yard. What could have been done "more to my Vineyard, that I have "not done in it? Wherefore. when I

"

looked that it fhould bring forth

grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ?" Nor is the remainder of this paffage lefs applicable to our own cafe than that I have quoted; fince it contains a menace of impending inflictions: and under the fame do we now lie. Having thus a double call to reflection and amendment; that which flows from what the world have experienced of the certainty of the punishment threatened to the disobedient; and that which fprings from having fet before our eyes the denunciation of future plagues, much feverer than any that have yet been poured on the earth.

In truth, fo clearly is the place which the prefnet daies held in the line of prophecy marked as preceding at a very Z. 3

little

little interval the difclofure of God's final judgements on those who deftroy the earth, that any muft be utterly with out excufe, who will not hence take warning to flee from the wrath to come. Of the twelve hundred and fixty years during which the outer court of the temple was to be abandoned to the Gentiles, nearly twelve centuries are already past. Since the Era in which I have before ftated, authority was given unto the beast over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations, almost twelve hundred years are now elapfed. The Turkish Empire, of which the removal from Europe is noted by Daniel as to precede almost immediately the gathering together of the Jews, fhaken to its foundation; and yields fymptoms of approaching diffolution fo evident and ftrong, that Mr. Gibbon, after reporting a prophecy faid to have been infcribed on an ancient ftatue in Conftantinople, that the Ruffians in the

is

laft

laft daies fhould become masters of that city, fays, "perhaps the present genera"tion may yet behold the accomplih "ment of the prediction."* The papal power is now in that ftate of decay, into which, it was foretold, it should be brought before its complete destruction

by the brightness of the coming of "Lord." And this regular and faradvanced progreffion of predicted circumstances in the line traced out by the

prophets

Every reader converfant with travels into the Ottoman territories knows, that the inhabitants of them entertain a firm traditional perfuafion, that that empire will finally be overthrown by the Christians. But the following teftimony of Volney to their prefent hourly expectation of this event is fo much in point that I muft produce it here:

It is generally believed to this moment, through" out their empire, that the predicted hour is ar"rived, when the power and religion of the "Muffulmen are about to be deftroyed, and the

yellow King is coming to establish a uew em"pire." Volney's travels, V. 1. C. 3.

prophets forms fo favourable a pledge of their continuing through the fmall remainder of it, to accord with their words, as to impofe on us a moral obligation not to be evaded, to prepare for that awefull confummation, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His prophets fince the world began. +

After

+ Having ventured to ftate my conjecture, that the time, times, and half a time, at the close of which the end of these wonders will arrive, will be finished at a much earlier period than Newton and other interpreters have fuppofed; it may be expected that I should more diftinctly affign the ~reafons, which have emboldened me to differ from. thofe, who have gone before me with so much reputation. I therefore request the reader to confider that the poffeffion of the outer court by the Gentiles, and the prophefying of the witnesses in fackcloth, and the reign of the ten-horned beaft, are all noticed as to continue the fame period; whence we may fairly, perhaps ought neceffarily to conclude that the fubjugation of the eastern church

After that with which I have closed my lift of predictions already accomplished, the vision immediately proceeds to reprefent the harveft and the vintage of

the

church by the enemies of the christian name, and the tyranny of the papal power over the western, are confidered as commencing at the fame Era. Here then arifes the question, whether at any one and the fame period, there has happened in each of thefe divifions of Christendom, an event from which their flavery may feverally be dated, or rather, be prefumed to have been computed in the vifion? And it is moft worthy of obfervation, that this question is refolved in the affirmative, by its being recorded, that Mahomet firft retired to his cave to compose the Koran in the year fix hundred and fix; the very fame in which the title of universal bishop was given by the tyrant Phocas to the bishop of Rome. Now if the period of continuance fo often repeated, twelve hundred and fixty years, be added to fix hundred and fix, the the fum will be eighteen hendred and fixty fix, for the feafon when "the deliverer fhall come out of Sion, and turn away ungodlinefs from Jacob. "

I have