looking for the appearance of the Judge; and that having given fo many demonftrations of his fecond coming, by the completion of prophecy in the ages that preceded, he will give no more till the laft trumpet sounds.

may measure, in mystic numbers, the period that elapses betwixt the deftruction of Gog and the day of judgment, making 210 prophetic years. However, candour obliges me to acknowledge that the conjecture is confiderably weakened by what is faid verfe 9. of the fame chapter, that they were feven years burning the armour of Gog's multitude.

A

KEY

TO THE

PROPHECIES,

WHICH ARE NOT YET ACCOMPLISHED.

PART III.

The Events foretold in them.

CHAP. I.

The prefent State of the World and the Church defcribed in the Prophecies.

BEFORE I proceed to future events, it may

not be improper to ftate the view given in the prophecies of this period in which we live. Such a view is neceffary to trace the progress of

events,

events, by fhewing the links which, in the chain of Providence, connect the prefent with future times. Besides, if the view given of the Church and the World agrees with their ftate and condition in our times, this coincidence affords the ftrongest evidence that the prophecies which regard future times, fhall be likewife accomplished in their feason.

We are now in the year 1038 confiderably advanced, in the period of 1260 years, allotted to the reign of Antichrift. Now, the remarkable circumstances of this period are the following:

SECTION I.

The Ottoman Empire.

THE plague of the fixth trumpet coincides with the latter part of this period, and continues to the conclusion of it, Rev. ix. 13.-21. "And "the fixth angel founded, and I heard a voice "from the four horns of the golden altar which " is before God, faying to the fixth angel which "had the trumpet, Loofe the four angels which "are bound in the great river Euphrates. And "the four angels were loofed, which were pre

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pared for a hour, and a day, and a month, "and a year, for to flay the third part of men. "And the number of the army of the horsemen

were

"were two hundred thoufand thoufand: And "I heard the number of them. And thus I "faw the horses in the vifion, and them that “fation them, having breast-plates of fire, and " of jacinth and brimftoné; and the heads of "the horses were as the heads of lions and:

1

"out of their mouths iffued fire, and smoke and "brimstone. By thefe three was the third part "of men killed, by the fire, and by the fmoke, "and by the brimftone, which iffued out of their mouths. For their power is in their "mouth, and in their tails: For their tails "were like unto ferpents, and had heads, and "with them they do hurt. And the reft of "the men that were not killed by these plagues, σε yet repented not of the works of their hands, "that they should not worship devils, and idols "of gold and filver, and brafs, and stone, and "of wood; which neither can fee, nor hear, "nor walk: Neither repented they of their mur"ders, nor of their forceries, nor of their for"nication, nor of their thefts.". Every circumstance of this description has been verified, in the ravages committed by the Turks, and in the establishment of the Ottoman Empire.

The Turks were at first four small dynafties, in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, who at the time appointed by God, fuccessfully pushed their conquefts weftward. It is well known,

that their army confifted chiefly of horsemen, and that they were remarkable for the use of gun-powder. The more we examine into their principles, government and manners, the more shall we be convinced, that as they have been, fo they ftill are, a horrible fcourge to the Chrif tian world. Cruel in war, they have deftroy ed multitudes, and spread devastation by their, arms: Inimical to the fciences and to every improvement, they have established ignorance, and refifted civilization, as far as their dominion extends Brutal in their manners, they have trampled not only on the pure precepts of Chrif tianity, but on the finer feelings of the human heart, and the ties by which mankind are united together in fociety, for the gratification of their lufts: Zealously attached to the false prophet. Mahomet, in propagating his religion they have destroyed the fouls of millions; their "tails were like unto ferpents, and with them "they do hurt, ver. 19." Now, "the prophet "that teacheth lies, he is the tail, Ifaiah ix. 15. Yet the juftice of God, in continuing this fcourge, is vindicated by the conduct of profeffed Chriftians. Of them it holds true at the prefent moment, "the reft of the men which were not kill"ed by these plagues, yet repented not of the "works of their hands, that they should not "worship devils (demons,) and idols of gold

"and