With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Drunk with - `owing to.' It cannot be pagan, but papal, Rome, if a particular seat of error be meant; but I think that the judgment (Revelation 18:2) and the spiritual fornication (Revelation 18:3), though culminating in Rome, are not restricted to it, but comprise the whole apostate church-Roman, Greek, and even Protestant-in so far as it is seduced from its "first love" (Revelation 2:4) to Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, and gives its affections to worldly idols. E.L. Garrett's explanation of 666 (Revelation 13:8) holds good of the whole visible Church in yielding to the number of the beast's name, except the elect. The woman (Revelation 12:1) is God's congregation in its purity under the Old and New Testament, and appears again as Bride of the Lamb, the transfigured Church prepared for the marriage feast. The woman, the invisible Church, is latent in the apostate church, the Church militant; the Bride is the Church triumphant.