Page images
PDF
EPUB

the number of them.

horsemen, were two hundred thousand thousand; and I heard And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire of jacinth, and brimstone. By these three, was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

Let the historian who will take the pains, to read both in the general and in detail, the wars of the Turks and Papists, upon each other, and upon the race of man; and the wars, both by land and sea, to maintain what they call the balance of power among the hornsof this terriffic monstrous beast, out of the bottomless pit. After summing all up, he will at once say that the third part of men have been (not figuratively) but literally killed by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone, where gun-powder and fire-arms are so plainly pointed out by the spirit of prophecy, that if chemistry had been half as well understood then as it now is, men would have made them from the description given in this chapter..

men.

The Turks made such havoc and destruction in the Greek empire, by means of artillery, that Amurath II broke into Peloponesus, and took many of their strongest places by battering artillery. But his son Mohammed, at the seige of Constantinople, employed such great guns as were never made before. One is described to have been of such a monstrous size, that it was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen or two thousand There were two more; each of which discharged a stone of the weight of two talents. Others emitted a stone of half a talent. But the greatest of all discharged a stone of the weight of three hundred pounds; and the sound of this cannon is said to have been so great, that all the country round about was shaken, to the distance of forty furlongs. For forty days, the walls were battered by these guns, and so many breaches were made, that the city was taken by assault, and an end put to the Grecian empire.

And as to their armies, the myriads, upon myriads, of horsemen employed in their numerous wars, would seem almost incredible; but historical facts make it emphatically and literally true. There were four hundred thousand men at the seige of Constantinople, beside a powerful fleet of thirty larger, and two hundred lesser ships. The Timariots, or horsemen holding lands by serving in the Turkish wars, were often more than a million of cavalry; and the Janizaries, instituted by Amurath the first, were oftimes more than a million of horsemen. Moreover "they had power to hurt with their tails as well as by their mouths." In this respect they resemble the Saracen locusts and scorpions under the first woe, and the fifth trumpet. So under this second woe and sixth trumpet, the poisonous trains of scorpions and serpents, their priests, propagate and profess the same imposture, the doctrine of Mahomet, as far as their dominion extends. So this "star which fell from heaven burning as it were a lamp," (like the ignis fatuus) giving a false and delusive light.—Matt. vi, 23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. So this smoke from the bottomless pit has obscured the light of the gospel and the light of science, literature and the arts, in the ancient Churches of the Greek and Roman Empires, where they were once the most flourishing, brilliant and shining. There is not a spot where the eye can rest in the whole of Christendom that has not been trodden under foot by this two-fold Antichrist of Popery and Mahommedanism. But during this long, dreary night of worse than Egyptian darkness, there has been an afflicted and poor people, who have had light in all their dwellings. And tho' darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people, the light is about to break out in obscurity. And the Church of Christ, which has been so long like the bush burning with fire and not consumed, will ere long arise and shine, her light being come: For the Lord will look thro' the cloudy pillar by which he has conducted his

people hitherto, by night and day, upon his enemies to their utter overthrow final and eternal discomfiture, and fill his people's mouths with songs of victory and everlasting triumph and deliverance.

20. 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 silver, and brass, and stone, and wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. 21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications nor of their thefts. There was a little flock in the ancient Greek church, and in the Latin church who never bowed the knee to the image of Baal; and in the ancient Philadelphia, and in the Grecian Islands, and in the valleys of Peidmont, in the furnace of afflic tion, who never needed to be reformed from Popery or Mahommedanism; for they never belonged to them. These were the seed of the church. And although the Pope thought to exterminate those in the west by slaughter and burning, it led directly to the Reformation. And though the Greeks were erushed beneath the feet of their cruel oppressors, compelled to do the lowest and most servile drudgery, robbed of their property, and under a most rigorous exaction of a capitation tax on all above fourteen years of age; and their most robust young men forced into the Turkish army and navy. And who does not know that all this conspired to bring about the Greek Revolution.

The tenth chapter opens up a new scene, to the church, and to the whole family of man. Verse 1. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.

This is nothing less than the angel of the everlasting covenant with the Bible in his Almighty hand, with the rain-bow of peace

on earth & good will to man. And the earth & sea, here are equivolent to his divine command, to his disciples, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. The book of God belongs to the whole family of man. The twofold Antichrist had not only closed it, but had well nigh exter minated it from the world. It is now open in the hand of Almighty power; and is placed beyond the reach of all the pow ers of earth and hell. 3.And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth; and when he had cried: seven thunders uttered their voices. 4. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. Now we have no right to enquire into what these seven thunders uttered, seeing they were sealed. Deut. xxix, 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law, 5. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and all things that therein are, and the earth, and the things' that therein are, and the sea, and the things that are therein, that there should be time no longer, [or that the time should not be yet.] 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants, the prophets. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up: and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. 10. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter. 11. And he

said unto me, Thou must prophecy again before many peoples and nations, and tongues, and kings. During the sounding of the sixth trumpet, and the time of the second woe, the re velation under the seventh seal, after the desolations brought on the church for their idolatry, and for having forsaken the purity and simplicity of the gospel of Christ; and for having turned away from the truth as it is in Jesus, unto fables and the inventions of men of corrupt minds. They were dreadfully chastised for their sins,and the holy city at length not only trodden under foot, but indeed crushed beneath the impious feet of a twofold Antichrist. Where once numerous assemblies of saints met, in the solemn worship of God and the Redeemer, not a vestige remains to tell the painful story; but the sad remembrance, that where now stands a Popish Cathedral full of idols or a Turkish Mosque, was once a Christian Church. They are still upheld and supported, their faith and patience strengthened by the exceeding great and precious promises of the unerring and infallible truth of the word of God; and the sweet comforts and consolations of the Holy Spirit. And though the whole atmosphere of the church and of the world was beclouded by the smoke of the bottomless pit, and darkness pervaded the whole human family; and the rivers and fountains of waters were made bitter, as death, by the star wormwood; and the rights and liberties of man, civil and religious, trampled underfoot by this twofold imposture and Antichrist; the history of their oppressions and diabolical reign will be short.In the order of events, we are now made to see a time of reviving and times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord: in the Reformation. The blessed Bible that had been so long closed to man by the management of Antichrist, is now seen open in the hand of a mighty angel, that includes the whole globe of the earth, both sea & land, wherever any of the human family are found. And the divine command to all the disciples and humble followers of the Lamb, is to take the little book at the hand of the angel, and eat it up, that is read and digest it;

« PreviousContinue »