Souls of Error and Idolatry their Bodies of infirmities and distempers healing diseases dispossessing Daemons settling Churches and appointing them Guides and Ministers of Religion 5. HAVING for many years successfully managed his Apostolical Office in all those parts he came in the last periods of his life to Hierapolis in Phrygia a City rich and populous but answering its name in its Idolatrous Devotions Amongst the many vain and trifling Deities to whom they payed religious adoration was a Serpent or Dragon in memory no doubt of that infamous Act of Jupiter who in the shape of a Dragon insinuated himself into the embraces of Proserpina his own Daughter begot of Ceres and whom these Phrygians chiefly worshipped as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us so little reason had Baronius to say that they worshipped no such God of a more prodigious bigness than the rest which they worshipped with great and solemn veneration S. Philip was troubled to see the people so wretchedly enslaved to error and therefore continually solicited Heaven till by prayer and calling upon the name of Christ he had procured the death or at least vanishing of this famed and beloved Serpent Which done he told them how unbecoming it was to give Divine honours to such odious creatures that God alone was to be worshipped as the great Parent of the World who had made man at first after his own glorious Image and when fallen from that innocent and happy state had sent his own Son into the World to redeem him who died and rose from the dead and shall come again at the last day to raise men out of their Graves and to sentence and reward them according to their works The success was that the people were ashamed of their fond Idolatry and many broke loose from their chains of darkness and ran over to Christianity Whereupon the great enemy of mankind betook himself to his old methods cruelty and persecution The Magistrates of the City seize the Apostle and having put him into prison caused him to be severely whipp'd and scourg'd This preparatory cruelty passed he was led to execution and being bound was hanged up by the neck against a pillar though others tell us that he was crucified We are further told that at his execution the Earth began suddenly to quake and the ground whereon the people stood to sink under them which when they apprehended and bewailed as an evident act of Divine vengeance pursuing them for their sins it as suddenly stopt and went no further The Apostle being dead his body was taken down by S. Bartholomew his fellow-sufferer though not finally executed and Mariamne S. Philip's Sister who is said to have been the constant companion of his travels and decently buried after which having confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed from them 6. THAT S. Philip was married is generally affirmed by the Ancients Clemens of Alexandria reckons him one of the married Apostles and that he had Daughters whom he disposed in marriage Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus tell us that Philip one of the Twelve Apostles died at Hierapolis with two of his Daughters who persevered in their Virginity and that he had a third which died at Ephesus The truth is the not careful distinguishing between Philip the Deacon who lived at Caesarea and of whose four Virgin-daughters we read in the History of the Apostles Acts and our Apostle has bred some confusion among the Ancients in this matter But the account concerning them is greatly different for as they differed in their Persons and Offices the one a Deacon the other an Apostle so also in the number of their Children four Daughters being ascribed to the one while three only are attributed to the other He was one of the Apostles who left no Sacred writings behind him the greater part of the Apostles as Eusebius observes having little leisure to write Books being employed in ministeries more immediately useful and subservient to the happiness of mankind Though Epiphanius tells us that the Gnosticks were wont to produce a Gospel forged under S. Philip's name which they abused to the patronage of their horrible principles and more brutish practices The End of S. Philip 's Life THE LIFE OF S. BARTHOLOMEW S BARTHOLOMEW He was flea'd aliue by the command of a Barbarous King Place this to the Collect for St. Bartholomews day St. Bartholomew's Martyrdom Rom. 8.36 37. For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter But in all these things we are more then Conquerours The-silence concerning this Apostle in the History of the Gospel That he is the same with Nathanael proved by many probable arguments His title of Bar-Tholmai whence The School of the Tholmaeans An objection against his being Nathanael answered His descent and way of life His first coming to Christ and converse with him In what parts of the World he planted the Christian Faith His preaching in India and leaving S. Matthew 's Gospel there His return to Hierapolis and deliverance there from Crucifixion His removal to Albanopolis in Armenia and suffering Martyrdom there for the Faith of Christ. His being first flead alive and then crucified The fabulous Gospel attributed to him 1. THAT S. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles the Evangelical History is most express and clear though it seems to take no further notice of him than the bare mention of his name Which doubtless gave the first occasion to many both anciently and of later time not without reason to suppose that he lies concealed under some other name and that this can be no other than Nathanael one of the first Disciples that came to Christ. Accordingly we may observe that as S. John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the Apostles so the other Evangelists never take notice of Nathanael probably because the same person under two several names And as in John Philip and Nathanael are joyned together in their coming to Christ so in the rest of the Evangelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation for no other reason I conceive than because as they were joyntly called to the Discipleship so they are joyntly referred in the Apostolick Catalogue as afterwards we find them joynt companions in the writings of the Church But that which renders the thing most specious and probable is that we find Nathanael particularly reckoned up with the other Apostles to whom our Lord appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after his Resurrection where there were together Simon Peter and Thomas and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee and the two sons of Zebedee and two other of his Disciples who probably were Andrew and Philip. That by Disciples is here meant Apostles is evident partly from the names of those that are reckoned up partly because it is said that this was the third time that Jesus appeared to his Disciples it being plain that the
was the success of his Ministry that he converted Multitudes both of Men and Women not only to the embracing of the Christian Religion but to a more than ordinarily strict profession of it insomuch that Philo wrote a Book of their peculiar Rites and way of Life the only reason why S. Hierom reckons him among the Writers of the Church Indeed Philo the Jew wrote a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extant at this day wherein he speaks of a sort of Persons called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in many parts of the World but especially in a pleasant place near the Meraeotick Lake in Egypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies and gives a large account of their Rites and Customs their strict philosophical and contemplative course of life He tells us of them that when they first enter upon this way they renounce all secular interests and employments and leaving their Estates to their Relations retire into Groves and Gardens and Places devoted to solitude and contemplation that they had their Houses or Colleges not contiguous that so being free from noise and tumult they might the better minister to the designs 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 In each of these Houses there was an Oratory call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they discharged the more secret and solemn Rites of their Religion divided in the middle with a Partition-wall three or four Cubits high the one apartment being for the Men and the other for the Women Here they publickly met every Seventh day where being set according to their seniority and having composed themselves with great decency and reverence the most aged Person among them and best skilled in the Dogmata and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst gravely and soberly discoursing 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 Their discourses were usually mystical and allegorical seeking hidden sences under plain words and of such an allegorical Philosophy consisted the Books of their Religion left them by their Ancestors The Law they compared to an Animal the Letter of it resembling the Body while the Soul of it lay in those abstruse and recondite notions which the external veil and surface of the words concealed from vulgar understandings He tells us also that they took very little care of the Body perfecting their minds by Precepts of Wisdom and Religion the day they intirely spent in Pious and Divine Meditations in reading and expounding the Law and the Prophets and the Holy Volumes of the ancient Founders of their Sect and in singing Hymns to the honour of their Maker absolutely temperate and abstemious neither eating nor drinking till Night the only time they thought fit to refresh and regard the Body some of them out of an insatiable desire of growing in knowledge and vertue fasting many days together What Diet they had was very plain and simple sufficient only to provide against hunger and thirst a little Bread Salt and Water being their constant bill of fare their clothes were as mean as their food designed only as a present security against cold and nakedness And this not only the case of men but of pious and devout Women that lived though separately among them that they religiously observed every Seventh Day and especially the preparatory Week to the great solemnity which they kept with all expressions of a more severe abstinence and devotion This and much more he has in that Tract concerning them 3. THESE excellent Persons Eusebius peremptorily affirms to have been Christians converted and brought under these admirable Rules and Institutions of Life by S. Mark at his coming hither accommodating all passages to the Manners and Discipline of Christians followed herein by Epiphanius Hierom and others of old as by Baronius and some others of later time and this so far taken for granted that many have hence fetched the rise of Monasteries and Religious Orders among Christians But whoever seriously and impartially considers Philo's account will plainly find that he intends it of Jews and Professors of the Mosaick Religion though whether Essenes or of some other particular Sect among them I stand not to determine That they were not Christians is evident besides that Philo gives not the least intimation of it partly because it is improbable that Philo being a Jew should give so great a character and commendation of Christians so hateful to the Jews at that time in all places of the World partly in that Philo speaks of them as an Institution of some considerable standing whereas Christians had but lately appeared in the World and were later come into Egypt partly because many parts of Philo's account does no way suit with the state and manners of Christians at that time as that they withdrew themselves from publick converse and all affairs of civil life which Christians never did but when forced by violent Persecutions for ordinarily as Justin Martyr and Tertullian tell us they promiscuously dwelt in Towns and Cities plowed their Lands and followed their Trades ate and drank and were clothed and habited like other men So when he says that besides the Books of Moses and the Prophets they had the Writings of the Ancient Authors of their Sect and Institution this cannot be meant of Christians for though Eusebius would understand it of the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles yet besides that there were few of them published when Philo wrote this discourse they were however of too late an Edition to come under the character of ancient Authors Not to say that some of their Rites and Customs were such as the Christians of those days were mere strangers to not taken up by the Christian Church till many Years and some of them not till some Ages after Nay some of them never used by any of the Primitive Christians such were their religious dances which they had at their Festival Solemnities especially that great one which they held at the end of every Seven Weeks when their entertainment being ended they all rose up the Men in one Company and the Women in another dancing with various measures and motions each Company singing Divine Hymns and Songs and having a Precentor going before them now one singing and anon another till in the conclusion they joyned in one common Chorus in imitation of the triumphant Song sung by Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red Sea To all which let me add what a Learned Man has observed that the Essenes if Philo means them were great Physicians thence probably called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Healers though Philo who is apt to turn all things into Allegory refers it only to their
Chapter of his Gospel at least part of it was as Hierom informs us wanting in all ancient Greek Copies rejected upon pretence of some disagreement with the other Gospels though as he there shews they are fairly consistent with each other His great impartiality in his Relations appears from hence that he is so far from concealing the shameful lapse and denial of Peter his dear Tutor and Master that he sets it down with some particular circumstances and aggravations which the other Evangelists take no notice of Some dispute has been made in what Language it was written whether in Greek or Latin That which seems to give most countenance to the Latin Original is the note that we find at the end of the Syriack Version of this Gospel where it is said that Mark preached and declared his Holy Gospel at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Roman or the Latin Tongue An evidence that with me would almost carry the force of a demonstration were I 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. But we know how usual it is for such additions to be made by some later hand And what credit is to be given to the subscriptions at the end of S. Paul's Epistles we have shewed elsewhere Besides that it is not here said that he wrote but that he Preached his Gospel at Rome in that Language The Advocates of the Romish Church plead that it 's very congruous and suitable that it should at first be consigned to Writing in that Language being principally designed for the use of the Christians at Rome An objection that will easily vanish when we consider that as the Convert Jews there understood very little Latin so there were very few Romans that understood not Greek it being as appears from the Writers of that Age the gentile and fashionable Language of those Times Nor can any good reason be assigned why it should be more inconvenient for S. Mark to write his Gospel in Greek for the use of the Romans than that S. Paul should in the same Language write his Epistle to that Church The Original Greek Copy written with S. Mark 's own hand is said to be extant at Venice at this Day Written they tell us by him at Aquileia and thence after many Hundreds of Years translated to Venice where it is still preserved though the Letters so worn out with length of time that they are not capable of being read A story which as I cannot absolutely disprove so am I not very forward to believe and that for more reasons than I think worth while to insist on in this place The End of S. Mark 's Life THE LIFE OF S. LUKE the Evangelist S. LUKE 2. COR. 8.8.19 The Brother whose praise is in the Gospel through out all the Churches And not that onely but who was also chosen of the Churches to travell with us St. Luke his Martyrdom Col. 4.14 Luke the beloved Physician The brother whose Praise is in the Gospel 2 Cor. 4.11 We are delivered unto death for Jesus sake Bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Antioch S. Luke 's birth-place The fame and dignity of it His learned and liberal education His study of Physick His skill in Painting S. Luke none of the Seventy Converted where and by whom His constant attendance upon S. Paul In what parts he principally exercised his Ministry The place and manner of his Death The translation of his Body to Constantinople His Writings Theophilus who His Gospel where written and upon what occasion How fitted for it The Acts of the Apostles written at Rome and when Why principally containing the Acts of S. Paul This Book why publickly read just after Easter in the Primitive Church S. Luke 's polite and exact stile and way of writing above the rest 1. SAINT Luke was born at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a City celebrated for its extraordinary blessings and eminences the pleasantness of its situation the fertility of its soil the riches of its Traffick the wisdom of its Senate the learning of its Professors the civility and politeness of its Inhabitants by the Pens of some of the greatest Orators of their times 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 University replenished with Schools of learning wherein were Professors of all Arts and Sciences So that being born in the very lap of the Muses he could not well miss of an ingenuous and liberal education his natural parts meeting with the advantages of great improvements Nay we are told that he studied not only at Antioch but in all the Schools both of Greece and Egypt whereby he became accomplished in all parts of Learning and humane Sciences Being thus furnished out with skill in all the preparatory Institutions of Philosophy he more particularly applied himself to the study of Physick for which the Grecian Academies were most famous though they that hence infer the quality of his Birth and Fortunes forget to consider that this noble Art was in those times generally managed by persons of no better rank than servants Upon which account a Learned man conceives S. Luke though a Syrian by birth to have been a servant at Rome where he sometimes practised Physick and whence being manumitted he returned into his own Country and probably continued his profession all his life it being so fairly consistent with and in many cases so subservient to the Ministry of the Gospel and the care of Souls Besides his abilities in Physick he is said to have been very skilful in Painting and there are no less than three or four several pieces still in being pretended to have been drawn with his own hand a tradition which Gretser the Jesuit sets himself with a great deal of pains and to very little purpose to defend though his Authors either in respect of credit or antiquity deserve very little esteem and value Of more authority with me would be an ancient Inscription found in a Vault near the Church of S. Mary in via lata at Rome supposed to have been the place where S. Paul dwelt wherein mention is made of a Picture of the B. Virgin UNA EX VII AB LUCA DEPICTIS being one of the seven painted by S. Luke 2. HE was a Jewish Proselyte Antioch abounding with men of that Nation who had here their Synagogues and Schools of Education so that we need not with Theophylact send him to Jerusalem to be instructed in the study of the Law As for that opinion of Epiphanius and others that he was one of the Seventy Disciples one of those that deserted our Lord for the unwelcome discourse he made to them but recalled afterwards by S. Paul I behold it as a story of the same coin and
to any that would abuse it to confirm and countenance delusions and impostures Nicodemus his reasoning was very plain and convictive when he concludes that Christ must needs be a Teacher come from God for that no man could do those Miracles that he did except God were with him The force of which argument lies here that nothing but a Divine power can work Miracles and that Almighty God cannot be supposed miraculously to assist any but those whom he himself sends upon his own errand The stupid and barbarous Lycaonians when they beheld the Man who had been a Cripple from his Mothers womb cured by S. Paul in an instant only with the speaking of a word saw that there was something in it more than humane and therefore concluded that the Gods were come down to them in the likeness of Men. Upon this account S. Paul reckons Miracles among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the signs and evidences of an Apostle whom therefore Chrysostom brings in elegantly pleading for himself that though he could not shew as the signs of his Priesthood and Ministry long Robes and gaudy Vestments with Bells sounding at their borders as the Aaronical Priests did of old though he had no golden Crowns or holy Mitres yet could he produce what was infinitely more venerable and regardable than all these unquestionable Signs and Miracles He came not with Altars and Oblations with a number of strange and symbolick Rites but what was greater raised the dead cast out Devils cured the blind healed the lame making the Gentiles obedient by word and deed thorough many signs and wonders wrought by the power of the spirit of God These were the things that clearly shewed that their mission and ministry was not from men nor taken up of their own heads but that they acted herein by a Divine warrant and authority That therefore it might plainly appear to the World that they did not falsify in what they said or deliver any more than God had given them in commission he enabled them to do strange and miraculous operations bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost This was a power put into the first draught of their commission when confined only to the Cities of Israel As ye go preach saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out Devils freely you have received freely give but more fully confirmed upon them when our Lord went to Heaven then he told them that these signs should follow them that believe that in his Name they should cast out Devils and speak with new tongues that they should take up serpents and if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt them that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover And the event was accordingly for they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following When Paul and Barnabas came up to the Council at Jerusalem this was one of the first things they gave an account of all the multitude keeping silence while they declared what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them Thus the very shadow of Peter as he passed by cured the sick thus God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them So that besides the innate characters of Divinity which the Christian religion brought along with it containing nothing but what was highly reasonable and very becoming God to reveal it had the highest external evidence that any Religion was capable of the attestation of great and unquestionable Miracles done not once or twice not privately and in corners not before a few simple and credulous persons but frequently and at every turn publickly and in places of the most solemn concourse before the wisest and most judicious enquirers and this power of miracles continued not only during the Apostles time but for some Ages after X. But because besides Miracles in general the Scripture takes particular notice of many gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost conferred upon the Apostles and first Preachers of the Gospel it may not be amiss to consider some of the chiefest and most material of them as we find them enumerated by the Apostle only premising this observation that though these gifts were distinctly distributed to persons of an inferiour order so that one had this and another that yet were they probably all conferr'd upon the Apostles and doubtless in larger proportions than upon the rest First we take notice of the gift of Prophecy a clear evidence of divine inspiration and an extraordinary mission the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy It had been for many Ages the signal and honourable priviledge of the Jewish Church and that the Christian Oeconomy might challenge as sacred regards from men and that it might appear that God had not withdrawn his Spirit from his Church in this new state of things it was revived under the dispensation of the Gospel according to that famous Prophecy of Joel exactly accomplished as Peter told the Jews upon the day of Pentecost when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were so plentifully shed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and your young Men shall see Visions and your old Men shall dream Dreams and on my servants and on my Hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesie It lay in general in revealing and making known to others the mind of God but discovered it self in particular instances partly in foretelling things to come and what should certainly happen in after-times a thing set beyond the reach of any finite understanding for though such effects as depend upon natural agents or moral and political causes may be foreseen by studious and considering persons yet the knowledge of futurities things purely contingent that meerly depend upon mens choice and their mutable and uncertain wills can only fall under his view who at once beholds things past present and to come Now this was conferred upon the Apostles and some of the first Christians as appears from many instances in the History of the Apostolick Acts and we find the Apostles writings frequently interspersed with prophetical predictions concerning the great apostasie from the faith the universal corruption and degeneracy of manners the rise of particular heresies the coming of Antichrist and several another things which the spirit said expresly should come to pass in the latter times besides that S. John's whole Book of
the time of writing or the care that is used in doing it Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy and in his Book of Lamentations between S. John's in his Gospel his Epistles and Apocalypse How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles in some more lofty and elegant in others more rough and harsh Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers too obvious to need insisting on in this place The learned Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and that the word Peter was inserted into the Title by another hand But as a Judicious person of our own observes these were but his Posthume Annotations published by others and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription as it is in our Books And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it It bears his name in the Front and Title yea somewhat more expresly than the former which has only one this both his Names There 's a passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him When he tells us that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount When he received from God the Father honour and glory Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven from the excellent glory This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This evidently refers to Christs Transfiguration where none were present but Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle Besides that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles as it were easie to show in particular instances Add to this that S. Jude speaking of the Scoffers who should come in the last time walking after their own ungodly lusts cites this as that which had been before spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein he plainly quotes the words of this Second Epistle of Peter affirming That there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts And that this does agree to Peter will further appear by this that he tells us of these Scoffers that should come in the last days that is before the destruction of Jerusalem as that phrase is often used in the New Testament that they should say Where is the promise of his coming Which clearly respects their making light of those threatnings of our Lord whereby he had foretold that he would shortly come in Judgment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation This he now puts them in mind of as what probably he had before told them of Vivâ voce when he was amongst them For so we find he did elsewhere Lactantiusassuring us That amongst many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul preached at Rome and left upon Record this was one That within a short time God would send a Prince who should destroy the Jews and lay their Cities level with the ground straitly besiege them destroy them with Famine so that they should feed upon one another That their Wives and Daughters should be ravished and their Childrens brains dasht out before their faces that all things should be laid waste by Fire and Sword and themselves perpetually banished from their own Country and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent and dear Son of God All which as he observes came to pass soon after their death when Vespasian came upon the Jews and extinguished both their Name and Nation And what Peter here foretold at Rome we need not question but he had done before to those Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle Wherein he especially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous principles wherewith many and especially the followers of Simon Magus began to infect the Church of Christ. And this but a little time before his death as appears from that passage in it where he tells them That he knew he must shortly put off his earthly Tabernacle 7. BESIDES these Divine Epistles there were other supposititious writings which in the first Ages were fathered upon S. Peter Such was the Book called his Acts mentioned by Origen Eusebius and others but rejected by them Such was his Gospel which probably at first was nothing else but the Gospel written by S. Mark dictated to him as is generally thought by S. Peter and therefore as S. Hierom tells us said to be his Though in the next Age there appeared a Book under that Title mentioned by Serapion Bishop of Antioch and by him at first suffered to be read in the Church but afterwards upon a more careful perusal of it he rejected it as Apocryphal as it was by others after him Another was the Book stiled His Preaching mentioned and quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Origen but not acknowledged by them to be Genuine Nay expresly said to have been forged by Hereticks by an ancient Author contemporary with S. Cyprian The next was his Apocalypse or Revelation rejected as Sozomen tells us by the Ancients as Spurious but yet read in some Churches in Palestine in his time The last was the Book called His Judgment which probably was the same with that called Hermes or Pastor a Book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity and which as Eusebius tells us was not only frequently cited by the Ancients but also publickly read in Churches 8. WE shall conclude this Section by considering Peter with respect to his several Relations That he was married is unquestionable the Sacred History mentioning his Wifes Mother his Wife might we believe Metaphrastes being the Daughter of Aristobulus Brother to Barnabas the Apostle And though S. Hierom would perswade us that he left her behind him together with his Nets when he forsook all to follow Christ yet we know that Father too well to be over-confident upon his word in a case of Marriage or Single life wherein he is not over-scrupulous sometimes to strain a point to make his opinion more fair and plausible The best is we have an infallible Authority which plainly intimates the contrary the testimony of S. Paul who tells us of Cephas that he led about a Wife a Sister along with him who for the most part mutually cohabited and lived together for ought that can be proved to the contrary Clemens Alexandrinus gives us this account though he tells us not the time or place That Peter seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour and that she was now returning home encouraging and
Church and say no more to them than Little children love one another And when his Auditors wearied with the constant repetition of the same thing asked him why he always spoke the same he answered Because it was the command of our Lord and that if they did nothing else this alone was enough 11. BUT the largest measures of his Charity he expressed in the mighty care that he shewed to the Souls of men unweariedly spending himself in the service of the Gospel travelling from East to West to leaven the World with the Principles of that holy Religion which he was sent to propagate patiently enduring all torments breaking through all difficulties and discouragements shunning no dangers that he might do good to Souls redeem Mens minds from error and idolatry and reduce them from the snares of a debauched and a vicious life Witness one famous instance In his visitation of the Churches near to Ephesus he made choice of a young man whom with a special charge for his instruction and education he committed to the Bishop of that place The spiritual man undertook the charge instructed his Pupil and baptized him And then thinking he might a little remit the reins of discipline the youth made an ill use of his liberty and was quickly debauched by bad companions making himself Captain to a company of High-way men the most loose cruel and profligate wretches of the Country S. John at his return understanding this and sharply reproving the negligence and unfaithfulness of his Tutor resolved to find him out And without any consideration of what danger he entred upon in venturing himself upon Persons of desperate fortunes and forfeited consciences he went to the Mountains where their usual haunt was and being here taken by the Sentinel he desired to be brought before their Commander who no sooner espied him coming towards him but immediately fled The aged Apostle followed after but not able to overtake him passionately entreated him to stay promising him to undertake with God for his peace and pardon He did so and both melted into tears and the Apostle having prayed with and for him returned him a true Penitent and Convert to the Church This story we have elsewhere related more at large out of Eusebius as he does from Clemens Alexandrinus since which that Tract it self of Clemens is made publick to the World 12. NOR was it the least instance of his care of the Church and charity to the Souls of men that he was so infinitely vigilant against Hereticks and Seducers countermining their artifices antidoting against the poison of their errors and shunning all communion and conversation with their persons Going along with some of his friends at Ephesus to the Bath whither he used frequently to resort and the ruines whereof of Porphyry not far from the place where stood the famous Temple of Diana as a late eye-witness informs us are still shewed at this day he enquired of the servant that waited there who was within the servant told him Cerinthus Epiphanius says it was Ebion and 't is not improbable that they might be both there which the Apostle no sooner understood but in great abhorrency he turned back Let 's be gone my brethren said he and make haste from this place lest the Bath wherein there is such an Heretick as Cerinthus the great enemy of the truth fall upon our heads This account Irenaeus delivers from John's own Scholar and Disciple This Cerinthus was a Man of loose and pernicious principles endeavouring to corrupt Christianity with many damnable Errors To make himself more considerable he struck in with the Jewish Converts and made a bustle in that great controversie at Jerusalem about Circumcision and the observation of the Law of Moses But his usual haunt was Asia where amongst other things he openly denied Christ's Resurrection affirmed the World to have been made by Angels broaching unheard of Dogmata and pretending them to have been communicated to him by Angels venting Revelations composed by himself as a great Apostle affirming that after the Resurrection the Reign of Christ would commence here upon Earth and that Men living again at Jerusalem should for the space of a Thousand Years enjoy all manner of sensual pleasures and delights hoping by this fools Paradise that he should tempt Men of loose and brutish minds over to his party Much of the same stamp was Ebion though in some principles differing from him as error agrees with it self as little as with truth who held that the Holy Jesus was a mere and a mean man begotten by Joseph of Mary his Wife and that the observance of the Mosaick Rites and Laws was necessary to Salvation And because they saw S. Paul stand so full in their way they reproached him as an Apostate from his Religion and rejected his Epistles owning none but Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew having little or no value for the rest the Sabbath and Jewish Rites they observed with the Jews and on the Lord's day celebrated the memory of our Lord's Resurrection according to the custom and practice of the Christians 13. BESIDES these there was another sort of Hereticks that infested the Church in John's time the Nicolaitans mentioned by him in his Revelation and whose doctrine our Lord is with a particular Emphasis there said to hate indeed a most wretched and brutish Sect generally supposed to derive their original from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons whom we read of in the Acts whereof Clemens of Alexandria gives this probable account This Nicolas having a beautiful Wife and being reproved by the Apostles for being jealous of her to shew how far he was from it brought her forth and gave any that would leave to marry her affirming this to be suitable to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to abuse the flesh This speech he tells us was ascribed to S. Matthias who taught That we must fight with the flesh and abuse it and not allowing it any thing for pleasure encrease the Soul by faith and knowledge These words and actions of his his disciples and followers misunderstanding and perverting things to the worst sence imaginable began to let loose the reins and henceforwards to give themselves over to the greatest filthiness the most shameless and impudent uncleanness throwing down all inclosures making the most promiscuous mixtures lawful and pleasure the ultimate end and happiness of Man Such were their principles such their practices whereas Nicolas their pretended Patron and Founder was says Clemens a sober and a temperate Man never making use of any but his own Wife by whom he had one Son and several Daughters who all liv'd in perpetual Virginity 14. THE last instance that we shall remark of our Apostles care for the good of the Church is the Writings which he left to Posterity Whereof the first in time though plac'd last is his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations written while confined in
Patmos It was of old not only rejected by Hereticks but controverted by many of the Fathers themselves Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria has a very large discourse concerning it he tells us that many plainly disowned this Book not only for the matter but the Author of it as being neither Apostle no nor any Holy or Ecclesiastical Person that Cerinthus prefixed John's name to it to give the more plausible title to his Dream of Christ's Reign upon Earth and that sensual and carnal state that should attend it that for his part he durst not reject it looking upon it as containing wise and admirable mysteries though he could not fathom and comprehend them that he did not measure them by his own line nor condemn but rather admire what he could not understand that he owned the Author to have been an holy and divinely-inspired Person but could not believe it to be S. John the Apostle and Evangelist neither stile matter nor method agreeing with his other Writings that in this he frequently names himself which he never does in any other that there were several Johns at that time and two buried at Ephesus the Apostle and another one of the Disciples that dwelt in Asia but which the Author of this Book he leaves uncertain But though doubted of by some it was entertained by the far greater part of the Ancients as the genuine work of our S. John Nor could the setting down his Name be any reasonable exception for whatever he might do in his other Writings especially his Gospel where it was less necessary Historical matters depending not so much upon his authority yet it was otherwise in Prophetick Revelations where the Person of the Revealer adds great weight and moment the reason why some of the Prophets under the Old Testament did so frequently set down their own Names The diversity of the stile is of no considerable value in this case it being no wonder if in arguments so vastly different the same Person did not always observe the same tenor and way of writing whereof there want not instances in some others of the Apostolick Order The truth is all circumstances concur to intitle our Apostle to be the Author of it his name frequently expressed its being written in the Island of Patmos a circumstance not competible to any but S. John his stiling himself their Brother and Companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ his writing particular Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia all planted or at least cultivated by him the doctrine in it suitable to the Apostolick spirit and temper evidently bearing witness in this case That which seems to have given ground to doubt concerning both its Author and authority was its being long before it was usually joyned with the other Books of the holy Canon for containing in it some passages directly levell'd at Rome the Seat of the Roman Empire others which might be thought to symbolize with some Jewish dreams and figments it might possibly seem fit to the prudence of those Times for a while to suppress it Nor is the conjecture of a learned Man to be despised who thinks that it might be entrusted in the keeping of John the Presbyter Scholar to our Apostle whence probably the report might arise that he who was only the Keeper was the Author of it 15. HIS Gospel succeeds written say some in Patmos and published at Ephesus but as Irenaeus and others more truly written by him after his return to Ephesus composed at the earnest intreaty and solicitation of the Asian Bishops and Ambassadors from several Churches in order whereunto he first caused them to proclaim a general Fast to seek the blessing of Heaven on so great and solemn an undertaking which being done he set about it And if we may believe the report of Gregory Bishop of Tours he tells us that upon a Hill near Ephesus there was a Proseucha or uncovered Oratory whither our Apostle used often to retire for Prayer and Contemplation and where he obtained of God that it might not Rain in that Place till he had finished his Gospel Nay he adds that even in his time no shower or storm ever came upon it Two causes especially contributed to the writing of it the one that he might obviate the early heresies of those times especially of Ebion Cerinthus and the rest of that crew who began openly to deny Christ's Divinity and that he had any existence before his Incarnation the reason why our Evangelist is so express and copious in that subject The other was that he might supply those passages of the Evangelical History which the rest of the Sacred Writers had omitted Collecting therefore the other three Evangelists he first set to his Seal ratifying the truth of them with his approbation and consent and then added his own Gospel to the rest principally insisting upon the Acts of Christ from the first commencing of his Ministery to the Death of John the Baptist wherein the others are most defective giving scarce any account of the first Year of our Saviour's Ministry which therefore he made up in very large and particular Narrations He largely records as Nazianzen observes our Saviour's discourses but takes little notice of his Miracles probably because so fully and particularly related by the rest The subject of his writing is very sublime and mysterious mainly designing to prove Christ's Divinity eternal pre-existence creating of the World c. Upon which account Theodoret stiles his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Theology which humane understandings can never fully penetrate and find out Thence generally by the Ancients he is resembled to an Eagle soaring aloft within the Clouds whither the weak eye of Man was unable to follow him hence peculiarly honoured with the Title of The Divine as if due to none but him at least to him in a more eminent and extraordinary manner Nay the very Gentile-Philosophers themselves could not but admire his Writings Witness Amelius the famous Platonist and Regent of Porphyries School at Alexandria who quoting a passage out of the beginning of John's Gospel sware by Jupiter that this Barbarian so the proud Greeks counted and called all that differed from them had hit upon the right notion when he affirmed that the Word that made all things was in the beginning and in place of prime dignity and authority with God and was that God that created all things in whom every thing that was made had according to its nature its life and being that he was incarnate and clothed with a body wherein he manifested the glory and magnificence of his nature that after his death he returned to the repossession of Divinity and became the same God which he was before his assuming a body and taking the humane nature and flesh upon him I have no more to observe but that his Gospel was afterwards translated into Hebrew and kept by
that of Galilean Can any good thing come out of Nazareth a City in this Province said Nathanael concerning Christ. Search and look say the Pharisees for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet as if nothing but briars and thorns could grow in that soil But there needs no more to confute this ill-natured opinion than that our Lord not only made choice of it as the seat of his ordinary residence and retreat but that hence he chose those excellent persons whom he made his Apostles the great instruments to convert the World Some of these we have already given an account of and more are yet behind 2. OF this number was S. Philip born at Bethsaida a Town near the Sea of Tiberias the City of Andrew and Peter Of his Parents and way of life the History of the Gospel takes no notice though probably he was a Fisherman the Trade general of that place He had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honour of being first called to the Discipleship which thus came to pass Our Lord soon after his return from the wilderness having met with Andrew and his brother Peter after some short discourse parted from them And the very next day as he was passing through Galilee he found Philip whom he presently commanded to follow him the constant form which he used in making choice of his Disciples and those that did inseparably attend upon him So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prerogative of being first called evidently belongs to Philip he being the first-fruits of our Lord's Disciples For though Andrew and Peter were the first that came to and conversed with Christ yet did they immediately return to their Trade again and were not called to the Discipleship till above a whole year after when John was cast into prison Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that it was Philip to whom our Lord said when he would have excused himself at present that he must go bury his Father Let the dead bury their dead but follow thou me But besides that he gives no account whence he derived this intelligence it is plainly inconsistent with the time of our Apostle's call who was called to be a Disciple a long time before that speech and passage of our Saviour It may seem justly strange that Philip should at first sight so readily comply with our Lord's command and turn himself over into his service having not yet seen any miracle that might evince his Messiah-ship and Divine Commission nor probably so much as heard any tidings of his appearance and especially being a Galilean and so of a more rustick and unyielding temper But it cannot be doubted but that he was admirably versed in the writings of Moses and the Prophets Metaphrastes assures us though how he came to know it otherwise than by conjecture I cannot imagine that from his childhood he had excellent education that he frequently read over Moses his Books and considered the Prophecies that related to our Saviour And was no question awakened with the general expectations that were then on foot among the Jews the date of the Prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of Christ's coming being now run out that the Messiah would immediately appear Add to this that the Divine grace did more immediately accompany the command of Christ to incline and dispose him to believe that this person was that very Messiah that was to come 3. NO sooner had Religion taken possession of his mind but like an active principle it began to ferment and diffuse it self Away he goes and finds Nathanael a person of note and eminency acquaints him with the tidings of the new-found Messiah and conducts him to him So forward is a good man to draw and direct others in the same way to happiness with himself After his call to the Apostleship much is not recorded of him in the Holy story 'T was to him that our Saviour propounded the question What they should do for so much bread in the wilderness as would feed so vast a multitude to which he answered That so much was not easily to be had not considering that to feed two or twenty thousand are equally easie to Almighty Power when pleased to exert it self 'T was to him that the Gentile Proselytes that came up to the Passeover addressed themselves when desirous to see our Saviour a person of whom they had heard so loud a fame 'T was with him that our Lord had that discourse concerning himself a little before the last Paschal Supper The holy and compassionate Jesus had been fortifying their minds with fit considerations against his departure from them had told them that he was going to prepare room for them in the Mansions of the Blessed that he himself was the way the truth and the life and that no man could come to the Father but by him and that knowing him they both knew and had seen the Father Philip not duly understanding the force of our Saviour's reasonings begged of him that he would shew them the Father and then this would abundantly convince and satisfie them We can hardly suppose he should have such gross conceptions of the Deity as to imagine the Father vested with a corporeal and visible nature but Christ having told them that they had seen him and he knowing that God of old was wont frequently to appear in a visible shape he only desired that he would manifest himself to them by some such appearance Our Lord gently reproved his ignorance that after so long attendance upon his instructions he should not know that he was the Image of his Father the express characters of his infinite wisdom power and goodness appearing in him that he said and did nothing but by his Father's appointment which if they did not believe his miracles were a sufficient evidence That therefore such demands were unnecessary and impertinent and that it argued great weakness after more than three years education under his discipline and Institution to be so unskilful in those matters God expects improvement according to mens opportunities to be old and ignorant in the School of Christ deserves both reproach and punishment 't is the character of very bad persons that they are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth 4. IN the distribution of the several Regions of the World made by the Apostles though no mention be made by Origen or Eusebius what part fell to our Apostle yet we are told by others that the Upper Asia was his Province the reason doubtless why he is said by many to have preached and planted Christianity in Scythia where he applied himself with an indefatigable diligence and industry to recover men out of the snare of the Devil to the embracing and acknowledgment of the truth By the constancy of his preaching and the efficacy of his Miracles he gained numerous Converts whom he baptized into the Christian Faith at once curing both Souls and Bodies their
the Brother of James a character that can belong to none but our Apostle beside that the Title of the Epistle which is of great Antiquity runs thus The general Epistle of Jude the Apostle One great argument as S. Hierom informs us against the authority of this Epistle of old was its quoting a passage out of an Apocryphal Book of Enoch This Book called the Apocalypse of Enoch was very early extant in the Church frequently mentioned and passages cited out of it by Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and others some of whom accounted it little less than Canonical But what if our Apostle had it not out of this Apocryphal Book but from some prophecy currant from age to age handed to him by common tradition or immediately revealed to him by the Spirit of God But suppose it taken out of that Book going under Enoch's name this makes nothing against the authority of the Epistle every thing I hope is not presently false that 's contained in an Apocryphal and Uncanonical writing nor does the taking a single testimony out of it any more infer the Apostles approbation of all the rest than S. Paul's quoting a good sentence or two out of Menander Arâ—tus and Epimenides imply that he approved all the rest of the writings of those Heathen Poets And indeed nothing could be more fit and proper than this way if we consider that the Apostle in this Epistle chiefly argues against the Gnosticks who mainly traded in such Traditionary and Apocryphal writings and probably in this very Book of Enoch The same account may be given of that other passage in this Epistle concerning the contention between Michael the Archangel and the Devil about the burial of Moses his Body no where extant in the holy Records supposed to have been taken out of a Jewish writing called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Dismission of Moses mentioned by some of the Greek Fathers under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Ascension of Moses in which this passage was upon record Nor is it any more a wonder that S. Jude should do this than that S. Paul should put down Jannes and Jambres for the two Magicians of Pharaoh that opposed Moses which he must either derive from Tradition or fetch out of some Uncanonical Author of those times there being no mention of their names in Moses his relation of that matter But be these passages whence they will 't is enough to us that the Spirit of God has made them Authentick and consecrated them part of the holy Canon 6. BEING thus satisfied in the Canonicalness of this Epistle none but S. Jude could be the Author of it for who but he was the Brother of S. James a character by which he is described in the Evangelical story more than once Grotius indeed will needs have it written by a younger Jude the fifteenth Bishop of Jerusalem in the reign of Adrian and because he saw that that passage the Brother of James stood full in his way he concludes without any shadow of reason that it was added by some Transcriber But is not this to make too bold with Sacred things is not this to indulge too great a liberty this once allowed 't will soon open a door to the wildest and most extravagant conjectures and no man shall know where to find sure-footing for his Faith But the Reader may remember what we have elsewhere observed concerning the Posthume Annotations of that learned man Not to say that there are many things in this Epistle that evidently refer to the time of this Apostle and imply it to have been written upon the same occasion and about the same time with the second Epistle of Peter between which and this there is a very great affinity both in words and matter nay there want not some that endeavour to prove this Epistle to have been written no less than twenty seven years before that of Peter and that hence it was that Peter borrowed those passages that are so near a-kin to those in this Epistle The design of the Epistle is to preserve Christians from the infection of Gnosticism the loose and debauched principles vented by Simon Magus and his followers whose wretched doctrines and practices he briefly and elegantly represents perswading Christians heartily to contend for the Faith that had been delivered to them and to avoid these pernicious Seducers as pests and fire-brands not to communicate with them in their sins lest they perished with them in that terrible vengeance that was ready to overtake them The End of S. Jude 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHIAS S. MATHIAS He preached the Gospell in Ethiopia suffered Martyrdome and was buried there S. Hierom. St. Matthias his Martyrdom Hebr. 11.37 They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted were slain with the sword S. Matthias one of the Seventy Judas Iscariot whence A bad Minister nulls not the ends of his Ministration His worldly and covetous temper His monstrous ingratitude His betraying his Master and the agravations of the sin The distraction and horror of his mind The miserable state of an evil and guilty Conscience His violent death The election of a new Apostle The Candidates who The Lot cast upon Matthias His preaching the Gospel and in what parts of the World His Martyrdom when where and how His Body whither translated The Gospel and Traditions vented under his name 1. SAINT Matthias not being an Apostle of the first Election immediately called and chosen by our Saviour particular remarks concerning him are not to be expected in the History of the Gospel He was one of our Lord's Disciples and probably one of the Seventy that had attended on him the whole time of his publick Ministry and after his death was elected into the Apostleship upon this occasion Judas Iscariot so called probably from the place of his nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Kerioth a City anciently situate in the Tribe of Judah had been one of the Twelve immediately called by Christ to be one of his intimate Disciples equally impowered and commissioned with the rest to Preach and work Miracles was numbred with them and had obtained part of their Ministry And yet all this while was a man of vile and corrupt designs branded with no meaner a character than Thief and Murderer To let us see that there may be bad servants in Christ's own family and that the wickedness of a Minister does not evacuate his Commission nor render his Office useless and ineffectual The unworthiness of the instrument hinders not the ends of the ministration Seeing the efficacy of an ordinance depends not upon the quality of the person but the Divine institution and the blessing which God has entailed upon it Judas preached Christ no doubt with zeal and servency and for any thing we know with as much success as the rest of the Apostles and yet he was a bad man a man acted by