their tails were like unto ferpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

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 Thould not worship demons, and idols of gold, and filver, and brass, and ftone, and of wood; which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk.

21. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their forceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

The fecond woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly. Chap.xj. 14. In this fixth Trumpet we have a moft lively Defcription of the Turks, and of the Miferies they have brought upon Europe; and each Circumftance does fo concur to Decypher that Empire, that he must be very unwilling to believe any thing of this nature that can deny, I had almoft faid that can doubt of it. For first, we have here four Angels at the great River Euphrates; anfwering to fo many Sultanies, or Kingdoms, which the Turks had at or near the River Euphrates, for feveral Succeffions together: whofe Capital Cities were Bagdat, Iconium, Aleppo and Damafcus; a particular † Account whereof I have here inferted out of Mr.Mede, from the Turkish Histories. We have fecondly an Account, that thefe Angels were bound in the great River Euphrates: i. e. That thefe four original Sultanies. of the Turks were by Force and Violence compell'd to confine themselves to the parts adjoining to Euphrates, notwithstanding they had attempted to extend their Dominions farther from it: anfwering to that moft remarkable Reftraint put upon them in the 12th and 13th Centuries for near 200 years together by the Holy War: and that by the Europeans alfo, the Inhabitants of that third part of the World, which they were principally to plague afterwards. And this Holy War it was which Repuls'd them, and confin'd them to their former Seats near the great River Euphrates, till almoft the end of the 13th Century.

+ Regni Turcici ad Euphratem quadripartiti Diagramma ab Anno 1080. & deinceps ex Elmacino Arabe, & Scilice authore Græco.

Hifce (tribus poftremis) quartam Tetrarchiam annumerat Scilix Antiochenam, modicis finibus contentam: Nam, inquit, Laodiceam ufque Syria Caliphas Agyti e gente Saracenica poffidebat regiones. Sed cum regnum illud Antiochenum, ut ab Euphrate paulo remotius, ita non nifi quatuordecim an nis duraverit; Antiochia ftatim Boamundo duce a noftris capta; præftiterit forfan eo expuncto Imperium Bagdadenfe feu Perficum, ab altera Euphratis ripa, (Nam Scilix tantum Turcarum qui Euphratem trajecerant rationem habuit.) quaternario complendo adjicere: ut ita Imperium Turcicum univerfum ultra citraque Euphratem in quatuor iftas Sultanias divifum intelligatur. Med. Commentat. Apoc. p 585. 586.

Of the Selzuccian Tribe Tangrolipix, Cutlu Mufes, Melech, and Ducat, were the Heads; of which, Tangrolipix, as the Chief of that Clan or Family, was fettled in the Throne of Perfia. Cutlu Mufes furnish'd with an Army against the Chriftians, poffefs'd himself of a great part of Alia Minor; Melech and Ducat, by the Favour of their Coufin, the Perlian Sultan, were Vefted into the Cities of Aleppo and Damafcus, with their Territories. Heylin. Cofmog. p.8.6.

And

*

And altho' I take this account of Mr.Mede's to be fufficiently attefted by Hiftory, and to be the proper meaning of the four Angels bound in the great River Euphrates in this place, yet I will not here wholly omit fome Circumftances in the firft rife of the Ottoman Family it felf, under which principally if not folely Europe has been fince plagu'd by the Turks; becaufe fome of late incline to refer them to this place, and to imagin them foretold by this Prophecy. We must know therefore, from the Turkifh Annals, that when Solyman-bah the first Eminent and Remarkable Perfon of this Family, attempted, about A. D. 1214, with his three Sons to retire out of Perfia, where he had a fmall Government, into Afia Minor; moved thereto by the fame of the Seljukida then reigning in thofe Parts, He ventur'd to pafs the great River Euphrates, without a fufficient knowledge of the places where it was fordable: But was fo unfortunate as to be drowned therein. This fad accident difcourag'd all his Sons to that degree, that two of them return'd back into Perfia, and the third, Ortogrul by name, the Father of Ottoman, who was it feems more couragious than the reft, tho' he did not return into Perfia, yet He with his three Sons alfo fir'd no farther, but remain'd in the Neighbourhood of Euphrates for fome time;

* Nihil certi ultra Solyman-Shahum de Othmanidarum origine memoriæ proditum reperimus. Hlum tradunt circa Annum Hegire 611. a JingisChani & Tartarorum relicta provincia Mahan e ditionibus Perfarum cui præerat una cum aliis qua principibus qua fubditis fuga fe fubducentem in Afiam Minorem iter inftituiffe, audita Seljukidarum, qui in ea tunc temporis regnabant, fama. Factum autem ut cum Euphratem, cujus vada nefciret, trajicere vellet aquis obrutus periret. Eo cafu confternatis filiis tribus qui cum ipfo erant duos Sankur Zengi & Cun Tugdi in Perfarum regiones rediiffe, Ortogrulem vero tertium una cum tribus qui & ipfi erant filiis Condoz, Sarubani, & Othman iftis in partibus fubftitiffe; donec Sarubanio filio ad Iconii Dominum Aladinum miffo ipfius ditiones ingrediendi veniam, & locum ubi fedem figeret impetraret. Quo affignato caftra pofuit, 400. fuorum tentoria Turcica fecum habens. Hic cum rebus contra hoftes ftrénue geftis magnam apud Aladinum gratiam iniiffet fummoque in honore effet vitam cum morte commutavit Anno Hegira 687. Atque in locum ejus fuffectus eft filius ipfius Othman Beg juffu Regis, Ch. Pocock. Suppl. AbulPharag. p. 41. 42. Ex Annal. Turc. in initio.

and (as it seems) for many years together; till Aladin the Sultan of Iconium receiv'd him, and gave him a Countrey to inhabit. Soon after whofe death his Son Ottoman became famous, and in a few more years, rais'd that mighty Ottoman Empire of the Turks, by which Europe has been fo long af flicted; and to which the prefent Prophecy does properly belong.

Now here, fay fome, we have the Four Angels, Solymanfah and his Three Sons, or rather Ortogrul and his Three Sons, the Captains of the Turks moving towards Europe: Here we have thefe Turks paffing the great River Euphrates: But by the fad mishap of the drowning of Solyman-fhah, they are affrighten'd, and confin'd for a confiderable time at the faid River: Hence afterward they are receiv'd by Aladin; and before, or at his death, plainly let loose to purfue the Conquests towards Europe, or to flay the third part of Men, according to this Prophecy. These Circumstances it must be own'd are peculiar; and if they were eminent and remarkable enough, do not ill agree with the words of the Prophecy before us. However, as they are, I thought it not improper to set them down, and leave them intirely to the judgment of the Reader. We have thirdly the time of thefe four Angels continuing loofe after that restraint was taken away, An hour, and a day, and a month, and a year; that is 396 years and 106 days, thus,

Υ.

An Hour O

A Day = 1

D. -15.

A Month 30-00.
=30

A Year 3654365-91.

Total....

396..106.

So that if we can but find the exact beginning of thefe years, at the Commencement of the Reign of Ottoman, when the Turks were immediately let loose upon the Western parts, we may easily find their conclufion alfo; and compare it with the Prophecy before us, and with the Hiftory of the last four Centuries to which it belongs. Now tho', I confefs, this has all along been look'd on as a very difficult Point; to determin to a few days, or weeks, or months, nay or to a year the Date of Ottoman's Reign, because of the difference among

the

the Hiftorians; yet fince I have made fome new remarks on this Head, and I think have obferv'd the occafions of a great part of this difference, I fhall venture to attempt it. And it will very well deferve our pains, because the exactness of the completion of this moft remarkable Prophecy depends. upon it. In order to which I observe,

*

(1.) That by the common confent of all Hiftorians, Turkish or Greek, Ottoman began to Reign about the year of our Lord 1300. This is fo univerfally agreed on by all that I fhall not need to infift any farther upon it. I obferve,

(2.) That,'as far as appears, the Opinion of Ottoman's beginning his Reign any confiderable time before A.D. 1300 is principally, if not wholly owing to a mistaken number in the Turkish Annals,afcribing † 29 years to hisReign; and yet dating the be

* Othomannorum Primordium anno Chrifti imputari folet 1300. Petav. Rationar. Temp. p. 593.

Ottoman emboldened with fuch great Succeffes, and hearing of the Death of Aladin II. whom he acknowledged for his Lord, he took unto himself the title of Sultan Anno 1300. from which before he had abftain'd. Heylin. Cofmog. p. 806.

Sed quod omnium acerbiffimum. & Chriftianis luctuofiffimum, fub eo, nimirum anno 1 300. natum eft Imperium Turcicum, Afiaticis, Europæifque terribile, in Othomanno Satraparum Afiæ potentiffimo, cui cam Bythnia obveniffet. Idem Satrapias cæteras fibi fubjecit; gradumque pofteris ftravit ad erigendam fublimem illam poteftatis molem qua orbis premitur, gemitque perdiu diræ tyrannidi mancipatus. Flofc. Hiflor. p. 296.

Othomannus Conditor Imperii Turcici anno 1300. ex Analibus Turcicis -Nominantur Regni ejus anni 28. & principium collocatur in annum Chrifti 1300. ex Annalibus Græcis. Mellific. Hiftor. p. 246. & 248.

At the fame time alfo Othoman began to Coin Money in his own name, and to take upon him all other Honours belonging to a Sultan or a King; which was about 10 years after the Death of his Father Ertogrul, and in the Year of our Lord 1300. unto which time the beginning of the great Empire of the Turks, is under the Fortune of this Othoman to be of right refer'd, as then by him thus begun. Knowls Turkish Hiftory, p. 143.

Inauguratus Anno 699. Noaman Hiftor. Erudit Turc. Sultani titulo primum in Suggeftis facta eft mentio anno 699. Pocock. Supplem. Hiftor. Abul-Pharag. p. 42.

Tandem exactis in imperio 29 annis Ofman Gases vitam cum morte commutavit. Annal. Turc. p. 5.