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What fome able writers have faid on this fubject deserves attention, as it ferves very much to strengthen the argument, which goes to prove, that the hour, and day, and month, and year, for which this woe was prepared, terminated about the end of the laft century. The first whom I fhall mention is Mr. Brightman, who wrote in the beginning of the last century. He fays (in his Expofition of the book of Revelation, p. 324, edition of 1644.) "A year, here put fimply, is understood to be a vulgar and ufual Julian year, that confifts of 365 days and fome hours, all which time being numbered from the year 1300, fhall expire at last about the year 1696, which is the laft term of the Turkish name, as other fcripturés do alfo prove with marvellous confent." Dr. Crefner, and Dr. Lloyd, bishop of Worcester, foretold very nearly the peace of Carlowitz from this paffage. See what Bishop Burnet, in his Hiftory of his Own Times, says of the latter. (vol. iv, p.297, of 12mo. edit.)" Dr. Lloyd, the prefent learned Bishop of Worcester, who has now for above twenty years been studying the Revelation with amazing diligence and exactness, had long before this year faid, the peace between the Turks and the papal Chriftians was certainly to be made in the year 1698, which he made out thus, the four angels,, mentioned in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, that were bound in the river Euphrates, which he expounds to be the captains of the Turkish forces, that till then were fubject to the fultan of Babylon, were to be loofed or ficed from that yoke, and to fet up for themselves; and thefe were prepared to flay the third part of men, for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. He reckons the year in St. John is the Julian year of 365 days, that is, in the prophetic ftile, each day a year; a month is thirty of thefe days, and a day makes one, which added to the former number makes 396. Now he proves from hiftory that Ottoman came and began his conquefts at Prouffe, in the year 1302, to which the former number, in which they were to flay the third part of men, being added, it must end in the year 1698; and though the historians do not mark the hours, or twelfth part of the day or year, which is a month, that is, the beginning of the deftruction the Turks were to make, yet he is confident if that is ever known, that the prophecy will be found, even in that, to be punctually accomplished. After this he thinks their time of hurting the papal Chriftians is at an end. They may indeed ftill do mif

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chief to the Mufcovites, or perfecute their own Christian subjects, but they can do no hurt to the Papilins.”

When I confider the facts which give us reason to think that the four angels, or minifters of deftruction, which were bound in the river Euphrates, were loofed, when the four fultanies above enumerated were united under Ottoman, and freed, not only from the restraints laid on them by the crusaders, but from the control of the khans of Perfia; when I recollect that all this took place about the latter end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, and that between the years 1299 and 1304, the Seljukian race being extinct, and the control of the khans of Perfia being no more, Ottoman founded the present Turkish empire, broke in upon the territories of the eastern Cesars, and laid waste the apoftate Christian churches; when, moreover, I consider that fince the peace of Carlowitz in 1699, though there have fince been wars between the Turks and the papal powers, yet, that the latter have generally been the aggreffors, and that the Turks have always come off lofers, so that their power is fo much broken that their empire totters to its very base, I conclude that the hour, and day, and month, and year, in which they were to prevail, terminated about the end of the last century, probably on Sept. 1, O. S. 1697, when they experienced that fatal overthrow at Zenta in Hungary, from the army under prince Eugene.

SIGNS OF THE LATTER DAYS.

BUT does the violence of the fecond woe terminate as we have endeavored to prove; and is it because the men, against whom it was directed, are brought to repentance? No. Ver. 20. "And the rest of the men (the members of the papal church) 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 filver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk, neither repented they of their murders, nor of their forceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts." This is the exact state of the antichriftian nations; they are ftill impenitent, they ftill maintain idolatrous worship, and systems of cheating and fraud, robbery and murder, persecution and war. They have not repented.

Muft we then give up all hope of better days? Will nothing bring the church to a purer state, and the nations to repentance for their corruptions and murders? Alas! the man of fin will never repent; antichriftian priests and tyrants will never cease their corruptions and oppreffions, robberies and murders, till they, and their abominable systems, are utterly destroyed by the avenging judgments of God.-But we are not to despair.-Here, in the tenth chapter, an angel defcends from heaven to brighten the gloomy fcene, and to cheer our drooping hopes, by announcing that the feventh trumpet fhall foon be founded, and the mystery of God be finished, as he hath declared to his fervants the prophets,

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of this part of John's vifion; I fhall only obferve, that by these locufts we are to underftand the Saracens, the difciples of Mahomet, who, for fo many years, were the fcourge of the Greek and Latin churches, Afia and Europe. Here is no mention made of the third part, as in the other trumpets, but their commiffion was against all the men who had not the feal of God in their foreheads, that is, who were not the fervants of God, but had apoftatized from the truth to fuperftition, idolatry, and perfecution, and which was the cafe with the pretended Chriftians both of Afia and Europe, both of those who acknowledged the fupreme authority of the Bishop of Rome, and of those who did not. were not to kill these men, but only to torment them. This does not fignify, in the strictest sense, that they were not to inflict death on any, for this they did on innumerable multitudes; but it means that, though they were to be the authors of numberless torments to both the Greek and Latin churches, yet, they were not to deftroy them in their corporate capacity. This was to be effected by the future woes.

But thefe locufts

As to the time during which thefe Saracen locufts were to torment them who had not the feal of God in their foreheads, it is faid, in the fifth verfe, to be five months, prophetic months undoubtedly, or 150 years. Again, it is faid, ver. 10. that "they had tails like fcorpions, and there were ftings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months;" the fame period of time with that mentioned before, 150 years. There is fome difficulty in reconciling this time, which the prophecy allots, with the hiftory of facts. Some fuppofe that an allufion only is here made to thofe hot fummer months in which locufts are wont to prevail and do mifchief, without intending to mark out any certain time. Some, again, fuppofe, that as a prophetic month contains 30 years, the period of 150 years was intended, and that this refers only to that period in which the Saracens made their chief conquefts, and occafioned the greateft calamities. Others imagine that both thefe five months are to be reckoned; and then the period of their tormenting men is fixed to 300 years. But others have thought, that here has been, through the mistake of copyifts, fome alteration of the original text. See Whifton's Ef Jay on the Revelations, p. 196. By this hypothefis, John is fuppoled

pored to have written IE or δεκαπεντε, and not E or πεντε, that is fifteen months inftead of five, this being a period which seems to agree much better with the hiftory of the Saracens; for from the beginning of the Saracen empire, or of the imposture of Mahomet, in 608, to the first grand downfal of it, by the rife of the Turkish empire, at the inauguration of Tangrolipix, (after the taking of the capital city of Bagdad) A. D. 1057 or 1058, are about 450 years. As it is not effential to my design, I shall not labor to folve the difficulties which here prefent themselves, it being enough for our prefent purpose, if this fifth trumpet be allowed to refer to the depredations of this cruel people. I fhall therefore only beg leave to fuggeft to the curious, and to those who may have more ability and leisure for the investigation, whether the first five months may not refer to the feverest period of their conquefts and cruelties in Afia, where they had their beginning, and the latter five months to the time of their chief and most tormenting depredations in Europe. Those who wish to see a more labored explanation of these trumpets, may confult Brightman, Mede, Lowman, Newton, Whifton, and others. The latter of whom, except Mede, has the most originality, and though he may have some peculiaries, and start fome hypothefes which may be thought to be unfupported by good argument, yet, altogether, he feems to have had the moft confiftent ideas, and I acknowledge my obligations to him.

Ver. 12. "One woe is paft, and behold there come two woes hereafter. And the fixth angel founded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, faying to the fixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loofed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to flay the third part of men." It is almoft impoffible not to believe that this woe refers to the Turks, who overthrew and entirely extinguished all that part of the Roman empire which they affaulted, by the taking and facking of Conftantinople, A. D. 1458, and by the entire conqueft and poffeffion of the eastern empire to this day. This people perfectly agree with the following defcription. They were to be prodigioufly numerous, especially in cavalry. (ver, 17.) Such has been

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