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book_n	according_a	dead_a	see_v	2,810	5	4.1648	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50525	The apostasy of the latter times in which, according to divine prediction, the world should wonder after the beast the mystery of iniquity should so farre prevaile over the mystery of godlinesse, whorish Babylon over the virgin-Church of Christ, as that the visible glory of the true church should be much clouded the true unstained Christian faith corrupted the purity of true worship polluted, or, The gentiles theology of dæmons i.e. inferiour divine powers, supposed to be mediatours between God and man : revived in the latter times amongst Christians in worshipping of angels, deifying and invocating of saints, adoring and templing of reliques, bowing downe to images, worshipping of crosses, &c : all which together with a true discovery of the nature, originall, progresse, of the great, fatall and solemn apotisy are cleared : delivered in publique some years since upon I Tim. 4. 1,2,3 / by Joseph Mede ...	Mede, Joseph, 1586-1638.; Twisse, William, 1578?-1646.	1641 (1641)	Wing M1590; ESTC R22768	121,369	171

richest jewels for the supposed vertue even of the very ayre of them were wonderfully sought after as some divine Elixar soveraigne both to body and soule Whereupon another scene of wonders entred even of visions and revelations wonderfull and admirable for the discovery of the sepulchers and ashes of Martyrs which were quite forgotten yea of some whose names and memories till then no man had ever heard of as S. Ambrose's Gervasius and Protasius Thus in every corner of the Christian world were new Martyrs bones ever and anon discovered whose verity againe miraculous effects and cures seemed to approve and therefore were diversly dispersed and gloriously templed and enshrined Hil. lib. ad Constantium intimates miraculous cures of the reliques of Martyrs to have been as ancient as his time yea as the time of the Churches peace All these things happened in that one age and were come to this heigth in lesse than 100 yeares But here is the wonder most of all to be wondred at that none of these miraculous signes were ever heard of in the Church for the first 300 yeares after Christ untill about the yeare 360 after that the Empire under Constantine and his sonnes having publickly embraced the Christian faith the Church had peace and the bodies of the despised Martyrs such as could be found were now bestowed in most magnificen● Temples and there gloriously enshrined And yet had the Christians long before used to keep their Assemblies at the Caemiteries and monuments of their Martyrs how came it to passe that no such vertue of their bones and ashes no such testimonies of their power after death were discovered untill now Babylas his bones were the first that all my search can finde which charmed the devill of Daphne Apollo Daphneus when Julian the Apostate offered so many sacrifices to make him speak and being asked why he was so mute forsooth the corps of Babylas the Martyr buried neere the Temple in Daphne stopped his wind-pipe I feare I feare here was some hypocrisie in this businesse and the devill had some ●eate to play the very name of Babylas is enough to breed jealousie it is an ominous name the name Babylas yea and this happened too at Antioch where Babylas was Bishop and Martyr in the persecution of Decius Would it not doe the devill good there to beginne his mystery where the Christian name was first given to the followers of Christ howsoever this was then farre otherwise construed and a conceit quickly taken that other Martyrs bones might bee found upon ●riall as terrible to the devill as those of Babylas which was no sooner tryed but experience presently verefied with improvement as you heard before so that all the world rung so with wonders done by Martyrs that even holy men who at the first suspected were at length surprised and carried away with the power of delusion Besides the silence of all undoubted antiquity of any such sepulchral wonders to have happened in the former ages the very manner of speech which the fathers living in this miraculous age used when they spake of these things will argue they were then accounted novelties and not as continued from the Apostles times Chrisostome in his oration contra Gentiles of the businesse of Babylas speakes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any man beleeves not these things which are said to be done by the Apostles let him now beholding the present desist from his impudency Ambros. Epist. ad sororem Marcellinam relating of a peece of the speech he made upon the translations of the bodyes of Gervasius and Protasius and the miracles then shewed reparata saith he ve●usti temporis miracula cer●itis You see the miracles of ancient times hee meanes the time of Christ and his Apostles renewed S. August lib. de civ Dei 22. cap. 8. in a discourse of the miracles of that time saith We made an order to have bills given out of such miracles as were done when wee saw the wonders of ancient times renewed in ours Id namque fieri volumus cùm videremus antiquis similia divinaru● signa virtutum etiàm nostris temporibus frequentari ●a non debere multorum notitiae deperire But alas now began the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this was the fatall time and thus the Christian Apostasie was to be ushered If they had knowne this it would have turned their joyous shoutings and triumphs at these things into mourning The end which these signes and wonders aymed at and at length brought to passe should have made them remember that warning which was given the ancient people of God Deut. 13. If there arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreames and giveth thee a signe or a wonder and that signe or wonder come to passe whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us goe after other Gods and serve them thou shalt not harken unto the words of that Prophet or dreamer of dreames for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soule But why should I goe any further before I tell you that even in this also the idolatry of Saint-worship was a true counterfeit of the Gentiles idolatry of Daemons Did not Daemon-worship enter after the same manner was it not first insinuated and afterward established by signes and wonders of the very selfe same kinde and fashion Listen what Eusebius will tell us in his fifth book Praeparat Evangel cap. 2. according to the Greek edition of Rob. Stephen when saith he those wicked spirits as he proved them to be which were worshipped under the names of Daemons saw mankinde brought off to a deifying of the dead he meanes by erecting statues and ordaining ceremonies and sacrifices for their memorialls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they insinuated themselves and helped forward their errour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by certaine motions of the statues which anciently were consecrated to the honour of the deceased as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by ostentation of oracles and cures of diseases whereby they then superstitious ranne headlong sometimes to take them to be some heavenly powers and Gods indeed and sometimes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soules of their deified worthies And so saith he the earth-neighbouring-Daemons which are the princes of the Ayre those spiritualities of wickednesse and ring-leaders of all evill were on all hands accounted for great Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the memory of the ancients deceased was thought worthy to be celebrated with a greater service the features of whose bodies the dedicated images in every city seemed to represent but the soules of them and those diviner and incorporeall powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked Daemons counterfeited by working many miracles Heare Tertullian also speak in his Apology to the Gentiles cap. 21. in fine Quaerite ergò si vera est ista divinitas Christi si est ea quâ cognitâ ad

Monkery from Basil began also to incline to the Invocation of Saints as appeares in his book De viduis Thus Chemnitius And that you may yet further see how operative Monkes were in this businesse heare Saint Augustine de opere Monachorum cap. 28. Tam multos hypocritas sub habitu Monachorum usquequaque dispersit Satan circumeuntes provincias nusquam missos nusquam fixos nusquam stantes nusquam sedentes Alii membra Martyrum si tamen Martyrum venditant omnes petunt omnes exigunt aut sumptus lucrosae egestatis aut simulatae pretium sanctitatis The Devill saith he hath dispersed in every corner such a crew of hypocrites under the habit of Monks gadding about every Countrey sent no whither staying no where every where restlesse whether sitting or standing some sell the limbs of Martyrs if so be of Martyrs and all asking all exacting either the expence of a gainfull poverty or the hire of a counterfeit sanctity These were those surely which occasioned that rescript of Theodosius the Emperour Nemo Martyrem distrahat nemo mercetur let no man sell let no man buy a Martyr whereby we may gather what honesty was like to be used amongst them we know Laudat venales qui vult extrudere merces Merchants use to commend their commodities Gregory of Tours who lived and died somewhat before the yeere 600 tels us this Monachos quosdam Romam venisse ac prope templum Pauli corpora quaedam noctu effodisse qui comprehensi fassi sunt in Graeciam se ea pro Sanctorum reliquiis portaturos fuisse That certain Monks came to Rome and neere unto Saint Pauls Church in the night time digged up certain bodies who being apprehended confessed they meant to have carried them into Greece for reliques of Saints The same Author l. 9. c. 6. Hist. Franc. relates a story of another counterfeit Monk who pretended to come out of Spaine with Martyrs reliques but being discovered they were found to be certaine herbs with bones of Mice and such like stuffe and he tels us there were many such seducers which deluded the people And he said true there were many indeed and many more than Gregory took for such even those h●e took for honest men For though it must not be denied but God had some of this order which were holy men and unfainedly mortified notwithstanding their errou● in thinking God was pleased with that singularity of life yet must it be confessed that the greater part were no better than hypocrites and counterfeits and that the lamentable defection of the Christian Church chiefly proceeded from and was fostered by men of that profession as in part we have heard already And if you can with patience heare him speak I will add the testimony of Eunapius Sardianus a Pagan Writer who lived in the dayes of Theodosius the first about the yeere 400 in the life of Edesius most bitterly inveighing against the Christians for demolishing the renowned Temple of Serapis at Alexandria in Egypt he speakes in this manner When they had done saith he they brought into the holy places those which they call Monks men indeed for shape but living like swine and openly committing innumerable villanies not to be named who yet tooke it for a peece of Religion thus to despise the Divinity he means of Serapis for then saith he whosoever wore a black coat and would demeane himselfe absurdly in publicke got a tyrannicall authority to such an opinion of vertue had that sort of men attained These Monks also they placed at Canopus in stead of the intelligible gods to worship slaves and those of no good condition thus bringing a bond of Religion upon men For having powdered the bones and skuls of such as had beene condemned of many crimes and punished by a legall course of justice they made Gods of them prostrating themselves unto them and thinking themselves the better for being polluted with Sepulchres they called them forsooth Martyrs and some Deacons yea and Solicitours of their prayers with the gods being indeed but perfidious slaves who had been well basted with the whip and carried the scars of their lewdnesse upon their bodies and yet such gods as these the earth brings forth Thus the wretched caitiffe and damned dog blasphemes the Saints and servants of Christ who loved not their lives unto death the dust of whose feet he was not worthy to lick up Yet may we make a shift to gather hence what manner of offices Monks were then busied in And if Baronius took leave to use his testimony for the antiquity of Saint-worship why may not I with the like liberty alledge it to shew that Monks and Friars were ring-leaders therein But when the Idolatry of Image-worship came to be added to those of Saints whether Monks and Friars were not the chiefe sticklers therein judge when you shall hear how it fared with them in that great opposition against Idols in the East Of Leo Isaurus the first of those Emperours that opposed Images we have this in generall out of the Greek Menology That he raged most cruelly against Bishops and Monks which maintained the worship of Images and that he burnt a whole cloister of such kind of people in their Monastery together with a famous Library and all their furniture But Constantine his son made a worse fray amongst them For the Author of the Acts of Monk Stephen tels us That he being reproved and convicted for what hee had done viz. against Images by the religious and worthy professours of Monasticall life he raised an implacable warre against them calling that noble habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vesture of darknesse and the Monks themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is unworthy of memory and besides terming them all Idolaters for the worshipping of venerable Images The same is confirmed by Theosterictus another Authour of that time who saith That the whole aime and study of this Emperour was to extinguish and root out the order of Monks And for particulars here what Theophanes himselfe a Monk and a little singed too in this flame before it ended will informe us In the one and twentieth yeere of his reigne he caused saith he Andreas Calybites a worthy Monke who reproved him for his impiety in demolishing Images to be scourged till hee died lib. 22. cap. 30. Hist. miscell In the five and twentieth yeere of his reigne hee caused Monke Stephen to be dragged by the heeles in the streets till being rent in peeces he died both for the aforesaid offence and because he drew and perswaded many to a Monasticall life Ibid. cap. 39. The same yeere the Emperour saith he disgraced and dishonoured the Monasticall habit publickly commanding every Monk to lead a woman by the hand so to march through the Hippodrome all the people abusing them and spitting upon them Ibid. cap. 40. In the seven and twentieth year the Monasteries he saith partly he destroyed to the very foundations partly bestowed them upon