Charles Spurgeon Commentary Revelation 14:8

"And another, a second angel, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." — Revelation 14:8 (ASV)

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made as nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Babylon always goes down when the gospel is preached; the very flight of the angelic preachers is sufficient to make old Rome totter to her fall. So our fathers used to explain this chapter, for that is how they understood it. I am not sure whether it refers to that or to any other particular form of anti-Christ; but whatever it may be, whenever the gospel is exalted, down goes the devil, and down goes the whole Babylonian system.

That great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

You know that gigantic system of error which professes to come from God, and to be the only true church; but it must fall.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

That is spiritual fornication, as we understand it in the Old Testament—man's idolatry; and the setting up of visible objects of worship, instead of the invisible God. And what is there, in all the world, that is so idolatrous as the so-called "religion" of Rome? She multiplies her idol gods to great excess—her crosses and her crucifixes, her saints and her saintesses, her "sacraments" and her relics, her "old discarded rags" and her "old rotten rags." The Papacy is the most paganish of all the paganisms that have ever existed on the face of the earth; but it is to come to an end, for the mouth of the Lord has said so.