Most seem to think that Popery is a system merely to be scouted and laughed at; but the Spirit of God everywhere characterises it in quite a different way. Every statement in the Scripture shows that it was truly described when it was characterised as “Satan’s Masterpiece”–the perfection of his policy for deluding and ensnaring the world.
The idolatrous system of the ancient Babylon assumed different phases in different periods of its history. In the prophetic description of the modern Babylon, there is evidently also a development of different powers at different times.
While the mother derived her glory in the first instance from the divine character attributed to the child in her arms, the mother in the long-run practically eclipsed the son. At first, in all likelihood, there would be no thought whatever of ascribing divinity to the mother.
As the women of Egypt wept for Osiris, as the Phoenician and Assyrian women wept for Tammuz, so in Greece and Rome the women wept for Bacchus. They are all the same person!
In Papal Italy all appearance of worshiping the Godhead is almost extinct, while the Mother and the Child are the grand objects of worship. Exactly so was it in Ancient Babylon.
Daniel chapter two is a prophecy of four empires of world history, and three of these empires, the Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empire hadn’t happened yet!
