It will thus be observed that there is no strict chronological succession in the visions of this book. There is succession of a certain kind, succession in intensity of punishment. But we cannot assign one series of judgments to one period in the history of the Church or limit another to another. All the three series may continually fulfil themselves wherever persons are found of the character and disposition to which they severally apply. But while these three series constitute the chief substance of the fourth, or leading, section of the seven into which the Apocalypse is divided, they do not exhaust the subject. The last series, in particular--that of the Bowls--has proceeded upon a supposition the most startling and pathetic by which the history of the Church is marked,--that "they are not all Israel which are of Israel," that tares have mingled with the wheat, and that the spirit of Babylon has found its way into the heart of the city of God. A phenomenon so unexpected and so melancholy stands in need of particular examination, and that examination is given in the description of the character and fate of Babylon. The remarks already made upon this point need not be repeated. It may be enough to remind the reader that in no part of his whole book is the Seer more deeply moved, and that in none does he rise to strains of more powerful and touching eloquence. Yet what is chiefly required of us is to open our minds to the full impression of the fact that Babylon does fall, deep in ruin as in guilt, and that with her fall the conflict ends. FOOTNOTES: [480] Kliefoth seems to have been the first to point this out. [481] Luke ii. 9; Acts xxvi. 13. [482] Isa. xiii. 19-22. [483] John x. 7. [484] John ix. 35. [485] Exod. xxii. 4, 7, 9. [486] Jer. xvi. 18. [487] Isa. xxiv. 10. [488] Chap. xvii. 16. [489] Chap. xviii. 8. [490] Lev. xxi. 9. [491] Isaac Williams, _The Apocalypse, with Notes_, etc., p. 360. [492] Matt. xxiii. 35. Comp. p. 291. [493] Vers. 10, 17, 19. [494] Jer. iv. 19; Zeph. i. 15, 16. CHAPTER XV. _THE PAUSE OF VICTORY AND JUDGMENT OF THE BEAST AND THE FALSE PROPHET._ REV. xix.