is, the fourth empire, in its last state of ten horns, or divided into ten kingdoms, is that Antichristian power, of which we are now inquiring. She is seated on seven hills, nay, she is that great city, which reigneth [that is, in St. John's time which reigned] over the kingdoms of the earth. Rome, then, is the throne of Antichrist, or is that city, which shall one day be Antichristian. There is no possibility of evading the force of these terms.

It hath been said, that Constantinople, too, was situated on seven hills. It may be so: But Constantinople did not, in the time of this vision, reign over the kings of the earth. Besides, if its dominion had not been mentioned, the city on seven hills is so characteristic of Rome, that the name itself could not have pointed it out more plainly: As must be evident to all those, who recollect, what the Latin writers have said on this subject.

The-septem domini montes-of one f poet is well known; and seems the abridgement of a still more famous line in another –

Septem urbs alta jugis, toto quæ præsidet

orbi:

f Martial. 1. iv. ep. 64.

g Propert. 1. III. ix. 57.

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XI.

SERMON To which, St. John's idea of a woman, seated on seven hills, and reigning over the kings of the earth, so exactly corresponds, that one sees no difference between the poet and the prophet; except that the latter personifies his idea, as the genius of the prophetic style required.

But a passage in Virgil is so much to our purpose, that it merits a peculiar attention. This poet, in the most finished of his works, had been celebrating the praises of a country life, which he makes the source and origin of the Roman greatness.

Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini; Hanc Remus et frater: sic fortis Etruria crevit :

Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma h.

The encomium, we see, is made with that

gradual pomp, which is familiar to Virgil. And the last line (from its majestic simplicity, the noblest, perhaps, in all his writings) one would naturally expect should close the description. Yet he adds, to the surprize, and, I believe, to the disappointment of most readers,

Georg. 1. ii. ver. 532.

Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arces.

upon

Had we found this passage in any other of the Latin poets, we should have been apt to question the judgment of the writer; and to suspect, that, in attempting to rise himself, he had fallen, unawares, into an evident anti-climax. But the correct elegance of Virgil's manner, and his singular talent in working up an image, by just degrees, to the precise point of perfection, may satisfy us, that he had his reason for going on, where we might expect him to stop; which reason can be no other, than that the seven hills were necessary to complete his description of the imperial city. To an ancient Roman, the circumstance of its situation was, of all others, the most august and characteristic; and Rome itself was not Rome, till it was contemplated under this idea.

There was ground enough, then, for saying, "that the name of Rome could not have pointed out the city more plainly." But I go farther, and take upon me to assert, That the periphrasis is even more precise, and less equivocal, than the proper name would have

i Compare Æn. vi. ver. 776. &e.

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SERMON been, if inserted in the prophecy. For Rome, so called, might have stood, like Sodom, or Babylon, simply for an idolatrous City. But the city, seated on seven hills, and reigning over the earth, is the city of Rome itself, and excludes, by the peculiarity of these attributes, any other application.

Nor is it any objection to the remark, now made, that this city, whatever it be, is described by another circumstance, not peculiar to Rome, indeed scarce applicable to it, I mean that of its being seated on many watersi. For these waters are not given as a mark of Rome's natural, but political situation: as the prophetic style might lead one to expect, if the sacred writer had not taken care to prevent all mistake by assuring us, in so many words, That the waters, where the whore sitteth, are PEOPLES, AND MULTITUDES, AND NATIONS, AND TONGUES k

If it be, further, said, "That the seven hills may, likewise, admit a similar construction from the frequent use of hills, as emblems of power, in hieroglyphic writing, and therefore in prophetic description," the remark is very

XI.

just but then, unluckily, there is no such SERMON explanation of the seven hills, as we have of the waters, from the prophet himself; while yet it could not escape him, that such explanation was more than commonly necessary in this case, to prevent the reader from applying the seven hills to the best-known city in the world, then subsisting in all its glory, and universally acknowledged by this distinctive. character of its situation.

Should it, lastly, be alledged, "That the explanation is subjoined to the figure, for that the prophet adds immediately in the following verse-and there are seven kings-meaning, that the seven hills, just mentioned, were to be taken as emblems only of seven kings," I reply, that the seven hills, in the figurative sense of the term, hills, naturally suggested, and elegantly introduce, the seven kings; but that the former, nevertheless, are clearly to be distinguished from the latter. For it is not said-and the seven hills are seven kings-as it was before said—the seven heads are seven hills-but-AND there are seven kingsplainly advancing a step further in the prophecy, and pointing out a new characteristic distinction of the seven-hilled city, arising from