arguing from the difference of their political organization that the Carlovingian Emperorship was a distinct head from the Augustan and Constantinian Emperorship; time, the best interpreter of prophecy, has now demonstrated by the event, that the bishop was right, and that I was wrong.

On the whole it appears, that we of the present generation have lived to witness one of the grand prophetic epochs, by which the political life of the Roman wild beast is so peculiarly marked. From the commencement of the reign of Augustus down to the memorable year 1806, a period which comprizes a longer term than even eighteen centuries, the world has never been without an Emperor of the Romans ; but in that year, for the first time, this ancient title completely disappeared from off the face of the earth; and we may now say, in the language of prophecy, SIX Roman heads are fallen.

III. Judging from the analogy of those Roman heads which have already risen and disappeared, we may perhaps seem bound to conclude, that the possession and actual sovereignty of the metropolitan city is essential to the character of a Roman head during some part or other of its existence.

1. If this opinion be well founded, then, in our search for that seventh temporal head which in the days of St. John was as yet future, we must look for a dominant power which has possessed the actual sovereignty of Rome.

2. The power, thus characterized, must likewise be a power of short duration: for the apostle says of

the

the seventh head or Roman form of government, "the other is not yet come; and, when he cometh, " he must continue a SHORT space

3. Again the power, of which we are in quest, must bear a different official title from any one of those which were borne by its six predecessors; through the medium of which it may as easily be distinguished from them all, as each of them severally may be distinguished from one another,

4. Such are the leading predicted characteristics of the seventh Roman head: and to them we must add its proper chronological notation.

Now, with respect to this point, we may safely assert, that the seventh head must rise up, either shortly before the fall of the sixth, or in the very moment of its fall: because, otherwise, our interpretation will exhibit the hieroglyphical solecism of a wild beast continuing to live, though in a headless state; a thing impossible in nature, and therefore equally impossible in a symbol which is professedly constructed upon the economy of nature.

The sixth head however is already fallen: for, in the year 1806, it ceased to exist by the formal abdication and abolition of the official title of Emperor of the Romans.

Therefore, in point of chronological arrangement, the short-lived seventh head must have sprung up, either shortly before the year 1806, or at that precise moment when the official title of Roman Emperor was formally abdicated and abolished.

* Rev. xvii. 10.

IV. With

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

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."

\neous.

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