hence clear that the three quarters in which the Othman empire becomes very great, are in reference to Constantinople, the capital of their dominions; and it is remarkable that this power was increased in these three directions precisely in the order mentioned in the vision. For seven years after the taking of Constantinople Mohammed II. annexed to his empire the Morea, which was governed by Demetrius and Thomas, the two surviving brothers of the name of Palæologus. The dominions of these two despots were situated to the south of Constantinople; so that it could be said of the Othman empire, with the utmost propriety, that it waxed exceeding great towards the south. Demetrius and Thomas were joined the next year (1461) by a companion in misfortune, the last of the Comnenian race; who, after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, had founded a new empire on the coast of the Black Sea. In the progress of his Anatolian conquests, Mahomet invested with a fleet and army the capital of David, who presumed to style himself the emperor of Trebizond; and the negociation was comprised in a short and peremptory question, Will you secure your life and treasures by resigning your kingdom? or had you rather forfeit your kingdom, your treasures, and your life? The feeble Comnenus was subdued by his own fears-the capitulation was faithfully performed, and the emperor, with his family, was transported to a castle in Romania; but, on a slight suspicion of corresponding with the

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Persian king, David, and the whole Comnenian race, were sacrificed to the jealousy or avarice of the conqueror."* As the empire of Trebizond was situated exactly to the east of Constantinople, the capital city being on the southern coast of the Euxine Sea, it is evident that the next quarter in which the Othman empire was increased was towards the east, according to the prophecy. But the sultans have their dominions also mightily increased towards the pleasant land.". By the pleasant land is evidently meant the land of the Israelites, for it is so called in Ps. cvi. 24. " Yea, they despised the pleasant land; they believed not his word." And also in Zech. vii. 14. "But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not: thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the pleasant land desolate." The Othman power was greatly increased in this direction, (which is to the south-east of Constantinople,) in the time of Selim I. for this sultan, in 1516, added Syria and Palestine to the Othman empire, drove the king of Persia out of Armenia, and seized Tauris. In the following year he defeated Gauri, sultan of Egypt, and annexed his monarchy to the Othman dominions; but the subjugation of this kingdom by the Turks, though it was directly south of Constantinople, cannot be an objection to the interpretation of the prophecy here given, be

Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 68.

cause its conquest was after that of Syria and Palestine; for the Othmans began to wax exceeding great towards the south, before they were remarkably victorious in the other quarters mentioned in the prophecy, as has been already noticed in speaking of the conquest of the Morea.

עם קדשים the horn are against the

After this general account of the augmentation of the Othman empire, we are next informed against whom it has prevailed: "It waxed great even to the host of heaven." By host is meant an army; thus The Lord of Hosts, is the Lord of armies; the host of heaven must, consequently, mean the army of heaven. It has before been shewn that heaven signifies the ruling part of that spoken of; and the angel informs us that the exploits of "people of the Holy Ones," as it is properly rendered in the margin of our Bible, and not holy people, as in our translation, for the reason given why the horn prevails is, because those against whom it succeeds have filled up the measure of their iniquities, and conseholy people," as it is said of the saints of God in Isaiah, lxii. 11, 12. "Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord." The people of the Holy Ones, or as it is translated in another place, "The people of the saints," must, therefore, mean those to whom God has, in the

,עם הקדש quently are not

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course of his providence, committed his Sacred Oracles; and as this horn had its commencement in the time of the Christian dispensation, the host of heaven must mean the Christian powers. It then follows that by the horn's waxing great to the host of heaven is intended his power over those professing the Christian religion. It also appears that the horn succeeds in a very considerable degree, for, "it cast down some of the host, and of the stars, to the ground, and stamped upon them." As the host of heaven signifies the Christian powers, the stars must here denote Christian ministers; consequently the horn, or Othman empire, has cast down, or brought into subjection, not only some of the host of heaven, or a part of the world professing Christianity, but also some of the stars, or religious ministers, have been also subjected to his authority. But the dominion of the horn is of no common kind; it stamps upon those which it casts down from heaven, to denote that it rules them with the most despotic and tyrannical government. That the Othman empire answers this description exactly no one need be informed that is at all conversant with Turkish history. The established religion of the Greek empire was Christianity, at least in name; and the whole of this empire has been subdued by the Othmans, whose sway is known to be one of the most tyrannical and despotic in the whole world; a circumstance in their history which will be considered more at large in the subsequent part of this chapter. But it is not against the powers

professing Christianity that the malice of the horn is solely directed; he "magnified himself even to the prince of the host." As host of heaven means the civil powers of the world professing Christianity, the prince of this host can be no other than Jesus Christ, as they are called by his name, and profess to be in subjection to his authority. The horn, or Othman nation, therefore, endeavours to destroy the authority of Christ by diminishing the number of those called Christians; and thus magnifies himself even to the prince of the host, little imagining that he derives all his power over the Greek nation from this same Christ who has delivered into his hands this mighty power because of its great idolatry. The success of the horn is remarkably great, for "by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down." Commentators in general have understood daily sacrifice here to mean literally what the Jews meant by it; and therefore have applied it to the suspension of the daily sacrifice in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, or to its entire abolition by the Romans. But that neither of these can be the meaning is evident from the angel's assertion that this vision was to take place "in the last end of the indignation," a phrase which has been already explained. The daily sacrifice must, therefore, be a Jewish figure to denote its Christian antitype. The daily sacrifice was the standing and public worship among the Jews; its antitype can then be no other than the public ministration of the word among the