y of Gibeon, that he
may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange
act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for
I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon
the whole earth," Isa. 28:17-22.

This must synchronize with the final conflict, (symbolized in Rev.
19:19-21): also with the casting of the vine of the earth into the
wine-press of God's wrath (14:19), and terminates the battle of
"Armageddon,"--the "battle of that great day of God Almighty," 16:14.

The Judgment of the Harlot.

"And one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls, came and
talked with me, saying, Come here; I will show thee the judgment
of the great harlot who sitteth on many waters; with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication." Rev. 17:1, 2.

The Roman hierarchy had been frequently referred to in the preceding
visions; but an institution, so interwoven with the history of the
nations, required a more full and minute symbolization.

The subject of this vision is announced to the revelator, by one of the
angels who had the seven vials;--very probably, the seventh. The harlot is
identified as one "that sitteth upon many waters." Ancient Babylon was
thus addressed: "O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in
treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness," Jer.
51:13. She is also described as "The well-favored _harlot_, the mistress
of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families
through her witchcrafts," Nahum 3:4. Therefore the harlot whose judgment
is to be more minutely shown, is the city of the previous vision, which
received the cup of the wine of God's wrath (16:19), and which probably
was shown to John on the waters of the Euphrates, (16:12); for the
reference indicates that she had been thus previously exhibited,--the
waters on which she was seated, being the people, nations, &c., which
sustained and defended her idolatries, 17:15. In the vision now to be
shown John, the Roman hierarchy is symbolized by Babylon; but it is first
exhibited as:

A Woman on a Scarlet-Colored Beast.

"And he carried me away in spirit into a desert: and I saw a woman
seated on a crimson-colored wild beast, full of names of reviling,
having seven heads and ten horn