places, all nations, all kinds of men. But notwithstanding the general current in her favor, the tide thall turn against her; and the hands which helped to raise her, fhall alfo pull her down. (ver. 16.) The ten horns fhall hate the whore; that is by a common figure of the whole for a part, fome of the ten kings, for others (XVIII. 9.) shall bewail her and lament for her, and (XIX. 19.) fhall fight and perish in the caufe of the beast. Some of the kings who formerly loved her, grown fenfible of her exorbitant exactions and oppreffions, fhall bate her, shall strip, and expofe, and plunder her, and utterly confume her with fire. Rome therefore will finally be destroyed by fome of the princes, who are reformed, or fhall be reformed from popery and as the kings of France have contributed greatly to her advancement, it is not impoffible, nor improbable, that fome time or other they may also be the principal authors of her deftruction. France hath already fhown fome tendency towards a reformation, and therefore may appear more likely to effect fuch a revolution. Such a revolution may reasonably be expected, because (ver. 17.) this infatuation of popish princes is permitted by divine providence only for a certain period, until the words of God shall be fulfilled, and particularly the

words

words of the prophet Daniel, (VII. 25, 26.) They shall be given into his hand, until a time, and times, and the dividing of time: But then, as it immediately follows, the judgment fhall fit, and they shall take away bis dominion, to confume, and to destroy it unto the end.

Little doubt can remain after this, what idolatrous church was meant by the whore of Babylon but for the greater affuredness it is added by the angel, (ver. 18.) The woman which thou faweft is that great city. The angel had undertaken to tell the mystery of the woman, and of the beaft. He hath explained the mystery of the beaft, and of his feven heads and ten horns; and his explanation of the mystery of the woman is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. And what city at the time of the vifion reigned over the kings of the earth, but Rome? She hath too ever fince reigned over the kings of the earth, if not with temporal, yet at leaft with fpiritual authority. In the arts of government fhe hath far exceeded all the cities both of ancient and of modern times: as if the had conftantly remembered and put in practice the advice of the poet,

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; Hæ tibi erunt artes.

X 3

VIRGIL.

Rome

Rome therefore is evidently and undeniably this great city; and that Chriftian and not Heathen, papal and not imperial Rome was meant, hath appeared in feveral inftances, and will appear in feveral more.

I

ΑΝ

CHA P. XVIII.

ND after these things I faw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, faying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul fpirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, faying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her fins, and ye receive not of her plagues:

that

5

For her fins have reached unto heaven,

and

.

and God hath remembered her iniquities.

6 Reward her even as the rewarded you, and double unto her double, according to her works in the cup which the hath filled, fill to her double.

7 How much the hath glorified herself, and lived delicioufly, fo much torment and forrow give her for fhe faith in her heart, I fit a queen, and am no widow, and shall fee no forrow.

8 Therefore fhall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and the shall be utterly burnt with fire: for ftrong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

After this account of the ftate and condition of fpiritual Babylon, there follows a defcription of her fall and deftruction, in the fame fublime and figurative ftile as Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel have foretold the fall of ancient Babylon and Tyre, the types and emblems of this fpiritual Babylon. A mighty and glorious angel defcends from heaven, (ver. 1, 2, 3.) and proclames, as before, (XIV. 8.) the fall of Babylon, and together with her punishment the crimes which deserved it, her idolatry and wicknedness. It is farther added, that after her fall the fhall be made a scene of defolation, and become

the habitation of hateful birds and beafts of prey; as Ifaiah alfo predicted concerning an-1 cient Babylon, (XIII. 21.) Wild beafts of the deferts fhall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls fhall dwell there, and fatyrs fhall dance there: where the word that we tranflate fatyrs, the Seventy tranflate Japonia, demons or devils, who (6) were supposed sometimes to take the shape of goats or fatyrs, and to haunt forlorn and defolate places and it is from the tranflation of the Seventy that the apostle hath borrowed his images and expreffions. But if this fall of Babylon was effected by Totilas king of the Oftrogoths, as Grotius affirms, or by Alaric king of the Vifigoths, as the Bishop of Meaux contends, how can Rome bes faid ever fince to have been the habitation of devils, aud the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, unless they will allow the popes and cardinals to merit these appellations?

Another voice is alfo heard from heaven,

(6) Vide Bocharti Hieroz. X. Pont. Max. apud Daubuz, Part. prior. Lib. 2. Cap. 53. p. 812. Col. 643.

(7) It is to be found in the very title of Kircher's Obeliscas Pamphilius: In urbis æternæ ornamentum erexit Innocentius

(8) Tertia die barbari, quam ingreffi fuerant urbem, fponte difcedunt, facto quidem aliquantarum ædium incendio, &c. Orof. Hift. Lib. 7. Cap. 39. Edit.