Antichrist shall be brought to ruin gradually; a part after a part:
here a fenced city and there a high tower, even until she is made to
lie even with the ground.
As for the order of the angels that pour forth this wrath, they
plainly show that this enemy must come down by degrees; for these
vials are by them poured out one after another. Now, since by these
vials antichrist must fall, it is evident that this man of sin, this
son of perdition, is to fall and die by degrees. He would not die at
all, as is manifest by his wrestling with it; but it is an almighty
God that judges, and therefore he must come down. His friends also,
with what cordials they can, will labor to lengthen out his
tranquillity; but God hath set his bounds, and he cannot go beyond
the time appointed.
We must also put a difference betwixt his being fought with and
wounded, and that of his dying the death. Michael and his angels
have been holding him in play a long season, but yet he is not dead;
but, as I said, he shall descend into battle and perish, and shall
be found no more for ever.
"And the cities of the nations fell," Rev. 16:19; the cities of the
nations, the antichristian churches, otherwise called the daughters
of the mother of harlots. This is a second stroke that God will give
this man of sin, and a third cometh quickly.
Wherefore it follows, upon the downfall of those cities of the
nations, that great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to
give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Now then, strike at great Babylon. Great Babylon! What is that? Why,
I take it to be the mother, the metropolitan, the great harlot
herself. For though sometimes by great Babylon we may understand the
church of antichrist in general, yet by it is meant more properly
the mother of the daughters, of whose overthrow we have spoken
before.
We are now, then, come to the threshold of the door of the house of
the old one--to the door of the mother of harlots and abomination of
the earth. This then that but now is said to come into remembrance
with God, is that which gave being to the cities destroyed before,
to wit, the ministers, the queen, the mother-church as she calls
herself.
And this is the wisdom of God concerning her, that she should not be
the first that should die, but that she should live to see the
destruction of her daughters, and pine away under the fright and
sense of that, even until judgment also shall overtake herself.
Thus Pharaoh and his chief ones did live to see the greatest part of
Egypt destroyed, before judgment overtook them; but at last it came
to their doors also. Zedekiah lived to see his children slain before
his face, before judgment overtook him to his own personal
destruction.
Babylon also, when God sent the cup of his fury unto her, yet was to
live to see the nations drink before her.
From all which I conclude that the mother, the metropolitan, the
lady of kingdoms, shall live to see her daughters executed before
her face; after which, she shall come into consideration herself,
for she must assuredly drink of the cup.
This destruction must be last for this reason also, because she most
deserves the bottom of the cup. The bottom is the dregs, the most
bitter part, and that where the most heat and fiercest wrath of God
do lie. And great Babylon came into remembrance before God: "To give
unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."
Now then is the time of iniquity, when it will be come to the full;
and now also is the time of God's anger, when it will be come to the
full. Now therefore must the murders and thefts and blasphemies and
fornications belonging to this mother of harlots, be recompensed to
the full, to wit, with the dregs of this cup. Yet since the
hailstones come by weight and the wrath comes by measure--for so a
talent and a cup imports, Rev. 16:17-21--it follows that the
almighty God, even in the midst of the heat of all this anger, will
keep to the rules of justice and judgment while he is dealing with
this enemy: he has not passions to carry him beyond rules of
judgment, nor weakness to cause him to fall short of doing justice;
therefore he has his judgments for her by weight, and his
indignation by measure. But yet this weight and measure are not
suited to her constitution, not with an intent to purge or refine
her; but it is disposed according to the measure and nature of her
iniquity, and comes to sweep her as with the besom of destruction,
until she is swept off from the face of all the earth.
Now since she is dying, let us ring her passing-bell; for when she
is dead, we that live to see it intend to ring out.