as parcelled out into a number of separate and indepen dent states.

On the two first woes a few extracts shall be given. As the prophetic defcriptions of them run to a confiderable length, and as they are both fulfilled, it is to be expected, that, in the application of them, there fhould be little disagreement among the commentators. Accordingly we have their general teftimony to affure us, that the Saracens were the first woe. This was conceived to be undoubted by Sir I. Newton, by Mede and More, by bishops Newton and Hallifax, by Pyle, Whiston, and Jurieu, by Goodwin, Waple, and Fleming, by Creffener, Lowman, and Daubuz. In the account of this woe, which occupies the eleven firft verfes of ch. ix, one fymbol occurs, fo curious and fo appropriate, as to induce me to take particular notice of it. The Saracens, in the figurative language of the prophet, are denominated locufts. Locufts,' fays Dr. Lancafter3, fly in fuch prodigious numbers, as that they form a great cloud and darken the sky, and then falling upon the earth, make a 'moft terrible havock of all the fruits thereof; and fo are a proper symbol to fignify an army of enemies coming in ' vast multitudes to make an excurfion, in order to plun⚫der and destroy a country: and therefore very properly represent here the Arabians or Saracens, who were always profeffed robbers, and made prodigious incurfions { upon the Roman empire particularly, as well as towards the Indies; making, wherever they came, most furious depredations.' It is faid in v. 9, that the found of their wings was as the found of chariots of many horJes running to battle; and Pliny affirms, that they fly

,

6

with fo great a noife of their wings, that they may be

taken for birds. Their wings, and the found of their

3 In his Abridgment of Daubuz.

wings, denote the fwiftnefs,' with which the Arabians atchieved their conquefts To fhew their great ra

6

pidity,' fays Dr. Lancaster, it will be fufficient to observe, that in the reign of Omar, the second caliph ' after Mahomet, thefe locufts had made fuch a surprising ' progrefs, (though his reign was only about ten years "and an half) that they became masters of 36,000 towns, villages, and caftles, in Syria, Chaldæa, Mesopotamia, 'Perfia, and Egypt; and carried on their conquefts as far as Tripoli of Barbary. And this is obferved by Khondemir'.' In v. 5 it is declared, that men fhould be tormented by them five months; and again in v. 10, that their power was not to hurt men five months. This, fays bp. Newton, 'is faid without doubt in conformity to the type; for locufts are obferved to live about five months, that is from April to September:' and, in proof of this, the prelate appeals to Bochart and to Pliny. Now, Tays the bp. of Bristol, if these months be taken for prophetic months or 150 years, it was within that space of time that the Saracens made their principal 'conquefts. Their empire might fubfift much longer, * but their power of hurting and tormenting men was ex'erted chiefly within that period. Read the history of the Saracens, and you will find that their greatest ex'ploits were performed, their greatest conquefts were made, between the year 612 when Mohammed-be'gan publicly to teach and propagate his imposture, and the year 762 when the caliph Almanfor built Bagdad, to fix there the feat of his empire, and called it the City of Peace. Syria, Perfia, India, and the greatest 'part of Afia; Egypt and the greatest part of Africa; 'Spain and fome parts of Europe, were all fubdued in the intermediate time. But when the caliphs, 'who before had removed from place to place, fixed

'their habitation at Bagdad, then the Saracens ceafed from their incurfions and ravages like locufts, and be

came a fettled nation; then they made no more fuch rapid and amazing conquests as before, but only engaged in common and ordinary wars like other nations; then 'their power and glory began to decline, and their em'pire by little and little to moulder away.'

The fecond woe' confifted of the wars and conquefts of the Turks and Ottomans, which have fallen with fo fevere a weight on the corrupt inhabitants of Chriftendom". This is the general opinion of commentators; the opinion of all those whom I have named as harmonizing in their explication of the first woe. But I fhall quote only from one of them, and from his abbreviator, Dr. Lancaster. Four angels, the messengers of the divine wrath, are represented as being bound in the great river Euphrates, and afterwards loofed, that they might Лlay the third part of men. The four angels, fay Daubuz, are the Ottomans, and particularly refer to Ortogrul the third, with his three fons, Condoz, Sarubani, and Othman, who firft paffed the Euphrates, and laid the foundation of the mighty power of the Ottomans. The beginnings of

It is defcribed in ch. ix. V. 11-21.

? To be convinced that it is a woe with a reference to them, it will be fufficient to infpe&t it. After defcribing it, St. John says (v. 20, 21), 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 of gold, and filver, and brafs, and fione, and of wood:-neither repented they of their murders, nor of their forcerie, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Notwithstanding that dreadful woe, afflicting the Eastern Christians,' which the prophet here defcribes, yet,' fays Dauhuz, the Western did ftill continue in their idolatry, and took no notice of thofe dreadful warnings of God.' Ta Sayona, the word tranflated devils, Dr. More obferves, is to be under' stood of giving religious worship to dæmons, that is to say, to the fouls of men deceased.' Myft. of Iniq. p. 389. See this proved at large in Mede, p. 783. It is to be remembered, that the worship of images, at the period of the Ottoman conquefts, was every where prevalent,

*

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that

that power were, obferves this learned writer, 'wonderful than thofe of the Saracens.'

6

6

being loofed,' I am now quoting from Dr. Lancaster, they were permitted to break into Christendom by their paffing the Euphrates. And therefore the part of 'Christendom, which was to fuffer by them, must be that which lay next to that barrier, being as it were guarded by it. The Eastern empire therefore is here intended, ⚫ which both had the name, and kept up the pretenfions, of the ancient Roman empire, which was the third · part of the known world, wherein the Chriftian religion was planted. And in this empire, which was the 'third or chief part of Christendom, were the men to 'be flain; that is, deprived of their political life and government. Accordingly this event was brought ' about by Mahomet II. who by taking Conftantinople, 'A.D. 1453, and by his conqueft of the empire of Trebizond, A. D. 1460 ruined all the power of the Eastern empire, in all the parts thereof, and this fo effectu' ally, that not one monarchy of those Chriftian princes which formerly poffeffed it was excepted from this common difafter; the Ottomans having gained, and still enjoying, all the dominions of the Eaftern Cæfars.'

6

In order to apply the fymbols of the first and second woe to the several events and particulars which they were defigned to predict, it is obvious, that an exact acquaintance with history is indifpenfably neceffary. Some obfervations of bp. Hurd may be here pertinently alleged. That the argument from Prophecies fhould not con"vince thofe, who have not confidered the occafion and ' design of them, the purposes they were intended to serve, and therefore the degree of light and clearness, with which it was proper they fhould be given; who have not studied the language in which these prophe'cies are conveyed, the ftate of the times in which

'they

⚫ they were delivered, the manners, the customs, the opi'nions of those to whom they were addressed; above all, who have not taken the pains to acquire a very exact and extenfive knowledge of hiftory, and fo are not qualified to judge how far they have been accomplished; 'that to fuch persons as these, I say, the argument from prophecy fhould not appear to have all that evidence ' which believers afcribe to it, is very likely; but then 'this effect is to be accounted for, not from their know'ledge, but their ignorance, not from their feeing too 'clearly, but from their not feeing at all, or but imperfectly, into the merits of this argument. And for those who have fearched deepest, and inquired with moft care, into this kind of evidence, they depofe unanimously in its favour, and profefs themselves to have ⚫ received conviction from it.'

Whilft in v. 13 of ch. xi. it is foretold, that there would be a Revolution in the Tenth Part of the city, and an abolition of names or titles; it is folemnly proclaimed in the following verfe, that the fecond woe is paft; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. In the three following verses the prophet touches on the happy changes which fhall arife in confequence of that third woe, or the founding of the feventh trumpet; and in v. 18 it is added, that when the wrath of God is come, he will deftroy them which deftroy the earth. Now those, who reflect that a Great Earthquake, to ufe the word in its figurative import, has recently fhaken the European continent, and who believe that titles have already been abolished in the Tenth Part of the symbolic city, will be naturally folicitous to inquire, what are the subsequent events, which are to be accomplished during the last of the woes and of the trumpets, and to what clafs of perfons

8 Serm. preached at Lincoln's Inn, vol. II. p. 74.

those