CHAPTER XVIII. 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. power to the beast, "until the words of God shall be fulfilled," i. e., the words of God in regard to the reign of the beast. He was to continue only for a time, signified by the " forty and two months." When this time was fulfilled, then the kings would withdraw their support from the empire, and hate the woman or city of Rome, and its downfall would come. 18. The woman is that great city.. The woman is the city. the great city; and Rome was then the mistress of the world. She reigned over the kings of the earth, as has been shown; for they acknowledged for a time her supremacy, although afterward they hated her. The revelator having thus been shown that the destruction of Rome was at hand, we shall find that in the next chapter the fall of that great city is more particularly described. CHAPTER XVIII. 17th chapter. In the 18th is contained an account of the judgment of the woman, promised in xvii. 1. The plan of this chapter seems to be as follows: 1. The time for the judgment of Rome is represented as being come; verses 1, 2. 2. Reasons for it are given; ver. 3. 3. The Christians are called upon to come out of her, to avoid the impending calamities; verses 4-8. 4. The lamentation over the city in the next place occurs, viz., 1st, of the friendly kings; verses 9, 10; 2d, of the merchants; verses 11-16; 3d, of the seamen; verses 17-19. 5. Heaven is called on to rejoice, with all the holy apostles and prophets, for that which the worldly-minded mourn to see; ver. 20. 6. The judgment comes, as described, verses 21-24. 1. Another angel come down from heaven. One angel having described the woman and the beast, another angel is introduced, in the arrangement of the scene, to describe the judgment. For aught that appears the revelator is still under the guid Preliminary Remarks. In the last chapter we saw the city of Rome described under the metaphor of a woman, sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. She appeared in great mag-ance of "one of the seven angels," nificence. She was arrayed in purple and scarlet, the imperial colors; and was decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls. "The woman which thou sawest (said the angel to the revelator) is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth;" chap. xvii., last verse. The 18th chapter forms a part of the vision promised to the revelator, xvii. 1: "Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore." The woman is first seen riding on the beast; xvii. 3. The beast is described as representing the empire, and the woman as representing the city. So much of the description occupies the The mentioned xvii. 1, who, after showing great the great is fallen, is fallen, was and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. from heaven, having having power; and the earth lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon self probably copied the figure from Ezekiel. See Ezk. xliii. 2: "And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory." 2. He cried mightily with a loud voice. It is the intent of these words to give great effect to the proclamation. It was a proclamation of great importance, and it was needful that it should arrest the attention of men. The angel is clothed with power corresponding to his dignity as a heavenly messenger. His voice commanded great attention. He had come from the presence of God, from the place whence God himself looked down upon the earth. And now let us listen to what the angel said. ¶ Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen; as if he had said, what was predicted in Rev. xiv. 8 is now to be fulfilled. This language respects Rome, although the name Babylon is used. We have shown repeatedly, that it was the custom of the sacred writers to call one city by the name of another, on account of some similarity either in its character, or its fate. Babylon, of old, had been given up to destruction; and Rome being given up to destruction, is called Babylon. The proverb, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," is of prophetic origin, and not original with the revelator. See Isa. xxi. 9: "And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." And Jer. li. 8: "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed." The revelator's description in all respects is evidently taken from the prophetical account of the fall of Babylon. Its inhabitants are supposed to have been exterminated, or to have fled. ¶ The habitation of devils.- Demons were supposed to dwell in desolate and gloomy places. This was the prevailing notion among the Jews; and the imagery therefore is built upon it. The unclean spirit, mentioned Matt. xii. 43, wandered through dry or desolate places. The demoniac described in Mark v. roamed among the tombs. The object of the revelator, therefore, in saying that Rome should be the habitation of devils, satyrs, or demons, was to show that it should become very desolate, compared with its former grandeur. Those animals that flee from the haunts of men shall come and dwell in the place where the city once stood in magnificence. This is exactly the idea expressed by Isaiah, in describing the fall of Babylon. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is nearly come, and her days shall not be prolonged;" Isa. xiii. 19-22. How frequently does the revelator draw his metaphors, and almost his very language, from the prophets. The application of prophetical language to the fall of Rome, we shall 3 For all nations have drunk | chants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed forni-| cation with her, and the mer consider more fully, before we close our comments on this chapter. In addition to the passages quoted above, see Isa. xxxiv. 10-15; Jer. 1. 39; li. 37. 3. All nations have drunk of the wine. Here are mentioned the reasons of her punishment. She had led all nations into sin, even the kings and great men of the earth. Her influence had been very wide and very injurious. There is a double metaphor in this verse. 1st. The nations have been made drunk with wine. 2d. With the wine of fornication. She exhilarated and maddened them with her inflammatory vices. She excited their passions, and almost led them captive at her will. Hence her influence is compared to that of wine. Her sins are described under the figure of offences against chastity, which is a figure frequently occurring in the Bible, and as often in the New Testament as in the Old. See the notes on ii. 14, 20; xvii. 2, 4. The Apocalypse bears a strong relation to other parts of the divine word. The same subject is continued here which was commenced in chap. xiv. See ver. 8 of that chapter. Because Rome made the nations drink of the wine of her wickedness, God would pour out upon her the wine of his wrath; xiv. 10. This wine of his wrath was represented as being in the seven vials; xv. 7. These seven vials of wrath were the seven last plagues, because in them was to be filled up, or finished, the wrath of God; xv. 1; and these seven vials were all to be poured out upon the earth; xvi. 1. By bearing these facts in mind, the reader will perceive that all these chapters are connected the one with the other; that the thread of the subject is not broken. Having 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out foretold the judgments under the metaphor of the vials, in the 16th chapter, the revelator foretells the judgment of the city more particularly in the 17th. Compare xvii. 2, 4, with xiv. 8. The subject begun in the 14th is continued to the 18th, and further. ¶ And the merchants of the earth. These, it is said, had waxed rich, through the abundance of her delicacies. It is evidently the destruction of a city, or country, upon the margin of the sea, that the revelator was describing, and not an ecclesiastical body. We see no reason whatever to suppose that he had any reference to the papal church. Some commentators have presumed, that Babylon in this chapter represented Rome papal; and the merchants, were her clergy, who traded in spiritual trifles and trinkets, and other ecclesiastical wares; but persons who have given such an interpretation have, in our opinion, taken counsel of their prejudices, rather than of sound judgment. We shall not stop to consider this subject further in this place; but we may refer to it again. 4. Another voice. The one voice had proclaimed the fall of Babylon; the other called on all who would not participate in the judgment of the city to come out of her. ¶ Come out of her, my people.. Separate yourselves from her; lest ye partake of her sins, and receive of her plagues. There was danger in living in the midst of so much extravagance, dissoluteness, and paganism. Weak professors would be made to fall. The only safety consisted in an entire separation from the power of the adversary, and the dangers in which he was placed. So God counselled Lot to flee from Sodom; Gen. xix. 15, 16. When any city of old was of her, my people, that ye be not | ye receive not of her plagues. partakers of her sins, and that 5 For her sins have reached ix. 20. They were death, and mourning, and famine, and conflagration; xviii. 8. Surely these judgments were on the earth; xi. 6; xvi. 1. And they were the last plagues; xv. 1. We are not to look for any plagues in the Apocalypse after these. In them is filled up, or finished, the wrath of God. These plagues are mentioned finally near the close of the Apocalypse, where the churches were told, that if "any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book;" xxii. 18. None other plagues were threatened, remark, than those written in this book, i. e., the Apocalypse; and these were death, mourning, famine and conflagration. doomed to destruction, the faithful that were therein were counselled to leave it. The revelator had the example of the prophets for the advice he gave to the Christians in Rome. Among other instances, see Isa. xlviii. 20, and lii. 11; Jer. 1. 8, and li. 6, 45. The apostle Paul besought his brethren at Corinth to come out from among the heathen: "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you;" 2 Cor. vi. 16, 17. Whether the command, "Come out of her, my people," (in the chapter we are considering,) meant, leave the city of Rome, quit the place entirely, as Lot left Sodom; or whether it meant merely a moral separation, an injunction to keep clean of all sinful connection, to guard against paganism and all the vices of that great city, we will not undertake to decide. Be not partakers of her sins. - The object was to guard the Christians against "partaking of her sins," that they might not "receive of her plagues." If they did not offend in the former, they would not suffer in the latter. The command to "come out," is to be regarded as a kind of proverbial expression, and should not be interpreted too strictly. It certainly did mean as much as this: "Separate yourselves from her in a moral point of view; keep yourselves perfectly clean from all her vices;" and this was truly the most important matter. That ye receive not of her plagues. Here the subject of the And when Daniel came to plagues comes up once more. There interpret the vision, he said: "It is is an unbroken thread of illustration thou, O king, thou art grown and running through these chapters. The become strong for thy greatness is plagues were temporal judgments; grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and 5. Her sins have reached unto heaven. - Rome was punished only for her sins. She was not punished for her blindness any further than it was guilty blindness. This might have been inferred from the preceding verse. If the Christians did not partake of her sins, they did not receive of her plagues. It was for her sins, and for her sins only, that she was judged. Her sins were very great. It is said they "reached unto heaven." Some have supposed the idea to be this: the sins have reached up to God, so that he observes and takes note of them. We prefer the other interpretation. It is a hyperbole for exceeding greatness. A similar figure occurs in the description given by Nebuchadnezzar of the tree seen by him in his vision: "I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth;" Dan. iv. 10, 11. unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto 19. See the language of the woman to the prophet Elijah: "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" 1 Kings xvii. 18. See, also, Ezk. xxi. 23, and xxix. 16. So when good deeds are rewarded, they are said to come up in remembrance before God, as in the case of Cornelius: "Behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine thy dominion to the end of the earth;" ver. 22. So the "rage that reacheth up unto heaven," 2 Chron. xxviii. 9, was an exceeding rage. God's faithfulness is very great, hence it is said to "reach unto the clouds ;" Psa. Xxxvi. 5. Again: "Thy mercy is great above the heavens; and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds ;" Psa. cviii. 4. But there is no difficulty in understanding where the revelator found his figure. In taking the prophetic descriptions of the wickedness and fall of Babylon for the pur-alms are had in remembrance in the pose of showing the wickedness and fall of Rome, which was the Babylon of the revelator's time, [and there were many points of resemblance between the two cities,] he would, of course, adopt the prophetic hyperboles, and other figures. Hence we find, that the figure we are considering occurs in Jeremiah's description of the fall of Babylon: "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. * * * * We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies;" li. 8, 9. ¶ God hath remembered her iniquities. — In strict speech, God can be said to forget nothing; but in the language of the Scriptures, God is said to forget. Of course, such language is not to be construed literally. It would make confusion worse confounded; for in one form of speech God is said to punish men by forgetting them; and in another form, he punishes by remembering. We must seek the true sense of the Scriptures, without any disposition to carp or cavil. In the Apocalypse, sins are said to come up in remembrance before God, when the time of their punishment has come. "Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath;" Rev. xvi. sight of God;" Acts x. 30, 31. For God to remember a sin, therefore, in the language of the prophets, was to regard it as an unforgiven offence; to call it to remembrance, was to call it up for judgment and punishment; and to remember it no more, was fully to forgive it, and wash it away, and to regard the penitent as though he had never sinned. Thus the language of God through the prophet Jeremiah: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more;" xxxi. 33, 34. "Her sins have reached unto heaven," i. e., they have been very great; and "God hath remembered her iniquities," i. e., hath remembered them to punish them, as we shall see in the next verse. 6. Reward her even as she rewarded you. In the language of the Scriptures, to reward signifies to punish evil, as well as to recompense righteousness. Under the Mosiac law, "every transgression received a just recompense of reward;" Heb. ii. 2; Matt. xvi. 27; 2 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Peter |