will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods; and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that that is determined 37. shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the Desire of women,

nor regard any god: for he shall magnify 38. himself above all. But in his estate shall he

honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold and silver, and with precious stones, 39. and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge, and increase with glory and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for 40. gain. And at the Time of the End shall the king of the south push at him and the

:

English reader, this rendering of the passage would remove a seeming difficulty resulting from the present translation; which conveys an idea, in itself erroneous, that "the King," here introduced, is one, of whom mention had been already made in the antecedent part of the prophecy.

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It may be also further remarked, that the Hebrew Copulative, here translated and, is frequently used in scripture to signify Then, or after that." This observation is made on the authority of Mede, so that the passage might stand thus: "After that a King shail do according to his will."

king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall 41. overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of 42. Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand

also upon the countries; and the land of 43. Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have

power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Lybians and the Ethiopians 44. shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. 45. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

Such is the prophetic description of this extraordinary person: who, as the present inquiry undertakes to show, has already completed his eventful course; and now stands forth as a witness to the Church, to designate the important Crisis, in which at this season she is placed.

And who then can this extraordinary person have been, but Napoleon Bonaparte, the late emperor of the French? Such is the opinion of the writer, formed after much and long deliberation on the subject. The grounds of which opinion he will now proceed to develope: and, for the greater convenience of considering his proofs, he will arrange them under four separate heads, corresponding to the following particulars in the life of the predicted King; viz.

I. The Time of his appearance, and the Part which he was to perform, in subserviency to the general fulfilment of prophecy.

II. His Character.

III. His Exploits.

IV. His End.

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CHAP. XVI.

NAPOLEON PROVED TO BE "THE KING" FROM THE TIME OF HIS APPEARANCE, AND FROM THE PART WHICH HE WAS TO PERFORM IN SUBSERVIENCY TO THE GENERAL FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY.

ACCORDING to the place in the prophecy, where this King is first introduced to our notice, we may infer that he will not make his appearance till the 1260 years of papal domination, which, as we are reminded in the thirty-fifth verse, will continue, "even unto the Time of the End," shall have terminated; nor consequently till this latter period (the period during which God will gradually put an end to the triumphs of his enemies, to the sufferings of his Church, and to the dispersion of Israel,) shall have commenced. In this period "the King" will appear; and, as it should seem, in an early part of it because it is not till he shall have finished his work and have come to his end, that the grand event, the deliverance of Israel, to which this prophecy points, is to be developed; an event which is to be accomplished before “The Time of the End" shall have expired; but which, from

its magnitude, and from the many other important occurrences connected with it, as indicated in various other prophecies, will probably occupy in its developement a considerable portion of time.

An opinion has been entertained by several interpreters of prophecy, both ancient and modern, that this "King," whensoever he should appear, would be Antichrist under his last or infidel form. But there does not seem to be any thing in the prophecy itself to warrant such a conclusion. No intimation is given that, however great might be his enormities in other respects, he would yet be distinguished by any designed and systematic attempt to persecute and exterminate the true Church; an indispensable and uniform feature in the character of Antichrist. It is not, indeed, said that the Saints should altogether escape out of his hands, or that they might not be partially. affected by those desolations and calamities, which he would be the instrument of inflicting. But, on the other hand, it is no where implied that they would be the avowed objects of his indignation, or peculiar sufferers in consequence of his exaltation and success. In truth, the description given of the King, especially when connected with the Time of his appearance, strongly militates against the hypothesis in