410 
the great cities over which he ruled. The 
one head wounded to death, and after- 
wards healed, allegorizes the capture and 
fubfequent defertion of Babylon. The 
other wild beaft (v. 11), may be fome 
vilier, or rather fome high-prieft of the 
fire-worfhippers or Manicheans, who had 
compelled the Jews (16 and 17) to wear 
a badge. Whether this difinétive mark, 
or brand, confifted of the Hebrew letter 
Sfin thrice repeated, in ridicule of the 
Shefh ihefh fhefh fo prominent in their pro- 
nunciation, and whether the number of 
the beaft is thus to be accounted for, may 
contentedly be left to the decifion of fome 
future Sebaldus Nothanker. 
XIV. The triumphal entry of Avidius 
Caffius into Babylon, with his Jew regi- 
ments (v. 3), and ecclefiaftical agents; the 
inftallation of Chriftianity (v. 6), the in- 
tolerance exerciled toward all the parti- 
zans of the old government (v. 11), the 
plunder (v. 16), and partial maffacre (v- 
20), of the people, are narrated with pru- 
dent obfcurity, but entire probability. 
XV. The triumph was not of long du- 
ration. Phials filled with the wrath of 
God were to he poured out by the feven 
angels. Caffius was to be compelled to 
abandon Babylon. 
XVI. Many particulars of the war are 
here confufedly glanced at. The tempo- 
rary eclipfe of the majefty of Vologzfus 
(v. 10); the remarkable deficcation of 
the Euphrates (v. 12), when Cafiius 
forded it (whereas when Trajan paffed it 
it was unufually full of water) and the dif- 
comfiture of his retreat (v. 17), are all 
corroborated by hiftorians. 
XVII. The woman of the idol, or 
eveat harlot, who fitteth on feven moun- 
tains, is a facred perfonage very celebrated 
in hiftory, and thus defcribed by Herodo- 
tus (Clio. 181.) where he gives an account 
of the principal idol temple of Babylon. 
*¢ In the other (public fpace). ftood the 
brazen-gated temple of the god Bel, 
which remains now in my time, and fills 
a {quare of two furlongs. In the midf of 
the holy ground a folid mound is piled, 
one furlong each way, and, upon this, 
feven in fucceflion. The afcent has been 
made on the outfide, and winds around 
each mound. Half way up is a refting- 
place with feats, where the climbers fit 
down and repofe. On the upper mound 
ftands a great temple, in which is.a large 
Bed fplendidly decked, and befide it a 
golden table. No ftatue is. to be feen: 
nor is any human-being fuffered to pals 
the night here, except one woman of the 
place, whom the god loves above the reft, 
_ On the Aprcalypfe. 
[ Dec. 3, . 
as the Chaldean priefts fay.” This 
prieftefs or goddefs of Babylon is a natu- 
ral emblem of that idclatry of fornication, 
that. worfhip of the lingam, or image of 
jealoufy, an abomination fo offenfive to the 
Jews: her feven mountains are not at 
Rome, they are the pyramidal ftages of 
the * Tower_of Babel. 
XVIII. Is a fine, though unfeeling, 
triumphal fong over the capture and burn- 
ing of the great city. Vajtata Seleucia 
atque incenfa, regiam Vologeft folo equavit 
fays the hiftorian, Dion Caflius; guum au- 
tem reverteretur, magnum numerum mili- 
tum amifit. 
XIX. Repeats much imagery out of the 
fecond chapter. From the 11th verfe it 
may be fufpeéted, that Caffius affected to 
fhow himfelf on a white horfe: his Chrif- 
tianity is again infifted on, and his mili- 
tary loffes bewailed. 
With the XXth chapter begin promifes 
wholly prophetical, on which, as they were 
never fulalled, it would be ufelefs to the 
future Oriental hiftorian to comment. 
Of the objections to the foregoing hypo- 
thefis, what longeft gave paufe was the 
obfervation, that the evidence of Chriftian 
antiquity points decifively to the heretic 
Cerinthus (fee efpecially Eufebius III. 28. 
and the minutely corroborative commen- 
tary of Michaelis) as the fabricator of the 
Apocalypfe. But as the legend, which 
makes Cerinthus cotemporary with the laf 
of the Evangelifts, has been invalidated by 
Middleton; as the opinions which he de- 
fended and combated, imply an advanced 
ftate of the church ; as Irenaeus makes him 
long poferior to the Nicclaitans, who 
were a derivation from the Gnoftics ; as 
‘Tertullian, Jerom, and other fathers, make 
him pofterior to Carpocras, who is placed 
by Eufebius under Hadrian; and as Epi- 
phanius, whohas preferved a report of his 
occafioning a difturbance at Antioch, is 
not unfavourable to the fame order of 
time; it is likely that Cerinthus, who had 
ftudied at Alexandria, fays Theodoret, 
flourifhed arTER the middle of the fecond 
century—in which cafe our John of An- 
tioch will be no other than Cerinthus him- 
felf. 
To fum up the Apocalypfe moft pro- 
bably was written at Antioch, about the 
year 167 or 168, by Cerinthus, in order 
to favour the political and e¢clefiakical 
projects of Avidius Caflius, whofe capture 
of Babylon it defcribes. 



* Tavernicr defcribes its ruins by the name 
Nemrod: they confift of fun-dried bricks, 
piled on each other, with interftitial layers 
of Sraw and bruiled reeds. 
The 
