very time, without any intervening period; as the beast is not represented as headless, or defunct, till after the loss of his seventh head.

Fourthly, whenever the seventh head was to arise, it is expressly declared, that it should be a power of short duration: for the prophecy has asserted respecting this head, "when he cometh, he "must continue a SHORT SPACE."

With these characteristic and chronological marks of the seventh head of the hieroglyphic beast, it may be ascertained, that the form of government which the prophecy predicted under this head was that established under Napoleon Buonaparte, which will be found accurately to correspond with it. The government of this military adventurer was so extraordinary in its rise, progress, and termination; so extensive in its influence over other nations and states, particularly those which had formed a part of the western Roman empire; so interwoven with continual wars, commotions, and revolutions; and so intimately connected with the principal subjects of the book of Revelation; namely, the Roman empire, the Papal apostacy, and the true church of Christ, that we cannot but suppose that this government, and the facts and events connected with it, must have obtained a place in this prophetic book. Accordingly, it will be found, that this extraordinary government is the seventh head of the wild beast exhibited in vision to the Apostle. To demonstrate this position, let this power be compared with the four preceding marks of the seventh form of the Roman govern

ment.

In the first place, it possessed the actual sovereignty of Rome. Napoleon Buonaparte, who had previously assumed the title of Emperor of the French, in March 1805 became King of Italy and Rome; and thus he received possession of the seat and the metropolis of the Roman empire. This once eminent capital, which had been denominated the mis

tress of the world, was, indeed, degraded by the Emperor to the second city of his dominions, while the title of King of Rome was reserved for the heir apparent to the throne. But the argument here is only to shew that he was the sovereign of Italy, the original seat of the Roman empire; and of Rome itself, as its metropolis and the ancient capital of the empire and the world.

Secondly, in reference to the title of the seventh head, there is a sufficient difference to distinguish it from any of the preceding. It may, with propriety, be denominated the imperio-regal or the imperial kingship. Buonaparte was the Emperor of the French, but not the Emperor of Rome; and in this respect he differed from the imperial or sixth head, the successive governors of which were all emperors of Rome, from Augustus Cæsar, B. C. 28, to Francis II. of Austria, A. D. 1806. He was also the King of Italy and of Rome, in which respect he differed from the first or regal head, as the succession of kings were only kings of Rome and not of Italy. The seventh head may, therefore, be clearly distinguished from the sixth and the first; though in name partaking of the nature of each. It may properly be styled imperial king. The seven heads, therefore, of the Roman empire, may be distinguished as follows: The first was a succession of kings; the second, of consuls; the third, of dictators; the fourth, of decemvirs; the fifth, of military tribunes; the sixth, of emperors; and the seventh was an imperial king.

Thirdly, in respect to the chronological order of the seventh head, it will be found exactly to coincide with the nature of the prophecy. It has been previously stated, that before one head is destroyed another must previously have sprung up, or must immediately do so at the time of its extinction. Unless this be admitted, the propriety of the image would be destroyed, and the wild beast must subsist without any head. But what is the fact in relation

to the rise of the seventh head and the fall of the sixth? In May 1804, Buonaparte assumed the of ficial title of Emperor of the French; and in 1805, he became King of Italy and Rome. Thus the seventh head arose immediately before the extinction of the sixth; for, in August 1806, the sixth head of the beast fell by the abdication of Francis II. of Austria, who resigned and abolished the official title of Emperor of the Romans.

Finally, according to the express declaration of the prophecy, the seventh head continued but a short space. It only endured from the year 1805, or at the earliest 1804, to the year 1815, when it received its extinction by the deadly stroke of the sword—the sword of England and her allies, at the tremendous battle of Waterloo. The manner in which the fifth vial was poured out upon the throne of the beast has been already stated; but it may be necessary here to add some farther particulars. Early in the year 1814, the allied army occupied Paris. Buonaparte was compelled to abdicate the throne, and the ancient dynasty of the French was restored. But the seventh head of the Roman beast still continued to exist. Napoleon, driven as he was from France "and Italy, was yet neither stripped of all his do"minions, nor was he compelled to resign his im"perial dignity. As the sixth head, in its earlier "western branch, was not less the sixth head in the

eye of prophecy, when confined during the short "reign of Augustulus to the limits of Rome; and as "the same sixth head was not less the sixth head in "the eye of prophecy, when confined during the "reign of the last Constantine to the walls of By"zantium; so neither did the seventh head cease to "be the seventh head, when its actual dominions were contracted within the narrow space of a small "island. The allies not only suffered the tiger to "escape from the toils; but, even in the hour of "his adversity, they recognised his imperial title,

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"though they confined his sovereignty to the island "of Elba. Hence Napoleon, in his insular principality, did not less represent the seventh head of the wild beast than the same Napoleon when seated upon the throne of France, Italy, and the western Germany. The time was not yet arrived for the I slaughter of that head by the sword: the allies, therefore, unconsciously went on fulfilling a pro"phecy, when they recognised the imperial title of "Napoleon; and when they permitted him to hold "in full sovereignty a part of his dominions, how"ever small. Had they not done this, the seventh "head would have prematurely ceased to exist: by doing it, they preserved for a season the spark of political vitality.

"The destined time of excision, however, was not far distant. Early in the year 1815, the Emperor Napoleon, with a handful of followers, "landed on the southern coast of France; and rapid "as his own eagle, flew to the capital, whence he instantaneously expelled the tottering throne of the "Bourbons...... Europe was forthwith in arms.

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.. The allies unreservedly declared that their principle in 1815 was the very same as their principle in 1814; in other words, they unreservedly declared, that they fought exclusively against the THRONE of Napoleon. Success attended their effort; because, prophecy had declared respecting "the seventh form of the Roman government, that "when it cometh, it must continue a short space; "but it was the high will of Heaven that the avenging "sword of excision should be wielded by the hand "of England. On the 18th of June, in the year "1815, the seventh head received its predicted deadly "wound by the sword. In the height of its strength "it was suddenly mown down by the predetermined "servant of the Almighty God; and, however high may be the rewards which an admiring prince and a grateful country have conferred upon the avenger

"of long-outraged humanity, I cannot but deem his "most elevated and most venerable title to be that "of the chosen minister of Jehovah, who shall perform "all his pleasure, and whose right hand the Lord “hath holden to subdue nations before him.-The re"mainder of the eventful tale is soon told. At "Waterloo, the seventh head received his deadly "wound by the sword; and its predicted short 66 space of continuance ran out, when it immediately "afterwards expired, in consequence of the formal "abolition of its official title and its deprivation even of the shadow of effective sovereignty. The person to whose single reign its brief form of ex"istence was limited, returned no more decked with "the trappings and adorned with the name of royalty "to his late insular dominion. Studiously degraded "to the mere subject rank of a general officer, we "behold him, a new Prometheus, bound by the ada"mantine chains of Strength and Violence to a "tempest-beaten antarctic Caucasus." (Faber.) Thus it appears, that within the first twenty years of the nineteenth century, the sixth and seventh heads of the apocalyptic beast have fallen. Plain facts demonstrate the fulfilment of this part of the prophecy. Let a head of the secular Roman empire now be sought, and it can no where be found. But not a day can be mentioned for more than seven hundred and fifty-two years before the birth of Christ, to the 18th of June 1815, on which a head of the Roman empire did not exist under one of the forms symbolized by the seven-headed apocalyptic beast, described in this chapter.

It is said of this beast which the Apostle saw, that he "was, and is not, and yet is." Here are, therefore, three successive periods spoken of with reference to the beast. First, his existence is noticed, and then his non-existence, and afterwards his reexistence. In comparing the interpretation of the prophecy with its hieroglyphical language, it ap