IV. With these various marks before us, characteristic and chronological, we can now have little difficulty in ascertaining that form of Roman government, which St. John predicted as the seventh head of the wild beast: in every particular, the Francic Emperorship established by Napoleon Buonapartè will be found most accurately to correspond with it.

In May 1804, this adventurer assumed the official title of Emperor of the French: in March 1805, he became king of Italy and Rome; the ancient capital of the Roman Empire being degraded to the rank of what he denominated the second good city of the French Empire, while the title of King of Rome was reserved as the official title of the heir to the throne: and, on the memorable seventh of August 1806, as I have already observed, the sixth Roman head fell by the abdication and abolition of the official title of Emperor of the Romans.

Here then we behold the rise of a new head, distinct from all the preceding six heads, enjoying the sovereignty of the metropolitan city though degrading it from its old metropolitan rank, springing up at the very time when prophecy teaches us to expect its rise, and assuming the new and hitherto unknown official title of Emperor of the French.

Had this interpretation been advanced and established when the sixth head fell, we might have anticipated from it that the sovereignty of Napoleon would be short-lived; because the prediction teaches us, that, "when the seventh king cometh, he must "continue a SHORT space:" but, for the most part,

it is the wise purpose of God, that prophecy should not be fully understood until after the accomplishment of the event. Thus, if I may instance my own previous exposition, I clearly enough saw, that the Carlovingian Emperorship was a Roman HEAD, and likewise that the Napoleonic Emperorship was a Roman HEAD. So far I was right: but, in the due arrangement of those heads, the event has proved me to have erred. I supposed the Carlovingian Emperorship to be a new head, instead of its being only a continuation of the sixth head: and, as this made it the last form of Roman government while yet the Napoleonic Emperorship was manifestly a Roman head also, I was compelled by the necessity of the case to pronounce the Napoleonic Emperorship a continuation of the Carlovingian. But the event of the fall of the Napoleonic head, combined with the already stated objection which decidedly proved that the Carlovingian Emperorship fell and was not transferred to France in the year 1806, has determined my former arrangement to be radically erroYet it matters little what is the fate of any human interpretation, provided only we give the glory to God: "yea, let God be true, though every man be a liar.'

The recent downfall of the Napoleonic sovereignty, when viewed in conjunction with the previous fall or extinction of the sixth Roman head, throws an amazing light upon the prophetic volume; and, by the accuracy of an accomplished event, determines the right interpretation. With absolute

facts

facts before our eyes, let us hear then the sum of the whole matter.

The seventh Roman head, destined by the voice of prophecy to "continue a SHORT space,' rose in the year 1804 out of the chaos of the French revolution; obtained the sovereignty of Rome; and assumed, as its official style, the new title of Emperor of the French, though extending its sway directly or indirectly over the whole continental Latin Empire. In the year 1806, fell the sixth Roman head, which for more than eighteen centuries had borne the official title of Emperor of the Romans: consequently, as the wild beast (by this arrangement) ceases not for a moment to be without a head, we are encountered by no such hieroglyphical solecism as the existence of a living though headless animal. But, when the seventh head cometh, it must continue but a SHORT space: and exactly such has been the event; for, as it rose in the year 1804, so it fell in the year 1815, having continued only the SHORT space of eleven years and a few additional days.

Thus accurately has the prophecy been accomplished: and thus does the event itself sustain the part of the most satisfactory interpreter.

V. Here however it will obviously be asked, What is the present condition of the Roman wild beast? The sixth head has fallen; and the seventh head, agreeably to the prediction, has RAPIDLY experienced the fate of its predecessor. Such being the case, as the title of Roman Emperor has not been revived, and as the title of Francic Emperor has

ceased

ceased to exist; the hieroglyphical wild beast is now headless: consequently, on the principles which have recently been laid down, symbolical decorunı, founded as it is on the economy of nature, requires us to pronounce him dead. But St. John ascribes his final overthrow to the battle of Armageddon; at the close of which he is to be cast alive, or in his full vigour of strength and vitality, "into a lake burn"ing with brimstone*." How then can this happen at some future period, if he be already dead? Or, if it have happened, shall we not be compelled, in plain defiance of all circumstantial correspondence, to identify the predicted battle of Armageddon with the bloody fight of Waterloo; an identification, altoge ther impossible and intolerable?

For the difficulty, which here presents itself, Scripture has provided in a manner; which, from its peculiarity, affords to my own mind an irresistible demonstration that the Apocalypse is indeed a portion of God's inspired word.

When St. John describes the wild beast at his first appearance to him, complete (as an unbroken symbol must needs be complete) in all his figurative members, though in point of actual chronology some of those members may be successive to others: when he thus describes him at his first appearance, he carefully mentions, that he "saw one of his heads

as it were wounded to death ;" and he afterwards specifically informs us, that the mode, in which it was

Rev. xix. 20.

so wounded to death, was by the violent stroke of 6.6 a sword *"

This same infliction he afterwards notices in a somewhat different form, predicting it in a sort of enigmatical phraseology: for the hierophantic angel says of the wild beast, that he "was and is not," or that in the course of his allotted duration he should vitally exist and cease vitally to exist †.

Now, on the principle of symbolical decorum which (as I have already observed) is founded upon the economy of nature, if the head receive a deadly wound, the whole animal must die in consequence: and we must not forget the important distinction, that, although the hieroglyphical wild beast necessarily appears in the vision complete with all his seven heads; yet, so far as historical matter of fact is concerned, those heads or forms of government in the literal antitypical Empire were not all synchronical, but on the contrary were successive. Hence it is manifest, on this sufficiently obvious principle, that the excision or deadly wound of any single head must prove mortal to the whole beast; unless, either previous to or at the precise time of that excision, he puts forth (like the fabled hydra) another head.

But the predicted excision or deadly wound of the head was evidently to be fatal to the whole wild beast: because, in consequence of it, the entire beast was to cease from vital existence; or, in the language of the prophecy, he was first to be and

* Rev. xiii. 3, 12, 14.

+ Rev. xvii. 8, 11.

then