ftirred up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are rifen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations.

V. 10. "All thall anfwer and fay to thee: Thou also art wounded as well as we, thou art become like

unto us.

V. II. "Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcafs is fallen down: under thee thall the moth be ftrewed, and worms fhall be thy covering." Here we fee the reception Antichrift meets with at his arrival in the infernal regions. All hell is in an uproar, the princes, the giants or famous warriors whom he had flain, rife up and advance to meet him, addreffing him with derifion: Oh! Thou art alfo wounded then as well as we, thou art at last dealt with as thou dealt with us Thy pride is brought down to hell, &c. - V. 12. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rife in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didft wound the nations?

: V.

v. 13. "And thou faidft in thy heart: I will afcend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the ftars of God, I will fit in the mountain of the covenant, in the fides of the north.

v. 14. "I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Moft High.

v. 15.

"But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit." The princes in hell continue to infult Antichrift, faying: How art thou fallen, thou that fhone in majefty and brightness like Lucifer, the morning ftar? They remind him of his former pride, arrogance, fuperlative infolence, his proclaiming himself God, &c. all which they paint in lively colours: After which with a contemptuous triumph they tell him: But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell into the depth of the pit.

v. 16. "They that fhall fee thee, fhall turn towards thee, and behold thee: is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,

v. 17.

That made the world a wilderness, and

deftroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prifon to the prisoners?

v. 18.

All the kings of the nations have all of them flept in glory, every one in his own house.

v. 19. "Bat thou art caft out of thy grave as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that are flain by the fword, and are gone down to the bottom of the pit as a rotten carcass.

CHAPTER XII.

The Continuation of the Hiftory of the fixth Age.

NOTWITHSTA

OTWITHSTANDING the vengeance of God has thus manifefted itfelf in the total extermination of Antichrift and his armies, his wrath is not yet fatisfied, but requires more victims to atone for the injury done to his holy worship by the eftablishment of idolatry, and for the cruelties exercifed upon his fervants. The Almighty had formerly poured out his indignation upon the Roman emperors, many of whom were ftruck, and perifhed under the visible marks of his judgments. But this was not fufficient, he devoted haughty imperial Rome, their capital, to destruction, and laid it in afbes. It had participated with its mafters in the crime of fupporting idolatry, and waging war against the faints, and therefore like them was to be cut off. In the fame manner Conftantinople, the centre and metropolis of the Antichristian empire, muft alfo fall under the weight of the hand of God. This we learn from St. John; for thus fpeaks he,

Chap. xiv. v. 8. "And another angel followed, faying: That great Babylon is fallen, is fallen*: which made all nations to drink of the wine of the

wrath

1

wrath of her fornication." This Babylon has been fuppofed by many interpreters to mean pagan Rome, but whoever ftudies the Apocalypfe with attention, will fee the error of that opinion. For St. John gives the deftruction of heathen Rome in the beginning of the 18th chapter, as we have before feen, and in the fame terms nearly, not entirely, as are used here: and as St. John never repeats the fame event, this fecond Babylon must be another city, the great city, which has made all nations to drink of the wine of her fornication or idolatry. This Babylon therefore can be no other than Conftantinople, the imperial city of Antichrift, which has fo readily joined him in admitting idolatry, and fo hotly concurred to propagate it over the whole earth. Befides, the fame conclufion follows from obferying, that the tranfactions related in this 14th chapter belong to the last period of the world. Other proofs will alfo presently occur.

But our Chriftian prophet has not only announced to us in general the fall of this laft Babylon, but even gives us a fpecifical defcription of its deftruction. This is found in the latter part of the 18th chapter. St. John, after carrying on his narrative of the fate of old Rome, in the first part of the fame chapter, proceeds in verse 20th, to invite heaven and the faints to rejoice and exult on the occafion: "Rejoice over her," fays he, "thou heaven and ye holy apoftles and prophets: for God has judged your judgment on her." This indicates that he here concludes his defcription of the fall of BabyJon or pagan Rome. What follows, belongs therefore to the second Babylon or Conftantinople, and is related thus:

Chap. xviii. v. 21. And a mighty angel took up. a stone, as it were a great mill-ftone, and caft it into the fea, faying: with fuch violence as this fhall Babylon that great city be thrown down, and fhall be found no more at all." Here then Conftantinople

v. 17. "That made the world a wilderness, and deftroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prifon to the prisoners?

v. 18. "All the kings of the nations have all of them flept in glory, every one in his own house.

V. 19." But thou art caft out of thy grave as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that are flain by the fword, and are gone down to the bottom of the pit as a rotten carcass.

CHAPTER XII.

The Continuation of the Hiftory of the fixth Age. NOTWITHSTANDING the vengeance of God

has thus manifefted itself in the total extermination of Antichrift and his armies, his wrath is not yet fatisfied, but requires more victims to atone for the injury done to his holy worship by the eftablishment of idolatry, and for the cruelties exercised upon his fervants. The Almighty had formerly poured out his indignation upon the Roman emperors, many of whom were ftruck, and perished under the vifible marks of his judgments. But this was not fufficient, he devoted haughty imperial Rome, their capital, to deftruction, and laid it in afbes. It had participated with its mafters in the crime of fupporting idolatry, and waging war against the faints, and therefore like them was to be cut off. In the fame manner Conftantinople, the centre and metropolis of the Antichristian empire, must also fall under the weight of the hand of God. This we learn from St. John; for thus fpeaks he,

Chap. xiv. v. 8. "And another angel followed, faying: That great Babylon is fallen, is fallen* : which made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath

1

wrath of her fornication." This Babylon has been fuppofed by many interpreters to mean pagan Rome, but whoever ftudies the Apocalypfe with attention, will fee the error of that opinion. For St. John gives the deftruction of heathen Rome in the beginning of the 18th chapter, as we have before feen, and in the fame terms nearly, not entirely, as are used here: and as St. John never repeats the fame event, this fecond Babylon must be another city, the great city, which has made all nations to drink of the wine of her fornication or idolatry. This Babylon therefore can be no other than Conftantinople, the imperial city of Antichrift, which has fo readily joined him in admitting idolatry, and fo hotly concurred to propagate it over the whole earth. Befides, the fame conclufion follows from obferying, that the tranfactions related in this 14th chapter belong to the last period of the world. Other proofs will

also presently occur.

But our Chriftian prophet has not only announced to us in general the fall of this laft Babylon, but even gives us a fpecifical defcription of its deftruction. This is found in the latter part of the 18th chapter. St. John, after carrying on his narrative of the fate of old Rome, in the first part of the fame chapter, proceeds in verfe 20th, to invite heaven and the faints to rejoice and exult on the occafion: "Rejoice over her," fays he, "thou heaven and ye holy apoftles and prophets for God has judged your judgment on her." This indicates that he here concludes his defcription of the fall of Babylon or pagan Rome. What follows, belongs therefore to the fecond Babylon or Conftantinople, and is related thus:

Chap. xviii. v. 21. "And a mighty angel took up. a ftone, as it were a great mill-ftone, and caft it into the fea, faying: with such violence as this fhall Babylon that great city be thrown down, and fhall be found no more at all." Here then Conftantinople