Sad and Serious Political Considerations, Part 10
X.
The true Explanation of the Prophecy o… the cō tinu…nce of …he Turkish Empire, found in M. Fox's Act… and Mon… ment…, pag… 746.Of how large an extent the Turki…h Empire should be, how far it should prevail against Christendome, when it should be at the height, and whe… Christians should begin to cry quits with them by victories and conquests, is long since ex…ant in ancient Prophesies. One whereof M. Fox in his first Volume of Acts and Monuments, pag. 746. antiq. edit. relates he found in the Persian language in a Manuscript of Bartholomary Georgienitz: the substance whereof in Latine is this.
Imperator noster veniet, Ethnici Principes Regnum capiet, rubrum quoque pomum capiet, inque suam potestatem rediget.
Quod si in septimum usque annum Christianorum gladius no… insurrexerit, u…que ad duodecimum annum eis dominabitur. Domos aedificabit, vineas plantabit, hortos sepibus muniet, liberos procreabit, & post duodecimum a…num Christianorum gladiu… apparebit, & Turcam quaque versum in fugam aget.
Our Emperour shall come, he shall take the Kingdom of a heathen Prince, he shall also take the red apple, and subdue it to himself.
But if the Christians sword shall not arise by the seventh year, he shall reign over them to the twelfth year, he shall build houses, plant vineyards, hedg… in Orchards, and beget children, and after the twelfth year shall the Christians sword appear, and put the Turk to flight on every side.
M. Fox expounds these 12 years to be 12 Turkish Emperours prevailing against Christians, beginning at the first Emperour Ottoman An. 1300. and so Solyman the magnificent to be the twelfth Emperour, and the last that should prevail against Christians; who began his reign An. 1519. and died An. 1567. But I think rather it must begin at Mahomet the II. winning of Constantinople (called here rubrum pomum) An. 1452. and must end at the late Emperour Mahomet the IV. his death the last August, 1649. My reason is this: Other Emperours have prevailed against Christians, since Solyman the magnificent. For Selimus the II. his son wan Cyprus from the Venetians. Armurath III. took the Fort Guiermo from the Hungarians, and his son Mahomet III. took Agria in Hungary, and had he pursued his victory, had won that whole Kingdom in lesse then a year: So the late Mahomet is the 12 Emperour from Mahomet the II. and now …fter his death shall the Turks prevail no more against Christians. For fourty years agoe that Kingdom was at a stand, and is declining to an eternall destruction. The sword of the Christians shall now arise and prevail again…t the Turks …ill An. 1696. when the converted Jews shall gather head to overcome them in a bloudy pitcht field, and root out their name from off the Earth. By this young Emperours decease without issue, the Ottoman Line is extinct, and none left. One Sultan Hali (a Persian by birth) is now Steward of the Ottoman house, and the Crim-Tartar by old composition and agreement layeth claim to the Turkish Empire, which at present is in combustion because of this. And though above 200000 Turks are in the Field, with an intent (as is thought) to invade Germany, yet if Christians could but leave o… their unnecessary divisions, they might soon ruinate the Turkish Empire. For since Armurath IV. his death, An. 1642. (who began to reign, An. 1623.) all the time of this late Mahomet's reign, since there hath been continuall contentions and massacres amongst the Turks, the Jannizaries eluding and despising the young and weak Emperour, which terrified the Mufti and the Bassa's sore, because they had a prophecy, that as a Mahomet wan Constantinople, so a Mahomet should lose it again to the Christians. However the matter goes for the present,A Prophecy of the year 1…98, found in the study of Iust… Lypsi… … the year 1698 shall be fatall both to them and to the Pope in both their ruines, and the beginning of the comparative felicity of the Church of God, as may be further manifested by an excellent Prophecy, which the learned Erasmus received from Reuchliuus, and was found in the study of Iustus Lypsius by Ianus Douza the younger, running thus.
Post mille expl…tos à partu Virginis annos,
Et post sexcentos rursus ab orbe datos,
Nonagefimus octavus mirabilis annus
Ingruet, is secum gaudia laeta faeret.
Corruet hoc anno Turcarum i…visa propago;
Roma, tuum in libris fabula nomen …rit.
Omnia tunc mundi sursum ibunt at que retrorsum
Imperiae, ut populus sceptra novella premant:
Vt que suum cunct as Verbum diffundat in oras.
Christus, & imperitet nomine ubi que suo.
Thus Englished.
Six thousand years from Virgins birth expir'd,
Six hundred after that acquir'd,
The famous ninety eighth year shall come on,
Full of great Contentation.
This year the Turkish hatefull race shall rue,
Rome shall a fable be, not true.
Then shall be tost all Kingdoms of the World,
And into a new Kingdom hurl'd:
That into all coasts Christ his Word may spred,
And be alone the Peoples Head.