Sermon Preached 14 February 1607, Part 3
The Second Part, touching mysticall Babylon.
THat which wee hauehave heard of the literall, is also true in the mysticall Babylon, Mysticall Babylon is the spirituall kingdome of darkenesse, the kingdome of Satan. And this kingdome is partly temporarie; which is the kingdome of Antichrist: and partly permanent, and perpetuall; & that is the kingdome of Sinne. That the kingdom of Antichrist, namely, the Church of Rome, is mysticall Babylon, I will not stand to proue, seeing it is as good as granted by Bellarmine aBellar. de Romano pontif. lib. 3. cap. 13. In resp. ad arg….and other Papists, compelled thereunto by the cleere authorities of some Fathers, but especially by the euidence of the holy Text in the Reuelation; where, by two notable arguments it is ineuitably concluded. For first, if the mysticall Babylon be the Citie seated on 7. hills bReuel. 17. 9(as the Text saith) then Rome is Babylon, which aboue all or any Cittie in the world, is so: and that not on seauen obscure or little hillocks, but seauen hills famously and notoriously knowne by namecMo…is Coelius. Exquilinus. Palatinus.. Nor is it any thing worth, to say that old Rome was indeed so seated, but that now it is shrunk into the plain of Campo Martio. Viminalis. Quirinalis. Auentinus. Capitolinus.For notwithstanding that it be true for the body of the town; yet diuers publicke places where Antichrist exerciseth his authority and tyrannicall iurisdiction, are yet to this day on those hils; as namely, & especially, the Lateran Church and Palace: which Church one of their Popes hath by Bull and Charter made the head of all the Churches of the world; to wit Gregory the eleuenth, almost 250. yeares agoe: and after him Pius the fourth, and of late, Pius quintus hauehave by publick constitution confirmed the same: and in which Church or Palace there hauehave bin held by seuerall Popes, some 33. prouinciall or nationall, and 5. general Councels, all or most of them for the raising vp & establishing of Antichrists Throne: and in which the most horrible and hainous canons were concluded against God and his Church that euer were before: as (to name but two.)
1. That monster of transubstantiation, that the substance of bread and wine in the sacrament ceaseth, and is turned into the substance of Christs bodie & bloud.
2. That a King, an hereticke, not reforming himselfe and his land, (meaning to popery), is to be deposed by the Pope, his subiects to be discharged from his obedience, and his land to bee giuen to Papists; to whom the Papes gift shall be good and effectuall.
This Church and Palace, besides many of inferior note, stands to this day on the hil Coelius: and though now the Pope for his pleasure hath remoued himselfe …uer the Riuer to the Vaticane; yet in former times, for many hundred yeares, (as Blondus himself confesseth) it was the principall seate of the Popes: which appeareth also by the verses written vp and down the Church; especially those that are grauē ouer the marble chaire, which is hard by the high altar where the Pope sitteth at masse.
Haec est Papalis sedes & pontificalis:
Praesidet & Christi de iure vicarius isti:
Et quia iure datur, sedes Romana vocatur:
Nec debet verè nisi solus Papa sedere:
Et quia sublimis, alij subduntur in imis.
Thus its apparant, his chief throne is vpō one of the 7. hils. And it is very obseruable, that howsoeuer they make their succession frō Peter; and that therfore in reasō his Church should have bin chief: yet that God may shew to the world that their Citie is the Whore that sitteth on 7. hils; therfore, by Gods iust iudgemēt they are so blinded, that they hauehave made a Church & Palace, that is on one of the hils, superior to that they cal S. Peters, which is not on any of the hils; and hauehave giuen it not only priority, and precedence, but euen priueledge & preheminence aboue S. Peters.
Another vnanswerable reason out of the Text is; That Citie (sayth the Text) is Babylon, which reigneth ouer the kingdoms of the earth *Reu. 17. 18.: but Rome & no other City, at that day & long after, reigned ouer the world. Therfore Rome is that Babylon.
Seeing then the holy Text cleers it, the Fathers approue it, Bellarmine himselfe grants it, and the Rhemists also (vponupon condition we will yeelde that Peter was at Rome) doe willingly yeelde it*Rhemist in 1. Pet. cap. 5.; therefore wee will not stand vppon further proofe. And as for their distinction that Rome heathen is Babylon, but not Rome Christian: I answere briefly, that if heathenish Rome bee Babylon in regard of her sinnefulnesse and persecution of the Saints; then this Rome is Babylon also, seeing in her sinnefull abhominations and cruell persecutions, shee is nothing inferiour to olde heathenish Rome: as may be easily proued and shewed at large, if this time and place required it; and as hath been alreadie shewed in diuers learned writers, and (in good part) confessed by many of their owne. Now then to goe forward touching this mysticall Babell; I propound these foure points to bee considered:
1. That we would hauehave healed her.
2. That she will not be cured.
3. That therefore we ought to forsake her.
4. That God will take iust vengeance on her.
The 1. and 2. is past, the 3. is in hand, & the fourth is sure to come: its true we would hauehave healed her; its most true She is past cure; I hope it shal be as true that we shall quite forsake her; and the last hastens fast on, Her destruction is at hand and sleeps not.
For the first: That we would hauehave cured the Papists, we dare call the world to witnesse, and appeale euen to God himselfe; and this not onelyonly desired, but endeuoured it by all good meanes, both in the dayes of that renowned Q. Elizabeth of happie memorie, and in the present gouernment of our Souereigne that now is.
The meanes we hauehave vsed for their healing be diuerse. 1. By instructing, and informing them in the truth, and discouering their errours both by holy Scriptures, and by the ancient Fathers of the best and purest times. Iewel, Fulk, Whitakers, Rainolds, Perkins, and manie other, who now sleep in Christ, hauehave left behinde them such testimonies of this truth as shall liue whilst the world lasteth, and neuer can be confuted; as appeares in that they hauehave not dared to answer most of their books to this day.
Secondly, our continuall prayers for them, both publick, and priuate; in performance of which duty, both our Church in generall, and all amongst vsus (that vse to pray for themselues) hauehave the testimony of a good conscience, that they hauehave not failed to indeuour their healing by this means. This our diligence in this duty, so shamed them for their negligence in the same for vsus, that iiij. yeares ago they published at Rome a forme of Litanie, and publicke praier, for the peruerting of the Realms of England and Scotland, to Popery. But by the way let it be obserued, that as when Cain left his frowning at his brother, and began to make shew of friendship with him, & entised him by fair words into the fields, thē he harbored the heauiest malice in his heart and there slewe him*Gen. 4. 7.: So when these men had conceiued, and hatcht at Rome the pouder treason; then to make vsus secure, and beleeue they loued vsus, they framed prayers for vsus, as tho the worst thing they wisht vsus were our conuersion; when as indeede they plotted the subuersion of vsus all. Hee that sitteth in heauen, and laughed both them and hell to scorn, for that their deuise, knoweth wee hauehave not dealt so with them. Well, if their Prayers hereafter come so attended, let vsus hauehave their curses, and let their prayers turne into their owne bosomes.
Thirdly, wee hauehave endeuoured to heale them by our example, professing and practicing our owne religion, daily in their sight: and many of our Fathers professed it openly, euen in the times when they preuailed, & gaue their liues in the fire for it. And heerin the example of noble Q. Elizabeth is worthy of eternall memorie, whose constant zeale to the truth was such, as that al her daies they could not by their brags and treasons, & curses, cause her once to fear thē; nor by all their sleights, could euer win the least estimation with her, nor gain an inch of ground in her hart: nay, her last Proclamation, not two moneths afore her death wounded them as deepely, or rather more then euer any one before*See the Proclamatiō published in Feb. before h… death..
Fourthly, and lastly; we endeuoured their healing, by deuising and enacting good and wholsome lawes against their errours, superstitions, impieties, & seditious courses: sometime in iustice executing them, oftentimes in great merciemercy suspending them; thus trying all meanes that might possibly perswade or work vponupon them: and in this course (our State by wise foresight, and discreete managing the lawes; our Ministerie by instruction and confutation, and all by their prayers and example) did we continue to endeuour hir healing, all the happie dayes of Q. Elizabeth.
But especially dare wee call the Lord to witnesse, that we hauehave endeuoured hir healing since the happy comming of his Maiestie to this Crowne; wherein all the forenamed meanes hauehave beene vsed, and one more: their errours hauehave beene most learnedly discouered, and confuted, their bookes and libells aunswered; & if I may giuegive my iudgement of these daies, the skirts of the Romish Whore were neuer better discouered, her grossest absurdities and fowlest impieties neuer so cleerly displayed, as hauehave beene by the Diuines of this present age. I spare their names, in regarde they bee aliue: and long may they liue, to the happinesse of this Church.
And beyond all meanes then vsed, and now continued, his Maiestie hath vsed one more; namely, admirable lenitie, and extraordinarie patience towards them, notwithstanding all their ill deseruings: which as it was alwayes great; so, since the hellish powder treason it is incredible: for he whose patience is not prouoked, and whose iust anger is not wakened by such an attempt, sure there is somthing more then ordinarily humane, in that man. Neither do I think is there a King in Christendome, that after such a treason would hauehave left one of that factiō in his kingdome, but onelyonly his Maiestie. Oh mirror of mercy! how famously in future ages shal this princely bounty be renowned! and how fit is hee to bee the Lords anointed, and to be the Lieutenant of that God whose mercy is ouer all his workes; seeing his merciemercy is so largely extended euen ouer his worst deseruing subiects. Thus heauen hath seene it, euen the Lord himselfe will witnesse with vsus, that as all his Church euerie where ouer the world, so wee in England for our parts, would gladly hauehave healed Babylon, and hauehave done our full indeuour to that ende: But now alas see the effect of our labours, all is lost; for shee is Babylon, and therfore past cure: She wil not, & therfore cannot be healed.
Some will say this is harsh & bitter: but I say it is true, and therfore is not to be cōcealed: let hir blame them that hauehave made her incurable, and not them that d…scouer it: and for me that affirme it, I craue not to be belieued, but rather to be reprooued, if the euidence of the fact doe not fully prooue what I hauehave sayd.
To this end, I will first lay downe a ground or two.
First, that in former times there hauehave beene great cōplaints of foul deformities in the Romish Church, made by men of great learning, and such as eyther are, or at least whom they say are, their owne: and these deformities not only in priuate persons, but in the publick body; not in the members onelyonly, but in the head of their Church. I will not stand to prooue this, it being not the end of my purpose at this time: they that look into the monuments of elder ages doe knowe this to be true; and whosoeuer will but looke into the Reuelations of Saint Bridget, Bernards Epistles, Vicentius Ferrariensis, and others of that age, wil soone acknowledge it.
Another ground: these deformities were so fowle and so apparant, that the Councels of Constance, and Basil, and (of later times) that of Trent, were called to this principall end, for the reformation of the Church both in the head and in the members. For that of Constance, the Councell it selfe confesseth it in the publick acts thereof more then once: and for that of Trent, howsoeuer they pretended it against Luther & his doctrine; yet it is confessed by a learned Bishop of their side*Espencaeus in Titum. cap. 1., that it was wrought out and brought to passe at last, and after much resistance, for the reformation of the Romish Church, & euen of the Popes owne Court; wherein there raigned at that time many abhominable things, as one of the better sort of Popes himself freely confessed*Adrian the 6. VponUpon these groūds I proceed to lay downe 3. propositions, touching the incurablenesse of Romish Babel.
1. That these Councels assembled to reforme and amend, did contrariwise establish diuers impious errors neuer before decreed in the world.
2. That those fowle deformities in the Romish Church, both in the head and members, and both for doctrine and manners, that were in that Church before those Councells, and for the redresse whereof, those Councels were called, did neuertheles, and yet do, continue vnreformed.
3 That since then, in steed of redresse and reformation of the euills then found, there hauehave contrariwise growen vp in their Church more horrible and haynous practices, and more erronious and impious doctrines then euer before; and at this day stand vnreprooued, and maintayned by their Church. And these three propositions being proued, I hope there is none but will confesse that the Romish Church, for ought that man can see is past cure, or at least, not yet healed.