is spoken of in the Old Testament; but this is not its character here—she rides the beast. In the Old Testament she is never, accordingly, spoken of as committing fornication; for in a certain sense, though perhaps, through him, an evil one, she belonged to the king of the earth: he had made her end builded her for his majesty and his glory;—here she rides on the beast, using him, though afterwards hated and impoverished, &c. by the ten kings. Babylon, of old, had deceived the nations by the multitude of her sorceries and her enchantments; but that is another thing:—evil or good, she belonged to the king of Babylon; she rose by him, and fell with him:—here she has no king, but lives in evil, her own mistress, with the kings of the earth. Israel was an adulteress,[1] not Babylon, then.
- ↑ Fornication seems to consist in living in wealth and luxuries, through intercourse with others, not the cultivation of her own resources; therefore it is referred to union with, and dependence on, the world, in the case of the Church, and to enriching commerce with other nations in the case of a city, as Tyre. Jerusalem is termed “adulteress,” not whore, because she was married to the Lord; but in all these cases there will be found, I conceive, a worshipping of Satan, in this world, as its God, a seeking the power, τοῦ αιῶνος τοῦ κόσμου τούτου. Power national or imperial is a distinct thing; though it may be abused: it is given of God, and in itself is always of God, though it may end in open rebellion.
