THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES,
By H. Edson
And the Deliverance and Restoration of the Remnant of Israel from the Seven Times, or 2520 years of Assyrian or Pagan and Papal Captivity considered.
I anticipate that some may urge Dan. vii, 21, 22, as an objection to the position set forth in this article, with respect to the deliverance of the saints in 1798 from under the Papal rule, and their rise, triumph, and prosperity during the 45 years, &c., by telling us that the little horn, Papacy, was to make war with the saints and prevail against them until THE COMING OF THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.
At the first view of the above text, there may be some seeming objection to our position; but when rightly compared with other portions of the inspired volume, the seeming objection will vanish. Facts are stubborn things to dispose of, and it is a fact, known, read, and admitted by all, that Protestants are no longer under the dictation of the Papal see, but are themselves in the ascendancy over the Catholics, and that the Catholics have not prevailed in war against the Protestants as a body since 1798. And furthermore, prophecy limits their prevailing against the saints, as predicted in Dan. vii, 21, 22, to a time, times, and an half, or 42 months, 1260 years. Dan. vii, 25; xii, 7; Rev. xiii, 5, 7. See margin. To prevail signifies to have the advantage over, or the better of. See Judges xvi, 5; Gen. xix, 26. See also Cruden. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could NOT PREVAIL against it. Isa. vii, 1. See also 1 Sam. xvii, 9. Perhaps you may be ready to inquire, Did the Ancient of days come when the captivity of Zion was turned, when the seven times ended at the downfall of Papacy in the French revolution? In reply we say that the Ancient of days is God the Father. See Dan. vii, 9, 13. And he does not come personally himself, even at the second advent, but he sends Jesus Christ. See Acts iii, 20; Joel iii, 13. When God set his hand the first time to recover his people from their Egyptian bondage, he said to Moses, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows: and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, &c. Ex. iii, 7, 8. In other words, this was setting his hand the first time to recover them from their captivity in Egypt. The coming of the Ancient of days at the downfall of Papacy, [Dan. vii, 21, 22,] I understand to be no more, nor less, than his setting his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people out of the hand of the little horn, Papacy. At the first deliverance the Lord has represented himself as come down to deliver. The second deliverance is to be in like manner as the first. Isaiah [Chap. lix, 20,] in predicting this second deliverance says, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression, in Jacob." Paul quotes this text and locates it where the fullness of the Gentiles is come in. See Rom. xi, 25, 26. This is identical with the coming of the Ancient of days. Dan. vii, 21, 22. The Lord CAME DOWN to see the tower of Babel, to confound their language. The Lord appeared to Abraham when he was about to destroy the cities of the plain. Finally, whenever the Lord has particularly and signally favored his people, or even executed his judgments upon the wicked, it is represented as his coming to them, or visiting them. See Ex. iii, 7, 8, 16; iv, 31; Isa. xxvi, 14; xxix, 6; Zech. x, 3. It is worthy of note that this title, "Ancient of days," is found only in Dan. vii; and that too in connection with the point of time predicted for him to set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people from their captivity under the Papal yoke. The Lord's thus manifesting himself by this title at this point of time, seems directly calculated to carry the mind back to ancient time, where God set his hand the first time to recover his people from Egyptian bondage, and to call to mind the fact that he was their glorious and triumphant deliverer in ANCIENT DAYS. It is written, [Isa. xlvi, 9, 10,] "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else: I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." From the above facts it is evident that the Lord by manifesting himself by the title Ancient of days at the point where he set his hand the second time to turn the captivity of his people, has designed by this name or title to inspire faith and confidence not only in his ability, but in his faithfulness to perform his word, and that he will as assuredly perform the second recovery of his people at the appointed time as that he did the first in ANCIENT DAYS gone by. And this view of the matter is further sustained by reading Isaiah, chapters li, and lii. These chapters contain a prophetic account of the second recovery now under consideration. Chap. li, 9-11, contains a prophetic prayer for the Lord to set his hand again the second time to perform this second recovery of his people, in language as follows: "Awake awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake, as in the ANCIENT DAYS, in the generations of old art thou not it that hath cut Rahab (or Egypt; see, Ps. lxxxix, 10, margin) and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? (ANCIENTLY.) THEREFORE the redeemed of the Lord shall return (the second time) and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I, even I, am he that comforteth you:" (when your appointed time is accomplished.) The above we deem sufficient on this point. We will notice one more objection and then the way will be prepared to enter upon the subject of the gathering predicted to be accomplished in the present dispensation of the fullness of times. The objection is that the dominion of the little horn, Papacy, is not taken away till We will commence our reply to this objection by quoting Isa. i, 27. "Zion shall be redeemed with JUDGMENT, and her CONVERTS (or they that return of her, margin) with righteousness." This text synchronizes with Jer. xv, 21. "And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, (that wicked, or the man of sin; see 2 Thess. ii, 3, 8,) I will REDEEM thee out of the hand of the TERRIBLE." The dreadful and terrible beast. Dan. vii, 7. God spake to Abraham on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I JUDGE, said God, and after that shall they come forth and serve me in this place." Acts vii, 6, 7; Gen. xv, 13, 14. Again it is written, [Ex. vi, 6,] "Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great JUDGMENTS." And in like manner was the remnant redeemed when God set his hand again the second time to recover and redeem them out of the hand of their oppressors. Paul in speaking of the first recovery from Egyptian bondage says, Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. And the trodden down host, the martyrs, were heard when the fifth seal was opened, crying with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not JUDGE and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth, and it was said unto them that they must rest yet a little season till their fellow-servants that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. The appointed time for God to judge, &c., had not yet come; for some of understanding must fall, i. e., be killed as they were, even to the time of the end. Then God would JUDGE and avenge their blood on their oppressors. This I understand to be the judgment that sat when the dominion of the little horn,130Papacy, was taken away to consume and to destroy it unto the end. It is apparent from this text that the judgment sits and the dominion of the Papacy was to be taken away a space of time before the end, for a consuming process follows and is continued to the end, when he is destroyed. And thus the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Syria is punished, and the glory of his high looks. See Dan. vii, 20; xi, 36; Isa. x, 12. This is the consumption decreed which has overflowed with righteousness. Isa. x, 12, 22. Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, &c. Said Jesus, "My words they are spirit," &c. It was the light of truth that began to shine out in the reformation that crippled the influence and power of Papacy; and since the time of the end, the Bible which was formerly suppressed, and kept from the people, has been brought out of its sackcloth covering by being translated into the different languages and circulated throughout the world. Also the books of Daniel's and John's visions have been unsealed and open, and the increase of knowledge in understanding of the same has revealed and exposed the corruptions of the Papal church, and thus the word of the Lord which is the spirit of his mouth has been consuming the power and dominion of the Man of Sin; and thus the consumption decreed has overflowed with righteousness. This is also the righteousness with which Zion's converts have been redeemed. Isa. i, 27. It is written, [Acts vii, 17.] But when the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. So also when the time of the promise drew nigh, that the Lord would set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people from spiritual, or antitypical Egypt, the people Israel began to grow and multiply by the reformation under Luther. The book of Revelation was as much a sealed book up to the time of the end as was the book of Daniel's visions. Rev. xxii, 10, 11, were alike prophetically spoken, and can only apply after the time of the end arises. The dragon of Rev. xii, and the Papal beast of Chap. xiii, symbolize the same as Daniel's fourth beast with ten horns, and little horn that made war with the saints. Rev. xvii alone explains who THEY were that took away his dominion predicted in Dan. vii, 26. To understand the prophetic periods of Revelation, is to understand those of Daniel's visions; hence the book of Revelation was a sealed book until opened in connection with the book of Daniel's visions at the time of the end. Said Jesus, the word that I have spoken shall judge him in the last day. John xii, 48. The books of Daniel's and John's visions contain the principal prophetic history of the wickedness of the Papal kingdom, and the predicted judgments which were to be inflicted upon the Papal nation when Jerusalem's appointed time was accomplished; hence may be seen the necessity of these books being opened at that time. These two books constitute a very important portion of the two witnesses, or the two prophets which tormented them that dwell on the earth by smiting the earth with all plagues as often as they will. Rev. xi, 3-10. The ten horns of the Papal beast were dependent upon, and received their power and authority, their crown and thrones from the Papal head, from the Pope; and when his dominion was taken away, it was the overthrowing of the throne of kingdoms. Haggai ii, 22. Hence all the Papal thrones dependent on the Papal head were in effect cast down with their head. And Buonaparte soon set himself to the work of displacing the kings set up by the Papal see, and set up in their stead those of his own choice. The thrones of the Papal kingdom were thus overthrown, or cast down when God began to JUDGE, and avenge the blood of his servants on them that dwelt on the earth, in answer to the prayer of the martyrs. See Rev. vi, 9-11. These are the facts in history, and we shall not stop to prove that these were the thrones referred to in Dan. vii, 9. The angel said to John while on the isle of Patmos, Come hither: I will shew thee the JUDGMENT of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. The angel showed John a woman, which symbolized the Papal church, seated upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns; the angel informed John that the ten horns or kings would hate the woman and make her desolute and naked, &c. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God should be fulfilled. This text does not embrace the fulfillment of all of God's words, but only those words which predict the JUDGMENT of the Papal church. This was all that the angel had pledged himself to show John in this vision. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. To deprive the Papal church of this gaudy array, and her costly decoration, is what leaves her DESOLATE and NAKED, and is so far the JUDGMENT of the Papal church which the angel showed to John. This attire of the Papal church is not without its signification. The purple and scarlet color attire is the sign or emblem of being clothed with the civil power of state. This will appear from the following extracts: Josiah Litch in his Prophetic Expositions, Vol. II, pp. 84-86, in speaking of the first Catholic war, 508-15, gives the following from Gibbon: "The crown and mitre were staked on this momentous quarrel:" "and it nearly cost the emperor Anastasius his throne and his life." Without his diadem, and in the posture of a suppliant, Anastasius appeared on the throne of the circus. The Catholics before his face rehearsed the genuine Trisagion; they exulted in the offer, which he proclaimed by the voice of a herald, of ABDICATING THE PURPLE; they listened to the admonition that since all could not reign they should previously agree in the choice of a sovereign." From the above we see that to abdicate the purple is to deprive one of the civil power of state. Our Saviour was by the Roman soldiers arrayed in a mock SCARLET robe and crown of thorns, who mockingly said, Hail, king of the Jews. An American clergyman who visited Rome, in describing his visit to the church of St. Gregory, describes the entrance of the pope into the church in the following language: "A venerable old man, clothed in SCARLET, attended by a large retinue, almost immediately entered, at whose approach the monks fell back with the most respectful deference. He had scarcely trod upon the threshold before a dozen of his attendants gathered around him; some in SCARLET livery, others in rich canonicals, and others in military equipage, &c." The spirit of Popery, in letters from a father to his children, pp. 95, 96. The pope has ever claimed the right of crowning and imparting civil power to kings. "Boethus, B. 13, of Scotland, p. 788, speaks of the inauguration of the king: "A legate was sent by the pope with a sword and PURPLE hat." The sword was the emblem of the military power, and the PURPLE hat the sign of the civil power imparted by the pope to the king." The purple and scarlet colored dress is the Roman sign or emblem of royalty. In 1798 the pope was compelled to abdicate the PURPLE when he signed his abdication with respect to his temporal power. In 1798, Buonaparte at the head of the French nation put on the SCARLET DRESS. The following is from Lockhart's Napoleon, page 160. Lockhart after speaking of Napoleon's removing the seat of government from the Louxembourg to the old palace of the Tuileries, &c., says, "Shortly after this he (Buonaparte) appeared in his NEW OFFICIAL dress of RED SILK, and a black stock. Some one observed to him that this last article was out of keeping with the rest. No matter, replied he smiling, a small remnant of the military character will do us no harm." One point we wish noted, viz., the Pope was deprived of his civil power and purple and scarlet dress in 1798 and Buonaparte puts it on in the following year, 1799. From 508 to 538 the supremacy of the Catholics and of the civil power of the west was invested in the person of Clovis, king of France. The following is from the Midnight Cry: "Constantine first abolished Paganism; it was restored under the Barbarians, and continued until their conversion to christianity. Clovis, king of France, was converted to the faith, A. D. 496, and embraced the Catholic faith, and obtained the title of "most christian king," and "eldest son of the church," the other kings were converted soon after, some to the Catholic, some to the Arian faith. The Ostrogoths of Rome embraced the Arian faith, as also the Vandals of Africa. In connection with this Arian government, the old Roman government still retained a hold in Rome under the consular dignity and power. Clovis from the time of his conversion devoted his time and energies to the extension of the Catholic faith; and carried forward his wars to that end. His last great battle was fought in the conquest of the Visigoths and their subjection to the faith IN 508; and on his return home he was met at the city of Tours, by the embassador of Anastasius, emperor of Constantinople, conferring on Clovis the insignia and title of CONSUL of ROME and patrician . . . so that a Catholic king of the west for the first time, became the SUPREME Roman power in 508, A. D. This was the supremacy of Catholics, not of Popery. The supremacy of the pope was in 538." In 538 the Papal form of government was established by the decree of Justinian being carried into effect. This was the dragon giving his power, his seat, and great authority, to the Papal beast. This decree clothed the Pope, the head of the church, with the civil power and the PURPLE and SCARLET robe. The supremacy of the pope is limited in prophecy to 1260 years. Then the judgment was to sit and they should take away his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the end. Add 1260 to 538 and it brings us to 1798. Dr. Adam Clarke says on this passage, [Dan. vii, 26.] "In 1798 the French Republican army under general Berthier, entered Rome and ENTIRELY superseded the whole Papal power." "On the 15th of February, 1798, the Papal government was ABOLISHED, Rome declared a Republic, five consuls, a senate, and tribunate composed the government of Rome. The pope signed his ABDICATION in reference to his temporal power, and was then carried to France where he died a prisoner, August 29th, 1799. Rotteck's History of the world." From the above extracts from history it is seen that in Clovis, king of France, was the supremacy of the Catholics, and in him was vested the civil power of state in the ten-horned kingdom of Rome from 508 up to 538. This power then passed into the hands of the pope who held it for 1260 years, up to 1798. The French then took back into their own hands the supremacy of the Roman kingdom which had passed from their hands into the hands of the pope just 1260 years previous. In 1798 the pope signed his abdication with respect to his civil power of state, in other words he abdicated the PURPLE. This act divested the church of Rome of the purple and scarlet robe, and also of the crown in which was set the gold and precious stones and pearls with which she was decked. From the fact of the purple and scarlet robe's being literal and emblematical, I understand the gold, the precious stones, and pearls in the crown with which she was decked, and also the golden cup in her hand to be all literal and emblematical. The pope professes to fill the office of Christ in expiating sins. The golden cup I understand to be the golden censer in which the Roman high priest offers incense in their idolatrous worship; hence the golden cup is emblematical of her pretended high priesthood; and hence the woman's attire, decoration, and her golden cup being all literal and emblematical, it argues that the name written in her forehead be also literal and emblematical; that is to say, allusive, or in other words significant or emblematical of her real character. The gold, the precious stones, and pearls set in the Pope's crown might have been arranged in a hieroglyphical, which signifies emblematical or allusive, manner so as to read, Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots. That this was the case there is some evidence. The following is from the Advent Herald, under the head of "The pope the man of sin, and Rome the Babylon of the Apocalypse. Two lectures delivered on Tuesday, May 27th, and Thursday, May 29th, 1851, in Exeter hall, London, by Rev. J. Cumming, D. D.131"The system is delineated in the passage I have read, as the 'mystery of iniquity.' 'I heard the other day from a friend, that among the Arabs there was a system of what is called jewel writing—a sort of hieroglyphics, by which one could read the meaning conveyed by the arrangement and colors of jewels, as placed on a crown. I was told by him that the ancient tiara of the popes had jewels upon it, signifying in that mode of writing which a Jew who knew the secret was able to read, 'Mystery Babylon, the great, the Mother of harlots.' The Jews it is said thus arranged the precious stones, because they hated the pope as they hated him now." In 1798 the pope signed his abdication with respect to his temporal power; in other words, he abdicated the PURPLE. This left the church of Rome desolate and naked; stripped of her purple robe and civil power of state. The Papal government was abolished, and entirely superseded and the government of Rome re-organized, and the pope led a captive to France in 1798. In this history we find a perfect fulfillment of Dan. vii, 26, and Rev. xiii, 10. The following year, 1799, Buonaparte, who was chief consul, put on the scarlet dress. He afterwards declared the temporal sovereignty of the pope wholly at an end, incorporating Rome with the French empire, declaring it to be his second city. He proceeded to the work of displacing the Papal kings set up by the pope, and set up in their stead those of his own choice, incorporating their territory with the French empire, declaring himself the inheritor of Cæsars' thrones. Thus in the person of Buonaparte was then invested the supremacy of the Roman kingdom, and the supremacy of the Catholics; the same as it was in the person of Clovis, king of France, from 508 to 538; and Buonaparte never yielded that supremacy until he abdicated in favor of young Napoleon, his son. From the above facts it must be apparent to all, that in the French revolution the supremacy of the Roman government was re-organized and a new system or form of the government framed as really so as when the Papal form was established; consequently the Napoleon dynasty must necessarily constitute one of the seven heads of the beast or forms of universal supremacy. Note this point. During this revolution millions were slain upon the battle-field, and by the hand of the executioner. The following is from the history of the church by Goodrich. pp. 183-4:
'The revolutionary torrent which was thus set in motion, destroyed law, government, and religion in France, and laid WASTE the ROMAN CHURCH BOTH there and in neighboring countries. Her priests were MASSACRED. Her silver shrines and saints were turned into money for the payment of troops, her bells were converted into cannon, and her churches and convents into barracks for soldiers. From the Atlantic to the Adriatic she presented but one APPALLING SPECTACLE. She had shed the blood of saints and prophets, and God now gave her blood to drink. A civil constitution was framed for the clergy, to which all were required to swear on pain of death or banishment. The great body refused, and priest and altar were overturned, and blood once esteemed sacred, flowed to the horses' bridles. Such as could, escaped through a thousand dangers, and found in asylum in foreign countries. No tongue can tell THE WOES of the nation.' Marsh's Eccl. Hist. p. 300. This was eating her flesh in the same sense that she had drunk the blood of the saints and prophets. And while the French were burning and destroying the Roman inquisitions, it is said that they sent home word that they were consuming the old carcass with a slow FIRE. And thus the Papal church was made desolate and naked and they ate her flesh and burned her with fire. And such was the JUDGMENT of the Papal church shown by the angel unto John; and thus in answer to the prayer of the martyrs also when the fifth seal was opened, [Rev. vi, 9-11,] God did JUDGE and avenge their blood on their oppressors, when their appointed time was accomplished, and thus the judgment was set when they took away the dominion of the Papal horn. Dan. vii, 26. The Napoleon dynasty and form of government was the successor of the Papal form. When the kings of Europe willingly permitted the French nation to take the Papal supremacy into its own hands, it was in fulfillment of Rev. xvii, 17. "For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and give THEIR KINGDOM unto the beast until the words of God be fulfilled;" that is to say, till the JUDGMENT was executed upon the Papal church in making her desolate and naked, &c. From this text we learn the stubborn fact that the ten-horned kingdom was given to that power which made the Papal church desolate and naked, which was none other than the French nation; hence there is no avoiding the conclusion that the Napoleon dynasty constituted the scarlet-colored beast with seven heads and ten horns; for it was the scarlet-colored beast to which the ten kings in their agreement, gave THEIR KINGDOM. See Rev. xvii, 3, 16, 17. As we have before intimated that when the ten kings of Europe willingly permitted the French nation to take the Papal supremacy, which was the supremacy of the ten-horned kingdom, into their own hands, it was the ten kings giving their (supreme) power and kingdom into the scarlet beast. Another important fact is here worthy of notice; viz., that if the scarlet-colored beast symbolizes the Papal form of government during the 1260 years as has been supposed, then the above act of the ten kings would be their giving their Papal power and kingdom, to the Papal power and kingdom; or in other words, it would be the scarlet-colored beast giving his power and kingdom to himself; so we see this will not do; hence we are driven to the conclusion that the scarlet-colored beast with seven heads and ten horns, must symbolize the form of the Roman government which succeeded the Papal form, and can be none other than the Napoleon dynasty. It was the scarlet beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit. See Rev. xvii, 8. It was this beast that made war against the two witnesses. See Chap. xi, 3-14. This was the act of the French government in their attempt to extirpate the Bible and christianity from the world. Buonaparte in his official scarlet-colored dress, became emperor of the Roman ten-horned kingdom. He declared the temporal sovereignty of the pope wholly at an end, incorporating Rome with the French empire, declaring it to be his second city, and appointed a committee for the administration of the civil government. He pursued his onward progress in destroying the Papal kings set up by the pope, and setting up in their stead those of his own choice, incorporating their territory with the French empire. But the sun of Napoleon's glory soon reached its zenith and was destined to sink with greater rapidity. Its last glimmering rays died away upon the memorable plains of Waterloo. The great powers had formed an alliance against him, and when the sun of his glory was obscured, they convened a conference of the allied powers in 1815, and replaced the kings which Buonaparte had dethroned. They restored to the pope the civil authority over a small territory in Italy, and thus they bound up and slightly healed the deadly wound of the Papal head, that its life, like that of the three beasts of Dan. vii, 12, might be prolonged for a season and time to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. When the deadly wound was thus healed in 1815, the Napoleon dynasty then disappeared. Then would apply the words of the angel; viz., "The beast that thou sawest was and is not." From 1815 to 1848-9, the Napoleon dynasty was not. But in the unparalleled revolution which swept over Europe like a mighty tornado in 1848-9, the Napoleon dynasty ascended out of the bottomless pit. But his career is short, his prophetic history is told in few words; viz., "And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition." He is no sooner risen out of the pit than he is on the high road to perdition; and in spite of all his energies to avoid the mighty whirlpool, yet by the resistless power of an unseen hand he is already being drawn toward the mighty vortex where he will find himself in the battle-field of the great day of God Almighty, to be trodden in the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and thus be engulfed in the pit and dark night of "perdition;" and thus will end the Roman government and kingdom, when he ventures to make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome him; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. It may now be said, since 1848-9, of the beast that was, and then disappeared in 1815 and was not till 1848-9, that now he "yet is." And this beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit and is now on the high road to perdition, in the successive line of the heads, is the eighth, and is of the seven. This fact clearly reveals the first Napoleon dynasty, which was the predecessor of this eighth, to be the seventh head. The most common view has been that the Papal form of the Roman government constituted the seventh head of the Roman beast; but the angel said to John, "Five are fallen, one is, (that is the sixth,) and the other, (viz., the seventh,) is not yet come, and when he cometh he must continue a SHORT SPACE." Since the foundation of the world, there has no form of Universal supremacy existed or continued so long a space as the Papal; hence with no degree of propriety whatever can the language of the angel, [Rev. xvii, 10,] viz., "When he (the seventh head) cometh he must continue a SHORT SPACE," be applied to the Papal head. But in the history of the Napoleon dynasty, we find a perfect fulfillment of this prophecy. The Napoleon dynasty continued but a short space; just long enough to accomplish the object for which it was raised up. Buonaparte was as really a subject of prophecy as was Cyrus the Persian; and accomplished the divine design for which he was raised up, as really as did Cyrus the king of Persia, in overthrowing the kingdom of Babylon.