Revelation 18:1–8

Verse 2. Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Idolatrous Rome is fallen. That mighty seat of power and dominion is fallen. The long fixed abode of voluptuousness and luxury, for the merchants of the earth have become rich by the strength of her delicacies, and now the hand of God hath struck her. It is utterly destroyed; not a human being in it. Thus it is become an accursed place, given up for an habitation of devils and a hold of every unclean spirit, or of frightful spectres and ghosts, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird, of owls, ravens, vultures, and so forth and so forth Past.

Verse 4. Go out from her, my people. The people of God, the Christians, are all here told to leave the falling city, lest they be partakers of her sins, and receive of her plagues. At the time of Alaric’s sacking Rome, many fled away to S. Jerom, who was then in Judea; others fled into other parts, as many holy fathers testify. S. Jerom says, (Ep. vii) that S. Paula and several illustrious Christian families had left Rome as if by particular inspiration, and retired into Judea. The holy pope Innocent was drawn by a particular providence out of the city, as Lot out of Sodom, that he might not see the ruin of a guilty people, says Orosius, lib. 7. c. xxxix. We read likewise that Melania, as if she foresaw the approaching catastrophe, had prevailed upon many Christians to retire with her from a city doomed to destruction. Histor. Laus. c. cxviii. In fine, we all know that when the storm broke out, the Christians took refuge and were saved in the Churches of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which Alaric had allowed to be places of safety. A.