And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Ver. 19. And the great city] The whole Antichristian state.
Divided into three parts] By the earthquake disjected and dissipated. Or, divided into three parts, that is, into three factions, 1. Stiff Papists; 2. Converts; 3. Neuters.
And the cities of the nations] That came to aid Antichrist.
And great Babylon] Augustine and other ancients do call Rome the Western Babylon; and do so compare them, as that Abraham was born in the flourish of the first Babylon, Christ of the second. The Jesuits here, though they grant Rome to be Babylon, yet they would have it to be Rome heathen under the emperors, and not Rome Christian under the popes. But it must be Rome Christian, as it appears by a double departure: 1. Of Babylon from the Church,Revelation 17:3. Babylon is called a whore. 2. Of the Church from Babylon, Revelation 18:3. The temple of God is the seat of Antichrist, saith Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4 .
The cup of wine] That wherein God delights, as a man would do to drink a cup of generous wine.