[456] Ver. 8. [457] Chap. i. 18. [458] Comp. chap. xiii. 3. [459] Chap. v. 6. [460] Comp. chaps. vi. 13; viii. 10; ix. 1; xi. 13; xiv. 8; xvi. 19; xviii. 2. [461] Comp. Dan. vii. 17, 23; Rev. xviii. 3. [462] Chap. xii. 12. [463] Dan. vii. 7, 8. [464] Chap. xii. 13. [465] Acts i. 7. [466] Chaps. xiv. 8; xvi. 19. [467] Jer. iii. 1. [468] Micah i. 7. [469] Matt. xxiii. 34-36. [470] Chap. xi. 8. [471] Isa. i. 10. [472] Isa. i. 21. [473] Guinness, _The Approaching End of the Age_, p. 143. [474] Chap. xvii. 15. [475] Comp. 2 Thess. ii. 7. [476] John x. 16. [477] Comp. chap. xi. 10. [478] Chap. i. 9. [479] Ps. xcii. 7-9. CHAPTER XIV. _THE FALL OF BABYLON._ REV. xviii. Babylon has fallen. We have now the Divine proclamation of her fate, and the lamentation of the world over the doom to which she has been consigned:-- After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of devils, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness (xviii. 1-3). At chap. xvii. 1 we read of one of the angels that had the seven Bowls. The angel now introduced is _another_, or a second. We shall find as we proceed that we have entered upon a new series of seven parts, similar to that in chap. xiv., where six angels and their actions, three on either side, are grouped around One higher than angels, and forming the central figure of the movement.[480] The series is a long one, extending from chap. xvii. 1 to chap. xxii. 5, the central figure meeting us at chap. xix. 11; and again, as before, the fact ought to be carefully noticed, for it has a bearing on the interpretation of some of the most difficult sections of this book. Meanwhile we have to do with the second angel, whose action extends to ver. 20 of the present chapter.