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question. The Little Horn of Daniel, and the Ten Horned Beast of St. John, the two wellknown symbols of the antichristian persecutors, were to practise and prosper during the 1260 years, but no longer. Then the judgment was to sit on the Horn, and the Beast was to go into captivity. By these expressions, indeed, we are not to understand, as it has been previously shown, that immediate destruction would overtake them; but that the days of their prosperity would be over. That train of events would commence, which will terminate in their ruin. In the course of their declension they may make some violent struggles, and at times with some apparent success; but their efforts will only weaken themselves, and hasten their end. Now, in opposition to this state of things, "the King" is described as "doing according to his will," (the very expression which is applied in this prophecy to the rapid and unexampled successes of Alexander the Great,) and as enjoying, for a season, a very distinguished career of victory and prosperity. From which circumstances it might be rather inferred, that instead of being Antichrist in any part of his career, he would prove to be a minister of vengeance, expressly appointed for punishing the antichristian powers: a signal instrument in the hand of the Almighty, of commencing or of carrying on the predicted

judgments against his apostate church"; and thus would be made subservient, though with no such intention on his part, to the introduction of that great event, of the approach of which he was designed to be at once the beacon and the herald; namely, the deliverance of Israel: for this event, as it has been already stated, will be preceded by the fall of the Babylon of the New Testament, during the time of unprecedented trouble; though the Beast and the False Prophet will still be reserved to perish with the rest of the antichristian combination at the battle of Armageddon.

Here, then, in proof of the proposed interpretation, it may be remarked how precisely and circumstantially Napoleon corresponded with the predicted description of "this King," so far as it relates to the time of his appearance, and to the part which, according to the view here given, he was raised up to perform in subserviency to the general fulfilment of prophecy.

* "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." Rev. xvii. 16. It is plain from this passage, that the instruments to be employed in the destruction of Babylon, will be raised up chiefly from among those nations, who have previously been devoted to her will, and have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 2d edition.

So

He did appear within a short period after the termination of the 1260 years; and, during his astonishing career effected more in the space of a few years, towards punishing and weakening the Papal kingdoms, than we should previously have supposed could have been done in half a century while the religious condition of that part of their respective population, which had previously groaned under the yoke of Papal oppression, instead of being made worse by the extension of Napoleon's authority, was actually improved and ameliorated by his success. far was he from answering, in this remarkable particular, to the description of Antichrist. Are proofs required in support of the foregoing assertions? On the one hand, the toleration and countenance granted to the Protestants in France, and the privileges conferred on the Vaudois Churches in the vallies of Piedmont, and continued to them during the reign of Napoleon, may be cited: on the other hand, with respect to two, at least, of the kingdoms of the Beast, those of Portugal and Spain, a reference may be made to the recorded operations of the Peninsular War. The massacres and spoliations, the miseries and indignities, which the inhabitants of these devoted countries endured during that period of visitation, while they show that "the judgment was sitting," show also that Napoleon

was the instrument employed for executing it; a powerful scourge, with which the Almighty inflicted on those guilty nations some portion of that retributive justice, which their signal and long continued idolatries and persecutions had awefully entailed on them. A temporary cessation, indeed, to these visitations has now taken place. The instrument has been removed: and the violence of the tempest has for a season abated; but when the appointed hour arrives, it will probably be found that the desolations inflicted by Napoleon were the prelude, but the prelude only, to those renewed and far heavier calamities, which, in their progress will unfold, and, in their consummation, will complete, the counsels of the Almighty.

CHAP. XVII.

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NAPOLEON PROVED TO BE THE KING," FROM HIS

CHARACTER.

In the Character of "the King," as detailed by the Angel, the two prominent features are wilfulness and impiety. Of the former of these, as including in it an ambitious and a despotic spirit, which would endure no controul, together with pride, insolence, and cruelty, no other proof needs to be adduced than that which the mere reading of the passage at once supplies. And the same thing may be said of the latter feature. For when it is declared, that he "shall magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and that he shall not regard the God of his fathers, nor the Desire of women, (i. e. the Messiah, as the phrase is now generally interpreted*,) nor regard any God; for he shall magnify himself above all;" but at the same time, that "in his estate he shall honour the God of forces, and shall acknowledge a strange god, and increase

See Faber's Dissertation on the Prophecies.

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