destruction—as being the chief and perfected form of apostasy from God.
In this description of Babylon we have the whole spirit and character of the world except power, royal power; for that is of God however used, and that (in the hands of the kings of the earth) was corrupted by her; and then these ten horns or kings hated her and destroyed all its fulness and power. These were not Babylon, but they gave their power to the beast; so that power also which did come from God, might be found in open rebellion against Him to whose hand all power was intrusted and given—the Lamb; and thus the last and final form of evil be produced, involving (for it was then the question whose power was to stand) the destruction and setting aside of the form and subsistence of apostasy.
Thus, in Babylon we have wealth, corruption, sorceries, arts, luxuries, bodies and souls of men sold, fornication committed with the kings and dwellers upon earth, and they made drunk with it:[1]
- ↑ The character of Babylon as whore, seems lost by the enmity of the ten horns, because she cannot help it. The religious mischief is, after this, done by the false prophet, the other form of the two horned beast. Thereon the character of Babylon becomes more purely secular; but the devil dwells there, or it is the habitation of demons, and not therefore simply worldly interests.
