Ptolemy, the third, taking Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Colesyria, and, nominally, Arabia, (as, partly, conterminous with Egypt; partly, having had a portion of Hedjas, its north-western province, conquered by Alexander; and, partly, shut out from the rest of the world by his own possessions) toward the South; and Seleucus, the fourth of them, acquiring all the remaining provinces of Alexander, toward the East; but that the governments of these kingdoms, respectively, were not to be administered with the same power and ability, which had distinguished the management of the whole empire, under its first great head: v. 8, and 22.

3dly. That from Hedjas in Arabia, within the precincts of one of these kingdoms, namely, that which had been founded by Ptolemy, there was to stand up MAHOMET,-a man of great subtilty, and knowledge of human nature, who should become the founder of a spiritual sovereignty, that should be established by the sword; and who is therefore well described as 66 "a king of a fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences:" v. 9, and 23.

4thly. That in the beginning of his usurpations he should be very small, even "a little horn," the head merely of his own particular tribe; but that he should "wax exceeding great;" and that the directions, in which his greatness should be most conspicuous, would be "toward the South, and toward the East, and toward the pleasant land, or in a northerly direction. So rapid, indeed, were

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the conquests of the Saracens, that, before the expiration of the thirty-second year of the Hegira, corresponding with the year 652, they had made themselves masters of the whole of Arabia, of Egypt, and some other parts of Africa, of Armenia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Phoenicia, and the whole of Syria, and of the islands of Aradus, Cyprus, and Rhodes 1: "At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the Caliphs were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe."....Under the reign of Mervan, who was the last of the Ommiades, in the 132nd year of the Hegira, "the Arabian "empire extended two hundred days' journey from "East to West, from the confines of Tartary and "India, to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean; and "if we retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their writers,-the long and narrow province of Africa,—the solid compact dominion, "from Fargana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, "will spread on every side to the measure of four or five months of the march of a caravan v. 9. 24.

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5thly. That though the power of this spiritual empire should be "mighty," and its success in the work of destruction should be "wonderful," yet these awful phenomena should not be produced by any power inherent in Mahomet himself, or any of

For an account at large of the conquests of the Saracens, to the time here mentioned, see Modern Univers. History, Vol. I. Book I. chap. ii. p. 274-535.

2 Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Vol. IX. chap. li. p. 500.

his successors in the Caliphate, though they bare the sword in one hand, and the Koran in the other; -but should be the consequences of the desperate wickedness and corruption, into which the Eastern portion of Christendom had thus early descended; and which had generally armed against itself both the justice of GOD, and the vengeance of men:.... the very establishment of this dominion having been "because of transgression,”—the result of the fraud and imposture with which the "transgressors” of that time were easily seduced, who had then come to the full," or "filled up the measure of their iniquities:" v. 9-12, and 24, 25.

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6thly. That the founder of this system of successful imposture, which should "cast down,” " and destroy," some of the (figurative) host of heaven, and of the stars1," should also "magnify "himself against the Prince of the host," even "the Prince of Princes;" Mahomet assuming to himself the dignity of being peculiarly the Apostle and Prophet of GOD,-to the evident degradation, among his spiritual subjects, of that great Prophet, foretold by Moses, who had long before "come

1 The frightful rapidity with which this work of destruction proceeded, under the more early successors of Mahomet, may be well illustrated by what Mr. Gibbon says upon the subject; who seems to exult in the idea, that, "in the ten years of the administration of Omar," which commenced in the year 634, "the Saracens reduced "to his obedience thirty-six thousand cities or castles, destroyed "four thousand churches or temples of the Unbelievers, and "edified fourteen hundred moschs for the exercise of the religion "of Mahomet." Decline and Fall, Vol. IX. chap. li. p. 361.

"into the world;" and setting up a scheme of Religion in professed and direct opposition to Christianity: v. 11. 25.

7thly. That the whole period assigned for the continuance of this great and overwhelming Apostasy, which indeed is still as predominant as ever among many nations of the East, and by that very predominance demonstrates so far the truth of the Prophecy, is "a time, times, and a half;" which, reduced to chronological numbers, will be a thousand two hundred and sixty natural years': chap. xii. v. 6, 7.

8thly. That, nevertheless, the Power, thus predicted, "shall be broken without hand:" in correspondence with which do we not perceive, or rather, have we not long perceived, the preparations in progress for this close of its existence, in the rapid depopulation of the Turkish Empire, (the great Sultan of which still bears exclusively the title of "Caliph of the faithful,")—from causes intrinsic and peculiar to itself, and arising entirely out of the vices of its own religious and civil administration 2 2? chap. viii. v. 25.

9thly. And further, that the whole space of time,

1 Key to the Revelation, Vol. I. p. 11, 1829.

On this curious and deeply interesting subject I beg to refer to Eton's Survey of the Turkish Empire, p. 247, &c. edit. 1801; and to Walsh's Narrative of a Journey from Constantinople to England, p. 220. 2nd edit. 1828; or to the Key to the Rev. Vol. II. pp. 743-749; where they are both cited at large in proof of this point.

appointed for the completion of the prophetical Vision, in which the particulars above described are included, is, according to the various Epochs, at which it may be justly considered as commencing and concluding its details, either two thousand four hundred days, or two thousand three hundred, or two thousand two hundred days. But the Mahometan Religion being still in existence plainly proves the days to be prophetic, as in other cases, of years; and therefore the period indicated by the Vision will be so many mean solar years.

It will be sufficient to remark at present on this point, that the various Epochs here alluded to, for the commencement of the main subject of this Prophecy, may be dated,

Either from the rise of the Persian Empire itself; when the Ram, symbolical of that Monarchy, was seen by the Prophet to "stand first before the river "Ulai ;" and before he had begun his "pushing westward, and northward, and southward 1:" chap. viii. v. 3, 4, and 20.

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Or from the laying of the foundation of the temple at Jerusalem, in the second year of the reign of Cyrus; for the offering of that "

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daily Sacrifice," which was emblematical of "the daily Sacrifice" to be afterwards offered in the Christian

1 This is Mr. Faber's opinion; who has devoted much learning and ingenuity to the support of it, in Vol. II. p. 163–177, of his "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy:" and to this I have alluded more at large in a subsequent part of this Dissertation.