Revelation 18

Revelation 18:1

And another representation I received of the desolation that was to befall heathen Rome by Alaricus, &c. and of the consequents of it; for methought I saw a mighty angel come down from heaven in a most glorious manner, or with power to disabuse the world, and shew them what they saw not before, viz. how false it was that was said of that city, that it was eternal.

Revelation 18:2

And he cried aloud, that all might hear, saying, That great heathen city, so like Babylon of old for greatness, populousness, heathenism, luxury, oppressing the people of God, is now destroyed, fallen from that eternity it dreamed of, and is now overrun with barbarians, (so scorned before and hated by them,) that is, Goths and Vandals, &c. as with satyrs and owls, Zim and Ohim, &c.

[a] Babylon] That the title of Babylon here is bestowed on Rome in the vision of her destruction is resolved by St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, l. 18. c. 2, Ipsa Babylonia quasi prima Roma, Roma quasi secunda Babylonia est, “Babylon was as a first Rome, and Rome is as a second Babylon;” and, c. 22, Condita est Roma velut altera Babylon, et prioris

n See Orosius, l. 7. c. 39.

Revelation 18:3

And this is a most just punishment of her foul idolatries, which she hath infused into other nations as far as her power extended, and of her great pride and luxury, the expenses laid out on which were the enriching of the merchants of other nations, which brought in fuel to the feeding, materials to the supporting of it.

Revelation 18:4

And another voice, methought, I heard, warning all Christians to come out of her, that is, first, to abstain strictly from all communicating with her sins, (contrary to what the looser sort of Christians did;) and, secondly, to depart out of the city, (as the emperor Honorius and the bishop Innocentius did to Ravenna, at the time of Alaricus’s siege;) and thirdly, to fly to the Basilica, or Christian church, at the time of plundering or destroying Rome, (as the Christians did,) as the only way of rescuing them from the destruction.

Revelation 18:5

For the voice or cry of her sins is come to heaven, and now the vengeance is come upon her.

Revelation 18:6

Now she shall be paid for all her provocations, and as she hath meted to others, (the Christians persecuted by her,) so shall it be by the Goths, &c. meted to her with advantage; she hath mixed a poisonous cup, a mixture of wine and myrrh, in seducing some and persecuting others, and now she shall have twice as much bitterness provided for her.

Revelation 18:7

For all her pride and luxury and haughtiness and blasphemy in calling herself eternal, and pronouncing that she should never be subdued, (see Isa. xlvii. 7, 8,) now she shall see she is mortal, and subject to be overcome as well as others.

Revelation 18:8

For as a punishment of her pride and huge opinion of herself, that she should reign for ever, on a sudden, all together shall an huge vastation come upon her, a plague, a slaughter, and a famine, and a burning of the city, a third part of it, ch. xvi. 19, and xvii. 16, (see note [e] ch. xvii,) and all this a visible judgment of God upon her, in whose hands are all the creatures, ready pressed for his service, to execute his vengeance on his enemies.

[b] she shall be utterly burnt] The κατακανθήσεται, which is ordinarily rendered shall be utterly burnt, may seem to have some difficulty in it, and be objected against our interpretation of this vision, because it is known that the desolation and firing by Alaricus, Gensericus, and Totilas, was not an utter desolation or firing of the whole city, but of a part thereof. And to this the answer is insufficient, that κατακαίεσθαι is conflagrare, to be set on light fire, and doth not necessarily import that fire’s consuming of all that might be consumed, because other expressions here follow in this matter which cannot be so answered: as, ver. 21, where the stone like a millstone is cast into the sea, which seems to signify a total destruction; and it is added, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no longer, οὐ μὴ ἔτι. And so again, ver. 22, 23, The voice of harpers, &c., and

Revelation 18:9

When this comes to pass, then shall those of the ten kingdoms which have continued under her obedience, and joined with her in her idolatries and luxuries, (see note [c] 1 Tim. v.) lament and mourn for her, but not be able to assist her.

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But on the contrary, forsake and be afraid of bringing her any relief, the destruction coming so suddenly and irresistibly (see note [e] ch. xvii.) upon her.

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And some loss this will be to the merchants, ver. 3, who will have many commodities lying on their hands, without any vent, nobody being so rich and so vainly luxurious as these that are now destroyed:

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None trading so much in all the bravery of attire and of household stuff, buying all that any would bring of any of these kinds,

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Of perfumes and festival plenty, of pompous attendants, and addition of horses and chariots, and of hired servants and bond servants.

[c] slaves] Σώματα, saith Julius Pollux, signifies, when it is taken simply by itself, without any additament, those that are not bondslaves but freemen, which sell or hire themselves for money, Σώματα ἁπλῶς οὐκ ἂν δοῦλα σώματα, &c. And this, because freemen have power over their own bodies, whereas slaves have nothing but souls. As for the ψυχαὶ ἀνθρώπων, souls of men, the phrase is taken out of Ezekiel, ch. xvii. 13, who, speaking of Tyre, a city of merchants, saith that they traffick בְּנַפְשִׁים, super anima hominis, for the soul of man, which St. Hierome renders mancipia, slaves, and so the latter Greeks call slaves ψυχάρια, little souls; and so Gen. xii. 5, the souls which they had gotten in Haran, may be their bondservants, because, as was said, slaves have souls, though nothing else, in their own power.

Revelation 18:14

Now is the enjoying of those things which thou lovest best interdicted thee, and all the instruments of thy luxury and bravery, thy epicurism and thy

Revelation 18:15

And when the merchants hear the news, they shall stop their course, and divert to some other place, and do the same thing as if they were afraid of falling under the same calamities by approaching near her.

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And make complaints that they have lost such an excellent customer so suddenly.

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And all this an eminent act of God’s providence, both that all those nations should first confederate with the Romans, and also that they should now break off, and execute God’s vengeance upon them.

And the same is the case of the mariners, whose wealth is in the sea, there being now no occasion of such resort to this place.

[g] God hath put in their hearts] The strangeness of this judgment on that city, and the immediate hand of God in it, will appear (beside what hath been said of somebody molesting and forcing Alaricus to it note [i]) by these three things. First, By the suddenness of the taking of it, so suddenly, that when word was brought to Honorius to Ravenna that Rome was destroyed, he thought they had meant a cock called by that name, Roma, as Prosper hath it in Chronico: and this is referred to in the vision, ch. xviii. 10, For in one day thy judgment cometh, and ver. 19, For in one hour she is become desolate. Secondly, That they made such speed in rifling it, that when one would think three years had been little enough to obey Alaricus’s command, in searching out and taking away all the treasure of the city, all n historians agree, that they were but three days about it; only Marcellinus saith that the sixth day after Alaricus entered he went out again. Thirdly, That Alaricus having thus taken and rifled and possessed the city, should neither stay in it and keep it, nor go on with his army against the emperor, but absolutely retire so soon after so strange a success; as if God that had sent him on this message or service on purpose, and never suffered him to be quiet till he had done it, as soon as the work was done for which he sent him, had immediately recalled him, and not permitted him to go one step further, and so only used him as a means to deliver up the city to the Christians, the idolaters being generally destroyed out of it by this means, and the Christians as generally preserved.

Revelation 18:18

And the woman which thou sawest is the Roman power, which hath many princes under her, or the empire of Rome and the world.

CHAP. XVIII.

And therefore they bewail her former greatness, and their own loss in her destruction;

Revelation 18:19

And shall admire the suddenness and unexpectedness of it: (see note [ʃ] ch. xvii.)

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But as this is matter of bewailing to all these, so is it of rejoicing to the angels and saints in heaven, to the apostles and rulers of the church, the persecuting and slaying of whom is it which is thus punished upon her.

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And methought an angel of God took a stone

Revelation 18:23

[d] thy merchants] Who are thy merchants here, may be thought uncertain, because the word thy either may refer to foreign nations, who trade with thee, or else may be thy traders or traffickers, the chap-

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