OBSERVATIONS WHICH WERE FORETOLD IN THE YEARS OF 1750 & 1792***


Transcribed from the 1812 S. Holemberg edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                        [Picture: Pamphlet cover]





                                SCRIPTURAL
                                   AND
                        Hieroglyphic Observations


                         _which were foretold in_
                               THE Years OF
                               1750 & 1792.

                                    By
                             _Francis Moore_
                         alluding to the present
                                  TIMES.

                  _To which is added a singular Account_
                    _of the Emigration of the Jews in_
                                  1812.

                                * * * * *

         Published by S. Holemberg No. 14 Belton St. Long Acre &
               Sold by McTOZER, Chapel Place, Duke Street.
                         — St. Georges Fields. —
          And Sold by all the Booksellers in the United Kingdom.

                              _PRICE_ _2d_.

                                * * * * *




POPES OF ROME.


   ONCE on a time Rome’s Church had lost her Head,
   Princes and Cardinals in no Pope agreed;
   At length the wearied Faction, with one voice,
   To Card’nal _Dossa_ left the sacred choice:
   He nam’d himself, defeated all their hopes,
   And taught ’em a new way of making Popes.
   _Urban_ and _Clement_ did the world divide;
   Scarce forty years could the dark right decide:
   Councils and Card’nals both their titles damn’d,
   And _Alexander_ a third Pope was nam’d.
   Where, all this while, was Rome’s unerring Guide?
   Did he in none, or in all three reside?
   If Popes be doubtful, who can their priesthood trust?
   For if they fail, their long succession must;
   Since then false Popes, as well as true ordain’d,
   How can Rome’s holy orders be maintain’d?
   St. _Peter_ could no successor declare;
   _Clement_ he nam’d; but _Linus_ took the chair;
   We find some priests to gain the sacred chair;
   They can usurp, kill, poison, yet not err.

                                * * * * *

       _Printed by J. Briscoe_, _Junior_, _Angel-Street_, _London_.




PROPHECIES.


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.




STATE OF THE WORLD IN 1792.


   Perfidious Mars long plighted leagues divides,
   And o’er the wasted world in triumph rides;
   The peaceful peasants to the war are prest,
   The fields lie fallow in inglorious rest,
   The plain no pasture to the flock affords,
   The crooked scythes are straighten’d into swords;
   Now impious arms from ev’ry part resound,
   And, like a deluge, cover all the ground.

The time does not yet appear arrived when the nations of the world shall
learn war no more, nor beat their swords into plowshares, nor their
spears into pruning hooks.

“How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” was the
observation of the Psalmist of old.  And the command of the great
Lawgiver is, “Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one Lord:” and “Thou
shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy soul; and the second is like unto
this: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  Was this practical
truth observed more, we should then soon see what most people are so
earnestly desiring; namely, better times; the world would soon bear
another aspect, and all would be harmony and peace.

The Almighty God of all principalities and powers, by his infinite wisdom
and all-seeing providence, hath intended and proposed, and by these his
glorious and powerful instruments, declares and presignifies such notable
events and transactions, such unexpected commotions and various mutations
to happen to many of the principal kingdoms and nations in the world; for
the affairs thereof seem to be in a hurry and confusion, and to be acted
by such a ferment as is not usual; their passions and fury rise higher;
and the ill success of the advocates of power and tyranny is an
encouragement to the friends of liberty, both civil and religious, to go
on.  In the Eastern part of the world, a nation or country is near being
swallowed up more fatally than Jonas in the whale’s belly.  The Turks are
eminently pointed at by these celestial messengers.  War and desolation
has already invaded their territories.  The Ottoman empire must be
weakened, and Antichrist must be destroyed; France and Italy, more
especially Lorrain and Naples, will meet with new troubles.  New troubles
and misfortunes arise in the North.  The King of P— will suffer by
sickness, or some other calamity; but however he will gain some military
honours and advantages this year.  A great General stoops to fate.  Death
alone convinces us, that all men are vanity.  Some losses or misfortunes
seem to threaten Portugal; and Spain is not past the vortex of ill
fortune.  One loss comes upon the back of another, which at last brings
her to reason, and will pave the way to liberty.  Here now follows one of
Michael Nostrodamus’s Prophecies, which is now fulfilling, or near these
times.

   On the left hand over against Vitry,
   The three Red ones of France shall be watched for;
   All the Red shall be knockt dead, the black not murdered,
   By Britain set up again in security.




MOORE’S OBSERVATIONS.


REASON, certainly, if it is but permitted to employ the powers with which
it is capacitated, not only instructs us that man lives after death, but
also that he lives more; that is, that he then comes into the essence and
spirit of his life, before imprisoned.

_Nam si aspexerit Mars ad Saturno opposito aut quarto tunc convertetur
mundus in bellorum capium_.  Thus writes Avenaris, which, Englished, is,
that when Mars beholds Saturn by opposition, or quartile, the world will
be involved in wars and bloodshed; and this configuration between sullen
Chronus and angry Vulcan we see made this month (viz. August, 1792.)
Opposite appearances also of an exceeding mild and amicable nature
present themselves to our view; there being no less than three friendly
Trines, and three Sextiles also of a pleasing nature, as well as four
Conjunctions, bearing good will to mortals below.

In a prophecy written six or seven hundred years since, taken out of the
library of St. Victor, at Paris, which is to this effect—“Woe to thee,
thou seven-hilled city (Rome) when liberty spreads in France; for then
the fall and destruction of thy mighty men is at hand.  Woe to thee, thou
city of blood; the voice of the scourge, and of warlike horses and
chariots, shall not depart from thee; thy gold is darkened; rust hath
consumed it, and spoiled it; that is, the gold of God’s word is obscured,
and religion is corrupted, &c.

“The Pope’s power will receive a very great shock, civil and religious,
before the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred, or near that
time.”

                                * * * * *

   See winged Time as swift as lightning flies:
   Redeem each moment, and be timely wise.




AN OLD PROPHECY,
PRINTED 1686.


   WHEN New England shall trouble New Spain,
   When Jamaica shall be Lady of the Isles and the Main;
   When Spain shall be in America hid,
   And Mexico shall prove a Madrid;
   When Mahomet’s ships on the Baltic shall ride,
   And Turks shall labour to have ports on that side;
   When Africa shall no more sell out their Blacks,
   To make slaves and drudges to the American tracts;
   When Batavia the Old shall be contemn’d by the New;
   When a new drove of Tartars shall China subdue,
   When America shall cease to send out its treasure,
   But employ it at home in American pleasure;
   When the New World shall the Old World invade,
   Nor count them their lords, but their fellows in trade;
   When men shall almost pass to Venice by land,
   Not in deep water, but from sand to sand;
   When Nova Zembla shall be no stay
   Unto those who pass to or from Cathay,
   Then think strange things are come to light.
   Whereof but few have had a foresight.

                  _From the BEACON_, _October_ 25, 1812.




THE
GATHERING OF THE JEWS,
OR THE
_Approach of the Millennium_.


LETTERS from various parts of Germany state, that great sensations have
been excited among various classes of the inhabitants of Germany by
several preachers having held forth to their congregations that the
approach of the time of the Millennium had arrived, and this doctrine has
been illustrated from the departure of a great number of Jewish families
from different parts of Germany on their way to the Holy Land.  The
following letter from Mr. Niety, a merchant in Riga, has been published,
on this subject:—

    “My son was last summer in the Crimea, and returning towards the end
    of autumn by way of Odessa, he heard a report that many Jewish
    families emigrated through that town.  During his journey through
    Poland, he met himself many travelling Jews.  When he afterwards
    lodged in a town inhabited by Jews, and met there with a German Jew,
    he entered into conversation with him, and asked him, to what country
    the emigrating Jewish families went.  He replied, to Palestine, to
    settle in the country of their Fathers, having a presentiment that
    the Messiah would now soon come.  The rich of the nation, scattered
    in different parts of the world made collections for the journey
    expences of the poor.—This account of my son excited my attention.  I
    wrote to one of our friends at Wilna, as Poland is the chief seat of
    this people, and asked him concerning these movements, and the
    probable causes of them, to which I received, within these few days,
    the following answer:

    “‘I have also received interesting accounts concerning the Jews.
    There is among them a general desire to return to the land of their
    Fathers.  Many of them are probably impelled by need, as there is a
    stagnation of all trade here: but many are moved by the expectation
    of the coming of the Messiah in about eight years.  The same persons,
    from whom I accidentally heard this, told me, on another occasion,
    that fifteen years hence probably no Jew would be left in this
    country.  In the present times of confusion this memorable people,
    scattered in all the world, is little noticed; but if the above
    information is confirmed in process of time, and more generally, that
    impulse among them is certainly one of the remarkable signs of the
    times.’—Thus far from this letter.

    “This intelligence excited my attention; and as I undertook another
    journey to the German colonies in Poland, in the months of May and
    June of 1811, I resolved to ascertain the foundation of these facts.
    In two towns which are inhabited by many Jews, I received from their
    leaders the following account: That it was certainly true, that for
    two years, some hundreds of Jewish families had emigrated from Poland
    into Palestine.  Enquiring into the purpose of their emigration, I
    was answered, that they hoped the promises of the Prophets would now
    soon be accomplished, that the Lord would gather the people of
    Israel, from all parts of the earth, where they were scattered, into
    the lands of their Fathers, and that they would there wait for the
    appearance of the Messiah; for after their Rabbies had often been
    mistaken in fixing the time of his coming, they now were persuaded
    that he would come at length.  When I replied that they might again
    be mistaken, they said—No matter; if those who now go to Palestine
    should not live to see the coming of the Messiah, they, however, are
    gathered in the Holy Land with their Fathers, and whenever the
    Messiah comes, they will be raised from their graves.  The places
    from whence these emigrations are most frequent, they said to be
    Brody in Volhinia, and Wilna in Lithuania.  Though I was led to many
    observations by this statement, yet the proper aim of my journey did
    not permit me to pursue the subject.”

                                * * * * *

                                  FINIS.

                                * * * * *

                                * * * * *

       _Printed by J. Briscoe_, _Junior_, _Angel-Street_, _London_.




FOOTNOTES.


{7}  First appearance of the Northern Lights, 1718.




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