'T was there that was the most famous Temple of the most infamous of all the Heathen Divinities viz. Venus the Goddess of prostitutions And 't is plain that by way of allusion to this infamous Goddess Spiritual Babylon is represented in the 17th of the Revelation as a whore sitting on a beast and offering her self from on high to every comer For Women did expose and prostitute themselves in the most visible places of the Temple of the Venus of Babylon These three things Tyranny Idolatry and corruption of manners we meet with in all the descriptions of Antichrist So then these are the three Characters by which the Antichristian Empire is represented to us in those places that speak of it In the second Chapter of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the head of this Empire is called the man of sin and the son of perdition i. e. utterly lost and plunged into a mighty sink of corruption Behold Sodom 'T is said that he should exalt himself above all that is called God that he should sit in the Temple of God behaving himself as though he were God Behold Egypt pride and tyranny His Religion is called a mystery of iniquity and he is to establish it by signs and lying wonders behold Idolatry and behold Babylon All the Heathens called their Religion and their Ceremonies by the name of Mysteries Ceres had her mysteries Bacchus had his and Venus of Babylon had hers also but these Mysteries were abominable and idolatrous In the eleventh of the Revelation this Empire is called a Gentilism a Paganism The outward Court is left to the Gentiles for them to tread under foot for 42. months Behold Babylon behold Idolatry By the prophaning of the outward Court is also meant the corruption of manners because the Heathens were wont to make the Temples of their Idols the place of their most filthy debauches v. 7. In the same Chapter it is said that the beast which comes out of the bottomless pit shall make war with the Saints and overcome them and kill them There is the tyranny and cruelty of Egypt In the two Visions of the 13th Chapter of the Revelation this Antichristian Empire is represented as a Beast In the first as a beast compounded of a Leopard a Bear and a Lion three cruel Beasts This is to set forth its cruelty and tyranny It is given to him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them Here again is Egypt that oppresses the children of God and makes a cruel war upon them Men worship this Beast and the Dragon that gave him his power And they worshipped the Dragon which gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast Behold Babylon where a Dragon was worshipped to which it may be the Holy Ghost alludes Lastly to this Beast was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies against God his Name his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven There is pride and idolatry The second Beast works great signs to seduce men Rev. 13.14 And deceiveth them that dwell upon the Earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in sight of the beast 'T is therefore a false Prophet that works false Miracles to cause his false Gods to be worshipped 'T is a Prophet of Babylon and of Idols He causes all them to be killed that do not worship the image of the beast It s cruelty and tyranny makes this Empire a true Egypt In the 14th Chapter 't is said of this Babylon that she made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornications They are her Idolatries that are so called And in the 17th Chap. she is more largely described as a prostitute woman arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious Stones and Pearls having a golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication And upon her fore-head was a name written MYSTERY i. e. Religion and for the explication of this word Mystery 't is added the mother of fornications or idolatries this is Babylon She is also the mother of the abominations of the Earth This is Sodom whose corruption spreads it self even to the end of the World. She makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints this is Egypt 't is cruelty and tyranny Wheresoever these three Characters are found there is Antichristianism It is not confined only to the Empire of the Pape One cannot question whether these be the Characters of the Babylonish Empire But we must carefully observe that in all places of Christendom where these Characters are found the pride and tyranny of Egypt the filth and abominations of Sodom and the Idolatries of Babylon there is the Antichristian Empire in whole or in part And hereupon we must conclude that this Empire is not confined to what we call the Papism the Places subject to the Pope the Latin Church In the Greek Church there is Idolatry there is Babylon The Greek Church makes a part of Babylon for there they invocate Saints and worship Images and Relicks There is Sodom for the corruption of manners there is great and this corruption when the Eastern Church was not under the Turkish Cross appeared much more than it doth at this day Lastly There is Egypt for there were tyranny and pride in that Church The Patriarchs and Prelates of the East in their time and in their prosperity carried themselves like Masters and Tyrants though in that respect they did not go so high as the Bishop of Rome The Greek Church did not separate from the Latin before the tenth Century when the Latin Church was already become Sodom by the horrible corruption of her manners Egypt by her Tyranny and Pride Babylon by her Idolatries These two Churches made but one Body and one Babel And we must not imagine that the Greek Church by her separation became a Jerusalem seeing she retained the corruption of Babel But this doth not hinder but that we may look for the capital of this Anti-christian Empire in Rome Yet Rome ceaseth not to be the head of the Babylonish Empire and find the man of sin the head of the Babylonish Empire in the Pope The Greek Churches and those of the Eastern Communion do no longer obey him They are revolted Provinces over which he pretends a right and who indeed ought to obey him seeing they have taken his mark and sign which is Idolatry The Pope always keeps his Titles and as he pretends he keeps his ancient rights over these separate Churches calling himself the universal Bishop Besides we must consider all the Churches that have revolted from their obedience to God as united under one spiritual head which is Satan just in the same manner as Churches of different communions remain united under one spiritual head which is Iesus Christ if they hold the fundamental Doctrines In like manner the corrupt Societies are united under one spiritual head which
miracle But the Dragon doth not yield for all that but goes to make war with the remnant of the seed of the Woman v. 17. i. e. he endeavours to cause to be brought forth an Antichristian Empire for the ruin of the Church the thing which he will further explain in the following Chapter We have therfore in this the History of the Church to the end of the fourth Century or the beginning of the fifth For it is in the space of these 400 Years that the Apostolique Church did bring forth Christianity that Christianity was persecuted by the Emperours that J. Christ did miraculously preserve it that it remained victorious under Constantine that the Church was almost ruin'd by Arrianism that she saw her self happily deliver'd from it St. John spends but one Chapter about the first Period of the Church of 400 Years because the great events were design'd to be in the following Periods The 13th C. 13.1 2 3. c. Chapter according to the most exact rules of method begins where the 12th ended We have in the 13th Chapter the birth of the Babylonish Empire An Epitome of the History foretold in the 13th Ch. which is grafted on the Roman Empire this is the first Beast that ariseth out of the Sea having seven Heads ten Horns the seventh of these Heads is laden with ten Horns each of which is adorned with a Crown to signify that these were so many Kings These ten Kings are the continuation of the Roman Empire under the seventh Head which is that of Antichrist These ten Kings are subject to this seventh Head together with it compose one Empire A second Beast arises out of the Earth it is the same Empire the same Beast or rather 't is the seventh Head of the first Beast This Empire of Antichrist that was represented in the first vision as one of the Heads is represented in the second vision as a new Beast because it is the ancient Empire of Rome yet nevertheless 't is a New one 'T is the continuation of the Roman Empire having the same seat viz. the City of Rome extending it self very near over the very self-same Provinces It is a New Empire because it is in another form under another name is called the Empire of the Church an Ecclesiastical Empire These two Beasts therfore fill up but one the same Period in which the Head of the Emperors that was mortally wounded is healed again by Antichrist in which Period ways of worshipping and doctrines full of impiety blasphemy are advanced in the Church In which Period the Saints are overcome the Truth is buried in which all the inhabitants of the Earth worship the Beast submit themselves to the Babylonish Empire in which Antichrist whose name contains the Number 666. makes an image of the first Roman Empire causeth it to be worshipped lastly in which all liberty to buy sell live is taken away unless men will bear the Image of the Beast All this is the History of the 1260 Years that begin about the time that the 400 Years of the first Period do end This is according to the rules of History A short explication of the 14th Chap. The 14th Ch. begins also where the 13th ends It contains the Prophecy of the fall of that Babylonish Empire represented by the two Beasts of the 13th Chap. 'T is no longer a Beast with seven Heads ten Horns 't is no longer the Beast with two Horns 't is Spiritual Babylon But this Babylon is the very same thing as the first the second Beast She is fallen v. 8. she is fallen Babylon that great City because she hath made the nations drunk with the wine of her fornication The seven foregoing verses are a preparation for this great fall the following ones to the end of the Chapter are a description of the ruin of Babel The Man that sits on the white cloud v. 14. is Jesus Christ The sickle that is put in first among the corn to mow it down and afterwards into the vintage to cut down the grapes are the two degrees of Babylons fall which we shall afterwards explain This is the Analysis of the 14th Chap. The H. Ghost thought it not enough to have foretold the fall of the Babylonish Empire in general Chap. 15. he will also instruct us in the steps by which it must pass in falling And as this is a great affair the vision of the 15th Chapter is employed to prepare mens Spirits for it The seven Vialls of the wrath and vengeance of God that must overwhelm the Babylonish Empire are distributed to seven distinct Angels to pour them out at different times The 16. Chap. contains the pouring forth of these Vialls Chap. 16. which are the several punishments by which the Empire of the Beast is afflicted till it be entirely brought to nothing And these seven Vials contain all the time of the fall of the Babylonish Empire Of this we will treat in a particular Chapter by it self afterwards It is enough to know that this Chapter leads the afflicted Church to the very point of her deliverance And thus you have the whole History of the Church during the 1260 Years But because these things had been expressed in figurative terms Chap. 17. and prophetical symbols of Beasis Horns Harvest Vintage Vialls God will explain these things in terms less figurative more intelligible Therfore the 17th Ch. is spent in explaining the Visions of the two Beasis to give us to understand that the Beasis signify an Empire that the ten Horus are ten Kings that these ten Kings out of weakness and complaisance would give their power to the Beast and that at last they would ruin him take away that power they had formerly given him As in the 17th Ch. the H. Ghost declares the establishment the progress of the Babylonish Empire in a more clear and less figurative manner than he had done in the 13th Chap. in the like manner in the 18th Chap. he gives us the particulars of the ruin of this Babylon Chap. 18. more largely more clearly more largely I say more clearly than he had done in the 14th Chap. This hath no need of proof In the process of this discourse we shall explain the circumstances of this fall The 19th Chap. is as it were a recapitulation of all that respects the ruin of Babylon Chap. 19. Therin J. Christ appears riding on a White horse is called the faithful and true the Word of God. He assembles all his forces the Babylonish Empire assembles all its forces the fight begins the Beast and the false Prophet i.e. the Antichristian Empire and Antichrist that is the head are taken and utterly destroyed 'T is the same thing we met with before in the 14. Chap. at the end of the 16. at the end of the 17. and
seventeenth Chap. 17.8 That they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names are not written in the book of Life when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is Fourthly The Beast in the 13th Chap. makes war with the Saints Chap. 13.7 and 't is given to him to overcome them That in the 17th Chap. carries a Woman Chap. 17. â— that makes her self drunk with the blood of the Saints Fifthly The Beast of the 13th Chap. receives a deadly wound in one of his heads which dies and rises again The Beast in the 17th Chap. was and is not Chap 7.7 8. and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep was and is not and yet is Who doth not see that the latter is an explication of the former The Beast was and is not because his head hath been mortally wounded He is however and must ascend out of the bottomless pit because his deadly wound shall be healed and the Beast shall rise again Sixthly The Beast in the 13th Ch. hath ten horns which signify ten Kings That in the seventeenth hath likewise ten Horns and the ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings Why there is not a Woman sitting on the Beast of the 13th Chap. as there is on that of the 17th These so exact and perfect resemblances plainly shew that these two Beasts are one But why is there a Woman seen sitting on the second Beast and none upon the first we have already hinted the reason In the thirteenth Chap. there are two Beasts which by the confession of all Interpreters even the popish ones themselves signify one and the same thing only the Beast with the seven heads signifies the Empire and the Beast with two horns like those of a Lamb signifies the Religion And these two Beasts together signify the Roman Empire raised up under the name of the Church and under the outside of Religion In the 17th Chap. the second Beast which signifies the Religion doth not appear but in the place thereof appears a Woman riding upon the Beast to signify the Religion And this for the greater clearness because the seventeenth Chap. is an explication of the visions of the thirteenth For the greater clearness I say for the corrupted Church is much more clearly signified by a Woman than by a Beast In all the Scripture the Church is always represented to us as a Spouse and a Woman and the corrupt and idolatrous Church as a debauch'd Woman and an Adulteress This is too well known to need any proof Behold therefore this corrupted Woman this adulterous Spouse of J. Christ And the H. Spirit could not have described her in a more lively manner and more proper for us to know her This being supposed that the Beast in the thirteenth Chap. of the Revelations is the same with that in the seventeenth the later cannot be Rome Pagan because by the consent even of all the popish Interpreters the two Beasts in the thirteenth Chap. represent the Empire of Antichrist On this confession and upon what we have just now proved we argue thus The Woman in the seventeenth Chapter by the consent of the popish Interpreters is Rome And by the consent of the same Interpreters the Beast in the thirteenth Chap. is Antichrist Now according to what we have just now proved the Beast of the seventeenth Chapter and the thirteenth are one and the same Beast Whence it is clear that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist and that Rome in the seventeenth Chapt. is not Rome Pagan That Rome in the seventeenth Chapter is not Rome Pagan appears not only by the comparison Rome in the 17th Chap. is not Rome Pagan which we just before made of the two Beasts but also if we consider the Beast of the 17th Chap. all alone and without reference to that in the 13th Chapter God never calls the Pagan Societies VVhores and Adulteresses I. First of all there is a prostitute adulterous and debauch'd Woman sitting upon this Beast Every one knows that in the Holy Scriptures Adultery figuratively signifies Idolatry Now we shall never find any one single instance where the Holy Spirit calls the Pagan Societies Women and Spouses Whores and Adulteresses This name is given only to a corrupted Church And the reason is plain because the Pagan Societies having never plighted their faith to God have not broken it and never were his Spouse they are not therefore unfaithful and adulterous in his account So that this adulterous Woman cannot here be Rome Pagan but that Rome that hath plighted her faith to Jesus Christ and broken it that Rome that styles her self the Spouse of Jesus and yet doth prostitute her self to others Secondly This Women is represented to us as having in her hand a Cup of abominations of her whoredoms of which she makes all the World to drink i. e. she endeavours to draw all the Nations of the Earth to her Idolatry Now Rome Pagan never troubled her head to change the Religion of those people she had conquer'd nor to force them to worship the same Gods as she did On the contrary every one knows she carried strange Gods in Triumph and built Temples for them within her own walls Thirdly These words the Beast which thou sawest was and is not and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep can by no means agree to Rome Pagan For this plainly signifies that the Empire spoken of must perish and be swallowed up and afterwards be re-established Now Rome Pagan and its Empire have been swallowed up but as Rome Pagan it is not raised up again Besides we may observe by the by that we do not deny but that Rome Pagan is represented by this Beast for the Beast represents the Roman Empire in its whole duration and in both its periods the Pagan period and the Antichristian period The Beast which thou sawest was and is not there is the Pagan Period and must ascend out of the bottomless pit or the deep there is the Antichristian period Fourthly It is said of this Beast And the Inhabitants of the earth whose names are not written in the book of Life shall wonder seeing the beast which was and is not and yet is This signifies that men shall give him homage and that this homage shall be given to him only by the enemies of Jesus Christ and the Reprobates It is not therefore Rome Pagan for the true Christians obeyed and gave a voluntary homage to the Roman Empire in its Pagan period just as the other subjects of the Empire But since it was raised up again and is no longer what it once was they have no longer obeyed it Fifthly That which is said of the ten Kings can by no means agree to Rome in its Pagan Period The ten Horns which thou sawest are ten Kings which have not yet begun to reign but shall receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast v. 12.
Let them inform us a little where are and who are the ten Kings that shall reign the same time with Rome Pagan who in Saint Iohns time had not begun to reign and who yet were to begin their reign at the same time with the Roman Emperours Is it not plain that these are ten Kings that must receive their birth from the ruin of the Roman Pagan Empire and compose an Antichristian Roman Empire under the rule of the prostitute and adulterous Woman i. e. the revolted Church and Spouse of Jesus Christ Sixthly v. 13. How can these words agree to Rome Pagan these i. e. these ten Kings have one mind and shall give their power and strength to the beast Did those Kings whose Kingdoms were conquer'd by the Roman Pagan Empire voluntarily give their power to the Beast Did not Rome Pagan by meer violence ravish away those great Estates of which she formed her Empire Can it be said that the Kings that were conquer'd and subdued had one mind Did they reign together with Rome Pagan were they not destroyed and their Kingdoms reduced into Roman Provinces This therefore can in no wise agree to the Pagan Period of Rome but doth very well to the Antichristian and Papal one For it is true that the ten Kings compose this Ecclesiastical Empire and submit themselves unto it It is true that they have one mind and that they have given their power unto the Beast For it was not by Force of Arms that Rome hath acquired this second Empire but by perswasion by illusion by the false religion by the communion of idolatry and by the Chimaera of an Empire of Jesus Christ on the Earth This is the only thing to be met with which the popish Interpreters have to oppose to prove that Antichrist must not sit at Rome and that Rome in this Chap. is Rome Pagan say they the ten Kings shall hate the Whore How the ten Kings shall destroy Antichristian Rome after they have built it C. 17. v. 8 16. De Rom. Pontif. l 3. cap. 13. sect 2. and make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire 'T is the Argument of Bellarmin which all the rest have adopted St. Iohn saith he predicts that the ten Kings that shall divide the Roman Empire and under the reign of whom Antichrist shall come shall hate the whore clothed in purple i. e. Rome and shall make her desolate and burn her with fire How then shall she be the Seat of Antichrist if in that very time she must be overthrown and burnt A mighty riddle hard to be solved We need but read on Saint Iohn immediately adds v. 17. For God shall put it into their hearts to fulfill his Will and to agree and give their Kingdom to the beast untill the Word of God shall be fulfilled Who doth not see that these are two distinct times In one of them the ten Kings shall give their power to the Beast by the cheat of a false piety and in the other being better instructed and recover'd foolish fondness they shall spoil that Empire which they shall have formed by their complaisance Men must be hardly prest upon that have recourse to such vain evasions as these The foolish self-contradiction of the Papists But observe their foolish self-contradiction Here Bellarmin and his adherents say that the ten Kings which shall divide the Roman Empire shall come in Antichrists time and that these are the same that shall make the Whore desolate i. e. that shall destroy the City of Rome viz. Rome that is here spoken of and which Bellarmin himself defines by the Whore clothed in purple that is to say Rome Now how will the ten Kings that must not come till the end of the World according to them be able to make desolate and burn Rome Pagan which hath no longer been in being for above 1300. years The ten Kings associated with Antichrist only three years and a half before the end of the World will be able to make desolate no other Rome than what will then be in being Now Pagan Rome will be no more it will be Rome Christian whose Empire he supposes must subsist to the end of the World and to the reign of Antichrist Men must have lost their understanding and be given up to a reprobate sense so to contradict both themselves and the Truth with so much dishonesty Lastly it is clear by the following Chapter which is the 18th that the great City which reigneth over the kings of the earth cannot be Rome Pagan but Rome Antichristian In the 18th Chap. he calls her Babylon whom just before he called the great city and even the popish Interpreters agree also that that Babylon is Rome Now he describes the fall of that Babylon i. e. of Rome in such a manner as cannot agree to any other but Rome Antichristian First He saith v. 3. that all Nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication We have already seen that this signifies that Idolatry to which Babylon hath drawn the Nations by her Charms and Enchantments which doth not agree to Rome Pagan Secondly v. 4. He saith come out of Babylon my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues 'T is plain this cannot be understood of any thing but of an Idolatrous Church whence God would draw forth his Elect. God never commanded his faithful Servants to go out of Rome Pagan they always remained in it Thirdly and lastly the manner in which the ruin of this Babylon is described can by no means agree to Rome Pagan The Holy Spirit represents it as a City burnt and entirely reduced to ashes the Merchants whereof and they that gained by her behold her desolation and her burning afar off And to conclude he signifies that it must be such a fall from which she shall never rise again And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great Mill-stone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down c. 18. v. 21. and shall be found no more at all Now this is not yet happened to Rome she hath been taken and retaken and pillaged several times but yet she subsists still so that this can't be understood but of the last ruin that must happen to Rome Antichristian And thus you have the proofs that shew that that Rome which all the popish Interpreters as well as we do find in the 17th and 18th Chap. of the Revelation cannot be Rome Pagan proofs which I call a demonstration for I maintain there is no man that can resist the force of them The confession of the modern Papists that Rome must be the seat of Antichrist Ribera Viega Cornelius à Lapide And the modern popish Interpreters have felt the force of them At this day they do confess that it is not Rome Pagan But
God and Baal at the same time Yet it is described in higher terms It appears therefore that the Idolatry of the Heathens who worshipped none but false Gods was more criminal however the Holy Spirit speaks against the Idolatry of Israel with a thousand times more violence and vehemence than against that of the Heathens The Prophets describe the heathen Idolaters as fools as brutish persons that had lost their senses who of the same log of wood made a God and a foot-stool But when they speak of the Idolatry of Israel they do it in such terms as make persons of any modesty to blush For there are no odious Ideas in the most infamous prostitution which the H. Spirit doth not bring in in his description of them We need but consult the 16th Ch. of Ezech. and many more places of the other Prophets where the Idolatrous Iewish Church is represented as a woman void of shame that prostitutes her self to every comer that sits in the cross ways that offers her self that opens her bosom that speaks such words as modesty can't hear and doth abominable actions The reason of this difference is plain 't is because the Idolatry of the Heathens is consider'd only as a simple fornication The Idolatry of the Church is most criminal and why and the Idolatry of Israel as adultery Every one knows the difference between simple Fornication and Adultery Almost all nations have punish'd adultery with death But the Heathens did scarce think that fornication was a sin the Jews themselves counted it as a trivial matter A man sees the worst of crimes committed upon a woman that belongs not to him without being much moved at it but the least debauches of his own wife stir up his jealousie and kindle his anger He can't speak of them without vehemence and in terms that signify the greatness of his grief And 't is not an unreasonable resentment A woman with whom he hath made no treaty that hath not plighted her troth to him nor he his to her doth him no wrong there is no shame redounds to him thereby whereas the crimes of his wife cover him with infamy 'T is the same with God the Idolatry of the Heathens in his opinion is but a simple fornication he hath made no treaty with them who are without the covenant no shame nor dishonour is reflected on him from their debaucheries But he hath treated with the Church she is his Spouse he calls her so 't is a figurative expression that he every where uses We need not therefore wonder if he be more sensible of those wrongs that are done him on her part Although the Idolatries of the Heathens were greater considering them precisely in themselves than the Idolatries of the Church yet however God would not be so much offended by them A Husband is more offended by the light debaucheries of his Spouse than by the greatest crimes of one that is only his Kinswoman It signifies nothing that this woman doth not deny her Husband her favours if she suffer others to share with him her crime is not the less It signifies nothing also that the Church doth not refuse to give adoration to the true God if she suffer the creatures to be sharers with him she is not less criminal she is still an Adulteress and her crime is an abomination It is easy to apply all this to the Christian Church the bands of the sacred marriage that unite her to her God are much more noble glorious and strait than those that united God to the Synagogue So her adulteries also are much more worthy to be condemned It signifies nothing that she commits them with those that are called the friends of God. A King is not the less offended by the disorders of his Spouse that prostitutes her self to his favourites than if she prostituted her self to strangers And thus I think enough hath been said to justify this that the Papism is a true Apostacy and that that term and others though higher are not too big to signify the abominations of the Antichristian Empire CHAP. XX. The deceiving Spirits which St. Paul speaks of are Evil Spirits The Doctrine of Daemons is that Doctrine that hath Daemons for its Objects and not that which hath Daemons for its Authors There is a perfect conformity between the Theology and the Religion of the Heathens about Daemons and that of the Papism about Saints and Angels mediatory Spirits Evil spirits are the first Authors of this Popish Idolatry SAint Paul continuing to describe the future Antichristian Empire saith that this Apostacy shall be joined with the spirit of seduction They shall give up themselves to deceiving spirits 'T is very indifferent whether by these deceiving spirits or spirits of errour as some copies have it we understand men or spirits separated from matter for both the one and the other yield a true sense It is true that the Antichristian Apostacy was formed by the deceit of certain deceiving spirits who being mad upon a false devotion seduced others both by their examples and also by their bad arguments Yet I rather encline to believe that by deceiving spirits we are to understand evil spirits which were the first Authors in the first place of the worthip of Reliques afterwards of the invocation of Saints and at last of the adoration of their Images This was the way whereby superstition began to be establisht viz. the visions by which Reliques were discover'd We learn from Saint Austine that the bodies of the Martyrs Gervais and Protais were found out by St. Ambrose by the help of a dream Confes l. 9. c. 7. The same time God revealed to this holy Bishop in a dream where lay the bodies of the Martys Gervais and Protais who many years were kept in the secret of God and preserv'd free from corruption to the end they might be discover'd to stop the fury of a woman that was Empress and mother of the Emperour The visions whereby Reliques were revealed came from the father of lies I will not wrong Saint Ambrose so far as to accuse him of feigning this vision to deceive the people to work false miracles that he might make the party that were for the word consubstantial to triumph over Arianism But this is certain it was a deceiving spirit that did abuse St. Ambrose and did discover these Reliques to him to make Idols of them because then the Reliques of the Saints began to be abused The Miracles that were wrought by Reliques either are fabulous stories of Impostors or the productions of him who is the father of lies Saint Austin saith that those who were possess'd were deliver'd by them Besides that the greatest part of those that were possessed in those ages were melancholy persons it is not hard to conceive that the Devil would play these pranks to establish Idolatry that was then receiving its birth He could do no less than go out of a body feigning to be