"4. It was a mighty, resistless universal empire. The antitype, the spiritual Babylon, must correspond. There is a power that exhibits all these characteristics. By apostasy from the truth it originated the schism which has divided the family of God into different sects and parties which speak a different spiritual language. It has carried the church into a long captivity by binding upon it the thralldom of superstition. It has been a constant persecutor of the saints, and has enjoyed an almost universal dominion. That power is the woman that sits upon the seven-headed beast ... the false woman, symbolical of a false church, the great apostate spiritual dominion of Rome. And we may add, out of which have come—directly or indirectly—all the religious sects of the present day."
Dr. Barnes says: "The word Babylon became the emblem of all that was haughty and oppressive, and especially of all that persecuted the church of God. The word here (Rev. 18:4) must be used to denote some power that resembled the ancient and literal Babylon in these characteristics. The literal Babylon was no more; but the name might be used properly to denote a similar power."
Wm. Kinkade, in Bible Doctrine, page 249, says, "I think Christ has a true church on earth, but its members are scattered among the various denominations, and are more or less under the influence of mystery Babylon and her daughters."
Alexander Campbell says: "A reformation of Popery was attempted in Europe full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into Presbyterianism, that into Congregationalism, and that into Baptistism, etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed itself into many forms of Wesleyanism. All of them retain in their bosom—in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrines, and observances—various relics of Popery. They are at best a reformation of Popery, and only reformations in part. The doctrines and traditions of men yet impair the power and progress of the gospel in their hands." On Baptism, p.15.
Again, he says: "The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the church of Rome." How any man could possess as much light on this subject as did Mr. Campbell, and then build a sect himself, is more than I can understand.
Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church: "If she be the mother, who are the daughters? It must be the corrupt, national, established churches that came out of her." Dow's Life, p. 542.
In the Religious Encyclopaedia, Article Antichrist, we read: "The writer of the book of Revelation tells us he heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.' If such persons are to be found in the 'mother of harlots,' with much less hesitation may it be inferred that they are connected with her unchaste daughters, those national churches which are founded upon what are called Protestant principles."
In the Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge we read: "An important question, however, says Mr. Jones, stills remains for inquiry: Is Antichrist confined to the church of Rome? The answer is readily returned in the affirmative by Protestants in general; and happy had it been for the world had that been the case. But although we are fully warranted to consider that church as 'the mother of harlots,' the truth is that by whatsoever arguments we succeed in fixing that odius charge upon her, we shall, by parity of reasoning, be obliged to allow other national churches to be her unchaste daughters, and for this plain reason, among others, because in their very constitution and tendency they are hostile to the nature of the kingdom of Christ."
One of Martin Luther's guests remarked that the world might continue fifty years, and he replied: "Pray God that it may not exist so long; matters would be even worse than they have been. There would rise up infinite sects and schisms, which are at present hidden in men's hearts and nature. No; may the Lord come at once, for there is no amendment to be expected."
Mr. Hartly, a learned churchman, has remarked as follows: "There are many prophecies which declare the fall of the ecclesiastical powers of the Christian world, and though each church seems to flatter itself with the hope of being exempted, yet it is very plain that the prophetical characters belong to all. They all have left the true, pure, simple religion, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men."