Turkish Tribes [invading the Asiatic provinces of the empire and the Othmans] effected the entire subjugation and subversion of that empire permission was no longer granted that the Euphrates should be the boundary of the Turkish conquests towards the west.' p. 262, 263.

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GAUNTLETT'S Exposition. (8vo. 1821.) The prophecy foretells the conquests of the Turks and Othmans.' p. 126.

Having given these quotations, I will merely add the names of many, chiefly modern Commentators, who adopt a similar application of the sixth Trumpet to the Turkish Empire.

Ashe, Bishop Bagot, Benson, Brooks, Brown, Boothroyd, Cobbin, Cole, Cradock, Cunninghame, Davidson, Dent, Ettrick, Elliott, Fleming, Fraser, Faber, Frere, Fuller, Fysh, Galloway, Gill, Hales, Hawker, Hewlett, Holden, Irving, W. Jones, Jones of Creaton, Keith, Kett, Lancaster, Lawrence, Bishop Mant, Bishop Newton, Pyle, Religious Tract Society, Robertson, Scott, Sutcliffe, Thurston, Bishop Wilson, Whitaker, &c.

These names, above 100 in number, are given without any pretence to be a full list. They are such as have occurred in a comparatively cursory search among books in the author's library, and might doubtless be greatly enlarged. It will be seen that even early authors like Brightman and Mayer, Haak, and Des Marets, speak of this as the general interpretation in their day.

PART I.

THE INSTRUCTION GIVEN US BY PROPHECY ON THE TIMES IN WHICH WE LIVE.

CHAP. I.

THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.

EIGHTEEN hundred years since, the apostles being gathered together just before our Lord ascended to his glory, asked him the last question recorded as put to him on earth in the Holy Scriptures, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? He told them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Of those times and seasons farther information was afterwards given in the Epistles, and in the book of Revelation ; and according to the plain promise of our Lord, and the instruction which he has given, of what was to precede his kingdom,-those who live near the times may know the approach of his kingdom; when ye see

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these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. The times and seasons are, as the events approach nearer, to be more and more unfolded to the Church of God.

The prophet Amos of old testifies, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. God's past dealings with his people, illustrate this fact. We find that the length of the Babylonish captivity, was clearly made known to the Jews through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the exact time of the restoration from it, was thus understood by Daniel. The period of our Lord's first advent, was predicted by dates given obscurely, but yet so sufficiently, that Simeon and Anna, and devout Jews, were looking for the consolation of Israel, and redemption in Jerusalem. The prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans before that generation passed away, being understood, and the event expected by the believing Christians, it became the means of their deliverance at that time.

The times of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, being more distant, and for many weighty practical reasons, it being important that they should not be fully understood, till the events to take place were actually approaching, the dates were predicted in more figurative and obscure terms, but with sufficient helps

still treasured up in the divine record, to make all clearer and clearer, as the time of the end comes more near to us.

As the prophecies of Jeremiah showed Daniel when the captivity would end, as the prophecies of Daniel himself showed the waiting Jews, when our Lord would first come, as the prophecies of our Lord showed his disciples when Jerusalem would be destroyed, so the farther prophecies in Daniel and those given to us by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation, were given to show to the Christian Church, the things which must shortly come to pass, and especially to prepare us for his second coming in glory to judge the world, and establish his kingdom: as that all-important event comes

nearer to us.

Indeed our Lord has made it our duty, to discern the signs of the times; by rebuking in sharp terms the valuing natural knowledge above this divine knowledge. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

All men see and acknowledge, from the Prime Minister of this great country to the humblest reader of our public journals, that the times through which we are passing are full of unprecedented and remarkable peculiarities, portending great changes.

But a wise Christian is privileged, through the inspired word of prophecy, patiently, perseveringly, and diligently read in faith and humility, prayer and love, to discern far more distinctly, God's mind in these changes,