A DEMONSTRATION OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE Protestant Applications OF THE APOCALYPSE Together with the Consent of the Ancients Concerning the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel and The Beast in the Revelations By DRUE CRESSENER D. D. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market M DC XC TO THE QUEEN MADAM THE Intent of these Papers is to make a more certain Discovery of the Sense of some Divine Oracles which have foretold the Successive Revolutions of all the Great Empires in which the Church of God was to sojourn till it should come to triumph over the Kingdoms of this World If they prove to be satisfactorily clear Religion and Empire being the Subject-matter of them They seem to be the most proper Object of the Meditation of Christian Princes We are now in the concluding part of the Last of these Empires And Your Majesty's Late Wonderful Successes have so promising an Aspect on that part of the Predictions That they seem to appropriate all Addresses of this kind to Your Royal Court. I have therefore thought it a duty to offer that which I have already published on this Subject to the Hands of His Majesty And Your Majesty's peculiar Share in the Throne does seem to demand This of me as the Remainder of a Debt from one that has once approached it This Part is indeed the whole Strength and Foundation of the former and for that reason ought to attend it to the same Place to confirm the Hopes of a Glorious Success of both Your Majesties Endeavours for the Revival of the Oppressed Reformation Madam We have already seen a very surprizing beginning of this Recovery in the late Providential manner of the Return of the Protestants of Savoy through the midst of their most Inveterate and most Powerful Opposers The first date of that General Suppression of the Protestant Profession in Roman States which in the Prophecy is called The Death of the Witnesses in Sackcloth is supposed to commence from the Last Considerable Abjurations of the new Converts abroad some while after the Revocation of the Edict of Nants And then That which in the Prophecy is called Their Resurrection three days and an half after their Death must fall just about the time that the Vaudois did Revive and Resettle the Publick Profession of their Religion after their return to their Ancient Habitations The Vaudois and their Neighbours have been so much the Main Body of the Witnesses for many Ages before the Reformation That since the first Revival is agreed from the Prophecy to be in one particular place only they may safely be allowed to be the first promising beginning at least of that Revolution The Proper Kingdom of France did indeed seem from the present Posture of Affairs to be the most likely to be the first Scene of this Revival The other Treatise pag. 139 140. But it has been shewn that there is nothing in the Prophecy that does fix the first beginning of it there And that the Persecution in France and Savoy being executed by the same Instruments may very well pass for one and the same thing This Madam is the first encouraging Earnest of that Great Deliverance which the Oppressed Church does groan for and look up to Heaven and to Your Protection to accomplish But whatever may become of these remote Conclusions relating to present Affairs it will be no prejudice to what I here offer which is the only necessary and Great Concern of the Protestant Interpretations and the sole foundation of them It will here appear to remain still firm and unshaken That the Church of Rome is the main Object of the Judgments of this Prophecy The Foundation of a Building may be setled upon a Rock though some parts of the Superstructure should fall for want of an immediate and close coherence with it And if this first Foundation be but once agreed on and well regarded by all Parties of Protestants it is easie to see how influential it must needs be for the strengthening of the Common Interest of the Reformation The dreadful Characters that are here set upon the Common Enemy and the Divine Intimations of the joint concern of all the Reformed Churches in the League against them as the Witnesses and People of God And the Present Crying Miseries of their Enslaved Brethren are more than sufficient to make them silence all their little Unnecessary Heats and Animosities against one another and to make them unite with zeal to strengthen the Hands of Your Majesties against the most refined Barbarities of the Great Oppressor that were ever yet heard of There are indeed but small Grounds to hope That Protestants will of a sudden agree upon this Foundation whatever Evidence there may be for it The Enquiry into these matters is so out of fashion and lies under so general a prejudice that I found the Press every-where affrighted from undertaking the Charge of this Publication And I am bound to acknowledge That nothing less could persuade them to it than the warm Recommendations of a Person whom Your Majesty's Favour has eminently rewarded for his Long continued Labours in all the ways by which the Church can be either piously edified or learnedly defended It is indeed owing to My Lord Bishop of Chichester if any thing here does prove to be of Publick Use Madam This General Unconcern seems chiefly to be the effect of the Popish Marriages in the Three Last Reigns Nothing was more the Doctrine of our Church to the end of the Reign of King James the First than the Charge of Babylon and Antichrist upon the Roman Church but it seemed something too rude a Charge both to Church and Court when the Queen came to be concerned in it and none but some very few of the most Sincere and Disinterested amongst the Learned would appear in it I have therefore apprehended it to be the most effectual way for the making this the Currant Study of the Age again to procure the Royal Stamp upon it by Your Majesty's favourable regard of this Performance I am encouraged to hope That it may not displease the Impartial Examiners of it And Your Majesty's Pious Zeal to promote True Religion and Vertue has already began to make all good Designs for the Protestant Interest the Fashionable Study of all about You. That we may long have the Powerful and Charming Influence of this Great Example for the improvement of all Useful Knowledge is the Zealous Prayer of MADAM Your MAJESTY'S Most Obedient Subject DRUE CRESSENER THE PREFACE Concerning the Strength and Usefulness of the Work and the Confirmation of it by the Event and the Defects of the Synchronisms MOST Writers are so happy as to be able to think themselves sure of Readers enow and all their care is to make them Courteous and gentle by a Preface But there are so few that can have the patience to hear of any thing about the Revelations that
thereupon into the Church And thus comes the Roman Empire to appear with Ten Kingdoms in it shown by the Ten Horns and this was the helping of the Woman because the Church by this got her freedom and peace and gained these Barbarians to her But the Dragon is said to be still in great fury against the Woman and therefore went to make War with the remnant of her seed which Rev. 12. 17. keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ where we may observe a plain distinction made betwixt the Seed of the Woman The Warr that the Dragon makes is with that part of her Seed which keep the Commandments of God and have the Testimony or are the Witnesses or Martyrs of Jesus Christ which intimates that the Rest of her Seed should depart from the Commandments of God and from the truth of the Gospel of Christ By this we have a new scene opened about the enmity of the Dragon against the Church The Time of it is after the Settlement of the Divisions of the Empire in those Kings of the Barbarians signified by the swallowing up of the great flood by the earth That is after the rise of the Ten Kings in the Roman Empire and the party against whom this War is carried on are the Godly Seed of the Woman not against all her Seed but against those only who keep God's Commandments and are the Witnesses or the Martyrs of Jesus or as they are elsewhere called The Witnesses in Sackcloth How this was brought to pass That which does immediately follow this design of the Dragon does inform us For immediately upon it appears a Beast with all the same Emblems of the Roman Empire that the Dragon had and to him the Dragon Rev. 13. 1. is said to give his Power and his Seat and great Authority v. 2. And thus does the Dragon fulfill the intention that he had just before to War with the chosen Remnant of the Womans Seed He does not appear himself in it but inspires another set up in his place to do it By which it is evidently signified That this new war with the dutiful part of the Womans Seed is not managed by any Roman Power which is openly known to be the professed Enemy of God and of the Christian Religion as that Government of the Empire was which had the open appearance of the Devil's management in it And if it were not such a Power that should appear like an open professed Enemy of the Christian Religion it must be such as must profess that Religion and out of a pretended zeal to it exercise all the Tyranny of the Devil or Dragon against the true professors of it For all the great business of the Beast is Religious worship and if that Religion be not professed enmity to the Christian because that would make it the open show of the Dragon as it was before his fall It must then be a zealous outward profession of the Christian Religion to persecute and to destroy the true maintainers of it This does determine the time of the first settlement of the Woman in the Wilderness for the space of a Time Times and an half For thô it be said Chap. 12. 6. That She fled into the Wilderness yet it is not there said that she was setled there but only that she had a place prepared for her there to be fed for One Thousand two Hundred and Sixty days And besides after many great Actions intervening she is said at the 14th Verse to be but then in a condition to fly into the Wilderness and after she was flying thither the Dragon cast out a flood after her and hindred her settlement there till that was swallowed up and therefore did her Time Times and Half-time begin but just at the same time with the Dragon 's persecuting the remnant of her Seed which was just at the first rise of the Beast and so confirms the Synchronism of the Woman and the Beast for their whole time We are therefore now to enquire from the History of the Christian Church how it can be said that from the time of Justinian all the true Professors of the Christian Faith were forced by Tyrannical usage to worship the Will of the Christian Roman Emperors about matters of Religion thereby to fit the Characters here given to the Beast to the Imperial Head restored in the West And thus we find that at the Time that the Christian Church The Woman was secured in the Two Imperial Seats of the East and West the two Wings of a great Eagle from all the inundations of Pagan people or from the face of the Serpent The Devil did then set up persecution in the Roman Throne against the true and faithful Members of the Christian Church The Remnant of the Seed of the Woman which keep the Commandments of God while she her self was in the Wilderness or in a place of security CHAP. VII Rev. XIII The particular point of the first date of the Rise of the Beast enquired after in order The first conception and progress of the chief Malignity of the Beast It entred with Theodosius and was setled by Justinian And appears to have been the enforcing of Vniversal Conformity by Penalties able to make the generality of the World to comply against their Consciences Justinian 's peculiar Talent in the setling this Method for Conformity FRom the former Account of the over-ruling Authority of the Christian Emperors in all Church-Affairs and of the great veneration which they had for the Councils assembled under them it is obvious for any one to conclude That they lay very open to the danger of requiring Divine Honours to be given them For this must needs make them very apt to command many things which God has left free and undetermined to be received for Points of Faith necessary to Salvation as inspired by the Holy Ghost in Council And it is evident that in such a case the will of him that enjoins such things is taken for the Will of God and so he may very well be said to require the Honour of God to be given to his own will One cannot but think it very probable upon this account that such a kind of Worship as is called the Worship of the Beast was sometimes enjoined before the Rise of the Beast since there were many Erroneous Councils before that time And it may be many things in Orthodox Councils made to be Inspirations of the Holy Ghost and pressed upon the Consciences of men as Divine Oracles necessarily to be obeyed which were but the mere Arbitrary Injunctions of men But yet though the same kind of Worship might have been commanded before his appearance yet it could not be the worship of the Beast till it was the owning of the Roman Authority for the Will of God in those particular Circumstances of Antichristian Idolatry and Tyranny in which it is described to be all over the
of the main scope of these Visions and at last thought I had arrived at what I was in search of The late dangerous Circumstances that I apprehended the True Religion to be in made me think I was obliged to communicate my thoughts of these things to the Publick And because I knew that I should have a very sagacious Adversary encouraged by a Ruling Interest engaged against me with all that scorn and fierceness that the charge of the Characters of Babylon upon the Roman Church does usually raise in them I thought it necessary to review the coherence of my former thoughts and to take care that I never concluded upon any thing till I should see a moral necessity at least for it from the evidence of the Grounds upon which it depended The great importance of the thing made me think it worth all these pains and the fear of betraying the Cause of Religion instead of assisting it and of giving a false Charge of so heavy and dreadful a nature upon so large a part of the Christian Church made me conclude That I could not be too slow and cautious in my determinations about these matters And therefore if the scrupulous Cautiousness with which I examine this Subject should seem tedious and troublesome to any the nature of the dangers that I designed to avoid by it and the aim that I propounded in it of arriving at a certain and clear foundation of satisfaction about these things may very reasonably excuse it And tho' I do not here pretend to any more Certainty or Demonstration than the Interpretation of another's meaning in a Writing is capable of yet I am encouraged to hope That I shall be allowed by those that are Judicious and Impartial enough to have here arrived at the aim that I propounded to my self so far at least as I positively affirm or conclude In this design the first thing that offers it self is that which seems to be the clearest thing in the Prophecy and may therefore be apprehended to be the foundation of all the rest which is That Babylon in the 17th Chapter of the Revelations is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Reign To abate the Evidence of this Proposition from the Angel's Interpretation I found that there were not only various Opinions about the signification of Babylon much different from what it is here made to be but also that they were countenanced by Persons of the greatest Authority for Integrity Learning and a sound Judgment St. Austin makes Babylon in this place to be only the general City of Wicked Men all the World over and those that were most conversant in these things soon after his time and the most judicious in them Primasius Andreas Caesariensis Arethas make it indifferent to be Babylon in Persia or Rome or Constantinople or the general Society of Wicked Men and even Protestants themselves do some of them agree to this notwithstanding the great advantage it would be to their Cause to have it to be the City of Rome only But then one cannot but be surpriz'd again to see the most Learned and Judicious of the Church of Rome so very positive That Babylon cannot possibly be any thing but the City of Rome as a BAronius Anno 45. Certissimum est nomine Babylonis Romam Urbem significari It is most certain that by the name of Babylon is meant the City of Rome Baronius and b Bellarmin lib. 3. de Rom. Pontifice cap. 13. Johannes in Apocalypsi passim Roman vocat Babylonem aperte colligitur ex cap. 17. Apocalyp c. John does every-where in the Revelations call Rome Babylon and this is manifestly to be gathered from the 17th Chapter of the Revelations c. Bellarmin c Ribera in cap. 14. Apocalyp n. 30 31. Huic sc Romae conveniunt aptissime omnia quae de Babylone dicuntur in hoc libro Atque illud imprimis quod alii convenire non potest v. 9. Si ergo omnia conjungamus quae de Babylone dicuntur planius eam Romam esse intelligemus Nam etsi quaedam ex singulis vel in congregationem malorum vel in aliam urbem convenire possent omnia profecto nisi in Romam non conveniunt All that is spoken of Babylon in this Book does very exactly fit the City of Rome And that especially which can agree with nothing else v. 9. If therefore we put all that is spoken of Babylon together we shall more plainly understand it to be Rome For tho' something in every mention of it might agree well enough with the Society of Wicked Men or suit with another City yet All put together can agree to nothing but the City of Rome Malvenda de Antichristo pag. 184. in cap. 17 18. Et non potuit manifestius Romam urbem veluti digito monstrare He could not more manifestly have pointed out the City of Rome with his finger Lessius de Antichristo Roma à Joanne vocatur Babylon quia Babylon fuit figura Romae quibus verbis aperte designat Romam John calls Rome Babylon as being the figure of Rome by which name he does clearly shew it to be Rome Cornel. à Lapide in cap. 17. Apoc. v. 2. Dico ergo Babylon hic est Roma v. 9. Hoc enim nulli alteri nisi soli Romae competit I say therefore Babylon here is Rome v. 9. For this can agree to nothing else but Rome Et postea 7m. Montibus patet denotari Romam Virgil. Georg. 2. in fine Sybill lib. 6. 2. Horat. in Carmine saeculari Ovid. l. 1. de Trist It that by the seven Hills is signified Rome Virgil c. Alcasar in cap. 13. Apoc. sect 5. Perspicuè enim asseruit 7m. Bestiae capita esse 7m. Romae montes Idem in cap. 7. Disput 1. Reliquis ergo Expositionibus rejectis illa debet esse certa quod docct Romam sub Babylonis nomine significari Tyrinus the Jesuit in cap. 17. Apoc. quotes Sixtus Senensis Bellarmine Bozius Suarez Salmeron Alcazar most of his own Order as Maintainers of this Opinion Blasius Viega in cap. 17. Apocalyps sect 3. Quare existimamus nomine Babylonis Romam urbem significari in hoc Apocalypsios Opere Nam quod Roma Babylonis nomine censeatur perspicuum est Et vere Romam Joannes clarissimis Argumentis videtur indicâsse c. We do therefore judge That by the name of Babylon is meant the City of Rome in this Book of the Revelations For that Rome is called by the name of Babylon is very clear c. But that Rome is meant by it John seems to have shewn by very clear proofs of it the most zealous and the most skilled of all the Jesuits in these things And from the great evidence that they think they see for it in the Revelations they make great d Baronius Anno 45. n. 8. Bellarmin lib. 2. de Pontifice R o cap. 2. outcries against the Protestants as
found to signify the City of Rome in its Antichristian Domination by Prop. 1. 3. And the desolation of Babylon in the Prophets for which the same Expressions with these here are used does signify the last end of that Monarchy or Ruling Power 4. And besides It is the general usage of the Prophetical Writings to set out the last Ruine of a Ruling People by the desolation of the chief City of that Nation at the same time Thus is the Ruine of the Kingdom of Israel Judah Egypt and of the Babylonians represented by the Desolations of Samaria Jerusalem Noph and Babylon 5. But more particularly is it set forth in this Prophecy that the desolation of Babylon is not after the end of that Monarchy which it here represents For The Beast whose Heads do represent this City and is himself called the King of it is not dethroned till after the desolation of Babylon in the 18th Chapter as appears Chapters 19 20. And Chap. 16. 14 19. The Judgment upon Babylon is betwixt the meeting of the Strength of that Monarchy in Harmageddon and the last end of it in the 19th Chapter From hence it appears That Babylon in none of the mentions of it in the Revelations can be Rome Corollar Pagan This may safely be concluded from the name of The Whore here given to Babylon For when a Nation or City is said in Scripture to commit Fornication or to be an Harlot It signifies that Nation or City to have apostatized from the True Religion to Idolatry see the three first Chapters of Hosea And therefore must Babylon here signify Rome Christian turned Idolatrous which was not till after the time of Rome Pagan The name of Harlot is indeed given to Nineveh Nahum 3. 4. But that Prophecy was after that of Jonah in whose time the people of Niniveh are said to have believed in God and to have repented Jonah 3. 5 10. And so the Idolatry of Nineveh after that time was her Apostacy from the true Faith But it is much more confirmed from the preceding Propositions For Babylon is in all the mentions of it the same Antichristian state of the Reign of Rome by Prop. 2. And in that state of it it is desolated by Fire by Propos praeced But this was never known to have been done in the time of the Reign of Rome-Heathen There was nothing that had the least appearance of the desolation of Rome or of the dissolution of the Roman Government at Constantine's Triumphs over Paganism much less was there any thing like the least part of the description of the desolation of Babylon by fire as it is here most remarkably signified But Grotius and Dr. Hammond to uphold their applications of these things to Rome-Heathen will have Rome to be Babylon two hundred years after it was come under the Christian Emperors because there were a part of the Senate and now and then a Consul that were Pagans for that space of time after Constantine's Triumph over Paganism and therefore that the last desolation of Babylon by fire was at the burning of Rome by Totila An. 546. where the storm of the Enemies fury lay almost wholly upon the Pagan Party and the Christians were most saved by flying to the Churches In the first place it may here by the way be observed what becomes of the ground of Dr. Hammond's confidence That the things in the Revelations were all to be fulfilled in the Times next to the Age in which they were seen from what is said Chap. 1. 1. Things that must shortly come to pass For here are near five hundred years time allowed by the Doctor for the fulfilling them And then he makes the Turks also to be foretold in them besides by Gog and Magog which requires some hundreds Chap. 20. 8. of years more and yet the Doctor speaks with a great confidence and assurance of the fulfilling of all soon after the time that the Prophecy was given But without further concern about that let us now observe the strange absurdities of this Explication 1. According to this Rome must be Babylon or Rome for 200 years after that the Baylonish Throne in it had been pulled down and when its conquering Enemy the Christian Church had been for all that time triumphing in its room in the Imperial Throne in the publick Laws in all parts of the Government and in the publick places of Divine Worship 2. And then Rome Christian whilst it was the possession of a Rev. 18. 20. Christian Prince must be supposed to be burnt to bear the vengeance of Rome Heathen for shedding the Blood of Christian Saints and Martyrs so many years after that Heathenism had been there publickly triumph'd over 3. The Christians also who did then defend their City against Rev. 18. 4. another Christian Prince must be supposed to be called upon from Heaven to come out of it and so to give up their Masters Right to the Enemy lest they should be made to partake of the punishment of Rome for its Heathenism 200 years before to which they were the greatest Enemies for none was more zealous against Paganism than Justinian who was at that time Lord of Rome as appears by the severity of his Laws against it 4. Of the same extravagant nature must it be to make the Rev. 18. 20. Heavens the Apostles and Prophets and all the faithful Christians in the City at that time to triumph with joy at the burning of the Houses and Goods of most Christians and a few Pagans together and at the taking of a City by the Christian Goths from the Christian Romans 5. And the burning not a third part of Rome as Grotius confesses of this Exploit of Totila's and the slaughter of a few Pagans in it must be made to be the giving Rome-Pagan double revenge for the Blood of the Prophets and Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth by the Pagan Power of Rome Rev. 8. 6. all over the Empire It must be the giving Rome-Pagan the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of the Wrath of God Chap. 16. 19 6. The Pagan Kings also of the Roman Empire which had committed Fornication with Rome-Pagan some hundreds of years before that is had complied with the Roman Idolatry must in this way be supposed to be alive to lament the sad condition Rev. 18. 9. of a Christian City at the taking it by a Christian Prince or at best the Heathen Kings then in the World no body knows when within many hundred miles of that City must grievously lament for the slaughter of some Pagan Romans with whom they had been used to comply in the Pagan Way Nothing indeed does make Grotius more to be suspected of intending only to play with this Prophecy or only to vex some hot Apocalyptical Men amongst his Adversaries than the seemingly-wilful Application of the Kings of the Earth that had committed Fornication with Babylon in the 18th Chapter
Emperors and their Images as well as the Pagans It is manifest that there must be something more here meant than a bare external Civil Veneration of the higher Powers as the Ordinance of God It must be something very much like the Worshipping of Nebuchadnezzar's Image and of those Babylonian Kings in such a manner as not to be allowed the exercise of the true Religion And nothing less than this can answer the Character of the man of sin 2 Thes 2. 4. who is said to exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that be as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And by the consent of all Interpreters that Prophecy does certainly belong to that state of things that is represented by the Beast and his Image By this then it appears that by the Worship here mentioned must be understood the giving of Divine honours or the peculiar Prerogatives of God or Christ to the Beast or his Image that is to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority of the Romans after the Restauration of the Imperial Roman Government in the West The unquestionable way to effect this would be to make * Grot. Responsde Antichristo pag. 77. I detest every thing that belongs to the Spirit of Antichrist that is the imposing persecuting Spirit And that has appeared not only near the Tyber but about the Lake Lemanus and in other places the Arbitrary will and pleasure of the Supreme Authority of the Roman State or the Church to be acknowledged for the Law of God Divinely inspired or to be publickly obeyed as such by outward compliance with it This is certainly to set up ones own will for the will of God and so to stand ones self in the place of God to the World And if this be exercised with an irresistible power over the Universal Church of Christ upon Earth it is plainly the showing ones self to be a God in the Temple of God For there could nothing else be understood by the Temple of God after the Destruction of Jerusalem but the Christian Church which also has that name in several places of the same Apostle's Writings A still much higher improvement of this Worship is it if it be enjoined as necessary to Salvation to believe these Arbitrary Decrees to be the Inspirations of God and to obey them But especially if these Decrees be not only about things left indifferent by the Word of God but are also Injunctions contrary to the Will and Word of God For this is to oppose and exalt ones self above God in the Temple of God And if this be done with the shew of the Authority of God himself in it this is to oppose all that is called God shewing himself to be God For he does certainly make himself very near as absolute a Sovereign of a Nation who does unjustly exercise all the Acts of the Sovereign Power of it against the will of the undoubted Prince of it but yet under the name of his Authority as he that does it by an open Usurpation of the Title of the Sovereign Power This Power and Authority is carried on with a still greater arrogance and claim of divinity in it if it pretends to a Title of Infallibility in all that it can enjoin For as this Divine Attribute is the fundamental ground of all the highest Acts of Faith in God so is it a claim of an infinite power in men and does give b Thomas de Albiis in his Tabulae Suffragiales does the best lay open the dreadful Consequences of establishing Infallibility in any Head of the Church or any where where it really is not Tab. 20 21. This Claim in reference to the Pope he proves there to be the Mother of all Heresies and the worst of all sins because if those who claim it should err it would lead all the Church into the same without any possibility of remedy There is the same reason for that Claim in any Governing-part of the Church where that Privilege really is not Authority to all the Acts of their own Will frees them from See References all Bounds and Measures or Rules to distinguish betwixt Truth and Falshood sets them out of the reach of all humane Judicature and makes their Will and Pleasure the last Appeal for all Controversies and their Arbitrary Decisions to be the Oracles of God How inconsiderable does the Worship of Nebuchadnezzar's Image appear to be in comparison with this profound Veneration of the Soul and Conscience given to the arbitrary false and wicked Decrees of either ignorant or designing Men under the Character of the Word and Will of God And all these particulars are made good in the matter before us by the Imperial Laws and their Sanctions and Edicts to force their own Faith in indifferent things And the Errors of General Councils upon the Consciences of the whole Christian Church Catholick to be assented to as c It had been the common stile of Councils ever since the Council of Nice to publish their Decrees under the Title of Things Divinely Inspired Thus does Socrates shew lib. 1. cap. 6. Ep. That Constantine there says of the Decree of the 300 Bishops at Nice That it was to be looked upon as the Sentence of God himself And ibid. Ep. 4. To the Churches he says of all Councils That whatsoever is decreed in the Holy Councils of Bishops the same is to be attributed to the will of God Cardinal Julian's Harangue to the Deputies of the Bohemians in the Council of Basil tells them That the Decrees of Councils are not less to be believed than the Gospel because it is THEY that give AUTHORITY to the Scriptures Divine Truth See References and many times as necessary to Salvation and the giving of the Secular Arm to execute the like Injunctions of the Roman Church Of this kind also are the unwarrantable Acts of Councils and the unlawful Canons of the Roman Church inforced by the d By vertue of such Orders from that Power as these Determinations in the Decretals and Glosses do authorize viz. That the Pope of Rome is by the Order of God set over the Nations and Kingdoms That it belongs to the Pope to depose the Emperour and all other Kings and States and to assign them Deputies That the Pope is to be esteemed the Vicar of Jesus Christ for all things here upon Earth in Heaven and Hell That he can make that which is square to be round Injustice to be Justice that which is nothing to be something That he has an Absolute Power of Judging and that justly Against the Law of Nature Nations and of particular Countreys Human and Divine above and against Right against all Decrees and Orders of Council That he can dispense with the Injunctions of the Apostles And these Glosses the Popes do recommend to the Publick as AUTHENTICK See Jus Canonic Gregor 13. Aventin lib. 6. Histor Boior
Faustus the Manichee The occasion of this Idolatry not enforced by effectual Laws till Justinian 's Reign I Have been the more particular in the Explication of the worship of the Beast because that is made in the Prophecy to be the chief malignity of his Power For the exercise of his Tyranny over the Consciences of Men is that which gives life and spirit to all the Corruptions of the True Religion which the Roman Church sets up for the indispensable Laws of the Christian Faith The Idolatry of the Church of Rome alone by it self would want the greatest part of the frightful Appearance in which the Beast is described and which the enforcing it upon the Consciences of all men by the secular Arm has set it forth into the sense and feeling of the World But besides the Characters of the Malignity of the Beast which are generally summ'd up in the Worship of him there is also a particular description in the 17th Chapter of the Idolatrous state of the Roman Church under the name of Babylon the Great Whore which is a known term amongst the Prophets to express the Idolatry of a Nation which had been the True Church of God And this charge of Idolatry is brought against the Church by the Prophets not only when they worshipped strange Gods but also when they worshipped the True God by corporeal Representations as it has been sufficiently made out of late by the disputes about Aaron's and Jeroboam's Calves and may be sufficiently shown from that one place in Hosea chap. 4. 15. Though thou Israel play the Harlot yet let not Judah offend and come ye not See the Dean of St. Paul's Discourse of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome and Papists not misrepresented to Gilgal neither go ye up to Bethaven nor swear the Lord liveth where their Idolatry is made to consist in a Religious Oath to Jehovah or to the true God in the places where the Calves were placed And that they did really intend all that worship to the True God appears further from Chap. 8. v. 13. They sacrifice flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings and eat it but the Lord accepteth them not And that they applied themselves to the Calves in those Sacrifices appears from Chap. 13. 2. They say of them Let the men that sacrifice kiss the Calves which does all belong to Ephraim and to Samaria who had just before been mentioned for their Calves so that their swearing by the Lord and their sacrificing of his Offerings which are said before to be done at Gilgal and Bethaven the places of the worship of the Calves cannot possibly be understood of any other intention of worship than to the True God in the presence of those Calves So again Chap. 8. v. 5. Thy Calf O Samaria hath cast thee off mine Anger is kindled against thee where the kindling God's wrath against them is called their being cast off by their Calf as they had represented the presence of God in his House by that figure Now for this kind of Idolatry we need not be long in seeking after the recovery of the Western Empire by Justinian We find that in the Second Council of Nice about 200 years after that they insisted Act. 7. upon the old Tradition and practice An. Dom. 787. Petav. of the Universal Church for the use of Images which though it cannot be verified of so long a practice of the Church as they pretend nor it may be of that degree of honour which they defined for any time before yet we cannot think such an Assembly of men from all parts of the World so impudent as to plead ancient Tradition and long practice for that to which there had been nothing like in use of the Church before their time But the proof of it which they alledge out of the 82d Canon of the Sixth Council in Trullo which was near an hundred years before that time is a very clear instance of such practices in the An. Dom. 707. Petav. Church so little a while after Justinian That Canon ordains That the Image of Christ as the Lamb of God should be received amongst the rest of the Venerable Images which gives us to understand that Images were then frequent in Churches And the 73d Canon of that Council does intimate to us what use was made of the Images that were made to represent the Person of Christ For it ordains That Adoration should be given to Christ by the figure of the Cross and to shew their reverence to it that it should never be engraven upon the Church-floor lest it should seem to be trampled under foot and triumphed over By both these Canons it did appear that Images were then commonly used with great veneration if not adoration in the service of God So common a practice as this not much above 100 years after the Reign of Justinian may very safely be concluded to have been begun in his days And indeed it is evident to have been then in use by that celebrated Act of * Baronius Anno 591. Screnus Bishop of Marseils in breaking the Images that he found to be adored in his Churches And this was but about 40 years after the death of Justinian and must be supposed to have been some while in use before it came to be so grosly abused as to stir up the zeal of Serenus to break them which Pope Gregory the First tells him never any Bishop before him ever did And Hospinian's Account of the first occasion of Images in the Church Histor Monachatus pag. 49. does agree well with this He makes the Irruption of the Barbarians upon all the Roman Empire to have been the occasion of introducing the custome of Images which they had been always used to in their Paganism and were indulged in it upon their conversion in a new way and their Irruption was long before the time of Justinian There also he affirms that Gregory himself was the Establisher of the Invocation of Saints and of the use of Images which might well be looked upon as the earnest of spiritual fornication in the Church before they came to be openly adored and therefore might denominate the Church an Harlot as that name may well enough be given to an Adulteress from her first entertaining of the sollicitations of her Paramour But even in the days of Justinian according to Caranza's Explication of the second Canon of the Second Synod of Tours it appears that Images were so commonly received in the Church that there was a place set a part for them upon the Altar called by the name of the Armarium Caranza Annotat. on 2d Canon Synod the Second And it appears from the 26th Law of Justinian's Code Tit. de Episcop Clero that the Image of the Cross and the Reliques of the Saints were looked upon to be so holy as to be thought fit to have an Imperial Law made that they should not be set up in any Prophane or Common