254

SUBVERSION OF AN EMPIRE.

will be fulfilled while the Turks hold possession of Palestine.

But the removal of that obstruction to the restoration of the Jews to the united possession of the ancient land of promise, was predicted by John the Revelator, in the following figurative language, the fulfilment of which, it is verily believed, will prepare the way for the fulfilment of all the foregoing predictions in relation to the literal re-settlement of both united houses of Israel in Palestine.

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.”—[Rev. xvi. 12.]

The subversion of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, is evidently foretold by this figurative text, which bears affinity, by the mode of expression, with that of the sounding of the sixth trumpet, which evidently predicted the origin of the Ottoman Empire. When the sixth angel sounded, an imperative voice from the golden altar of Heaven, was heard by the inspired Revelator to address the angel, thus: "LOOSE THE

66

FOUR ANGELS WHICH ARE BOUND IN THE GREAT RIVER

EUPHRATES.' This was the second woe trumpet. The woe which resulted, was the liberation of Four Seljukian Turkish governments, which were situated in the neighboring regions of the celebrated great river Euphrates, and which had been prevented from extending their dominions by the terrors of European Crusades, and invasions of the neighboring Tartars. But those hindrances having been removed, these Four Sultanies, full of the anti-Christian spirit of Mahomet, the great false prophet, united their counsels, and forces, and powers, and energies together for a war of conquest; selected Ottoman for the first chief-cap

ORIGIN OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

255

tain and Generalissimo of all their united hosts; and about the middle of the 14th century, commenced their invasions gradually and cautiously at first; but followed them up, continued, and increased them, with the fury of that spirit which first animated Mahomet, the founder of their Christless religion. It was in this invasion that fire-arms, powder and balls, were invented by the Turks. One of their mortar pieces, which was used at the siege of Constantinople, was large enough to hurl a stone of 300 pounds weight, with the tremendous force of powder against the wall of the besieged city.

This dread war for dominion thus continued, with unabating fury, during the period of a prophetic hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, amounting to nearly four hundred years. In the use of such means, under such circumstances, and during such prophetic period; with armies prophetically computed from first to last of two hundred millions of men of war in the field, those Euphratean Sultanies, four in number united, extended their conquests over the eastern world, and established the hitherto unconquerable Ottoman, Turkish Empire, which exists to the present day, and is known to be the main pillar of Mahometanism, including in its possession the land of Palestine, and harboring in its bosom the most inveterate hatred to the Jews, and their religion, and to all other religions of the earth but that of Mahomet. [See Rev. ix. 12-21.]

And as an infallible proof, that the figurative language of the passages of inspiration above quoted, in relation to the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, or Second Woe Trumpet, was a prediction of the origin and establishment of the Ottoman Empire, let it be particularly noticed, that the description of warlike instru

256

A PREDICTION FULFILLED.

ments in Rev. chap. ix. 17, 18, viz., Horses and riders "having breastplates of fire, jacinth and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke, 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 mouth," as it appeared to John in the prophetic vision, was a prophecy of the invention of gunpowder, fire-arms, and balls to kill men in war. And that this prophetic vision was seen and written by the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, to complete the New Testament, less than one hundred years after Christ was born in Bethlehem; and that the prophecy came to pass, and was fulfilled more than 1350 years after the birth of Christ, by the invention of gunpowder and fire-arms by the Turks to prosecute their 391 years of war for conquest, after the European Papal Crusades had abandoned their invasions for the conquest of Palestine.

And let it be further noticed particularly, that wellauthenticated history proves that the Ottoman Turks did make use of gunpowder and fire-arms in that war which founded the Ottoman Empire; and that these newly invented instruments of war were used by their cavalry in small arms, as well as large mortar pieces to sling stones, with force of powder to do the office of battering rams, in breaking down the walls of besieged cities. Let Infidels think of this, as an infallible proof, that the sounding of the Second Woe Trumpet was a divinely inspired prediction, in figurative language, of the origin and establishment of the vast Ottoman Empire, belonging now to an innumerable department of the war forces, collecting under the banner of Antichrist, in preparation for the battle of the great day of the Lord.

PREDICTION TO BE FULFILLED.

257

We are now prepared to see the analogy which exists between the portions of sacred writ which were symbolically used to foreshow both the establishment and subversion of the Ottoman Empire. The figurative language of command resulting in the establishment of the Turkish Empire, was, "Loose the Four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." The import of this divine proclamation, which has been considered, was summarily, an indication of the permissive providential voice from heaven, to a messenger of Divine Providence, commissioning him thus to foreshow what wicked men would do, when restraints were removed, and they were permitted to follow their own aspiring disposition. Thus it was with the four Turkish Sultanies. Restraints were removed; Divine Providence permitted them to be loosened; unbound; free to pursue their own ambitious projects of invasion, conquests, and vast extension of dominion and power. And the result of that divine permission foretold, was, the establishment of the enormously extensive Ottoman Empire, which is held by Mahometan Turks, with an iron grasp of power to the present day.

The sacred text which is understood to foreshow the subversion of that empire, is obviously analogous in the following symbolical language: "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." Now, as in the former text, by the Euphrates was to be understood the Four Sultanies in the Euphratean regions, which swelled to the extent and power of the vast Ottoman Empire; so in the latter text, by the great river Euphrates, figuratively; may be understood in plain language, the great Ottoman Turkish Empire,

258

DRYING UP OF THE EUPHRATES.

in its extent, and power, and wickedness, ripe for overthrow when the period shall come for its subversion, which is emblematically foreshown by the drying up of the mighty waters of the river Euphrates.

This figure of language was doubtless taken from the well-known historical fact, that when ancient Babylon was besieged by the Medes and Persians, (kings, east of Babylon,) by a military stratagem of Cyrus, the waters of the river Euphrates, running nearly through the centre of the city, were literally dried up by shutting down the sluice-gates above the city, and turning the waters of the river into the great reservoir, which had been prepared by the Babylonians to prevent damage by a flood in seasons of high water. By this measure, when the river bed was dry, the invading armies, in two great divisions, one at the place of the entrance of the Euphrates into the city, and the other division on the opposite side, where the river left the city, both at the signal of command marched into Babylon on the dry bed of the river, in the darkness of night; met at the king's palace, who, with his thousand lords, and wives, and concubines were celebrating a drunken festival; and on finding the watergates open near the palace, the whole army entered the city unsuspected; slew the king and his revellers; took the city by stratagem on surprise; and thus subverted the Chaldean Empire, in fulfilment of the predictions of Prophets who had previously foretold the overthrow of Babylon, and its ultimate perpetual desolation.

Thus, as the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, (or the second woe trumpet,) was a prediction of the rise and establishment of the Ottoman Empire, so the pouring of the sixth vial may be understood as a prediction of the subversion of that empire. And as the waters