"And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH." --Rev. xvii. 5.
The Two Babylons
There is this great difference between the works of men and the works
of God, that the same minute and searching investigation, which displays
the defects and imperfections of the one, brings out also the beauties
of the other. If the most finely polished needle on which the art of man
has been expended be subjected to a microscope, many inequalities, much
roughness and clumsiness, will be seen. But if the microscope be brought
to bear on the flowers of the field, no such result appears. Instead of
their beauty diminishing, new beauties and still more delicate, and have
escaped the naked eye, are forthwith discovered; beauties that make us
appreciate, in a way which otherwise we could have had little conception
of, the full force of the Lord's saying, "Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and
yet I say unto you, That even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed
like one of these." The same law appears also in comparing the
Word of God and the most finished productions of men. There are spots
and blemishes in the most admired productions of human genius. But the
more the Scriptures are searched, the more minutely they are studied,
the more their perfection appears; new beauties are brought into light
every day; and the discoveries of science, the researches of the
learned, and the labours of infidels, all alike conspire to illustrate
the wonderful harmony of all the parts, and the Divine beauty that
clothes the whole.
If this be the case with Scripture in general, it is especially the
case with prophetic Scripture. As every spoke in the wheel of Providence
revolves, the prophetic symbols start into still more bold and beautiful
relief. This is very strikingly the case with the prophetic language
that forms the groundwork and corner-stone of the present work. There
never has been any difficulty in the mind of any enlightened Protestant
in identifying the woman "sitting on seven mountains,"
and having on her forehead the name written, "Mystery, Babylon
the Great," with the Roman apostacy. "No other city
in the world has ever been celebrated, as the city of Rome has, for its
situation on seven hills. Pagan poets and orators, who had no thought of
elucidating prophecy, have alike characterised it as 'the seven hilled
city.'" Thus Virgil refers to it: "Rome has both
become the most beautiful (city) in the world, and alone has surrounded
for herself seven heights with a wall." *
Propertius, in the same strain, speaks of it (only adding
another trait, which completes the Apocalypt ic picture) as "The
lofty city on seven hills, which governs the whole world." *
Its "governing the whole world" is just
the counterpart of the Divine statement--"which reigneth over
the kings of the earth" (Rev. xvii. 18) To call Rome the city "of
the seven hills" was by its citizens held to be as descriptive
as to call it by its own proper name. Hence Horace speaks of it by
reference to its seven hills alone, when he addresses, "The
gods who have set their affections on the seven hills." *
Martial, in lik e manner, speaks of "The seven dominating
mountains." * In times long subsequent, the
same kind of language was in current use; for when Symmachus, the prefect
of the city, and the last acting Pagan Pontifex Maximus, as the Imperial
substitute, introduces by letter one friend of his to another, he calls
him "D septem montibus virum"--"a man from the seven
mountains," meaning thereby, as the commentators interpret it,
"Civem Romanum," "A Roman Citizen." * Now,
while this characteristic of Rome has ever been well marked and defined,
it has always been easy to show, that the Church which has its seat and
headquarters on the seven hills of Rome might most appropriately be
called "Babylon," inasmuch as it is the chief seat of
idolatry under the New Testament, as the ancient Babylon was the chief
seat of idolatry under the Old. But recent discoveries in Assyria, taken
in connection with the previously well-known but ill-understood history
and mythology of the ancient world, demonstrate that there is a vast
deal mor e significance in the name Babylon the Great than this. It has
been known all along that Popery was baptised Paganism; but God is now
making it manifest, that the Paganism which Rome has baptised is, in all
its essential elements, the very Paganism which prevailed in the ancient
literal Babylon, when Jehovah opened before Cyrus the two-leaved gates
of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.
That new and unexpected light, in some way or other, should be cast,
about this very period, on the Church of the grand Apostacy, the very
language and symbols of the Apocalypse might have prepared us to
anticipate. In the Apocalypse might have prepared us to anticipate. In
the Apocalyptic visions, it is just before the judgment upon her that,
for the first time, John sees the
Apostate Church with the name Babylon the Great "written
upon her forehead" (Rev. xvii.5). What means the writing of
that name "on the forehead"? Does it not naturally
indicate that, just before judgment overtakes, her real character was to
be so thoroughly developed, that everyone who has eyes to see, who has
the least spiritual discernment, would be compelled, as it were, on
ocular demonstration, to recognise the wonderful fitness of the title
which the Spirit of God had affixed to her. Her judgment is no w
evidently hastening on; and just as it approaches, the Providence of
God, conspiring with the Word of God, by light pouring in from all
quarters, makes it more and more evident that Rome is in very deed the
Babylon of the Apocalypse; that the essential character of her system,
the grand objects of her worship, her festivals, her doctrine and
discipline, her rites and ceremonies, her priesthood and their orders,
have all been derived from ancient Babylon; and, finally, that the Pope
himself is truly and pr operly the lineal representative of Belshazzar.
In the warfare that has been waged against the domineering pretensions
of Rome , it has too often been counted enough merely to meet and set
aside her presumptuous boast, that she is the mother and mistress of all
churches--the one Catholic Church, out of whose pale there is no
salvation. If ever there was excuse for such a mode of dealing with her,
that excuse will hold no longer. If the position I have laid down can be
maintained, she must be stripped of the name of a Christian Church
altogether; for if it was a Church of Christ that was convened on that
night, when the pontiff-king of Babylon, in the midst of his thousand
lords, "praised the gods of gold, and of solver, and of wood,
and of stone" (Dan. v.4), then the Church of Rome is entitled
to the name of a Christian Church; but not otherwise. This to some, no
doubt, will appear a very startling position; but it is one which it is
the object of this work to establish; and let the reader judge for
himself, whether I do not bring ample evidence to substantiate my
position.
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