V. 7. "Because she saith in her heart; I sit a queen, and am no widow, and sorrow I shall not see. V. 8. " Therefore shall her plagues come in one day; death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire: because God is strong who shall judge her." Here we have a picture of the intolerable arrogance and pride of the woman, imperial Rome. She says in her heart: I sit upon my throne as a queen: I am empress of the world. I am no widow; my power is fixed and established for ever. And sorrow I shall never see; as no one can wrest my power from me, I am beyond the reach of sorrow and affliction. That such were the sentiments of haughty Rome, we learn from the Roman authors themselves. Thus the poet Virgil introduces Jupiter promising unlimited and eternal dominion to the Romans: His ego nec metas rerum, nec tempora pono, To them, no bounds of empire I assign, Eneid. I. Dryden's Transl. Horace speaks in the same strain. Carm. Sac. Florus also writes, that "the gods had promised, the Roman state should remain unshaken and eternal." I. Tarq. Superb. Ammianus Marcellinus, in his history, calls Rome “eternal, to last as long as the race of mankind." For such extravagant presumption, which flies in the face of the supreme Creator and the Lord of the universe, he pronounces the following plagues or calamities shall come upon her together in one day: Famine, which was announced in the third seal; mourning, as described in the third trumpet; and death, or the sword, as denounced by the third vial; and her faith shall be completed by fire, which shall lay her in ashes. All these calamities fell at once upon heathen Rome, as we have seen. They came from an all-powerful and irresistible hand, which threw her down from her throne, and reduced her to extreme pangs of sorrow and affliction, and then crushed her, for her intolerable pride and impiety: for God is strong who judges her. "Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Abd. v. 4. V. 9. 66 And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived in delicacies with her, shall weep, bewail themselves over her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning. and V. 10. " Standing afar off for fear of her torments, saying: Alas! Alas! that great city Babylon, that mighty city: for in one hour is thy judgment come. Here the kings and princes of the earth, who have shared with her in her idolatry, cruelty, and luxury, are introduced as standing afar off, lamenting and bewailing the dreadful fate of that once great and powerful city, and which they now see in flames. St. Austin informs us, that "the people of the eastern provinces and the remotest cities mourned in a public manner on this occasion." De civ. lib. 1. c. 33. V. 11. "And the merchants of the earth shall weep, and mourn over her: for no man shall buy their merchandise any more. V. 12. " Merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones; and of pearls and of fine linen, and purple, and of silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of precious stones, and of brass, and of iron, and of marble, 66 V. 13. And cinnamon, and odours, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. V. 14. "And the fruits of the desire of thy soul are departed from thee, and all fat and goodly things are perished from thee, and they shall find them no more at all, V. 15. The merchants of these things, who were made rich, shall stand afar off from her for fear of her torments, weeping and mourning. V. 16. And saying: Alas! Alas! that great city, which was clothed with fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and was gilt with gold, and precious stones, and pearls: 66 V. 17. For in one hour are so great riches come to nought." The merchants and tradesmen, who had enriched themselves by the luxury and extravagance of the Romans, are likewise here deploring the fate of the city, because there is now no more sale for their merchandise. We see here enumerated the articles of their luxury, in dress, in ornaments, in furniture, in equipage,, in the sumptuousness of their tables, &c. The emperors embellished Rome with magnificent palaces, theatres, &c., which were enriched with the most costly furniture and ornaments. The whole earth was ransacked to supply the extravagancy of that one city. Nero in particular built an immense palace, which occupied Mount Palatine, part of Mount Esquiline, and the large space between. This palace was so richly furnished and so splendidly decorated, that it was styled "the golden palace of Nero." Excessively extravagant was also the luxury and profusion of some of the Roman emperors at their tables. Caius Caligula once spent, according to Seneca, for a supper, one hundred and fifty thousand crowns. Suetonius tells us, the Emperor Vitelius would feast himself three, sometimes four times a day, spending ten thousand crowns at each meal. He had at his table dishes made up of the brains of pheasants and peacocks, others of the tongues and livers of rare birds, others of the milts of some particular fish. And so of other instances, but now, what an alteration in the scene! all these delicious and expensive dainties are perished, and no more to be found. All the fine linen, purple silk, precious stones, pearls, &c., the costly dress of the emperors, empresses, magistrates, and citizens, are vanished. All the pompous train of equipage of horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men or free men, is plundered and carried away. All the stately palaces, and shining ornaments of gold and silver, of marble, and brass, and ivory, &c. are now the fuel of fire. In fine, all the riches of this most opulent city of the world are in one hour come to nought. V. 17. “And every ship-master, and all that sail into the lake,* and mariners, and as many as work in the sea, stood afar off, V. 18. "And cried, seeing the place of her burning,† saying; what city is like to this great city? V. 19. And they cast dust upon their heads, and cried weeping and mourning, saying: Alas! Alas! that great city, wherein all were made rich, that had ships at sea, by reason of her prices for in one hour she is made desolate." The masters of ships, their crews the seafaring men, all join their lamentations in seeing from afar off the conflagration of that great city, which never had an equal. They mourn, and deplore the loss of the great profits they gained by conveying to her all sorts of rich goods, which she bought in abundance and at high prices. All this lucrative traffic is now vanished; for in one hour she is made desolate. In fine, the fall of this idolatrous, proud, and tyrannical city, is thus concluded: V. 20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets: for God hath judged your judgment on her." * In the Greek, "and all the company upon the ships." Heaven, those holy apostles, and those prophets or ministers of the gospel and holy men, whom Rome had put to death, are here invited to rejoice; because the divine justice is accomplished in the ruin of that guilty city.-Upon which breaks out the following exultation: Apoc. chap. xix. 1. "After these things I heard," says St. John, "as it were the voice of much people* in heaven, saying: Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and power, is to our God: V. 2. For true and just are his judgments who hath judged the great harlot, which corrupted the earth with her fornication, and hath revenged the blood of his servants, at her hands. V. 3. “And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke ascended for ever and ever. V. 4. "And the four and twenty ancients, and the four living creatures, fell down and adored God that sitteth upon the throne, saying: Amen: Alleluia. V. 5. "And a voice came out from the throne, saying. Give praise to our God, all ye his servants: and you that fear him, little and great." From all that has been said, this text is sufficiently clear to need no further explanation. May we not now reflect with astonishment on the dreadful fate of this city. Rome, the greatest of all cities, the most opulent of all cities, the queen of the world, is struck down from the pinnacle of power, is laid in ruins, and left without an inhabitant. How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? How is the mistress of nations become as a widow?" Jer. Lamen. i. 1. That mighty city, which seemed to be invigorated with more than human strength, and had carried her conquests almost to the bounds of the known world, was laid in ashes by Alaric; and though afterwards allowed somewhat to recover, it was only to take breath, and then to be utterly laid waste, and her walls and fortresses to be thrown down. The Lord has kindled in me," as it were, “a flaming fire devouring round about.-The Lord is become as an enemy: he hath cast me down head-long, he hath overthrown all my walls, and hath destroyed my strong-holds." Lamen. ii. 35. Those northern nations, which she had before held in contempt and not thought worth a conquest, now assault her like ravenous wolves, and raging with rancour and fury, they strip her naked, and tear out her bowels without mercy; nor is she able to prevent her fate. All thy ene 66 * In the Greek, "of a great multitude." mies have opened their mouth against thee: they have hissed, and gnashed with the teeth, and have said: we will swallow her up: lo, this is the day which we looked for." Ibid. ii. 16. "Her adversaries are become her lords, her enemies are enriched. My strength is weakened: The Lord hath delivered me into a hand, out of which I am not able to rise." Ibid. i. 5, 14. Who could have imagined that stately city, the metropolis of the world, which had long been the admiration of all nations, and to which they resorted to view her grandeur or to share in her pleasures, would one day be reduced into desolation and made a solitude? Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of all the earth?" Ibid. ii. 15. But it was clear, she was the victim of God's anger, and her fate was just. For the Lord had spoken against her for the multitude of her iniquities." Ibid. i. 5. 66 Thus, then, in fine, fell ancient Rome like Babylon, but with this difference, that Babylon was never to rise again; whereas Rome, when the anger of God was satisfied, was designed to emerge from her ashes: and though not allowed to recover her former temporal dominion, splendour, and riches, nor to rise in her outward appearance, scarce above the condition of a village, when compared to her former extent and multitude of people; yet in her depressed state she is privileged with a higher dignity of another kind, of being not only a Christian City, but appointed the head and centre of spiritual do minion. We have now seen the full accomplishment of the predictions, contained in the Apocalypse, respecting the destruction of ancient Rome and its empire. But we must not leave the subject without observing, that the same had been before in a general manner foretold by the prophet Daniel, and by what hand it was done. Thus spoke that prophet to Nabuchodonosor: "Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it struck the statue upon the feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.—And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Dan. ii. 34, 35. Christ is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands; and the Roman empire, the fourth and greatest of the empires, represented by the four parts of the statue, is here figured by the feet of that statue. Hence, the circumstance of the statue's feet being broken to pieces by the stone, shows that Christ was the hero, who should one day overthrow the mighty empire of Rome. He, by his superior might, threw down that great colossus, be |