"mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the "earth." That which the ancient and literal Babylon was to the nations surrounding her, (the parent of the most gross and corruptive idolatry,) this mystical Babylon has been to the modern nations. The ancient Babylon was literally seated "on many wa "ters*" The mystical Babylon is so seated, in the spiritual sense applied to the passage by the angel; she rules over many kingdoms t. The ancient Babylon is described as "a golden cup; the nations have drunken "of her wine, therefore the nations are mad." Such also has been the modern Babylon. She is herself, like her prototype §, intoxicated; and not only with her shameful revellings, but "with the blood of Saints."

Thus far the description of the woman; who appears to represent some city, state, or body politic, exercising an extended dominion over kings and nations, like the ancient Babylon; and thus also distinguished by her ambition, sensuality, idolatry, and by her persecution of true Religion. A reader versed in history, without waiting for other prophetic marks of this city, will be led to think of Rome, either ancient or modern, pagan or ecclesias

↑ Jer. li. 7.—For the corrupt and corruptive character of ancient Babylon, see not only the Sacred Scriptures, but the ancient profane historians Herodot. lib. i. 199. Qu. Curtius, v. 1. Vet. Schol. in Juvenal. Sat. i. 104. Bayle's note B. Dict. Hist. And in the classical authors may be also seen Vice personified and corrupting under the symbolical appearance of a woman. In the Tablet of Cebes, a woman, whose name is Deceit, holds in her hand the corrupting cup; and in Prodicus's Choice of Hercules, as preserved by Xenophon, there is the same imagery.

Isa. xlvii. 7, &c.

tical: but whatever he may have done before, he cannot fail to turn his attention to this great city, when he reads the explanation of the angel in the 18th verse. The woman which thou didst see, is the great city which hath dominion over the kings of "the earth." What can be more obvious than that this city is Rome? What other city or state, had such dominion at the time when the angel pronounced these words? In the symbolical language of Scripture, Rome is Babylon. Saint Peter dates his first Epistle from Rome under the name of Babylon* ; the Romanists themselves deny not to Rome the application of this name. It is necessary to their own purposes, but it confirms the application of this prophecy, which plainly belongs to Rome, either pagan or ecclesiastical; and the sequel will discover which.

But the woman does not come alone; she is mounted on "a scarlet-coloured wild-beast, full of names "of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns."

* See the notes of Dr. Hammond and of Grotius on this passage, as well as the opinion of the ancients upon it, in Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. ii. c. 15. Some eminent critics have indeed contended for the literal Babylon, the remains of Babylon, in which some Jews appear still to have dwelled in Saint Peter's time, being the place whence Saint Peter dated his Epistle. (See Michaelis's Introd. ch. xxvii. sect. 4.) But however that may be determined, it affects not the mystical application of the word Babylon in a mystical book. (See note, ch. xi. 9, 10.) Babylon, at the time this Revelation was written, was in a still more deserted miserable state than when Saint Peter wrote. Pausanias, who flourished about one hundred years later than the date of St. Peter's Epistle, and about sixty after the date of the Apocalypse, has recorded, that ancient Babylon had then nothing remaining but its wall, which was afterwards employed to inclose a park, in which wild beasts were kept for the hunting of the kings of Persia. Pausan. lib. viii. c. 33.

This

This description cannot fail to remind us of the wildbeast represented in the xiiith chapter. It will be useful to bring the two descriptions together, that thus they may more easily be compared:

WILD-BEAST OF CHAP. XIII.

11 Blasphemously opposes God and his pure worship, and persecutes the saints 42 months. 12 The Lamb shall destroy him. Ch. xix. 21.

13 Has a false prophet, who exerciseth his dominion, and making a

living image of him,
compels the world to
worship it.

WILD-BEAST OF CHAP. XVII.

of worship: for the harlot, who is idolatrous, seems to set up no other. 11 The kings, who are upon the beast, give their power to him, and war with the Lamb. 12 The Lamb shall overcome the kings, who rise out of this beast. 13 Has a woman, a harlot, who rides upon him, i. e. directs the reins of his power: and the woman is idolatrous, and bloody.

14 Is cast into the lake of 14 Goes into perdition. fire. Ch. xix. 21.

It will easily be perceived that the two beasts bear strong resemblance to each other; there are indeed no parts of them which will appear to want this likeness, excepting Nos. 5, 6, 7. The beast of the seventeenth chapter, has no marks of the leopard, the bear, and the lion, which belong solely to the beast of the thirteenth. And what are these? They are the marks of the Assyrian, Medo-Persian, and Grecian monarchies; all which were parts component of the beast of the thirteenth chapter, yet whose more particular resemblance was to the fourth beast, or Roman monarchy of Daniel. Hence it seems to be insinuated, that

the

the dominion of the beast of the thirteenth chapter, was to be extended over all the nations which had been subject to any of these four monarchies; over the eastern, as well as the western world. But this extent of dominion is not assigned to the beast who bears the harlot. His rule seems to be confined to the fourth monarchy; to the Roman empire, and to those ten kings or kingdoms into which that empire has been divided; those ten toes, with which the kingdom, described by Daniel, ended; and upon which it is to receive the blow of the stone. These are the western and European kingdoms; even to the exclusion of ancient Greece, modern Turkey, of that part of the Macedonian monarchy which was seated in Europe *. So, after the destruction of the fourth beast of Daniel, it is said, that the dominion of the three first is removed or chan

"As the four kingdoms of Daniel, considered in succession to "each other, form a prophetic chronology; (Mede, p. 712.) so in an"other view they form a prophetic geography, being considered in the "eye of prophecy as co-existent, as still alive and subsisting together, "when the dominion of all but the last was taken away. In consequence of this idea, which Daniel gives us of his four kingdoms, so much only is to be reckoned into the description of each king"dom, as is peculiar to each; the remainder being part of some "other kingdom, still supposed to be in being, to which it properly "belongs. Thus the second, or Persian, kingdom does not take in "the nations of Chaldæa and Assyria, which made the body of the "first kingdom; nor the third, or Græcian kingdom, the countries of Media and Persia, being the body of the second. In like manner, "the fourth, or Roman, kingdom does not, in the contemplation of "the Prophet, comprehend those provinces, which made the body of "the third or Grecian kingdom, but such only as constitute its own "body, that is, the provinces on this side of Greece." Bp. Hurd's Sermons on Prophecy, p. 348. See also Sir Isaac Newton on Daniel, ch. iv. p. 31, 32.

ged,