pers, by way of tribute; appointing officers for collecting both of such captives and tribute money, of whom the aforesaid Cara Rustemes himself was chief, as first deviser of the matter. By which means great numbers of Christian youths were brought to the court as the king's captives, which by the counsel of the same Zinderlu Chelil, were distributed among the Turkish husbandmen in Asia, there to learn the Turkish language, religion, and manners; where, after they had been brought up in all painful labour and travel by the space of two or three years, they were called unto the court, and choice made of the better sort of them to attend upon the person of the prince, or to serve him in his wars; where they dayly practising all feats of activity, are called by the name of Janizars (that is to say, new souldiers.) This was the first beginning of the Janizars under this sultan Amurath the first, * but had great increase under Amurath the second, insomuch that Jovius with some other historiographers, attribute the beginning of this order to him; which nevertheless (as appeareth by the Turks own histories) had the beginning as is afore

*This was in A. D. 1362, or An. Hegira 763, according to Cantemir. See his History of the Othman empire, p. 38. The Turkish law which appropriated every fifth Greek captive to the Sultan in order to be disposed of by him as he should think fit, was afterwards mitigated to every tenth. But this decimation act was itself abolished, though gradually, in the reign of Murad or Amurath the fourth, in the former part of the seventeenth century. See Cantemir, ibid.

said; and hath ever since been continued by the Turkish kings and emperors by the same and some other greater means, so that in process of time they be grown to that greatness as that they are oftentimes right dreadful to the great Turk himself— and are at this day the greatest strength of the Turkish empire." * It has been disputed whether the timariots or janizaries were the principal strength of the Turkish empire. Knolles speaks upon this point as follows: "It is commonly reported the strength of the Turkish empire to consist in this order of the Janizaries, which is not altogether so; for albeit that they be the Turks best footmen, and surest guard of the Great Sultan's person, yet undoubtedly the greatest strength of `his state and empire resteth nothing so much in them, as in the great multitude of his horsemen, especially his timariots." + From these sketches of history it is evident that the power of the Othmans was mighty, but not by their own power; for instead of training up their own natural subjects in the exercise of arms, they made choice of the Greek captives for this purpose, thus fighting their enemies with the power of their enemies.

Another property of the little horn is, that "he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise." This is an exact picture of the Oth

Hist. of the Turks by Rycaut, Vol. I. pp. 132, 133. Edit. Lond. 1687.

+ Ibid. Vol. II. p. 985.

mans: their mode of destroying their enemies has been the most inhuman that could enter into the mind of man; they have destroyed without respect to age, sex, or condition; and the tortures invented by these barbarians against such as professed the Christian religion are too dreadful to be here detailed. But the cruelties of the Turks have not been more wonderful than the unaccountable blindness and superstition of the Greeks and Latins ; therefore have the Othmans prospered against both churches as far as it was the will of God they should, and have practised every policy that appeared calculated to destroy the Christian worship.

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They have also destroyed the mighty and the people of the Holy Ones." They have destroyed the mighty by destroying the Roman empire in the east, and thus putting an end to the dynasty of Roman emperors which began in the fourth century, when the Roman empire was divided into the eastern and western empires, and had continued, in an uninterrupted succession, till the death of Constantine VII. in 1453. They also destroyed the people of the saints in putting an end to this empire; for Christianity was the professed religion of the Greek empire; and the Turks, in the course of the Divine providence, prevailed against it in the east, as has been already observed. The great pieces of artillery which the Othmans employed to destroy the Greek or eastern empire were astonishing. Bishop Newton, in his comment on the sixth Apocalyptic

trumpet, gives us the following account of them : "Amurath the second broke into Peloponnesus, and took several strong places by the means of his artillery. But his son Mohammed at the siege of Constantinople employed such great guns, as were never made before. One is described to have been of such a monstrous size that it was drawn by seventy yoke of oxen, and by two thousand men. There were two more, each of which discharged a stone of the weight of two talents. Others emitted a stone of the weight of half a talent. But the greatest of all discharged a ball of the weight of three talents, or about three hundred pounds; and the report of this cannon is said to have been so great, that all the country round about was shaken to the distance of forty furlongs. For forty days the wall was battered by these great guns, and so many breaches were made, that the city was taken by assault, and an end put to the Grecian empire." Thus history demonstrates the meaning of the prophecy, "He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty, and the people of the Holy Ones."

Of the horn, or Othman empire, it is also said, that "through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand." Craft, or deceit, () here evidently means the Mohammedan religion; for it was this which the Othmans diffused over the different countries which they subjugated. The Christian world need not be told why it should be here called deceit, as it is well known to be an in

vention of the impostor Mohammed, and is evidently put in opposition to THE TRUTH in a preceding verse, which has been shewn to mean the Christian religion. The Othman policy has been continually exerted in devising the best methods of depressing Christianity, and disseminating their faith. A master-stroke of policy among them is thus related by Rycaut: "It was the custom formerly amongst the Turks, every five years, to take away the Christians children, and educate them in the Mahometan superstition; by which means they increased their own people, and diminished and enfeebled the force of the Christians." * Another

piece of Turkish policy is mentioned by the same author as follows: "Such as adhere to the Christian faith, the Turk makes no account of, and values no otherwise in the place of subjects, than a man doth of his ox or ass, merely to carry the burthens, and to be useful and servile in slavish offices -so that it is evident that the Turks design is no other, than by impoverishment and enfeebling the interest of Christianity, to draw proselytes and strength to his own kingdom."† By these means, and others which need not be here mentioned, have the Ottomans caused the Mohammedan craft to prosper in their hand, so that at this day a very considerable portion of the habitable globe is darkened by it.

* See his Present State of the Turkish Empire, chap. 19. + Ibid.