I wondered, when I had seen her, with very great admiration. St. John is here invited, ver. 1, to be a spectator of the divine punishment upon the great harlot, who represents pagan Rome, as we shall see presently. The invitation comes with propriety from one of the seven Angels who held the vials of the wrath of God, as it was the function of those angels to execute the divine judgments on mankind. The apostle is, therefore, taken up, as he thought, by the angel, v. 3, into a desert, that very desert where Rome stood. The country round that metropolis of the world, was filled with towns and inhabitants, while she maintained her power, but when the barbarous nations came upon her like furious lions, they laid waste the lands all around for many miles; they razed the towns to the ground, and thus reduced the whole country to a desolate desert. In this condition it was when Rome was destroyed, and thus nearly it has remained ever since, as a lasting monument of the divine wrath. St. John being placed in this desert, sees the great harlot, or the woman, sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, &c. and being struck with amazement at so extraordinary a sight, V. 7. The Angel said to me : why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns; which the Angel does by parts thus : V. 18. The woman which thou sawest, is the great city, which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth. This great city, which has dominion over the kings of the earth, can be no other but imperial Rome, which had conquered almost all the kingdoms of the known world. Imperial heathen Rome, is, therefore, evidently meant and represented by the Woman or great Harlot. And thus it has been understood by the ancient fathers and by the modern interpreters of the Catholic Church.But furthermore, V. 15. And he, the angel, said to me, says St. John: the waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples*, and nations, and tongues. The harlot was said, v. 1, to sit upon many waters, which the angel here interprets to represent the many kingdoms, states, and countries, over which she ruled. Again, the angel tells him, that the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, v. 9, which is to say clearly, the seven mountains on which ancient Rome was built. These hills are, the Capitoline, Palatine, Aventine, Cælius, Esquiline, Quirinal, Viminal, some of which can scarce be deemed a part of modern Rome, as being now very little inhabited. The woman being now well known, we are next presented with a description of her person and qualities. She appears dressed in purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls, v. 4; the imperial lady is thus decked out in the most sumptuous manner; proudly displaying the great abundance of her riches, amassed from the spoils of the whole world. Purple was the usual robe of the emperors of Rome, and the Scarlet shows her stained with the blood of the martyrs. She holds in her hand a golden cup, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication, v. 4, a common scriptural expression for the abominations of idolatry; and with these she had notoriously polluted herself. For Rome, not content with worshipping her own heathenish gods, she adopted those of all the countries and nations she subdued. She thought by this extravagant religious worship to render all the deities propitious to her, and to this she ascribed the success of her arms. "Thus it is," said the Romans, "that this city has ex"tended her empire beyond the rising and setting sun, " and beyond the bounds of the ocean, because she vene"rates the gods she conquers, she makes foreign deities "her own, and even raises altars to those that are un"known to her." Min. Fel. Oct. In this manner * In the Greek text, peoples and multitudes. were her idolatrous abominations so multiplied, that there are said to have been 420 heathenish temples in that oity. Thus writes a Roman Poet: Sed quæ de septem totum circumspicit orbem Ovid. lib. 1. Trist. "Rome, which from seven mountains overlooks the whole "world, "Is the centre of empire, and the abode of the Gods." She even carried her superstition so far, lest any unknown god should not receive due worship, as to build a temple, which she dedicated to all the deities, calling it on that account Pantheon, "the temple of all the gods." "This city," said St. Leo, "not knowing the author of "her elevation, while she ruled over almost all the na"tions of the earth, she submitted to serve all their "gods: and she imagined herself to be the more reli"gious, as she rejected no kind of idolatrous worship." "Insomuch, that whatever superstitions had place "in other countries, they were all carefully transplanted "to Rome." Hom. 1. in Nat. Ap. Petri et Pauli. In fine, such was the filthiness of her fornication, such the excess of her prostitution to idolatry, that she even deified her impious emperors, raised statues to them to which incense was offered, and built temples to their memories. Such was ancient Rome, the great harlot, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication; and they who inhabited the earth, were made drunk with the wine of her whoredom, v. 2. She was not only intoxicated herself with all the delusions of idolatry, but she offered her golden cup all around to others. The unparalleled degree of power and grandeur, to which she was elevated, raised her to such an height of admiration in the eyes of all nations, that they viewed her with the utmost deference and respect, and readily embraced whatever superstition she herself followed or recommended. She had moreover the disposal of kingdoms, governments, riches, and dignities: what wonder then, if with such charms she debauched the kings and people of the earth? This same woman is further said to carry on her forehead the following inscription: A mystery: Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth, v. 5. Here is a mystery, or an enigma, to be unravelled, viz. Babylon the great the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth. The reader, we apprehend, is already prepared in great measure for the solving of this enigma. Babylon the great, is the great imperial city of pagan Rome. And she is the woman, as we have just above shown, who is the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth. This is the explanation of the proposed mystery. But to make it more clear, that by Babylon the great, is here meant idolatrous Rome, we appeal to the angel's words: The woman which thou sawest is the great city, which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth, v. 18; which, as we have before observed, plainly points out the great ancient city of Rome, that domineered over the greatest part of the kingdoms of the then known world. The woman therefore is the image of that city, and in the inscription on her forehead she is styled Babylon the great consequently Babylon the great, is here the same with the city of Rome. In the primitive ages this figurative name of Babylon was frequently given to heathen Rome by the Christians, on account of the resemblance of the characters of those two cities, for their idolatry, and for their oppressing, the one the Jews, the other the Christians. St. Peter dates his first letter from Babylon, 1 Pet. v. 13, that is, from Rome, as St. Jerome and Eusebius tell us. "The appellation of Babylon," said Tertulian," is used by St. John for the city of Rome, "because she resembles ancient Babylon, in the extent "of her walls, in her haughtiness on account of her do"minion, and in persecuting the saints." Lib. adv. Jud. "Rome is a second Babylon," says also St. Austin, "and "a daughter of the ancient Babylon." De Civit. lib. 22. c. 18. Babylon the great, is therefore sufficiently distinguished: but her character is completed, and she appears in plain colours, in what follows: And I saw, : says St. John, the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, v. 6. This inhuman woman, this impious Jezabel, this cruel persecutrix, has drenched herself with so much Christian blood, which she has spilt, that she appears to be drunk with it. Who is this but idolatrous persecuting Rome? Innumerable were the martyrs she put to death, throughout the vast extent of her dominions, and even in her own bosom, the city itself. Innumerable, likewise, were the other saints, or holy confessors, who, though not slain, were by her condemned to lose some of their limbs, and had an eye bored out, their tongues plucked away, or the sinews of a leg or a thigh cut, &c. or in fine, were put to tortures, that tore away their flesh, and drained their blood. We have seen the account of ten dreadful persecutions, which swept away an infinite multitude of Christians; and all these persecutions were the work of the Roman emperors, and their substitutes in the provinces. It is then apparent who the woman is, that was seen drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. After the description of the woman, we are then favoured with an account of the Beast that carries her, v. 7. The woman being the image of the city of Rome, the Beast on which she sits, naturally represents the Roman empire. And as the woman was styled the mother of fornication or idolatry, consequently Rome was the seat and centre of idolatry; and in like manner by the beast the Roman empire is represented as the empire of idolatry. The colour of the beast is scarlet, v. 3, an emblem of its sanguinary disposition: and it is said to be full of names of blasphemy, or marked over with the names of the heathenish Roman gods, the greatest indignity that can be offered to the majesty of the Supreme Being.Then the angel, who promised to St. John to discover to him, v. 7, the mystery both of the woman and the beast, tells him. : V. 8. The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction: and the inhabitants on the carth, (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of |