headless. But, in the economy of nature, a headless beast must sink into a state of death. Accordingly, St. John, whose hieroglyphic is constructed on the economy of nature, has foretold the present condition of the Roman Empire under the imagery, of the wild beast being slain by a sword which mortally wounds one of his heads, and of his consequent non-existence as a single living political body. p. 25.

VI. Respecting the purport of the phrase death, as used by St. John when speaking of the Roman beast. p. 29.

VII. An inquiry, as to which of the Roman heads was mortally wounded by a sword. p. 31.

1. The head, to be so wounded, may be proved to be the seventh. p. 33.

2. The death, produced by this wound, has been shewn by the event to be not moral but political. p. 37.

VIII. An exposition, drawn from historical facts, of the prophecy, which foretells; that the seventh Roman head should be violently slain by the sword, and that in consequence the now headless beast should lie for a season in a state of death or political non-existence as an Empire. p. 38.

1. The seventh short-lived head or the Francic Emperorship was violently slain by the sword in the June of 1815. p. 39.

2. In consequence of the excision of the seventh and last head, all the six former heads having previously fallen, the beast became headless, and therefore sank into a state of political death or non-existence. In this state, we now, in the present year 1817, may behold him. For, since the fall of the sixth head in 1806 and the violent excision of the seventh head in 1815, no one of the European powers can be deemed the secular head of the Roman Empire. Hence, as an Empire, it is politically dead and exists no longer. P. 41.

SECT.

SECT. III.

Respecting the effusion of the fourth and fifth vials. p. 46.

CONSISTENCY requires, that we should adapt the rise and tyranny and excision of the seventh head to the general current of apocalyptic prophecy. p. 46.

I. In the series of the seven trumpets, the last of them, which introduces the third great woe, comprehends the

series of the seven vials. Hence, if the seventh trumpet has began to sound, the series of the seven vials must have commenced. p. 47.

1. The effusion of the first vial. p. 48.

2. The effusion of the second vial. p. 48.

3. The effusion of the third vial. p. 48.

4. These three vials comprehend and synchronize with the allegorical harvest of God's wrath. p. 49.

II. The fourth and fifth vials, which regularly succeed them, synchronize with and graphically delineate the entire reign of the short-lived seventh Roman head. p. 49. 1. The fourth vial describes the rise and military tyranny of the Francic Emperorship. p. 50.

(1.) A detail of the facts; which illustrate the accomplishment of the prophecy. p. 51.

(2.) The chronological arrangement of the rise of the seventh head. p. 53.

2. The fifth vial describes the decline and fall of the Francic

Emperorship. p. 54.

(1.) A statement of the general ideas, which are conveyed abstractedly and a priori by the terms of the prophecy itself. p. 55.

(2.) A detail of the facts, which illustrate the accomplishment of the prophecy. The fifth vial began to flow in the year 1808, when the decline of the Francic Emperorship commenced: and its stream was at its

height in the summer of 1815, when the Francic Emperorship was mortally wounded by the sword.

p. 59.

III. A recapitulation of particulars, and an enumeration of the seven heads of the Roman beast which are now all extinct; so that at present the hieroglyphical monster, being headless, is in his predicted state of death or political non-existence. p. 67.

Respecting the rise and fall of the eighth form of Roman government. p. 70.

WHEN we have reached a certain point in a chronological prophecy; we are led, from the very necessity of the thing, to form a general idea of what is next to follow. Nor does this at all involve any presumptuous attempt to intrude into the office of a prophet, rather than to rest satisfied with the character of a mere interpreter. For, when it is foretold that such and such events are to happen; we must inevitably anticipate their naked occurrence, though, we presume not to specify all the minute particulars of it. p. 70.

I. Now we have seen, that the entire duration of the Roman wild beast is divided into three successive periods : his existence, or the first term of his life ; his intermediate non-existence, or the period during which he lies dead; and his reexistence, or the second term of his life. Of these three periods, the first is past : and the second is now in actual lapse. Hence, without claiming to prophesy, we must needs anticipate the future commencement of the third. p. 72.

II. From such premises we are obliged to conclude (and our conclusion is, in fact, nothing more than the direct

assertion

assertion of the prophet himself); that, as the wild beast was slain by the violent excision of his seventh head, he must revive by the healing of the same mortal wound which caused his death. p. 76.

III. The naked fact of the wild beast's revival being thus expressly foretold by St. John, we have next to inquire

under WHICH of his seven heads he will revive. p. 77.

1. On this point we can know nothing, beyond what prophecy has taught us. p. 77.

2. Yet, by a careful discussion of particulars, we may without much difficulty arrive at the conclusion after which we seek. p. 78.

3. This conclusion is, that, as the SEVENTH head is the head which was mortally wounded by the sword; that same SEVENTH head is the head, which is destined to be healed. p. 81.

4. But the sword-slain seventh head is the Francic Emperorship. Therefore the Francic Emperorship is destined to be revived. And this seventh head, when revived, will be that eighth form of Roman government; which, whensoever it shall appear, is to be one of the preceding seven heads. p. 81.

IV. To this conclusion we are equally brought by the excellent principle of homogeneity. p. 81.

1. The healing of the deadly wound must be homogeneous to its infliction. But the infliction of the deadly wound is the violent excision of the Francic Emperorship by the sword of war. Therefore the healing of the deadly wound must be the revival of the Francic Emperorship. p. 82.

2. Such a conclusion is wholly independent of any individual

or individuals: so that it is quite uncertain, both at what time, and under what agent, the Francic Emperorship will be revived. p. 82.

V. The present conclusion however is so important, that we cannot be too jealous in our admission of it. Hence

it will be useful to sum up the steps, by which we are regularly conducted to it. p. 84.

1. The principle of the argument is: to take as a basis cer

tain positions, directly established by inspiration it

self; and then to reason forward, by aid of the chronological prophecy, to the conclusion whither they conduct us. p. 84.

(1.) The first position is, that the apocalyptic seven-headed wild beast is an hieroglyphic of the Roman Empire. p. 84.

(2.) The second position is, that the sixth head of the Roman wild beast is the Emperorship of the Romans.

p. 85.

2. Now these two positions will lead to the following train of conclusions. p. 86.

(1.) The sixth head, which had begun to exist in the time of St. John, and whose representative for the time being always bore the official title of Emperor of the Romans, fell, like its five predecessors, in the year 1806. p. 86.

(2.) But, since the economy of nature requires that the seventh head should arise, either shortly before, or in the very article of, the fall of the sixth head; this seventh head, most definitely characterized, as being at once short-lived and destined to fall by the sword of foreign violence, must have been in existence before the expiration of the year 1806. Now to the seventh head, thus characterized both circumstantially and chronologically, the Francic Emperorship alone perfectly corresponds. Therefore the Francic Emperorship must be the seventh head. p. 86.

(3.) The excision of the seventh head produces the headless or defunct state of the Roman Empire. This state we now behold with our own eyes: for, at present, the Roman Empire has plainly No head. p. 88. (4.) After this defunct state of the Roman Empire, the prophet arranges a period of its reëxistence: which

in