The
Two Babylons
Introduction
"And upon her
forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF
HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."--Revelation 17:5
There is this great difference
between the works of men and the works of God, that the same minute and
searching investigation, which displays the defects and imperfections of the
one, brings out also the beauties of the other. If the most finely polished
needle on which the art of man has been expended be subjected to a
microscope, many inequalities, much roughness and clumsiness, will be seen.
But if the microscope be brought to bear on the flowers of the field, no
such result appears. Instead of their beauty diminishing, new beauties and
still more delicate, that have escaped the naked eye, are forthwith
discovered; beauties that make us appreciate, in a way which otherwise we
could have had little conception of, the full force of the Lord's saying,
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do
they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon, in all his glory, was
not arrayed like one of these." The same law appears also in comparing the
Word of God and the most finished productions of men. There are spots
and blemishes in the most admired productions of human genius. But the more
the Scriptures are searched, the more minutely they are studied, the more
their perfection appears; new beauties are brought into light every day; and
the discoveries of science, the researches of the learned, and the labours
of infidels, all alike conspire to illustrate the wonderful harmony of all
the parts, and the Divine beauty that clothes the whole.
If this be the case with Scripture
in general, it is especially the case with prophetic Scripture. As every
spoke in the wheel of Providence revolves, the prophetic symbols start into
still more bold and beautiful relief. This is very strikingly the case with
the prophetic language that forms the groundwork and corner-stone of the
present work. There never has been any difficulty in the mind of any
enlightened Protestant in identifying the woman "sitting on seven
mountains," and having on her forehead the name written, "Mystery, Babylon
the Great," with the Roman apostacy. "No other city in the world has ever
been celebrated, as the city of Rome has, for its situation on seven hills.
Pagan poets and orators, who had not thought of elucidating prophecy, have
alike characterised it as 'the seven hilled city.'" Thus Virgil refers to
it: "Rome has both become the most beautiful (city) in the world, and alone
has surrounded for herself seven heights with a wall." Propertius, in the
same strain, speaks of it (only adding another trait, which completes the
Apocalyptic picture) as "The lofty city on seven hills, which governs the
whole world." Its "governing the whole world" is just the counterpart of the
Divine statement--"which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Rev 17:18).
To call Rome the city "of the seven hills" was by its citizens held to be as
descriptive as to call it by its own proper name. Hence Horace speaks of it
by reference to its seven hills alone, when he addresses, "The gods who have
set their affections on the seven hills." Martial, in like manner, speaks of
"The seven dominating mountains." In times long subsequent, the same kind of
language was in current use; for when Symmachus, the prefect of the city,
and the last acting Pagan Pontifex Maximus, as the Imperial substitute,
introduces by letter one friend of his to another, he calls him "De septem
montibus virum"--"a man from the seven mountains," meaning thereby, as the
commentators interpret it, "Civem Romanum, "A Roman Citizen." Now, while
this characteristic of Rome has ever been well marked and defined, it has
always been easy to show, that the Church which has its seat and
headquarters on the seven hills of Rome might most appropriately be called
"Babylon," inasmuch as it is the chief seat of idolatry under the New
Testament, as the ancient Babylon was the chief seat of idolatry under the
Old. But recent discoveries in Assyria, taken in connection with the
previously well-known but ill-understood history and mythology of the
ancient world, demonstrate that there is a vast deal more significance in
the name Babylon the Great than this. It has been known all along that
Popery was baptised Paganism; but God is now making it manifest, that the
Paganism which Rome has baptised is, in all its essential elements, the
very Paganism which prevailed in the ancient literal Babylon, when
Jehovah opened before Cyrus the two-leaved gates of brass, and cut in sunder
the bars of iron.
That new and unexpected light, in
some way or other, should be cast, about this very period, on the Church of
the grand Apostacy, the very language and symbols of the Apocalypse might
have prepared us to anticipate. In the Apocalyptic visions, it is just
before the judgment upon her that, for the first time, John sees the
Apostate Church with the name Babylon the Great "written upon her forehead"
(Rev 17:5). What means the writing of that name "on the forehead"?
Does it not naturally indicate that, just before judgment overtakes her, her
real character was to be so thoroughly developed, that everyone who has eyes
to see, who has the least spiritual discernment, would be compelled, as it
were, on ocular demonstration, to recognise the wonderful fitness of the
title which the Spirit of God had affixed to her. Her judgment is now
evidently hastening on; and just as it approaches, the Providence of God,
conspiring with the Word of God, by light pouring in from all quarters,
makes it more and more evident that Rome is in very deed the Babylon of the
Apocalypse; that the essential character of her system, the grand objects of
her worship, her festivals, her doctrine and discipline, her rites and
ceremonies, her priesthood and their orders, have all been derived from
ancient Babylon; and, finally, that the Pope himself is truly and properly
the lineal representative of Belshazzar. In the warfare that has been waged
against the domineering pretensions of Rome, it has too often been counted
enough merely to meet and set aside her presumptuous boast, that she is the
mother and mistress of all churches--the one Catholic Church, out of whose
pale there is no salvation. If ever there was excuse for such a mode of
dealing with her, that excuse will hold no longer. If the position I have
laid down can be maintained, she must be stripped of the name of a
Christian Church altogether; for if it was a Church of Christ that was
convened on that night, when the pontiff-king of Babylon, in the midst of
his thousand lords, "praised the gods of gold, and of silver, and of wood,
and of stone" (Dan 5:4), then the Church of Rome is entitled to the name of
a Christian Church; but not otherwise. This to some, no doubt, will appear a
very startling position; but it is one which it is the object of this work
to establish; and let the reader judge for himself, whether I do not bring
ample evidence to substantiate my position.
|
will save)
would
affirm today; it's the same truth He
attested to as he walked this earth
some 2000 years ago - an exclusive way to the Father
(John 14:6) and that man,
as a sinful creature, is in need of a
Saviour.(John
3:16-21).
