And methought there were thunders and lightnings and an earthquake, such as never had been known before, denoting this vast change, (the greatest of any,) that now was by this means wrought in the world. And Rome being at this time of Honorius divided into three parties; one, heathen; a second, orthodox; a third, heretical, impure, (see note [c] ch. xvii,) wicked Christians; this brought in Alaricus, and by that means destruction on all heathen Rome. And thus was God's just vengeance executed upon them. And as it is ordinary for islands and hills to be removed by earthquakes, so now the maritime towns and strongholds were destroyed by this incursion of the Goths. And this judgment fell upon them most visibly and discernibly from heaven, and withal in a most heavy, unsupportable manner; and yet, after this, such obduration of heart possessed them of the heathens that survived these judgments, that they were the more obstinate in their idolatrous, heathen courses, and still railed at the Christians as the authors of all these miseries that befell them. And another representation I received of the desolation that was to befall heathen Rome by Alaricus, &c. and of the consequents of it; for methought I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven in a most glorious manner, or with power to disabuse the world, and shew them what they saw not before, viz. how false it was that was said of that city, that it was eternal. And he cried aloud, that all might hear, saying, That great heathen city, so like Babylon of old for greatness, populousness, heathenism, luxury, oppressing the people of God, is now destroyed, fallen from that eternity it dreamed of, and is now overrun with barbarians, (so scorned before and hated by them,) that is, Goths and Vandals, &c. as with satyrs and owls, Zim and Ohim, &c. [a] Babylon] That the title of Babylon here is bestowed on Rome in the vision of her destruction is resolved by St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. 18. c. 2, Ipsa Babylonia quasi prima Roma, Roma quasi secunda Babylonia est, "Babylon was as a first Rome, and Rome is as a second Babylon;" and, c. 22, Condita est Roma velut altera Babylon, et prioris n See Orosius, l. 7. c. 39. And this is a most just punishment of her foul idolatries, which she hath infused into other nations as far as her power extended, and of her great pride and luxury, the expenses laid out on which were the enriching of the merchants of other nations, which brought in fuel to the feeding, materials to the supporting of it. And another voice, methought, I heard, warning all Christians to come out of her, that is, first, to abstain strictly from all communicating with her sins, (contrary to what the looser sort of Christians did;) and, secondly, to depart out of the city, (as the emperor Honorius and the bishop Innocentius did to Ravenna, at the time of Alaricus's siege;) and thirdly, to fly to the Basilica, or Christian church, at the time of plundering or destroying Rome, (as the Christians did,) as the only way of rescuing them from the destruction. For the voice or cry of her sins is come to heaven, and now the vengeance is come upon her. Now she shall be paid for all her provocations, and as she hath meted to others, (the Christians persecuted by her,) so shall it be by the Goths, &c. meted to her with advantage; she hath mixed a poisonous cup, a mixture of wine and myrrh, in seducing some and persecuting others, and now she shall have twice as much bitterness provided for her. For all her pride and luxury and haughtiness and blasphemy in calling herself eternal, and pronouncing that she should never be subdued, (see Isa. xlvii. 7, 8,) now she shall see she is mortal, and subject to be overcome as well as others. For as a punishment of her pride and huge opinion of herself, that she should reign for ever, on a sudden, all together shall an huge vastation come upon her, a plague, a slaughter, and a famine, and a burning of the city, a third part of it, ch. xvi. 19, and xvii. 16, (see note [e] ch. xvii,) and all this a visible judgment of God upon her, in whose hands are all the creatures, ready pressed for his service, to execute his vengeance on his enemies. [b] she shall be utterly burnt] The κατακανθήσεται, which is ordinarily rendered shall be utterly burnt, may seem to have some difficulty in it, and be objected against our interpretation of this vision, because it is known that the desolation and firing by Alaricus, Gensericus, and Totilas, was not an utter desolation or firing of the whole city, but of a part thereof. And to this the answer is insufficient, that κατακαίεσθαι is conflagrare, to be set on light fire, and doth not necessarily import that fire's consuming of all that might be consumed, because other expressions here follow in this matter which cannot be so answered: as, ver. 21, where the stone like a millstone is cast into the sea, which seems to signify a total destruction; and it is added, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no longer, οὐ μὴ ἔτι. And so again, ver. 22, 23, The voice of harpers, &c., and When this comes to pass, then shall those of the ten kingdoms which have continued under her obedience, and joined with her in her idolatries and luxuries, (see note [c] 1 Tim. v.) lament and mourn for her, but not be able to assist her. But on the contrary, forsake and be afraid of bringing her any relief, the destruction coming so suddenly and irresistibly (see note [e] ch. xvii.) upon her. And some loss this will be to the merchants, ver. 3, who will have many commodities lying on their hands, without any vent, nobody being so rich and so vainly luxurious as these that are now destroyed: None trading so much in all the bravery of attire and of household stuff, buying all that any would bring of any of these kinds, Of perfumes and festival plenty, of pompous attendants, and addition of horses and chariots, and of hired servants and bond servants. [c] slaves] Σώματα, saith Julius Pollux, signifies, when it is taken simply by itself, without any additament, those that are not bondslaves but freemen, which sell or hire themselves for money, Σώματα ἁπλῶς οὐκ ἂν δοῦλα σώματα, &c. And this, because freemen have power over their own bodies, whereas slaves have nothing but souls. As for the ψυχαὶ ἀνθρώπων, souls of men, the phrase is taken out of Ezekiel, ch. xvii. 13, who, speaking of Tyre, a city of merchants, saith that they traffick בְּנַפְשִׁים, super anima hominis, for the soul of man, which St. Hierome renders mancipia, slaves, and so the latter Greeks call slaves ψυχάρια, little souls; and so Gen. xii. 5, the souls which they had gotten in Haran, may be their bondservants, because, as was said, slaves have souls, though nothing else, in their own power. Now is the enjoying of those things which thou lovest best interdicted thee, and all the instruments of thy luxury and bravery, thy epicurism and thy And when the merchants hear the news, they shall stop their course, and divert to some other place, and do the same thing as if they were afraid of falling under the same calamities by approaching near her. And make complaints that they have lost such an excellent customer so suddenly. And all this an eminent act of God's providence, both that all those nations should first confederate with the Romans, and also that they should now break off, and execute God's vengeance upon them. And the same is the case of the mariners, whose wealth is in the sea, there being now no occasion of such resort to this place. [g] God hath put in their hearts] The strangeness of this judgment on that city, and the immediate hand of God in it, will appear (beside what hath been said of somebody molesting and forcing Alaricus to it note [i]) by these three things. First, By the suddenness of the taking of it, so suddenly, that when word was brought to Honorius to Ravenna that Rome was destroyed, he thought they had meant a cock called by that name, Roma, as Prosper hath it in Chronico: and this is referred to in the vision, ch. xviii. 10, For in one day thy judgment cometh, and ver. 19, For in one hour she is become desolate. Secondly, That they made such speed in rifling it, that when one would think three years had been little enough to obey Alaricus's command, in searching out and taking away all the treasure of the city, all n historians agree, that they were but three days about it; only Marcellinus saith that the sixth day after Alaricus entered he went out again. Thirdly, That Alaricus having thus taken and rifled and possessed the city, should neither stay in it and keep it, nor go on with his army against the emperor, but absolutely retire so soon after so strange a success; as if God that had sent him on this message or service on purpose, and never suffered him to be quiet till he had done it, as soon as the work was done for which he sent him, had immediately recalled him, and not permitted him to go one step further, and so only used him as a means to deliver up the city to the Christians, the idolaters being generally destroyed out of it by this means, and the Christians as generally preserved. And the woman which thou sawest is the Roman power, which hath many princes under her, or the empire of Rome and the world. ## CHAP. XVIII. And therefore they bewail her former greatness, and their own loss in her destruction; And shall admire the suddenness and unexpectedness of it: (see note [ʃ] ch. xvii.) But as this is matter of bewailing to all these, so is it of rejoicing to the angels and saints in heaven, to the apostles and rulers of the church, the persecuting and slaying of whom is it which is thus punished upon her. And methought an angel of God took a stone [d] thy merchants] Who are thy merchants here, may be thought uncertain, because the word thy either may refer to foreign nations, who trade with thee, or else may be thy traders or traffickers, the chap- R r 2 Another vision I received much to the same purpose with the former; but differing in this, that the former looked especially on the city of Rome, and the luxury and pride of the inhabitants thereof; but this looked especially on the heathen religion there destroyed, and exchanged for the Christian, but that not all at once, but by several steps and degrees: and first, methought, I heard a multitude of Christian people (employed like the saints and angels in heaven) singing of hallelujahs, praises and thanksgivings to God, as to him who had wrought great mercies for them; Magnifying his fidelity to themselves, and his just vengeance on the idolatrous persecutors that had debauched so many to their courses, and shed so much blood of Christians; And again triumphing in this act of God's, that this was like to be a fatal, irreparable blow to the Roman idolatry. And the bishops, or representatives, or governors of the Christian church in Judæa, ch. iv. 4, and proportionably to them, all other bishops, and the four apostles, formerly mentioned as the planters of the Christian faith in Judæa, ch. iv. 6, and two of them now in Rome also, Peter and Paul, gave their acclamations to those hallelujahs. And all Christians in the world, of what quality soever, were admonished of their duty and obligation to do so too. And that admonition was presently answered with the acclamation of all the nations (that is, Christian people in them) over all the world, thundering out hallelujahs to God for this illustrious enlargement of the kingdom of Christ, the conversion of that imperial city to Christianity; 7, 8. Which is, as it were, the marriage of Christ to a lovely spouse, his church, (and so matter of rejoicing to all that hear of it, John iii. 29,) which should now be adorned as the priest entering into the sanctuary under the law, to note the liberty and the privileges which should be bestowed on the church by the emperor Constantine. [a] righteousness of saints] Some difficulty there is in this phrase, τὰ δικαιώματα ἐστι τῶν ἁγίων, which is ordinarily rendered the righteousness of the saints. For the word δικαιώματα is not thus used in these books, (see note [b] on Rom. viii.) but for the ordinances of the Mosaical law. And then ἅγια being the very word which is used to denote the sanctuary, Heb. viii. 2, ἁγίων λειτουργός, the minister of the sanctuary, and ἅγια, the sanctuary, ch. ix. 2, and elsewhere, and τῶν ἁγίων being the neuter as well as the masculine gender, and by consequence capable of being accommodated to this sense, it is not improbable that δικαιώματα ἁγίων should denote the ordinances of the sanctuary, the Levitical laws or customs, among which this was one, that the priest, when he went into the sanctuary, should wear that vesture of fine linen, pure and white. Thus, Levit. xvi, it is appointed, Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place, ver. 3, he shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments, &c., that is, the garments which he is to use when he goes into the sanctuary, which being appointed him by this law of God to Moses, may fitly be called δικαιώματα τῶν ἁγίων, the ordinances of the holies. And if it be so, then it will most fitly be applied to this spouse of Christ, the Christian church, (to which Christ was ready so solemnly to be married, ver. 7, in respect of the public profession of the Christian religion by the emperor Constantine and his courtiers,) that it should now be clothed after the manner of the priest when he went into the sanctuary, to note the great liberty and immunities and privileges now bestowed on the church by the emperor. This we have formerly seen expressed by our being kings and priests unto God, (note [c] on chap. i.) priests in respect of liberty of assemblies, and executing the office of bishops, &c., in the church: which being so eminently bestowed on the church by Constantine, above all that ever had been in the church before, may here in like manner be most fitly expressed by being clothed in the holy garments, which denoted the priest's going into the sanctuary. And an angel bade me take notice of this, as of the blessedest, happiest change that ever was wrought in the world, and happy he that should be a spec- And the joy of this news so transported me, that, as Abraham, for the joy of the good news, Gen. xvii. 17, fell on his face, &c. so I could not but fall down to acknowledge my sense of so blessed a news and messenger; but when I did so, he bid me forbear. For, saith he, I am no more honourably employed by Christ than thou art, I am now a messenger to make known this prophecy to thee of the conversion of emperors &c. to the gospel, and thou, and such as thou, apostles of Christ, are ambassadors of as honourable and blessed news as this. Let God have the praise of all; for to be an apostle of Christ, a witness and publisher of his resurrection, &c. is to be a prophet sent and endued with the Spirit of God, and so as valuable as that office which now I am executing, of foretelling things to come. And methought I saw Christ coming from heaven in a pompous manner, riding or sitting upon the white horse, (as he did ch. vi. 2,) that is, in the preaching of the gospel, and according to his promise and his just judgments against his enemies, proceeding against them, that is, against the emperor Maxentius: (see ch. xvi. 12. 14.) And methought his eyes were like fire, searching to the secrets of the heart, (noting him to judge and discern who are fit to be destroyed, who not;) and he had many crowns on his head, tokens and testimonies of as many victories over enemies, whom he had overcome either by their yielding, that is, conversion, or falling before him, that is, destruction; and as a token of those victories, he hath a note or ticket, by which to receive his reward, which nobody sees but himself, (see ch. ii. 17, and note [i]), that is, he is acknowledged victorious. And he was in a royal, purple garment, noting that regal power to which he was installed as a reward of his crucifixion, Isa. lxiii. 1, 2, Phil. ii. 9, now to belong to him most illustriously; and his name in which he was represented was that known title of Christ, The Word of God, noting that which is now done to be an effect of divine power, wrought by his word, without any visible working of ordinary means toward it. And the angels, the ministers of his vengeance, attended him in a glorious and splendid manner. And out of his mouth proceeded that terrible sharp part of the gospel, his threats against his enemies, and those now to be executed on the heathen, whom he shall now subdue by his power, because they will not be converted; in which respect he is now preparing for them the bitterest poisonous potion that ever was drank by any. And by this means he will shew himself what really he is, too strong for any power on earth to resist or stand out against. [b] on his vesture and on his thigh] The mention of the ἱμάτιον and μηρός, vesture and thigh, are here put together, to denote the robe imperial by the former, and the sword, which is girded on the thigh, by the latter, as ensigns of supreme power and authority, especially when on them both, on the robe and the hilt of the sword, as the ensign of that office, is written that most honourable title, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, thereby noting him to be superior to all power and force in the world, triumphantly victorious over all. And methought I saw an angel standing in the sun, (noting the clearness of the vision now delivered,) and he called to all the birds of prey, Goths and Vandals, &c. that they should come, as to a feast, to this judgment of God upon these idolaters, (noting the great slaughter which was now foretold, to which vultures do betake themselves out of a natural sagacity, as Job saith of the eagle, Where the slain are, there is he.) And telling them that there should be abundant prey for them, an huge destruction. And the idol-worship set up at Rome, and under her dominion, set itself to persecute Christianity. And the Roman idolatry, and the magic, and auguries, and the divinations of the heathen priests, that had deceived the carnal Christians so far as to consent and comply with the heathenish idolatry, were to be like Sodom and Gomorra, utterly extirpated: (see ch. xiii. 11, and note [g].)