“THE GREAT CITY.”

The Great City is an appellation which occurs in the Apocalypse in eight several places. In the eleventh chapter and eighth verse it is found in connexion with these words,

“And the dead bodies of the Witnesses shall lie in the Broad Way (platea) of THE GREAT CITY, which spiritually (i.e. figuratively) is called SODOM and EGYPT, where also our Lord was crucified.”

In chapter fourteen and eighth verse it occurs in the saying,

“BABYLON is fallen, is fallen, that Great City, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”—

Again in chapter sixteen and verse nineteen,

“THE GREAT CITY was divided into Three Parts * * * and GREAT BABYLON came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”

In chapter seventeen we find these allusions to the said city—

“Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the Great Harlot that sitteth upon many waters. And I saw a Woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, BABYLON THE GREAT, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw her drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”

“And the Woman I saw is that Great City, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

In the eighteenth chapter which is continuous with the eighth verse of the fourteenth, the kings of the earth are represented as viewing her overthrow, and saying,

“Alas, alas that Great City Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come. That Great City, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is come to naught.”

And others cry when they behold the smoke of her burning, saying,

“What city is like unto this Great City! Alas, alas that Great City, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! For in one hour is she made desolate.”

Her final desolation is illustrated by a mighty angel casting a great mill-stone into the sea, and saying,

“Thus with violence shall that Great City Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found NO MORE AT ALL.”

            The phrase “the great city” occurs also in the twenty-first chapter, but with reference to an entirely different subject. It applies not to Babylon nor its dominion, but to the community of the resurrected and glorified saints with Jesus in their midst—the community, or government, in the light of which the nations who survive the judgments of God, called “the nations of them which are saved,” shall walk for a thousand years, saying, “We will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem”—this Great City, greater than that which preceded it and is found no more, is styled “The Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, the Holy City, New Jerusalem,” whose seat of government is the Widowed Jerusalem, restored to more than her former glory. But, our remarks in this article will be confined to “the Great City” of which such terrible things are spoken.

            It is evident from the testimonies adduced, that “the Great City” is used in two senses—first, for A BODY POLITIC; and, secondly, for THE MOTHER CITY, or metropolis, of the political organization. —It is used in the sense   of a Body Politic in chapter eleventh, where the dead bodies of the witnesses are said to lie unburied in the Broad Way of the Great City, which is its principal street—Isaiah 2: 3. The Witnesses were killed in the Western Roman empire; but the great city is said to be “where also our Lord was crucified.” Now Jesus was put to death by the same power that killed his witnesses, although in a different part of its territory. He was killed in the Eastern Roman empire, and by the Roman power which also made war upon his saints, and overcame them. It was the power enthroned in Rome that crucified the one, and slew the other, though at different and remote times, and under different aspects. When it put Jesus to death it was pagan, and when it slew the witnesses it was papal, and equally savage, nay more so. The aspects of the power, though varied, do not affect its identity any more than the frequent change of dress destroys the individuality of an actor. The Body Politic, whose executive slew Jesus and his Witnesses is represented by Daniel’s Fourth Beast, the Greco-Roman Dragon. This symbol is representative of the “they of the people and kindreds, and tongues and nations,” who saw the dead bodies of the witnesses three days and a half, but would not suffer them to be buried. The “they,” that is, the rulers, or government of the population, would not suffer it. We may remark here, that the Beast “that ascended out of the bottomless pit;” the other Beast that “cometh up out of the earth;” the Image of the Beast; and the Dragon, are all comprehended in Daniel’s Fourth Beast.  —They are all symbols of the Roman Body Politic in its present constitution. When the Roman Body is viewed as a great city, the symbolic horns answer to its several streets or ways. Being ten horns, therefore, there will be ten streets, each street answering to a power connected in some way with the Roman Head. The dead bodies of the witnesses lay in one of the streets called the wide street of the Great City. And there they rose again to political life; and when this came to pass “the tenth of the City fell,” that is, one of the ten streets, horns, or Kingdoms of the Roman Body Politic.

            But though “the Great City” hath only ten streets, it has some waste, and open places. The most remarkable of these is the land “where our Lord was crucified.” This is included in the great city only lying at its eastern extremity. It is true that at present it is subject to the Turk; but when John wrote it was a part of the Roman City or empire, and will be again when the Iron and the Clay shall be temporarily combined into one dominion under the Czar. In this we have hinted that the Roman City and empire are co-extensive, and the terms therefore synonymous. —This is unquestionable. When Rome was founded its dominion was bounded by its walls; but in the reign of Caracalla an edict was published by which its walls were defined by its dominion; that is to say, the whole territory of the empire was decreed to be the Great City, and its inhabitants, without exception, citizens of Rome. The following is Gibbon’s testimony to this important fact.

            “The sentiments, and indeed the situation of Caracalla, were very different from those of the Antonines. Inattentive, or rather averse, to the welfare of his people, he found himself under the necessity of gratifying the insatiate avarice which he had excited in the army. Of the several impositions introduced by Augustus, the twentieth on inheritances and legacies was the most fruitful, as well as the most comprehensive. As its influence was not confined to Rome or Italy, the produce continually increased with the gradual extension of the ROMAN CITY. The new citizens, though charged on equal terms, with the payment of new taxes, which had not affected them as subjects, derived an ample compensation from the rank they obtained, the privileges they acquired, and the fair prospect of honours and fortune that was thrown open to their ambition. —But the favour which implied a distinction was lost in the prodigality of Caracalla, and the reluctant provincials were compelled to assume the vain title, and the real obligations of Roman Citizens”—Gibbon page 68. Thus the freedom of the city was given to all the provincials, for the purposes of taxation, and the Roman City extended to its utmost limit.

            Our Lord and his Two Witnesses, then, were all slain in the great Roman City, the rulers of whose populations rejoiced at the death of the latter, and made merry, and congratulated one another with gifts. It has ever been their wont to do evil and to rejoice in successful villainy. They are blasphemers, murderers, adulterers, thieves, drunkards and idolaters. Their wickedness is greater than can be defined. Their Great City is, therefore, “spiritually called SODOM AND EGYPT;” and the “scarlet coloured beast,” that symbolises their polity, said to be “full of the names of blasphemy.” Sodom was a city, and Egypt a country—the former proverbial for its beastiality and licentiousness; the latter, for its superstition and idolatry. —The cities and countries that acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of Rome are all of them so many Sodoms and Egypts; but as they all constitute one many-horned political system, one Sodom and Egypt fitly represents them. Take Rome and Paris, could Sodom be more vile than they? Morality there is none; and of justice and mercy, righteousness and truth, it is a mockery to speak in connection with their names. As to France and Italy, they are spiritually as reprobate to all excellence as ancient Egypt. Hence the fate of Sodom and Egypt awaits them. —As a millstone cast into the sea so shall Rome be thrown down, and found no more at all. This is the end of the fierce wrath in store for her. As Sodom fell to rise no more so shall she, and the cities of the nations that look up to her. “There was a great earthquake,” says John, “and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness off this wrath.” Whether the falling of the cities is a political or seismal overthrow, we stay not to examine. We believe it is both—politically, because Daniel saw the thrones cast down—Daniel 7: 9; and literally, because an earthquake that will shake Rome into the abyss, and cleave the Mount of Olives to its foundations—Zechariah 14: 4-5, prostrate the towers—Isaiah 30: 25, and cause every wall to fall to the ground—Ezekiel 38: 20, must of necessity cause vast destruction among “the cities of the nations.” The plagues of Egypt are but a miniature edition of the fierceness of God’s wrath which, like the sword of Damocles is suspended over the countries of “the Great City.” The inhabitants of this city are the worshippers of the Beast and his Image, and have received the mark in their foreheads, and right hands. Of these spiritual Egyptians it is said,

“They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation: and they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth to the ages of the ages: and they have no rest day nor night who do homage to the Beast and his Image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name—Revelation 14: 10-11.

The judgments of God consummated in the destruction of Pharaoh’s host, crippled the power of Egypt; but “the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God” upon the Great City will so completely wreck old Egypt’s antitype, that not a Beast, Image, head, or horn, will survive to destroy the earth again—Revelation 11: 18.

            The other sense in which the phrase “the Great City” is used, is that of the government of Rome. These are styled, “THE GREAT HARLOT that sitteth upon many waters;” a saying which is explained by the words, “the Great City which reigneth over the kings, and their peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues,” termed in the aggregate “the earth”—Revelation 17: 15-18. This Harlot Government sits as a Queen-power upon many waters, which in their political organization are symbolised by a scarlet coloured Beast, whose Horns or Kings are the vile paramours of the Harlot. The Queen-power and “the Eternal City” are inseparable, and both go to perdition together. They are unitedly termed Babylon upon the same principle that the empire is styled Sodom and Egypt; that is, spiritually, pneumatically, or figuratively. The Chaldean Babylon was the great enemy and destroyer of the Saints under the law. It made war upon them, and prevailed against them until Cyrus, Jehovah’s Anointed, came and delivered them. So the Roman Babylon, which is “drunk with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus,” by the cooperation of her paramours has prevailed against them, and will prevail until Cyrus’ superior, the Ancient of Days, shall come and turn the tables against her. The Lord God will judge her, for he is strong. But before she is utterly destroyed, the righteous dead now sleeping amid her ruins must be awakened, and come out of her; for they are to behold her judgment, and to rejoice over her calamity—Revelation 17: 20. God’s people, whether living or dead, must evacuate the doomed city before it sinks to rise no more. Besides the dead, the Jews are the only people in Rome that belong to God. He exhorted them to flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver their soul from the fierce anger of the Lord—Jeremiah 51: 6-45. —Should he be mindful of them in the days of Belshazzar, and forget them now? No. On the contrary, there will be an unmistakeable invitation from high authority calling upon to “Come out of Rome, and to reward her even as she has rewarded them, and to double unto her double according to her works.” Emptied of God’s people there will be no longer delay. Her end will overtake her with rapid strides; for “her plagues shall come upon her in one day or year, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Even so; may it quickly come.

EDITOR.

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