Still keeping in view the object of God in sending these first

plagues--the punishment of the nations embraced within the territory of

the ten former kingdoms of Europe--we are directed with certainty to the

next great scourge that followed as a result of those already

developed--the almost universal military empire of Napoleon. The success

of three of the four greatest military leaders the world has ever

seen--Alexander, Cæsar, and Charlemagne--has been so clearly predicted

by inspiration that no believer in the truth of Revelation attempts to

deny it; therefore it is not surprising that the fourth--Napoleon--

should also be assigned a place in Apocalyptic vision: not so much

because of his all-powerful military genius merely, but because of his

mighty influence and effects upon the very nations that were especially

made the subject of prophecy, as they stand connected with the history

of God's people for centuries. At the close of the Revolution the French

nation had not virtue nor religion necessary to remedy the evils under

which they had long been suffering from the oppression of their

monarchs; for when they undertook the work and demolished the throne,

they let loose all the wildest elements of wrath to rage without

restraint. The nation rejected God, and God rejected the nation. He gave

them up to their own madness, to the fury of the most atrocious

wickedness that was ever developed under heaven. "From the wild excesses

and intolerable calamities of blood-red republicanism, the people were

rejoiced at length to find a refuge in a gigantic military despotism,

which became the terror and scourge of Europe." But the hand of God was

in this thing, also. When the sun scorches the earth with burning heat,

it is God that gives it its power. So Napoleon with his iron will and

towering genius was only an instrument in God's hand for scourging the

guilty nations. In the ordinary sense of the term Napoleon was not a

tyrant to his own nation. Still, his government was a despotism to

France; while to the Apocalyptic earth, or the ten kingdoms, he was a

scorching sun, for his empire extended over the whole. It finally became

a saying that "if Napoleon's cocked hat and gray coat should be raised

on the cliffs of Boulogne, all Europe would run to arms." This agrees

with the statement of the historian Judson, concerning the monarchs of

Europe, that "the mere name of Napoleon was a dread to them." None of

them could stand before his terrible onset. "Europe was shaken from end

to end by such armies as the world had not seen since the days of

Xerxes. Napoleon, whose hands were upheld by a score of distinguished

marshals, performed the miracles of genius. His brilliant achievements

still dazzle, while they amaze, the world." The crowns and scepters of

Europe he held as play-things in his hand, to dispose of at pleasure.

Says Wickes: "Never in the history of Christendom were ancient dynasties

overthrown, and new ones created, kings made and unmade, within so short

a period, as during the unparallelled career of this great conqueror. He

had the crowns and kingdoms of all Europe in his gift, to settle as he

pleased, or bestow as presents upon his relatives and friends. To his

brother Jerome he gave the crown of Westphalia; to his brother Louis,

the crown of Holland; to his brother Joseph, the kingdom of Spain; to

his brother-in-law and general Murat, the kingdom of Naples; and others

he conferred upon his favorite marshals."

When he invaded Russia, a territory outside of the Apocalyptic earth, he

exceeded his mission, and there met with the most terrible overthrow.

Although he entered that kingdom with the most magnificent army that he

had ever gathered together, yet for suffering and disaster that famous

retreat from burning Moscow stands without a parallel in history. It was

not the Russian armies that prevailed against him; it was God that

fought against him with the blasts of his north wind. These speedily

silenced those tremendous parks of artillery that had thundered upon the

fields of Jena, Friedland, Wagram, Marengo and Austerlitz, and scattered

those invincible battalions that had marched triumphant over Europe.

Ney, at the head of the National Guards, ever before victorious, was

compelled to beat a hasty retreat, glad to escape with the smallest

remnant of his host. Napoleon failed here because God had given him no

mission to perform in that territory.

Concerning his ambition, the Encyclopædia Britannica says: "With a frame

of iron, Napoleon could endure any hardships; and in war, in artillery

especially and engineering, he stands unrivalled in the world's

history.... He could not rest, and knew not when he had achieved

success.... He succeeded in alienating the peoples of Europe, in whose

behalf he pretended to be acting. And when they learned by bitter

experience that he had absolutely no love for liberty, and encouraged

equality only so long as it was an equality of subjects under his rule,

they soon began to war against what was in fact a world-destroying

military despotism." He was inspired with the most unbounded ambition,

which was nothing short of despotism over all Europe, if not the world.

Universal empire was his grand object, or, as it has been expressed by

historians, a desire to concentrate "the world in Europe--Europe in

France--France in Paris--Paris in _himself_." Says Wickes: "The empire

which he actually reared in Europe was a vast, oppressive, centralized

despotism.... To build it up, he desolated France through his terrible

conscriptions, requiring the whole strength and flower of the nation to

supply his armies. It is stated that after the wars of Napoleon there

were three times the number of women in France that there were of men.

The fathers, the husbands, the sons, the brothers, had fallen upon the

battle-field, and thus desolated almost every household in the kingdom.

Similar desolation also he carried by his wars into the other kingdoms."

The dread of Napoleon settled down upon all the nations of Europe. They

could not cope with his mighty genius, and therefore his presence was a

terror to them. When the allied powers secured his first abdication, in

1814, and sent him to the island of Elba, the desolating results of his

long career were shown in the work that the Congress of Vienna was

called upon to perform when it assembled in the fall of 1814. While the

representatives of the powers were laboring to repair the damage that

had been wrought and to adjust the territorial limitations of the

various nations that had been altered or entirely demolished, the

assemblage was suddenly surprised the following spring by the news that

Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was enroute to Paris. The terror and

consternation in Europe then experienced is shown by the following

quotation from Sir James Mackintosh, a man of high reputation as a

jurist, as a historian, and as a far-sighted and candid statesman:

"Was it in the power of language to describe the evil! Wars which had

raged for more than twenty years throughout Europe, which had spread

blood and desolation from Cadiz to Moscow, and from Naples to

Copenhagen; which had wasted the means of human enjoyment, and destroyed

the instruments of social improvement; which threatened to diffuse among

the European nations the dissolute and ferocious habits of a predatory

soldiery ... had been brought to a close.... Europe seemed to breathe

after her sufferings. In the midst of this fair prospect and of these

consolatory hopes, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba; three small

vessels reached the coast of Provence; their hopes are instantly

dispelled; the work of our toil and fortitude is undone: the blood of

Europe is spilled in vain."

The bitterest ingredients in the cup of these nations was the

humiliating overthrow of their own government and their subjection to

the hated _republican_ despotism of France. It was a scorching sun that

they could not endure. Still, they repented not to give God glory; they

continued as before. After Napoleon had accomplished the purpose for

which he was intended, God permitted this stupendous genius to be

subdued; but it required the combined powers of Europe to secure his

downfall.

Creasy, in his Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, says concerning

the battle of Waterloo, "The great battle which ended the twenty-three

years' war of the first French revolution, and which quelled the man

whose genius and ambition had so long _disturbed and desolated the

world_, deserves to be regarded by us ... with peculiar gratitude for

the repose which it secured for us and for the greater part of the human

race."

10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the

beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed

their tongues for pain,

11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and

their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Under this vial the symbols differ somewhat. The "beast" is evidently

the one of whom the image was made, referred to in verse 2--the Papacy.

The seat that the Papacy occupied from the time the dragon resigned in

favor of the beast (chap. 13:2) was his position of temporal power and

authority. In the following chapter the Papacy is described as _seated_

upon a ten-horned beast, the ten horns of which symbolized the kingdoms

of Europe. In this position it was able to exercise a guiding influence

over the European nations. We have already seen what great power the

Popes exercised in this direction during the Dark Ages. But the "beast"

of chapter 17 himself, as distinguished from his horns, symbolizes the

Holy Roman Empire, which was a revival of the old empire of the Cæsars.

This revived "world-empire" was closely allied to the Papacy. When

Charlemagne, the Carlovingian king, restored the empire of the West, he

was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III., A.D. 800. "The

Popes made the descendants of Charles Martel kings and emperors; the

grateful Frankish princes defended the Popes against all their enemies,

imperial and barbarian, and dowering them with cities and provinces,

laid the basis of their temporal sovereignty, which continued for more

than a thousand years." After the decline of the Carlovingian power the

imperial authority was again revived by Otto the Great (962), who was

crowned Emperor of the Romans by the Pope. Henceforth the empire of the

West was termed the _Holy Roman Empire_. "From this time on it was the

rule that the German king who was crowned at Aachen had a right to be

crowned ... emperor at Rome." So the general rule was that the Popes

upheld the emperors, and the emperors sustained the Popes in their

position as the spiritual heads of the church and as temporal rulers

over the Papal states, which were granted them originally by the

donations of Pepin and Charlemagne.

In chapter 13 the civil powers of Europe and the ecclesiastical power of

Rome are not shown by a double symbol--a woman and a beast--as in

chapter 17, but are there represented by a combination of symbols drawn

from the departments of human life and animal life, which shows that a

politico-religious system is intended, as heretofore explained; hence

the term _beast_, as there used, signifies either the Papacy or the

civil power. Thus the term is used in the present chapter under

consideration, and has reference here to the beast as an ecclesiastical

power--the Papacy--and his "seat" refers to his temporal authority.

This vial, then, being poured out upon his seat, with the result that

his kingdom was filled with darkness--a symbol drawn from nature--points

to the downfall of the Pope as a temporal ruler. Thus he would be

deprived of his "seat."

We have already seen that each plague prepares the way for a succeeding

one. Under the reign of Napoleon the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved

(1806). This was the beginning of the end of the Pope's temporal

authority; for the two had in a great measure been for ages

interdependent upon each other. Pius VII. was made a prisoner and the

temporal sovereignty of the Roman See declared to be at an end; while

the Pope himself was forced to disown all claim to rank as a temporal

ruler. Of course, this was but a temporary overthrow; for when the

period of Reaction came, the Pope recovered also temporal authority. But

the vast territories of Avignon, Venaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the

Romagna--representing fully _a third_ of all the Papal dominions--which

had been forcibly ceded to France under Napoleon, was never restored to

the Roman See. From that time the sun of the Pope's temporal kingdom

rapidly approached the horizon; while the inhabitants of his dominions

continued to blaspheme God through the atheistical Jacobinism that

infested to so great an extent the whole mass of society--symbolized by

their "sores"--and the firm supporters of Popery were filled with

excessive chagrin and mortification of mind--symbolized by their

"pains"--because the power of their leader, who professed temporal

sovereignty over the whole earth, was being suddenly destroyed and his

kingdom left in darkness. Concerning this matter the People's

Cyclopædia, after speaking of the blow the Pope's spiritual supremacy

received at the Reformation, says: "But in her relations to the State

the Roman church has since passed through _a long and critical

struggle_. The new theories _to which the French Revolution gave

currency_ have still further modified these relations." In the second

revolution of 1848 the Pope's temporal authority was about to be

entirely destroyed by the attempted establishment of the republic of

Italy; but at this juncture France, who, notwithstanding her plagues,

had not repented of her former deeds, not willing to desert entirely the

Papal cause after upholding it faithfully for centuries, interfered, and

the Pope was sustained in his position by a French garrison until 1870

(except a short time in 1867), at which time the success of King Victor

Emmanuel and his capture of the Eternal City established the free

government of United Italy. The temporal sun of the Pope set forever;

his kingdom was left in darkness.

12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river

Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of

the kings of the east might be prepared.

13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the

mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out

of the mouth of the false prophet.

14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which

go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to

gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and

keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his

shame.

16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the

Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

The symbols under this vial are so different that at first they scarcely

look like anything constituting a plague. By recalling a few

circumstances of history we shall understand why the river Euphrates was

selected as a symbol, and also, its true signification in this

connection. This river was connected with ancient Babylon, and while

running in its own channel was the protection of the city and an

obstacle to its capture. By turning the water of this river from its

course, King Cyrus (according to the account given by Herodotus)

succeeded in overthrowing the city, with the result that God's people

who were at that time in captivity there received permission to return

to their own land and to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. Ezra

1:1-3. Under the sixth trumpet this symbol was applied to the four

angels as a symbol of the restraint placed upon their operations, they

being bound in that river. As there are no agents in this vision who are

represented as bound, we must apply it to the city itself, the name of

which is given in verse 19--Babylon--being a symbol of one of its

defenses. According to verse 19 this mystical Babylon is composed of

three parts, being made up of the dragon (in his modern form), the

beast, and the false prophet mentioned in verse 13. And its location is

not confined to the territory of the ten kingdoms; for its field of

operations is not only that of the "earth"--the Apocalyptic earth--but

"_of the whole world_." Ver. 14. In one division of this great city,

that of the false prophet, God's people were long held in captivity; but

its spiritual overthrow was to be accomplished by the drying up of the

Euphrates of its defenses, that the way of the kings of the East might

be prepared.[12]

[Footnote 12: Applying the Euphrates (an object from nature) as a symbol

of ecclesiastical affairs in this manner appears to be in violation of

the laws of symbolic language laid down; but we should bear in mind the

fact that events of whatever nature connected with the history of God's

chosen people in the old dispensation are of themselves proper symbols

of similar events in the New Testament dispensation. Thus the temple,

altar, candle-sticks, incense, holy city, etc., of the former

dispensation, although of themselves objects from nature, are

nevertheless clearly used to represent affairs of the church, because of

their former significance as connected with the people of God. The fact

that the great city of this chapter is spiritual Babylon (see verse 19)

is positive proof that the river Euphrates is here applied in the proper

manner.]

To the Hebrews the term _east_ had a much more extensive signification

than with us, to whom its only distinction is that it is the point of

the sun's rising. But beyond this, it was to the Jews the cardinal point

of the compass to which they naturally looked first. Their temple was

built toward the east, its principal entrance being in that direction.

The most powerful and enlightened kingdoms of the world lay to the east

of Judea, and they included them all under the general term, sons or

children of the East (Orientals) and kings of the East, comprehending

not only Arabia and the lands of Moab and Ammon, but also Armenia,

Assyria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia and Chaldea. Travelers from these

countries would all enter Judea from the east, and they were considered

Orientals. These nations were also distinguished for their proficiency

in science and learning. The Magi, or wise men of the East, came to

worship the infant Jesus at Jerusalem. They were eminent in the science

of astrology, which was considered the greatest science of that day. The

East, therefore, was looked to for wise men; and it is a noticeable fact

that the pathway of science, of literature, and of empire has ever been

from that direction, so as to have passed into a proverb, "westward the

star of empire holds its way." "The kings of the East," then, employed

as a symbol of this sixth vial, is not intended to signify any persons

literally from that quarter of the earth, but represents the bringing in

of knowledge and understanding. Thank God that we live in the time when

the defenses of spiritual Babylon have been broken through and when

light and knowledge on the Word of God has reached the hearts of many

redeemed souls held in bondage there! And like the Israelites of old,

when Cyrus, entered the ancient Babylon through the dry river-bed of the

Euphrates, they have come out with rejoicing and made their way to Zion

again. Halleluiah! That the spiritual downfall of Babylon is a real

plague to sectarians there can be no doubt, and it is plainly declared

to be such in chap. 18:8, where the same event is described.

At the very time when the defenses of Babylon are thrown down, the three

unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon

(Paganism), and out of the mouth of the beast (Romanism), and out of the

mouth of the false prophet (Protestantism), to gather together all the

wicked powers throughout "the whole world" for that last great day of

God Almighty.[13] There is no analagous object to which a _spirit_ can

be made a symbol; therefore we must regard them as being literally

spirits of devils, here appearing under their own appropriate title.

Their mission is to form a confederation of all the gigantic powers of

wickedness, slimy and loathsome as the animal to which they are likened,

and to array themselves against the cause of Christ.

[Footnote 13: I do not suppose that these three unclean spirits should

be limited in their operations to Paganism, Romanism, and Protestantism;

for that leaves out Mohammedanism, which is neither Pagan, Roman, nor

Protestant, yet is certainly "false prophecy"; and the three spirits

were to gather the "whole world."]

Armageddon, where the spirits gathered all the enemies of truth and

righteousness together, means the mountain of Megiddo, the memorable

field of the overthrow of Sisera's mighty host by Barak. It was also the

place of great defeat to the Israelites in the time of Josiah and the

scene of his death. The name, therefore, stands as a symbol for a field

of slaughter or defeat and denotes that when the confederation of

wickedness is complete, the united host of God's enemies will be utterly

defeated, as by the overthrow of Megiddo. This great conflict with

powers of wickedness and spirits infernal will be further explained in

chapter XX.

Simultaneous with the notable events of this vial, the announcement is

made of the near-coming of Christ to the world--"Behold I come as a

thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he

walk naked, and they see his shame." The children of God that have been

gathered out of old Babylon rejoice in the glad announcement and say,

"Even so come, Lord Jesus."

17. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and

there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the

throne, saying, It is done.

18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and

there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were

upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the

cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in

remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of

the fierceness of his wrath.

20. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not

found.

21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every

stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God

because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was

exceeding great.

The application of this vial to the judgments of the last great day is

so plain that but little comment is here necessary. It was poured "into

the air," a region of vast extent, not confined to a given locality, but

embracing the whole earth. Hence this plague is universal. When the

seventh angel emptied his vial, "There came a great voice out of the

temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done." All is now

fulfilled. The work of wrath is finished. The description of the plague

follows, but it follows only _as a description_. As actually

accomplished, it preceded that great voice, which was uttered in view of

the thing already brought to pass.

The dissolution of the earth itself upon which we live is not here

described, although according to the teaching of other scriptures it

occurs at this time; but the symbols, being drawn from the department of

the operations both of humanity and of nature, show the complete and

final overthrow of all the great powers civil and ecclesiastical. The

dominancy of these great powers has been the chief burden of Apocalyptic

vision, and here their utter destruction at last is set forth under

various symbols. The weight of the Jewish talent is said to have been

one hundred and fourteen pounds. Such a mass of ice descending from

heaven would beat down everything in its resistless, desolating fury.

There is no intimation, however, of men being killed under this or the

accompanying symbols; therefore as individuals they survive, while the

storm of wrath falls upon the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of

society, resulting in their utter annihilation. This is the "great day

of his wrath" described under the sixth seal, to the symbols of which

this description bears a striking resemblance, as any one can see at a

glance. Well may the oppressors of earth say to the mountains and hills,

"Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the

throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath

is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Chap. 6:16, 17.

CHAPTER XVII.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven

vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will

show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon

many waters:

2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,

and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the

wine of her fornication.

3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and

I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of

blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and

decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden

cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her

fornication:

5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON

THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

6. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and

with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I

wondered with great admiration.

Here again the narrative returns to take up another series of the

history. A number of times we have been taken over the same ground. It

is this feature of the Apocalypse more than any other that has misled

and perplexed commentators. Attempting to explain it as one continuous

narrative from beginning to end, they have been compelled to consider

numerous passages as "digressions," "parentheses," or "episodes," etc.

As already observed, however, the prophecy is not arranged after the

ordinary plan of histories, narrating all the contemporaneous events in

a given period, whether civil, religious, literary, scientific, or

biographical, thus finishing up the history of that period; but it

consists of a number of distinct themes running over the same ground.

In this chapter a more particular description of the church of Rome,

"that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (verse 18),

is given under the symbol of a drunken harlot. With this vile prostitute

"the kings of the earth have committed fornication"--they have

encouraged her in her corruption and idolatries--"and the inhabitants of

the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." This

latter symbol is doubtless taken from the cup of drugged wine with which

lewd women were accustomed to inflame their lovers. So had this apostate

church made "the inhabitants of the earth"--of the ten kingdoms--drunken

with her wine-cup and thus rendered them willing partakers in her

abominable idolatries. She is described in two positions--first, as

"sitting upon many waters," which the angel informs us "are peoples, and

multitudes, and nations, and tongues" (verse 15); and second, "upon a

scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads

and ten horns." The first position denotes her wide supremacy in the

world over distant peoples and nations; the second, the close

relationship that she sustained to the civil power. That beast carried

her in royal state. The civil powers of Europe have usually lent

themselves as a caparisoned hack for this great whore to ride upon and

have considered themselves highly honored thereby. This beast was full

of the names of blasphemy, which were the same as the blasphemous

assumptions of the Papacy, as explained in chapter XIII, showing that he

agreed perfectly with this apostate church in her impious claims and

supported her in them, making himself equally guilty and deserving of

the same name. What is intended exactly by his scarlet color I do not

know. The same power under its Pagan form was represented as a red

dragon.

The appearance of this woman was that of the most splendid character,

nor are we to suppose the contrary because she was such an infamous

prostitute. She may have been, and according to the description was, all

that, but still her appearance was such as to bewitch her admirers and

votaries. Robes of purple and scarlet, with the most costly profusion of

gold and diamonds, were superb adorning, even regal splendor. All that

skill and wealth could do in magnificence of attire was bestowed upon

her to set forth her charms. The "golden cup in her hand" was as to

richness in harmony with her dress, while as to contents it set forth

her character, for it was "full of abominations and filthiness of her

fornication." This cup was an appropriate symbol of her atrocious

wickedness and idolatries.

This woman had also a name written on her forehead. It was not, indeed,

placed there by herself nor by her admirers; but He who drew this

symbolic picture placed it there that all might know her true character.

"MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF

THE EARTH." Although this apostate church was only in embryo in the

apostles' day, yet the apostle who gave us a careful delineation of its

terrible characteristics declared that it was then developing and

denominated it a _mystery_. "The mystery of iniquity doth already work."

2 Thes. 2:7. The same apostle regarded as an unquestionable fact that

_godliness_ was a mystery (1 Tim. 3:16); but he who peruses the history

of the Papacy will be forced to declare with emphasis, "Without

controversy great is the mystery of Romanism." She is also styled

Babylon the Great. This name is derived from ancient Babylon. This city

was the center of the earth's idolatry and stood first of all as the

direct enemy of God's people. So, likewise, this church is the center of

earth's spiritual idolatry. There are other harlots, or corrupt

churches, in the world beside her; but she is the _mother_ of them all.

They are all children by her side. Some of them greatly honor her and in

deep veneration call her "_our holy mother church_;" but God brands her

as the "mother of harlots and abominations of the earth."

But the statement that she was a harlot merely, does not entirely

describe her character. She was a _drunken_ harlot. Drunken with

what--wine? No indeed; that were a very small sin for her. She was

"drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs

of Jesus." Romanists positively declare that their church never

persecutes; but with the picture of this drunken prostitute before our

eyes, we shall be hard to convince. To illustrate this point fully would

be to write a book of martyrs much larger than the present work; so, for

lack of space only, we shall have to content ourselves with merely

bringing forward a few of many historical proofs showing _that they

themselves_ claim the right to exterminate heretics.

Innumerable provincial and national councils have issued the most cruel

and bloody laws for the extermination of the Waldenses and other

so-called heretics; such as the Councils of Oxford, Toledo, Avignon,

Tours, Lavaur, Albi, Narbonne, Beziers, Tolosa, etc. Since Papists will

assert that these had no authority to establish a doctrine of the church

(although they clearly reflect its spirit), I remind the reader that

some of their _General_ Councils have by their decrees pronounced the

punishment of death for heresy. At least six of these highest judicial

assemblies of the Romish church, with the Pope at their head, have

authoritatively enjoined the persecution and extermination of heretics.

Extracts from the Acts of these Councils could be given if space

permitted. 1. The second General Council of Lateran (1139), in its

twenty-third canon. 2. The third General Council of Lateran (1179),

under Pope Alexander III. 3. The fourth General Council of Lateran

(1215), under the inhuman Pope Innocent III., which exceeded in ferocity

all similar decrees that had preceded it. 4. The sixteenth General

Council, held at Constance in 1414. This Council, with Pope Martin

present in person, condemned the reformers Huss and Jerome to be burned

at the stake and then prevailed on the emperor Sigismund to violate the

safe-conduct that he had given Huss, signed by his own hand, in which he

guaranteed the reformer a safe return to Bohemia; and the inhuman

sentence was carried out, with the haughty prelates standing by to

satiate their eyes on the sight of human agony. This council also

condemned the writings of Wickliffe and _ordered his bones to be dug up

and burnt_, which savage sentence was afterwards carried into effect;

and after lying in their grave for forty years, the remains of this

first translator of the English Bible were reduced to ashes and thrown

into the brook Swift. Well has the historian Fuller said, in reference

to this subject, "The brook Swift did convey his ashes into Avon, the

Avon into Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas, and they into the

main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wickliffe are the emblem of his

doctrie, which is now dispersed all over the world." 5. The Council of

Sienna (1423), which was afterwards continued at Basil. 6. The fifth

General Council of the Lateran (1514). The laws enacted in each

succeeding Council were generally marked, if possible, with augmented

barbarity.

Says the learned Edgar, in his Variations of Popery: "The principle of

persecution, being sanctioned not only by theologians, Popes and

provincial synods but also by General Councils, _is a necessary and

integral part of Romanism_. The Romish communion has, by its

representatives, declared its right to compel men to renounce heterodoxy

and embrace Catholicism, and to consign the obstinate to the civil power

to be banished, tortured, or killed." St. Aquinas, whom Romanists call

the "angelic Doctor," says, "Heretics are to be compelled by corporeal

punishments, that they may adhere to the faith." Again, "Heretics may

not only be excommunicated, but _justly killed_." He says that "the

church consigns such to the secular judges _to be exterminated from the

world by death_."

Cardinal Bellarmine is the great champion of Romanism and expounder of

its doctrines. He was the nephew of Pope Marcellus, and he is

acknowledged to be a standard writer with Romanists. In the twenty-first

and twenty-second chapters of the third book of his work entitled _De

Laicis_, he enters into a regular argument to prove that the church has

the right, and should exercise it, of punishing heretics with death. The

heading is his, together with what follows.

"Chapter XXI. _That heretics, condemned by the church, may be punished

with temporal penalties and even death._ We will briefly show that the

church has the _power and ought_ to cast off incorrigible heretics,

especially those who have elapsed, and that the secular power ought to

inflict on such temporal punishments and even death itself. 1. This may

be proved from the Scripture. 2. It is proved from the opinions and laws

of the emperors, _which the church has always approved_. 3. _It is

proved by the laws of the church ... experience proves that there is no

other remedy;_ for the church has tried step by step all remedies--first

excommunication alone; then pecuniary penalties; afterward banishment;

_and lastly has been forced to put them to death; to send them to their

own place_.... There are three grounds on which reason shows that

heretics should be put to death: the first is, Lest the wicked should

injure the righteous; second, That by the punishment of a few many may

be reformed. For many who were made torpid by impunity, are _roused by

the fear of punishment_; AND THIS WE DAILY SEE IS THE RESULT WHERE THE

INQUISITION FLOURISHES," etc.

"Chapter XXII. _Objections answered._ It remains to answer the

objections of Luther and other heretics. Argument 1. From the history of

the church at large. 'The church,' says Luther, 'from the beginning even

to this time, _has never burned a heretic_. Therefore it does not seem

to be the mind of the Holy Spirit that they should be burnt!' [He surely

misunderstood Luther.] I reply that this argument proves not the

sentiment, but the ignorance, or impudence of Luther; FOR AS ALMOST AN

INFINITE NUMBER WERE EITHER BURNED OR OTHERWISE PUT TO DEATH, Luther

either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant; or if he knew it, he

is convicted of impudence and falsehood,--for _that heretics were often

burnt_ BY THE CHURCH may be proved by adducing a few from many examples.

Argument 2. 'Experience shows that terror is not useful.' I reply

EXPERIENCE PROVES THE CONTRARY--for the Donatists, Manicheans, and

Albigenses WERE ROUTED AND ANNIHILATED BY ARMS," etc.

So this high dignitary of the Catholic church, a cardinal, a nephew of

one Pope and the special favorite of others, freely admits the charge so

often laid to Popery by creditable historians--the butchering of an

"infinite number" of people that differed from them--and here labors

hard to uphold it as a principle of righteousness. Their bloody crusades

against the innocent, unoffending Waldenses, Albigenses, and other

peoples, in which thousands, and in the aggregate _millions_, were

slaughtered like venomous reptiles, stand out on the page of history

with a prominence that can not be mistaken; and they themselves can not

deny it. Dowling has well said that their "history is written in lines

of blood. Compared with the butcheries of holy men and women by the

Papal Antichrist, the persecutions of the Pagan emperors of the first

three centuries sink into comparative insignificance. For not a tithe of

the blood of martyrs was shed by Paganism, that has been poured forth by

Popery; and the persecutors of Pagan Rome never dreamed of the thousand

ingenious contrivances of torture which the malignity of Popish

inquisitors succeeded in inventing." P. 541.

If any of my readers suppose that the character of Popery has changed

with the lapse of ages, I must tell you that such is not the ease.

Popery is unchangeable and this her ablest advocates declare. Chas.

Butler, in the work he wrote in reply to Southey's book of the church,

says, "It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of

their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed,

that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning,

_such it is now_, and SUCH IT EVER WILL BE." A copy of the eleventh

edition of The Faith of Our Fathers, published in Baltimore, Maryland,

in 1883, lies before me. It was written by Archbishop (now Cardinal)

James Gibbons, the highest authority of the Roman Catholic church in

this country. In page 95 he says: "It is a marvelous fact, worthy of

record, that in the whole history of the church, from the nineteenth

century to the first, no solitary example can be adduced to show that

any Pope or General Council ever revoked a decree of faith or morals

enacted by any preceding pontiff or council. Her record in the past

ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will _tolerate no doctrinal

variations in the future_." So the doctrine of her inherent right to

persecute and slay every one who disagrees with her, which has been

enacted by Pontiffs and General Councils and so carried out in the past,

is still in vogue and would now be enforced were it in her power to do

so.

While this statement of Gibbons' shows the unchangeable spirit of

Popery, still it is the basest presumption upon the historical knowledge

of the reader. The facts are that the _official_ acts of some of their

Popes and General Councils have been so far wrong that Romanists

themselves have been compelled to admit it. Thus the _sixth_ General

Council, which was held at Constantinople in 680, and which every

Catholic accepts as Ecumenical, condemned, in the strongest terms, Pope

Honorius as a Monothelite _heretic_. Let them attempt to deny it, and we

will bring forward our proof. Romish authors themselves admit it, the

well-known Dupin with the rest, as appears by the following extract from

his writings: "The Council had as much reason to censure him as Sergius,

Paulus, Peter, and the other Patriarchs o£ Constantinople." He adds in

language yet more emphatic, "This will stand for certain, then, that

Honorius _was condemned_, AND JUSTLY TOO, AS A HERETIC, by the sixth

General Council." Dupin's Eccl. History, Vol. II, p. 16.

The Decretals of Isodore furnish another example of Papal infallibility

(?). For ages these documents were the chief instrument of the Popes in

extending their power and the proof of the righteousness of their

assumptions to excessive temporal authority. Wickliffe declared them

false and apocryphal. For this he was condemned by the sixteenth

_General Council_, held at Constance in 1414, and his bones ordered dug

up and burnt because of his daring impudence. The spurious character of

these false decretals have since been proved beyond the shadow of a

doubt; and since it is impossible to deny it longer, it is admitted even

by Romanists. So, after all, this _infallible_ Council was wrong, the

Papists themselves being the judges.

Pope Benedict IX. was guilty of such flagitious crimes that he became an

object of public abhorrence, and he finally _sold_ the Popedom. One of

his infallible (?) successors in the Papal chair, Pope Victor III.,

pronounced this infallible (?) profligate a person "abandoned to all

manner of vice. A _successor of_ SIMON THE SORCERER, and NOT OF SIMON

THE APOSTLE." I do not question the truth of this assertion, but what

becomes of their boasted uninterrupted apostolical succession? Baronius,

the Popish annalist, confesses that Pope Sergius III. was "the slave of

every vice, and the most wicked of men." Among other horrid acts Platina

relates that he _rescinded the acts_ of Pope Formosus, compelled those

whom he had ordained to be re-ordained, dragged his dead body from the

sepulchre, beheaded him as though he were alive, and then threw him into

the Tiber! This Pope cohabited with an infamous prostitute named Marozia

and by her had a son named John, who afterwards ascended the Papal

throne, through the influence of his licentious mother, under the name

of John XI. So the unlawful amours of Sergius produced this infallible,

necessary link in the _holy_ chain of uninterrupted apostolical

succession! It must be remembered, also, that the Popes have for ages

laid claim themselves to infallibility; and in the last General Council

of that body, held at the Vatican in 1870, it was declared a dogma of

the church. Romanists will tell us that this decree refers only to his

official acts, and not to his personal character; but official acts have

been the main thing under consideration in the case of Sergius,

Honorius, and Benedict. But if such monsters of vice can produce good,

holy, infallible acts, as Papists declare, then Jesus Christ is

mistaken; for he declared positively that "a corrupt tree _bringeth

forth evil fruit_ ... neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good

fruit." Mat. 7:17, 18. "God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man

a liar." Rom. 3:4. During these dark ages thousands of priests, who were

by the laws of the church denied their Scriptural right of possessing a

wife (1 Cor. 7:9, etc.), lived openly with concubines; and the Council

of Toledo decreed that they should not be condemned therefor, provided

they were content with one.

But the devil produced his master-piece of iniquity in the person of

Roderic Borgia, who ascended the Papal throne in 1492 under the name of

Alexander VI. The utmost limits assigned to Papal depravity were

realized in him, so that the very name Borgia has come to be used as a

designation of any person unusually wicked. Says Waddington: "The

ecclesiastical records of fifteen centuries ... contain no name so

loathsome, no crimes so foul as his.... Not one among the many zealous

annalists of the Roman church has breathed a whisper in his praise....

He publicly cohabited with a Roman matron named Vanozia, by whom he had

five acknowledged children. Neither in his manners nor in his language

did he affect any regard for morality or decency; and one of the

earliest acts of his pontificate was, to celebrate, with scandalous

magnificence, in his own palace, the marriage of his daughter Lucretia.

On one occasion this prodigy of vice gave a splendid entertainment,

within the walls of the Vatican, to no less than fifty public

prostitutes at once, and that in the presence of his daughter Lucretia,

at which entertainment deeds of darkness were done, over which decency

must throw a veil; and yet this monster of vice was, according to Papist

... the vicar of God upon earth, and was addressed by the title of HIS

HOLINESS!!" But why stir this cesspool of filth any longer? Is not that

church of which Alexander VI. was for eleven years the crowned and

anointed head--a necessary link in the boasted chain of _holy_

apostolical succession, the pretended vicar of Christ upon earth--is it

not, I ask, fitly described by the pen of inspiration "MOTHER OF HARLOTS

AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH," as she reeled onward in the career of

ages, "drunken with the blood of the saints"?

7. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I

will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that

carriest her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

8. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend

out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that

dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in

the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they

behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

9. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are

seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

10. And there are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and

the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue

a short space.

11. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth,

and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

12. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which

have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one

hour with the beast.

13. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength

unto the beast.

14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall

overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and

they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

The angel promises to explain "the mystery of the woman and of the beast

that carried her." The beast is the same as the secular beast with seven

heads and ten horns, described in chapter 13. An explanation of its

heads and horns has already been given. The expression "the seven heads

are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and there are seven

kings," requires further explanation. Many have understood the mountains

to signify the seven mountains on which the city of Rome is said to be

built; but that is adopting the literal mode of interpretation, and is

contrary to the laws of symbolic language. The more obvious meaning is

that the seven heads represent seven mountains and also seven kings; but

this probably is not the idea intended. The heads of a beast are not the

proper symbol of mountains. The fact, too, that the woman is represented

as sitting upon these mountains, shows that they are to be taken as a

symbol, as well as the woman, and not the object symbolized. They are,

then, the same as the heads and denote the seven kings or seven forms of

government under which the Roman empire subsisted.

The seventh and last head has not yet been identified. Before

considering it, however, I wish to call attention to another point that

has already been referred to. The beast that John here saw, with the

seven heads and ten horns, was Rome under the Papal power. Did new Rome

in reality have the seven heads? No. The dragon John saw in chapter 12

is represented as having seven heads and ten horns, and signified Rome

under the Pagan power. Did old Rome really possess the ten horns? No.

According to verse 12 in this chapter, they were to arise future of

John's time. But notice carefully that the seven heads, which according

to this description, belonged to the beast sustaining the Papal power in

after years, are here explained by the angel as signifying the very

forms of government by which _Pagan_ Rome subsisted. "Five _are fallen_

[a past event], one _is_ [exists at this present time], and the other

_is not yet come_." So according to divine interpretation, the same

heads and horns serve for both the dragon and the beast. This could not

possibly be a true representation unless they were both in reality the

_same beast_, they being represented as two only for the purpose of

describing the two phases of Roman history--Pagan and Papal.

With this point established, that these two forms of Roman history are

the same beast, we are now prepared to understand the statement that the

beast "was and is not, and yet is." This is equivalent to saying that

the beast existed, it ceased to exist, and then it came into existence

again. This was exactly the history of Rome. Its downfall under the

Pagan form was described under the fourth trumpet as an eclipse of the

sun, moon and stars, so that they shone not for a third part of the day

and night. For a time it seemed not to exist. A little later the eclipse

is lifted; the beast exists again under the Papal form. In this is set

forth clearly the wounding and the healing of the beast. The wound was

inflicted on its sixth, or Imperial, head (for the first five had

already fallen, according to the historical facts just related), being

accomplished by the hordes of Northern barbarians overturning the empire

of the West. It appeared for a time that the beast was indeed wounded

unto death; but not so: to the surprise of all, he survived under the

form of the seventh head. At this point the question is sure to be

asked, How could the beast continue to live if its seventh head was to

continue but "a short space"? This is accounted for by the fact that

there was what might be appropriately called an eighth head, but which

was in reality of the seven. "And the beast that was, and is not, even

he is the eighth, and is of the seven." Verse 11.

The identification of the seventh head will now make the matter

complete. The facts all meet in the Carlovingian empire, or the empire

of Charlemagne. In the year 774 Charlemagne completed the work begun by

Pepin twenty years before and overthrew the kingdom of the Lombards in

Italy, which was the last of the three horns plucked up before the

little horn of Daniel. By this victory he became complete master of

Italy, and he received the title Patrician of Rome. This was not merely

an honorary title, such as had for ages been conferred upon certain

individuals; but it was a distinct form of civil government and supreme,

taking the same rank with that of the Consular, the Decemvirate, the

Triumvirate, etc., in the earlier history of the nation. It lasted,

however, only "a short space," or twenty-six years, when Charlemagne,

having extended his conquests over all the western part of Europe,

assumed the Imperial title and thus revived the empire of Rome in the

West under its Gothic form. In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,

Gibbon says: "In the twenty-six years that elapsed between the conquest

of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation, Rome, which had been delivered

by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the scepter, of Charlemagne.

The people swore allegiance to his person and family; in his name, money

was coined, and justice was administered, and the election of Popes was

examined and confirmed by his authority--except an original and

self-inherent claim of sovereignity, there was not any prerogative

remaining which the title of emperor could add to the Patrician of

Rome." This decisive testimony by the highest authority on the subject

shows conclusively that all the power of sovereignty resided in

Charlemagne as the Patrician of Rome, and that this, therefore, is a

proper head to be ranked with the other six that preceded it.[14]

[Footnote 14: Commentators frequently identify the seventh head with the

Exarchate of Ravenna. After the overthrow of the kingdom of the

Ostrogoths in Italy by Belisarius, the general of Justinian, about the

middle of the sixth century, the territory became subject to the emperor

of the Eastern empire and was ruled by him through an Exarch whose place

of residence was Ravenna. This Exarchate (sometimes called _Patriciate_)

continued until about the middle of the eighth century, when it was

terminated by Astolphus, king of the Lombards, who made Ravenna the

capital of the Lombardic kingdom in 752. Three years later the Lombards

were defeated by Pepin, who made the Holy See a present of the lands he

conquered from them--the origin of the temporal power of the Popes.

Pepin was succeeded by his son Charlemagne, who was appointed

_Patrician_ of Rome, by the Pope, in 774. During the last half century

that the Exarchate of Ravenna remained its existence was but little more

than a name, the real power of government being usurped by the Papacy.

It could hardly be considered an inconsistency were we to interpret the

seventh head as signifying both the Patriciate of Ravenna and the

Patriciate of Charlemagne that closely followed it; but in the present

work I have restricted its application to the latter form because of its

distinctive characteristic as constituting a supreme civil power

entirely independent of the empire of the East, and because of its

importance in the revival of the empire of the West.]

This head, however, continued only "a short space"; and an eighth arose

on Christmas, the first day of the year 800 (as time was then reckoned),

when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Rome, and thus revived the

empire of the West. This eighth head, however, was "of the seven"; for

it was the same as the sixth, both being Imperial--the first being in

the Augustan line, and the other in the Carlovingian, and separated from

each other by the seventh, or Patriciate. Considered one way, there were

eight heads, but two of them were alike, hence only seven; for the

eighth was of the seven. According to verse 11 it was under the eighth

head that the beast subsisted at the time he was carrying the woman of

this chapter, which exactly accords with the historical facts in the

case; and the same was continued in a line of emperors reaching down to

the time of the French Revolution.

The ten horns had "received no kingdom as yet." This signifies that at

the time when the Revelation was given they had not yet arisen. When

they did come into existence they were to receive power as kings with

the beast and were to give to it their power and strength. It is a

singular fact that a distinct head should continue to exist after these

horns had arisen and developed into powerful kingdoms; but herein the

remarkable accuracy of prophecy is clearly shown. It is said that they

should make war with the Lamb and that the Lamb should overcome them.

Some think that this has reference to the persecution of the saints

during the Dark Ages; but it seems to me that it would have been stated

differently if such were its meaning. It may be a prophetical reference

to the battle of Armageddon, which will be terminated by the coming of

the Son of God himself to overthrow completely all the powers of

wickedness.

15. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where

the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and

tongues.

16. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these

shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and

shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

17. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to

agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of

God shall be fulfilled.

18. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which

reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The special thoughts contained in these verses have been so far

explained already that it is unnecessary to go over the same ground

again. Already the civil powers of Europe are beginning to cast this

woman aside as an old, wrinkled, haggard prostitute is cast off by her

lovers. Already they have deprived her of all temporal authority such as

she possessed in guiding this beast of chapter 17, as explained under

the fifth plague in the preceding chapter. Whether they are destined to

become a still greater enemy to her, the future will determine.

CHAPTER XVIII.

And after these things I saw another angel come down from

heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his

glory.

2. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon

the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of

devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every

unclean and hateful bird.

3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her

fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed

fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed

rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

A movement of mighty power is symbolized in these verses. The chronology

of the events described in the preceding chapter brings us down to the

time when the ten horns turn against the Papacy by depriving her of her

temporal authority. This, as we have already seen, was completely

fulfilled in 1870 and constituted the fifth plague. In the description

of the sixth plague which followed, it was shown that the great city

which was invaded was composed of three parts--Paganism (the modern form

of the dragon power), Catholicism, and Protestantism. The same great

city is here brought to view, and the angel from heaven, with a mighty

voice, cries, "Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen." This fall of

Babylon can not signify a literal destruction; for there are certain

events to take place in Babylon after her fall which entirely precludes

that idea; for instance, the calling of God's people out of her, in

order that they may not receive of her plagues. In these plagues is

embraced her literal destruction, or complete overthrow. The fall is

therefore a moral one; for the result of it is that Babylon becomes "the

habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of

every unclean and hateful bird."

Protestants who make any attempt to interpret these prophecies usually

limit the designation "Babylon the Great" in these verses to the church

of Rome, because the woman symbolizing the apostate church in the

preceding chapter is denominated "Babylon the Great." Ver. 5. But the

same verse also declares her to be the "_Mother_ of harlots;" and if she

as a degraded woman stands as the representative of a corrupt church,

her unchaste daughters, also, must symbolize churches that are her

descendants; and if the real name of the _mother_ is Babylon, as stated,

the proper name of her harlot daughters must be Babylon also. Whether,

therefore, the mother or the daughters are referred to, it is all

"Babylon the Great," because it is all the same family and is a part of

that "GREAT CITY which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Chap.

17:18. We must, therefore, have something besides the mere title

"Babylon the Great" to determine which division of the great city is

referred to in a given instance--whether Pagan, Papal, or Protestant.

A careful study of the prophecy now under consideration will show that

it has particular reference to the Protestant division of Babylon. It

contained many of God's children; whereas Paganism was always a false

religion and never held any of God's saints. Under the reign of

Catholicism, the people of God are represented in all the symbols of

this book relating thereto as existing entirely separate from that

communion. The description of this apostate church given in the

preceding chapter shows clearly that instead of being partly composed of

God's saints, she was their most bitter and relentless persecutor, yea,

was "_drunken with the blood of the saints_, and with the blood of the

martyrs of Jesus." This is definite proof that the present phase of

Babylon under consideration is the Protestant division; and her moral

fall is the grand signal for the escape of God's people who have partly

composed her number, as the fall of ancient Babylon was for the escape

of the Israelites. In their younger days the Protestant organizations

(symbolized by the daughters) were of much better character than the

mother church from whom they descended. Many of them started out on

reform. While a spiritual people, God worked with them; but when they

made their image to the beast, they suddenly declined, and this voice

from heaven finally declares them to be in a fallen condition--entirely

void of salvation, except a very few chosen saints that have not defiled

their garments, contained therein.

That this application of the term _Babylon_ is correct, and also, the

fallen condition ascribed to her in accordance with the facts, I will

prove by the following testimonies of Protestants themselves. The first

is from Vision of the Ages; or, Lectures on the Apocalypse, by B.W.

Johnson, member of the Christian sect.

"It is needful to inquire what the term _Babylon_ means. It occurs

several times in the New Testament. Here (in the Apocalypse) it is

spoken of as 'that great city,' and her fall is doomed 'because she hath

made all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication.' In Rev. 17:5,

a scarlet harlot is seen sitting upon the seven-headed and ten-horned

monster, and upon her forehead is written, 'Mystery, Babylon the Great.'

With this woman the kings of the earth are said to have committed

fornication. In chapter 18 the fall of the great city, Babylon is

detailed at length, and it is again said that all the kings of the earth

have committed fornication with her. The harlot with Babylon stamped on

her brow, and the great city of fornication styled Babylon, in chapters

14 and 18, are one and the same existence.

"There is an ancient city of Babylon often mentioned in the Old

Testament, but ages before John wrote, it had ceased to be inhabited,

the only dwellers among its lonely ruins were howling beasts and hissing

serpents. It has never been rebuilt to this day and has passed away

forever. John refers therefore not to old Babylon, but to some power yet

unseen (when he was upon the earth), that should be revealed in due

time, and of which old Babylon was a symbol. Let us notice some of the

features of ancient Babylon.

"1. On that site took place the confusion of tongues which divided those

who before had been of one speech and one family, into various tribes

and schisms at variance with each other and of various tongues. The word

Babylon, a memorial of this event, means confusion, and is derived from

Babel.

"2. Old Babylon persecuted the people of God and destroyed the temple in

Jerusalem.

"3. It carried the people of God into captivity.

"4. It was a mighty, resistless universal empire. The antitype, the

spiritual Babylon, must correspond. There is a power that exhibits all

these characteristics. By apostasy from the truth it originated the

schism which has divided the family of God into different sects and

parties which speak a different spiritual language. It has carried the

church into a long captivity by binding upon it the thralldom of

superstition. It has been a constant persecutor of the saints, and has

enjoyed an almost universal dominion. That power is the woman that sits

upon the seven-headed beast ... the false woman, symbolical of a false

church, the great apostate spiritual dominion of Rome. And we may add,

out of which have come--directly or indirectly--_all the religious sects

of the present day_."

Dr. Barnes says: "The word _Babylon_ became the emblem of all that was

haughty and oppressive, and especially of all that persecuted the church

of God. The word here (Rev. 18:4) must be used to denote some power that

resembled the ancient and literal Babylon in these characteristics. The

literal Babylon was no more; but the name might be used properly to

denote a similar power."

Wm. Kinkade, in Bible Doctrine, page 249, says, "I think Christ has a

true church on earth, but its members are scattered among the various

denominations, and are more or less under the influence of mystery

Babylon and her daughters."

Alexander Campbell says: "A reformation of Popery was attempted in

Europe full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and

swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into

Presbyterianism, that into Congregationalism, and that into Baptistism,

etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed

itself into many forms of Wesleyanism. All of them retain in their

bosom--in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and

observances--various relics of Popery. They are at best a reformation of

Popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of

men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands." On

Baptism, p.15.

Again, he says: "The worshiping establishments now in operation

throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective

voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions,

are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that

mother of harlots, the church of Rome." How any man could possess as

much light on this subject as did Mr. Campbell, and then build a sect

himself, is more than I can understand.

Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church: "If she be the mother, who are

the daughters? It must be the corrupt, national, established churches

that came out of her." Dow's Life, p. 542.

In the Religious Encyclopaedia, Article Antichrist, we read: "The writer

of the book of Revelation tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying,

'Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and

receive not of her plagues.' If such persons are to be found in the

'mother of harlots,' with much less hesitation may it be inferred that

they are connected with her unchaste daughters, those national churches

which are founded upon what are called Protestant principles."

In the Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge we read: "An important

question, however, says Mr. Jones, stills remains for inquiry: Is

Antichrist confined to the church of Rome? The answer is readily

returned in the affirmative by Protestants in general; and happy had it

been for the world had that been the case. But although we are fully

warranted to consider that church as 'the mother of harlots,' the truth

is that by whatsoever arguments we succeed in fixing that odius charge

upon her, we shall, by parity of reasoning, be obliged to allow other

national churches to be her unchaste daughters, and for this plain

reason, among others, because in their very constitution and tendency

they are hostile to the nature of the kingdom of Christ."

One of Martin Luther's guests remarked that the world might continue

fifty years, and he replied: "Pray God that it may not exist so long;

matters would be even worse than they have been. There would rise up

infinite sects and schisms, which are at present hidden in men's hearts

and nature. No; may the Lord come at once, for there is no amendment to

be expected."

Mr. Hartly, a learned churchman, has remarked as follows: "There are

many prophecies which declare the fall of the ecclesiastical powers of

the Christian world, and though each church seems to flatter itself with

the hope of being exempted, yet it is very plain that the prophetical

characters belong to all. They all have left the true, pure, simple

religion, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men."

Says Mr. Simpson, in Plea for Religion: "We Protestants, too, read the

declaration of the third angel against the worshipers of the beast and

his image, and make ourselves easy under the awful denunciation by

applying it exclusively to the church of Rome; never dreaming that they

are equally applicable not only to the English, but to every church

establishment in Christendom, which retains any of the marks of the

beast. For though the Pope and the church of Rome is at the head of the

grand twelve hundred and sixty years' delusion, yet all other churches,

of whatever denomination, whether established or tolerated, which

partake of the same spirit, or have instituted doctrines and ceremonies

inimical to the pure and unadulterated gospel of Christ, shall sooner or

later share in the fate of that immense fabric of human ordinances."

Says Mr. Hopkins: "There is no reason to consider the antichristian

spirit and practices confined to that which is now called the church of

Rome. The Protestant churches have much of Antichrist in them, and are

far from being wholly reformed from the corruptions and wickedness, in

doctrine and practice, in it. Some churches may be more pure and may

have proceeded farther in a reformation than others; but where can the

church be found which is thoroughly purged from her abominations? None

are wholly clear from an antichristian spirit and the fruits of it....

And as the church of Rome will have a large share in the cup of

indignation and wrath which will be poured out, so all the Christian

world will have a distinguished portion of it: as the inhabitants of it

are much more guilty than others. There is great reason to conclude that

the world, particularly that part of it called Christian and Protestant,

will yet make greater and more rapid advances in all kinds of moral

corruption and open wickedness, till it will come to that state in which

it will be fully ripe and prepared to be cut down by the sickle of

divine justice and wrath."

Mr. O. Scott (Wesleyan Methodist) says: "The church is as deeply

infected with a desire for worldly gain as the world. Most of the

denominations of the present day might be called _churches of the

world_, with more propriety than churches of Christ. The churches have

so far gone from primitive Christianity that they need a fresh

regeneration--a new kind of religion."

Said T. DeWitt Talmage: "I simply state a fact when I say that in many

places the church is surrendering, and the world is conquering.... There

is a mighty host in the Christian church, positively professing

Christianity, who do not believe the Bible, out and out and in and

in.... Oh! we have magnificient church machinery in this country; we

have sixty thousand American ministers; we have costly music; we have

great Sunday-schools; and yet I give you the appalling statistics that

in the last twenty-five years, laying aside last year, the statistics of

which I have not yet seen,--within the last twenty-five years the

churches of God in this country have averaged _less than two conversions

a year_ each! There has been an average of four or five deaths in the

churches. How soon, at that rate, will this world be brought to God? We

gain two; we lose four. Eternal God! what will this come to?"

Bishop Roberts said: "The popular religion of this country is not the

religion of the New Testament. It has some of its features but not all.

It is lacking in grand fundamental elements. It answers many good

purposes--restrains, refines, elevates, and gives to society a high

grade of civilization; but fails to secure the great end which

Christianity is designed to accomplish--the salvation of the soul. It

dazzles but to blind, it promises but to deceive; it allures by worldly

considerations to a heaven of purity, which no worldling can enter; it

gives to its votaries, who long to eat of forbidden fruit, the assurance

of impunity from the threatened evils, and leads them on by siren

strains from the Paradise of purity into the broad road which ends at

last in the blackness of the darkness of an eternal night of despair!"

Says the Golden Rule: "The Protestants are outdoing the Popes in

splendid, extravagant folly in church building. Thousands on thousands

are expended in gay and costly ornaments to gratify pride and a wicked

ambition, that might and should go to redeem the perishing millions!

Does the evil, the folly, and the madness of these proud, formal,

fashionable worshiper, stop here? These splendid monuments of Popish

pride, upon which millions are squandered in our cities, virtually

exclude the poor for whom Christ died, and for whom he came especially

to preach."

The report of the Michigan Yearly Conference, even as long ago as 1851,

published in the True Wesleyan of Nov. 15, says: "The world, commercial,

political, and ecclesiastical are alike, and are together going in the

broad way that leads to death. Politics, commerce, and nominal religion,

all connive at sin, reciprocally aid each other, and unite to crush the

poor. Falsehood is unblushingly uttered in the forum and in the pulpit;

and _sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen, go

unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land_. These churches

are like the Jewish church when the Savior exclaimed, 'Woe unto you,

scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.'"

Robert Atkins, in a sermon preached in London, says: "The truly

righteous are diminished from the earth, and no man layeth it to heart.

The professors of religion of the present day, in every church, are

lovers of the world, conformers to the world. Lovers of

creature-comfort, and aspirers after respectability. They are called to

_suffer_ with Christ, but they shrink even from reproach. Apostasy,

_apostasy_, APOSTASY, is engraven on the very front of every church; and

did they know it, and did they feel it, there might be hope; but alas!

they cry 'We are rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of

nothing.'"

I have by no means exhausted the supply of similar testimonies of

Protestants now before me, but for lack of space I must conclude. In the

face of these amazing facts can any one deny that Protestantism is a

part of great Babylon and is in a fallen condition?

"The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her

delicacies." A certain writer on this text has said: "Who take the lead

in all the extravagancies of the age? Church-members. Who load their

tables with the richest and choicest viands? Church-members. Who are

foremost in extravagance in dress, and all costly attire?

Church-members. Who are the very personification of pride and arrogance?

Church-members. Where shall we look for the very highest exhibition of

the luxury, even show, and pride of life, resulting from the vanity and

sin of the race? Answer, To a modern church-assembly on a pleasant

Sunday." Though this writer interpreted the text literally, yet he spoke

a vast amount of truth, as every one knows.

Consider, too, the wickedness carried on everywhere in sect Babylon

unrebuked, with the preachers ofttimes in the lead. Shows, festivals,

frolics, grab-bag parties, cake-walk lotteries, kissing-bees, etc., etc.

If the apostle were here to-day and we should inform him of a modern

church entertainment where a bared female foot, projecting from beneath

a curtain, was sold to the highest gentleman bidder, who had the

privilege of kissing its owner and taking her to supper, he would

probably answer, "Have I not told you, 'Babylon is fallen'?" If his

attention was called to the fact that the members of a prominent church,

in a novel entertainment, displayed the likeness of a donkey, minus the

tail, while the members one by one were blindfolded, and, amid the

uproarous laughter of the crowd assembled, were given the detached part

to see who could place it the nearest where it belonged, he would say

with double emphasis, "_Have I not told you_, 'BABYLON THE GREAT IS

FALLEN, IS FALLEN, AND IS BECOME THE HABITATION OF DEVILS, AND THE HOLD

OF EVERY FOUL SPIRIT, AND A CAGE OF EVERY UNCLEAN AND HATEFUL BIRD'?"

The "abominations" are by no means confined to the _mother_ in the

Revelation, but are also to be found in abundance in connection with her

harlot daughters.

4. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of

her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that

ye receive not of her plagues.

5. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath

remembered her iniquities.

6. Reward her even as she rewarded yon, and double unto her

double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled

fill to her double.

7. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously,

so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart,

I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and

mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire:

for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Here we have a number of important truths brought before us--first, that

God had a people in Babylon who up to this time were free from her

contaminations; second, that they received a positive call from heaven

to "come out"; third, that all who refused to obey the heavenly command

would become partakers of her sins and receive of her plagues; fourth,

that those who came out were to pour the strongest judgments upon

Babylon--"reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her

double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to

her double." It is evident that the "torment and sorrow" which God's

people give Babylon after their departure is not a temporal

retaliation--for they never indulge in such, and the Word of God forbids

it--but is altogether of a spiritual nature; hence the fierce judgment

they inflict is executing the Word of truth, which brings to light all

the wickedness and abominations contained therein. "Death, and mourning,

and famine" only remain. This symbolizes that all spiritual life has

departed, while famine and mourning are left. That such is the actual

fact is shown by the following lamentation of the late Bishop R.S.

Foster concerning his own sect, the Methodist Episcopal:

"The ball, the theatre, nude and lewd art, social luxuries, with all

their loose moralities, are making inroads into the sacred enclosure of

the church; and as a satisfaction for all this worldliness, Christians

are making a great deal of Lent and Easter and Good Friday, and church

ornamentations. It is the old trick of Satan. The Jewish church struck

on that rock; the Romish church was wrecked on the same; and the

Protestant church is fast reaching the same doom.

"Our great dangers as we see them, are assimilation to the world,

neglect of the poor, substitution of the form for the fact of godliness,

abandonment of discipline, a hireling ministry, an impure gospel, which

summed up is a fashionable church. That Methodists should be liable to

such an outcome, and that there should be signs of it in a hundred years

from the 'sail-loft,' seems almost the miracle of history; but who that

looks about him to-day can fail to see the fact?

"Do not Methodists, in violation of God's Word and their own discipline,

dress as extravagantly and as fashionably as any other class? Do not the

ladies, and even the wives and daughters of the ministry, put on 'gold

and pearls and costly array'? Would not the plain dress insisted upon by

John Wesley and Bishop Asbury, and worn by Hester Ann Rodgers, Lady

Huntington, and many others equally distinguished, be now regarded in

Methodist circles as fanaticism? Can any one going into the Methodist

church in any of our chief cities distinguish the attire of the

communicants from that of the theater and ball-goers? Is not worldliness

seen in the music? Elaborately dressed and ornamented choirs, who in

many cases make no profession of religion and are often sneering

skeptics, go through a cold artistic or operatic performance, which is

as much in harmony with spiritual worship as an opera or theater. Under

such worldly performances spirituality is frozen to death.

"Formerly every Methodist attended class and gave testimony of

experimental religion. Now the class-meeting is attended by very few,

and in many churches abandoned. Seldom the stewards, trustees and elders

of the church attend class. Formerly nearly every Methodist prayed,

testified or exhorted in prayer-meeting. Now but very few are heard.

Formerly shouts and praises were heard; now such demostrations of holy

enthusiasm and joy are regarded as fanaticism.

"Worldly socials, and fairs, festivals, concerts and such like have

taken the place of religious gatherings, revival meetings, class and

prayer meetings of earlier days. How true that the Methodist discipline

is a dead letter! Its rules forbid the wearing of gold or pearls or

costly array; yet no one ever thinks of disciplining its members for

violating them. They forbid the reading of such books and the taking of

such diversions as do not minister to godliness, yet the church itself

goes to frolics and festivals and fairs, which destroy the spiritual

life of the young, as well as the old. The extent to which this is now

carried on is appalling. The _spiritual death it carries in its train_

will only be known when _the millions it has swept into hell_ shall

stand before the judgment.

"The early Methodist ministers went forth to sacrifice and to suffer for

Christ. They sought not places of ease and affluence, but of privation

and suffering. They gloried not in their big salaries, fine parsonages,

and refined congregations, but in the souls that had been won for Jesus.

Oh, _how changed!_ A hireling ministry will be a feeble, a timid, a

truckling, a timeserving ministry, without faith, endurance, and holy

power. Methodism formerly dealt in the great central truth. Now the

pulpits deal largely in the generalities and in popular lectures. The

glorious doctrine of entire sanctification is rarely heard and seldom

witnessed in the pulpits."

This lengthy quotation shows clearly the spiritual condition of

Methodism, and certainly she is no worse than the rest. God is calling

his people out of "all the places where they have been scattered in the

cloudy and dark day." Ezek. 34:12. Those who refuse to walk in the light

will go into darkness. God help people to "flee out of the midst of

Babylon, and deliver every man his soul."

9. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication

and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for

her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas,

alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour

is thy judgment come.

11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over

her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

12. The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones,

and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and

scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory,

and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and

iron, and marble,

13. And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense,

and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and

sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

14. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from

thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed

from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

15. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her,

shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and

wailing,

16. And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in

fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and

precious stones, and pearls!

17. For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every

shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as

many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

18. And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying,

What city is like unto this great city!

19. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and

wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made

rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness!

for in one hour is she made desolate.

In this description we have a continuation of the judgments of Babylon

already introduced. It must be borne in mind, however, that this is the

spiritual judgments following her moral fall, and not her final and

everlasting literal destruction. The latter is described under another

symbol a little further on in this series of prophecy.

The symbol here is that of a great city, the grand metropolis of the

world, the mart of earth's commerce; a superb city, their [_sic_] being

no end to its luxuries and magnificence. In it everything that can

minister to the appetite, gratify the taste, and feed the pride of the

human soul is to be found in profusion, being described at length. This

great city is suddenly afire, and her merchants and the great men of the

world who sustain her are overwhelmed with sorrow at the sight of all

their wealth disappearing. Thus is great sect Babylon represented. She

is a mighty city extending not only over the Apocalyptic earth, but, as

symbolized by the ship-masters, sailors, and foreign traders, over the

whole world. Suddenly she is set on fire by heaven's truth and her

spiritual magnificence destroyed. The apostle Paul describes the great

apostasy as a system that the "Lord shall _consume_ with the spirit of

his mouth, and shall _destroy_ with the brightness of his coming." 2

Thes. 2:8. That spiritual consumption is now taking place in accordance

with the symbols of this chapter, but the entire literal destruction of

old Babylon will take place coincident "with the brightness of his

coming," as described in the following chapter.

That sectarians are greatly alarmed over the sad condition of their

fallen churches is clearly shown by the many quotations already given

from Protestant writers. They may not be aware that it is a judgment

from heaven upon man-made organizations; but such we know it to be in

the light of eternal truth. Not only are they bewailing the loss of

spiritual life and the desolating famine in sectdom, as was Bishop

Foster and others, but they are beginning to tremble for their own

safety and to wonder what the final outcome of it all will be. Wherever

the gospel truth has been preached in all its purity, the sectarian

denominations have been left destitute of spiritual life; for the

children of God have heard his call, "Come out of her, my people," and

have made their escape to Zion. Hence the ministers of Babylon cry out

continually, "Stop! you are tearing our churches down," "You are taking

our best members away from us," etc. But we can not withhold the truth;

for the time has come when God is gathering his people together out of

all the "places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark

day" (Ezek. 34:12) into the one church that Jesus built. "Babylon is

fallen, is fallen."

20. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and

prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

This verse is so clear that it requires no special explanation. God's

people are delivered from sect Babylon; and while the judgments of

eternal truth are being poured out upon her, all heaven and earth is

called upon to rejoice and to give glory to God.

"We stand in the glory that Jesus has given,

The moon as the day-spring doth shine;

The light of the sun is now equal to seven,

So bright is the glory divine.

"Now filled with the Spirit and clad in the armor

Of light and omnipotent truth,

We'll testify ever and Jesus we'll honor,

And stand from sin Babel aloof.

"The prophet's keen vision transpiercing the ages,

Beheld us to Zion return;

We'll sing of our freedom, though Babylon rages,

We'll shout as her city doth burn."

21. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,

and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that

great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at

all.

22. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and

trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no

craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in

thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all

in thee;

23. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in

thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be

heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great

men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations

deceived.

24. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints,

and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Following the moral fall of Babylon and the call of God's people out of

her, a mighty angel predicts her eternal doom. "With violence shall that

great city Babylon be thrown down, and _shall be found no more at all_."

This doubtless has reference to the entire city of Babylon in all her

divisions brought to view in this series of prophecy and shows her final

destruction at the coming of Christ, when she shall suddenly be thrown

with terrific force, like a great millstone descending into the sea, and

"shall be found no more at all." According to the symbols here given she

will be like a city completely destroyed, not one inhabitant or living

creature remaining. Thus her eternal doom is pictured and remains to be

yet fulfilled.

"And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all

that were slain upon the earth." We have already shown that

Protestantism, as well as her mother Romanism, has been guilty of

shedding innocent blood; and as the term Babylon includes both these

divisions, when the great city is thrown down with violence, Romanism

and Protestantism will sink together, and then this awful treasure--the

blood of prophets and of saints--shall be brought to light in that last

great day of God Almighty.

CHAPTER XIX.

And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in

heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and

power, unto the Lord our God:

2. For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged

the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her

fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her

hand.

3. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever

and ever.

4. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down

and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen;

Alleluia.

5. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God,

all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as

the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty

thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent

reigneth.

7. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the

marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself

ready.

8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine

linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness

of saints.

9. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are

called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto

me, These are the true sayings of God.

10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me,

See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren

that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony

of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The scene of this vision is laid in heaven. John heard a great voice of

much people saying, "Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and

power, unto the Lord our God." This great song of praise doubtless came

from the lips of the angelic throng; for immediately the four living

creatures and the four and twenty elders reechoed the same shout of

praise, saying, "Amen; Alleluia." Then came a voice from the throne

calling upon the servants of God, both small and great, to unite on this

occasion in one grand and sacred song of praise; and this sublime chorus

fell upon the ear of the enraptured apostle "as it were the voice of a

great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of

mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent

reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him for the

marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife [or bride] hath made herself

ready." Was not here a hearty response to that call, "Rejoice over her

thou heaven"? While this scene shows the interest all heaven takes in

these wondrous scenes of earth, it is doubtless intended especially to

represent the joy and thanksgiving of God's people who have "gotten the

victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over

the number of his name."

The marriage of the Lamb which was about to take place was a special

theme of joy on this occasion. In the Scripture the term _marriage_ is

frequently used to represent a special union between Christ and his

people. Thus, the early church was represented as being free because of

the death of the law, that they "should be _married_ to another, even to

him who is raised from the dead." Rom. 7:4. So, also, the eternal union

of Christ with his people is here described under the figure of

marriage. In one sense they have been married to Christ all through this

dispensation; in another sense they have not. The church has had the

promise of this eternal union, hence she has been betrothed to Christ;

but left in the world, she has been driven into the wilderness, while a

corrupt and drunken prostitute and her harlot daughters have been in the

public view. Now, however, the judgments of God have descended upon

Babylon, and the bride of Christ appears in all her beauty again,

"arrayed in fine linen, clean and white"; and the next great event is

her public marriage to Christ when he comes to claim her as his own.

The marriage scene is one of the most joyful that we witness on earth,

and among Eastern nations especially was celebrated with great pomp and

magnificence, the joy and splendor of the occasion being enhanced

according to the rank and wealth of the parties. But earth has never

witnessed such an event as this special _marriage of the Lamb_. Well may

the inhabitants of heaven and earth, in view of this sublime spectacle,

swell the song of praise--"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to

him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made

herself ready." The special preparations that the bride is making

represents the glorious holiness reformation that is now sweeping over

the world, gathering God's people together for the splendid event.

"Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the

Lamb."

"These are the true sayings of God." They are almost too glorious to be

believed; still, they are no idle dreams of fancy: they are true, yea

"the true sayings of God." In the contemplation of such a wonderful

event, the beloved apostle was carried away, as it were, with holy

enthusiasm, and he fell at the feet of the angel to worship. We do not

know just what the motives or impressions were that caused him to do

this. But his soul was full, full to overflowing, and he could not but

adore and worship. The angel, however, refused the homage thus offered,

by the declaration that he himself, also, was the servant of Christ and

one of the brethren that had the testimony of Jesus; "for the testimony

of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The idea is: "I am a fellowservant

with you, and we both have his testimony. You bear witness to him now in

this present generation; I bear witness to those who are to come. You

witness now of his death and resurrection; I tell of his future glory

and triumphs. We are both, therefore, engaged in the same good work. The

testimony of Jesus and the spirit of prophecy are the same. To God,

therefore, we must both bow." See remarks on chap. 1:1.

11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he

that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in

righteousness he doth judge and make war.

12. His eyes were as a flame _of_ fire, and on his head were

many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he

himself.

13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his

name is called The Word of God.

14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white

horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he

should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of

iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath

of Almighty God.

16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,

KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

That the person described in this vision is Christ is questioned by no

one. He is the same one who appeared to John in the beginning. Then he

stood in the midst of the seven golden candle-sticks, the sure defense

of the churches, holding the seven stars in his right hand. Now,

however, he appears from the opened heavens on a white horse, his

mission "to judge and make war." The description of his person, his

names, and his attributes, unmistakably proclaim him the Son of God. He

is the "faithful and true," the name by which he made himself known to

the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea. "His eyes as a flame of fire"

denotes omniscience; and as a searcher of all hearts he made himself

known to the church of Thyatira. "Many crowns" are a symbol of supreme

sovereignty and doubtless signify his many victories. "And he had a name

written which no man knew but he himself." He had names by which he

might be known to mortals; but he had one name that no created

intelligence could understand: it was known only to him. What that name

was, of course, is not given; it could not be. If the human mind could

not conceive it, human language could not convey it. We can know him as

the Faithful and true Witness, as the Word of God, and as King of kings

and Lord of lords; but there is one name that we can not know. His

"vesture dipped in blood" refers, not to the blood of atonement, but to

the blood of his enemies sprinkled upon his raiment in treading the

winepress of God's wrath, and denotes that he was going forth to the

dread work of vengeance. To this I shall refer more fully hereafter. His

name is also called "the Word of God," which, when used as a personal

appellation in the Scriptures, always signifies Jesus Christ.

Before considering his mission further and the armies that accompanied

him, I wish to call special attention to the nature and the chronology

of this event. If the present series of prophetic symbols (which begin

with chap. 17) is a narrative of continuous events reaching to the end,

then the vision before us is a description of the second coming of

Christ, the event which was just previously announced and for which the

bride had made herself ready. The usual interpretation given it is, that

it is a sublime description of the servants of Christ going forth under

his direction to spread the truth everywhere among the nations--in

short, that it is the triumph of gospel truth over error under the

_providential_ government of Christ. That such a meaning can be derived

from the vision by taking it in a _figurative_ sense there can be no

doubt, and this is what commentators generally do. They make the whole a

figurative description of the triumph of the gospel, Christ being

present only by his superintending providence. It is made simply a

highly poetic description of the victory of truth and righteousness. In

this case, however, the principles of symbolic language are clearly

abandoned and a mere ordinary figurative meaning given. If we follow

strictly the laws of symbolic language, as we manifestly ought, we shall

be compelled to take another view of it.

In the first place, if this does not describe the actual coming of

Christ, then his second coming is nowhere described in the Revelation.

That so great an event should merely be alluded to in a few places and

nowhere symbolically described seems incredible. At the judgment scene

brought to view in the following chapter the presence of Christ is

_assumed_, but it is not stated. Again, there are no victories of love

and mercy described at all in the vision before us; but, on the

contrary, it is a scene of fearful judgment--a terrible treading of "the

winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God," the complete

overthrow of every opposing power; while the beast and the false prophet

are represented as taken and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with

brimstone. Surely, this is not the work of the church of God. But let it

be remembered especially that this last event takes place under the

_seventh_ plague, which is the "filling up" of the wrath of God, and

that Christ previously announced under the sixth vial, "Behold, _I come_

as a thief." Christ comes in reality when this seventh plague occurs. To

represent the glorious triumphs of Christianity by the mission of the

church, the gospel and the Holy Spirit, under the symbol of Christ,

going forth to judge, to make war, and to tread the winepress of God's

wrath, is at war with every principle of symbolic language.

But can this vision of Christ upon a white horse denote a mere

providential superintendence, such as Christ constantly exercises over

the church and its spiritual affairs on earth? Certainly not by any

principle of symbolic language. Throughout the whole prophecy thus far

we have seen that whenever any symbolic agent is brought upon the

panorama, whether horseman, or beasts, or locusts, or harlot, or

whatever else, it always denotes some corresponding agents appearing on

earth and beginning their appropriate work. The symbolic agent is real.

But here is a symbolic appearance of Christ. By what law could such a

symbolic appearance represent merely a providential superintendence? And

if his appearance was necessary in this case, why was it not necessary

in every event, to show that it was done under his direction? Again, if

this symbolic appearance of Christ is not his real appearance, how can

we tell that there is any reality in the appearance of the horsemen of

the first four seals, the ten-horned beast, or the harlot woman? What

right have we to remove one agent from the panorama as an actual agent

there any more than another? And if this is not his real appearance,

upon what principle of interpretation can we ever establish the fact of

his second coming? It is evident to all that, if we can turn this agent

into a mere providential one, we can do the same with another, and thus

set aside his second coming altogether. Then, what shall we say in the

next chapter when some one steals our weapons and declares that the

great white throne before which all the dead, small and great, stand is

nothing but that providential government of God under which all sinners

pass condemnation upon themselves and their sins find them out? If we

can deal thus with symbols, we can do anything with them and can make

out any meaning we please.

The laws of symbolic language require us to take the appearance of

Christ in this vision just as we do the appearance of any other agent,

as a real event. We can not consistently give it any other meaning. His

_symbolic_ appearance must represent his _real_ appearance; otherwise,

it can never be represented by anything. Jesus appears in his own name

and person because there is no other that can represent his infinite

dignity and majesty. And the symbols connected with him denote the

object of his mission and the work which he performs. His white horse

shows him now a glorious conqueror; his crowns denote his supreme

dominion; the sword of his mouth and his vesture dipped in blood denote

the dread work of vengeance upon his enemies; while the army following

him doubtless denotes the "ten thousands of his saints" that accompany

him when he comes. Jude 14. The bride has already prepared herself for

his coming, and now the eternal union takes place. "Blessed are they

which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."

17. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a

loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of

heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of

the great God;

18. That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of

captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses;

and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both

free and bond, both small and great.

19. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their

armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on

the horse, and against his army.

20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that

wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that

had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his

image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning

with brimstone.

21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat

upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all

the fowls were filled with their flesh.

The foregoing explanation so nearly covers this ground that little

remains to be said. The symbol is that of vast slaughter on a

battle-field, which gathers all the birds of heaven and the beasts of

the forest to the prey. The enemies gathered for this battle were "the

beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies," together with the

false prophet. This is the grand confederacy of wickedness formed under

the mission of the three unclean spirits that went forth, not only unto

the kings of the earth, but also into the whole world. This is not a

literal collecting of armies, hence not a literal slaughter upon a

battlefield, nor a literal assembling of carrion birds; but it is a

symbolic representation of the final and eternal destruction of the

allied powers of sin. As will be further described in the following

chapter, they were gathered together for the purpose of overthrowing the

church of God and anticipated a complete victory in the battle of

Armageddon; but the sudden appearance of Jesus Christ to rescue his

bride results in their complete overthrow. The special theme of this

series of prophecy has been the history of apostate Christendom; hence

the beast and the false prophet are represented as being taken and

thrown into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. "The remnant" that

were slain refers to the other powers of wickedness not embraced in

Catholicism and Protestantism This series being now traced to its close,

the narrative returns to take up another important theme of prophetic

truth.

CHAPTER XX.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the

bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

2. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is

the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.

3. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and

set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more,

till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he

must be loosed a little season.

It is commonly supposed that the events here described are to occur at

the second advent; but by considering carefully the different things

enumerated in this chapter--the binding of the dragon; then a thousand

years; after that the Armageddon battle; and last of all the judgment

scene, in which all the dead, both small and great, are rewarded, and

all the powers of wickedness cast into the lake of fire--it will be seen

at once that this is not a continuation of the series of prophecy

immediately preceding, but an entirely new theme, running partly

parallel with that series, and both ending at the same point--the second

coming of Christ and the general judgment, in which the lake of fire is

the final doom of the combined powers of wickedness. In that series the

beast and the false prophet--Romanism and Protestantism--were the chief

powers of evil under consideration; in this series the dragon feature

predominates. If this be not true, then there will be two judgment

scenes and the wicked cast into the lake of fire twice. Positive proof

of the position here taken will be given as we proceed.

The power here referred to as "the Devil and Satan" is also denominated

"the dragon." This use of the definite article shows clearly that a

particular character is designated--_the_ dragon--and implies that the

object has already been introduced. In his first appearance upon the

symbolic panorama (chap. 12:3) he is simply styled _a_ dragon, but in

every subsequent instance he is called _the_ dragon, which proves that

the same character is meant. In addition to the former remarks on

chapter 12:9 relative to the terms applied to this antichristian power,

the following quotation from the People's Cyclopædia will throw some

light on the subject: "In the mythical history and legendary poetry of

almost every nation, the dragon appears as the emblem of the destructive

and anarchistic principle.... Like the serpent, the dragon is always a

minister of evil ... the object of which is to fight order, harmony, and

progress. In Christian art, the dragon is the emblem of sin.... It is

often represented as crushed under the feet of saints and martyrs....

Sometimes its prostrate attitude signifies the triumph of Christianity

over Paganism." Art. Dragon. Considering this usage of these terms for

ages, it is not strange that they were applied also to that great

antichristian, persecuting system of Paganism, which stood before

Christianity as its greatest barrier to "order, harmony, and progress."

The angel that overthrew this public system of Pagan infidelity

symbolizes the primitive host of Christians, the ministers in

particular. Some have supposed that he represented Christ; but, as

already shown conclusively, Christ can not be symbolized by an inferior

intelligence, hence always appears upon the scene in his own character,

proclaiming his own eternal name. The fact that this angel possessed the

key of the bottomless pit is no proof that he is Christ, even though in

chapter 1:18 Jesus is said to have certain keys; for in chapter 9:1 we

find that a _fallen star_--the symbol of Mohammed--is said to have "the

key of the bottomless pit" also. At the most, this expression is only a

symbol of power and authority, be it good or bad. In the gospel the same

figure is applied to God's ministers, where they are given authority to

bind the powers of wickedness on earth. Mat. 16:19; 18:18. The chain is

a symbol of the power to bind.

When Christianity first commenced its warfare with this huge system of

error, almost the entire then-known world was under its deceptive

influence; but by a long conflict, in which thousands of the noble

followers of the Lamb were slaughtered, this antichristian public system

of Pagan infidelity was at last completely overthrown, and the final

result was, that the civilized world became as completely Christian

(nominally at least) as it ever had been Pagan. This great

transformation could never have been effected without the undying

heroism and whole-hearted consecration of the first disciples of Christ.

From this time the dragon _as such_--as a public deceiver of the nations

throughout the Apocalyptic earth--was overthrown. This marks the

beginning of the thousand years mentioned.

Since many of the principles of heathenism were copied by the church of

Rome, it may be difficult for some to understand at first why it is said

that the dragon no longer deceived the nations after being cast down by

primitive Christianity; but this becomes clear when we consider what the

dragon really was and what the church of Rome was understood to be. A

time came when the entire civilized world knew that heathenism as such

was wrong and rejected the very idea of a plurality of gods; but they

were led to believe that they could adapt many of their former rites and

ceremonies to the worship of the one true God in whom they believed and

thereby render acceptable service to him, and were sure that the Romish

church was the one true apostolic church. It was not the dragon, or

heathenism, that then deceived them; it was Christianity--_a false

Christianity_. The manner in which the people were deceived during the

time following the casting down of heathenism in the beginning has

already been considered in chapters XII, XIII, XVII, XVIII, etc.,

covering the same period of time included in the one thousand years in

the vision before us.

We can not apply this period specified as literally one thousand years

without varying from every principle of time prophecy in the Revelation,

for they are all symbolic; neither can we apply it according to the

usual year-day method, which, signifying three hundred and sixty

thousand years, would throw this series of events out of harmony with

the time-periods allotted to the other themes of truth running over the

same ground and terminating at the same point--the general judgment.

Therefore, to be consistent, we shall have to apply it as (so far as

human knowledge of the exact dates is concerned) an indefinite length of

time, on the same principle that "the hour of temptation" in chapter

3:10, the three and one-half days in chapter 11:9, and the "hour" in

which the ten kingdoms receive power with the beast (chap. 17:12), etc.,

are applied.

4. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was

given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded

for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had

not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had

received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and

they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand

years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first

resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they

shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him

a thousand years.

We have in this description another division of the subject

introduced--a history of God's people, or one phase of the church,

during the same thousand years following the casting down of the dragon.

"They lived and reigned with Christ." It was those who had "part in the

first resurrection" that were exalted to this honored position with

Christ. Millenarians always _assume_ that this refers to a literal

resurrection at the second coming of Christ, but no such thing is hinted

at. Not one word is said about literally resurrected saints reigning.

John says, "I saw the _souls_ of them which were beheaded for the

witness of Jesus ... and _they_ lived and reigned with Christ a thousand

years." Nothing whatever is said about any reign on earth at all; but

the description shows plainly that it was disembodied spirits that were

reigning with Christ in Paradise during the period that followed the

casting down of the dragon, which was in reality one of long apostasy

and darkness on earth. Before and during this conflict with Paganism the

church of God was publicly triumphant on earth. Afterward, during the

apostasy, a false church was, in the public view, triumphant, while the

church of God was crowded out of sight into the wilderness. However, the

reign of God's saints did not cease; for when they were slaughtered by

their relentless persecutors and deprived of their reign on earth, they

were, as symbolized by the man-child, caught up to God and to his throne

and there "lived and reigned with Christ" during the thousand years

under consideration.

This same thought concerning the reign of the martyrs in Paradise while

the powers of evil triumphed on earth, was brought to view on the

opening of the fifth seal in chapter 6:9-11. "And when he had opened the

fifth seal, I saw under the altar the _souls of them that were slain_

for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they

cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost

thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And

white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto

them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their

fellowservants also and their brethren, _that should be killed as they

were_ should be fulfilled." This quotation will make clear one point

concerning the refusal of the martyrs to worship the beast and his

image. We are not to understand that every soul of the martyrs John saw

in these visions reigned during the entire period under consideration;

but he beheld the reign of the saints above during the one thousand

years, and he saw there the souls of all the martyrs--such as had been

slain in the early days of Christianity (chap. 12:11); such as refused

to worship the beast and were martyred therefor (chap. 13:7); and also,

such as "should be killed as they were" (chap. 6:11) and were put to

death shortly after the formation of the image of the beast. Chap.

13:15; 16:6.

This company of souls that the apostle saw reigning with Christ above

were those who had had part "in the first resurrection," which had made

them "blessed and holy." They were not on earth; they were disembodied

spirits above, hence had not been literally resurrected. The Scriptures

clearly teach that mankind in their ordinary condition are "_dead_ in

trespasses and in sins," and that through salvation, which makes them

"blessed and holy," they are "quickened" to a new life in Christ. Eph.

2:1. That this is Scripturally "the first resurrection" is proved most

positively by the words of Christ--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the

hour is coming, _and now is_, when the _dead_ shall hear the voice of

the Son of God: and they that hear _shall live_. He that heareth my

word, and believeth on him that sent me, _hath_ everlasting life, and

shall not come into condemnation, but is _passed from death unto life_."

John 5:25, 24. Although many other proofs could easily be given, this of

itself is sufficient to establish the point that the host of early

Christians who had "passed from death unto life" in Christ and who gave

their lives gladly for the sake of Christ, constituted the ones referred

to as having had "part in the first resurrection." According to verse 6

it was only on those who had part in the first resurrection that the

second death had no power. The church at Smyrna received the sure

promise from Christ himself that they should "not be hurt of the second

death" (chap. 2:11); and this shows beyond all question that even at

that early date they had had part in this first resurrection that makes

men blessed and holy.

It is the trick of Beelzebub to deceive souls by causing them to

overlook the fact that this first resurrection that made men blessed and

holy is of a spiritual nature and to fix their hopes in two literal

resurrections at the end. There will be but one literal resurrection

then, as is clearly shown by the account given of the judgment in this

chapter, verses 11-15. The writer of the Revelation declared positively,

"Behold, he cometh with clouds: and _every eye_ shall see him, and they

also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because

of him." Chap. 1:7. If this does not prove that there is but one literal

resurrection when Christ comes, then I would not know how to state such

a fact if I desired. Furthermore, Jesus himself, in the same chapter in

which he described "the first resurrection," says most positively that

all the literal dead shall be resurrected at the same time. "Marvel not

at this," he says: "the _hour_ is coming, in the which all that are in

the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have

done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,

unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29. This _hour_

certainly can not signify more than a short period of time. In their

efforts to prove two literal resurrections, millenarians always quote

with emphasis, "The dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thes. 4:16. In

doing so they, either ignorantly or wilfully, wrest the Scriptures to

their own destruction; for any one can see at a glance that no such

thing as two resurrections is even hinted at. Verses 15-17 simply teach

this, that the righteous who are living on the earth at the time Christ

appears will not ascend to heaven _before_ the righteous dead are

resurrected, but the dead will rise first, then they will all be caught

up together at one and the same time. The wicked are not mentioned in

this connection; for, as stated, Paul was writing this only for the

comfort and the edification of the church. In the following chapter,

however, their "sudden destruction" at the second coming of Christ is

mentioned as a warning to the church.

It is evident that the first resurrection as applied in this connection

specified particularly that phase of the church which, as symbolized by

the man-child, was caught up to God through martyrdom and there "lived

and reigned with Christ." The other phase of the church, symbolized by

the woman, is not said to reign with Christ a thousand years, but, on

the other hand, is represented as driven into the wilderness, her public

reign on earth being ended by the holy city being trodden under foot of

a profane multitude of apostate beast-worshipers; and the two witnesses,

clothed in sackcloth, were prophesying only in a few isolated,

individual hearts.