The city was full of idols!

(Charles Spurgeon, 1863)

"While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols!" Acts 17:16

With what indignation must the Lord look down upon that apostate harlot, called the Romish Church, when, in all her sanctuaries, there are idolatrous statues, relics and shrines; and poor infatuated beings are even taught to bow before a piece of bread.

In England, Popish idolatry is not so boldly barefaced as it is in other lands; but I have seen it, and my soul has been moved with indignation like that of Paul on Mars' Hill, when he saw the city given up wholly to idolatry. I have seen . . .
  thousands adore the wafer,
  hundreds bow before the statue of the Virgin,
  scores at prayer before a crucifix, and
  companies of men and women adoring a rotten bone or a rusty nail, because it is said to be the relic of a saint.

Purge yourselves, purge yourselves of this leaven! I charge you before God, the Judge of the living and the dead, if you would not be partakers of her plagues, then come out from her, and let your protest be increasingly vehement against this church which exalts itself above God.

Let our Protestant Churches, which have too great a savor of Popery in them, cleanse themselves of her fornications, lest the Lord visit them with fire and pour the plagues of Babylon upon them. Renounce, my brethren, every ceremony which has not Scripture for its warrant; and every doctrine which is not established by the plain testimony of the Word of God. Let us, above all, never by any word or deed, have any complicity with this communion of devils, this gathering together of the sons of Baal. And since our God is a jealous God, let us not provoke Him by any affinity, fellowship, or amity with this Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.

"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 2 Corinthians 6:17-18