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khanides, Timour the Tartar, or Tamerlane, John Huniades, and Scanderberg within the Præfecture of the East, and from possessing the long-wished-for prize of the seat of the Cæsars; but at length on the morning of the twenty ninth of May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty third year of the Christian era, fixed upon by the astrological calculations of Mahomet, 400,000 men led by the Sultan and his three Viziers, and attended by an artillery more formidable than any that had hitherto appeared in the world, the second, if not the first, which had ever been arrayed against Constantinople, effected what had been hitherto vainly attempted by the Saracens and Amurath II. The city, and shortly after the whole Præfecture of Illyricum, one of the three into which the Western Empire was divided, fell into the hands of the Turks; in whose possession it has continued ever since. This calamity to the Empire might have been easily prevented, had not all quarters of Christendom, it seems, been possessed with one mind to leave the Greeks to their fate.

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard one voice from the four horns of the golden altar 14 which is before God, saying to the sixth angel

which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound on the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were pre

pared at the hour, day, month and year, for to slay 16 the third part of the men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand and I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of 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 brim

18 stone. By these three was the third part of the men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 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.

SECTION IX.

Unrepentance of the Two Præfectures of the Gauls and Italy.

The Præfecture of Illyricum having fallen into the hands of the Turks, the two remaining Præfectures of the Gauls and Italy were still left to the spiritual jurisdiction of the two-horned monster, the Pope, who after the ruin of Arianism gained at least two thirds of the Empire. But the Latin church was not benefitted by the Saracenic plague, or by the punishment which befel their brethren the Greeks they still adhered to the worship of saints and angels; still imbrued their hands in the blood of the saints; still fabricated their lying miracles for the sake of gain; still practised concubinage in the persons of their clergy by reason of the celibacy imposed on them by their master; and still committed public robberies by the sale of pardons and indulgencies.

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 of wood: which neither can see, 21 nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

DIGRESSION II.

FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE LAST PERSECUTION OF ANTICHRIST.

SECTION I.

The Reformation, and the Seven Stages of the
Republication of the Mystery.

About the time that the Eastern Empire came to its end, our High Priest who had been caught up to God and his throne by the apostacy of the Romans, ever mindful of his covenant with his church, and his promise that he would be with it to the end, is now seen descending again from heaven by the light of Wickliffe, A.D. 1360, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, with a new edition of his gospel, cleared of the additions and traditions of popery, reduced to its native digestible size, translated into the vulgar tongue, and printed, now no longer sealed as at the beginning, having been already opened by the preaching of the apostles: and having descended, and placed one foot upon the Empire of Germany, and the other on Rome, he lustily inveighs by his servant Luther, 1518, against the abominable corruptions of the church; and having sent forth his outcry, the seven thunders of those sons of thunder, the Reformers, by the seven stages of the glorious republication of that little treasure, his gospel, give echo to his voice. A.D. 1518-1843.

X. 1. And I saw another mighty angel coming 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 3 on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when

a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven 4 thunders uttered their voices. 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.

SECTION II.

The Last Grand Scattering of the Power of the Holy People at the Battle of Armageddon, and Repentance of the rest of the Men.

Now that our blessed Lord had stood up for his people by the Reformation of Luther, there would be no longer any delay in bringing to an end the scattering of the power of the holy people, when the whole number of the fellowservants of those, who had been already slain under the Pagan establishment, should be slain as they were. For when the last stage of the public proclamation of the gospel should be about to begin, then the mystery spoken of in the Book of Prophets, viz. in Daniel, i.e. the scattering above mentioned, should be accomplished; but between this and then that inestimable little treasure of the gospel must be preached over again to the world, which would be sweet indeed in precept, but bitter in the attempt to promulgate it. For, since the last survey of the church made by our Lord, it had undergone considerable alterations: instead of being divided into small churches independent of the state and of each other, as once existed in the Lydian Asia, it had been, and would continue for 1260 years, divided into the Eastern and Western churches, or, after the Turks gained possession of Illyricum, into the church in the Præfecture of the Gauls, containing, France, Spain, and Britain, and into the church in the Præfecture of Italy, containing Italy and part of Austria, in which the Cæsar of the Romans

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and his Decemvirate would be the god, so that the true witnesses in those divisions would preach in sackcloth, and, through the paucity of these, nothing but nominal Christians would occupy the rest of our holy city. The witnesses of the truth therefore, after the Reformation, had to preach the gospel over again; and when, after the expiration of the 1260 years, ending 1813, they should gain a legal establishment in the Empire by the grand charter of Louis XVIII. 1814, in France, and by other tolerating acts and edicts in the rest of the Empire, they would be suppressed for reasons, which it is not difficult to guess at, by the regal Decemvirate of the Cæsars again. But at the expiration of three years and a half, they would again obtain a legal footing to the consternation of their enemies, when a tenth part of the Empire would fall from the ecclesiastical dominion of the beast by a bloody revolution. The witnesses are come to send fire on the earth by the force of truth alone, for they are unassisted by the civil power, and by that weapon alone they must vanquish their enemies; but they have a baptism to be baptised with, and how are they straitened till it be accomplished! Till then, divine blessings drop not as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. The very fate of Christianity hangs on the battle of Armageddon, and then It Is Done. With the passing away of that, the Empire of the Turks passes away also.

5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, 6 and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea and the things which are therein, 7 that there should be delay no longer 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 8 the prophets. And the voice which I heard from

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