XX.
BABYLON AND ITS FALL.
I WILL now give an account of the manner in which the last judgment was executed upon the Papists who are understood by the Babylon treated of in many parts of the Apocalypse, and whose destruction is the special subject of the 18th chapter, where it is thus described: "An angel cried vehemently with a loud voice, Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (v. 2). But before it is told how that destruction was effected, I will premise:—What is meant by Babylon, and the kind of thing it is.
By Babylon are meant all who seek to rule by religion. To rule by religion, is to rule over men's souls, that is, over their very spiritual lives, and to use the Divine things in their religion as means. In general, all those who have dominion for an end and religion for the means, are Babylon. They are called Babylon, because such dominion began in ancient times; but it was destroyed in its beginning. Its commencement is described by the city and the tower whose head was to be in heaven; and its destruction,
