dence of the supremacy of the pope in Rome, and that he looked upon himself as the master of the city. For Gibbon informs us that on this occasion the pope made a personal journey from Rome to Constantinople, to arouse the decaying energies of Justinian, and induce him to send another army to repel the invaders. And at the instigation and importunity of the pope, it was done. Narses the eunuch, the successor of Belisarius, defeated the Goths A. D. 552, and achieved the conquest of Rome.

"As soon," says Gibbon, "as Narses had paid his devotion to the author of victory, and the blessed virgin, his peculiar patroness, he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long delay the progress of the conqueror; and Justinian once more received the keys of Rome, which under his reign had been five times taken and received." During the reign of the barbarian kings in Rome, both the senatorial and consular power of Rome had been perpetuated; and Justinian, in his laws of 534, recog nized them as then existing. But in a transcript of them, made in 540, says Ruter, (Church Hist.) no notice whatever is taken of the consuls. So that between 534 and 540 it expired. Keith, in his Signs of the Times, vol. I., pp. 260–61, gives us the following history:

"But, in their prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy was its subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the East. He did not spare what barbarians had

hallowed. 'The Roman consulship EXTINGUISHED by Justinian A. D. 541,' is the title of the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gibbon's History of the decline and fall of Rome. The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent EXTINCTION of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.'* The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought down till the two former were 'EXTINGUISHED,' in reference to Rome and Italy, which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of coun tries; and finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the EXTINCTION of that illustrious assembly,'t the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the successor to Belisarius. He defeated the Goths, (A. D. 552,) achieved the conquest of Rome,' and the fate of the senate was sealed."

Both the consular and senatorial power of Rome having thus expired, we should be led to inquire, where was the supremacy of Rome ves ted? In the emperor, or his general? No. For the army of the emperor, under Narses, was with

*Gibbon's History, Vol. VII., p. 153.

+ See the Index to Gibbon's Hist., under the name Senate.

drawn to Ravenna, and the civil government of the emperor over Italy was located in that city, under the title of Exarch of Ravenna.

If the pope was not left supreme in Rome, what was the supreme power? Twice Justinian conquered Rome, but neither time did he attempt to establish a civil government in the city.

But we are told that the pope did not receive his supremacy as a civil power until Pepin, king of France, conquered the Exarch from the Greeks in 755, and gave it to the pope in perpetual sovereignty; thus constituting him a civil prince. But what, I ask, had that gift of Pepin to do with the gift of the dragon, of his seat, Rome, to the beast? France was not the dragon, nor was Ravenna, Rome, the seat of the dragon and afterwards of the beast. The possession of Rome by the pope, in 538, and onward, as the conquest of Justinian, was a gift of the dragon, to the beast, who already possessed the dragon's power as head of the church, and "the true and effective corrector of heretics."

THE FORTY-TWO MONTHS' DURATION OF THE BEAST'S

POWER.

It has already been shown that the "time, times, and dividing of time," of Daniel vii. 25, continued 1260 years. The power of the beast was to continue forty-two months, the same number of prophetic days as the above period.

That period was to end by taking away the dominion of the little horn, to consume and destroy unto the end. The forty-two months of the beast were to close by leading him into captivity,

and putting him to death by the sword. Has such an event occurred? It most certainly has. It is a most notorious matter of history that on Feb. 10, 1798, General Berthier, at the head of the republican army of France, entered the city of Rome and took it. On the 15th of the same month, the pope and his cardinals were taken prisoners, and shut up in the Vatican. The papal government was abolished, aud Rome and Italy, at the request of the people, was erected into the Roman republic. The pope was carried a captive to France, where, in 1799, he died a prisoner and an exile. [See Dr. A. Clarke, on Dan. vii. 25. Croley on the Apocalypse. Thiers' History of the French Revolution.]

The government was, in its administrators, led into captivity, and itself abolished by the power of the French sword.

A more distinct and literal fulfilment of prophecy never was recorded than we have in this instance. From 538, when the dragon gave his seat to the beast, to 1798, when that beast was led into captivity and killed with the sword, was 1260 years.

But, say our opponents, "this could not be a fulfilment of the period, for popery now exists." What if it does? Is it not in accordance with the prophecy, that it exists? Did not the Revelator foretell the history of this government subsequently to its captivity, as well as the captivity itself? He most certainly did, as we shall see by following the prophecy through.

THE DEADLY WOUND HEALED BEAST WITH TWO HORNS.

Revelation xiii. 11: "I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon." Was there any beast or government, just emerging from obscurity and coming into notice just as popery went down in 1798? Observe, John says, "I saw another beast coming up." He was not already up at the time, but was just appearing. Just such a government we have in Bonaparte, who, in the winter of 1798, was appointed by the French, commander-in-chief of the foreign armies of the French nation. Up to that time he had been a subordinate, but from that period enjoyed an independent command in all his enterprises. "He had two horns like a lamb." This was the only lamb-like characteristic he possessed: "two horns."

A horn is a kingdom. Dan. viii. 20: “The ram which thou sawest having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia." The two kingdoms of this beast were the French empire, and kingdom of Italy. He was crowned emperor of the former in 1804, and of the latter in 1805.

"He spake as a dragon." The dragon was the imperial power of Rome. Let the following extract from from a circular mandate of Bonaparte, under date of July 13, 1809, illustrate this point. "Though our Lord Jesus Christ sprang from the blood of David, he sought no worldly empire; on the contrary, he required that in concerns of this life men should obey Cæsar. His great object was,-the deliverance and salvation