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ledged rise of Antichrist; that so by comparing their former state with their present, we may be led, as it were, with an Ariadne's clue, to discover what that fatal power was, which could reduce so great a proportion of the whole christian world to such an abject state of poverty, wretchedness, and slavery as that under which they now groan, and have already groaned for nearly twelve hundred years.

"The great extent of country, whose inhabitants formerly embraced the christian religion, and formed the numerous churches of ancient christendom, may be considered under their several local divisions. At first we may cast our eyes on Africa, and notice the great number of famous churches that were formerly under the patriarchate of Alexandria; in one of which the great Augustin was a bishop, and within whose bosom the learned Origen taught, with no common degree of celebrity, the principles of philosophy and religion.

"Thence we may pass into Asia, the cradle of the human race, where first the Sun of righteousness arose with healing in his beams, and trace the numerous ruins of christian churches, that once flourished under the patriarchs of Jerusalem and Antioch, and view the noble remains of edifices consecrated to the service of God, that are scattered over the Holy Land; many of which were erected by the piety of emperors and empresses in honour of the Saviour of the world.

From hence we may proceed to the Lesser Asia,

whose seven churches once had the honour of being addressed by Him, who was found worthy to oper the seals of the divine Apocalypse; but whose pristine grandeur can now only be traced in the melancholy fragments of sculptured marble and broken pillars scattered on the ground. Even the church of the disciple whom Jesus loved is now converted into a Turkish mosque.

"Let us now pass over into Europe, and visit Constantinople, once the glorious seat of the christian emperors and head of the christian world. Where are now its superb churches? Where is the matchless fabrick of St. Sophia? All, all are destroyed, or, what is worse, consecrated to the false religion of Mahomet.

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By the foregoing view of the state of ancient christendom, may be seen what a great proportion of all the original christian countries and churches have been over run and enslaved by the Mahometan power, which has now continued for nearly twelve hundred years, to tyrannize over the poor miserable remainders of the christian churches. And from the same view also arises a strong presumptive argument that the great tyrannical power, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, under the character of the abomination of desolation, or of the desert, as the learned say it might be justly rendered, is no other than the great Mahometan tyranny, which first arose in the deserts of Arabia. And here it deserves particular notice, as a matter of fact, that all the christian churches that are mentioned in the New Testament as having been planted by our blesse

Lord and his apostles, excepting only the church that was gathered in the city of Rome, have been overrun and enslaved by the Mahometan power, and continue under the same tyranny to this very day. But, to proceed from this general argument to some that are more particular, it may be observ. ed,

"1. If the power, that was to tyrannize over the true followers of the Lamb for twelve hundred and sixty prophetick days, or years, meant the persecuting power of the popish church, as has been generally admitted by protestants, it will be difficult to find the propriety of addressing to the seven churches of Asia, the book of Revelations, in which that power is supposed to be particularly described; as it is now known to us from history, that neither they nor their posterity have ever been subject to the tyranny of the church of Rome. But if the Mahometan power was meant, then there was a peculiar fitness in addressing the book to them, whose posterity were among the first victims of that overwhelming destroyer.

"2. If the persecuting power of the Romish church was meant to be described by the great beast in the Apocalypse, it will be difficult to conceive why St. John was carried by the spirit into the wilderness to see its rise; where, it is said, he saw a woman sitting on a scarlet coloured beast fall of names of blasphemy, etc. If the tyrannical power of the Roman pontiff and his clergy was

meant to be exhibited to St. John in that vision, it seems as if nothing short of the rule of contraries could possibly represent a power, that confessedly arose in the chief city of the greatest empire in the world, as arising in the wilderness. But if the Mahometan power be meant, then the vision is a true and literal representation of the fact, for that false prophet arose, and his first armies were formed in Arabia Deserta.

"3. That power in its rise is represented in a moving posture. The being mounted on a beast is for the purpose of being carried to some other place ; and, accordingly, history informs us that the Mahometan or Saracenick seat of government was soon removed, from Medina in Arabia, to Damascus ; and afterwards to the city of Bagdat, on the borders of the Tigris, near the site of old Babylon; by which name also Bagdat is often called in ancient writers where it continued for several centuries in great splendour. Whereas the Roman pontiff held his court always in the city of Rome where he first arose.

"4. It is well known, that after the fall of the Saracenick power at Bagdat, the Turks, who came from the north of Asia, beyond the Caspian sea, joining their countrymen, who had long been settled in Turcumania and Persia, erected a government in Asia Minor; and having, before that time, embraced the religion of Mahomet, formed the Turkish empire that finally took Constantinople and destroyed the christian empire in the east. This Turkish em

pire being formed on the same principles with the Saracenick government, and built on the same authority of the Alcoran, was only a continuation of the same Mahometan power and spirit that wore out the saints of the most High by oppressing, in the most cruel manner, the christian churches, as it continues to do unto this day.

"5. The tyrannical power and fatal influence of the false prophet, having at length arrived at the seat of the christian empire, and possessed itself of the last throne of the Roman Cæsars, its catastrophe only now remains. And this, from the prophetick description of it will afford new evidence that Rome was not the seat of the great Antichrist. The city where the conquest of the christian empire was completed by the Turkish armies, inspired by the invincible enthusiasm of the Mahometan religion, is represented in vision as the scene of their final destruction. This great city was exhibited to him, who saw the Apocalypse, as a place of great trade, commerce and navigation. And when the fatal moment arrived for her final overthrow, the chief mourners over her are represented to be the merchants, ship-masters and sailors, and as many as traded by sea; who cried, when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, alas! alas! that great city, wherein where made rich all that had ships in the sea, etc. This description cannot apply with any propriety to Rome, which never was noted for her navigation and commerce; but will apply with the most literal exactness to the city of Constantino

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