770. That form of religion is called a 'powerful city' because it had fortified itself strongly; for it had fortified itself not only by the great number of nations and peoples which acknowledge it but also by many other things; as by the plurality of monasteries and by the army of monks there (this is said because they call their ministry military service); by possessions of wealths without any measure or satiety; also by the inquisitorial judgment; and above all by threats and terrors, especially in regard to the purgatory into which everyone is said to come; by the extinction of the light of the Gospel and the consequent blindness in spiritual things which is effected by prohibitions and preventions of the reading of the Word; by masses uttered in a language not known to the common people; by various external sanctities; by the worship of the dead and of images implanted with the populace, who are kept in ignorance of God; and by various glittering displays in external things; so that by all these things (haec et illa) they may be in a bodily faith concerning the holiness of all the things of that form of religion. [2] The result is that it is altogether unknown what lies hidden inwardly in that form of religion, when yet that form of religion is altogether as is described above by these words:-
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the uncleanness of her whoredom Rev. xvii 4.
But howsoever much Babylon had thus fortified herself, even likewise in the spiritual world (of which below n. 772), yet at the day of the last judgment she was utterly destroyed. Concerning her devastation Jeremiah prophesies thus:-
If Babel mounts into the heavens, and if she fortifies the height of her strength, from Me shall come spoilers Jer. li 53.
The mighty men of Babel sit in the fortifications, her power is given to oblivion, they have set her habitations* on fire, her bars have been broken; the city has been taken from [one] end. Even the wall of Babel has collapsed Jer. li 30, 31, 44.
Babel has suddenly fallen and broken down; howl over her, take balm for the grief; peradventure she will he healed Jer. li 8. * The Original Edition has munitiones (fortifications) here as in the previous line, but this appears to be a slip for habitationes (habitations) as in the Hebrew.
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