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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03335	Mystical babylon, or Papall Rome A treatise vpon those words, Apocal. 18.2. It is fallen, it is fallen Babylon, &c. In which the wicked, and miserable condition of Rome, as shee now is in her present Babylonian estate, and as she shall be in her future ineuitable ruine, is fully discouered: and sundry controuersiall points of religion, betwixt the Protestants, and the Papists, are briefly discussed. By Theophilus Higgons, rector of the parochiall Church of Hunton, neere Maidstone in Kent.	Higgons, Theophilus, 1578?-1659.	1624 (1624)	STC 13455; ESTC S118140	129,351	289

beareth rule therein as in the very Seate and Center of his Dominion The SECOND obseruation which from thence I frame and tender vnto your religious hearts is a Morall truth namely that God doth often punish our sinnes by such meanes and instruments as were seruiceable vnto vs therein to the accomplishment of our desires So wee read Ezek. 16.37.39 c. that whereas the Iewes committed spirituall fornication with the Idols of Aegypt and Assyria and reapposed more in the helpe of the Aegyptians and Assyrians sometimes then in the protection of God therefore he threatneth to giue them into their hands who being instruments of their sinnes against him should bee also instruments of his iudgements against them Sundry are the examples in this kind which I cannot now produce but leauing the ponderation of this point vnto your owne hearts I aduise you in the tender feare of God so to please him in all your wayes that not onely all men but all his creatures may bee disposed and inclined by him to our incolunitie and preseruation So saith the Wiseman When the wayes of a man please the Lord hee will also make his enemies at peace with him Prou. 16.7 To this purpose spake Eliphaz in Iob. 5.23 The stones of the field shall bee in league with thee and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee But if wee sinne impenitently against him euery creature in heauen and earth is readie prest by his instinct and motion to reuenge the iniurie done vnto him who is the Creator of heauen and earth And so much concerning the first question I come therefore vnto the second The SECOND Question SECONDLY if you require of me what are the causes for which these ten Kings shall take vp their Armes against Babylon I answere partly out of the euidence of the Scripture and partly out of the demonstration of reason that three principall causes concurre in this behalfe The FIRST is a meritorious cause by congruitie and condignitie as they vse to speake of the merit of their workes in regard of her sinnes which I haue touched heretofore in the comparisons betwixt the Misticall and the Literall Babylon which being a burthen vnto the earth cry for vengeance vnto heauen And now here is a collection of her sinnes the old and the new come into one reckoning and account They were past in act but remained in guilt wherefore it is said Apoc. 18.5 Her sins are come vp vnto heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities for though hee alwayes remembred them in his prouidence and knowledge yet now hee declareth his remembrance by the execution of his Iustice Thus we perceiue that God hath a time to permit sinnes and a time to punish sinnes the former and the latter sinnes together of any state or of any person when our repentance bindeth not vp the hands of his iustice but our continuance addition and renouation of sinne draw the sword out of the scabbard and compell him vnto the manifestation of his wrath as it is here in the fall of Babylon whose sins are bound vp together in this great and fearefull iudgement But since she will make no benefit of this instruction as being obdurate in the course of her sinnes and prepared for destruction let vs obserue it brethren for our owne vse since wee know the iust seueritie of God which leadeth vs vnto speedie repentance least he arraigne vs at the barre of his Iustice for our ancient for our latter sins This obseruation pertaineth first vnto a Kingdome and State hee doth not forger her sins though he remember them not presently in iudgement After many hundred yeeres he called Amalek vnto an account I remember saith he vnto Saul what Amalek did vnto Israel how they laid wait for them in the way as they came vp out of Egypt therefore he sent Saul vpon an expedition against the Amalekites to destroy them from the face of the earth O that my natiue Countrey would take notice of this at the heart and not adde sin vnto sin new vnto the old prouoking God vnto great indignation against her But two things comfort me here the one that God will spare the Land because hee hath many faithfull seruants therein that mourne for the sins of England and that as Eliphaz speaketh in Iob 22.30 the innocent shall deliuer the Iland For it is not the Sea that can defend vs from inuasion it is not any Castle that can saue vs from the enemy and sin within the Land is of greater force to destroy it then any foe without but some righteous men are in the Iland and God doth spare it for their sake The other is that according to Dauids option and choyce wee shall rather fall into the hands of the Lord then of men for the punishment and castigation of this Land This obseruation pertaineth secondly vnto the Church which falling in her inward puritie cannot stand long as Gregorie noted in her outward glory If wee haue not a place in the conscience of men by our effectuall doctrine and our exemplarie life that wee haue a mansion in their very hearts then the Law our Gouernment our Temporalties all outward prouision for the Ministers of the Church shall make them but a weake consistencie and a feeble station in the world Let not our sins preuaile against vs to prouoke God and we shall not feare the complotments of any mortall man whose breath is in his nostrills This obseruation pertaineth thirdly vnto euery particular person of whatsoeuer qualitie or condition rich or poore high or low For for if thou addest the sins of thy age vnto the sins of thy youth for which Dauid intreateth pardon of God Psalm 25.7 and makest an accumulation of thine iniquities of latter vnto former without remorse of thy conscience and feare of Gods displeasure saying I shall haue peace although I walke according to the stubbornenesse of mine owne heart thus adding drunkennesse to thirst know then that the Lord will not be mercifull vnto thee but then the wrath of the Lord and his iealousie shall smoake against thee and euery curse that is written in his booke shall light vpon thee and the Lord shall put out thy name from vnder heauen Deut. 29.19 20. yea out of heauen also that is hee shall declare that thy name was neuer written there according to that in the Psalme Let them be put out of the booke of life Psa 69.28 And so much concerning the first cause why these ten Kings assemble against Babylon to worke her fall The SECOND is an efficient cause and that is God by his iustice his iustice being prouoked by her sins according to that of the Prophet Esay 42.24 Who gaue Iacob to the spoile and Israel to the robbers Did not the Lord because wee haue sinned against him Thus we haue a connexion of the first and second cause in this one sentence which meete in Babylons case For first wee heare of the

MYSTICAL BABYLON OR Papall Rome A Treatise vpon those words APOCAL 18.2 It is fallen it is fallen BABYLON c. In which the wicked and miserable condition of Rome as shee now is in her present Babylonian estate and as she shall be in her future ineuitable ruine is fully discouered And sundry Controuersiall points of Religion betwixt the Protestants and the Papists are briefly discussed By Theophilus Higgons Rector of the Parochiall Church of Hunton neere Maidstone in KENT PSAL. 119.126 It is time for thee LORD to lay to thine hand for they haue destroyed thy Law LONDON Printed by William Stansby for Matthew Lownes and William Barret 1624. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR HENRY MOVNTAGV Knight Baron of KIMBOLTON Viscount MAVNDEVILLE Lord President of his MAIESTIES most Honorable Priuie Counsaile Right noble and truly Christian LORD SInce I haue presumed to appeare thus in publique and to treate peculiarly of this subiect Mysticall Babylon rather then of any other and finally to recommend this Treatise vnto your fauourable patronage I stand therefore obliged to expresse my Motiues and Reasons in the two former points for the generall satisfaction of others and in the last for the particular of your Honorable Selfe As for the FIRST I am not mooued vpon any oblique respect to take vp the Sword of my Pen in this spirituall warfare I am not vexed with the ambition of preferment nor affectation of applause for I desire earnestly of God that the diuine sentence of Saint Paul may bee deeply grauen in my heart The World is crucified vnto me and I vnto the World Neither am I prouoked vnto this designe out of any spleene or vindictiue humour against the Church of Rome or any person therein and indeed I haue beene so farre from giuing them any speciall distaste that I haue obserued the tearmes of ciuill and morall respect towards some of them to my greater preiudice then I will either bragge or complaine of vnto the World But the true and proper causes are these First I am bound as a dutifull Sonne of my Mother-Church from whose sacred breasts I drew the first nutriment of my faith to succour and comfort her in her distressed estate while the little Foxes of Rome eate vp her Grapes and the wild Boare thereof seeketh to enter into the Vineyard of God And therefore since euery man indued with any facultie of writing should performe his seruice vnto the Church of God especially when and where the contagion of Heresie doth dilate it selfe as Saint Augustine doth grauely aduise I could not bee silent in so necessarie a time for as wee shall answere vnto God for our idle words so wee shall answere vnto him for our dangerous silence Secondly to make some satisfaction thereby vnto the Church of God which being vniustly wronged by my meanes doth iustly challenge this remedie of my paines that the hand which hath hurt her may somewhat helpe her and that as I haue made a wound so I may make a cure againe Thirdly to procure the sweete peace of my conscience towards God that I may heale the wound which I haue formerly made vnto my owne soule Christian Wisdome teaching me to powre some Oile into that to supple it which hath found so much Vineger to fret it and therefore I am resolued to neglect all troubles without that I may find this comfort within Fourthly to exempt hereby all scruple out of their hearts who desire to vnderstand the state and disposition of my conscience in the matter of Religion For as Saint Hierome being vehemently suspected of the infection of Origens errours did therefore diuert that suspition by cleere publication of his mind in writing That they who would not beleeue his tongue in his deniall might yet beleeue his Pen in his refutation thereof as hee doth ingeniously write in this behalfe so I find my selfe very deeply charged in the point of conscience and discretion to giue sufficient notice vnto all the sonnes of my Mother touching my Faith and Religion by some Treatise now to bee published vnto the World and to remayne I hope after my decease as a Record what I doe certainly beleeue concerning the doctrine of faith professed in this Church of England and oppugned by the Church of Rome SECONDLY therefore I haue made speciall election of this subiect concerning Rome and her ruine as being of greatest importance in it self and specially in these dayes For whereas the most vsuall subiects of disputation betwixt vs and the Papists are particular and therefore haue a particular issue of veritie or falshood therein this is of an higher nature of a larger extent and of a more generall effect for that it doth concerne not onely a part of her doctrine but the whole being of the Church of Rome it toucheth not a branch or two but the very root it selfe it reacheth not onely vnto a piece of her building but vnto the very foundation thereof And therefore this disputation viz. Whether and How the name of Babylon in the visions of Saint Iohn doth agree vnto Rome is of singular consequence thereby to confront the audacious insultations of her politike Agents to giue an Antidote against the poyson which they seeke to instill into many vnsetled hearts that so they who are fallen from the truth may bee happily reduced vnto it and they who are falling may be strongly confirmed in the same Now THIRDLY and lastly it remaineth most worthy Lord that I make true remonstrance of the causes which haue bred this confidence in mee to offer vp this little Treatise vpon the Altar of your Honourable fauour I speake not of your descent and extraction out of a Noble Family nor of your high degree of Honour nor of your speciall aduancement in the State for which respects many men apply themselues vnto the seruice and attendance of great persons but aboue all things I am comforted in your sincere and constant profession of the Truth which grace seemeth to be hereditarie in your House as being spectable in all the branches thereof Since therefore Greatnesse and Goodnesse haue mutuall coniunction in your Lordships person I cannot suppose that a Worke of this nature can want your acceptation nor the Author thereof your protection Whereof also I conceiue the greater hope because I haue knowne heretofore by the double testimonie of mine eyes and eares the gracious inclination of your Honour towards mee and that onely for the Truths sake and the Words sake as indeed I haue euer found them to be my most assured and certaine friends that haue affected mee in this regard But if I should need or seeke any externall or farther motiue to induce your Honour to vouchsafe your patronage vnto mee and vnto this Treatise I would not goe out of your owne Family though it must bee from the liuing to the dead but I would intreate it by the deare and precious memory of that religious learned most accomplished Prelate your famous Brother

head of the Church of Rome descendeth vnto the members For as the Cardinalls who are the great regotiatours in the publike affaires of the world are the cosins of mightie Kings who salute them by that affable and gracious name as being glad and ambitious of the affection of these purpled Fathers in the Apostolicall Court so the whole bodie of the shaued Clergy pretendeth an exemption from the lawfull iurisdiction of their naturall Lords as being subiects secundum quid after a certaine manner or measure and a body rather collected and vnited vnder the Pope then vnder their owne Souereignes in whose Lands they receiued their first breath and vnder whose protection they enioy their liuelyhood with the preseruation of their liues FOVRTHLY this pride appeareth in his domination ouer the whole Church as first that all spirituall power of order and iurisdiction is deriued from his Apostolicall Seate that hee can depriue suspend excommunicate such as withstand his pleasure that appellations may be made and in some cases must be made vnto him from the sentences and censures of Bishops in all places of the world that he may demand and receiue a supply of monyes and necessaries for the vse and benefit of his Apostolicall greatnesse that hee is answerable to no power in the Church or State that hee may by reseruations and prouisions bestow Ecclesiasticall benefices vpon whom hee will in any part of the Christian world that he is greater then all the Church and is in truth and effect the very Church which being essentially in the whole societie of Christians is representatiuely in a lawfull Councell and virtually in the Pope so that finally the Church their Mother is the Pope their Father who is the Lord the Head the Guide the Pastour the Vniuersall Bishop of the Church Which insolencies and oppressions in the Holy Father made Gerson bitterly to complaine That the Head of the Church was growen too heauy for the whole bodie thereof and our learned Countrey-man Bishop Grosthead to pronounce That the Church would neuer be freed from the yoake of her Aegyptian bondage but by the dint and edge of a bloudie sword FIFTHLY and lastly his pride appeareth in his great and glorious titles taken vp partly by himselfe and partly ascribed vnto him by others with gratefull appobation of the Apostolicall Seate As for example hee is a Vice-God as in that inscription Paulo Quinto Vice-deo where the numerall letters V. L. V. I. V. C. D. make vp the fatall number of 666. containing the mysterie of Antichrist his name Apocal 13.18 but this is too little therefore hee is plainly a God nay that is too little also he is our Lord God as I shewed you once before and yet sometimes Nec Deus es nec homo sed neuter es inter vtrumque Thou ô Souereigne of the World art neither God nor man therefore Antichrist for Christ is both but art betwixt both neither the one nor the other Hee is Dominus dominorum quoad potestatem the Lord of Lords in regard of his power though Seruus seruorum quoad humilitatem saith bald Baldus the Seruant of Seruants and be it so but in the sense of Noah in his malediction of Canaan Genes 9.25 in regard of his meekenesse O meeke and humble Saint whose ordinarie title hath beene his Holinesse his Blessednesse more compatible with his Apostolicall office then his Maiestie which is indeed the pleasing and acceptable stile vnto which their proud and tyrannicall vsurpations doe aspire And therefore this was well attibuted vnto Paulus the fifth by Ludouicus ab Alcasar the Iesuite in his dedicatorie Epistle prefixed before his miserable exposition of this mysticall booke Yet thou wast more wise and circumspect ô noble and victorious Iulius Caesar that diddest refuse the title of a King and thou wast more modest ô Princely Augustus that diddest reiect the title of a Lord. But behold here is a greater then both which accepteth all alloweth all as indeed challenging a great deale more Let him then take one title more to furnish vp his glorious stile hee is Lucifer in his pride ambition and insultation ouer all States Ciuill Ecclesiasticall as the pretended Lord of both The THIRD Comparison betwixt Literall Babylon and Papall Rome THe third point wherein this comparison doth stand is INIVRIOVS VIOLENCE against the Crowne Imperiall and Estates of Souereigne Princes in which tempestuous courses the Spirituall Babylon of Rome doth exceed the Literall in Chaldea and the rather because the later had a speciall commission in this behalfe which the former doth vainely pretend by lame deductions and inferences but cannot prooue directly by the testimonie of any Scripture The commission of Nebuchadnezzer was vnder the warrant of God himselfe as being the executioner of his seuere Iustice and therefore God affoordeth him the title of his Seruant not onely for his expedition against Tyrus Ezek. 29.18 but against his owne people Ierem. 25.9 Now our Babylonian Monarch not by the authoritie of Gods Word not by any cleere euidence of reason founded vpon the same not by any example of his predecessors or of any other Bishop in the more pure and innocent state of the Church but out of his owne appetite and desire of temporall power which Christ gaue him not which the ancient Popes challenged not which they durst not pretend nor could they execute till the decadencie and expiration of the Romane Monarchy in these occidentall parts hath often thrust the sickle of his forged authoritie into the haruest of other mens Kingdomes Witnesse the distressed King of Nauarre Iohn d' Albret mentioned before sententially deposed by the Pope and a part of his Kingdome thereupon inuaded by his neighbour the King of Spaine Witnesse my deare Countrey of England in the time of that vnfortunate Prince King Iohn whose Kingdome was by Papall authoritie exposed vnto the furie of the French the King himselfe being compelled like a silly man to surrender his Crowne vpon his knees into the hands of an Apostolicall insolent Legate and so remaining for the space of fiue daies without a Crowne committed now vnto the benignitie of the Church hee receiued it againe vpon such base and ignoble termes as it pleased my Lord the Legate to impose vpon him one whereof was if the Babylonians say true that he should hold it by fealtie from the Church of Rome and for acknowledgement thereof pay an annuall tribute vnto the Pope so wise and skilfull are these men to fish in troubled waters being now not fishers of men but fishers of Kingdomes Witnesse England againe in the time of King Henry the eight who by a Papall processe of Paul the third was depriued of his Kingdome and his subiects commanded by force and armes to eiect him out of the confines therof the successe whereof was for a time troublesome to the King but in the end inglorious to the Pope the tenour of whose roaring Bull and Capitoline thunderbolt deserueth your speciall

meritorious cause of her fall Apoc. 17.2 The Kings of the earth haue committed fornication with her and the Inhabitants of the earth are drunken with the wine of her fornication to wit in her Ecclesiasticall State Then secondly we heare of the efficient cause of her fall v. 17. God hath put in the hearts of the ten Kings to fulfill his will and to doe with one consent for to giue their Kingdome vnto the Beast How long Vntill the words of God bee fulfilled What then They shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and burne her with fire Vpon what motion From God as the Text doth plainly beare And therefore our most learned and prudent Souereigne doth truly and aptly obserue in this place The hearts of the greatest Kings as well as of the smallest subiects are in the hands of the Lord to make them his instruments and to turne them as it shall please him to employ them Here then I note three things FIRST though Kings may bee carried by their proper motion of malice or auarice or of some other affection in their warres against some people and in bringing them to ruine yet therein we may obserue and must confesse that it is digitus Dei Gods finger or rather Gods hand in this worke So Nebuchadnezzar himselfe a cruell proud insolent Prince in his warres did so performe the will and purpose of God therein that God himselfe giueth him the title of his seruant and commendeth his seruice done vnto him not only against his enemies a people that knew not his Lawes as it is Ezekiel 29.18 but also against his owne people Ieremy 25.9 And so in his sacred expugnation of Babylon these Kings are Gods seruants they doe their worke from him and hee doth his worke by them Therefore Saint Ambrose or whosoeuer is the Author of that Commentarie vpon the Reuelation doth ingeniously deliuer his iudgement vpon the words of my Text Babylon is fallen it being here the voyce of God to declare it the hand of God to effect it that in this case dixisse Dei fecisse est dixit enim cecidisse Babylonem quia ipse fecit vt caderet The speech of God is the worke of God for hee said that Babylon is fallen because he brought it to passe that Babylon should fall SECONDLY we may heere consider that as there is mercie in God to receiue vs vnto grace so there is Iustice in him to punish our sinnes Marci● knew not this but because of different operations proceeding from God hee made a diuersitie of Gods one good another iust or rather cruell one the maker of the body another of the soule one whom he would loue another whom he would feare one in the Law another in the Gospell But wee know one God alone onely good onely wise onely gracious whose mercie is free and proceedeth from himselfe whose iustice is right and is prouoked by vs for as wee haue malum culpae to offend him so hee hath malum poenae to afflict vs. Amos 3.6 Esay 45.7 THIRDLY and lastly though Reason may seeme to perswade vs as it perswadeth Babylon her selfe that she is so strengthened by the confederacy of Princes as in many dangers shee hath not neglected the tearmes of prudencie in this behalfe by the amitie of her Friends by the diligence of her Negotiators by the policie of her Counsellours by the art of her Learning by the abundance of her Riches and finally by a generall confluence of all outward meanes for the supportation of her Estate that shee shall neuer fall for so she saith in her heart I sit being a Queene and am no Widdow and shall see no mourning Apoc. 18.7 yet Faith assureth me that her owne Friends her owne Vp-holders her hornes these ten Kings her old Louers shall bring her downe to the Earth to fall so low that shee can fall no lower I meane not in place and situation but in condition and estate Now if Rome aske or if my owne reason demand of me how can this be I answere God hath said it and hee will doe it I haue heard his Word and now I doe expect his Worke. Away then with quomodo how can this or how can that bee when God speaketh and God assureth vs and God reuealeth his Will vnto vs. This Word commeth in with incredulitie and want of faith as the diuine Preacher Saint Chrysostome doth excellently note vpon the question of the Iewes Iohn 6.52 How can this man giue vs his flesh to eate Therefore I rest vpon the truth of God that is it which I beleeue and I am no farther scrupulous in regard of many improbabilities and difficulties which reason suggesteth and presenteth vnto me in this point If I haue as now I haue Gods Word that this Worke shall be performed I am not curious to inquire of the manner and meanes how hee will bring the same to passe And so much concerning the second cause of the fall of Babylon by the cooperation of these Kings The THIRD is an excitant cause inward in respect of the iust wrath of these Kings but outward in respect of the prouocation thereof by the indignities and iniuries of Babylon against the Potentates of the Earth Now as in the first and second causes I had the plaine testimonie of Scripture so heere in this third I haue the certaine assurance of strong reason to confirme and settle my iudgement therein for now I beginne to discouer some impulsiue cause arising from Babylon that stirreth vp these Kings vnto the execution of Gods Worke. First therefore Babylon hath treasonable doctrines against the state and dignitie of Kings though they were the hornes and strength of the second Beast therein as namely to depose Kings from their royall seates yea to take away the faire Titles wherewith she had inuested them before as this Beast had once taken vpon him to depriue Francis the French King of his Title of the most Christian King and to translate it vnto Henry the Eighth of England as Guicciardine their owne Historian doth record though afterward with greater furie and indignation hee proceeded against the same Henry who had beene a principall horne to corroborate and confirme the Maiestie of the Triple Crowne Againe this Babylon exposeth the persons of Princes vnto priuate violences and publike impugnation by their owne subiects as well as their States vnto the Rapine and Inuasion of forreigne power Lastly this Babylon doth aduance her Beast aboue all ciuil Lords and Souereignes not onely by an indirect authoritie ouer them in case of Heresie and for spirituall ends to which opinion onely and no farther a multitude of Babylonians doe incline though with the peremptorie censure of the Beast himselfe and violent oppugnation of his chiefe Adherents in that behalfe but by a direct and superiour authoritie ouer them as Lord of Lords and King of Kings So Boniface the Eighth intruded vpon the Crowne of France but found the strong