one article to another, till it rises to the bodies, and then to "the souls of men." Can we avoid recalling to memory the purgatory, the penances, the commutations, the indulgences, made saleable in the corrupt papal church?

Ver. 12. Fine linen.] It is not necessary, respecting this passage, to determine the contested point, whether Bussos was used to signify linen, or cotton. It is plain from the context, as also from Luke xvi. 19, that it was the apparel only of the rich; and so it is here coupled with purple, scarlet, silk, &c. which were certainly the distinguishing habits of the opulent. Silk, at the time this Revelation was delivered, was a very rare and dear commodity, being then the produce only of China *.

Ver. 17. Every pilot-&c.] Here is presented a third company of mourners, of the same kind with those who lamented over the ancient maritime Tyre f. That these should be so affected, shews the extent of influence which the mystical Babylon had acquired in distant nations; for she corrupts wheresoever her baneful commerce can be extended. The reading I TOTOV, restored by Griesbach, seems to be of great authority; in confirmation of which it is observed, that in the Vulgate, the word locum was antiently read, which has been changed to lacum. It does not however appear to afford an appropriate sense; and therefore, many attempts have been made to amend the reading; but it is not very material; for the context shews how it is to be generally understood, namely, of those who sail in ships. I suspect TI TOTOY to be a technical, maritime phrase; but have translated it as if writ

* See Gibbon, Ilist, ch. xl. where the history of silk is collected.

+ Ezek. xxvii. 32.

Father Simon.

ten

ten έπι τον τόπον : in the sense in which the Ethiopic version seems to have rendered it.

Ver. 20. Rejoice over her, O heaven; &c.] The same rejoicing is announced upon the prophesied fall of the ancient Babylon*; and her eternal desolation is represented under the same imagery †. "But what "reason had the Christians to rejoice over the calami"ties brought on Rome by Alaric or Totilas; in which they themselves were the principal sufferers? And "how were these calamities any vindication of their cause, or of the cause of true Religion?"

66

Ver. 21. A stone-&c.] Thus also the ancient Babylon, condemned never to rise again, is described as sinking, like a stone, in Euphrates §.

Ver. 22. The voice of harpers.] Here, the cheerful noise heard in a populous city, "the busy hum of "men," is poetically described. There is resemblance to the great poet's description of a joyous city. But so entire and final is the destruction of Babylon, that these shall be heard in her no more for ever. The prototype of this description is to be seen in Jer. vii. 34; xvi. 9; xxv. 10; xxxiii. 2. But Rome, as Bishop Newton observes, has never suffered this utter desolation. She has often been captured and plundered by the enemy; but she still remains (says he) a joyous city, the resort of strangers, delighting Europe with her music, and her arts ¶. I shall not pursue the learned Prelate in his endeavours to prove that modern Rome is to be destroyed by fire, literally understood. Fire, in prophetic language, implies utter destruction; and it is the corruption, the

* Jer. li. 48.

+ Jer. li. 64.

↑ Bishop Newton, Dissert. on Proph. vol. iii. p. 317.

superstition, and usurped dominion of Rome, which are to be utterly destroyed, not her buildings. She is Babylon in a spiritual sense; and in a spiritual sense it is, that she is to be burned and consumed, even unto the end."

Ver. 23-24. Sorcery-blood of prophets.] We have here two distinguishing marks of this corrupt Church, which have been before noticed:-1. The arts of deception, like the sorceries and incantations of the heathen priests, by which she has beguiled the nations and their kings:--2. Her tyranny, by which she has persecuted, even to tortures and death, those who refuse her yoke. And as the blood of the prophets was required of the ancient Jerusalem; so is the blood of the Christian.Saints and Martyrs, from this corrupt city*.

The denunciation of the judgement of Babylon, contained in this speech of the angel, seems principally intended for the support and comfort of the poor, persecuted Christian Church, during the high zenith of the Antichristian usurpation. To answer this purpose the more effectually, almost every part of the prophecy is taken from the prophetical denunciations of the Old Testament, against Babylon, Tyre, &c. which were known to have been literally fulfilled. No other method could afford such perfect confidence to those, who, in the new Babylon, clearly discovered the tyranny and wickedness of the old one. And from the time that Papal Rome was acknowledged to be this new Babylon, (and this discovery was made early in the twelfth century †,) great must have been the encouragement derived to the Reformers from this chapter of the Apocalypse.

Luke xi. 50, 51.

+ See Mede, p. 517. 722, &c. Thuani Hist. lib. vi. c. 16.

SECTION V.

Exultation in Heaven over the fallen Babylon, and upon the approach of the new Jerusalem.

CHAP. XIX. VER. 1-10.

1 After these things, I
heard, as it were, a
loud voice of a great
multitude in heaven,
saying, "Allelujah!
"the salvation, and
"the glory, and the
66 power of our God!
2" for, true and righte-