THE Lives Deaths Of the Holy APOSTLES Of Our Lord Saviour Iesus Christ Together With the Two Evangelists SAINT Mark and Luke THE Lives Deaths Of the Holy APOSTLES Of Our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Together with the Two Evangelists St. MARK and St. LUKE As Also Some other of our Saviours Disciples Containing An Account of Their Travels Sayings Miracles Sufferings and Martyrdoms All Collected from the Best Authors for Publick Use and Benefit LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Armes in the Poultry 1685. TO THE READER Courteous Reader THou art here Presented with the Lives of the Holy Apostles Men â—ho as they were Honour'd â—ith the highest Offices in â—he Church so they are â—f highest Renown in the â—hristian World both for their Lives and Deaths Great Subject and a Noâ—â— Study in the managiâ—â— whereof I have gleanâ— what I could meet wiâ—â— that I thought was most mâ—terial for the Reader to knoâ— That which first put me upâ—â— Writing it was the Acceâ—tance the Book Intituled Tâ—â— Testament of the Twelve Pâ—triarks found amongst moâ—â— men But this as the Authoâ—â— are more Venerable amoâ—â— Christians so I have puâ—posely omitted all things thâ—â— might occasion any Dispuâ—â— concerning them This Book being calculated as well for delight as profit indeed it can be no small pleasure to have so many great pieces of Antiquity as you will find in this small Book brought to speak English whereby a common eye may look into Divine Inestimable Treasure of the Wisest and best Ages of the World In these Lines the Reader will see the first and purest Ages of the Christian Religion when Men were really what they pretended to be when a solid Piety and Devotion a strict Temperance and Sobriety a Catholick and unbounded Charity an exemplary Honesty Integrity a great Reverence for every thing that was Divine and Sacred rendred Christianity beautiful lovely to the World Here thou wilt see the Reasons and Occasions of the Feasts and Fasts of the Church and what made those Primitive Times thrive To provoke thy imitation my business was to deliver this Work in that Form and Order that I think it may not be unfitly styled the Story of Stories wherein you will find contrived in one continual Order of Historical Reading those Famous and Glorious Acts which are contained in the Lives of these Holy Apostles He that reads these great Saints Lives will see the Grounds of the Christian Religion to be so noble and excellent all its Laws so iust and rational all its designes so Divine and Heavenly that he cannot but conclude the Principles to be perfect and conducive to the happiness of Humane Nature a Religion so worthy of God so Advantagious to Human Nature built upon the strongest evidence cloathed with such strong and powerful Arguments that he will presently be convinced of the Decency that resides in it And certainly nothing can be of more efficacy to perswade Christians to and engage them in a Pious Godly and Religious Life Then the Considerations they may be able to make upon reading the Lives and Actions of these Holy Saints and Martyrs when we reflect upon their extraordinary Self-denial Piety Charity Justice Moderation and all other Vertues so Conspicuous in the whole course of Their Apostleships If to be Short will please thee here is Brevity If Change will please here is Variety If Profit will please I dare say it shall be thy fault if thou be not the Better for it May these Lines be as so many Sparks from Heaven collected thus together which may not only afford Light to our Understandings but Divine love to all sincere Souls That as it had a Heavenly heat in them it may influence all the lovers of Devotion and Piety is the hearty desire of the Publisher P. D. BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Dorman Newman at the Kings-Armes in the Poultry THe History of the Seaven Wise Masters The History of St. Patrick of Ireland The Lives and Deaths of the Holy Apostles c. The History of Fortunatus The Crown Garland Poor Robins Preambulations Small Histories A Merry Book of All Fives Crossing of Proverbs Sir Laurance Lazie The Unfortunate Welsh-Man Venus Turtle Doves Unfortunate Jack Vinegar and Mustard The History of Valantine and Orson The History of Fryer Bacon The History of the Seven Champions of England With most other both Large and Small Histories The Life of St. PETER St PETER IN the Land of Palestine stood a Village called Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable place belonging to the Tribe of Nepthali but lately re-edified and greatly enlarged by Phillip the Tetrarch and by him advanced to the Place and Dignity of a City replenished with many Inhabitants and strongly Fortified with Power and Strength which Augustus Caesar in honour of his Daughter called Julias It was scituated upon the Sea of Galilee and had a Wilderness upon the other side thence called The Desert of Bethsaida But for as great as its Splendor was at this time late Travellers assures that now it is become a most desolate and contemptible Village consisting of a few Cottages of Moors and Wild Arabs And later Travellers have since assured us that even these are dandled away into one poor Cottage at this day So fatally does Sin undermine the greatest and goodliest pleces so heavily did our Saviours old Predict one for their contempt of the Gospel light on them Next to the Honour that this place had by our Saviours presence who living most in these parts did often resort hither It had nothing greater to recommend it to the Notice of Posterity then that besides some other of the Apostles it was the Birth-place of St. Peter a Person how inconsiderable soever in his private Fortunes yet of great Note and Eminency as one of the prime Ambassadors of the Son of God to whom both Sacred and Ecclesiastical Stories gives high and Eminent Elogies among the Apostles We are much in the dark as to the particular time of his Birth no probable Foot-steps nor intimations of it being found in Antiquity yet in the general we may conclude him at least to have been about Ten Years Elder then his Master his Marryed Condition and settled course of Life when he first came to Christ and the great Authority and respect which the Gravity of his Person did procure him amongst the rest of the Apostles with other such Circumstances can speak him no less But for any thing more positive and particular in this matter we cannot affirm for a certain truth though one positively tells us that he was Born three Years before the Mother of our Lord and just Seventeen Years before the Incarnation Being Circumcised according to the rites of the Mosaick Law the Name given him at his Circumcision was Simon or Simeon a Name common among the Jews especially in their latter times This Name was afterward not abolished by our Saviour but additioned with the Title
the Church Philo did indeed write a Book which is extant to this day wherein he Treats of a sort of People who in many parts of the World but especially in a pleasant place Scituated upon the Mardolick Lake in Aegypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies and gives a large Account of their Rites and Customs their strict phylosophical and contemplative Course of Life He further tells us That when they did first enter upon this course of Life they renounced all secular Interests and Imployments and leaving their Estates to their Friends retired into Groves and Gardens and places devoted to Retirement and Contemplation that they had their Houses or Colledges not contigious that so being free from noise and tumults and such like incumbrances they might the better minister to the Design of a contemplative Life nor yet removed at too great a distance that they might maintain mutual Society and be conveniently capable of helping and assisting one another as their need required in the middle of these Houses there was an Oratory wherein they discharged the more secret and solenm parts of their Religion divided in the middle by a partition Wall three or four Cubits high the one Appartment being for the Men the other for the Women Here they publickly met every Seventh Day where being set according to their Seniority and composing themselves with great Decency and Reverence the most aged Person among them and the best skilled in the Precepts and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst gravely and soverly Discoursing of what might make the deepest Impression upon their Minds the rest attending with a profound Silence and only testifying their Assent with the motion of their Eyes or Head They were also very careless of their Bodyes being wholly taken up with Religious Contemplations they spent the Day entirely in Divine Meditations and other exercises of Devotion they were also exceeding temperate neither eating nor drinking till Night Any that would be further Satisfied about this People let them peruse a book written by Philo the Jew concerning them which is extant to this Day Some of the Ancients have peremptorily affirmed That those excellent Persons were indeed Christians converted and brought under these admirable Rules of a strict Conversation by the Life and Doctrine of St. Mark at his coming hither but yet Philo's Account of them being seriously weighed it will be found he meant it of Jews and not Christians and besides it seems not probable that he being a Jewish Historian would give such a great Character and Commendation to Christians who were so very hateful to the Jews over all the World yea further this Author speaks of this Institution to have been some considerable standing and therefore cannot take them for Christians Christianity being at that time even in the Bud by means of St. Mark 's ministry These who took them for Christians might easily be led into this mistake by observing the Conformity that was between the Primitive Christians who entred upon a more strict and severe course of Life and these Therapeutae an ordinary Fancy being able to draw a fair Parallel between them and so it was but removing them some Ages higher and imagining them to have been Converted and Founded by St. Mark and the Work was done Indeed it is not to be doubted but that Persons educated under these excellent Rules and Methods of Life were more than ordinarily prepared for the reception of Christianity between which and their Principles and Rules of Life there was so great an Affinity and Agreement which must needs render our Evangelists Success great in those parts and open the way for men to come flocking over to the Faith St. Mark did not confine his Ministry to Alexandria and the Oriential parts of Aegypt only but removed West-ward to the parts of Libia going through the Countrys of Marmarica and Pentapelis and others thereabouts where though the people were both Barbarous in their Manners and Idolatrous in their Worship yet by his Preaching and Miracles he made way for the entertainment of the Gospel and left them not till he had not only gained them to hut also confirmed them in the Profession of it Returning to Alexandria he Preached freely and ordered and disposed the Affairs of the Church and wisely provided for Succession by Constituting Governours and Pastors of it but the reffless Enemies of the Souls of men would not sufter him long to live in quiet All was at the time of Easter at the time the great Solemnities of Serapis hapned to be Celebrated When the Minds of the people being Passionately Excited to a Vindication of the honour of their Idol broke in upon St. Mark when ingaged in the Solemn Celebration of divine Worship and binding his feet with Cords dragged him through the streets and most craggy and stony places to the Boucclus a Precipice near the Sea and for that night thrust him into Prison where his Soul was by a Divine Vision erected and encouraged under the Ruines of his shattered Body Early the next morning these bloudy hounds began to Act their fatal tragedy again dragging him about in the same manner till his Flesh being raked off and his Blood run out in great Streams all the way whereever they drew him his Spirits failed him and he Expired But their Mallice ended not with his dayes For a Father of very much Respect Adds That when he was Dead they burnt his Body into Ashes which Ashes the Christians carefully gathered together and decently Buried near the place where he was wont to Preach Afterwards it was with great Splendor removed from Alexandria to Venice where it now lies Interred and is Religiously Honoured by the Inhabitants St. Mark being Adopted to be the Tutelar Saint of that State where he hath one of the stateliest and most Magnificent Churches Erected in honour of his Memory that the Universal World can boast of at this day He suffered Martyrdom upon the five and twentieth of April though the certain year of his Sufferings is not precisely agreed upon by the Ancients Some say it was in the last year of the Emperor Claudius others place it in the eighth year of Nero. But another seemes extravagantly wide where with great confidence Affirms That he suffered in the time of Trajan Among all these various conjectures that which seems most probable and carries most appearance of reason with it is That this Holy Man suffered about the end of Neroes Reign For supposing him to have come to Rome with St. Peter about the fifth or sixth Year of Nero he might thence be dispatched to Alexandria and spend the residue of his Life and of that Emperours Reign in Planting Christianity in those parts of the World For it is beyond all debate that Irineus affirmeth St. Mark to have out-lived both St. Peter and St. Paul and after their decease to have composed his Gospel out of those things which he formerly had heard St. Peter
Murtherer prostituting Religion and the Honour of his place to Covetousness and evil Acts This Covetous temper betrayed him as in the Issue to the most fatal end so to the most prodigious impiety that ever the Sun shone on The betraying his innocent Lord into the Hands of his cruel Enemies but afterward awakned with the horrour of the Fact his Conscience began to rouse and follow so close that he was not able to bear up under the furious revenges of his own mind never rested till he had dispatched himself by a violent death A vacancy being thus made in the Colledge of Aposties the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet where our Lord took his leave of them to go to St. Johns House in Mount Zion was to fill up the number with a fit proper Person two were propounded in order to the choice Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias the way of Election was by Lots a way frequently used amongst Jewes and Gentiles in doubtful and difficult cases The Lots being put in the now Matthias his Name was drawn out and thereby installed in the Apostolick Office and Dignity Not long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles to fit them for that great and difficult Imployment upon which they were sent and among the rest St. Matthias betook â—imself to his Charge and Province The first Fruits of his Ministery he spent in Judea where having reaped a considerable harvest he betook himself to other Provinces One tells us that he Preached the Gospel in Macedonia where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity gave him a poysonous and intoxicating Potion which he chearfully drank off in the Name of Christ without the least prejudice to himself and that then the same Potion had deprived an hundred and fifty of these sight he laying his hands upon them restored them to their sight again The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward He came saies one to the first saies another to the second Ethiopia The place whether he came was very Wild and Barbatous and his usage was accordingly For here meeting with a People of a fierce and untractible temper he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity from whom after all his Labours and Sufferings and a numerous Conversion of Men to Christianity he obtained at last the Crown of Martyrdom in the sixty first year of our Lord or as others the sixty fourth Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death 〈◊〉 Writer of great note tells us That he died at a place call'd Sebastople and that he was buried near the Temple of the Sun Another reports him to have been seized by the Jewes and as a Blasphemer to have been first stoned and then beheaded But the Greeks seconded herein by many antiquaries tells us That he was Crucified and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree so Matthias suffered upon a Cross his body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem thence thought by Helene the Mother of the great Constantine to have been Translated to Rome where some parts of it are shewed with great Veneration this day though others with as great eagerness contend that his Relicks were brought to and are still preserved at Triers in Germany His memory is celebrated in the Greek Churches August the Ninth which appears not only from their Calendars but from a Novel Constitution of Comnenus appointing what holy dayes should be kept in the Church But the Western Churches kept the twenty-fourth of February sacred to his memory among many other Apocriphal Writings attributed to the Apostles where was a Gospel Published under St. Matthias his Name mentioned by Eusebius and condemned with the rest by Golasius Bishop of Rome as it had been rejected by others before him under his name also there were extant traditions cited by Clemens of Alexandria from whence no question it was that the Nicolaitans borrowed that saying of his which they abused to so vile and beastly purposes as under the pretended Patronage of his Name and Doctrine the Marcionites and Valentinians defended some of their most absurd and impious Opinions The Life of St MARK the Evangelist S MARKE THough this great Evangelist carries something of Roman in his Name without all question born of Jewish Parents Originally descended of the Tribe of Levi and the Priestly Line and if some of the Antients mistake not Sisters Son to Peter though others without any shadow of reason have confounded him with John Sirnamed Mark the Son of Mary and Mark 's Sisters Son to Barnabas The particular reason of his changing his Name from Jewish to Roman is not clear from History yet it is most probable that he assumed the Roman Name Mark upon some great change or accident of his Life or which was not unusual among the Jewes then going to the European Provinces of the Roman Empire taken up at his going for Italy and Rome By the Antients he is generally thought to have been one of the Seventy Disciples and some of them positively affirm that he was one of them who taking exceptions at our Saviours discourse of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood went back and walked no more with him but was seasonably reduced and reclaimed by Peter but others as confidently and with as great Reason affirm That he was no Hearer nor Follower of Christ and therefore could be none of them who upon that occasion forsook him He was Converted by some of the Apostles and probably by St. Peter who calls him his Son from which some conclude That Peter was his undertaker at his Baptism He was indeed his constant Attendant and Follower all along in his Travels supplying the place of an Amanuensis and Interpreter For though the Apostles were divinely Inspired and among other miraculous Powers had the gift of Languages conferred upon them yet were the Interpretation of Tongues a Gift more peculiar to some than others this might probably be St. Mark 's Talent in expounding St. Peter's Discourses in word or writing to those who understood not the Language wherein they were delivered He accompanied him in his Apostolical progress Preached the Gospel in Italy and at Rome where at the request of the Christians in those parts he Composed his Gospel By St. Peter he was sent to Aegypt to plant Christianity in that Country He fixed his main Residence at Alexandria and the places thereabouts for a considerable time where so great as one of the Ancients writes was the Success of his Ministry that he Converted vast Multitudes both of Men and Women of all ranks and degrees not only to the imbracing the Christian Faith but to a more than ordinary strict Profession of it Insomuch that Philo the Jew wrote a Book which treats only of their particular Rites and way of Life for which reasons one of the Fathers reckons him among the Writers of
Preach nay in many other passages of this Father's Writings he supposed whose Supposition certainly was not founded upon meer fancy and conjecture that St. Mark for some considerable time survived the Martyrdom of those two great Apostles As to the Person of this great Evangelist it may not be impertinent to trouble the Reader with a few words concerning it taken from the same Authorities from which we have borrowed the resâ— of his Life and Actions As to his Person he was of a middle size and Stature of a comely and well proportioned body and a wholesome constitution his Nose long his eye-brows turning back his Eyes full of gracefulness amiableness his Head by reason of this great Age very bald his Beard long and Gray his gate quick in a word he was indued with all the desirable qualities of a lovely Person His Gospel was as we obserded above written at the request of the Converts at Rome who not content to have heard Peter Preach pressed St. Mark his Fellow-Labourer to commit to Writing an account of these things which he Preached to them that by way of History which he performed with exceeding great faithfulness and brevity all which St. Peter perused and ratified with his Apostolical Authority commanding it to be owned preserved with the rest of the Canonical Books of the Scripture And though some of the Fathers seemed inclinable to think it was Written after St. Peters Death yet all that can be inferred from thence taking it for truth will be that in it self is a matter of no great moment and importance that the Ancients were not fully agreed upon the exact time when every particular Book of the Gospel were Published to the World Some have been at great pains to prove the Gospel not to have been St. Marks but St. Peters somtimes running to the Fathers and finding no shelter there they recur to Polemical debates of latter times wherein they have shewed more wit and sharpness than ingenuity and honesty It is true it was frequently stiled St. Peters Gospel not so much because dictated by him to St. Mark as because he principally composed it of that account which St. Peter usually delivered in his discourses to the People which probably is the reason why a Learned Man doth observe that he in his stile and manner of expression delights to imitate St. Peter representing very much in a few words This observation though bold in some things yet not in all for though St. Matthew is larger in giving the account of our Saviours Life than he yet in many places he reduces the story into a narrower compass than St. Mark The Last Chapter of his Gospel as St. Jerome informs us at least a part of it was wanting in all the antient Greek Copies being rejected upon the account of a pretended disagreement with the other Gospels though as this Father himself there shews they are very fairly consistent one with another nor is there any disagreement in any passage of them His great impartiality in his Relation doth most clearly appear from hence that he is so far from concealing or alleviating the shameful lapse and denial of Peter his dear Tutor and Master to whom he was so deeply ingaged in the bonds of Love that he sets it down with some particular weighty Circumstances and Aggravations which the other Evangelists thought sit for reasons known to themselves though they could not but know it to take no notice of it Some dispute has been made and kept on foot in the Church in what Language this Gospel was Written some affirm it to have been Written in the Latin Tongue Originally that which seems to give most Countenance to this is a Note which we find at the end of the Syriack Version of this Gospel where it is said That St. Mark Preached and Published his Holy Gospel at Rome in the Roman or Latine Tongue An Evidence that would undoubtly carry the force of a Demonstration with all reasonable men were they assured that this Note is of equal Value and Authority with that ancient Version generally supposed to come very few Centuries short of the Apostolick Age. Besides these Jews which heard St. Mark preach being but strangers at Rome could understand but very little Latine but upon the other hand the Roman Converts could not but understand Greek it being at that time the most fashionable and communicative Language in the World nor can any good Reason be assigned why it should be more inconvenient for St. Mark to write his Gospel in Greek for the use of the Romans than that St. Paul should in that very Language write his Epistle to the Church The Original Greek Copy written with St. Mark 's own hand is said to be extant at Venice at this Day Written as some Inform us by him at Aquileja and thence after many Hundreds of Years Translated to Venice where it is still preserved to this very day an ancient Monument and worth keeping The Letters of it are so worn out with length of time that such as to satisfy their Curiosity obtain a sight of it are not capable to read a Sentence of it to purpose though some words appear here and there in some parts of it in others nothing but a few Letters and Characters so that this Generation is not a compleat judge of its Authentickness not being capable either to approve or disapprove it but it being of no great weight whether it be the Original or not it is not worth contending for The Life of St. LUKE the Evangelist S LUKE SAint Luke was born at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a City celebrated for its extraordinary blessings and eminencies the pleasantness of its Scituation the fertility of its Soil the Riches of its Traffick the wisdom of its Senare the learning of its Professors the civility and politeness of its Inhabitants by the pens of some of the most eloquent of their time and yet above all these renowned for this one peculiar honour That here it was that the Disciples were first called Christians It was an Vniversity replenished with Schooles of learning wherein were professors of all Arts and Sciences so that this Evangelist being born in the very lap of the Muses he could not miss of a liberal ingenious Education his natural parts meeting with the advantages of great improvement Nay we are told by some that he studied not only at Antioch but at most Schooles both of Greece and Aegypt whereby he became learned in all parts of Learning humane Sciences Being thus furnished out with Skill in all the preparatory institutions of Phylosophy he more particularly applyed himself to the study of Physick for which the Grecian Academies were most famous Hence some conclude him to have been of high birth noble blood but their mistake is founded upon their not considering that this noble act was in these times professed generally by such as were of no higher value then that of Servants
and the History of the Acts of the Apostles both which he Dedicated to Theophilus Now it is debated among the Ancients what this Theophilus is some conclude it to have been a feigned Name made use of by St. Luke in this place denoting no more than a Lover of God a Title common to every Christian But others with more appearance of Reason conclude it the proper Name of a particular Person and that which satisfies them abundantly in their Iudgment is That the Title and Stile of Most Excellent is bestowed upon him which was in those times the particular Title and proper Form of Address to Princes and great Men Yea some of the Primitive Fathers do expresly term him a Man of Consular Dignity and probably a Prince and others are yet more particular in their Account of him saying That he was a Noble-man of Antioch who was Converted by Peter and who upon his Conversion gave his House to the Church for the place of their publick and solemn Meeting But it may as probably be supposed that this Theophilus might have been some Magistrate or a Chief Man in Authority whom St. Luke had brought in to the Faith and Baptized and to whom he now dedicated these Books not only as a Testimony of honourable Respect but also as a means of giving him further Light into the certainty and assurance of these things wherein he had been instructed by him As for his Gospel St. Jerome and some others suppose it to have been Written in Arabia during his Travels with St. Paul in those Parts whose help he is generally said to have made use of in Composing of it and that this the Apostle primarily intends when he so often speaks of his Gospel but whatever Assistance the Apostle might contribute to the Work it is clear that the Evangelist himself tells us expresly That he derived his Intelligence in those matters from those who had from the Beginning been Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the Word Nor does it in the least detract from the Authority of his Relation that he himself was not present at the doing of them for if we consider who they were from whom he derived his Intelligence of those things it may give abundant Satisfaction he had a Stock both of Credit and Intelligence to proceed upon the Authentickness and Sufficiency of which is beyond Expectation for he delivered nothing in his whole History but what he had immediately recovered from Persons present at and particularly concerned in the things which he has left upon Record The occasion of his Writing his Gospel is conceived to have been partly to prevent those false and scandalous Rumors and Reports which even at that time began to be obtruded upon the World and partly to supply what was wanting in those two Evangelists that Wrote before him which Supplement is particularly noted throughout the whole History by some of the Primitive Fathers The subject Matter of the whole History is an Account of what relates to Christ's Priestly Office and though when he Recordeth other passages in the Evangelical Story he is very particular in his Relation yet we may easily observe that it is always with a peculiar Respect to Christ's Preist-hood upon which account the Ancients in accommodating the four symbolical Representments in the Prophets Vision to the four Evangelists assigned the Oxe or Calf to St. Luke His History of the Apostolick Acts was undoubtedly written at Rome at the end of St. Paul's two Years Imprisonment there with which he concludes his Story it contains the Actions and sometimes the Sufferings of some of the greatest Apostles but more particularly of St. Paul for besides that his activity in the cause of Christ and the Gospel made him have a deeper share both in doing and suffering St. Luke was his constant Attendant an Eye-witness of all the most famous transactions of his Life after his Conversion yea was privy to his most secret Concerns and therefore was capable of giving a more accurat and satisfying Account and Relation of them seeing no Evidence or Testimony in matters of Fact is so convictive and rationally pungent than his who Reports nothing but what he hath heard and seen Among other things he gives a particular and exact account of those great and wonderful Miracles which the Apostles did Work for the Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Gospel which they daily Preached And this as one of the Fathers enformeth us was the reason why in the primitive Times the Book of the Acts though containing those Actions of the Apostles which were done after Pentecost were yet usually read in the Church before it in the space between that and Easter when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were Read which were proper for the Season It was sayes he because the Apostles Miracles were the grand Confirmation of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection and those Miracles were Recorded in that Book it was therefore thought most proper to be Read next to the Feast of the Resurrection In both these Books his way of Writing is exact and accurat his Stile polite and elegant sublime and lofty and yet clear and perspituous flowing with an easy and natural Grace and Sweetness admirably accommodated to an Historical Design all along expressing himself in a Vein of purer Greek than is to be found in the other Writers of the Holy Story Indeed being Born and Educated at Antioch then which no place more famous for Oratory and Eloquence he could not but carry away a great share of the Native Genius of that place though his Stile is sometimes allayed with a mixture of the Syriak and Hebrew Dialect It was observed of old as St. Jerome tells us that his Skill was greater in Greek than in Hebrew that therefore he always makes use of the Septuagint Translation and refuses sometimes to render words when the Propriety of the Greek Tongue will not bear it To Conclude As an Historian he was Faithful in his Relations Elegant in his Writings As a Minister careful and diligent for the good of Souls As a Christian devout and pious And who Crowned all the rest with the laying down his Life for the Testimony of that Gospel which he had both Preached and Published to the World FINIS