connected with the fourteenth chapter, where testimony is going on, as we have seen.
Direct destructive judgment, in the way of plague, not proper judgment before the throne, came down on men, along with this bringing the corporate system of Babylon into remembrance. It was neither repentance, nor, as I have said, any thing of the final judgment of the throne—an earthly thing; for men blasphemed God because of it, for it was very great: such is the effect of God’s judgments when the wilful rebellious heart is unchanged—such have all of us, unless in new life by grace.
The apostle is now called away to a fuller description of the woman and the beast, not called up to heaven at all now, for her place and her judgment are on earth. He is called by one of the angels or messengers of judgment, that had the seven vials of the wrath of God. These angels had the character of perfect righteousness both Divine and human—the golden girdle in which the certain energy and pure power of Divine righteousness is maintained and vindicated—and white robes, in which the spotlessness of human sanctity and faultlessness, as of God, is expressed. One of these now comes to shew the prophet the judgment of
