A95762:147
The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. Of Babylon…
The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. Of Babylon (Rev. 18. 4.) being the present See of Rome. (With a sermon of Bishop Beadles upon the same words.) Of laying on of hands (Heb. 6. 2.) to be an ordained ministry. Of the old form of words in ordination. Of a set form of prayer. / Published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard D.D. and preacher to the Honourable Society of Gray's-Inn, London. Unto which is added a character of Bishop Bedel, and an answer to Mr. Pierces fifth letter concerning the late primate.The judgement of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Primate of Ireland. Of Babylon (Rev. 18. 4.) being the present See of Rome. (With a sermon of Bishop Bedels upon the same words.) Of laying on of hands (Heb. 6. 2.) to be an ordained ministery. Of the old form of words in ordination. Of a set form of prayer. / Published and enlarged by Nicholas Bernard D.D. and preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne, London. Unto which is added a character of Bishop Bedel, and an answer to Mr. Pierces fifth letter concerning the late primate.
London: printed for John Crook, 1659
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, For the Fathers, who lived before that defection or Apostasy, which was to proceed, and prepare the ways for the ⟨p. 106⟩man of sin. (2 Thes. 2, 3.) there could not be expected from them, any such direct application, unless they had a Spirit of Prophecy themselves; Rome was in the Primitive times a pure Church, and the least infected with Arianism, and other heresies which then abounded in the Eastern parts; being rather a receptacle of such as were banished thence by that persecution; so that it must have been a Prophetic pen that should then have affirmed, that righteous City should become an harlot.
FIrst, For the Fathers, who lived before that defection or Apostasy, whch was to preceed, and prepare the ways for the ⟨p. 106⟩man of sin. (2 Thes. 2, 3.) there could not be expected from them, any such direct application, unlesse they had a Spirit of Prophesie themselves; Rome was in the Primitive times a pure Church, and the least infected with Arianisme, and other heresies which then abounded in the Eastern parts; being rather a receptacle of such as were banished thence by that persecution; so that it must have been a Prophetick pen that should then have affirmed, that righteous City should become an harlot.
'Tis true, there might be a conception of that man of sin; but till his birth, there could be no judgement given of him, iniquity was breeding but in a mystery (verse the 8.) like the child in the womb, which the Mother of it, cannot then be assured, but ⟨p. 107⟩it may prove an abortive; and harlots use to keep their conceptions close and undiscerned, till they are forced to discover them. Now this being thus in the conceiving and producing of that wicked one; the silence of the Fathers, as to so early a sentence, (whatsoever they might suspect) is not to be wondered at. Diseases may be gathering in the body, when neither the party himself is sensible, nor the most skilful Physician can discern of the event; fire may be kindling in the house, but the next neighbours do not cry out of it, till it be smelt; or flame forth to their view: And so there might be some such distempers, and strange fire, smothering in the Church of God for some 100's of years; but till it brake out, ye