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A64635 Certain discourses, viz. of Babylon (Rev. 18. 4.) being the present See of Rome (with a sermon of Bishop Bedels upon the same words) of laying on of hands (Heb. 6. 2.) to be an ordained ministry, of the old form of words in ordination, of a set form of prayer : each being the judgment of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland / published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard ... : unto which is added a character of Bishop Bedel, and an answer to Mr. Pierces fifth letter concerning the late Primate. Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661. 1659 (1659) Wing U161; ESTC R10033 109,687 392

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which are meant as I conceive Vrbs Romana Imperium Romanum Pontifex Romanus and Clerus Romanus The two beasts in Cap. 13. verse 11. are plainly distinguished and that distinction must necessarily be observed in the seventeenth Chapter Likewise for the great beast mentioned in the third and seventh verses of that Chapter is the same with the first beast of the thirteenth Chapter as appeareth by the like description of the seven heads and ten horns the lesser beasts mentioned in the eighth and eleventh verses which is the last head of the former can be no other but the second beast mentioned in the thirteenth Chapter verse 22 who revived the Image of the former i. e. of the Empire and made all to admire and adore it Now the Question is how this latter which is Pontifex Romanus can be said to be the beast that was and is not and yet is My conceit of this is Singular but such as it is I will not conceal from you The Pontifices among the ancient Rom. as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus noteth in his second Book of Roman Antiquities were obnoxious to no other jurisdiction neither were bound to render account of their doings to any they were only at the command of the Pontifex maximus whose authority was so great that the Emperours thought it inconvenient that this Supremacy should be committed to any other therefore by assumeing it to themselves and anexing it to their imperial Crown they did by this means extinguish the Spiritual Magistracie and in a sort extinguish the solemne Magistracy which under the 5. former heads was distinguished from all other superiour Governments and prosecuted with special regard and reverence That as if now for example in our state one should Prophesie of the Government of the Dukes of Lancaster under the like Type he might say of them in this manner The beast that was for the Dukes of Lancaster in their time have been great and is not for by annexing of the Dutchey to the Crown there is now no speech of any Duke and yet i● for the Dutchey still remaineth with the several offices appertaining thereunto though the state of the Duke lieth as it were drowned in the person of the King So in like manner the Angel might speak of these Pontifices Roman● the beast that was for he was in former time of speciall account And is not Being now confounded and in a manner swallowed up with the state of the Emperour And yet is for the Priest-hood remained still the Title and Dignity thereof resting in the Emperour This Beast this Pontifex Romanus shall hereafter appear in his Pontificalibus and by his creatures the false Prophet induce the world to accept his Ponti●ical power for the highest upon earth as before they did the Imperial the image whereof is in this perfectly revived As for the second we are to consider that the seven heads of the first beast are expounded Apoc. 17. 9. 10. to be both the seven Mountains on which the woman i. e. the great City verse 18. was seated and the seven Kings or head Governours by which that City was ruled The Pope in regard of his Civil power over the woman i. e. his Regall Power over the City of Rome orderly succeedeth the six heads that went before him and so becometh the seventh claiming that respect in higher headship then did his Predecessors But not content with that for whereas the state of Pontifex maximus which in Saint Iohns time after a sort was and is not as hath been shewed by means of the Christian Emperors was clean extinguisht the first of them bearing only the Title but not exercising the Office and Gratian the Emperour at last abolishing both the Title and the Office as by Zosimus a heathen Historian we understand the Pope raised it again out of the grave and took it to himself and after he had gotten to be the seventh head retained not the pontificality as an appendant of his regall Power as did the Emperours before him but advanced the head thereof far above any of the seven civil supreme governments making himself by that means an eight head distinct from any of the former which in respect of his civil Power was one of the seven Neither was he content to extend the jurisdiction of his Pontificality ad urbem regiones suburbicarias onely or to bound it within the confines of Italy but which was never done by any Pontifex maximus before him by being Pontifex urbis he challenged a Title of Summus Pontifex Orbis and so became not onely a head of the former beast but also a severall beast by himself receiving in his government the image of the former beasts drawing all the world to worship the same for as Augustinus Steuchus writeth in his second Book against Laur. Valla when the Pontificality was first set up in Rome all Nations from East to West did worship the Pope no otherwise then of old the Caesars A SERMON Preached at Christ-Church Dublyn before the Lord Deputie and the Parliament of Ireland by BP BEDELL Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Anno 1634. Revel 18. 4. And I heard another voyce from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Right Honorable Reverend Worshipful and Beloved THe Censure that Saint Hierome passeth on this Book of the Revelation Tot Sacramenta quot Ver●● so many Words so many Mysteries hath often run in my mind and made me even fearful to pronounce concerning the divers Visions in it and even loath to meddle with it Neither have I to my best rememberance above twice in my whole life chosen any Text out of it to declare out of this place which resolution I should stil have holden save that I conceive some extraordinary fitness in this passage for the present occasion of this great meeting And yet even now I shall treat of such a part as is none of the hardest to be understood so as with out lanching into any deep and subtle Disputations we may keep us by the shore side And if you will be pleased to favour my indeavour with your religious Attention and the weaknesse of my voyce with your silence I will hold as straight a course as I can and without further preamble come to the matter it self of this Text. And first for the Connexion and Declaration of the Sence you shall be pleased to understand that in the former Chapter Saint Iohn is shewed a sight whereat he wondered with great marvel A woman sitting upon a Scarlet coloured beast full of names of Blasphemy which had seven heads and tenn horns this woman had in her fore-head a name written Babylon the great the Mother of harlots and Abominations of the Earth And in the rest of the Chapter the Mystery of the Woman and the beast that bare her being largely declared and one thing amongst the rest that she sitts
this City is described unto us First by the situation that it is seated upon seven Hills v. 9. 18. and then by the largeness of the Dominion thereof That it is that great Citie that ruleth over the Kings of the earth v. 18. Now that by these two marks Rome was most notoriously known in the Apostles dayes may appear even by the Romane Poets who describe Rome just after the same manner as Ovid Sed quae de septem totum circumspicit orbem Montibus imperii Roma Deumque locus Rome the place of the Empire and of the Gods which from seven hills doth take a view of the whole world And more shortly Propertius Septem urbs alta jugis toti quae praesidet Orbi The City mounted on seven hils which ruleth the whole world No man reading Propertius ever made question but that Rome was here described and therefore no reason why any doubt should be made what that great Citie may be which with the same colours is painted out unto us in the book of the Revelation 2. By the judgement of the anancient Fathers affirming expresly that Rome is meant by Babylon in the seventeenth Chapter of the Revelation as the Rhemists themselves doe voluntarily confess in their last note upon the first Epistle of Peter 3. By the Confession of those who are most Devoted to the See of Rome as to name one for many Bellarmine the Cardinal Jesuite whose words are these Iohn in the Revelation every where calleth Rome Babylon as Tertullian hath noted in his third Book against Marcion and in his Book against the Jewes and it is plainly gathered out of the seventeenth Chapter of the Revelation Where great Babylon is said to sit upon seven Mountains and to have Dominion over the Kings of the earth For there is no other City which in the time of Iohn had Dominion over the Kings of the Earth but Rome and the building of Rome upon 7. hills is a matter most famous Hitherto Bellarmine The third Position THat old Rome onely under the Heathen persecutors from the time of the first Emperour till Constantines dayes was not Babylon as the Proctors of the Church of Rome would perswade us but Rome in her last dayes being free from the Government both of Heathen and Christian Emperours And that Rome was to be that Babylon which should draw the Kings and Nations of the world unto Superstition and Idolatrie from such time as it ceased to be subject to the civil Prince and became the Possession of the Pope until the last destruction thereof which is yet to come Proof 1. THe matter of Babylon is revealed unto Saint John as a mysterie Apoc●7 ●7 6. But the persecution of the Church by the Heathen Emperour was far from being a mysterie For it being openly committed Saint Iohn himself at the same time being a companion with the rest of the Saints in this tribulation banished for the Word of God and for the witnessing of Iesus Christ into the Iland Pathmos this could not be shewed as a secret and mystical thing And therefore some further matter not then openly known to the world must here be intended 2. The state of Babylon after her fall is thus declared Apoc. 18. 2. 〈◊〉 is fallen it is fallen Babylon the great Citie is become the habitation of Devils the hold of all foul spirits and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird for all Nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the Kings of the Earth have committed fornication with her c. If Heathen Rome onely were Babylon it would follow that upon the fall thereof in the dayes of Constantine the Emperour Rome professing the Faith of Christ should then become the habitation of Devils and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird Which being a most grosse and absurd imagination it must needs be granted that after the dayes of the Christian Emperour the faithful Citie should become a harlot even Rome whose Faith was once renowned throughout all the world should become Babylon the mother of whoredomes and abominations of the Earth 3. Such a Desolation is foretold should come upon the great City Babylon which in the second position is proved to be Rome that it should utterly be destroyed and never built again nor reinhabited Apoc. 18. v. 21 22 23. Now at that very time when this judgement shall come it is said that the Kings of the Earth which have committed fornication with her shall bewail her and lament her Rev. 18. verse 9. whereby it is most evident that Rome is not to cease from being Babylon till her last destruction shall come upon her and that unto her last gaspe she is to continue her spiritual fornications alluring all Nations unto her superstition and idolatrie 4. Saint Paul 2 Thessalonians 2. 7. Declareth that there was One in his time who did hinder the revealing of that wicked man who was to be the head of this Apostacie and falling away from the Faith And when that he should be taken out of the way then saith the Apostle Verse 8. Shall that wicked man be revealed He that with-held and made this hinderance in the Apostles time could be no other but the Emperour in whose hands as long as the possession and governement of Rome remained it was impossible that that wicked One of whom the Apostle speaketh should raigne there So that upon his removal that man of sinne must succeede in his roome whereupon that great Citie wherein he placeth his Throne falleth to be that Babylon which should deceive all Nations with her inchantments Now all the world can witnesse that the Emperour who sometime was the Soveraigne Lord of Rome is now quite turned out of the Possession thereof and the Pope entered thereupon in his stead Whereupon it followeth that the Pope for all his Holiness is that wicked one of whom the Apostle Prophesied that he should sit in the temple of God exalting himself above all that is called God or worshipped And consequently that Rome where he hath settled his Chayre hath long since begun and yet continueth to be that Babylon from whose communion we are charged to sever our selves by that voyce from Heaven Goe out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and receive not of her Plagues The judgement of the Primate wrot by him long agoe in answer to the request of a learned Friend what is meant by the beast that was and is not and yet is and other passages in the 17. and 18. of the Revelation IN the Revelation these four Particalars must be carefully distinguished The woman which is the great City Babylon The first beast which ariseth out of the Sea Apoc. 13. 1. The second beast which ariseth out of the Earth Apoc. 13. 11. and the false Prophet which ministreth to the second beast that goeth to destruction Apoc. 16. 13. 19. 20. by
endure a short space To make this short space a thousand years or else to put in so many years of the Popes government over Rome before Antichrist come who shall forsooth revolt from his Obedience It seemes rather the dream of a waking man then to hold any likelyhood of Truth Howsoever it resteth even by Vi●gas consent notwithstanding his cunning combination of two states of Rome that under Paganisme and that under Antichrist with a thousand years between that Rome must have continued Christian for sundery Ages before her Desolation and for ought doth yet appear the present Monarchy which she claims to exercise over the Christian World is the Mystical Babylon out of which Gods People are called For the better clearing whereof let us consider the Description that is made of this Babylon by the Angels and our Saviour Christ himself more distinctly to see whether it doe agree to the present estate of Rome or no The Angel tells Iohn in the last Verse of the former Chapter The woman which thou sawest is the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth and before Verse 5. upon her forehead is a name written Mysterie Babylon the great Touching this greatness I may spare my pains to speak much there is a learned Book of Iustus Lipsius which he intitles Admiranda marvells touching the greatness of Rome not long after in concurrence thereto there was another made by Thomas Stapleton our Countreyman Professour at Lovaine which he intitles Vere admiranda Marvels indeed touching the greatness of the Church of Rome wherein by comparison he indeavours to shew that for largeness of Extent strength and power over Princes themselves honour yielded unto it the greatness and magnificence of the Romane Church doth far surpass the Roman Empire These two books were both printed together and set forth at Rome against the year of Jubilee 1600. as if the Papacy laboured to carry in her forehead the name Great Babylon For the reigning over the Kings of the Earth by this great City which is another point of the Angels description It is true that heathen Rome had anciently in the borders and confines of the state sundry Kings that held their Kingdomes of her Such were the Herods Aretas and Agrippa mentioned in the New Testament but these were neither in number nor dignity nor in the absoluten●ss of their subjection to be compared with those that the now Rome reigneth over And no great marvel if the Roman Emperour armed with thirty or fourty Legions had many Kings at command saith Stapleton but that the Pope being altogether unarmed should give Lawes to the Kings of the Earth and either advance them to their Kingdomes or depose them who would not account worthy of great marvel true but the Angel shewes us the true reason the ten hornes which thou sawest are ten Kings which have received no Kingdome as yet but receive power as Kings at once with the beast c. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his Will and to agree and to give their Kingdome unto the beast until the Word of God shall be fulfilled And consider I pray you here the manner how they have given their Kingdomes to the beast Vpon the Election of any new Pope they send a solemne Embassage to profess their Obedienee to him And one of those which is extant in Print as great a Monarch as any the Christian World hath Offers himself and all his Kingdomes his Seas Firm lands Islands Armes Forces Treasures Ships Armies whatsoever he is whatsoever he hath whatsoever he is able to doe and falling down at the Popes feet as a most obsequious Sonne he acknowledgeth and confesseth him to be the true Vicar of Christ our Saviour on Earth the successour of Peter the Apostle in that See the head of the Vniversal Church the Provost Parent and Pastor of all Christians praying him and humbly beseeching him that he would receive all whatsoever be hath offered to the profit defence of the Church into his P●otection and Patronage And these words c. are said with a gesture corespondent the Embassador falling down upon his knees let Lip●ius if he can with all his reading in Story shew us such an Example of any King subject to old Pagan Rome It is true that Nero accounted it for his highest Glory to have set the Crown upon Tiridates the King of the Armenians head in the City of Rome with great state and pomp But let us see saith Stapleton If the Majesty of the Church of Rome hath not had an equal part of this glory yea and a greater and then he reckons how Pope Leo the third gave the Empire to Charles the great and how other Popes conferred to others a great many other Kingdomes One thing he forgets that neither Nero nor any other Emperour of old Rome ever Crowned any with his feet as Celestine the third did Henry the sixth nor caused him to hold their stirrops or kiss their feet much less set their feet upon their neckes as Pope Adrian the fourth and Alexander the third did to the Emperor Frederick And that we may not spend more time in proving that the present Papal Rome reigneth over the Kings of the Earth the Merchants of Babylon are now resolved That all the Kingdomes of the Earth are the Popes insomuch that the best Title that any Prince can have to his Crown is Dei Apostolicae sedis gratia by the grace of God and Apostolick See And Cardinal Bellarmine recognizing his works retracts that which might seem to Cross this title about the Popes dividing the new world to the Portugals and Spaniards And tempers that which he had said that Christ himselfe whose Vicar the Pope is had no temporal Kingdome and lastly asserts more roundly contrary to his former opinion viz. That the Church may deprive infidels of their Dominion which they have over the Faithfull yea albeit they do not endeavour to turn away the Fai●hful from the Faith Howsoever she doth not alwayes so because she wanteth strength or doth not judge it expedient but questionlesse if those same Princes do goe about to turn away their people from the faith they may and ought to be deprived of their Dominions I shall not need to call to rememberance here what Faith or infidelity is at this day in the Roman Language when Paul the Fift teacheth the Catholickes that they cannot take the Oath of Fidelity salva fide Catholica with safety of the Catholick Faith which shewes that if the Pope may deprive infidels of their Dominions how much more such as are Christians being thereby more under the verge of his Authority concerning the Popes ruling over the Kings of the Earth this may suffice The Angel which in the begining of this Chapter proclaimeth the fall of Babylon saith that all Nations have drunke of the wine of the wrath of her Fornication and the Kings of the earth have committed
greatnesse after the doctrine and the example of our Saviour should chiefly stand in humbling themselves And that the Bishop of Rome did by intolerable ambition challenge not only to be the head of all the Church dispersed throughout the world but also to be Lord of all kingdoms of the world as is expressely set forth in the book of his own Canon-Lawes He became at once the spoyler and destroyer both of the Church which is the kingdom of our Saviour Christ and of the Christian Empire and all Christian kingdomes as an universal Tyrant over all The particulars of whose actions to that end are there related viz. The Bishop of Rome stirring up subjects to rebell against their Soveraigne Lords even the Son against the Father pronouncing such Schismaticks and persecuting them who resused to acknowledge his above-said challenge of supreme authority over them discharging them from their oath of fidelity made not only to the Emperour but to other Kings and Princes throughout Christendome The most cruell and bloody wars raised amongst Christian Princes of all kingdoms the horrible murder of infinite thousands of Christian men being slain by Christians the losse of so many great Cities Countries Dominions and Kingdomes sometimes possessed by Christians in Asia Affrick and Europe The miserable fall of the Empire and Church of Greece sometime the most flourishing part of Christendom into the hands of the Turks The lamentable diminishing decay and ruine of Christian Religion and all by the practice and procurement of the Bishop of Rome chiefly which is in the Histories and Chronicles written by the Bishop of Rome's own favourites and friends to be seen claiming also to have divers Princes and Kings to their vassals liege men and subjects c. behaving themselves more like Kings and Emperours in all things then remained like Priests Bishops and Ecclesiastical or as they would be called spiritual persons in any one thing at all c. and so concludes with an exhortation of all good subjects knowing those the speciall instruments of the Devill to the stirring up of all Rebellion to avoid and flee them Is not this a full description of the pride of that man of sinne 2 Thess. 2. in exalting himselfe above all Kings and Princes and that son of perdition being understood actively who was the cause of the perdition or losse of so many thousands of Christian mens lives And in the sixth part of the same Sermon you have a more particular relation of the Bishop of Rome's blood-shed accoding to the description of that Harlot Revel 17. 6. in these words viz. And as these ambitio●s usurpers the Bishops of Rome have overflowed all Italy and Germany with streams of Christian blood shed by the rebellims of ignorant subjects against their naturall Lords and Emperours whom they have stirred thereunto by false pretences so is there no Countrey in Christendome which by the like means of false pretences hath not been over-sprinkled with the blood of subjects by rebellion against their naturall Soveraigns stirred up by the same Bishops of Rome c. And in conclusion as the Sermon often entitles the Bishops of Rome unsatiable wolfes and their Adherents Romish greedy wolfes so doth it in speciall call the See of Rome the Babylonicall beast in these words viz. The Bishop of Rome understanding the bruit blindnesse ignorance and superstition of the English in King Johns time and how much they were inclined to worship the Babilonical beast of Rome and to fear all his threatnings and causelesse curses he abused them thus c. I have transcribed these the more largely out of the Book of Homilies both that such as have rejected them as Popish may see their errour and those that now so much favour the See of Rome that they call such language railing may have their mouthes stopped being it is from the mouth of the Church of England in her Homilies which is a good warrant for her sons to say after her Let the Reader judge whether these passages do not confirme rather then contradict or be contrary as Doctor Heylene saith to the Articles of Ireland and the Primates judgement of the See of Rome I shall only alledge one passage more and that is in the conclusion of the second part of the Sermon for Whit-sunday viz. Wicked and nought were the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part as doth well appear by the story of their lives and therefore worthily accounted among the number of false Prophets and false Christs which deceived the world a long while the Lord defend us from their Tyranny and pride that they may never enter into this Vineyard again but that they may be utterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the world And he of his great mercy so work that the Gospel of his Son may be truly preached to the beating down of sin death the Pope the Devill and all the kingdome of Antichrist c. This latter passage is only produced by Doctor Heylene as an evidence that the Pope is not declared to be Antichrist either here or any where else in the book of Articles or Homilies which how the force of it can be extended so farre beyond its own sphere both not appeare For his principal argument that he finds here the Pope and Antichrist distinguished as much as the Devil and the Pope 'T is answered The destiuction here is not between the Pope and Antichrist but between him and his Antichristian kingdom for the words are not the Pope the Divell and Antichrist but and all the kingdome of Antichrist That Universality all comprehending both head and members And if we should allow a Duumvirate in the Pope and Devill for the government of that kingdom one as the visible head the other as the invisible or the one him that reigneth the other by whom he receiveth power so to do Rev. 13. 4. both might be thus owned without infringing the title of either Howsoever 't is not the arguings from such niceties in the placing of words which the book of Homilies are not strict in as might be shewed in several instances but the observation of the scope and drist of the place the comparing it with others the concurrance of the judgement of severall eminent Bishops afore-cited who cannot be imagined to declare against the doctrine of it will carry the sense of it accordingly with the judicious and unbiassed Reader and so much for the book of Homilies Unto which I might also adde the opinion of some learned men liveing and dying within the outward communion of the Church of Rome To instance onely in Padrio Paulo who wrote the History of the Councill of Trent After whose stabbing by an Emissarie from Rome many of the Clergy of Venice brake out into that application calling that See Impura insana superba meretrix pestis ac lues mortalium and her ruine to be expected according to Rvelat 18. Some of the verses are printed at the end