Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	lie_v	soul_n	4,309	5	5.1460	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

to a poore widow a hog her onely hog which a Wolfe had taken away from her And when as afterward in signe of thankfulnesse she brought the hogs head and feet boiled to the Martyr in prison he blessing her spake in this maner Woman in this habit celebrate my memoriall and no good thing shall ever be wanting in thy house from my God yea and if any other imitating of thee shall in like manner celebrate my memoriall he shall receive an everlasting gift from my God and a blessing all the dayes of his life When he comes to suffer he makes him pray to God thus Heare me thy servant and whosoever shall have recourse to this thine Altar he meanes himselfe and whosoever shall have swallowed a bone or prickle or be vexed with any disease or be in any affliction necessity or persecution grant Lord to every one his hearts desire as thou art gracious and mercifull for thou art to be glorified now and evermore When he had thus prayed saith he Christ descended from heaven in a cloud and overshadowed him and our Saviour said unto him O my beloved Champion I will not onely doe this but that also which thou diddest request for the widow and will blesse also every house which shall celebrate thy memory and I will fill their store-houses with all good things for this thy glorious confession and thy faith which thou hast in me Saint Catharine whom he calls Aecatharina a Martyr of Alexandria under Maximilianus he makes to pray thus at her Martyrdome Grant unto those O Lord who through me shall call upon thy holy Name such their requests as are profitable for them that in all things thy wondrous works may be praised now and evermore But above all the rest Marina's prayer whom we Latines call Saint Margaret is compleat and for the purpose she suffered under Dioclesian and thus she prayed if your dare beleeve Simeon And now O Lord my God whosoever for thy sake shall worship this Tabernacle of my body which hath fought for thee and whosoever shall build an Oratory in the name of thy handmaid and therein offer unto thee spirituall sacrifices oblations and prayers and all those who shall faithfully describe this my conflict of Martyrdome and shall read and remember the name of thy handmaid give unto them most holy Lord who art a lover of all the good and a friend of soules remission of sinnes and grant them pr●pitiation and mercy according to the measure of their faith and let not the revenging hand come neere them nor the evill of famine nor the curse of pestilence nor any grievous scourge nor let any incurable destruction either of body or soule betide them And to all those who shall in faith and truth adhere to my house her Oratory or Chappell or unto my name and shall unto thee O Lord offer glory and praise and a sacrifice in remembrance of thine Handmaid and shall aske salvation and mercy through me grant them O Lord abundant store of all good things for thou alone art good and gracious and the giver of all good things for ever and ever Amen While she was thus praying with her selfe saith Simeon behold there was a great earthquake yea and the Lord himselfe with a multitude and host of holy Angels standing by her in such sort as was perceptible to the understanding said Be of good cheare Marina and feare not for I have heard thy prayers I have fulfilled and will in due time fulfill whatsoever thou hast asked even as thou hast asked it Thus saith Simeon who neverthelesse in the very entrance of this his tale of Marina or Margaret complains much forsooth that not a few of these narrations of the acts of Martyrs were at the beginning forgot yea profaned as he saith more truly than he was aware of Evidentissimis Daemoniorum doctrinis Besides he calls I know not what narration of the Virgins Martyrdom in that sort corrupted dictio Daemoniaca but for his own part he would reject all counterfeit fables and tels us nothing but the truth which how honestly he hath performed and what touchstone he used let the Reader judge Baronius I am sure is quite ashamed of him who though he can be sometimes content to trade with not much better ware yet this of Simeons he supposes will need very much washing and cleansing before it be merchantable But for the better understanding of this mystery of iniquity and what necessity there was of such desperate shifts when time was ye shall know that this Simeon lived towards the end of that time of great and long opposition against Idolatry in the Greeke and Easterne Churches by divers Emperours with the greatest part of their Bishops Peeres and people lasting from about the yeere of our Lo●d 720 till after 840 that is 120 yeers which was not against Images onely though they bore the name but the worship of Saints and their reliques the state whereof shall not be amisse to represent out of such records of Antiquity as our Adversaries themselves have been pleased to leave us if it be but for their sake who so often ask us whether there were ever any of our religion before Luther Let us therefore hear what Writers of their own sect such as then lived and were eye-witnesses will tell us Leo Isaurus saith Theophanes miscel lib. 21. cap. 23. erred not onely about the respective adoration of venerable Images but about the intercession of the most chast Mother of God and all the Saints whose reliques also the most wicked man abominated like unto his masters the Mahumetans This was the first of those Emperours the next was Constantinus whom they sirnamed Copr●nimus of whom the same Author ibid. cap. ult speaks as followeth This pernicious saith he inhumane and barbarous Emperour abusing his authority tyrannically and not using it lawfully at the very beginning made an Apostasie from God and from his undefiled Mother and from all his Saints Again lib. 22. c. 4● Vpon the twenty sixth yeere of his reign he shewed himself wicked beyond the frenzie of the Mahumetans to all that were Orthodox so he calls Idolaters under his Empire Bishops Monks Laymen and others his subjects every where as well by writing as by speech banishing at unprofitable the Intercession of the holy Virgin and Mother of God and of all the Saints through which all succour is conveyed unto us and causing their holy reliques to be rejected and despised and if the reliques of any notable Saint soveraigne both to body and soule were knowne to lie any where and wer● as the manner is honoured by those which were religious presently he threatned such as these with death as wicked doers or else with banishment proscriptions and torture As for the reliques acceptable to God and esteemed by the possessours as a treasure they were taken from them from thence forward to be made hatefull things Again cap. 48. of the next yeere If

The reading of which Titles alone were sufficient to shew what was the supposed office of the Daemons among the Gentiles This Philosophy therefore so generall was that without doubt whereof S. Paul admonisheth the Colossians to take heed lest they were spoyled with the vaine deceipt thereof as being after traditions of men and rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For some Christians even then under a pretence of humility of not approaching too neerly and too boldly to God would have brought in the worshiping of Angels in stead of this of Daemons but S. Paul tells them that as in Christ dwelleth the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily so that he needed no colleagues of mediation so also were they compleat in him and needed therefore no agents besides him Let no man therefore saith he beguile you of your reward through humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seene and not holding the head Neither is the holy Scripture ignorant of this distinction of Soveraigne Gods and Daemons the first whereof the Celestiall and Soveraigne Gods whether visible or invisible it calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Host of heaven The other sort it stileth by the name of Baalim that is Domini or Lords And Manasses the king of Idolaters was compleat for both of them so we read 2 Chron. 33.3 that he reared up Altars for Baalim and made groves and worshipped all the Hoast of heaven and served them and 2 King 23.5 that good Josiah is said to have put down all the Idolatrous Priests which burnt incense to Baal to the Sunne and to the Moon and to the Planets and to all the hoast of heaven now that these Baalims were no other than Daemon-gods appeares by their cutting and launcing themselves who worshipped them 1 King 18. for these tragyck ceremonies are counted by those who treat about these mysteries as certaine characters of Daemons but this you shall have further confirmed in due place where the arguments may bee better understood This distinction also of Soveraign Gods and Daemons I suppose our Apostle alludes to 1 Cor. 8.5 where he saith though there be many that be called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods many that is Dii Coelestes Soveraigne Deities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lords many i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemons Presidents of earthly things yet to us Christians there is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Soveraigne God the Father of whom are all things and we to him that is to whom as supreame we direct all our services and but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one Lord Jesus Christ in stead of their many mediators and Daemons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom are all things which come from the Father to us and through whom alone we finde accesse to him The allusion me thinks is passing elegant and such as I think cannot be well understood without this distinction of superiour and inferiour Deities in the Theology of the Gentiles they having a plurality in both sorts and we Christians but one in each as our Apostle affirmeth there wants but only the name of Daemons in stead of which the Apostle puts Lords and that for the honour of Christ of whom he was to inferre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of Christ being not to be polluted with the appellation of an Idol for his Apodosis must have beene otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or may bee hee alludes unto the Hebrew name Baalim which signifies Lords and those Lords as I told you were nothing else but Daemons for thus would S. Paul speak in the Hebrew tongue there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Gods and many Lords And thus have I shewed you though but briefly in regard of the abundance the argument would afford the nature and office of these Daemons according to the doctrine of the Gentiles I come now unto another part of this doctrine which concernes the originall of Daemons whom you shall finde to be the deified soules of men after death for the canonizing of the soules of deceased worthies is not now first devised among Christians but was an idolatrous trick even from the dayes of the elder world so that the devill when he brought in this Apostaticall doctrine amongst Christians swarved but little from his ancient method of seducing mankinde Let Hesiod speak in the first place as being of the most knowne the most ancient he tells us that when those happy men of the first and golden age of the world were departed this life great Jupiter promoted them to bee Daemons that is keepers and protectors or patrons of earthly mortalls and overseers of their good and evill works givers of riches and this saith he is the kingly royalty given them But heare his owne words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AIMONES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And hence it is that Oenomaus quoted by Eusebiús calleth these Daemon-gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiods gods The next shall be Plato who in his Cratylus sayes that Hesiod and a great number of the rest of the Poets speak excellently when they affirme that good men when they die attaine great honour and dignity and become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is saith he as much to say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is wise ones for wise ones saith he are only good ones and all good ones are of Hesiods golden generation The same Plato de Repub. would have all those who die valiantly in the field to be accounted of the golden kinde and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effici to be made Daemons and the oracle to bee consulted how they should be buried and honoured and accordingly ever afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. their sepulchers to be served and adored as the sepulchers of Daemons In like manner should be done unto all who in their life time excelled in vertue whether they died through age or otherwise this place Eusebiu● quotes lib. 14. Prep Evang. to paralell with it the then harmelesse practice of Christians in honouring the memory of Martyrs by holding their assemblies at their sepulchers to the end that he might shew the Gentiles that Christians also honoured their worthies in the worthiest fashion But would to God that in the next ages after this custome of Christians then but resembling had not proved the very same doctrine of Daemons which the Gentiles practised But I goe on and my next authour shall be Hermes Trismegistus whose antiquity is said to be very neere the time of Moses I will translate you his words out of his Asclepius which Apuleius made latine There having named Aesculapius Osyris and his grandfather Hermes who were as he saith worshipped for Daemons in his owne time he addes further that the Aegyptians

call them namely the Daemons Sancta animalia and that amongst them namely the Aegyptians per singulas Civitates coli eorum animas quorum sunt consecratae virtutes And here note by the way that some are of opinion that the Aegyptian Serapis whose Idoll had a bushell upon his head was Joseph whose soule the Aegyptians had canonized for a Daemon after his death Philo Byblius the translator of Sancuniathon the ancient Phaenician Historian who lived before the times of Troy and wrote the Acts of Moses and the Jewes saith Eusebius very agreeable to the Scripture and faith he learned his story of Ierom-baal a Priest of the God JEVO Philo Byblius I say in a preface to his translation of this Author setteth downe what he had observed and learned out of the same story and might serve to help their understanding who should read it namely that all the Barbarians cheifly the Phaenicians and Aegyptians of whom the rest had it accounted of those for Dii maximi who had found out any thing profitable for the life of man or had deserved well of any nation and that they worshipped these as Gods erecting Statues Images and Temples unto them and more especially they gave the names of their Kings as to the elements of the world so also to these their reputed Gods for they esteemed the naturall Deities of the Sunne Moon and Planets and those which are in these to be only and properly Gods so that they had two sorts of gods some were Immortals and others were Mortals Thus saith Philo Byblius out of the Phaenician History from which testimony we may borrow some more light concerning those Baalims in Scripture For Baal or Belus whose worship Iezabell the daughter of Ithabaal King of Tyre brought into Israel was a deified Phaenician King of that name as Virgil will tell us in that verse concerning the Phaenician Queene Dido Implevitque mero pateram quam Belus omnes A Belo soliti c. Nay Baal or in the Chaldee Dialect Bel for all is one was the first King of Babel after Nimrod and the first as is written that ever was deified and reputed a God after death whence afterward they called all other Daemons Baalim even as because the first Roman Emperour was called Caesar thence were all the Emperours after him stiled Caesars and it may be this is part of that which Philo Biblius out of Sancuniathon would tell us That the Barbarians especially the Phaenicians c. gave names from their Kings to such as were canonized after death For so we see here that the Babilonians and the neighbouring Countries which spake the Hebrew tongue or some Dialect thereof called all Daemons Baalim of the first Daemon or deified King in the world Baal or Belus for at that time when Belus reigned in Babel was Phaenicia with the neighbour people under the kingdome of Babel Whence may seeme also to have come their community of language and ceremonies and here note a wonderfull mystery that old Babel the first pattern in the world of ambitious Dominion was also the Foundresse of Idols and the Mother of the fornication and abominations of the earth And because we have fallen upon the naming of Daemons let us observe another mystery of names out of Plutarch de defect Orac. which may helpe us out or prevent some difficulties namely that Daemons are sometimes called by the names of those Celestiall gods whose Ministers and Proctors they are and from whom they receive their power and Divinity As Apollo's Daemon Apollo Iupiter's Daemon Iupiter and so the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sicut nostrum alius Iovius alius Minervius alius Mercurialis c. dicitur Thus Plutarch with Cleombrotus there saith he learned of a wonderfull and profound Egyptian Hermite who lived about the red Sea c. To which is agreeable what Eusebius Praepar Evang. lib. 3. cap. 2. quotes out of Diodorus viz. Aegyptios asserere mor●ales multos propter beneficia in Deos relatos eorumaliquos coelestibus Diis cognomines The same Plutarch in the same place doth acquaint us with this pretty conceit which being to the purpose I will not omit namely that the soules of men tooke degrees after death first they commenced Heroes who were as Probationers to a Daemonship then after a time sufficient Demons and after that if they deserved well to a more sublime degree Howsoever it be Daemons and Heroes differed but in more and lesse antiquity the more antient Heroes being called Daemons and the younger Daemons Heroes But that we may returne againe more close to the matter in hand this order of Daemons or soule-gods as I may call them found place in the Religion of the elder Romans who called them Penates Lares and Manii Dii and when once they began to canonize their deceased Emperours which was from the time of Augustus they called them Divi which word before that time was more generall Tully in his second booke de Legibus shall be my witnesse that his countrey-men acknowledged this distinction of Soveraigne Gods and Soule-deified powers for there you shall finde this law Divos eos qui coelestes semper habiti colunto illos quos in coelum merita vocaverint And againe Deorum Manium jura sancta sunto Hos letho Datos Divos habento would God the present Christian Romans had not renewed this Law Yea so strongly was this doctrine embraced amongst the Gentiles that some of their later Theologists thought that even the soules of wicked men and Tyrants had a power after death and that of these came mali Daemones which hurt men and yet to these they ordained Temples and sacrifices to keepe them from hurting them as well as to the good Daemons for helping them but the Ancients gave this honour to the soules of vertuous men onely Thus have you heard the originall of Daemons according to the most ancient and generall opinion of the Gentiles But besides these Daemons whose originall you have heard I meane besides soule-Daemons and canonized mortals their Theologists bring in another kinde of Daemons more high and sublime which never had beene the soules of men nor ever were linkt to a mortall body but were from the beginning or without beginning alwayes the same So Apuleius tels us in the booke forenamed Est superius aliud augustiusque Daemonum genus qui semper à corporis compedibus nexibus liberi certis potestatibus curentur Ex hac sublimiori Daemonum copiâ autumat Plato singulis hominibus in vitâ agendâ testes custodes singulos additos This sort of Daemons doth fitly answer and parallel that sort of spirituall powers which we call Angels as the former of soule-Daemons doth those which with us are called Saints But lest I might seeme to have no measure in raking up this Ethnicall dung-hill I will now leave the Theologie of the originall of Daemons and

still to acknowledge him and to be cald Christians though by their Idolatry and spirituall whoredomes they denied the Lord that bought them i. e. whom they profest to be their Redeemer just as Israel for the like is said to have forsaken the Lord their God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt here therefore the case of both is alike let us also see the rest You ask where was the true Church we speake of in Antichrists time I ask likewise where was the company of true worshippers in Ahabs time was it not so covered and scattered under the Apostate Israelites that Elias himselfe who was one of it could scarce finde it I am very jealous saith he for the Lord God of hoasts because the children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant throwne downe thy Altars and slaine thy Prophets with the sword and I even I alone am left and they seeke my life to take it away 1 Kings 19.14 yet the Lord tells him verse 18. I have yet left me 7000. in Israel all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him yet I trow these 7000. were not outwardly severed from the rest of Israel but remained still externall members of the same visible body with them But you will except that the true and unstained Church in Judah was still visible and apparent I aske you then where was the company of the true worshippers of Jehovah in Manasses time the worst time of all others when the ten Tribes were carried captive and but Judah and Benjamin only left and they as far as the eye of man can see wholly and generally fallen from the Lord their God to all maner of Idols and Idolatries like unto the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel when in the Temple it selfe the only place where the true God was to be worshipped legally were Idolatrous Altars erected even in the house whereof the Lord had said In this house and in Jerusalem will I put my name for ever even in this house this holy house were Idols and graven Images erected and in both Courts Altars to Baalim the Sunne the Moone and the whole hoast of heaven the like whereof never had beene untill that time Besides also who is able to name the man almost 50 yeeres together that remained a faithfull servant and true worshipper of the living God in the midst of this hideous profanation Nor is it easie to be conceived how it was possible all that time to offer any legall sacrifice without Idolatry when Gods owne Temple and house was made a den of Idols nay his Altar the onely Altar of Israel destroyed to make roome for Altars erected to Idols as may be gathered 2 Chron. 33.15 16. where was the true Church of Israel now or had the Lord no Church at all yes certainely he had a Church and a company which defiled not their garments a company I say but not visibly distinguished from the rest of their nation but hidden as it were in the midst of that Apostate body and yet knowne together with the rest to be Israelites and people of Jehovah but knowne to God only and themselves to be true Israelites and faithfull servants to Jehovah their God And that such a company there was and a strong party too though not seene appeared presently upon the death of Manasses and his wicked son when Josiah began to reign at eight yeares of age for they then prevailed even in the Court it selfe and so brought up the King that even yet while he was young in the eighth yeare of his reigne he began to seek after the Lord God of David his father and in the twelfth yeare to make a publick and powerfull reformation such as the like was never done before him Could all this have been done so soon and by a King so young in yeares and to carry all before it like a torrent unlesse there had beene a strong party which now having a King for them began quickly to shew themselves and to sway the state though before they were hardly to be seene When therefore our adversaries ask us where our Church was before Luther we see by this what we have to answer OF the two first particulars of the foure whereby the great Apostasie of Christian beleevers is here deciphered I have spoken sufficiently viz. first for the kind and quality thereof it should be a new Doctrine of Daemons secondly that for the persons revolting they should not be all but some Now I am to speak of the third the time when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter times For the easier understanding whereof we must know that speeches of last times in Scripture meane sometimes a continuation or length of time sometimes an end of time A continuation of time I meane as when we say the winter is the last time or season of the yeare or old age the latter time of life neither of them being the very end but a space of time next the end which therefore in respect of some whole systeme of time whereof it is the last part is truly termed the last time thereof Mans life is a systeme of divers ages the last space whereof is the last time of life The yeare is a systeme of foure seasons and therefore the last season thereof winter may be cald the last time of the yeare But by an end of time I meanethe very expiring of time as the last day of December is the end or last time of the yeare the moment when a man dies is the last time i. e. the end of his life Now in the New Testament when by mention of last time is meant an end or terminus temporis I observe it to be exprest in the singular number as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being foure times mentioned in the sixth of John and once in the eleventh is in every one of them meant of the day of the resurrection at the end of the world I will raise him up saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John● 39 40.44 54. And Marthae of her brother Lazarus I know saith she he shall rise againe in the resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the last day John 11.24 So 1 Pet. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time is used in the selfe same sense being spoken of the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven and to be revealed saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last time in all which is meant the end of the world But in 1 John 2.18 we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last houre Little children it is the last houre where no doubt he meaneth an end of some time but not an end of the world which was then afarre off but an end of their time to whom he then wrote his Epistle i. e. an end of the Jewish state and religion which was then at the very doore

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

demonstrated that as in the Law none but the high Priest alone was to doe office in the holiest place so Christ Jesus now is the only agent for whatsoever is to be done for us in the holiest Tabernacle of heaven besides wee read that none but the high Priest alone was to offer Incense or to incense the most holy place when hee entred into it But Incense is the Prayers of the Saints sent thither from this outward Temple of the militant Church as the Incense of the Law was fetched from without the vaile This therefore none in heaven but Christ alone must receive from us to offer for us and this is that Angel with the golden Censer Revel 8. who there offers the Incense of the prayers of the Saints there given him to offer upon the golden Altar before the Throne alluding expresly to the golden Altar before the Testimony For the fuller understanding and farther confirmation of what hath beene spoken take this also that notwithstand●ng the man Christ Jesus in regard of his person being God as well as Man was from his first incarnation capable of this royalty and glory not only for the incomparable sufficiency of his person which by reason of his twofold nature is alwayes and in all places present both with God and men and so at one instant able and ready at every need to present to the one what he should receive from the other but cheifly and most of all for that being very God himselfe his Fathers jealousie which could never have brooked the communication of this glory to any other which should not have beene the selfe-same with himselfe was by this condition of his person prevented and secured Neverthelesse and notwithstanding all this capability of his person it was the will of his Father in the dispensation of the mystery of our redemption not to conferre it upon him but as purchased and attained by suffering and undergoing that death which no creature in heaven or in earth was able to undergoe but himselfe being a suffering of a death whereby death it selfe was overcome and vanquished to the end that none by death save Jesus Christ alone might be ever thought or deemed capable of the like glory and sublimity but that it might appeare for ever to be a peculiar right to him And this I think is not only agreeable to the tenour of the Scripture but expresse Scripture it selfe Heb. 2.9 But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the Angels by the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sonnes to glory to make the captaine of their salvation perfect by sufferings Phil. 2.8 And being found in fashion of a man he humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse and the ninth verse Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sinnes for ever sate down on the right hand of God Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living See besides Acts 5.30 31. Rom. 8.34 Ephes. 1.20 1 Pet. 1.11 Lastly for that particular parcell of this glory of Christ viz. to be that only name in which we are to ask at the hands of God whatsoever we have to ask is not this also annexed and ascribed to his triumph over death John 14.13 I go unto my Father viz. through death and whatsoever yee ask in my name that will I doe John 16.16 23. A little while yee shall not see me and a little while ye shall see me because I goe to my Father and in that day when I am gone to my Father yee shall ask me nothing Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever yee shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you vers 24. Hitherto yee have asked nothing in my name ask and yee shall receive Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them for such an high Priest became us who is made higher than the heavens How is it then that some extenuate that kinde of Saint-worship wherein prayers are not made unto them directly but God is prayed unto in their names and for their mediation sake to grant our requests Is it not a deniall of Christs prerogative to ascribe unto any other for any respect of glory or neernesse to God after death or otherwise that whereof he alone is infeoffed by his unimitable Death triumphant Resurrection and glorious Ascension certainly that which he holds by incommunicable title is it selfe also incommunicable To conclude therefore with the words of S. Paul 1 Tim. 2.5 There is but one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus as God is one so the Mediator is one for it is a God-like royalty and therefore can belong but to one There is but one God in heaven without any other gods subordinate unto him therefore but one Mediator there without any other mediators besides him as for the Angels and blessed Saints they have indeed a light of glory too but they are but as lesser lights in that heaven of heavens And therefore as where the sunne shines the lesser stars of heaven though stars give not their light to us so where this glorious Sunne Christ Jesus continually shineth by his presence sitting at the right hand of God there the glory of the Saints and Angels is not sufficient to make them capable of any flower of this divine honour which is God-like and so appropriate to Christ by right of his heavenly exaltation in the throne of Majesty whatsoever Spirit saith otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds not the head but is a Christ-apostate-spirit which denies the faith of Christs assumption into glory and revives the doctrines of Daemons The way being now cleared I may I hope now safely resume my application which I have already given some taste of that the doctrine of Daemons comprehends in most expresse manner the whole idolatry of the mystery of iniquity the deifying and invocating of Saints and Angels the bowing downe to Images the worshipping of Crosses as new idol-columnes the adoring and templing of reliques the worshipping of any other visible thing upon supposall of any Divinity therein what coppy was ever so like the sample as all this to the doctrine of Daemons and for the Idolatry of the Eucharist or bread-worship though it may be reduced to Image-worship as being the adoration of a signe or symbole yet let it bee considered whether for the equality thereof it may not be taken rather for an idolatry of reliques the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament being the mysticall reliques

which he left us as monuments of his death till he come whichsoever it bee I must confesse it hath a straine above the abomination of the Gentiles who though they supposed some presence of their Daemons in their Images and reliques yet were they never so blockish as to think their Images and reliques to be transubstantiated into Daemons But to come to the maine againe I will confesse for my selfe that I cannot think of this Daemon-resemblance without admiration nor doe I beleeve that you will heare without some astonishment that which I am now to adde farther That the advancers of Saint-worship in the beginning did not only see it but even gloried sed gloriatione non bona that they had a thing in Christian practice so like the doctrines of Daemons we heard before that Plato in his Repub. would have the soules of such as died valiantly in the battell to be accounted for Daemons after death and their Sepulchers and Coffins to bee adored and served as the Sepulchers of Daemons Eusebius lib. 13. Praepar Evangel quoting this place adds with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these things doe befit at or after the decease of the favourites of God whom if thou shalt affirme to be taken for the champions of true Religion thou shalt not say amisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence it is our custome to goe unto their tombs and to make our prayers at them and to honour their blessed soules The purpose of Eusebius was here to shew as a preparation to draw men to Christianity how well the present use of Christians in honouring the memories of their Martyrs by keeping their assemblies at their Sepulchers did agree with that of the Gentiles so much by Plato commended in honouring their champions and worthies for Daemons after death But alas in the age next after it proved too too like it indeed For these earerings which the Christians had borrowed or stolen from the Gentiles at their comming out of Aegypt presently became a golden calfe as soone as the woman the Church came into the wildernesse yea and Aaron the Priest had a foule part in it too Read the eighth book of Theodoret de curandis Graecorum affectionibus whose title is de Martyribus or in the meane time take these few passages thereof Thus hee speaks having quoted that passage of Hesiod for Daemons commended by Plato Quod si Poëta Hesiodus auxiliares custodesque mortalium eos vocat qui sanctè olim beneque vixerunt eamque hujus Poëtae sententiam Philosophorum optimus Plato adeò confirmavit ut eorum hominum Sepulchra ●olenda esse atque adoranda censuerit Quid ita quaeso boni viri i. e. Graeci quae ipsi facimus accusatis nos etenim pari modo N. B. eos qui illustri pietate viguerunt proque eâ jugulati ac caesi sunt auxiliares medicos nominamus at non Daemones tamen absit à nobis absit hic furor sed amicos Dei fidelesque servos dicimus fuisse Ibid. posse sanctorum animas vel cum extra hoc corpus fuerint hominum curare negotia Plato etiam II legum libro affirmat verba Platonis citantur Cum itaque Philosophus credendum esse rumoribus censeat id est sermonibus qui vulgò habentur de illâ animarum defunctarum curâ circa homines vos tamen nobis non solùm fidei nihil habetis clamantemque eventorum vocem audire non vultis c. Ibid. Martyrum templa conspicua Quique homines prosperá valetudine sunt conservari eam sibi à martyribus petunt Qui verò agritudinem aliquam patiuntur sanitatem exposcunt Insuper steriles c. Item qui peregrè proficiscuntur c. non qui se ad Deos accedere arbitrentur sed qui orent Dei martyres tanquam divinos homines intercessoresque sibi eos apud Deum advocent precentur Piè verò fideliter precatos ●a maximè consequi quae desiderant testantur illa quae votorum rei dona persolvunt manifesta nimirum sanitatis adepti iudicia Nam alii oculorum alii manuum simulachra suspendunt exargento auroque confecta paulò post Quid quod eorum qui passim Dii ferebantur memoriam è mente hominum martyres aboleverint Suos mortuos Dominus Deus noster in templa pro Diis vestris i. e. Daemonibus iduxit ac illos quidem cassos gloriâ vanosque reddidit suis autem martyribus honorem illorum dedit Propandiis enim Diasiisque Dionysiis i. e. Jovis Liberique Patris solennitatibus Petro Paulo Thomae Sergio aliisque sanctis martyribus solennitates epulo populari peraguntur Cùm itaque tantam utilitatem ex honore martyribus collato provenire homines videatis fugite quaeso errorem Daemonum pravioque ductu martyrum facibusque utentes viam capessite quae ad Deum perducit c. Now judge whether hitherto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath beene fitly applyed or not I will goe on Having therefore by so many arguments made apparant I hope what I endeavoured to prove I desire we may observe among so many corruptions both now and heretofore over-whelming the Church of Christ what it is wherein the Holy Ghost placeth the essence and counteth as the very soule of the great Apostasie under the man of sinne and would have us to make the pole-starre of our discovery thereof Not every errour not every heresie how fowle soever but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolatry and Spirituall fornication as for other heresies though accompanying this yet are they but accidentall and not of the essence of the great Apostasie which was to come Even as whores are seldome without other great faults which yet are no part of whoredome so hath the spirituall whore many other heresies but her whoredome is only Idolatry and the doctrine of Daemons Neither is heresie of it selfe no though damnable heresie a character whereby the great Apostasie can bee knowne from other sects and blasphemies Fowle heresies were in the first ages of the Church yet Antichrist and his time were neither of them yet come when his time approached neerer the Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians were abominable heretiques And the Arrians possessed for a time the face of the visible Church yet was not theirs the solemne Apostasie looked for But Idolatry or spirituall whoredome which in that storme the Devill was a working this is the only character and note whereby the Apostasie under the man of sinne is discovered and distinguished from all other blasphemies sects and heresies of what age or time soever Which that I may not seem to ground only upon the exposition of my text which whatsoever the probability thereof be may yet be thought alone too weak to support the weight of so maine a conclusion I desire you to take these arguments for a full confirmaiion thereof some of them have already beene intimated but now all are mustered up together First that Babylon is entitled in