world. And lastly, they will burn her with fire. All which was done, as we have feen in the above given hiftory*.Thus was foretold by the Angel, before it happened, the fate of that heathen Imperial City, under the emblem of a Woman, prostituted to vice and admitting no control, because he is Emprefs of the world. But her jealous enemies will not reft, till they have found means to humble her pride, and to effect her ruin. They will firft deprive her of every human fuccour and comfort, they will then ftrip her naked, devour her flesh, and when thus reduced to a skeleton, they will confume her by fire.

That the greateft power on earth fhould be thus reduced and crushed by foreign Barbarians, whom it had before held in contempt and neglect, may seem strange to our understanding, and not according to the ftandard by which we generally measure human events. But this extraordinary fact is not to be ranked in the clafs of common human tranfactions: it was conducted by another hand;

V. 17. For God hath given into their hearts, to do that which pleaseth him: that they give their kingdom to the Beast till the words of God be fulfilled.

Under the divine direction therefore thofe Barbarians acted in the demolition of Rome and its Empire;

• Whoever has been upon the place, has feen fufficient proof of the fame, in the miferable shattered ruins of Old Rome.

Empire; and thus they executed what pleased him, or what he had defigned. According to the decrees of his infinite Wisdom and Juftice, the Almighty fent Nabuchodonofor to punish the guilty Jews, and Cyrus to do the fame to the Babylonians. In like manner the Northern Nations became the inftrument of his vengeance upon the Roman ftate for the guilt of its idolatry and perfecutions. Thefe Agents had indeed no other view in what they did, than to gratify their hatred, their avarice, and other paffions; and this the Almighty permitted them to compafs, but for other purposes which they did not fee into. But befides, in that latter period when, agreeably to the prediction in ver. 12, they had received kingdom, that is, when they had poffeffed themselves of the Roman Provinces, and erected them into so many kingdoms, they were ftill allowed to give their kingdom or join their power and armies with thofe of the Beast which was and is not, that is, with the pagan Romans then governed by Chriftian Emperors: the view of which union was the defence of the country against new Invaders, This was permitted for a while, till the words of God were fulfilled, till the time preordained by God was come, for the final deftruction of Pagan Rome, and the rife of new Chriftian Rome in its place, and for the happy converfion of thefe Barbarians and the remainder of the pagan Romans to the Faith of Chrift.

We have now feen, in the courfe of this 17th chapter of the Apocalypfe, the different changes that fucceffively happened in the Wef

tern

tern Roman Empire, to its total diffolution. We faw Ancient Rome in its glorious ftate, commanding all nations, upholding Idolatry with its whole power, and oppofing and perfecuting the Chriftian Religion. This power is then loft, by paffing into the hands of Chriftian Emperors > And this was the first step towards the fall of the empire of Idolatry. The body of the people ftill retaining their former attachment to paganifm and averfion to Chriftianity, the next ftep was: The Almighty brought down upon them fwarms of northern barbarous people, whom the Empire was forced to admit into its bowels, and to avert its own ruin for a while, by buying them off and hiring their fervice against other fuch like enemies. But thefe northern favages retaining all along their firft hoftile difpofition against the Romans, found pretences to turn their arms againft them, defeated their troops, fhared out the western Provinces among themfelves, and thus overturned the body of the Empire. When in poffeffion of the Roman territories, they then for their own intereft and upon their own bottom employed their forces in conjunction with thofe of the Roman people in defence of the country. But they could not reft fatisfied, till they had attacked and demolished the Head, that overbearing Miftrefs of the world, the City of Rome itfelf.This demolition was announced above, in ver. 16, as to be; and in what follows we fee it actually executed.

Apoc.

1

Apoc. Chap. xviii. v. 1. And after thefe things I faw, fays St. John, another Angel come down from Heaven, having great power: and the earth was enlightened with his glory.

V. 2. And he cried out with a firong voice, faying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird:

v. 3.

Because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication: and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with ber: and the merchants of the earth have been made rich by the power of her delicacies.

Here appears an Angel defcending from heaven, vefted with great power, because he comes to destroy the great Imperial City of Rome. He is alfo furrounded with a glorious circle of light, which illuminates the earth; an image of the Majefty of God, who exercises his Sovereign dominion in fo ftriking a manner on this occafion. The heavenly Meffenger cries out with a ftrong voice, that all the earth may hear and indeed all the earth heard of the fall of Rome, and confeffed the hand that did it. He thus cries out: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen: Idolatrous Rome is fallen. The Angel ftruck her, and he is fallen. That mighty Seat of power and dominion is fallen. That Metropolis of nations, that Capital of the world, is fallen. That great School of Heroes, and Parent of conqueft, is fallen and crushed. The long fixed abode of voluptuoufnefs and luxury (for the mer

chants

chants of the earth have been made rich by the power of her delicacies) is laid waste by famine and devaftation. She had provoked the Almighty by her unbounded attachment to Idolatry, and by her efforts to fupport and propagate it; for all nations bad drunk of the wine of the wrath (or vehemence) of her fornication: and the Kings of the earth had committed fornication with her; and now the hand of God has ftruck her. She had glutted herself with the blood of the fervants of God: and he in his wrath has fent against her the executors of his Juftice, who have made her defolate, have stript her naked, have eat her flesh, and burned her with fire, (Apoc. xvii. 16. tee p. 135.). We have seen how all this was gradually executed upon her. Alaric took the City, plundered it for three days, and burned it, in 410. Genferic plundered it for fourteen days together in 455, and then fet fire to it. Odoacer took it in 476, depofed the Emperor, and extinguished the Imperial title. Laftly, Totila in 546 burned it and reduced it into a folitude: "Totila," fays the Hiftorian Procopius, "left not, one human creature in the city." (Lib. 3. de bell. Goth.). And in this condition it remained for upwards of forty days. And thus it became like an accurfed place, given up for an babitation of devils, and a hold of every unclean fpirit, or of frightful fpectres and ghofts, and a bold of every unclean and bateful bird, as of Owls, Ravens, Vultures, &c.

v. 4. And I heard, purfues St. John, another voice from heaven, faying: go out from ber, my

people: