Warning Rejected
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ruin of Israel,—the desire of imitating the practices and courting the
friendship of the ungodly. “Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and
playedst the harlot because of thy renown.”
Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome’s example of
iniquitous connection with “the kings of the earth;” the State churches,
by their relation to secular governments, and other denominations by
seeking the favor of the world. And the term Babylon—confusion—
may be appropriately applied to these bodies, all professing to derive
their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable
sects, with widely conflicting creeds and theories.
Besides a sinful union with the world, the churches that separated
from Rome present other of her characteristics.
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A Romish work—the “Catholic Christian Instructed”—makes the
charge: “If the Church of Rome was ever guilty of idolatry in relation
to the saints, her daughter, the Church of England, stands guilty of the
same, which has ten churches dedicated to Mary for one dedicated to
Christ.”
And Mr. Hopkins, in a treatise on the Millennium, declares: “There
is no reason to consider the antichristian spirit and practices confined to
what is now called the Church of Rome. The Protestant churches have
much of antichrist in them, and are far from being wholly reformed
from corruption and wickedness.”
Concerning the separation of the Presbyterian Church from Rome,
Dr. Guthrie writes: “Three hundred years ago, our church, with an
open Bible on her banner, and this motto, ‘Search the Scriptures,’ on
her scroll, marched out from the gates of Rome.” Then he asks the
significant question, “Did they come clean out of Babylon?”
“The Church of England,” says Spurgeon, “seems to be eaten
through and through with sacramentarianism; but non-conformity ap-
pears to be almost as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity. Those
of whom we thought better things are turning aside one by one from
the fundamentals of the faith. Through and through, I believe, the very
heart of England is honeycombed with a damnable infidelity which
dares still go into the pulpit and call itself Christian.”
What was the origin of the great apostasy? How did the church
first depart from the simplicity of the gospel?—By conforming to the
practices of paganism, to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity by
the heathen. The apostle Paul declared, even in his day, “The mystery