subject than St. Jerome, who spent many years at Rome, and was Secretary to a Bishop of that city? He recognizes Rome in Babylon. He speaks of her as the Harlot of the Apocalypse. "When I dwelt in Babylon," he says, "and resided within the walls of the Scarlet Adulteress, and had the freedom of Rome, I undertook a work concerning the Holy Spirit, which I proposed to inscribe to the Bishop of that city." Again, in his Exposition of the Prophet Isaiah †, he says, "The spiritual Babylon which sits in scarlet on the seven hills, whose plagues we read in the Apocalypse, will be levelled with the dust." And again, on the same Prophet, he says, that some interpret the Daughter of Babylon "not of Babylon itself, but of the Roman City, which (he adds) is specially called Babylon in the Apocalypse; so that all that is said by Isaiah concerning the fall of Babylon may be referred to the ruin of Rome." And, "O mighty City," he exclaims; "City, Queen of the World, debase not thyself by Vice, but exalt thyself by Virtue. Imitate Nineveh: Repent: so thou mayest escape the malediction which Christ has denounced against thee in the Apocalypse ‡.”

* S. Hieron. ad Paulin. in librum Didymi de Spir. Sanct. tom. iv. p. 494, ed. Bened. Paris, 1706.

+ S. Hieron. in Esai. c. 24, tom. iii. p. 209, et in Esai. c. 48, tom. iii. p. 343.

‡ Ad Jovin. ii. ad fin. tom. iv. p. 228; written A. D. 393 or 394. See also ad Marcellam, Ep. xliv. tom. iv. p. 551; where he identifies Rome with the Apocalyptic Babylon.

We turn now to the other luminary of that age, St. Augustine. In his greatest work, that "On the City of God," he calls Rome "a Second Babylon."

Babylon," he says, "is a former Rome, and Rome a latter Babylon. Rome is a Daughter of Babylon, and by her, as by her Mother, God has been pleased to subdue the world, and to bring it under one sway"

Such is his testimony.

If also we refer to those who have composed Commentaries on the Apocalypse, we find the same interpretation meeting us from various quarters, and from the earliest times, and continued in an uninterrupted series down to our own day.

The earliest extant Commentary on the Apocalypse is by a Bishop and Martyr of Pannonia, Victorinus, in the third century. He says,―The City of Babylon, that is, Rome; the City on seven hills, that is, Rome; and, The Kings of the Earth will hate the Harlot, that is, Rome†.

Not to mention more authorities, the same language is echoed from the East in the Commentaries of two Bishops of Cappadocia, Andreas † and Are

* S. Aug. de Civ. Dei, xvi. c. 17. xviii. c. 2. c. 22. c. 27. + See S. Victorinus in Apoc. Bibl. Pat. Max. iii. p. 416. 419,

420.

Arethas (Cramer Catena, p. 427): πópvην Tùy Ħadaiàr ὑπειλήφασι 'Ρώμην. p. 429. Βαβυλῶνα ἢ καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν Ρώμην Tỷν waλaiàν ǹ Kaì Tǹν vέav. See also p. 430.-Andreas Bibl. P. Max. v. 623, where he asserts that "most of the ancient

thas; the former of whom expounded the Apocalypse in the sixth century; and from Italy and Rome itself by Cassiodorus *, first a Senator of that city, and then an Ecclesiastic; and from Africa by Primasius †, a Bishop of Adrumetum, in the sixth century.

Thus we have appealed to the best Expositors in the best age of the Church-of whom some lived before Rome had become Christian, and some after -who were exempt from the partialities and prejudices of modern times, and who, to say the least, had no personal reasons for inventing and promulgating such an Interpretation as this, but had many inducements to suppress it-and we find that they declare, that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is Rome.

Interpreters in the Church affirm that the Apocalyptic prophecies concerning Babylon regard Rome;" and that when "Antichrist appears, it will be as Sovereign of Rome, and (in the opinion of some, p. 628) in the Temple, or Church, of God." These testimonies from Andreas and Arethas are recorded by them as expositions of others.

See his Complexiones in Apocalypsim, xxv. p. 235. Meretricem sedentem suprà Bestiam, quæ habebat capita septem, nonnulli de Romanâ volunt intelligere civitate, quæ suprà septem montes sedet, et mundum singulari ditione possidet.

+ Primasius Bibl. Patr. M. x. p. 326. Romam quæ super septem montes præsidet significans. . . Romæ nomine totius regni potentiam figurat. This is the generalizing theory suited to the age of the author, when Rome had ceased to be Pagan, and was not as yet what she has since become; and what no man could have foreseen, and no Christian would have believed, that she would become. See below, p. 364, note.

Аа

At this point we pause. It cannot be expected that writers, in communion with Rome, should after this epoch be ready to acknowledge that Rome is Babylon. For Rome now began to fulfil the Apocalyptic prophecies concerning Babylon.

*

At the beginning of the seventh century the then Roman Pontiff, Boniface III., eagerly solicited and obtained from the Emperor Phocas the title of Universal Bishop; the assumption of which, a few years before, had been denounced as blasphemous and Antichristian by one of his own predecessors, Gregory I.; and thus he displayed to the world the lineaments of that mysterious Power which was seen by St. John in his prophetical Visions, and has been pourtrayed in the Apocalypse.

From the seventh century to the present hour, this title of Universal Bishop, then sought for and assumed, has been worn by the Roman Pontiffs; and it has developed itself in all the plenitude of its meaning, which falls little short of a claim to temporal and spiritual Omnipotence.

In conclusion; We have in our hands a Book, dictated by the Holy Spirit to St. John, the beloved Disciple, the blessed Evangelist, the last surviving Apostle,―a Book predicting events from the day in

"A Phoca obtinuit, magnâ tamen contentione," says Platina in vitâ Bonifacii, p. 79, ed. 1626.

+ Gregorii Epist. iv. 32. v. 20. v. 29. v. 43. vii. 27. vii. 31. vii. 34. ix. 68. tom. ii. ed. Bened. Paris, 1703.

which it was written even to the end of time; a Book specially designed for the warning and instruction of the Church, and commended to her pious meditation in the most solemn and affectionate terms. This Book is the seal of the Bible: it is the farewell gift, the last bequest, of Christ to the Church. In it we behold a description, traced by the Divine finger, of a proud and prosperous Power, claiming universal homage, and exercising mighty dominion: a Power enthroned upon many waters, which are Peoples, and Multitudes, and Nations, and Tongues*: a Power arrogating Eternity by calling herself a Queen for ever: a Power whose prime agent, by his lamb-like aspect, bears a semblance of innocence and purity, and yet, from his sounding words and cruel deeds, is compared to a Dragon +: a Power beguiling men from the pure faith, and trafficking in human souls ‡, tempting them to commit spiritual adultery, alluring them to herself by gaudy colours and glittering jewels, and holding in her hand a golden cup of enchantments, by which she intoxicates the world, and makes it reel at her feet.

This Power, so described in the Apocalypse, is identified in this divine book with a great City. This City is described as seated on seven Hills. It is also characterized as that great City which, in the time of St. John, reigned over the Kings of the Earth. And it is represented as Babylon.

* Rev. xvii. 1. 15.

Rev. xviii. 13.

+ Rev. xiii. 11.