cur, which could place their inhabitants in a situation more truly afflicting and abject.

After a recital of the sixth vial, another prophecy, which occurs in the last six verses of the xith chapter of Daniel, and is thought to refer to the Turks under the name of the king of the North, may be pertinently alleged. At the time of the end shall the king of the South push at him, i. e. at the Roman empire, and particularly the Eastern division of it, and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the· children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Lybians and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

That the king of the North signifies the Turkish power or empire, and the king of the South, that of the Saracens, is the general opinion of modern commentators; of Mede and Brightman, of Dr. More and Dr. Wells, of bp. Newton and Sir I. Newton, of Mr. Lowth, Mr. Wintle, and Mr. Samuel Clark.

"At the time of the end,' says bp. Newton, that is (as Mr. Mede rightly expounds it) in the latter days of the Roman empire, shall the king of the South push at him: that is the Saracens, who were of the Arabians, and came from the South; and under the conduct of the false prophet Mohammed and his successors, made a religious or rather irre

ligious war upon the emperor Heraclius, and deprived him of Egypt and many of his finest provinces. They were only to push at, and sorely wound the Greek empire, but they were not to subvert and destroy it. And the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen, and with many ships, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over: that is the Turks, who were originally of the Scythians, and came from the North; and after the Saracens seized on Syria, and assaulted with great violence the remains of the Greek empire, and in time rendered themselves absolute masters of the whole. The Saracens dismembered and weakened the Greek empire, but the Turks totally ruined and destroyed it: and for this reason, we may presume, so much more is said of the Turks than of the Saracens. Their chariots and their horsemen are particularly mentioned; because their armies consisted chiefly of horse, especially before the institution of the Janizaries;' and it is this circumstance, says Mr. Lowth, which makes them carry an Horse-tail before their chief officers, as an ensign of honor.' Their ships too,' observes bp. Newton, are said to be many; and indeed without many ships they could never have gotten possession of so many islands and maritime countries, nor have so frequently vanquished the Venetians, who were at that time the greatest naval power in Europe. What fleets, what armies were employed in the besieging and taking of Constantinople, of Negropont, or Eubœa, of Rhodes, of Cyprus, and lastly of Candy or Crete?' • The prophet,' observes Mr. Wintle, has several times in this narrative expressed the progress and havoc of war by the ravages of an inundation, and we find the like allusion at the end of this verse.' The words, shall enter into the countries, and overflow, and pass over, ' give us,' says the bp. of Bristol,

(

an exact idea of their overflowing the western parts of Asia, and then passing over into Europe, and fixing the seat of their empire at Constantinople, as they did under their seventh emperor Mohammed the second.'

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown. The same expression of the glorious land,' says bp. Newton, was used before (ver. 6); and in both places it is rendered by the Syriac translator the land of Israel. Now nothing is better known, than that the Turks took possession of the Holy Land, and remain masters of it to this day.' But these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. • Edom and Moab and the Ammonites,' says Mr. Wintle, ( are thus joined, Jer. xxv. 21. and we meet with them again together, Isa. xi. 14. They were all to the east or south-east of the Dead Sea, and now make a part of the extensive range of the wild Arabs.' Sultan Selim, observes bishop Newton, was the conqueror of the neighboring countries, and annexed them to the Othman empire; but he could not make a complete conquest of the Arabians. -Ever since his time, the Othman emperors have paid them an annual pension of forty thousand crowns of gold, for the safe passage of the caravans and pilgrims going to Mecca: and for their farther security the Sultan commonly orders the Bashaw of Damascus to attend them with soldiers and water-bearers, and to take care that their numbers never fall short of 14,000.' The Arabians, notwithstanding these precautions, have sometimes plundered the caravans; and though armies have marched against them, they have remained unsubdued. These free-booters have commonly been too cunning for their enemies and when it was thought they were well nigh surrounded and taken, they have still escaped out of their hands. So well doth this particular prediction, relating to some of the tribes of the Arabians, agree with that general one concerning the main body of the nation,' which is recorded in the xvith chapter of Genesis.

He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries. 'This,' says the bishop of Bristol, implies, that his dominions should be of large extent; and he hath stretched forth his hand upon many, not only Asian and European, bút VOL. II.

likewise African countries. Egypt in particular was destined to submit to his yoke: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. And the conquest of Egypt with the neighboring countries follows next in order after the conquest of Judea, with the neighboring countries, as in the prophecy, so likewise in history. The Othman emperor Selim, having routed and slain Gauri sultan of Egypt, in a battle near Aleppo, became master of all Syria and Judea. He then marched into Egypt against' the new sultan, whom he defeated, captured, and put to death; and so put an end to the government of the Mamalukes, and established that of the Turks, in Egypt. The prophecy says particularly, that he should have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and history informs us, that when Cairo was taken,' "the Turks rifled the houses of the Egyptians, as well friends as foes, and suffered nothing to be locked up or kept private from them: and Selim caused 500 of the chiefest families of the Egyptians to be transported to Constantinople, as likewise a great number of the Mamalukes wives and children, besides the sultan's treasure and other vast riches." And since that time it is impossible to say what immense treasures have been drained out of this rich and fertile, but oppressed and wretched country.' Edward King, Esq. in his Morsels of Criticism, gives a somewhat different turn to the passage under review. It seems,' says he, 'not a little remarkable, that the expression is not should possess them, but should have dominion over them, so the Turks have really had the command of Egypt, and of its treasures and desir. able things, without availing themselves hardly at all of the benefit of those riches".'

And the Lybians and Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 'And we read in history,' says bishop Newton, that after the conquest of Egypt "the terror of Selim's many victories now spreading wide, the kings of Afric, bordering

10 Savage's Abridgement of Knolles and Rycaut. p. 246.

! P. 510.

6

upon Cyrenaica, sent their ambassadors with proffers to become his tributaries. Other more remote nations also towards Ethiopia were easily induced to join in amity with the Turks"." At this present time also many places in Africa besides Egypt, as Algiers, Tunis, &c. are under the dominion of the Turks. One thing more is observable with regard to the fate of Egypt, that the particular prophecy coincides exactly with the general one, as it did before in the instance of Arabia. It was foretold by Ezekiel, that Egypt should always be a base kingdom, and subject to strangers; and here it is foretold, that in the latter times it should be made a province to the Turks.'

The two next verses, in the opinion of the several com mentators whom I have enumerated, remain to be fulfilled. But tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him; therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. With respect to the tidings out of the East, these, says Dr. More, may very well contemporise with the sixth vial, which is poured out upon the river Euphrates, whereby its waters are dryed up, and a way to the kings of the East prepared", which shews some great mutation of affairs and jeopardy, that the Turkish empire in those Eastern parts will seem to be in.'

The Persians,' says bishop Newton, are seated to the East of the Othman dominions, and the Russians to the North. Persia hath, indeed, of late years, been miserably torn and distracted by intestine divisions; but when it shall unite again in a settled government under one sovereign, it may become again, as it hath frequently been, a dangerous rival and enemy to the Othman emperor. The power of Russia is growing daily;' and the Porte is at all times jealous of the junction of the two powers of Persia and Russia, and exerts all its policy to prevent it.' It is,' says

12 Savage, ibid, p. 248.

13 That this prophecy of Daniel, and the sixth vial are contemporaneous, is thought probable also by Dr. Priestley. Institutes of Nat. and Rev. Rel. vol. II. p. 424.