If Theologians had studied my German volumes or attended the Latin Convention to which they have been most earnestly invited, they had known without my explanation the position of these three great representatives, or rather they had converted them long ago into the messengers of Peace.  But after matters had arrived so far as they are now manifest, we must do what we can for the benefit of these three witnesses and of those who are attached to one or the other as well as for the benefit of all governments and their subjects; because all are preparing instruments for destruction of human life and property and drilling men to destroy or wound their fellow men in the most artful and cunning manner, and to reward with the highest premiums those who perform best this most criminal work.

If you ask, by whose authority they are doing this, the answer is given:  “and the Dragon gave him his power, and his seat and great authority,” Revel. xiii:  2. to wit, to the representative of the Beast with seven heads and ten horns.  Under the Christian mask he became such a terrible monster, that no other epithet was more suitable for him than that of a Therion, of a ferocious beast having seven heads and ten horns.  Having been inspired and directed by the Dragon and his host, he could not teach his sons and daughters, emperors and empresses, kings and queens, a better doctrine than that which was infixed in his heads by the Dragon and his host.  “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth; and they are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space,” Revel. xvii:  9 and 10.

It is to be understood, that in a brief treatise we can give only some hints in regard to certain links of the long chain of events, which is exhibited in the first three from A.D. 1838 to 1840 published volumes.  The three at the head of this treatise mentioned witnesses are so extraordinary links added to that chain, that while I was writing those three volumes I thought that the chain was long and strong enought to bind the Dragon and to establish Peace on the whole Globe.  But when people would not spread that chain, it was after that much protracted.  In the years 1841 and 1842 the 4th and 5th German volumes and then a number of English pamphlets were added; but the last links of the chain cannot be understood without some knowledge of the preceding links.

In every age men were awakened, whose intellectual and moral improvement was above the general course of the age, and who were endeavoring to warn and elevate the fallen generation.  They were preparing the way for our advent, and disclosing what belonged to their sphere, that it might receive more light in “the dispensation of the fulness of times” Ephes. 1:  10, to introduce which we are commissioned.  One of those forerunners, was Doctor Bengel, disclosing what belonged to his mission in the first half of