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precisely at the present era, an era marked so strongly by the signs of the times, as to give us every reason to believe, that we are living in the predicted last days of Antichristian blasphemy, and that the 1260 years are rapidly drawing near to their termination: it is, I say, a remarka1 ble circumstance, that, at this very era, a people should begin to attract our notice in the East Indies, which appear to be a fragment either of the lost ten tribes, or of the Jews that never returned from the Babylonian captivity. The late Mr. Vansittart was the first, I believe, who brought forward to public notice the traditions of the Afghans or Rohillas. Having met with a Persian abridgment of the Asrarul Afaghinah, or the secrets of the Afghans, he was induced to translate it, and to transmit it to Sir William Jones then president of the Asiatic society; who subjoined the following note to it. "This account of the Afghans may lead to a very interesting discovery. We learn from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth; where we may suppose they settled. Now the Afghans are said, by the best Persian historians, to be descended from the Jews; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent; and it is even asserted, that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes, although, since their conversion to the Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushto language, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazareh or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras. I strongly recommend an enquiry into the literature and history of the Afghans."+

From this interesting note of that great linguist we learn four very curious particulars, relative to the Afghans : 1. that they have a tradition among themselves, that they are of Jewish origin, although not very forward to acknowledge their descent; 2. that this is not a mere vague tradition, known only to themselves and ridiculed by their neighbours, but that the best Persian historians, with

2 Esdras xiii. 40-47,

Asiatic Researches, Vol. ii. Numb. 4.

whose empire they have always been connected, assert the very same; 3. that a considerable district under their dominion is to this day called Hazaret, a word nearly resembling Arsareth, which (according to the apocryphal Esdras, whoever he might be, and at whatever period he might live) was the name of the country into which the ten tribes retired; 4. and that their language has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic.

Before I entirely quit this part of my subject, I shall notice a coincidence, which is at least curious, if it deserve no better name. Mr. Mede conjectures, that the kings, for whom the exhaustion of the mystic Euphrates is to prepare a way, are the Jews. Had he said Israelites throughout, as he does at first, he would perhaps have expressed himself with greater accuracy: for, if the passage do at all allude to the restoration of the house of Jacob, it relates more probably to the ten tribes than to Judah. But why should either the Israelites or the Jews be styled kings? Such a title accords very ill with the present condition of the Jews, and still worse with that of the Israelites, if they be so entirely lost and swallowed up, as some have imagined. Mr. Mede does not attempt to solve this difficulty. If however it should eventually prove that the Afghans are really the remains of the ten tribes, and if St. John speak of the restoration of those ten tribes under the name of kings from the east, we shall immediately perceive the singularly exact propriety with which he styles them kings. The whole race of the Afghans denominate themselves even to the present day, in their Chaldaic dialect, Melic or with the plural termination Melchim, in English, Kings. They consider themselves as a royal nation; and, according to their own tradition, claim their proud title of Melic from a grant of Mohammed, whose religion they profess. If then they be of Hebrew extraction, the drying up of the mystic Euphrates, or the subversion of the Ottoman empire, would undoubtedly prepare a way for them both literally and morally. A power would be removed, whose dominions now stretch between Persia and Palestine; and one great branch of that false religion, by which the Afghans are at present deluded, would be broken off. According to

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Mr. Vansittart, the sects of the Afghans are very numerous; and they appear to be a nation formidable at once for its population and its bravery.

While a way is preparing for the kings from the East by the downfall of the Ottoman power, the diabolical influence of three unclean spirits will be actively though imperceptibly employed in gathering together the kings of the earth and of the whole world, or of the papal Latin empire and the Roman world, to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. The battle itself is evidently that which takes place under the next vial, and which is detailed with wonderful sublimity by the inspired prophet. Here the dreadful preparations for it commence : there they are completed, and the battle is fought. From the

*Mr. Sharpe thinks, that the preparations have already commenced: but he appears to be a little premature in this opinion, for the sixth vial is certainly not yet poured out under which the preparations are to be begun, inasmuch as the waters of the mystic Euphrates are not yet dried up.

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But, although the preparations for the battle of Armageddon cannot yet have commenced, because St. John places them under the sixth vial and subsequent to the exhaustion of the mystic Euphrates; the prelude to those preparations seems to have commenced, even since this Work was first published in the beginning of the present year. Among the other signs of the times by which the passing generation is so awfully marked, there is one of so gigantic a magnitude, so peculiar a nature, and yet of so very recent an origin, that it painfully arrests the unwilling attention even of the most careless observer; a sign so closely connected moreover with the downfall of the Ottoman empire, that one can scarcely avoid prognosticating that downfall not to be very far distant. It is predicted, that, at some indefinite period after the exhaustion of the Euphratean waters, three unclean spirits should go forth to gather the kings of the Roman world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty and it afterwards appears, that these kings are associated together subject to the guidance of the beast under his last or Carlovingian bead, and in close connection with the false prophet. (Compare Rev. xvi. 13-16. with Rev. xix. 19, 20.) Here we may observe, that the three unclean spirits are not said simply to gather the kings together or to form them into a confederacy, but to gather them together to the battle of the Lord: whence we may, and indeed must, conclude, that the confederacy itself is formed previous to its being gathered by the unclean spirits to Armageddon; and that these spirits use it unconsciously as their tool, when it is thus formed. At what precise period it will be formed is no where said. For any thing that appears to the contrary, it may be simply formed either before or after the exhaustion of the Euphratèan waters. The event alone can determine: but the previous probability is, that it will be formed at no very remote period from that exhaustion, either prior to it, or posterior to it. Now the chief of this confederacy is declared to be the Roman beast under his last or Carlovingian head; and one member of it is declared to be the false prephet or the Papacy. But, unless I greatly mistake, recent events have identified the infidel king, who is to undertake an expedition to Palestine at the time of the end, with the Roman beast under his last head, who is to do the very same in conjunction with formidable confederacy. Do we behold then any appearance of such a confederacy as that described by St. John; namely a confederacy of the beast under bis Carlovingian bead, the false Romish prophet, and the vassal kings of the enslaved Latin earth? Do we behold it likewise at the very time when we had reason to suppose it would appear; namely when the Euphratlan waters were rapidly drying up, and when their com

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sources, whence the impure spirits are said to issue, it appears, that the beast and the false prophet, for a season at variance by reason of the atheistical principles adopted by the former, will then be more closely leagued together than ever; and that they will jointly meditate some grand expedition against the woman and the remnant of her seed, which however, as we shall presently see under the succeeding vial, will end only in their own confusion and utter destruction.*

SECTION III.

Concerning the vial of the vintage.

We are now arrived at the vial of consummation, which Mr. Mede very justly supposes to synchronize with the vintage. The reason is manifest: the vintage is the last event predicted in the little book, which extends, as itself repeatedly declares, through the whole 1260 years; and

plete exhaustion seemed to be at no very great distance? Is there any answer necessary to these questions? If there be, view the modern Charlemagne first leaguing himself with the Papacy, and then creating at pleasure a host of vassal kings. View him extending his dominion over the greatest part of Germany, over Helland, over Italy, over Spain. View him surrounding himself with regal slaves, who depend upon his nod, and exist only by his will. Lastly hear him, as if unconsciously impelled to bear his testimony to the truth of prophecy; hear him unreservedly avow himself to be the federal head of his creatures, hear him proclaim to all Europe that their mock sovereignties are mere federal estates of France, hear the political system of which he is the author expressly styled in his degraded senate a confederacy and a pious league. What other idea can we form of the coalition described by St. John? In every particular, local and chronological, this nerv coalition, unheard of, unthought of, but the other day, exactly answers to it. Even now rumours are afloat, that the seat of the false prophet is to be removed from Rome, and that the new empire is to be inaugurated by another imperial coronation in the seven-hilled city. If so, what title will be chosen but that of Emperor of the Romans? And for what purpose would that title be chosen, but as authorizing all the ancient claims of the Augustan emperors? The demands made upon Turkey by the sovereign of Venice will be as nothing, if we may judge from the inordinate ambition of the man, when compared with the demands made upon the whole world by the Emperor of the Franco-Romans. June 4, 1806.

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Since these three unclean spirits are said to work miracles, the great boast of the apostate man of sin, it is not improbable, that the visible agents, whom they will employ on this occasion, will be certain popish emissaries, who partly at least by false miracles will induce the infatuated adherents of the Church of Rome to embark in the expedition. Pugnare se putant pro Christi vicario, pro gloria Dei, et pro ecclesia: revera autem pugnabunt cum Deo." (Pol. Synop. in loc.) Mr. Mann of the Charter House conjectured some years since, that the three unclean spirits were the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Jesuits. (See Bp. Newton's Dissert, on Rev. xvi.) I should rather have said, that these, or some other orders of monks, may bereafter be the tools of the three unclean spirits.

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the last vial is poured out at the expiration of that period: consequently the last vial can only contain an enlarged account of the vintage: for, as Mr. Mede naturally observes, there cannot be two different catastrophes of the same drama.*

"And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon And the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. the great city was divided into three parts; and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great.'

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Bp. Newton very justly observes, that, " as the seventh seal, and the seventh trumpet, contained many more particulars, than any of the former seals and former trumpels so the seventh vial contains more than any of the former vials." It is the vial of the vintage; the conclusion of the grand drama of 1260 years; the time of the end. When it shall be poured out, the great controversy of God with the nations will commence; his ancient people will begin to be restored; and the sentence of destruction will go forth against the beast and the false prophet, even while they are in the very midst of their temporary success, and while they are vainly flattering themselves with the hope of a complete victory over the Church of God. Such being its contents, it is said to be poured out into the air, in allusion to the dreadful storms of political thunder and lightning which it will produce.† Three important events are comprehended under it: the eurthquake, by which the great city is divided into three

* See Mede's Comment. Apoc. in Vindemiam,

See the preceding chapter on the symbolical language of prophecy.

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