tive for a proper name. — Append.], not by way of epithet. All tilings, which the Apocalypse says respecting Babylon, apply to Borne, and Borne only. This is Babylon, until it is entirely de- stroyed : but when did it begin to exist ? Then, when it began to be mighty. When Babylon ceased to exist in the East, it emerged in the West. It existed therefore already in the time of the apostles; and their just cause is said to be “ avenged” on Babylon, ch. xviii. 20, not for this reason, because the apostles predicted that avenging judgment, which reason is alleged by D. Lange in Comm. Ap. f. 213, who restricts Babylon to the degenerate hierarchy in Century VII., and thus makes it too late ; but because, as she slew the saints and prophets, so also she slew the apostles. Comp. ver. 24. The first mention of Babylon is, ch. xiv. 8; nor is it there indicated, that Borne was then beginning to be Babylon : but just as the Lamb, who was long ago the Lamb, is presupposed as such in the Apoca- lypse ; and, on the contrary, the dragon, which had long ago been the dragon, is presupposed as such : so Babylon, which had long been Babylon, is presupposed as such. The present time of Babylon in action is determined in the Apocalypse by those things, which are attributed to the city.
Ohs. 11. The beast reigns both before the kingdom of Babylon and after the kingdom of Babylon. — The Divine of Halle rightly judges that it is not possible for both the whore and the beast to rejoice at the same time in so great a kingdom : but he also places the reign of the beast not until after the reign of the whore. First the beast reigns, ch. xiii. 1, etc. : then Babylon, ch. xvii. 1, etc.; and the beast a second time, the same ch. ver. 8, etc. My analysis accurately keeps to the order of the text : the Epicrisis does not.
Obs. 12. The heads are of the very substance of the beast ; the horns are something adscititious. — The wound of one head is said to be also the wound of the beast itself : but the horns , or kings, to- gether with the beast , receive the kingdom, ch. xiii. 3, xvii. 12. Moreover the seven kings, not by themselves, but together with the hills, are the heads of the beast : therefore they have that close con- nection with the city, which none but the Boman pontiffs have ; and they are the pontiffs themselves. But that one expression, the horns and the beast , same ch. ver. 16, sufficiently distinguishes the horns from the beast, as something subsidiary.
Obs. 13. Into the first division (Obs. 7) fall the XLII. months of the beast ; which certainly comprise some centunes. — The beast arose out of the sea, a. 1077, and shortly afterwards power was given to