and frequently do but bring a great Scandal upon the Truth it felf in the event, inftead of defending it as was intended. And therefore I think you have prudently avoided coming too near fome certain Precipices, which fo many Writers (and fome of no fmall Learning and Worth) before you, thro' an excefs of Confidence, have most unadvifedly caft themselves (together with their Readers) upon. However upon comparing carefully the present State of Affairs in the World and in the Church, whether at Home or Abroad, with what you have faid of the moral Prognofticks and Signs of the Times, wherein you ftand not alone, I am of the Judgment that we are indeed at this Day, in a very great Crifis of Providence: And that fo nothing can well be more feafonable than this prefent Treatife of yours, which I could wish therefore were not only published in English, but in fome other Languages alfo that might render it more Univerfal. That God may fully anfwer your fincere Intentions in the Writing of it, to the good of his Church,the Refufcitation of Primitive Truth, and the awakening of many that are as it were afleep or fettled on their Lees, is the Prayer of, &c.

March 7. 1709-10.

VIII. AND moreover the Compiler of the Journal des Scavans for the Month of Auguft MDCCIV. gives this fhort Account of the Book afore-mention'd, That tho' the Author thereof (whom

(whom by an easy mistake he calls the Patriarch) differs from the common Opinion of Proteftants in this Matter, yet he is at the fame time widely different from the Doctrine, of the Catholick Roman Church; baving clofely berein follow'd the Traditions of the "Greek Church, particularly of St. Chryfoftom, &c. Not that be fuppofes him therefore to bave Written this purpofely in Vindication of fuch a Middle Hypothefis; as fome Readers may thence at first be apt to imagine. For this having been the conftant Tradition of the Eaft, that is, not only of the Greek but of all the Oriental Churches, makes it highly probable that none of their Ecclefiafticks, or Learned Men (of whom at prefent they have fome few) would Write fo on this Subject, as if it were to prove a Controverted Doctrine, feeing amongst them it was never so much as difputed; but that fome in thefe dark and remote Parts, even by their own Obfervations or the prefent State of Things, may have been led within thefe few late Years to Publish and Revive this moft Primitive Do Etrine, as more peculiarly Seafonable and Proper for this prefent Age.

IX. NOW this Treatife having been Writ ten fo long fince, even then when the moft Reverend Primate of all Mufcovy was, with others in the North-Eastern Parts of Chriftendom, engag'd alfo Providentially in Writing upon the fame Subject (as from the precedent and other Accounts doth appear) if the Reader happen to meet with fome few Paffages in it, relating to the time wherein it was Written, which answer not so very exactly to This wherein it is

now Publifh'd; he is not thereat to wonder. But yet in the space of thefe laft Seven Years there has been no Alteration hitherto in the Pofture of Affairs, whether at Home or Abroad, but which may ferve to convince the World of the Seafonablenefs of fuch a Difcourfe as this rather than otherwife: as well as to add somewhat also to the Credibility of it. And particularly, to mention here nothing else, I think, that the War that is now just opening betwixt the Turk in alliance with the Swede, and the Muscovite in alliance with the Dane and Others, bath fomething in it that may well deferve at this time our moft ferious Reflection, and haften our Preparation against the Great and Univerfal Day of Trouble here fpoken of. It is an Obfervation about two Hundred Years Old of Nicolas de Lyra and Paulus Burgenfis, that the Mahometan was to be the Longeft,the Antichriftian the Shorteft, of all the Perfecutions of the Church. And the Reafons for the longer Duration of the Mahometan Sect and Empire, than of either the Affyrian or Babylonian, Grecian or Roman, or any other the Weapons of God's Wrath and Perfecutors of his People, are given at large; which in short may be reduced to thefe Three, viz. 1. Because the Saracenic or Mahometan Sect is not Guilty of Idolatry; as all the rest from that of the Egyptians down to the Romans were; for as much as GOD, who is a Jealous God, may be fuppos'd to bear with it longer, than with the former ones which were Publickly Idolatrous, and bad Diabolical Rites; and feeing this doth not incur the Sin by which the Divine Jealoufy is faid more peculiarly to be awaken'd, but great

ly

ly doth abbor it, fo as the Difciples of Mahomet are neither for committing it themselves nor permitting it in others, there is reason enough doubtless why this Scourge of Christendom, which on many Confiderations has hitherto al ways been needed, is no sooner taken away. 2dly. Because the former did commonly compel the Profeffors of the true Faith to Worship and offer Incenfe to Idols: Not fo this; which is not for forcing any to conform to their Customs and Law. And whereas it is known They were against a Toleration first of the Judaical, and next of the Chriftian Religion, both as a Sect and as a Society; it is notorious that Chriftianity is now in both thefe Refpects openly Tolerated under the Turk, though with certain Political Reftraints, 3dly. Because the former did all utterly deny the Dignity of CHRIST, neither receiving the Prophefies concerning him before he came, nor the Teftimonies of fufficient Witnesses when he was Come; not only disowning his Divine Nature, but even his Holiness and Virtue as Man; traducing him for an Impoftor and a Conjurer, deriding his Crofs, and labouring to extirpate his Name and Doctrine out from the Earth: As particularly did Roman Paganism. But not fo Mahometifm. For tho' it denies the ineffable Excellence of his Divinity, yet it grants bim to have been the most excellent above all the Creatures of the World, as Burgenfis Jays; and therefore Mr. Charles Lesley in his late moft feasonable Treatife of the Truth of Christianity Demonftrated, p. 157. is much in the right to reckon Mahometifm as one of the Herefies of Chriftianity, rather than as a Fourth Religion diftinct from Heathenifm, Fudaifm

Judaism, and Christianity. Wherefore as Mahomet prefers Christ to himself, and introduces the Alcoran only as a Confirmation of the Gofpel, it is plain he cannot be that very Perfon of Antichrift, who is to fet himself up above Chrift, to abolish the Gofpel, and to deny both the Father and the Son; notwithstanding that several of the Marks of Antichrift may aptly enough, I confefs, be apply'd to him. But in Antichrift, the laft Beaft, none of thefe all fhall be wanting. Which hitherto has not been accomplish'd in Turk or Pope. And this may serve for a short and plain Answer to a very ingenious Tract defign'd to prove Mahomet to have been the true Antichrift, upon a new Calculation of his Number, and pubblish'd in English towards the latter End of the laft Century; as well as to any other Pretenfion that yet has been made.

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X. WHEREFORE all Things confider'd, it remains that the Scriptures, if they have not bitherto been, fhall be fulfill'd as to this Man of Sin and that, according to the Saying of the Learned and Candid Bishop of Burgos in his † Additions, † Ad "About the End of the World Antichrift fhall a- Apocal. rife, who fhall exceed all the Perfecutions from

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the aforefaid Sects; for he shall not only compel the Chriftians to Apoftatize from the Chriftian Worship, but even to worship him [Antichrift] as if he were God; and therefore is not only called an Anti-apoftle, or an Anti-prophet, as "Mahomet in Truth was; but is exprefly alfo "named an [or the] Antichrift, as more contrary to Chrift than all the reft. And accordingly the greater and leffer Duration of all thefe Enemies of the Church of God, and their pernicious

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Sects,