(William Bridge, the Puritan divine and author of the discourse on the fall of Babylon from which the following excerpts are taken, was a member of the Westminster Assembly. The full discourse was preached, in 1641, “before sundry of the Honourable House of Commons” and is to be found in Volume 4 of his works which have been recently reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria Publications. “As the fall of Babylon is much expected,” he tells us in his preface, “so the rising of the churches is much desired. Thy prayers and our pains may help forward both. Wherefore, that I might not be wanting to this great service, I am willing that these notes should walk abroad, which I thought should never see more light than what crept in at my study’s windows.” We, as a Church, sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith and accordingly hold, as is now very widely known, that the Pope of Rome is “that man of sin, and son of perdition” and that the Church of Rome has so degenerated that it is pre-eminent among those that have “become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan.” The proof text cited in support of this latter statement is none other than the words of William Bridge’s text. It is therefore entirely appropriate that his notes on the fall of antichristian Babylon should walk abroad again in the pages of our Magazine. Samuel Rutherford who also was a member of the Westminster Assembly would entirely approve: ‘As you love the glory of God, pray instantly (yea, engage all your acquaintance, and take their faithful promise to do the like) for everyone that Zion’s King armeth, to execute the written vengeance on Babylon. Our Lord has begun to loose some of Babylon’s corner stones. Pray to Him to hold on, for that city must fall, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth must make a banquet of Babylon; for He hath invited them to eat the flesh of that whore, and to drink her blood. And the cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned unto her, and shameful spewing shall be upon her glory. He whose word must stand hath said, “Take this cup at the hand of the Lord, and drink and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more.” (Jer. 25: 27). Our Jesus is setting up Himself, as His Father’s ensign (Isa. 11: 10), as God’s fair white colours, that His soldiers may all flock about Him. Long, long may these colours stand. It is long since He displayed a banner against Babylon in the fight of men and angels. Let us rejoice and triumph in our God. The victory is certain; for when Christ and Babel wrestle, then angels and saints may prepare themselves to sing, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.”
J. McL.
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,” &c. Rev. 14: 8.
This text hath connection with the present times, and the preceding words; for the Holy Ghost having made a description of the state and condition of the church of Christ, in verses 1-5, comes in verse 6 to make mention of another vision which St. John saw, and that is of an angel flying in the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel; which is said to be everlasting, in opposition to those innovations and traditions of men, under which the churches of Christ had laboured a long time. This vision being past, as a right consequent of the former vision, he sees another angel, crying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” verse 8. And no wonder, for where the everlasting gospel is preached in the midst of heaven, that is openly, there Babylon falls, and falls immediately.
The words themselves are a short, and sweet prophecy of Rome’s ruin and destruction. Wherein we have:
The description of Rome itself.
Her destruction is described, and that two ways.
She is described in two ways:
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From her greatness
called the great city. Indeed she hath been great in large possessions, and great revenues, so she is fallen already in a great measure, yet she is too great. Great in her opinion with kings and princes, and thus she is fallen already in a great measure, yet still too great. Great in her authority and power over the saints, and churches of Christ, and from this greatness she is much fallen already, and yet too great. -
From her sins that she is guilty of, under that word Babylon.
For if we consult with this book of the Revelation, we shall find that the church of Rome, and that party is called Egypt, Sodom and Babylon as if the wickednesses of them all were concentrated in her. Egypt was exceeding harsh and cruel to the church, and Israel of God: so are they. Sodom was exceeding base and filthy in corporal uncleanness; and so are they. Babylon full of sorceries and idolatry, so are they. She is called Babylon.
Her destruction is described, and that two ways.
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From the fulness and greatness thereof
therefore she is said to fall, and not once, but again fallen, fallen. As it is God’s way to reward those that are good with the good which they most desire; so it is his way to punish the wicked with that punishment which is most contrariant to their dispositions, and their own humours. Babylon, and the Babylonish company most affect rising, and great preferment; contrary their punishment shall be that it may be most vexatious to them, they shall fall, their destruction is call a fall. -
From the certainty thereof.
It is put in the present tense, as if it were already done. The words are repeated, “It is fallen, it is fallen.”
Hardly a word but it affords its several observation. Yet because I would not cut out more bread than we shall eat at one meal, I will fall, and close with these especially.
Antichristian and Romish Babylon is truly Babylon.
Though this Babylon be never so great, yet it shall fall. It will fall assuredly.
It is the duty of the saints, and people of God to speak of this fall as if it were done already.
Antichristian Romish Babylon, is truly Babylon. Herein I shall parallel the old and our late Babylon. I shall prove that by this Babylon is meant Rome. In the Old Testament we read of a Babylon wherein Israel was once captivated, that was heathenish Babylon. In the New Testament we read here and in divers other places of another Babylon, antichristian Babylon. Give me leave to parallel them a little.
Heathenish Babylon was the metropolitan, or the chief city of the Chaldees, full of trade and merchandise, insomuch as she calls herself the queen of the world, “who sat upon many waters,” Jer. 51: 13. So it is with our late Babylon, who calls herself the queen sitting upon many waters, which is also interpreted by St. John, to be “peoples, multitudes, and nations,” Rev. 17: 15.
Babylon of old was a proud people, and very confident, exceeding delicate, and very wanton, calling herself a “lady for ever,” Isa. 47: 7, 8. Thus antichristian Babylon sits also. Rev. 18: 7, “She hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”
This wanton and delicate place of old was full of sorcerers and soothsayers. Isa. 47: 12, 13, “Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth,” &c. Therefore we read that in Daniel’s time they came before the king to tell him the meaning of his dream, but could not. So it is with our late Babylon, wherein are many sorceries and sorcerers. Rev. 9: 21; 18: 23.
Heathenish Babylon was exceeding full of idols and vile idolaters, and mother of them, and therefore we read, that the three children were commanded to worship the king’s idol, Dan. 3. Answerably it is said of our late Babylon, that she doth “make all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication,” Rev. 17: 2.
As ancient Babylon was full of idols, and gross idolaters, so also it was exceeding cruel to the church and people of God. Ps. 137: 1, “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Sion,” & c. Who hath not read of the Babylonish captivity, the fiery furnace, and their den of lions. Answerably in this late Babylon is “found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth,” Rev. 18: 24.
The destruction of ancient Babylon was great, and very dreadful. For,
It was universal.
Isa. 47: 14, “There shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before.” And Isa. 14: 22, “For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord.”
It was very sudden.
Is. 47: 9, “In a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in perfection.”
It was irrevocable.
Jer. 51: 63, 64, “And it shall be when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates. And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her.”
Answerably the destruction of our late Babylon is very dreadful. For,
It shall be universal,
Rev. 18: 23, “The light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee.”
It shall be sudden.
Rev. 18: 8, “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, in one hour.”
It shall be irrevocable.
Rev. 18: 21, “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”
Because of all these things, great sins, and great destructions, the people of God were commanded to depart and go out of old Babylon. Jer. 51: 6, “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul.” And verse 45, “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul,” &c. In like manner we find that the Holy Ghost having given warning to the world concerning the fall of this late Babylon, he exhorteth his people to go out from the midst of her, Rev. 18: 4, “Come out of her my people,” &c.
Thus are these two Babylons paralleled, certainly they are, and shall be exceeding like one to another in these particulars. But the question now is, who is here meant in the Revelation by this late Babylon; indeed this is a question of much concernment, because she is to fall, the princes of the earth are to be provoked to eat her flesh, and drink her blood, and we are all to depart from her, lest we partake with her in her plagues.
By this late Babylon therefore, we understand the church of Rome; not as confined within her walls, but as by her merchants she tradeth with, and putteth off her commodities to other kingdoms. Rome in her latitude, with all her merchants, and those that symbolise with her, is here to be understood. And that Rome and no other is here meant, I prove by these reasons. Babylon is here in my text called “the great city”, and in St. John’s time, what was the great city but Rome itself? for suppose a man were in France, and should hear another say, that such and such a work were to be done in the great city, who would not know that he meant Paris? or suppose a man in England should hear another say, that some great work were to be done in the great city, who would not know that he meant London? In St. John’s time the Roman empire prevailing, the great city was Rome itself; and therefore the Holy Ghost saying, that Babylon was the great city, saith expressly, that by Babylon is meant Rome.
This city and whore of Babylon, is said to sit upon a beast, Rev. 17: 7. Now if we look into the book of Daniel, whereby much of the Revelation is to be interpreted, we shall find mention of four beasts to succeed one another, which is there interpreted to be four kingdoms or monarchies. The first of the Chaldees. The second of the Medes and Persians. The third of the Grecians. And the fourth of the Romans. Now before John’s time, the three first beasts were dead, and gone; the fourth and last only remained, the Roman empire. And what city or people hath so ridden the Roman empire, as Rome hath done?
St. John tells us, that this beast that carried the woman, this city was to have “seven heads, and ten horns,” Rev. 17: 7, which the Holy Ghost interpreted in the same chapter, saying, “These seven heads are seven mountains,” verse 9, or “seven kings” that is, several sorts of government, verse 10. And the ten horns are ten kings or kingdoms, verse 12, which this empire did break into. Now though some think, whilst they look through false perspectives, that they see some other city sitting upon seven hills, yet let any man shew us these three met together in any other city. Who knows any other city whose building hath been laid on seven hills, so famous that the city itself is called Septiros, and whose government hath been of seven sorts, and whose empire hath been broken asunder into ten kingdoms, or thereabouts? This we know is agreeable to Rome itself, and therefore Rome and no other people is here meant by Babylon.
The Scripture is most express, telling us totidem verbis, that that city which in St. John’s time reigned over the kings of the earth, was Babylon, Rev. 17: 18, “And the woman which thou sawest, is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” But in St. John’s time no other city than Rome reigned over the kings of the earth, and therefore that, and that alone is truly Babylon, that is, our late Babylon. Whereupon Cornelius a Lapide, considering also how Irenaeus, Lactantius, Jerome, and other ancients, speak fully to our purpose, professes that he will not tergiversari, but granteth, that by Babylon is meant Rome.
If so, what ill office have they done to the church and people of God, that obtrude this position upon us, that the church of Rome is a true church. But was Babylon a true church? was Sodom a true church? was Egypt a true church? Rome is Sodom, Egypt, and truly Babylon. Oh, what abundance of hurt and mischief hath this dangerous position done, that the church of Rome is a true church! I myself have known some that had relinquished the church of Rome, and written against her, who staggered in their faith, I wish I might not say they were revolted, when they saw this opinion countenanced, and published by great authority. And what say the papists? Your own men, say they, hold that the church of Rome is a true church, and that salvation is to be had in her; as for the church of England it is a schismatical, heretical church, wherein no salvation is to be had. The safest way therefore is to join with us, where, according to all men, both ours and yours, you may be sure of your salvation. And indeed the argument were very strong, and home, if the premises were true. But when it shall appear by Scripture, that Sion is called Babylon, and Babylon called Sion, then, and not till then will I believe that Rome is a true church. I know what some urge, namely, that antichrist, that man of sin, is to sit in the house of God, and therefore that the church of Rome is the house, and church of God. But if we consult with the original, we shall find that the words are not en to nao in the house, but eis ton naon upon, or against the house of God; so Austin, and others turn it. Upon; noting his tyranny and usurped government, so the coherent words also give it, “He shall sit exalting himself above all that is called God.” The whole words being nothing else, but a description of his proud government and vile tyranny.