In the seventeenth chapter we saw the instrumentality employed by God in the judgment of Babylon the Great, but in the eighteenth chapter, God alone appears as having taken vengeance upon this terrible abomination, which has both a religious and a civil, or rather a political aspect.
It is not the sin of adultery which is charged upon Babylon, but fornication. Israel was addressed by the prophet Jeremiah as married to Jehovah (Ch. 3:14), and Ezekiel says. "Thou hast not been as a harlot, in that thou scornest hire; but as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband." (Chapter 16:31, 32.) But the Church is only espoused, having the marriage in anticipation, therefore the sin of those professing to be betrothed to the Son of God, who depart in heart and ways from Him for the hire of the seducer, is fornication, or harlotry. To confess Christ with the lip, while the affections and desires of the soul are going out after other objects, such as the pride, lust, and gain of this world, is the special sin here marked out. Happy are those whose affections are so set upon Jesus as to be able to say in truth He" is all my salvation, and all my desire." H. H.