precept, example, proverbs, disquisition, epistle, sermon, prayer; in short, all rational shapes of human discourse, and treating, moreover, on subjects not obvious, but most difficult; its authors are not found, like other writers, contradicting one another upon the most ordinary matters of fact and opinion, but are at harmony upon the whole of their sublime and momentous scheme.-Professor Maclagan.

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.

DEAR SIR,--When the heathen historian in the first century of the Christian era, declared the very general belief, "that it was contained in the ancient books of the (Jewish) prophets, that about that time the East should prevail, and that some which should come out from Judea should obtain the empire of the world," (see Tacitus, Hist. v. 13,) he did but give utterance to a feeling which Socrates, judging from the hymn composed by his pupil Eupolis, entertained five centuries before, which Virgil had applied with his courtly adulation to the expected son of Augustus Cæsar, and which was then very prevalent throughout the civilised world. Suetonius in his life of the Emperor Vespasian (chap. iv.) alludes to the same report :-"There had been for a long period all over the East a notion, firmly believed, it was fated at that time that some which came out of Judea should obtain the empire of the world." Is there not a very general feeling of a somewhat similar nature in these "last days?" May I be permitted to shew upon what grounds this almost indefinable expectation rests?

St John, a contemporary of both Tacitus and Suetonius, was inspired to teach the Church, and to foretell to the world, the future government of that "eternal city," as the orators and poets of Rome delighted to call her, which then "reigned over the kings of the earth." The historico-prophetic statement of the seer was to this effect-That of the seven forms of government which were destined to be the ruling power at different periods in "Babylon the Great," (the prophetic name of Rome, and as distinct, let us recollect, from 'Babylon" simple, which stood on the banks of the Euphrates, as Charlemagne necessarily is from any of the other Charleses who have reigned in France,) five had already fallen; the sixth was in existence when St John wrote; the seventh would only "continue a short space;" and the eighth, or rather the seventh revived would in due time be manifested, having certain characteristic marks by which "they that be wise," to use the language of Daniel, should be able to detect and recognise the last Gentile ruler permitted to exercise dominion throughout the Roman earth.

In accordance with these statements, we find the most unexceptionable witnesses, Livy and Tacitus, recording the five forms of government which existed in Rome previous to that of the imperial. The words of the former of these historians are, Quæ ab conditâ urbe Roma ad captam eandem urbem Romani sub regibus primum, consulibus deinde ac dictatoribus, decemvirisque ac tribunis consularibus gessere." (Lib. vi. 1.) The sixth form of government lasted in some form or other during the eighteen centuries which intervened between Augustus Cæsar and the Emperor Francis, who published, August 6, 1806, the following decree :-" We renounce the imperial crown, and by these presents absolve the electors, princes, and states, members of the supreme tribunal, and other magistrates, from the duties which unite them to us as their legal chief;" and which act elicited from our historian, Sir A. Alison, the remark-"Justly considering this stroke as entirely sub

versive of the empire, the Emperor Francis, by a solemn deed, RENOUNCED THE THRONE OF THE CÆSARS, and declared himself the first of a new series of the Emperors of Austria." (See "Hist. of Europe," c. 42, § 65.)

History further records the rise of the seventh head, when in the same year that the Emperor of Germany resigned "the throne of the Cæsars," Napoleon I. wrote to Pope Pius VII., "All Italy must be subjected to my law; your situation requires that you should pay me the same respect in temporal which I do you in spiritual matters. You are sovereign of Rome. I am its Emperor." This was more fully developed when, three years later, Napoleon I. annexed the Ecclesiastical States to the French empire, (June 20, 1809,) imprisoned the reigning Pope, and subsequently on the birth of his son and heir presented him to the world as "the king of Rome." It is extremely interesting to learn from Napoleon's own words the reason of his having so treated one who had come to Paris a few years before to crown "the favoured child of the Revolution " as Emperor of the French. "By keeping the Pope at Paris," said Napoleon at St Helena, "and annexing the Roman States to my dominions, I had obtained the important object of separating his temporal from his spiritual authority; and having done so, I would have elevated him beyond measure. I would have surrounded him with pomp and homage-I would have made him cease to regret his temporal authority-I would have rendered him an idol. He should have had his residence near my person. Paris would have become the capital of the Christian world-I would have directed the religious world as well as the political. It was an additional means of uniting all parts of the empire, and keeping in peace whatever was beyond it. I would have had my religious sessions as well as my legislative; my council would have been the assembly of the representatives of Christianity; the Popes would have been nothing but its presidents. I would have opened and closed the assemblies, approved and published their decisions, as Constantine and Charlemagne did. That emancipation of the Church from the court of Rome, that union of the spiritual and temporal powers in the hands of one sovereign, had long been the object of my meditation and wishes." (See Las Cases, v. 262-4.) The failure of Napoleon's projects, and his final fall in 1815, appear to be alluded to in the Apocalypse, when St John speaks of the seven-headed beast, "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast." At all events it was sufficient to constrain two well-known writers on prophecy, Mr Hartley Frere, and the late Rev. Stanley Faber, to avow their firm persuasion of the restoration of the Napoleon dynasty to the throne of France about thirty years before it came to pass. Now, if the axiom of Lord Bolingbroke be true, that "history is philosophy teaching by example," and if it be no less true that prophecy is history with the impress of the authority of God, we are surely within bounds of lawful hermeneutics when we seek to gain some lesson of wisdom for the future by the experience of the past. Are there, then, any just grounds for assuming that the present Emperor of the French fulfils the several characteristic marks by which the last great Gentile ruler, or revived seventh head of the beast, should be recognised by the Church of God? Let us notice them, as severally set forth in the Divine Word:-1. He is said to "rise up out of the sea." (Rev. xiii. 1.) 2. To revive after the "healing of a deadly wound," and to excite the wonder of the world. (Rev. xiii. 3.) 3. To possess a name or names which equal the number 666. (Rev. xiii. 18.) 4. To support "the great whore that sitteth upon many waters," on whose forehead is a name written, "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." (Rev. xvii. 1-5.) It is certainly remarkable that these several characteristic marks apply to the present ruler of the French in a way which no other sovereign who has yet appeared can lay claim to.

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1. Whether the term "the sea" is to be understood of the Mediterranean Sea, on the borders of which the four great empires of antiquity held dominion, as some suppose, which would therefore imply that this ruler, whoever he be, will hold sovereign power in Rome; or whether, as is more probable, the term sea is descriptive of "peoples," over which "the woman," who, in the figurative language of the Apocalypse, is represented as sitting upon "the seven-headed beast," exercises spiritual dominion, it is notorious that the Napoleon dynasty has both sprung from Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and has likewise "risen out of the people," the official decrees of the present ruler of France always appearing with this most unsuitable combination of style, "By the grace of God and the will of the French nation.”

2. The revival of the Napoleon dynasty in the person of Napoleon III., after "the deadly wound" which Napoleon I. received when he was sent to chafe away the remainder of his days on the rock of St Helena, and the world's wonder which the prisoner of Ham suddenly became when converted into the greatest of earth's potentates, are events too well known to require any detailed proof in the present day.

3. Many attempts have been made to apply the number 666 to individuals, such as Mahomet and Luther,-to Popes in general, under the presumed application of the adjective "Lateinos," a Latin something, as proposed by Irenæus in the second century,and to Popes in particular, such as “Paulo V. vice Deo," as suggested by the excellent Bishop Bedell ; and a variety of other interpretations too numerous to be mentioned; but all these necessarily fail, inasmuch as there are other characteristic marks besides the application of the number 666, by which the last or revived head of the Roman Empire could be recognised by the Church of God. Now, it is worthy of grave consideration to remember, as we have already seen how the present ruler of the French fulfils the first two marks by which the eighth head of the beast was to be recognised, that he does so no less in the number of his name, according to the prophetic announcement, "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666." And as in the history of the crucifixion, it is recorded that the superscription was written "in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew," so it will be found that the name or names of him who may prove to be the last head of the beast, variously written, will denote the number 666 in the same three languages which told the world the death of Him who was King of the Jews. The names of the present Emperor of the French, and successor to the throne of Napoleon I., who represented the short-lived seventh head of the beast, are CHARLES, LOUIS, NAPOLEON, BONAPARTE. And it may be seen that Louis, i. e. Ludovicus in the Latin tongue, Louis Napoleon in the Greek, and Charles Bonaparte in the Hebrew, severally equal the number 666, written as follows:

As the Apocalypse was written in the Greek tongue, and as the present celebrated ruler of the French is commonly known as "Louis Napoleon," we may accept that name as the preferable interpretation of "the number of the beast," which should be "the number of a man (Rev. xiii. 18), and equal to the Greek mode of writing 666. Moreover, though Louis Napoleon may be in reality of Jewish parentage, as you have recently noticed, (see Quarterly Journal of Prophecy for July 1859, p. 242,) yet the Bonaparte family are known to be of Greek extraction, and there appear to be some allusions both in the Old and New Testament to the Napoleon dynasty, and its Grecian derivation; e. g., Jeremiah iv. 6, 7, connects the future restoration of the Jews with this remarkable prophecy, "The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way." Now, if we accept the derivation of the name Napoleon, as some have suggested, from város, " thicket,” and λéwv, “lion,” it would properly signify "The lion of the thicket." Or, if it be derived from aroλλúwv, which signifies "a destroyer," such as in Rev. ix. 11, there would be no less reference to the notable prophecy above. The clever anagram on Napoleon Bonaparte, 'Bona rapta pone, leno," may yet prove as applicable to the present ruler of the French people in his character of eighth head of the beast, as it was to his reputed uncle the seventh head.

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4. The last characteristic mark of this ruler which remains to be noticed is, that he is symbolised as a "beast with ten horns," carrying "a woman,” though only for a limited time, as it is said, "The ten horns shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled." But who is this " woman "that the "beast" supports? Can it apply to the Church of Rome? Let us briefly consider. 1. She is called "a great whore." So was the Church of old. "Israel hath played the harlot with many lovers; thou hast a whore's forehead," says Jeremiah. 2. She is described as sittingi. e., having her cathedral seat-upon "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." The unrepealed decree of Pope Boniface VIII. reads as follows:-"We pronounce it to be of necessity to salvation to every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." 3. She is represented as committing spiritual fornication-i.e., idolatry-"with the kings of the earth." Speaking of the twelfth century, the historian observes, "It was now that the veneration paid to the Virgin Mary rose to an almost exclusive idolatry." (See Hallam's "History of Middle Ages," chap. ix.) In the Pontifical order for receiving an Emperor, the cross of the Pope's legate has the first place of honour, because "Latria (the worship exclusively due to God) is owed to it." 4. She is "arrayed in purple and scarlet colour," (the well-known colours worn by the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests,) "having a golden cup in her hand." At the jubilee of A.D. 1825, a medal was struck at Rome, bearing on one side the figure of Pope Leo XII., and on the reverse that of a woman, holding out a golden cup in her hand, with this inscription, "Sedet super universam." 5. She has "a name upon her forehead, written Mystery, Babylon the Great." Seneca testifies to this custom among the Roman women: "Nomen tuum pependit in fronte; pretia stupri accepisti." Scaliger, Brocardus, and others, affirm that at one time the word "" Mystery" appeared in letters of gold upon the forepart of the Pope's mitre. 6. She is described as "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." On this head humanity bids us be silent, as the facts are too numerous to be detailed, too well known to be doubted, and too horrible to be repeated. 7. She is represented as having the seat of her power in a "seven-hilled" city. Need we quote the Roman poets in proof of this? The line of Virgil in ancient times, "Septemque una sibi muro circumdabit arces," and of a less distinguished poet in the present day, Dr Wiseman—

"The golden roof, the marble walls,
The Vatican's majestic halls,

The note redouble till it fills

With echoes sweet the seven hills "

alike testify to the natural interpretation that it is none other than Rome which is here referred to. 8. Her merchandise is described, amongst a variety of other things, as being that "of bodies and souls of men." Eneas Sylvius, subsequently raised to the Popedom as Pius II, teaches "that the court of Rome bestows nothing without payment. For the ordination of priests and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are sold, and even the pardon of sins can only be obtained for money." 9. Lastly, it is written, "The woman is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth," which, it is needless to observe, Rome unquestionably did, to the exclusion of every other great city, at the time when St John wrote.

Further, if the interpretation be correct, which assumes "the second beast with two horns like a lamb, and speaking as a dragon," described in Rev. xiii., to be the same as that apostate Church, whose character we have been considering under the head of "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth," the following curious testimony respecting the fulfilment of the prophecy, which declares that the second beast will cause those "which dwell on the earth to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed," may afford some insight to what is coming upon the world. "I have often," says M. About in his recently published work, "La Question Romaine," "spoken with honest, honourable, and enlightened men in the States of the Church, the leaders of the middle class, who have talked to me as follows:- If,' said they, there came down from heaven a man strong enough to cut into the core of abuses, to reform the administration, to send the priests and monks to their churches, and the Austrians to Vienna; if there was a man strong enough and honest enough to promulgate a civil code, to render the country healthful by drainage, to introduce good husbandry, to promote industry and manufactures, to facilitate commerce, to finish the lines of rail, to secularise education, to propagate modern ideas, and to place the Romans on a level with the Western nations-we should fall down and absolutely worship him.'" Remembering that this is extracted from the work of an employé of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, and sent by him to Rome to investigate the abuses of the priestly government so long established there, may we not expect that the solution of the present Italian difficulty will be found in Louis Napoleon assuming the temporal government of Rome, transferring the occupant of the Vatican to Paris with increased spiritual power and wealth, where his chief occupation will be in seeking to persuade men to worship his mighty protector, who has already become the wonder and admiration of the world?-I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, B. W. SAVILE.

NEWPORT, Aug. 8, 1859.

To the Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy.* DEAR SIR," One who Dislikes Foolish Talking and Jesting" has overshot his arrows (in your last number) at the member for West Surrey; and I regret the repetition of that evil-spirit-rapping, of which your journal was made a medium, six years ago-vide No. XX., July 1853.

* We insert the following letter, as shewing how fully Mr Drummond is sympathised with by the members of his sect, even in his most questionable eccentricities.-ED. Q. J. P.