Another circumstance mentioned in the prophecy respecting the horn, or Othman empire, is that "he shall magnify himself in his heart." This is the very character of the Othmans: they esteem every nation not professing Mohammedanism as the scum of the earth, and rank them in the class of infidels. Rycaut says, "The Turks-are naturally a proud and insolent people, confident and conceited of their own virtue, valour, and forces, which proceeds from their ignorance of the strength and constitution of other countries; so that when the danger which may arise from the conjunction and union of Christian princes to the Mahometan interest, is discoursed of, they compare the Grand Signior to the lion, and other kings to little dogs, which may serve (as they say) to rouse and discompose the quiet and majesty of the lion, but can never bite him, but with the utmost peril. But the Turks have no room for boasting; for of all the governments in the world, there perhaps could not be found one more despotic; and the policy of the Sultans has always been to maintain their absolute sway; and to secure it they have abolished all nobility, and prohibited all hereditary succession in the offices of government. † Thus it is evident the Othmans, a nation of slaves, (by their own confession to their sultan,) have magnified themselves in

See his Present State of the Turkish Empire, chap. 21. + Ib. chap. 22.

their hearts, esteeming the Christians no better than dogs!

But it is also said of the horn, or Othman empire, that he "by peace shall destroy many;" or, as it

בשלוה ישחית רבים,may be more literally rendered

"in peace he shall destroy many." All this has been literally fulfilled in the Othmans. They have destroyed many by means of peace, for Rycaut informs us that "it is an old and practised subtilty of the Turks, immediately after some notable misfortune, to entreat of peace, by which means they may gain time to recollect their forces and provisions to prosecute the war."* They have also destroyed many in time of peace, for it is a maxim with them" that they ought not to regard the leagues they have with any prince, or the reasons and ground of a quarrel, whilst the breach tends to the enlargement of their empire, which consequently infers the propagation of their faith." † Rycaut informs us that " many and various are the examples and stories in all ages, since the beginning and increase of the Turkish power, of the perfidiousness and treachery of this people; that it may be a question, whether their valour and force hath prevailed more in the time of war, or the little care of their faith, and maintenance in their leagues hath availed them in time of peace. Thus Didymotichum, in the time of peace, under Amurath,

* See his Present State of the Turkish empire.

+ Ibid.

third king of the Turks, whilst the walls and fortifications were building, was by the Asian labourers, which were entertained in the work, and the help of other Turks which lay near in ambush, surprised and taken. So also Rodestum, in the timé of peace, by command of Amurath, was by Eurenoses assaulted and taken by stratagem. So Adrianople, in the reign of the same emperor, after peace made again, and assurances given of better faith, was by the art and disguise of Chasis-Ilbeg, pretending to be a discontented captain, and a fugitive from the Turks, by fair speeches, and some actions and skirmishes abroad, gained such confidence amongst the credulous Greeks, as enabled him afterwards to set the gates open to Amurath's army, which after some conflict, was taken, and never recovered again by the power of the Greeks."* Gibbon's character of Mohammed II. surnamed The Great, is that he "could stoop from ambition to the basest arts of dissimulation and deceit. Peace was on his lips, while war was in his heart." The deep policy and dissimulation of Mohammed the Great is sufficiently evident in the following history: "The despots of the Morea, Demetrius and Thomas-were astonished by the death of the emperor Constantine, and the ruin of the monarchy. Hopeless of defence, they prepared, with the noble Greeks who adhered to their for

*See his Present State of the Turkish Empire, chap. 22. + Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 68.

tune, to seek a refuge in Italy, beyond the reach of the Ottoman thunder. Their first apprehensions were dispelled by the victorious sultan, who contented himself with a tribute of twelve thousand ducats: and while his ambition explored the continent and the islands in search of prey, he indulged the Morea in a respite of seven years. But this respite was a period of grief, discord, and misery. The hexamilion, the rampart of the isthmus, so often raised, and so often subverted, could not long be defended by three hundred Italian archers: the keys of Corinth were seized by the Turks: they returned from their summer excursions with a train of captives and spoil; and the complaints of the injured Greeks were heard with indifference and disdain. The Albanians, a vagrant tribe of shepherds and robbers, filled the peninsula with rapine and murder; the two despots implored the dangerous and humiliating aid of a neighbouring bashaw; and when he had quelled the revolt, his lessons inculcated the rule of their future conduct. Neither the ties of blood, nor the oaths which they repeatedly pledged in the communion and before the altar, nor the stronger pressure of necessity, could reconcile, or suspend, their domestic quarrels.-The distress and revenge of the weaker rival invoked their supreme lord: and, in the season of maturity and revenge, Mahomet declared himself the friend of Demetrius, and marched into the Morea with an irresistible force. When he had taken possession of Sparta, You are too weak,' said the Sultan, to

6

control this turbulent province: I will take your daughter to my bed; and you shall pass the remainder of your life in security and honour.' Demetrius sighed and obeyed; surrendered his daughter and his castles; followed to Adrianople his sovereign and son; and received for his own maintenance, and that of his followers, a city in Thrace, and the adjacent isles of Lemnos and Samothrace."*

Hitherto the prophecy has dwelt upon the prosperous state of the horn; what follows relates to the time of his final perdition, and consequently remains to be fulfilled, as the Othman empire is still in being. "He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand." What event is here designed it is impossible to say with certainty; yet there are some expressions in the prophecy which may lead to a probable conjecture. It is evident that the Othman empire will continue till the time comes when God's indignation against the Jewish nation will be ended; for "the after or last part of the indignation," is the period assigned to the little horn, in which he is to destroy the mighty, and the people of the Holy Ones, and to prosper, and practise, &c. Consequently the perdition of the Turkish empire must be contemporary with the end of the indignation. The end of the Divine indignation against the Jewish people necessarily implies their restoration to the Divine favour in conse

* Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 68.