CHAP.

IV.

bloody and cruel hierarchy should be represented, by the spirit of prophecy, under the figure of a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, on which was seated a 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 forehead a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF Rev.aviê HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

CHAPTER IV.

The Abominations of the Mother of Harlots.

THE

kingdom of Antichrist was first founded and established under the authority of names, and always abounded with names of blasphemy, as the principal means of deception. To spoil this corrupt Babylon of her names, would in fact be taking away her whole artillery, and divesting her of every weapon of defence.

13.

2. According to St. John, when only the tenth part Rev. xi of the city fell, there were slain [gr. ivópara] names of men seven thousand; but how many thousands of names, titles, and words have been corrupted in the whole extent of this corrupt church, and unjustly exposed to be hated and destroyed from any further use among mankind!

3. By such means, with deep artifice, and diabolical fraud, did Antichrist practise and prosper in deceiving the nations into a belief in the holy Catholic church, her holy bishops, holy monks, and holy virgins-her holy institutions, holy ordinances, and above all, her holy wars, her holy inquisitions, and persecutions.

4. But who is the Pope? and what is the Catholic Church? that they should be ornamented with vain titles, under pretence of their conveying to later ages

CHAP.
IV.

of Cath.

Doc. p. 23, 48.

a religion of which they were in every respect destitute!

5. And what are we to think of those modern wri ters, who, to preserve their dying authority, and maintain their unjust titles, and offices of dignity and profit, have imposed upon the ignorant by their smooth words, to make them believe that the Church of Rome, that sink of corruption, and den of vipers, could spread the light of the glorious gospel of Christ among the nations?

6. Are we to believe that she was able to purge the Catholic Church from errors and heresies; exclude from the kingdom of heaven dangerous fanatics, schismatics, and enthusiasts; and transmit the undefiled truth to her latest posterity? Is the superstitious authority of names and titles, popish decretals and catholic dogmas sufficient to bind reason and conscience, and every principle of humanity and justice, and hold them forever upon the rack?

7. If the Catholic Church contained such enormities as are stated, which none of her children pretend to deny, then where can either she or her offspring find the least shadow of pretence for calling their religion by the name of JESUS CHRIST? Surely, of all their abominations, this must be the greatest, and most provoking in the eyes of a just and righteous God.

8. But seeing her pretensions to sanctity have been so high, and her resemblance to the true church of Christ so strenuously insisted upon, we shall notice some of the most essential points in which this supposed resemblance consisted, and see how far the pretensions will hold good.

9. It is said that the chief bishop in the Catholic Grounds church was the representative of Jesus; and that inferior bishops represented the apostles, who renounced the bands and fetters of a carnal nature, did not marry nor live after the flesh, but devoted themselves wholly to the service of God, to labour for the salvation of souls. Wherein then consisted the resemblance?

Diss. on

10. Bishop NEWTON observes that, "As long ago Proph. as the year 386, Siricius held a council of eighty 'bishops at Rome, and forbade the clergy to cohabit

vol. ii.

.99.

' with their wives. This decree was confirmed by • Innocent at the beginning of the fifth century; and the celibacy of the clergy was fully decreed by Greg" ory VII. in the eleventh century; and this hath 'been the universal law and practice ever since."

CHAP.

IV.

Eccl.His

11. SIRICIUS was not, however, the first who perceived the absurdity of the professed ministers of Christ living in the works of natural generation; for the council of Nice had almost come to a resolution tory, vol. of imposing upon the clergy the yoke of perpetual P. 405. celibacy, when Paphnutius (an old cripple with one eye,) put a stop to their proceedings.

i

p. 65.

12. CONSTANTINE, though he exercised no authority in the case, manifested sufficiently which side he favoured, saying, "Ego plane, si moechantem Eed. Re "episcopum viderem, scelus obtegerem paludamen- arches. "to." i. e. Surely if I should see a bishop commit- Note [2]. ting adultery, I should cover the dirty action with my robe. This was great indulgence on the side of the emperor, which from every evidence, was by the bishops infinitely improved.

p. 194

13. The Nicene creed was introduced into Spain ibid. in the fifth century, professedly for the sake of condemning the Priscillianists, in which there is a canon to allow every Catholic to keep at his choice a wife, a woman, or a concubine. St. Augustin expounded it, and distinguished the concubine of a Catholic from other concubines.

14. Where then was the great effect produced on the side of purity by their boasted councils and decrees? Could they render an adulterous bishop a fit representative of Jesus Christ, or of his holy apostles by covering his filthy actions with the most spot. less robe? or by allowing him to keep a woman, or a concubine in place of a wife?

15. If not, let Catholics forever cease to disgrace the sacred name of Christ or apostle, with their sainted bishops, and monks, and their Catholic concubines. Nor can their cause appear in any better light under the permanent law of celibacy imposed by Pope Greg, ory, if we consider the circumstances under which that law was established, and the effects which flow. ed from it.

CHAP.
IV.

16. The licentious and scandalous conduct of the monks and clergy was enormous, with respect to con Ecel. His cubinage in particular. Mosheim says, "It was prac tory, vol.tised too openly to admit of any doubt. The priests, 401. ' and what is still more surprising, even the sancti

.p. 400,

ibid.

D. 487.

'monious monks, fell victims to the triumphant 'charms of the sex, and to the imperious dominion of their carnal lusts; and, entering into the bonds ' of wedlock or concubinage, squandered away in a 'most luxurious manner, with their wives and mistresses, the revenues of the church."

17. "There was a prodigious number of ecclesiasNote [p.]tics throughout all Europe, not only of priests and I canons, but also of monks, who kept, under the title of wives, mistresses which they dismissed at 'pleasure to enjoy a licentious variety, and who not only spent, in the most profuse and scandalous manner, the revenues and treasures of the churches and convents to which they belonged, but even distributed a great part of them among their bastards.”

Toid.

P.

18. Such were the circumstances under which Gregory, in the year 1074, assembled a council at Rome, in which it was decreed, "That the sacerdo⚫tal orders should abstain from marriage; and that such of them as had already wives, or concubines, should immediately dismiss them, or quit the priest"ly office."

19. But no sooner was the law concerning the ce489, 490. libacy of the clergy published, than those deceitful hypocrites, who were covering over their foul actions with the robes of indulgence, and living in their lusts with mistresses under the title of wives, and hired concubines, raised the loud complaint against their Lord God the Pope; charged him with too great se verity," and excited the most dreadful tumults in the greatest part of the European provinces."

ibid.

20. GREGORY and his adherents were branded with p. 491. the odious name of Manicheans; and many chose rather to abandon their priestly honour, their religion, and their God, than their sensual pleasures; and to quit their benifices that they might live in the full gratification of their lusts.

21. Some contended for the right of matrimony at

1V.

least, and urged the authority of St. Ambrose, but in CHAP. vain; GREGORY continued obstinate; and the fact was, that without such a revolution, his Catholic Eccl. His priesthood must have sunk into eternal infamy, and tory, vol ii. p. 491. forfeited forever, all pretensions of being the follow- Note [] ers of the apostles: such were the monstrous degrees of wantonness and debauchery into which that beastly order had run.

22. Yet severe as the law was, which obliged the sacerdotal orders to "abstain from marriage," and dismiss their wives and concubines, or quit the priest ly office, it only turned the abominations of the Mother of Harlots into a more extensive channel, and opened the door for indulgences of a more secret and general kind.

23. Let it be granted, that the head bishops of Rome did not marry; and did they resemble Jesus Christ or his apostles any the more for that? The most beastly drunkard might abstain from drinking. liquor in his own house, or liquor which he had pur chased and made his own; but could he argue from this that he resembled a perfectly sober man who never tasted spirituous liquor at all?

24. But it seems the catholic fathers and their councils were under the necessity of enacting laws of celibacy and continency, and of using arbitrary measures to enforce obedience. Hence it is evident, that their laws and decrees, and all their transactions to support the outward appearance of sanctity, were plain and demonstrative proofs, that their pretended holy orders and holy institutions were spurious and rotten at the very core.

25. Christ Jesus and his apostles had no necessity for any such laws, nor for any secular power to enforce obedience; for they had that spirit of purity dwelling in them, which gave them an overcoming power over every unclean and hateful lust.

26. But as the very institutions of this Mother of Harlots were false; so her catholic counsellors were totally destitute of that spirit which regulated the conduct of the apostles of Christ; and therefore they had recourse to those arbitrary laws which could neither check the ambition of deceivers from push.