One passage,

and only

heeded prophecies.*

one, I would here beg leave to submit to the better judgment of others; to my own it appears of this description.

The passage in question, is a prediction delivered by our Lord himself; and forms a link in the wonderful chain of prophecies comprised in the twenty-fourth chapter of Saint Matthew. This passage, although, so far as I know, it has never yet been interpreted of Mahometanism, contains a representation so clear, exact, and literal, of the country, pretensions, and personal character of Mahomet, that, looking simply to the description drawn, and to the expressions in which it is couched, nothing seems wanting to bring it home to that heresiarch.

The character, moreover, and objects of the discourse, in which the prediction occurs, fully bear out and sanction this specific application of it. For it is a germinant prophecy, uniting in the same expressions, the impending desolation of Jerusalem, with the final judgment of the world; and extending its view, from the apostasies which were to precede the fall of the desecrated and devoted city, to those which

"I meet with much fewer than I could wish, who make it their business to search the Scriptures for unheeded prophecies, overlooked mysteries, and strange harmonies." ROBERT BOYLE.

R

should follow to the end of time. In a view thus comprehensive, there is every antecedent ground for believing, that, where the lesser and nearer apostasies are so remembered, the greater and more distant would not be forgotten: the very occurrence, in such a context, of expressions applicable to the Arabian antichrist, affords, it may be added, a strong presumption that we are not wrong in so applying them. But let the reader consider for himself the following passage, and form his own judgment as to the proposed application * :—

SAINT MATTHEW, XXIV.

"23. Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24. For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch, that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25. Behold, I have told you before. 26. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, HE IS IN THE DESERT; go not forth: Behold, HE IS IN THE SECRET CHAMBERS; believe it not."

Attempts have been made, by different expositors, to instance fulfilments of this pre

* It is to be observed, that in proposing any interpretation of germinant prophecy as just, we would not maintain that it is exclusively so. It belongs to the essence of such prophecies, to adumbrate, by the same phraseology, different characters, and distinct events, whether successive or simultaneous.

diction, in the times immediately preceding the fall of Jerusalem. Let the several expositions offered, be only compared with the marks which shall now be noticed, in proof of its matter-offact fulfilment in the person and lying pretensions of Mahomet; and the justness of the interpretation may safely be left to be determined by the result of the comparison.

"There shall arise false Christs:" ] Mahomet, at the outset of his imposture, offered himself formally to the Jews as their promised Messiah; and is universally spoken of by Christian interpreters, and recognized by the whole Christian world, as antichrist, or one of his chief heads.

"And false prophets: "] Mahomet assumed the title of "the prophet of God;" and thereby constituted himself, in the proper sense of our Lord's words, a "false prophet:" accordingly, it has been already seen, he is expressly styled, in the Apocalypse," the false prophet.'

"And shall show great signs and wonders: "] Mahomet laid claim to supernatural communications with angels, and to immediate conference with God himself, in heaven; he set up the Koran as the greatest of miracles; and his pretensions to miraculous powers appear to have been bounded solely by his prudence, and by the fear of detection and exposure.

"Insomuch that, if it were possible, they. shall deceive the very elect:"] This part of the prophecy has found a fatal fulfilment in the innumerable apostasies to Mahometanism which have taken place within the Christian church, from the first rise of that arch-heresy to the present day."

Behold, he is in the desert:"] Christ, it will be had in remembrance, pronounced the prophecy in a country immediately adjoining. the Arabian desert; can it, then, be matter of reasonable doubt, when we take into account the conspicuous place which the Arabian heresiarch and his apostasy hold elsewhere in the prophetic Scriptures, that the finger of God is here laid on the birth-place of Mahomet and Mahometanism?

Behold, he is in the secret chambers: "] In the inner apartments of the house, in its most private recesses: both the Greek term in the New Testament, and its Hebrew equivalent in the Old, have a significancy not to be misunderstood; the prophecy here pourtrays Mahomet to the life, in his proper character; and pursues him to those hidden scenes of "chambering and

* For the signification of Taμelov, see Schleusner in voc.: for that of 777, which, in the Septuagint version, is uniformly rendered by Taμelov, comp. Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon.

wantonness, " which set the seal of antichrist on himself and his religion.

In commenting on the several passages of Scripture, which have been submitted in these pages as prophetical anticipations of the rise and progress of Mahometanism, it has been our object to establish, in each example, by internal evidences, the appropriateness of the application.

For two of the passages in question, namely, Dan. viii. 9-25., and Rev. xiii. 11-18., various other interpretations have been assigned, by very high authorities. Each of these interpretations, however, it will be observed, terminates in reducing the Eastern little horn of Daniel, and the apocalyptic beast that came up out of the earth (or out of the East), in one form or other, to the Western church or empire. Now the Roman church and empire in the West have their own known and proper symbols in both these books; while it seems contrary to the whole nature and ends of prophecy, and contradictory to the general analogy of the prophetic Scriptures, thus to explain one distinct set of symbols, into modifications merely, and subordinate parts of another. Prophecy may be defined the interpreter of Providence; and, as a light sent of God, we have the best reason to anticipate, that the interpretation shall expound