The number of the army of horsemen were two hundred thousand A description is here given of the forces, and of the means and instruments by which the Othmans should effect the ruin of the eastern empire. The armies are described as very numerous, myriads of myriads. When Mohammed the Second besieged Constantinople, he had about four hundred thousand men in his army, besides a powerful fleet of thirty larger and two hundred lesser ships. They are described, too, chiefly as horsemen; and so they are described both by Ezekiel and by Daniel; (see Bishop Newton's last dissertation upon Daniel;) and it is well known that their armies consisted chiefly of cavalry, especially before the order of Janizaries was instituted by Amurath the First. The Timariots, or horsemen, holding lands by serving in the wars, are the strength of the government; and are in all accounted between seven and eight hundred thousand fighting men. Some say they are a million; and besides these, there are Spahis and other horsemen in the emperor's pay.
In the vision That is, in appearance, and not in reality, they had breast- plates of fire and of hyacinth and brimstone The colour of fire is red, of hyacinth blue, and of brimstone yellow: and this “hath a literal accomplishment; for the Othmans, from the first time of their appearance, have affected to wear such warlike apparel of scarlet, blue, and yellow.” Of the Spahis particularly, some have red, and some have yellow standards, and others red or yellow, mixed with other colours. In appearance, too, the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions To denote their strength, courage, and fierceness; and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone A manifest allusion to great guns and gunpowder, which were invented under this trumpet, and were of such signal service to the Othmans in their wars. For by these three was the third part of men killed By these the Othmans made such havoc and destruction in the Greek or eastern empire. Amurath the Second broke into Peloponnesus, and took several strong places by 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. Two more 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 guns, and so many breaches were made, that the city was taken by assault, and an end put to the Grecian empire.
Moreover they had power to do hurt by their tails as well as by their mouths, their tails being like unto serpents, and having heads In this respect they very much resemble the locusts, only the different tails are accommodated to the different creatures, the tails of scorpions to locusts, the tails of serpents, with a head at each end, to horses. By this figure it is meant, that the Turks draw after them the same poisonous trains as the Saracens; they profess and propagate the same imposture, they do hurt not only by their conquests, but also by spreading their false doctrine; and wherever they establish their dominion, there too they establish their religion. Many indeed of the Greek Church remained, and are still remaining among them; but they are subjected to a capitation-tax, which is rigorously exacted from all above fourteen years of age; are burdened besides with the most heavy and arbitrary impositions; are compelled to the most servile drudgery; are abused in their persons, and robbed of their property: but notwithstanding these and greater persecutions, some remains of the Greek Church are still preserved among them, as we may reasonably conclude, to serve some great and mysterious ends of providence.