which loom up before them like the smoke of a city which has fallen in devouring flames! Kings and first characters of papal earth; those mystic buyers of her merchandise, howl and bewail her darling fallen glory! Priests, cardinals, and legates,-all their popes,-archbishops, Jesuits, venders of sins; bishops and friars, keepers of their nuns; haters of marriage (pure in heart no doubt), this horde of papal merchants, once most rich, but now how fallen; all lament and mourn, "Alas, alas," such glory, O how fallen. Well are these hordes of the papal hierarchy noted as her merchants, and as being rich by the abundance of her delicacies,-rich, in trading in the souls of men. The invoice of the delectable variety of their riches is mystically given in this chapter. Papal history tells the true story;-vending indulgences to sin, pardoning sins, and praying souls out of purgatory for money-by things like these those merchants had their wealth! Fat livings flowed thence in great abundance. The coffers of his holiness, how rich!-eight millions of dollars, annually, were said to be his revenue. And his clergy were made rich indeed. But behold their tremendous reverse. "The merchants of these things,-made rich by her, stand afar off, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, for in one hour so great riches are come to naught!" Behold the contrast between them and the dear people of God, verse 20. "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets: for God hath avenged you on her." They rejoice not in revenge; but in holy love to God, and to his justice and truth. The falling of popery is matter of joy to heaven and earth! Its fall commenced in the Reformation; and succeeding vials of wrath pushed forward the same event. The fifth vial (verse 2d of our text) hurled the hateful power from all her reigning predominance, flung her upon the back of a military despotism, and set her on the way to the fatal execution of the seventh vial, when the declaration (verse 21 of our text) shall be fulfilled: "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." It is plain, then, that after the papal mystery Babylon the great "is fallen, is fallen," as in our text, verse 2 (fallen under the fifth vial as has been shown: fallen, as in chap. xiv. 8, at a period distinctly antecedent to the battle of the great day-the seventh vial, as is there shown); yet in verse 21 of our text, a great Babylon is still to fall; to fall under the seventh vial, as a millstone sunk in the ocean. To recollect this fact, which has before been given, turn to Rev. xix. 19, 20, and Dan. vii. 11, where both give the same idea,-that the infidel Roman beast stands first, in that closing scene; and popery (in Daniel, the horn of that beast, and in Rev. xix. the false prophet under him) is next, and sinks with the beast to perdition. thus evident it is, that the Babylon in verse 21 of our text is that great beast; and the Babylon, which has already fallen, in verse 2 of our text, is fallen popery. In this fall of the system of infidelity and popery, the beast of Rev. xvii. executes his commission upon the filthy papal harlot mounted on his back, who herself had been Mystery, Babylon the Great, so long as she reigned over the kings of the earth. But she fell from that dominant state under a military power, which under a succeeding vial of wrath, the seventh, "eats her flesh, and burns her with fire," and is the means of her and its own destruction. The last verse of our text assures that "in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Seas of the blood of martyrs, the papal power had actually shed for many centuries; and the harlot is thus "drunken with the blood of the saints." Her murderous sword had shed the blood of millions of the dear followers of the Lamb. And she had thus approved, and virtually made her own, all the guilt of persecution, from the days of Cain. The seas of blood shed in pagan Rome, this mother of harlots has taken to herself, by making an image to that pagan beast,-commanding all to worship it, and causing that all who would not, should die! This sentiment, our blessed Lord applied to the Jews thus; Luke xi. 47; "Wo unto you; for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly your bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers." Christ then assures them, that all the blood which had been shed in the ages from Abel, should be required of them who by their persecuting spirit had approved of such persecution, and thus make the guilt their own. This illustrates the last verse in our text, that in her is found all the blood shed upon the earth! LECTURE XXXIII. REVELATION XIX. Ver. 1. And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia : Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2. For true and righteous arè his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. 3. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. 4. And the four and twenty elders, and the four beasts, fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Hh Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. 13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God. 14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. 15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. 17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun and The cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; 18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. 19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword. of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. This chapter gives the two most signal temporal events found in prophecy ;-the battle of the great day of God, and the introduction of the Millennium. The latter, it gives first; as is the case in the seventh trumpet, and the seventh vial. In these three passages (which all allude to the same two great events), when the time of the great battle arrives, the hearts of the saints are fortified by first presenting them with the blessed commencement of the Millennium. The passages then revert back to the battle, and give a concise view of it. After these things (says verse 1st of the text), a great voice of much people in heaven is heard; the sentiment of the church, perhaps militant, and triumphant,—and of angels, giving praise and glory to God for his judgments thus executed on papal Antichrist, and the horrid system: of atheism lately raised from the bottomless pit. These unitedly (the beast, and the false prophet) will now have sunk in perdition; for which the elders, the living creatures, and a voice from the throne, give united glory to God, and sing Alleluia; and the smoke of the torment of the fallen legions ascends up for ever. The voice of this united praise is like the roaring of many waters, and of mighty thunders! and the sentiment is, "for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." God now, and henceforth, reigns on earth in the hearts of its holy and obedient inhabitants. God from the beginning has reigned, in his whole empire of creation, doing all his will; the grand result of the whole of which will then be found to be, that all antichristian enemies are swept from the earth, and the morning |