The Spirit of God is now performing great wonders in all nations, in order to bring about the great work of reformation; and that it is the opinion of many good Christians, that the call of the Jews will be in this age, and that too very suddenly; and that it is very probable, from a numerous train of deductions, that in this very year, 1750, we may expect some more than ordinary appearances and motions in most parts of the world, especially in the Northern and Eastern parts thereof, tending to the overthrow and destruction of Antichrist. “Tidings out of the East and out of the North shall trouble him, (says Daniel, chap, xi.) yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

That the time of the Jews’ restoration and commencement of the Millennium is near at hand, is certain; whether so near as the time above mentioned, is as yet uncertain. But this uncertainty arises from the many historical, and chronological difficulties to be found among historians; some authors making the time of the same event sooner, others later. Archbishop Usher, and other chronologers since his time, place the birth of Christ just four thousand years from the creation.—Scaliger, Petavius, and some others, not so much; but the Septuagint and Josephus much more; the like difference in accounts is to be found amongst them in many other historical facts.

There is a tradition among the Jews, that the world shall continue six thousand years; (viz.) two thousand years void, two thousand years under the law, and two thousand years under the Messias; and at the end of this six thousand years will commence the Millennium, or one thousand years of rest for the people of God, and particularly for his chosen people the Jews.—Lactantius says wherefore,—because all the works of God were completed in six days, it is necessary that the world continue in this state six thousand years; which six thousand years, Cyprian says, are already almost complete since the devil attacked mankind. Mr. Whiston observes, that this notion of a Millennium is universal; and it is derived from the earliest tradition, both among the old heathen Philosophers, the ancient Jews, the Apostles, and the primitive Fathers of the Church, and is an undeniable and most important portion of Divine Revelation. In his Sacred History, lately published, Vol. II. p. 343, he says, that by the exactest chronology, the first six thousand years from the creation end about A.D. 1766; that is for certain supposed the beginning of the Millennium, when the Jews will be restored to their own country, and rebuild their temple, upon the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet.

A trumpet is the symbol of war; and in the Revelations we find that all the seven trumpets were to be attended with woes and lamentations; six of which are already past; and the seventh, which is yet to come, denounceth the third and last woe. Under it, the seven vials of God’s wrath are to be poured out, both upon the Eastern and Western Antichrist; that is, the Turk and Pope. It is said, Revelations, chap. viii. verse 13, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, by reason of the trumpets that are yet to sound;” and chap. xv. verse 8, it is said, “No man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled;” which intimateth that the holy city and temple cannot be prepared to receive the righteous part of mankind, till the power of the Turk and Pope are both destroyed, or that the seven vials are poured out.

A famous French author, in his account of the non-effusion of the seven vials, says, the first vial poured on the earth, intends the loss of church revenues, and so falls upon the worldly interest of Antichristian men; the second vial, poured upon the sea, which he says is the Papal kingdom in its greatest extent, which will become as the blood of a dead man; so that every soul which liveth in it shall die; for as fish cannot live in water turned into blood, neither can mankind any longer endure the yoke of Popish Priests and Governors; the third vial, which is poured on the rivers, denotes the destruction of Popish doctrines. The fourth vial, which is poured forth on the sun, threateneth the Ottoman empire and religion. The fourth trumpet raised that empire, and the fourth vial shall destroy it. The fifth vial is poured out on the seat of the Beast, or the city of Rome, which predicts her destruction. The angel represents the Pope’s kingdom as full of darkness, and his subjects gnawing their tongues through despair. The sixth vial is poured on the great river Euphrates; that is, on the great river of the Turks and their religion; after which there will be nothing to hinder the princes and people of the East, who shall be enlightened or converted, or the Jews, who are there dispersed in great numbers, from marching into the West, to help on the destruction of the Beast. The seventh and last vial is poured into the air, and denotes the clearing of all places from the fog and superstition, and Antichristianism, after which will be manifest the mystery of God in reuniting all nations, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of righteousness.

I have already observed that the precise time when all these mighty revolutions will happen is doubtful; however, there is no doubt but we are arrived near to the time of their manifestation, and when the scene of affairs, both in Asia and Europe, will be very much changed: of this we are assured from computation of Scripture Prophecy, and the concurrent testimonies of the Sybils and other heathen oracles, the signs whereby you may know when will be the end of all these things that shall happen on the earth; (viz.) when (the likeness of) swords shall be seen in the heavens towards sun-rising or sun-setting; and the prophet Joel says (chap. ii. verse 30,) “The Lord will shew wonders in the heavens, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.” Every body knows that upon the first appearance of the Northern Lights, [7] they were by all sorts of people compared to swords, lances, and other military weapons, or else to blood, fire, and pillars of smoke, in the very expressions of the prophet Joel; and indeed they do greatly resemble all these things; and in fact are fires and pillars of smoke, or vapour, which do frequently in their colour represent blood, and by their form and motion, swords, lances, and other military ensigns; but these appearances, (as also Comets) you will say, may be accounted for, from natural causes—Allowed, they may so; yet as their appearances are so universal, and uncommon (except of late years) and are exactly such as we see were to happen some short time before the commencement of these extraordinary revolutions, preparatory to the Millennium, we may and ought to look upon them as ominous, and sent in a peculiar and wonderful manner, to presage the approach of those wonderful and tremendous times. Let us then not be ignorant of the signs of the times, but look suddenly for that great and fearful earthquake mentioned in the Revelations; for it will come, and cannot be far off; but I fear it is with us as with the Jews when our Saviour came into the world, or with the Christians when Antichrist stept upon the stage. Christ was both come and gone before the Jews knew that he was the Messias; and Antichrist was grown old in the world before the world took any notice of him; so it may be, that Antichrist is going apace to perdition, before the people of God begin to discern it.

There seems to be such a concurrence of causes and predictions centring in this time, that it looks very much like the approach of those days before spoken of, out of divine writ. To those before mentioned, I will add part of a prophecy, as it is given us by the author of the Turkish Spy, who says that he met with a person at Astracan, called the Travelling Jew, who positively asserted in the open streets, that after the year 1700, the Turks shall overflow Christendom like a mighty torrent, when there will be a great desolation in Hungary, Germany, France, and other regions in the West; but above all others, Italy will be made a perfect wilderness; that England shall become the refuge of all that escape the calamities overwhelming the adjacent countries; and there (he says) they will be shewn a new pattern of the Law of Jesus, or rather the old and true one, freed from the corruptions and errors which have been superinduced for many ages, when the Jews will be convinced of their infidelity, and chase away darkness and superstition from the earth. In those days (says this Jew) foreign princes shall send their ambassadors to the king of Great Britain for holy and pious teachers to instruct them. Mighty armies shall be raised in the North, which shall be joined by a prodigious army, collected in other parts of Christendom, which shall drive out the Turks, recover from them the Holy Land, and gloriously rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and make a worthy and excellent Englishman Patriarch of the same. Then shall the eyes of us Jews (says he) be opened; and we shall all acknowledge Jesus to be the true Messias.

Moore in his observations says, that these times look something like a preparation for the destruction of Antichrist. We know his destiny is near at hand; and it is with good reason expected, that great advances will be made towards that good work this very year (viz.) 1750.

The Turks have a traditionary prophecy among them which says that they are at last to be destroyed by a Northern nation, which have a white and yellow hair.

The pious Archbishop Usher was of opinion, that the last persecution would fall upon all the Protestant churches in Europe, but with this difference: in the former, the most eminent Ministers and Christians did generally suffer; but in this last persecution, these shall be preserved by God; which shall immediately follow as soon as the storm is over, which shall take away the hypocrites and formal professors of Christianity.