Yet farther to distinguish the woman, she has her name infcribed upon her forehead, (ver. 5.) in allufion to the practice of fome notorious prostitutes, who had their names written in a label upon their foreheads, as we may (1) collect from ancient authors. The infcription is fo very particular, that we cannot easily mistake the person; Myftery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, or rather of fornications, and abominations of the earth. Her name Mystery can imply no lefs, than that the dealeth in myfteries; her religion is a mystery, a mystery of iniquity; and she herfelf is myftically and fpiritually Babylon the great. But the title of mystery is in no refpect proper to ancient Rome, more than any other city: and neither is there any mystery in fubftituting one heathen, idolatrous, and perfecuting city for another; but it is indeed a mystery, that a christian city, profeffing and boasting herself to be the city of God, fhould prove another Babylon in idolatry and cruelty to the people of God. She glories in the name of Roman Catholic, and well therefore may she be called Babylon the great. She affects the stile and title of our holy

(1) Nomen tuum pependit in fronte: pretia ftupri accepifti; &c. Seneca. Lib. 1. Controverf. 2. Juvenal. Sat. VI. 122.

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mother

tunc nuda papillis Conftitit auratis, titulum mentita Lycifcæ.

(2) Ma

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mother the church, but the is in truth the mother of fornications and abominations of the earth. Neither can this character with any propriety be applied to ancient Rome; for fhe was rather a learner of foreign fuperftitions, than the miftrefs of idolatry to other nations; as appears in various instances, and particularly from (2) that folemn form of adjuration, which the Romans ufed when they laid fiege to a city, calling forth the tutelary deities of the place, and promifing them temples, and facrifices, and other folemnities at Rome. It may be concluded therefore that this part of the prophecy is fufficiently fulfilled, tho' there fhould be reafon to question the truth of what is afferted by fome writers, that the word mystery was formerly written in letters of gold upon the forepart of the pope's mitre. Scaliger (3) affirms it upon the authority of the Duke de Montmorency, who received his information from a man of good credit at Rome. Francis le Moyne and Brocardus (4)

(2) Macrobii Saturnal. Lib. 3. Cap. 9.

(3) Feu Monfieur de Montmorency eftant à Rome du temps qu'on parloit librement & du S. Pere & du S. Siege, apprit d'homme digne de foy, qu'à la verité le tiare pontifical avoit efcript au frontal en let

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tres d'or Myfterium. Scal. in locum apud Critic. Sacr.

(4) Idem quoque confirmant Franc. le Moyne et Jacobus Brocardus in h. 1. ad autoa provocantes, non diffimulante Leonardo Leffio. Wolfius in locum. In tiara, in mitra papæ habes hoc verbum Myfterium fcriptum:

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confirm it, appealing to ocular inspection; and when King James objected this, Leffius could not deny it. If the thing be true, it is a wonderful coincidence of the event with the letter of the prophecy; but it hath been much controverted, and you may fee the authors on both fides in (5) Wolfius. It is much more certain, and none of that communion can deny it, that the ancient mitres were ufually adorned with inscriptions. One particularly One particularly (6) there is preserved at Rome as a precious relic of pope Sylvefter I, richly but not artfully embroidered "with the figure of the virgin Mary crowned, "and holding a little Chrift, and these words "in large capitals underneath, AVE REGI"NA CELI, Hail queen of heaven, in the front; "of which father Angelo Rocca, keeper of "the pope's facrifty, and an eminent antiquary "has given a copper-plate in the third vol. p.

490 of the works of pope Gregory I. and it "seems more probably to have belonged to Gregory;

"Gregory; because he is faid to have firft in"ftituted at Rome the litanies to the virgin "Mary." An infcription this directly contrary to that on the forefront of the high priest's mitre, (Exod. XXVIII. 36.) HOLINESS TO THE LORD."

Infamous as the woman is for her idolatry, fhe is no lefs deteftable for her cruelty, which are the two principal characteristics of the Antichriftian empire. She is (ver. 6.) drunken with the blood of the faints, and with the blood of the martyrs of fefus: which may indeed be applied both to Pagan and to Chriftian Rome, for both have in their turns cruelly perfecuted the faints and martyrs of Jefus; but the latter is more deferving of the character, as the hath far exceeded the former both in the degree and duration of her perfecutions. It is very true, as was hinted before, that if Rome Pagan hath flain her thoufands of innocent Chriftians, Rome Chriftian hath flain her ten thoufands. For not to mention other outrageous flaughters and barbarities; the croifades against the Waldenfes and Albigenfes, the murders committed by the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the maffacres in France and in Ireland, will probably amount to above ten times the number of all the Chriftians flain in all the ten perfecutions of the Roman emperors

emperors put together. St. John's admiration alfo plainly evinces, that Chriftian Rome was intended for it could be no matter of surprise. to him, that a Heathen city fhould perfecute the Chriftians, when he himself had seen and fuffered the perfecutions under Nero; but that a city, profeffedly Chriftian, fhould wanton and riot in the blood of Chriftians, was a fubject of aftonishment indeed; and well might he, as it is emphatically expreffed, wonder with great wonder.

7 And the angel faid unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beaft that carrieth her, which hath the feven heads and ten horns.

8 The beast that thou faweft, was, and is not; and fhall afcend out of the bottomlefs pit, and go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth fhall wonder, (whofe names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9 And here is the mind which hath wifdom. The feven heads are feven mountains on which the woman fitteth.