is to predict the main instruments in the punishment and subversion of the Eastern empire, we shall understand why it is that other great contemporaneous features of European history are reserved. For the rise of the Papacy, the era of Charlemagne, the kingdom of the Moors in Spain, the invasion of the Eastern empire by the Russians in the tenth century, the conquests of the Normans soon after, and other memorable events, are not included in the prophetic narrative.

We have yet another "woe" to fall upon a world of wickedness and violence; the last and greatest of the three trumpet curses, which are pre-eminent because of the duration as well as the extent of their effects. The first four seals lasted for three centuries; the first four trumpets followed for about two centuries more; but the fifth trumpet brought the first "woe" for a hundred and fifty years; and more than a century after that term had expired, the sixth trumpet desolated with a second "woe" for about four centuries. And all remaining time until the millennial era, is included under the seventh trumpet, or third "woe;" which is to fall in seven successive visitations (predicted by the pouring out of seven vials) upon the Papal or Antichristian kingdom.

BEFORE the seventh angel is permitted to sound the final trumpet, another vision is introduced, in order to describe by a parallel prophecy the state of religion during the time already past. Historians commonly treat of the affairs of the Church in separate sections, apart from the regular current of political events, so as not to interrupt and confuse the stream of their narrative; and here we find that the Apocalypse does so too. This new subject is embodied in a subsidiary vision; while the angel still stands waiting with the last trumpet unsounded in his hand.

"And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud : and a rainbow was upon his bead, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as 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, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not." Revelation x. 1-4.

A mighty angel (supposed by some com

mentators to be Christ Himself) appears in surpassing glory, holding a "little book open" in his hand; this book or roll, like that in the opening vision of the seals, most probably typifying Divine decrees,— not shut and sealed, however, but open so that the apostle might read the further events determined by Providence. And as denoting the all-embracing extent and power of the ordained plan, the angel plants one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land. The cry of the angel is answered by "the seven thunders,"-apparently a repetition of those which John had previously heard in the opening scene of his visions, connected with the lightnings and voices coming "out of the throne;" and again in the vision of the angels preparing to sound their trumpets. Both the cry or shout of the angel, and the voices uttered by the seven thunders, evidently related to the subject of the "little book;" but "the things spoken by the seven thunders" are mysteriously sealed up in secret, thus impressing us with the awful character of the latter ministrations of God's wrath, which have designs connected with them that we are not permitted to know, though the whole course of Providence beside is laid open to us in the prophecy.

This tremendous dialogue between the

roaring (or "bellowing") angel and the seven rolling thunders, issues in the sublime and fearful solemnity of the oath, -(" And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth lifted up upon his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."-Revelation x. 5-7),-by which the angel swears that "time "" (chronos) should be no more, (equivalent to, there shall no longer be delay;) "but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, who is about to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared good tidings to his servants the prophets.' Some translators, how

ever, render the words "the time shall not be yet." Here, then, is declared in the most awful, terrible, and impressive manner,

the seven thunders from the throne of the Almighty, and the oath of the angelic chief, confirming the irrevocable nature and fixity of the decree,—that, with the seventh trumpet, or third " woe (comprised in the seven vials), "the time," or the present order of things, shall cease, the mystery of a lost world will no longer exist; and that reign of righteousness will commence, which has been foretold by the

(m) How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words. )-Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.-And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.-Ephesians iii. 3, 5, 6, 9.

(n) Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that

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ancient prophets. The "mystery of God" may be illustrated or explained by a reference to Paul's declaration, that the Christian Church shall fulfil the Abrahamic promise, and embrace all families of the earth within its fold. (m)

"And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."-Revelation x. 8-11.

The apostle receives and eats the roll, to signify his taking the contents of it into his mind, and digesting there the events to which it relates.

thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth a honey for sweetness.-Ezekiel iii. 1-3.

(0) Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. -Jeremiah xv, 16.