A DISCOURSE ON REVELATION XVIII. 21. And a mighty Angel, took up a Stone, like a great Milftone, and caft it into the Sea, faying, Thus with Violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. TH HIS Verse concludes the Defcription of divine Vengeance, that was to befal a People that had filled up the Measure of their Iniquity. And if St. John had not wrote this Book of Revelation, we had wanted one of the most alarming Prophecies, that are to be fulfilled perhaps in our own Days. We are all naturally curious to inquire into the Secrets of Hea ven, and read, if poffible, the Events which will happen in the World: here then our curiofity may be innocently indulged. In this Chapter God hath condefcended to lay open the Book of Futurity, and reveal to us the Doom of a City and People with which this Nation and many others are particularly concerned. And to fhew, that I am not bespeaking your Attention to a Paffage of Scripture, with which we have nothing to do; I hope to lay before you fuch Confiderations and Arguments upon the present Subject, as to convince you, that it may be made very useful and very plain, though it is taken out of the Book of Revelations. In order then to clear the Way as we go, and to lay a folid Foundation to build our Argument upon, it will be necessary in the first place, to confider and be fatisfied, what the word Babylon in this place means. That it does not mean the ancient City Babylon, the Capital of Chaldæa mentioned in Ifaiah, Daniel, and the Prophets of the Old Teftament, is very evident from this Confideration, that when St. John wrote the Book of Revelations, in which he he makes Ufe of the word Babylon, there was not one Stone left upon another of old Babylon, and it was fo totally demolished, that no one could difcover the Place where it had ftood: befides Ifaiah, who lived feven hundred Years before our Saviour, and who delivered Prophecies concerning the Destruction of Old Babylon, fpeaks in this remarkable Manner of its approaching Ruin. "I will make a "Man more precious than fine Gold: " even a Man, than the Golden Wedge of Ophir their Children fhall be dashed "to pieces before their eyes: their Houses "shall be spoiled, and their Wives ravish"ed! I will ftir up the Medes against "them, which shall not regard Silver: "and as for Gold, they fhall not delight I in it: their Bows fhall dash the young "Men to pieces: and they fhall have no pity on the fruit of the Womb: their eye shall not spare Children. And Babylon, the Glory of Kingdoms, the Beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be, as when God overthrew Sodom and "Gomorrah. It fhall never be inhabited: "nei Ifaiah xiii. 12-22. H 2 "neither fhall it be dwelt in from Gene- fhall the Shepherds make their folds "there. But wild Beafts of the defert "fhall be there: and their Houses fhall be "full of doleful Creatures: and Owls fhall "dwell there, and Satyrs shall dance there. And the wild Beafts of the Island fhall cry in their defolate Houses, and Dragons in their pleasant places: and her "time is near to come: and her days" meaning the day of deftruction, "shall not "be prolonged." This is Ifaiah's grand and dreadful Description of the Fall of ancient Babylon in Chaldæa: a neighbouring Country to the Jews, and from which they fuffered many Miseries and Calamities. This Prophecy then we may observe, has in it a very beautiful Propriety, as it gives the Jews a fine Prospect of comfort in the coming Vengeance upon their haughty Oppreffor. And therefore to carry your Admiration of God's Power, and the full performance of his Decrees ftill farther, this Prophecy a gainst ancient Babylon has been literally ful 1 fulfilled; for, more than four hundred Years ago, History and Travellers inform us, that not a Stone, nor a fingle Trace of its Grandeur remains, to make it look great in Death and splendid in its Ruins. Having thus far feen from fcriptural Authority that St. John does not mean the Babylon of the Old Teftament: let us now come to his own Defcription, and fee if we can trace out his Meaning from his own Words. And here, that we might not be left to Conjectures and uncertain Gueffes, he has given us in the 17th Chapter an Expreffion that will distinguish his from any other Babylon, and tell us plainly what he means. Obferve his Words-Upon her forehead was a Name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth-and I faw the Woman drunken with the Blood of the Saints, and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jefus: and when I faw her, I wondered with great Admiration. And the Angel faid unto me, Wherefore didft thou marvel? I will tell thee the Mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast that carrieth her, which hath the feven Heads-the feven Heads are |