although they will fail, no intimation is given that they will be totally destroyed by that tyrant: "much less so than the purposes of trade or war require. "During the summer months, the wind carries ships up the "Dardanelles and into the Black sea; and from thence they can scarcely ever return until the commencement of the "autumnal winds, which rising in the north-east then blow "downwards. "I do not believe that the great mass of the professors of "the Mohammedan religion think it possible that it can ever "be destroyed. The most enlightened among them may be "suspected to be not true believers; and such men can of course have no confidence in the support of their false pro“phet: but what I heard, and what I saw, was sufficient to "convince me, that fanaticism still pervades the Ottoman empire; and, while this continues to be the case, there will "be a reliance on supernatural means for preventing its "downfall. But I imagine, that this confidence does not "make them equally sanguine in their hopes that they will "always be able to preserve their European possessions. It "is certain, that some of their chief men have directed that "their dead bodies should be carried over for burial into "Asia. The Turks generally consider themselves as belonging more to Asia than to Europe: and there has been a tradi"tion among them, that, as a chastisement from heaven for "their sins, the day will come when they will lose Constanti "nople, and be driven back to Asia by some European power. That power was till lately supposed to be Russia: "but of late years their fears have been more directed to "France; and in particular they have thought, that Buonapartè was a sword of vengeance sent by the Almighty to "punish a wicked world." 66 The reader will find some interesting observations on the probably destiny of the Ottoman empire in Thornton's Present State of Turkey. p. 68-99, whence whence we may perhaps venture to conclude, that they will be rather baffled than subjugated *. (2.) Is then England the great maritime power, to which the high office of converting and restoring a large part of his ancient people is reserved by the Almighty? To this question, I am compelled to say, that we have no right positively to answer in the affirmative. England may, or may not. The thing is certainly not improbable in itself; and I will even add, that the present aspect of affairs by no means contradicts the conjecture, that our hitherto highly favoured country may be the protestant European naval power intended by Isaiah: yet I must likewise add, that such an opinion, should it be entertained by any, can be considered in no other light than that of a mere conjecture; a conjecture authorized indeed, as some may imagine, by existing circumstaeces and by the high probability that we are not far removed from the time of the end, but a conjecture, totally unauthorized by the prophet himself. This however I may safely. say, that, the more true piety increases among us, So far indeed from the northern kingdom being subjugated, we have some reason from prophecy to believe, as I have already intimated, that it will be a tremendous instrument in the hand of God to scourge the guilty inhabitants of the papul Roman empire. The irruption of the northern power into the south-western regions of Europe will most probably take place, unless I be mistaken in supposing such an irruption to be predicted, during the absence of Antichrist in Palestine and Egypt. More will be said on this subject hereafter. the the more likely will it be that England is the great maritime power in question. At the present awful period, when the judgments of the Lord are so manifestly abroad in the earth, the accession even of every individual to the cause of vital religion and Christian holiness renders us more strong and more secure; and increases the probability that the maritime power may be England, because it makes us more fit for the task (a task meet only for the sincerely pious) of converting and restoring the lost sheep of the house of Judah. A wicked nation can be expected to furnish no very suitable missionaries. So great a labour of love will require proportionable purity of heart and conversation, and proportionable devotedness to the service of God." If iniquity therefore increase, and righteousness decrease, among us; I may say, without pretending to the spirit of prophecy, that we certainly cannot be that naval power, which the Lord will delight to honour by delegating to it the venerable office of carrying the Gospel to his ancient people. III. It will be proper for me now to make a few remarks on the mode of exposition, which will be adopted throughout the following pages. 1. Between chronological prophecies and unchronological prophecies there is a striking difference, which ought always to be kept in mind. A chronological prophecy, that is to say, a prophecy consisting of a series of predictions which succeed each other other in regular chronological order like those of Daniel and St. John, is incapable from its very nature of receiving a two-fold accomplishment; because every link of such a prophecy is exclu- · sively confined to a particular period of history by the links which both precede it and follow it, and therefore can only be applied to a single event. In short, a chain of chronological predictions is simply an anticipated history: and each link is just as incapable, and that for the very same reason, of a double completion, as each fact recorded in history is of a double meaning*. But an unchronological prophecy, that is to say, a prophecy which only predicts certain future events without specifying the precise time when those events will come to pass and without so connecting them with any preceding series as to compel us to assign them to some one particular era exclusively, is not restricted in the same manner that a chronological prophecy must necessarily be. Instead of being incapable of a double accomplishment, we perpetually find predictions of this nature evidently constructed with the express design of receiving a double accomplishment. They are first fulfilled in an inchoate manner, and afterwards will be fulfilled more amply at a period to which they ultimately and principally refer. This is remarkably the case See this point discussed in the Preface to my Dissert. on the 1260 years. with prophecies, which treat of the restoration of the Jews, and the advent of the Messiah: insomuch that I believe Bp. Horsley not to have been guilty of the least exaggeration, in asserting, "that a far greater proportion of the prophecies, " even of the Old Testament, than is generally imagined, relate to the second advent of our "Lord; that few comparatively relate to the first "advent by itself, without reference to the second; "and that of those, that have been supposed to "be accomplished in the first, many had in that only an inchoate accomplishment, and have yet "to receive their full completion *." Such a mode of foretelling future events seems to have arisen from, or perhaps rather to be a part of, the grand scriptural system of types and antitypes. The first advent is a type of the second advent: hence they are both styled the great day of the Lord; and hence they are frequently predicted conjointly, certain matters which received their full accomplishment at the first advent being inserted (parenthetically as it were) in a prophecy which strictly and principally relates to the second advent. In a similar manner, the Babylonian captivity of the Jews is a type of their subsequent dispersion by the Romans: hence many of those predictions, which from the elevation of their style and from other circumstances connected with them must ultimately Letter on Isaiah xviii. p. 3. and |