Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

this salutary control; and the decline of the Moguls gave a free scope to the rise and progress of the Ottoman empire." This event he dates May 31, 1304. This looks very much like the loosing of which the prophecy speaks. Between this and the year 1312, he dates the conquest of the maritime country from the Propontis to the Meander, and the Isle of Rhodes, so long threatened, and so often pillaged; and that now (p. 437.) "the captivity or ruin of the seven churches of Asia was consummated, and the barbarous lords of Ionia and Lydia still trample on the monuments of Classic and Christian antiquity.' "And but a few years after this, so humbled were the proud Christians of Constantinople, the trembling capital of the emperors in the east, that crowds of naked Christians, of both sexes, and of every age, of priests and monks, of matrons and virgins, were exposed to sale in their public markets; and all they could do was to deplore the fate of their brethren, who were led away to the worst evils of temporal and spiritual bondage. In 1857, or 1358, they entered the European seas with a very numerous fleet of ships, and never ceased their conquests, nor received any effectual check, till the latter end of the last century. In 1453 they took and sacked Constantinople, entirely conquered the eastern empire, and made that imperial city the capital of their vast dominions.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

But for how long a period was their triumph to continue? Ver. 15. 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.' According to Mr. Brightman, Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Cressner, Mr. Whiston, and others, 96 years, and some odd days, are here signified. They reckon, with a little variation, thus:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It admits of a doubt whether the Jewish year of 360 days should be counted, or the Julian year as above; but as it does not affect the hypothesis I mean to establish, I shall not detain the reader to examine it. Mr. Whiston

argues, that it is probable that Ottoman began his reign May 19, 1301, and reckoning from thence to September 1, Ŏ. S. 1697, when Prince Eugene overthrew the Turks at Zenta, we have exactly the time required. And it deserves to be remarked, that ever since that overthrow they have never been able to make any effectual head against the Christians, so called, but instead of being a plague to the Christian nations, in the prophetic sense of the term, these nations have been a plague to them, and their power has been constantly lessening; for though they have made war several times, it has been almost uniformly to their loss, at least with respect to the old western empire, or the Latin church; for immediately after this, Providence raised up Peter of Russia, who, by what he effected among the people of his vast empire, prepared a scourge for those who, for four centuries, had been so cruel a scourge to mankind. This appears to be the messenger who was to bring tidings from the north to trouble him, Dan. xi. 44.* and it is probable that Russia will be a principal instrument of his destruction.

What some able writers have said on this subject deserves attention, as it serves 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 last century. The first whom I shall mention is Mr. Brightman, who wrote in the beginning of the last century. He says (in his Exposition of the Book of Revelation, p. 324, edition 1644,)" A year, here put simply, is understood to be a vulgar and usual Julian year, that consists of 265 days and some hours, all which time being numbered from the year 1300, shall expire at last about the year 696, which is the last term of the Turkish name, as other scriptures do

* It deserves the attention of the learned inquirer, whether by his planting the tabernacle of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, be not signified his making Constantinople, which is situated on the shores of the Bosphorus, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the capital of his empire: for as Jerusalem might be called the glorious holy mountain because the capital of the Jewish church, though that church was become very corrupt, and the city polluted with every crime, so might this city, which was the capital of the Greek Christian church, and esteemed by them the holy metropolitan city, though polluted with similar abominations, be spoken of in the same style. But all our commentators, I believe, understand by the glorious holy mountain the city of Jerusalem, to which he will retire after his expulsion from Europe; and possibly they may be right. It is likely a little time will determine.

also prove with marvellous consent." Dr. Cresner, and Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, foretold, very nearly, the peace of Carlowitz from this passage. See what Bishop Burnet, in his History of his own Times, says of the latter, (vol. iv. p. 297, of 12mo. edit.) " Dr. Lloyd, the present learned Bishop of Worcester, who has now for above twenty years been studying the evelation with amazing diligence and exactness, had long before this year said, the peace between the Turks and the Papal Christians was certainly to be made in the year 198, 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 subject to the sultan of Babylon, were to be loosed or freed from that yoke, and to set up for themselves; and these were prepared to slay 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 style, each day a year; a month is thirty of these days, and a day makes one, which added to the former number makes 396. Now he proves from history, that Ottoman came and began his conquests at Prousse, in the year 1302, to which the former number, in which they were to slay 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 destruction 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 Christians is at an end. They may indeed still do mischief to the Muscovites, or persecute their own Christian subjects, but they can do no hurt to the Papalins*.

"We

Dr. J. Mather, who wrote in 17.0, says, in his Discourse concerning Faith and Fervency in Prayer, p. 97. are assured that when the sixth trumpet, called also the second woe, has done its work, the seventh trumpet, called

[ocr errors]

* Mr. Eton, in his Survey of the Turkish Empire, lately published, speaking of the circumstances of the Turkish empire in the latter part of the last century, says, at p. 186, This may be called the crisis of the Othman power, when, having attained the acme of its fame and splendour, its own inordinate ambition, and the prevalence of evil counsels, pushed it onward to its decline."

the third woe, will come quickly, Rev. xi. 14. Now there is reason to hope that the second woe is past, i. e. thạt the Turk shall be no more such a plague to the apostate Christian world, as for ages past he has been. At the time when the second woe passeth away there is to be a great earthquake: In that earthquake one of the ten kingdoms over which Antichrist has reigned, will fall. There is at this day a great earthquake among the nations. May the kingdom of France be that tenth part of the city which shall fall. May we hear of a mighty Revolution there, we shall then know that the kingdom of Christ is at hand."

When I consider the facts which give us reason to think that the four angels, or ministers of destruction, which were bound in the river Euphrates, were loosed, when the four sultanies 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 Persia; 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 eljukian race being extinct, and the control of the khans of Persia being no more, Ottoman founded the present Turkish empire, broke in upon the territories of the eastern Cæsars, and laid waste the apostate Christian churches; when, moreover, I consider that since the peace of Carlowitz in 1699, though there have since been wars between the Turks and the Papal powers, yet that the Turks have almost always come off losers, so that their power is so 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.

[merged small][ocr errors]

BUT

OUT does the violence of the second woe terminate as we have endeavoured 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 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 fornications, nor of their thefts." This is the exact state of the Antichristian nations; they are still impenitent, they still maintain idolatrous worship, and systems of priestcraft and bigotry, of cheating and fraud, robbery and murder, persecution and war. They have not repented.

Must 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 sin will never repent; Antichristian priests and tyrants will never cease their corruptions and oppres sions, 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 descends from heaven to brighten the gloomy scene, and to cheer our drooping hopes, by announcing that the seventh trumpet shall soon be sounded, and the mystery of God be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

The gleam of consolation which breaks upon us in this chapter is very seasonable and reviving; the great and lasting troubles predicted in the former chapters, and which occupy a space of 1400 years, are enough to try the faith and patience of the best. To hear of nothing

« PreviousContinue »