The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 372

of the image of the beast. The first beast where lt oceun (of. IS&. i. 21; Jer. iL to; la, therefore, identical with Babylon, and iii.; Esek. xvi. ; xxiii. ; Hos. ii. 5 : iiL S : repl'818nts, as we have teen, the openly iv. 15; Micah i. 7). In ha. xxiii. and Nah. hostile and peraecmting world-power of all iii. 14 th!f term refen to Tyre and Nineveh ages, of whioh, in St. John's time, Rome respeotively. (2) There is an intended was the foremost embodimenL The seoond contrast between the bride and the, Lamb, beast i1 identieal with the harlot, and re- and the harlot who allies herself with the preeents fa.ithle11 Christians, the apostate beast (1'iae ,upra). (8) A oontmst is also portion of the Cbnrch. The very miaott probably intended between the woman d'etre of the Apocalypse is to deal with clothed ,rith the sun (eh. :xii.), bringing these two forl'.llll of evil; to declare the over- forth the man-child, Christ Jeeus the throw of the one, and to warn and, if po1- Saviour-the iepresentation of the pure aible, reclaim those under the influence of Church--ttnd the harlot clothed in aearlet, the other. In the latter case, the warning the mother of ha.dots and abominations-the con,;ists in setting forth the judgment in representation of the faithleBS part of the. etore for faithlesll Christiana ; and as this Church. (i) Both the woman of ob. xii. is th1> courre pursued with the former also, and the harlot of this chapter reside in the the two merge into one, and indeed are wildernel!I, that is, this world (see on eh. declared to be one. The apostle in sub- xii. 14); indeed, they are to men sometimes etaooe drclares that, though there is a prima indistinguishable (of. the parable of the fame diff,,rence between the two forms of wheat and tares). (a) The faithful Church, uogodliriess, there is in reality no distinction the bride, is calfod a city ( eh. xxi. 2, 9, 10); to be made, hut both are involved in one so the faithless portion· of the Church, the eommon final judgment. He thus twice h8Tlot, is identified with the city Babylon solemnly BBscrts that the harlot is! Babylon (oh. xi. 8: xvii. 4, a). Other coincidences (vera. a and 18). The comments upon the will be noted as we proceed. But it aeems following chapters will be based upon this equally impossible ·to accept the view that hypothesis, tlie reasons for which will be thi1 faithlesd portion of the Church refers. brought out more clearly as we pr()('.eed. to papal Rome, and norn1 other. We m118' The opening words of this chapter leave no include all the faithless of God'a Church in doubt that the visions which follow are con- all time. If the fulfilment is to be limited nected with the vial judgments. The "one at all, it seems more reasonable to suppooe of the 110ven ange.ls" may he the seventh that the first reference of SL John waa to angel, to whom it pertained to unfold the the faithless mem hers of the 110ven Churches circumstances connected with the last to which be addresses the Apocalypse. But judgment. Come hither; I will lhow unto we are, no donbt, intended to $88 here a thee the judgnlent. Hither, IMipo, without picture of the position of tbe unfaithful part the verb, as in eh. xxi. 9 and John xL 43. of the Church wherever it exists, at any Though this particularnarra.t"ion neoessarily time, and which men are certainly not able takes place after the eooount of the vials, alwaya to specify and judge. On this yet we are not to un<lerstand that the events point eee Professor Milligan's 'Baird Lec- here related are &ubsequent to those re- tures • for 1885, on "The Revelation of St. lated in the concluding verses of the pre- John." In lect. v. he says, "But Babylun vious chapter. Note the remarkable simi- is not the Church of Rome in particular. larity between these wotds and those of eh. Deeply, no doubt, thut Church has sinned. ;ui. 9, and the contrast between the bride, . . . Yet the interpretation is false. . . . the wife or the Lamb, and the harlot who Babylon cannot be Christian Rome ; and is eonnected with the beal,t. Wordsworth nothing bas been more injuriollS to the carries the comparison even t.o the form of Protestant ChureLes than the impl'lll!l!ion words, thus- that the two were identical, and that, by The harlot and the beast. withdrawing from communion with the pope, 'ff .-&p,,,, n} TO lh/pla11. they wholly freed themaelves from alliance with the spiritual harloL Babylon e m ~ 'H i,l,p.t/nJ 1rul -ro ~pv(oi,. much more than Rome, and illu&tnltioJll -0f The bride and the Lamb. what she is lie nearer our own door. Of the great whore; harl.ot (Revised Ver- Wherever prof8111edly Christian men bilve sion) There seems no doubt that this thought the world's favom better than ita figu110 deaoribes the degenerate portion of reproach; wherever they have esteemed its the Church of God. (I) As we have already honours a more desirable posse&Sion than 1een, this symbolism is made use of by Sl ita shame; wherever they have C)Ourted 81.88 .Tvhn to portmy the faithlessness of thoBe rather than weloomed suffering, have loved who are _professedly servants of God (800 eh. self-indulgenoo rather than self-saeriftoe, ii. 20; xiv. 4), and in this sense it is applied and have substituted covetoulJ[leBB in grasp- in the great ruajority of pasaages of Scripture ing f-0r generosity in diliiribuiing what they .Ul . THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DMNE. (CH. xvu. 1-18.