It furnishes a complete fulfillment of the prophecy; and it is the only event in all Roman history which does this; for though the first six heads were each, in turn; exterminated, or gave place to a succeeding head, of no one of them could it be said that it received a deadly wound, and was afterward healed.

And as this overthrow of the papacy by the French military must be the wounding of the head mentioned in Rev.13:3, so, likewise, must it be the going into captivity, and the killing with the sword, mentioned in verse 10; for it is an event of the right nature to fulfill the prophecy, and one which occurred at the right time; namely, at the end of the time, times, and a half, the forty-two months, or the 1260 years; and no other event can be found answering to the record in these respects.

We are not left, therefore, with any discretionary power in the application of this prophecy; for God, by his providence, has marked the era of its accomplishment in as plain a manner as if he had proclaimed with an audible voice, Behold here the accomplishment of my prophetic word! Thus clearly is the exact time indicated in the prophecy when we are to look far the rise of the two-horned beast; for John, as soon as he beholds the captivity of the first or leopard beast, says: "And I beheld another beast coming up." And his use of the present participle, "coming" up, clearly connects this view with the preceding verse, and shows it to be an event transpiring simultaneously with the going into captivity of the previous beast.

If he had said, "And I had seen another beast coming up," it would prove that when he saw it, it was coming up, but that the time when he beheld it was indefinitely in the past.

If he had said, "And I beheld another beast which had come up," it would prove that although his attention was called to it at the time when the first beast went into captivity, yet its rise was still indefinitely in the past.