ers typify nations; and, when a particular river is specified, the nation immediately connected with that river is obviously intended. Such being the case, as the issuing forth of the four sultanies, those mystic waters of the Euphrates which deluged the Eastern Empire, denotes the rise of the Turkish power, so the drying up of those waters must evidently denote its subversion. Now, since the drying up or evaporation of water is a slow process, we may naturally conclude, that the expression points out, not merely the subversion of the Turkish power in the general, but the particular mode of that subversion by the slow consumption of its political strength, and by the gradual wasting away of its people. When the sixth angel however poured out his vial upon the figurative Euphrates, we read that its waters were completely dried up, insomuch that a way was prepared for the kings from the East. Hence it is manifest, when we consider the slow process of evaporating natural water, that we may expect the waters of the Ottoman empire to begin to be dried up many years previous to their final exhaustion under the sixth vial.*

The prelude to the pouring out of this vial we may behold with our own eyes. Let us only advert to the present state of the Turkish power, and we shall be convinced, that for some years the symbolical Euphratèan waters have been gradually drying up. The approaching termination indeed of the Ottoman empire is so manifest, that even those, whose attention is solely directed to politics, are sufficiently aware that the time of its extinction cannot be very far distant. Of late it has been preserved rather by the jealousy of the great European powers, than by any physical strength of its own and it doubtless will be preserved by the hand of Providence till his own appointed season shall approach for preparing a way for the kings from the East, and for gathering together the kings of the Latin world to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.†

* See Whitaker's Comment. p. 489 et infra.

Russia has more than once appeared to be on the very eve of swallowing up Turkey; and yet she has always been prevented from accomplishing her sufficiently evident designs. It is a singular circumstance, that the Turks themselves forebode

Not only however has the political strength of Turkey begun to be dried up, but, as it were designed that nothing should be wanting to the exact completion of the prophecy, even its population has likewise begun to diminish. This singular circumstance is noticed by Mr. Eton. After some enquiry into the causes of it, he adds, "It is therefore reasonable to conclude, that depopulation could not formerly have made so rapid a progress as at present: and that, in a century more, things remaining in their present situation, the Turkish empire will be nearly extinct. It is worthy of remark, that the Curds in the mountains, and other independent tribes who do not mix with the Turks, are exempt from the mortality occasioned by all the calamities, which afflict the countries more immediately subject to the Porte."*

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Nor yet does the empire of the Euphratèan waters subMany attempts mit without a struggle to its fate. have been made within the last century, principally by French officers, to renew the ancient military spirit of the Gazi Turks, and to instruct them in European tactics. Hassan, the celebrated Pasha, tried with unlimited power, for nineteen years, to inspire his own spirit into the troops; but he found all his efforts ineffectual."+

Who the kings from the East are, for whom a way is prepared by the annihilation of the Turkish empire, it is impossible to say before the event takes place. The most probable conjecture is, that the lost ten tribes of Israel are intended. It is a very remarkable circumstance, that

"The lower orders,"

their future overthrow at the hands of the Russian monarchy. says Mr. Eton in his survey of the Turkish empire," are at the present day persuaded, that the Russian standard will enter Constantinople through a certain gate, said to be pointed out by an ancient prophecy; and the great men are so far from opposing this weakness by superior energy, that they look to the Asiatic shore as a secure retreat from the fury of the conquerors."

Whenever the waters of the mystic Euphrates are dried up, we shall then be able to decide with certainty what is intended by the pouring out of the fifth vial upon the seat of the beast, inasmuch as the pouring out of that vial precedes the downfall of the Turkish empire under the sixth.

It may not be improper to observe, that the vial is not said to be poured out for the purpose of drying up the waters of the Euphrates, but only to mark the period when they were dried up, that a way might be prepared for the kings from the East. Hence we are not to imagine, that the vial is already poured out, because the waters have already begun to be dried up: but we must consider this exhaustion of them only as a prelude to the pouring of it out.

* Eton's Survey of the Turkish Empire, p. 270.

+ Ibid. Chap. 9.

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 remarkable 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

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.

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 Euphratèan 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 Euphratean 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 prophet 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 bead, who is to do the very same in conjunction with a 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 propbet, 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 Euphratèan waters were rapidly drying up, and when their com