a life of true Philosophy and Vertue Ap. Dioâ— Hali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—5 Tem. 2. History says Thucydides being nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy drawn from Examples the one is a more gross and popular Philosophy the other a more subtle and refined History These considerations together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great Actions gave birth to History and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and foregoing Times to the notice of Posterity The first in this kind was Moses the great Prince and Legislator of the Jewish Nation who from the Creation of the World conveyed down the Records of above MMDL years the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish State Among the Babylonians they had their public Archives which were transcribed by Berosus the Priest of Belus who composed the Chaldean History The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable Acts upon Pillars in Hieroglyphic notes and sacred Characters first begun as they pretend by Thouth or the first of their Mercuries out of which Manethos their Chief Priest collected his three Books of Egyptian Dynasties which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus second of that line The Phoenician History was first attempted by Sanchoniathon digested partly out of the Annals of Cities partly out of the Books kept in the Temple and communicated to him by Jerombaal Priest of the God Jao this he dedicated to Abibalus King of Berytus which Philo Byblius about the time of the Emperour Adrian translated into Greek The Greeks boast of the Antiquity of Cadmus Archilochus and many others though the most ancient of their Historians now extant are Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon Among the Romans the foundations of History were laid in Annals the public Acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus who kept them at his own house that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction These were the Annales Maximi and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the History of that great and powerful Commonwealth But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard both as it more immediately concerns the present enquiry and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests is the History of the Church For herein as in a Glass we have the true face of the Church in its several Ages represented to us Here we find with what infinite care those Divine Records which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us with what a mighty success Religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions and spread its Banners in the remotest corners of the World With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with what a bitter and implacable fury the Enemies of Religion have set upon it and how signally the Divine Providence has appeared in its preservation and returned the mischief upon their own heads Here we see the constant succession of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion in their several stations the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs who with the most chearful and composed minds have gone to Heaven through the acutest torments In short we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious Life of a real and unfeigned Piety a sincere and universal Charity a strict Temperance and Sobriety an unconquerable Patience and Submission clearly represented to us And the higher we go the more illustrious are the instances of Piety and Vertue For however later Ages may have improved in knowledge Experience daily making new additions to Arts and Sciences yet former Times were most eminent for the practice and vertues of a holy life The Divine Laws while newly published had a stronger influence upon the minds of men and the spirit of Religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and prophaneness that in these last Times has over-run the World It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what Records there are of the state of the Church before our Saviours Incarnation it is sufficient to my purpose to enquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian Church have been transmitted to us As for the Life and Death the Actions and Miracles of our Saviour and some of the first acts of his Apostles they are fully represented by the Evangelical Historians Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature H. Eâ—cl l. 3. c. 24. p. 94. the Apostles and their immediate Successors as Eusebius observes not being at leisure to write many Books as being imployed in Ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the World The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus an ancient and Apostolic man as he in Photius stiles him an Hebrew by descent Cod. 232. col 893. and born as is probable in Palestin He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius and came to Rome in the time of Ancietus where he resided till the time of Eleutherius He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he stiled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein in a plain and familiar stile he described the Apostles Travels and Preachings the remarkable passages of the Church the several Schisms Heresies and Persecutions that infested it from our Lords death till his own time But these alas are long since lost The next that succeeded in this Province though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection was Eusebius He was born in Palestin about the later times of the Emperour Gallienus ordained Presbyter by Agapius Bishop of Caesarea who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian Persecution Eusebius succeeded in his See A man of incomparable parts and learning and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the Records and Antiquities of the Church After several other Volumes in defence of the Christian Cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles he set himself to write an Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3. wherein he designed as himself tells us to recount from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable Transactions of the Church the Apostolical successions the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel the Bishops that presided in the most eminent Sees the most noted Errours and Heresies the calamities that befel the Jewish State the attempts and Persecutions made against the Christians by the Powers of the World the torments and sufferings of the Martyrs and the blessed and happy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantine the Great All this accordingly he digested in Ten Book which he composed in the declining part of his life Praefat. de
The multitude beheld with admiration these heavenly conflicts and stood astonished to hear the servants of Christ in the midst of all this with an unshaken mind making a free and bold confession of him destitute of any external succour but armed with a divine power and defending themselves with the shield of Faith VII TWO full years S. Cyprian had remained in his retirement when the Persecution being somewhat abated by the death of Decius he returned to Carthage An. CCLI where he set himself to reform disorders and to compose the differences that disturbed his Church For which purpose he conven'd a Synod of his neighbor-neighbor-Bishops to consult about the cause of the lapsed Who were no sooner met a Ad Cornel. Epist 41. p. 55. but there arrived Messengers with Letters from Novatian signifying his Ordination to the See of Rome and bringing an accusation and charge against Cornelius But the men no sooner appeared but were disowned and rejected from Communion especially after that Pompeius and Stephanus were arrived from Rome and had brought a true account and relation of the case The Synod therefore advised and charged them to desist from their turbulent and schismatical proceedings not to rend the Church by propagating a pernicious Faction that it was their best way and the safest counsel they could take to shew themselves true Christians by returning back to the Peace of the Church As for the lapsed having discussed their case b Ad Anton. Epist 52. p. 67. according to the Rules of the holy Scripture they concluded upon this wise and moderate expedient that neither all hopes of Peace and communion should be denied them lest looking upon themselves as in a desperate case they should start back into a total apostacy from the Faith nor yet the censures of the Church be so far relaxed as rashly to admit them to Communion but that the causes being examined and regard being had to the will of the Delinquents and the aggravations of particular cases their time of penance should be accordingly prolonged and the divine clemency be obtained by acts of a great sorrow and repentance Their meaning is that the lapsed being of several sorts should be treated according to the nature of their crimes the Libellatici who had onely purchased libels of security and dismission from the Heathen Magistrate to excuse them from doing sacrifice in time of Persecution should have a shorter time of penance assigned them the Sacrificati who had actually sacrificed to Idols should not be taken in till they had expiated their offence by a very long penance and as they sometimes call it satisfaction This Synodical determination * Id. ibid. Euseb l. 6. c. 43. p. 242. was presently sent to Rome and ratified by Cornelius and a Council of sixty Bishops and above as many Presbyters and Deacons concluding and the Decree examined assented to and published by the Bishops in their several Provinces that Novatus and his insolent Party and all that adhered to his inhumane and merciless opinion should be excluded the Communion of the Church but that the Brethren who had fallen into that calamity should be gently dealt with and restored by methods of repentance About the same time there was a Synod also held at Antioch by the Eastern Bishops about the same affair For so Dionysius a Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 46. p. 247. Bishop of Alexandria in his Letter to Cornelius of Rome tells him that he had been summoned by Helenus Bishop of Tarsus Firmilian of Cappadocia and Theoctistus of Caesarea in Palestin to meet in Council at Antioch to suppress the endeavours of some who sought there to establish the Novatian Schism VIII THE next Year May XV. Ann. CCLII began another b Epist Synod ad Cornel. Ep. 54 p. 76. Ep. 55. p. 82. Council at Carthage about this matter and wherein they steered the same course they had done before being rather swayed to moderate counsels herein because frequently admonished by divine revelations of an approaching Persecution and therefore did not think it prudent and reasonable that men should be left naked and unarmed in the day of battel but that they might be able to defend themselves with the shield of Christs body and bloud For how should they ever hope to persuade them to shed their own bloud in the cause of Christ if they denied them the benefit of his bloud how could it be expected they should be ready to drink of the cup of Martyrdom whom the Church debarred the priviledge to drink of the cup of Christ While peace and tranquillity smiled upon the Church they protracted the time of penance and allowed not the Sacrificati to be readmitted but at the hour of death But that now the enemy was breaking in upon them and Christians were to be prepared and heartned on for suffering and encouragement to be given to those who by the sincerity of their repentance had shewed themselves ready to resist unto bloud and to contend earnestly for the Faith This they did not to patronize the Lazy but excite the Diligent the Churches Peace being granted not in order to ease and softness but to conflict and contention And if any improved the indulgence to worser purposes they did but cheat themselves and such they remitted to the divine Tribunal At this Synod appeared one c Ibid. p. 8â— Privatus who having some years since been condemned for Heresie and other crimes by a Council of XC Bishops desired that his cause might be heard over again but was rejected by the Synod whereupon gathering a Party of the lapsed or the Schismatics he ordained at Carthage one Fortunatus Bishop giving out that no less then five and twenty Bishops were present at the consecration But the notorious falshood and vanity of their pretences being discovered they left the place and fled over to Rome IX ABOUT this time happened that miserable Plague that so much afflicted the Roman World wherein Carthage had a very deep share d Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. p. 13. Vast multitudes were swept away every day the fatal Messenger knocking as he went along at every door The streets were silled with the carcasses of the dead which seemed to implore the assistance of the living and to challenge it as a right by the Laws of Nature and Humanity as that which shortly themselves might stand in need of But alas all in vain every one trembled and fled and shifted for himself deserted their dearest friends and nearest relations none considered what might be his own case nor how reasonable it was that he should do for another what he would another should do for him and if any staid behind it was onely to make a prey In this calamitous and tragic Scene S. Cyprian calls the Christians together instructs them in the duties of Mercy and Charity and from the Precepts and Examples of the holy Scripture shews them what a mighty influence they have
and fellow-Pupil with St. Paul who proved afterwards his mortal enemy but I must confess I find not in all that Epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance that conjecture Antiquity * Epiph. Haerâ—â— XX. p. 27. Doroth Synops de Vit. App. in Bibl. PP Tom. 3. p. makes him probably enough to have been one of the LXX Disciples chosen by our Lord as Co-adjutors to the Apostles in the Ministry of the Gospel and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Christian Doctrine his singular ability to defend the cause of Christs Messiaship against its most acute opposers plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviours immediate institutions Certain it is that he was a man of great zeal and piety endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spirit that was lately shed upon the Church and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the Church whereto he was advanced upon this occasion III. THE Primitive Church among the many instances of Religion for which it was famous and venerable was for none more remarkable then their Charity they lived and loved as Brethren were of one heart and one soul and continued together with one accord Love and Charity were the common soul that animated the whole body of Believers and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part They prayed and worshipped God in the same place and fed together at the same table None could want for they had all in common The rich sold their estates to minister to the necessiâ—ies of the poor and deposited the money into one common Treasury the care whereof was committed to the Apostles to see distribution made as every ones case and exigency did require But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord heaven onely is free from quarrels and the occasions of offence The Church increasing every day by vast numbers of Converts to the Faith the Apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the Churches stock and the making provision for every part and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others sometimes more and sometimes less to assist in this affair By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed but either through favour and partiality or the oversight of those that managed the matter some had larger portions others less relief then their just necessities called for This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest Church that ever was Act. 6.1 the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews because their Widows were neglected in the daily ministration IV. WHO these Grecians or Hellenists were opposed here to the Hebrews however a matter of some difficulty and dispute it may not be unuseful to enquire The opinion that has most generally obtained is that they were originally Jews born and bred in Grecian or Heathen Countries Joh. 7.35 of the dispersed among the Gentiles the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the stile of the New Testament as also in the Writings of the Fathers being commonly used for the Gentile World who accommodated themselves to their manner of living spake the Greek Language but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech and this called Lingua Hellenistica and used no other Bible but the Greek Translation of the Septuagint Comment de Hellenist Qu. 1 2 3 4 5. praecipue pag. 232. c. vid. etiam inter alios Bez. Camer in loc A notion which Salmasius has taken a great deal of pains to confute by shewing that never any People went under that notion and character that the Jews in what parts of the World soever they were were not a distinct Nation from those that lived in Palestine that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic Dialect nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient Writer that the Phrase is very improper to express such a mixt Language yea rather that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinary as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek Probable therefore it is that they were not of the Hebrew race but Greek or Gentile Proselytes who had either themselves or in their Ancestors deserted the Pagan Superstitions and imbodied themselves into the Jewish Church taking upon them Circumcision and the observation of the Rites of the Mosaic Laws which kind the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of Justice and were now converted to Christianity That there were at this time great numbers of these Proselytes at Jerusalem is evident and strange it were if when at other times they were desirous to have the Gospel preached to them none of them should have been brought over to the Faith Even among the seven made choice of to be Deacons most if not all of whom we may reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians we find one expresly said to have been a Proselyte of Antioch as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be Proselytes of Jerusalem And thus where ever we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Grecians in the History of the Apostolic Acts as 't is to be met with in two places more we may Act. 9.29.11.20 and in reason are to understand it So that these Hellenists who spake Greek and used the Translation of the LXX were Jews by Religion and Gentiles by descent with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentiles they had the same common Original with the Jews the same common Profession and therefore are not here opposed to Jews which all those might be stiled who embrace Judaism and the Rites of Moses though they were not born of Jewish Ancestors but to the Hebrews who were Jews both by their Religion and their Nation And this may give us some probable account why the Widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews the persons with whom the Apostles in a great measure intrusted the ministration being kinder to those of their own Nation their Neighbours and it may be Kindred then to those who onely agreed with them in the profession of the same Religion and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the Churches Stock as the native Jews who had Lands and Possessions which they sold and laid at the Apostles feet V. THE peace and quiet of the Church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed the Apostles who well understood how much Order and Unity conduced to the ends of Religion presently called the Church together and told them that the disposing of the Common Stock and the daily providing for the necessities of the Poor however convenient and necessary was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other
a Joseph Antiq. Jad l. 13. c. 23. p. 462. Jews under Alexander Jannaeus their King sacked it because they would not receive the Rites of their Religion And God 't is like on purpose directed the Christians hither that they might be out of the reach of the Besom of Destruction that was to sweep away the Jews where-ever it came Nor was it a less remarkable instance of the care and tenderness of the Divine Providence over them that when Cestius Gallus had besieged Jerusalem on a sudden he should unexpectedly break up the Siege at once giving them warning of their danger and an opportunity to escape How long Simeon and the Church continued in this little Sanctuary and when they returned to Jerusalem appears not If I might conjecture I should place their return about the beginning of Trajans reign when the fright being sufficiently over and the hatred and severity of the Romans asswaged they might come back with more safety Certain it is that they returned before b Epiph. de Pond Mens ibid. Adrians time who forty seven years after the devastation coming to Jerusalem in order to its reparation found there a few houses and a little Church of Christians built upon Mount Sion in that very place where that Vpper Room was into which the Disciples went up when they returned from our Lords Ascension Here the Christians who were returned from Pella kept their solemn Assemblies and were so renowned for the flourishing state of their Religion and the eminency of their Miracles that Aquila the Emperours Kinsman and whom he had made Governour and Overseer of the rebuilding of the City being convinced embraced Christianity But still pursuing his old Magic and Astrological studies notwithstanding the frequent admonitions that were given him he was cast out of the Church Which he resented as so great an affront that he apostatized to Judaism and afterwards translated the Bible into Greek But to return back to Simâ—on confident we may be that he administred his Province with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge whereof God was pleased to preserve him as a person highly useful to his Church to a very great Age till the middle of Trajans reign when he was brought to give his last testimony to his Religion and that upon a very slight pretence X. THE Roman Emperors were infinitely jealous of their new established Sovereignty and of any that might seem to be Corrivals with them especially in Palestine and the Eastern parts For an ancient and constant tradition as appears besides Josephus both from Suetonius and Tacitus had been entertained throughout the Eust that out of Judaea should arise a Prince that should be the great Monarch of the World Which though Josephus to ingratiate himself with the Romans flatteringly applied to Vespasian yet did not this quiet their minds but that still they beheld all that were of the line of David with a jealous eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chron. Alexandr ad Ann. 1. Olympiad CCXIII. Indict XV. Vespas V. p. 586. eadem habet de Domitian ad An. 1. Olymp. CCXVIII Ind. V. Domit. XIII p. 590. This made Domitian Vespasians son resolve to destroy all that were of the blood royal of the house of Judah upon which account two Nephews of S. Jude one of the brothers of our Lord were brought before him and despised by him for their poverty and meanness as persons very unlikely to stand competitors for a Crown The very same Indictment was brought against our aged Bishop for some of the Sects of the a Euseb l. 3. c. 32. p. 103. 104. Jews not able to bear his activity and zeal in the cause of his Religion and finding nothing else to charge upon him accused him to Atticus at that time Consular Legat of Syria for being of the Posterity of the Kings of Judah and withall a Christian Hereupon he was apprehended and brought before the Proconsul who commanded him for several days together to be wracked with the most exquisit torments All which he underwent with so composed a mind so unconquerable a patience that the Proconsul and all that were present were amazed to see a person of so great age able to endure such and so many tortures at last he was commanded to be crucified He suffered in CXX year of his age and in the X. year of Trajans reign Ann. Chr. CVII the Alexandrin Chronicon b An. 4. Olymp. CCXX Ind. â— p. 594. places it Traj VII Ann. Chr. as appears by the Consuls CIV though as doubtful of that he places it again in the following year after he had sate Bishop of Jerusalem computing his succession from S. James his Martyrdom XLIII or XLIV years c Animadv ad Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 266 Petavius makes it no less then XLVII though Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople probably by a mistake of the figure assign him but XXIII A longer proportion of time then a dozen of his immediate successors were able to make up God probably lengthening out his life that as a skilful and faithful Pilot he might steer and conduct the Affairs of that Church in those dismal and stormy days The End of S. SIMEON'S Life THE LIFE OF S. IGNATIUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. IGNATIUS ANTIOCHENUS His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them I. FINDING nothing recorded concerning the Countrey or Parentage of this Holy Man I shall not build upon meer fansie and conjecture He is ordinarily stiled both by himself and others Theophorus which though like Justus it be oft no more then a
and solemnity Though indeed it was then but the declining part of the Annus Millesimus which began with the Palilia about April XXI of the foregoing year and ended with the Palilia of this whence in the ancient coins of this Emperour these Secular Sports are sometimes ascribed to his second sometimes to his third Consulship as commencing in the one and being compleated in the other IV. THE entrance upon his Care and Government was calm and peaceable but he had not been long in it before a storm overtook him and upon what occasion I know not he was publicly e Epist 69. p. 117. Ep. 55. p. 80. vid. Pont. de vit Cypr. p. 12. proscribed by the name of Caecilius Cyprian Bishop of the Christians and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods And not satisfied with this they frequently called out that he might be thrown to the Lions So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God as he pleads for himself f Epist 9. p. 22. and least by his resolute defiance of the public sentence he should provoke his adversaries g Epist 14. p. 27 to fall more severely upon the whole Church he thought good at present to withdraw himself hoping that malice would cool and die and the fire go out when the fewel that kindled it was taken away Loc. citat During this recess though absent in body yet was he present in spirit supplying the want of his presence by Letters whereof he wrote no less then XXXVIII by pious counsels grave admonitions frequent reproofs earnest exhortations and especially by hearty prayers to Heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the Church That which created him the greatest trouble was the case of the lapsed whom some Presbyters without the knowledge and consent of the Bishop rashly admitted to the communion of the Church upon very easie terms Cyprian a stiff asserter of Ecclesiastic Discipline and the rights of his place would not brook this but by several Letters not onely complained of it but endeavoured to reform it not sparing the Martyrs themselves who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of Religion took upon them to give Libels of Peace to the lapsed whereby they were again taken into communion sooner then the Rules of the Church did allow V. THIS remissness of Disciplin and easie admission of Penitents gave occasion to Novatus one of the Presbyters of Carthage to start aside and draw a Faction after him denying any place to the lapsed though penitent in the peace and communion of the Church not that they absolutely excluded them the mercy and pardon of God for they left them to the sentence of the divine Tribunal but maintained that the Church had no power to absolve them that once lapsed after Baptism and to receive them again into communion Having sufficiently imbroiled the Church at home where he was in danger to be excommunicated by Cyprian for his scandalous irregular and unpeaceable practices over he goes with some of his party to Rome where by a pretence of uncommon sanctity and severity besides some Consessors lately delivered out of Prison he seduced Novatianus who by the Greek Fathers is almost perpetually confounded with Novatus a Presbyter of the Roman Church a man of an insolent and ambitious temper and who had attempted to thrust himself into that Chair Him the Party procures by clancular Arts and uncanonical means to be consecrated Bishop and then set him up against Cornelius lately ordained Bishop of that See whom they peculiarly charged a Vid. Epist 55. ad Antonian p. 66. with holding a communion with Trophimus and some others of the Thurificati who had done sacrifice in the late Persecution Which though plausibly pretended was yet a false allegation Trophimus and his Party not being taken in till by great humility b Ibid. p. 69. and a public penance they had given satisfaction to the Church nor he then suffered to communicate any otherwise then in a Lay-capacity Being disappointed in their designs they now openly shew themselves in their own colours separate from the Church which they charge with loosness and licentiousness in admitting scandalous offenders and by way of distinction stiling themselves Cathari the pure undefiled Party those who kept themselves from all society with the lapsed or them that communicated with them Hereupon they were on all hands opposed by private persons and condemned by public Synods and cried down by the common Vote of the Church probably not so much upon the account of their different sentiments and opinions in point of pardon of sin and Ecclesiastical penance wherein they stood not at so wide a distance from the doctrin and practice of the early Ages of the Church as for their insolent and domineering temper their proud and surly carriage their rigorous and imperious imposing their way upon other Churches their taking upon them by their own private authority to judge censure and condemn those that joined not with them or opposed them their bold devesting the Governours of the Church of that great power lodged in them of remitting crimes upon repentance which seem to have been the very soul and spirit of the Novatian Sect. VI. IN the mean while the Persecution under Decius raged with an uncontrolled fury over the African Provinces and especially at Carthage concerning which Cyprian every where c Epist 53. p. 75 Epist 7. p. 16. Epist 8. p. 19. lib. ad Demetr p. 200. gives large and sad accounts whereof this the sum They were scourged and beaten and racked and roasted and their flesh pulled off with burning pincers beheaded with swords and run through with spears more instruments of torment being many times imployed about the man at once then there were limbs and members of his body they were spoiled and plundred chained and imprisoned thrown to wild Beasts and burnt at the stake And when they had run over all their old methods of execution they studied for more excogitat novas poenas ingeniosa crudelitas as he complains Nor did they onely vary but repeat the torments and where one ended another began they tortured them without hopes of dying and added this cruelty to all the rest to stop them in their journey to heaven many who were importunately desirous of death were so tortured that they might not die they were purposely kept upon the Rack that they might die by piece-meals that their pains might be lingring and their sense of them without intermission they gave them no intervals or times of respite unless any of them chanced to give them the slip and expire in the midst of torments All which did but render their faith and patience more illustrious and make them more earnestly long for Heaven They tired out their tormentors and overcame the sharpest engins of execution and smiled at the busie Officers that were raking in their wounds and when their flesh was wearied their faith was unconquerable
the sixth Bishop of that See 15 M. Antonius Rufinus 132  15 Sentius Augurinus The Jews rebel against the Romans under the conduct of Barchochab an Impostor 16 Arrius Severianus Justin Martyr converted to Christianity about this time or it may be the following year 133  16 Hiberus The Jews dispersed and overcome by the prudent Arts of Julius Severus the Roman General though not fully suppressed till the following year when Barchochab was executed 17 Jul. Silanus Sisenna 134  17 C. Julius Servilius Ursus Severianus Basilides the Haeresiarch makes himself famous at Alexandria 18 C. Vibius Juventius Verus 135  18 Pompeianus Lupercus Marcus the first of the Gentile Converts made Bishop of Jerusalem all hitherto having been of the Circumcision 19 L. Juniê° Atticus Acilianus 136  19 L. Ceionius Commodus Verus Gentulius Amantius Cerealis and several others suffer Martyrdom 20 Sex Vetulenus Pompeianus 137  20 L. Aelius Verus Caesar II. Phlegon the Trallian formerly servant to the Emperour Adrian here ends his Book of Olympiads Olym 229. An. 1. 21 P. Caelius Balbinus Vibullius Pius 138 Antoninus Pius Jul. 10 21 Sulpicius Camerinus  1 Quinct Niger Magnus 139  1 Imp. Antoninus Pius II.  2 Bruttius Praesens 140 Antonini Pii 2 Imp. Anton. Pius III. Vpon Sixtus his Martyrdom Telesphorus is chosen Bishop of Rome according to the Roman account 3 M. Aurelius Caesar J. Martyr presents his first usually put second Apology for the Christians 141  3 M. Peducaeus Syloga Priscinus  4 T. Hoenius Severus 142  4 L. Cuspius Rufinus About this time the most absurd and sensless Heretics the Ophitae Cainitae and Sethiani arise 5 L. Statius Quadratus 143  5 C. Bellicius Torquatus T. Claudius Atticus  6 Herodes 144  6 Lollianus Avitus Eumenes or Hymenaeus bishop of Alexandria dies Marcus the seventh Bishop of that See succeeds 7 C. Gavius Maximus Valentinus the Heretic appears 145  7 Imp. Anton. Pius IV.  8 M. Aurelius Caesar II.  146  8 Sex Erucius Clarus II. Marcion after his frequent recantations again lapses into Heresie which he Propagates more industriously then before 9 Cn. Claudius Severus 147  9 M. Valerius Largus  10 M. Valerius Messalinus 148  10 C. Bellicius Torquatus II.  11 M. Salvius Julianus II. 149  11 Ser. Corneliê° Scipio Orfitê° Celadion succeeds as the eighth Bishop of Alexandria 12 Q. Nonius Priscus 150 Anton. Pii 12 Romulus Gallicanus  13 Antistius Vetus 151  13 Sex Quinctilius Gordianê° Â 14 Sex Quinct Maximus 152  14 Sex Acilius Glabrio Pope Telesphorus martyred having sate 11 years 9 moneths 3 days Petav. c. 15 C. Valerius Omollus Varianus Hyginus succeeds 153  15 Bruttius Praesens II.  16 M. Antonius Rufinus 154  16 L. Aurelius Caesar * In the Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome recorded by Optatus and S. Augustin Anicetus is set before Pius according to which account Anicetus his succession in that See and consequently Polycarps coming to Rome must be placed fifteen years sooner See the life of S. Polycarp Num. IV. p. 115 Anicetus according to the account of the Greeks succeeds about this time in the See of Rome not long after which S. Polycarp comes thither and this no doubt much truer then the computation of the Church of Rome 17 Sextilius Lateranus 155  17 C. Julius Severus  18 M. Rufinus Sabinianus 156  18 Plautius Sylvanus Pope Hyginus martyred after he had sitten four years wanting two days to whom Pius succeeds Petav. Ricciol Briet c. 19 Sentius Augurinus 157  19 Barbatus  20 Regulus 158  20 Q. Fl. Tertullus  21 Licinius Sacerdos 159  21 Plautius Quinctillus  22 Statius Priscus 160 Anton. Pii 22 T. Vibius Barus  23 Ap. Annius Bradua  161 M. Aurelius L. Aelius Verus à 6. Martii 23 M. Aurelius Caesar III.  1 L. Aelius Verus Caesar II.  162  1 Q. Junius Rusticus Justin the Martyr presents his other Apology to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians  2 Vettius Aquilinus The Fifth Persecution begun  163  2 L. Papirius Aelianus Justin suffered Martyrdom probably about this time at Rome or at most the next year  3 Junius Pastor  164  3 C. Julius Macrinus Marcus and Timotheus martyred at Rome  4 L. Cornelius Celsus  165  4 L. Arrius Pudens Vpon Pope Pius his martyrdom Anicetus is advanced into the Chair though Eusebius and the Greeks according to their accompt make his Pontificate Commence Ann. Christ 154. and accordingly fix the time of Polycarps coming to Rome  5 M. Gavius Orfitus  166  5 Q. Servilius Pudens  6 L. Fusidius Pollio  167  6 L. Aurelius Verus S. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna suffers Martyrdom there together with Germanicus and others  7 T. Numidius Quadratus  168  7 T. Junius Montanus Theophilus made Bishop of Antioch who learnedly defends the cause of Christianity against the Gentiles Eusebius refers it to the following year 8 L. Vettius Paulus  169 M. Aurelii L. Aelii Veri 8 Sosius Priscus Gervasius and Protasius undergo Martyrdom about this time at Millain  9 Q. Caelius Apollinaris  170  9 L. Julius Clarus Melito Bishop of Sardis and Apollinaris Bishop of Hierapolis present their Apologetics to the Emperour for the Christians  10 M. Aurelius Cethegus  171  10 L. Septimius Severus II. al. T. Tibinus Serenus Montanus and his Accomplices Authors of the new Prophecy begin now more plainly to discover themselves having craftily broached their errours some years before  11 Herennianus al. C. Scoedius Natta  172  11 Claudius Maximus Tatian heretofore Justin Martyrs Scholar becomes authour of the Sect called Encratitae  12 Cornelius Scipio Orfitus Bardesanes the Syrian insected with Valentinianism  173  12 Claudius Severus Pope Anicetus crowned with Martyrdom having been Bishop of Rome 8 years 2 moneths 7 days  13 T. Claudius Pompeianus Soter succeeds  174  13 Annius Trebonius Gallus M. Aurelius his Victory over the Quadi and Marcomanni in Germany gained by the Prayers of the Christian Legion  14 L. Flaccus  175  14 Calpurnius Piso  15 M. Salvius Julianus  176  15 T. Vitrasius Pollio  16 M. Flavius Aper  177 M. Aurel. 16 L. Aurel. Commodus Imp. Soter being taken away by martyrdom Eleutherus a Greek succeeds in the Church of Rome  17 Plautius Quinctillus Athenagoras the Christian Philosopher of Athens is now supposed to have presented his Apology  178  17 Vettius Rufus The foregoing year a Persecution raged horribly in France wherein besides many others died Pothinus Bishop of Lyons to whom succeeded Irenaeus the year following  18 Cornelius Scipio Orfitus  179  18 Imp. L. Aurelius Commodus II. The Cataphyrygian Heresie greatly prevails  19 Vespronius Candidus Verus  180 Commodus à Mart.
which never passed the emendations of a second review an undertaking vast and diffusive and engaged in while Books were yet more scarce and less correct Accordingly they modestly enough confess Praefat. in Hist Eccles praefix Cent. I. that they rather attempted a delineation of Church-History then one that was compleat and absolute desiring onely to minister opportunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more intire and perfect And yet take it with all the faults and disadvantages that can be charged upon it and they bear no proportion to the usefulness and excellency of the thing it self No sooner did this work come abroad but it made a loud noise and bustle at Rome as wherein the corruptions and innovations of that Church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the World Accordingly it was necessary that an Antidote should be provided against it For which purpose Philip Nereus who had lately founded the Oratorian Order at Rome commands Baronius then a very young man and newly entered into the Congregation to undertake it and in order thereunto daily to read nothing but Ecclesiastical Lectures in the Oratory This course he held for thirty years together seven several times going over the History of the Church Thus trained up and abundantly furnished with fit materials he sets upon the Work it self which he disposed by way of Annals comprising the affairs of whole Christian World in the orderly series and succession of every year A method much more Natural and Historical then that of the Centuries A noble design and which it were injustice to defraud of its due praise and commendation as wherein besides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the Church reduced as far as his skill in Chronology could enable him under their proper periods he has brought to light many passages of the Ancients not known before peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble Libraries that are at Rome A Monument of incredible pains and labour as which besides the difficulties of the thing it self was entirely carried on by his single endeavours and written all with his own hand and that too in the midst of infinite avocations the distractions of a Parish-Cure the private affairs of his own Oratory Preaching hearing Confessions writing other Books not to mention the many troublesom though honourable Offices and Imployments which in the course of the Work were heaped upon him In short a Work it was by which he had infinitely more obliged the World then can be well expressed had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and industry But alas too evident it is that he designed not so much the advancement of Truth as the honour and interest of a Cause and therefore drew the face of the ancient Church not as Antiquity truly represents it but according to the present form and complexion of the Church of Rome forcing everything to look that way to justifie the traditions and practises and to exalt the super-eminent power and grandeur of that Church making both the Scepter and the Crosier stoop to the Triple Crown This is that that runs almost through every page and indeed both he * Epist Ded. ad Sixt. V. Tom. 1. Annal. praefix himself and the †Hier. Barnab de vit Baron l. 1. c. 18. p. 40. c. 19. p. 43. Writer of his Life more then once expresly affirms that his design was to defend the Traditions and to preserve the Dignity of that Church against the late Innovators and the labours of the Magdeburgensian Centuriators and that the opposing of them was the occasion of that Work So fatally does partiality and the interest of a Cause spoil the most brave and generous Undertakings What has been hitherto Prefaced the Reader I hope will not censure as an unprofitable digression nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present Work whereof 't is like he will expect some short account Being some time since engaged I know not how in searching after the Antiquities of the Apostolic Age I was then strongly importuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding Ages This I then wholly laid aside without any further thoughts of re-assuming it For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of the thing and I well foresaw how almost impossible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfaction so small and inconsiderable so broken and imperfect are the accounts that are left us of those early times Notwithstanding which I have once more suffered my self to be engaged in it and have endeavoured to hunt out and gather together those Ruines of Primitive Story that yet remain that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the World to seal it with their blood and to oblige Posterity by those excellent Monuments of Learning and Piety which they left behind them I have bounded my account within the first three hundred years notwithstanding the barrenness and obscurity of those Ages of the Church Had I consulted my own ease or credit I should have commenced my design from that time which is the period of my present Undertaking viz. the following Saeculum when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the Records of the Church furnish us with large and plentiful materials for such a Work But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best Ages of Religion the Memoires whereof I have picked up and thereby enabled my self to draw the lineaments of as many of those Apostolical persons as concerning whom I could retrive any considerable notices and accounts of things With what success the Reader must judge with whom what entertainment it will find I know not nor am I much sollicitous I have done what I could and am not conscious to my self that I have been wanting in any point either of Fidelity or Care If there be fewer persons here described then the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise and less said concerning some of them then the Reader does expect he will I presume be more just and charitable then to charge it upon me but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient Records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times As far as my mean abilities do reach and the nature of the thing will admit I have endeavoured the Readers satisfaction and though I pretend not to present him an exact Church-History of those Times yet I think I may without vanity assure him that there is scarce any material passage of Church-Antiquity of which in some of these Lives he will not find a competent and reasonable account Nor is the History of those Ages maimed and lame onely in its main limbs and parts but what is greatly to be bewailed purblind and defective in its
Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James Pag. 77. The Life of S. SIMEON Bishop of Jerusalem The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death Pag. 89. The Life of S. IGNATIUS Bishop of Antioch His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of Martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them Pag. 99. The Life of S. POLYCARP Bishop of Smyrna The place of his Nativity The honour and eminency of Smyrna His education under S. John By him constituted Bishop of Smyrna Whether the same with the Bishop to whom S. John committed the young man S. Polycarp the Angel of the Church of Smyrna mentioned in the Apocalyps Ignatius his arrival at Smyrna His Letters to that Church and to S. Polycarp His Journey to Rome about the Quartodeciman Controversie The time of it enquired into Anicetus his succession to the See of Rome His reception there by Anicetus Their mutual kindness notwithstanding the difference His stout opposing Heretics at Rome His sharp treatment of Marcion and mighty zeal against those early corrupters of the Christian Doctrine Irenaeus his particular remarques of S. Polycarps actions The Persecution under M. Antoninus The time of Polycarps Martyrdom noted The acts of it written by the Church of Smyrna their great esteem and value S. Polycarp sought for His Martyrdom foretold by a dream His apprehension and being conducted to Smyrna Irenarchae who Polycarps rude treatment by Herodes His being brought before the Proconsul Christians refused to swear by the Emperours genius and why His pious and resolute answers His slighting the Proconsuls threatnings His sentence proclaimed Asiarchae who Preparation for his burning His Prayer before his death Miraculously preserved in the fire Dispatched with a Sword The care of the Christians about his Remains this far from a superstitious veneration Their annual meeting at the place of his Martyrdom His great Age at his death The day of his Passion His Tomb how honoured at this day The judgments happening to Smyrna after his death The Faith and Patience of the Primitive Christians noted out of the Preface to the Acts of his Martyrdom His Epistle to the Philippians It s usefulness Highly valued and publicly read in the ancient Church The Epistle it self Pag. 111. The Life of S. QUADRATUS Bishop of Athens His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of Miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Aadrian Aadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Aadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial Pag. 131. The Life of S. JUSTIN the Martyr His vicinity to the Apostolic times His Birth-place and Kindred His Studies His Travels into Egypt To what Sect of Philosophy he applied himself The occasion and manner of his strange conversion to Christianity related by himself Christianity the onely safe and
S. CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage His Birth-place The Nobility of his Family exploded The confounding him with another Cyprian Bishop of Antioch These two vastly distinct S. Cyprian's education His professing Rhetoric His conversion to Christianity by the persuasions of Caecilius Their mutual endearment His great charity to the Poor His Baptism Made Presbyter and Bishop of Carthage His modest declining the honour His Proscription recess and care of his Church during that retirement The case of the Lapsed A brief account of the rise of the Novatian Sect. The fierceness of the Persecution at Carthage under Decius The courage and patience of the Christians Cyprian's return A Synod at Carthage about the case of the Lapsed and the cause of Novatian Their determination of these matters Ratified by a Synod at Rome and another at Antioch A second Synod about the same affair Moderation in the Ecclesiastic Discipline used in the time of Persecution The great Pestilence at Carthage The miserable state of that City The mighty charity of S. Cyprian and the Christians at that time These evils charged upon the Christians S. Cyprians vindication of them The time of baptizing Infants determined in a Synod Another Synod to decide the case of the Spanish Bishops that had lapsed in the time of Persecution The Controversie concerning the Rebaptizing those who had been baptized by Heretics This resolved upon in a Synod of LXXXVII African Bishops The immoderate heats between Cyprian Firmilian and Stephen Bishop of Rome about this matter Cyprian arraigned before the Proconsul His resolute carriage His banishment to Curubis His Martyrdom foretold him by a Vision His Letters during his exile The severe usage of the Christians His withdrawment and why His apprehension and examination before the Proconsul The sentence passed upon him His Martyrdom and place of burial His piety fidelity chastity humility modesty charity c. His natural parts His learning wherein it mainly consisted The politeness and elegancy of his stile His quick proficiency in Christian studies His frequent converse with Tertullian's Writings His Books The excellency of those ascribed to him The great honours done to his memory Pag. 251. The Life of S. GREGORY Bishop of Neocaesarea S. Gregory where born His Kindred and Relations The rank and quality of his Parents His youthful studies His study of the Laws His travels to Alexandria The calumny there fixed upon him and his miraculous vindication His return through Greece His studying the Law at Berytus and upon what occasion His fixing at Caesarea and putting himself under the tutorage of Origen The course of his studies His Panegyric to Origen at his departure Origen's Letter to him and the importance of it His refusal to stay at Neocaesarea and retirement into the Wilderness His stunning to be made Bishop of Neocaesarea Consecrated Bishop of that City during his absence His acceptance of the charge and the state of that place at his entrance upon it His miraculous instruction in the great mysteries of Christianity His Creed The miracles wrought by him in his return His expelling Daemons out of a Gentile Temple and the success of it His welcom entrance into the City and kind entertainment His diligent preaching to the People His erecting a Church for Divine Worship and its signal preservation An horrible Plague stopped by his prayers The great influence of it upon the minds of the People His judging in Civil Causes His drying up a Lake by his prayers which had been the cause of an implacable quarrel between two Brothers and his restraining the overflowings of the River Lycus The signal vengeance inflicted upon two Jews counterfeit Beggars The fame and multitude of his miracles and the authorities to justifie the credibility of them The rage and cruelty of the Decian Persecution in the Regions of Pontus and Cappadocia His persuading the Christians to withdraw His own retirement The narrow search made for him and his miraculous escape His betrayer converted His return to Neocaesarea and instituting solemnities to the memories of the Martyrs and the reasons of it The inundations of the Northern Nations upon the Roman Empire His Canonical Epistle to rectifie the disorders committed by occasion of those inroads His meeting with others in the Synod at Antioch about the cause of Paulus Samosatenus His return home age and death His solemn thanks to God for the flourishing state of his Church and command concerning his Burial The excellent Character given of him by S. Basil His Writings The charge of Sabellianism S. Basils Apology for him in that behalf Modesty to be used in censuring the ancient Fathers and why Pag. 267. The Life of S. DIONYSIUS Bishop of Alexandria The place of his nativity His Family and Relations His conversion how His studies under Origen Whether a professed Rhetorician His succeeding Heraclas in the Catechetic School His being constituted Bishop of Alexandria and the time of it Apreparatory Persecution at Alexandria how begun The severity of it The Martyrdom of Apollonia and the fond honours done her in the Church of Rome The Persecution continued and promoted by Decius his Edicts The miserable condition of the Christians The sudden Conversion and Martyrdom of a Guard of Souldiers Dionysius apprehended and carried into banishment there to be beheaded A pleasant account of his unexpected deliverance by means of a drunken rout His retirement into the Desarts His return to Alexandria The great number and quality of the Lapsed in the late Persecution The contests about this matter Dionysius his judgment and practice herein The case of Serapion His dealing with Novatian about his Schism and the copy of his Letter to him His being engaged in the Controversie about Rebaptization and great moderation in it His Letter to Pope Sixtus about a person baptized by Heretics Valerianus the Emperours kindness to Christians How turned to cruelty Dionysius brought before Aemilian His discourse with him and resolute constancy He is condemned to be banished His transportation into the Desarts of Lybia The success of his Ministry there Innumerable Barbarians converted to the Faith Gallienus his relaxing the Persecution His Letter to Dionysius granting liberty to the Christians Alexandria shut up by the usurpation of Aemilian The Divisions within and Siege without The horrible Pestilence at Alexandria and the singular kindness and compassion of the Christians there above the Heathens Dionysius his confutation of Sabellius His unwary expressions and the charge against him His vindication both by himself and by S. Athanasius His writing against Nepos Nepos who and what his Principles and Followers Dionysius his encounter with the heads of the Party his convincing and reducing them back to the Orthodox Church His engaging in the Controversie against Paulus Samosatenus The loose extravagant and insolent temper and manners of that man Dionysius his Letter to the Synod at Antioch concerning him The success of that affair Dionysius his death His Writings and Epistles The loss of them bewailed THE
Christ did all Nations believe Parthians Medes Elamites the inhabitants of Mesopotamia Armenia Phrygia and Cappadocia of Pontus Asia and Pamphylia those who dwell in Egypt Afric and beyond Cyrene strangers at Rome Jews at Jerusalem and other Nations as also now the Getuli and the Mauri the Spaniards and the Gauls yea and those places of Britain which were unapproachable by the Roman Armies are yet subdued to Christ the Sarmatae also and the Daci the Germans and the Scythians together with many undiscovered Countries many Islands and Provinces unknown to us which he professes himself unable to reckon up In all which places says he the name of Christ reigns as before whom the Gates of all Cities are set open and to whom none are shut before whom Gates of Brass fly open and bars of iron are snapt asunder To which g Lib. 2. p. 23. Arnobius adds the Indians the Persians the Serae and all the Islands and Provinces which are visited by the rising or setting Sun yea and Rome it self the Empress of all IX FROM Tertullians account we have a most authentic testimony how early Christianity stretched it self over this other World having before his time conquered the most rough and inaccessible parts of Britain to the banner of the Cross which may probably refer to the conversion of King Lucius the first Christian King that ever was a potent and considerable Prince in this Island who embraced the Christian Religion about the year CLXXXVI and sent a solemn Embassie to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome for some who might further instruct him and his people in the Faith who accordingly dispatched Faganus and Derwianus hither upon that errand Not that this was the first time that the Gospel made its way through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens a Epist ad Corinth p. 28. calls the British Ocean and so the Ancients constantly stile it the unpassable Ocean and those worlds which are beyond it that is the Britannic Islands it had been here many years before though probably stifled and overgrown with the ancient Paganism and Idolatry St. Clemens b Ibid. p. 8. tells us of St. Paul that he preached both in the East and West and having instructed the whole world in righteousness made his way to the utmost bounds of the West by which he must either mean Spain or more probably Britain and it may be both Accordingly Theodoret c Comment in Psal 116. speaking of his coming into Spain says that besides that he brought great advantage to the Isles of the Sea and he reckons d De curand Graecor affect Serm. IX p. 125. the Cimbri and the Britains among the Nations which the Apostles and he particularly mentions the Tent-maker converted to the Christian Faith If after all this it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular disquisition I might enquire not only in what Countries but in what Towns and Cities in those Countries Christianity fixed it self in what places Episcopal Sees were erected and what succession of Bishops are mentioned in the Records of the Church but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this Introduction and would be more perhaps than the Readers patience would allow X. THE shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the Sun than the darkness of Pagan Idolatry and Superstition fled before the Light of the Gospel which the more it prevailed the clearer it discovered the folly and impiety of their worship Their solemn Rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous their Sacrifices more barbarous and inhumane their Daemons were expelled by the meanest Christian their Oracles became mute and silent and their very Priests began to be ashamed of their Magic Charms and Conjurations and the more prudent and subtle heads among them who stood up for the Rites and Solemnities of their Religion were forced to turn them into mystical and allegorical meanings far enough either from the apprehension or intention of the vulgar The truth is the Devil who for so many ages had usurped an Empire and tyranny over the souls of men became more sensible every day that his Kingdom shaked and therefore sought though in vain by all ways to support and prop it up Indeed some time before our Saviours Incarnation the most celebrated Oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputation as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day whereof their best Writers universally complain that their gods had forsaken their Temples and Oracular Recesses and had left the world in darkness and obscurity and that their Votaries did in vain solicit their Counsels and answers Plutarch who lived under Trajan wrote a particular Tract still extant concerning the ceasing of Oracles which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural partly into moral partly into political causes though all his Philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it One cause he assigns of it is the death and departure of those Daemons that heretofore presided over these Oracles To which purpose he relates a memorable passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 419. concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus an Egyptian Ship-master and his company as they sailed by the Echinadae Islands commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make Proclamation that the great Pan was dead which he did and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two but of many who received it with great mourning and consternation The circumstances of this story he there reports more at large and adds that the thing being published at Rome Thamus was sent for by Tiberius to whom he gave an account and satisfied him in the truth of it Which circumstance of time Eusebius a Praepar Evang. l. 5. c. 17. p. 207. observes corresponds with our Lords conversing in the world when he began openly to dispossess Daemons of that power and tyranny which they had gained over mankind And if the calculation which some make hit right it fell in about the time of our Saviours Passion who led captivity captive spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross and by his Death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil XI HOWEVER that the silence of Oracles and the enervating the power of Daemons was the effect of the Christian Religion in the world we need no more then the plain confession of Porphyry himself truth will sometimes extort a confession out of the mouth of its greatest enemy who says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb ubi supr c. 1. p. 179. that now it s no wonder if the City for so many years has been overrun with sickness Aesculapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men For that since Jesus began to be worshipped no man hath received any public
at least they had continued at Corinth when S. Paul resolved upon a journy to Jerusalem where he staid not long but went for Antioch and having travelled over the Countries of Galatia and Phrygia to establish Christianity lately planted in those parts came to Ephesus where though he met with great opposition yet he preached with greater success and was so wholly swallowed up with the concerns of that City that though he had resolved himself to go into Macedonia he was forced to send Timothy and Erastus in his stead who having done their errand returned to Ephesus to assist him in promoting the affairs of Religion in that place V. S. PAVL having for three years resided at Ephesus and the parts about it determined to take his leave and depart for Macedonia And now it was as himself plainly intimates 1 Tim. 1.3 and the Ancients generally conceive that he constituted Timothy Bishop and Governour of that Church he was the first Bishop says a H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 73. Eusebius of the Province or Diocess of Ephesus he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the b Martyr Tim. ap Phot. Cod. CCLIV col 1401. Author in Photius first act as Bishop of Ephesus and in the Council of Chalcedon XXVII Bishops are said successively to have sitten in that Chair whereof S. Timothy was the first c Conc. Chalced. Act. XI Conc. Tom. 4. col 609. In the d Lib. 7. c. 47. col 451. Apostolical Constitutions he is expresly said to have been ordained Bishop of it by S. Paul or as he in Photius expresseth it a little more after the mode of his time he was ordained and enthroned or installed Bishop of the Metropolis of the Ephesians by the great S. Paul Ephesus was a great and populous City and the Civil Government of the Proconsul who resided there reached over the whole Lydian or Proconsular Asia And such in proportion the Ancients make the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of that Church a Homil. XV. in 1 Tim. p. 1606. S. Chrysostom affirming it to be plain and evident that Timothy had the Church or rather the whole Nation of Asia committed to him to him says b Argum. in 1 ad Tim p. 462 Theodoret divine S. Paul committed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the care and the charge of Asia upon which account a little after c Com. in 1 Tim. 3. p. 475. T. 3. he calls him the Apostle of the Asians As for the manner of his Ordination or rather designation to the ministeries of Religion it was by particular and extraordinary designation God immediately testifying it to be his will and pleasure thence it is said to have been done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1.18 1 Tim. 4.14 according to some preceding predictions concerning him and that he received it not onely by the laying on of hands but by prophesie that is as d Homil. V. in 1 Tim. p. 1545. Chrysostom truly explains it by the Holy Ghost it being part of the Prophetic Office as he adds and especially it was so at that time not onely to fore-tell future events but to declare things present God extraordinarily manifesting whom he would have set apart for that weighty Office Thus Paul and Barnabas were separated by the special dictate of the Holy Ghost and of the Governours of the Ephesine Churches that met at Miletus it is said that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops or Over-seers of the Church And this way of election by way of prophetic revelation continued in use at least during the Apostolic Age e Epist ad Corinth pag. 54. Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians tells us that the Apostles preaching up and down Cities and Countries constituted their first-fruits to be the Bishops and Deacons of those who should believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making trial of them by the spirit and another f Clem. Al. lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap Euseb H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 23. p. 92. Clemens reports of S. John that visiting the neighbour Churches about Ephesus he ordained Bishops and such as were signified or pointed out to him by the spirit VI. THIS extraordinary and miraculous way of chusing Bishops and Ecclesiastic Officers besides other advantages begat a mighty reverence and veneration for the Governours of the Church who were looked upon as God's choice and as having the more immediate character of Heaven upon them And especially this way seemed more necessary for S. Timothy then others to secure him from that contempt which his youth might otherwise have exposed him to For that he was but young at that time is evident from S. Pauls counsel to him 1 Tim. 4.12 so to demean himself that no man might despise his youth the Governours of the Church in those days were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of their age as well as office and indeed therefore stiled Elders because they usually were persons of a considerable age that were admitted into the Orders of the Church This Timothy had not attained to And yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 youth admits a greater latitude then we in ordinary speech confine it to g In Orator p. 266. Tom. 1. Cicero tells us of himself that he was adolescentulus but a very youth when he pleaded Roscius's cause and yet h Noct. Attic. l. 15. c. 28. p. 383. A. Gellius proves him to have been at that time no less then XXVII years old Alexander the son of Aristobulus is called i Joseph Antiq. l. 14. c. 13. p. 480. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a youth at the time of his death when yet he was above thirty Hiero in k Hist l. 1. p. 11. Edit 8. ubi vid. Casaub Comment p. 129. ejusd exercit ad Baron Appar n. 99 p. 154. Polybius is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very young man whom yet Casaubon proves to have been XXXV years of Age and the same Historian speaking of T. Flaminius his making War upon Philip of Macedon says he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very young man for that he was not above thirty years old it being as Casaubon observes the custom both of Greek and Latine Writers to extend the juventus or youthful age from the thirtieth till the fortieth year of a mans life To which we may add what Grotius observes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answering to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the Military Age Annot. in loc all that civil and manly part of a mans life that is opposed to Old Age so that Timothies youth without any force or violence to the word might very well consist with his being at least thirty or five and thirty years of age and he so stiled onely comparatively with respect to that weighty Function which was wont to be conferred upon none but grave and aged men But of this enough VII Acts 20.2 3 c. S. TIMOTHY thus
particularly a Epipâ— loc cit noted of him that besides the Scriptures he traded in certain Apocryphal Writings He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Euseb H. Eccl. ubi supr de Script Eccl. in Bardes which S. Hierom renders infinite Volumes written indeed for the most part in Syriac but which his Scholars translated into Greek though he himself was sufficiently skilful in that Language as Epiphanius notes In the number of these Books might be the Recognitions plausibly fathered upon S. Clemens who was notoriously known to be S. Peters Companion and Disciple and were but some of his many Books now extant I doubt not but a much greater affinity both in stile and notions would appear between them But this I propose onely as a probable conjecture and leave it at the Readers pleasure either to reject or entertain it I am not ignorant that both c Apol. adv Rufin p. 219. S. Hierom and d Phot. Cod. CXII col 289. Photius charge these Books with haeretical Opinions especially some derogatory to the honour of the Son of God which it may be Rufinus who e Apolog. pro Orig. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 195. confesses the same thing and supposes them to have been inserted by some haeretical hand concealed in his Translation Nay f Haeres XXX p. 65. Epiphanius tells us that the Ebionites did so extremely corrupt them that they scarce left any thing of S. Clemens sound and true in them which he observes from their repugnancy to his other Writings those Encyclical Epistles of his as he calls them which were read in the Churches But then its plain he means it onely of those Copies which were in the possession of those haeretics probably not now extant nor do any of those particular adulterations which he says they made in them appear in our Books nor in those large and to be sure uncorrupt fragments of Bardesanes and Origen is there the least considerable variation from those Books which we have at this day But of this enough XII THE Epistle to S. James the brother of our Lord is no doubt of equal date with the rest in the close whereof the Author pretends that he was commanded by S. Peter to give him an account of his Travels Discourses and the success of his Ministry under the title of Clemens his Epitome of Peters popular preachings to which he tells him he would next proceed So that this Epistle originally was nothing but a Praeface to S. Peters Acts or Periods the same in effect with the Recognitions and accordingly in the late Edition of the Clementine Homilies which have the very Title mentioned in that Epistle it is found prefixed before them Loc. supra citat This Epistle as Photius tells us varied according to different Editions sometimes pretending that it and the account of S. Peters Acts annexed to it were written by S. Peter himself and by him sent to S. James sometimes that they were written by Clemens at S. Peters instance and command Whence he conjectures that there was a twofold Edition of S. Peters Acts one said to be written by himself the other by Clemens and that when in time the first was lost that pretending to S. Clemens did remain For so he assures us he constantly found it in those many Copies that he met with notwithstanding that the Epistle and Inscription were sometimes different and various By the Original whereof now published appears the fraud of the Factors of the Romish Church who in all Latine Editions have added an Appendix almost twice as large as the Epistle it self And well had it been had this been the onely instance wherein some men to shore up a tottering Cause have made bold with the Writers of the ancient Church His Writings Genuine Epistola ad Corinthios Doubtful Epistola ad Corinth secunda Supposititious Epistola ad Jacobum Fratrem Domini Recognitionum lib. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu Homiliae Clementinae Constitutionum App. lib. 8. Canones Apostolici The End of S. CLEMENS's Life THE LIFE OF S. SIMEON BISHOP of JERUSALEM Micha burgh deli et sculp S. SYMEON HIEROSOLYMITANUS The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death I. IT cannot be unobserved by any that have but looked into the Antiquities of the Church what confusion the identity or similitude of names has bred among Ecclesiastic Writers especially in the more early Ages where the Records are but short and few An instance whereof Vid. Caron Alexandr Olymp. CCXX Ind. I. Traj VII Ann. sequent p. 594. were there no other we have in the person of whom we write Whom some will have to be the same with S. Simon the Cananite one of the twelve Apostles others confound him with Simon one of the four brethren of our Lord while a third sort make all three to be but one and the same person the sound and similitude of names giving birth to the several mistakes For that Simeon of Jerusalem was a person altogether distinct from Simon the Apostle is undeniably evident from the most ancient Martyrologies both of the Greek and the Latine Church where vastly different accounts are given concerning their persons imployments and the time and places of their death Simon the Apostle being martyred in Britain or as others in Persia while Simeon the Bishop is notoriously known to have suffered in Palestine or in Syria Nor are the testimonies of Dorotheus Sophronius or Isidore considerable enough to be weighed against the Authorities of Hegesippus Eusebius Epiphanius and others But of this enough II. S. Simeon was the son of a Hâ—gesip ap Euseb l. 3. c. 11. p. 87. Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 274. omnia antiqua Martyrologia Adonis Bedae Notkeri Usuardi apud Bolland de Vit. SS ad diem XVIII Febr. pag. 53 54. Cleophas brother to Joseph husband
measure from S. John of whom he was wont to d Iren. l. 3. c. 3. p. 233. ap Enseb l. 4. c. 14. tell that going into a Bath at Ephesus and espying Cerinthus the Heresiarch there he presently started back Let us be gone said he to his Companious lest the Bath wherein there is Cerinthus the enemy of the truth fall upon our heads This passage says Irenaeus some yet alive heard from S. Polycarps own mouth and himself no doubt among the rest for so he tells us a Epist ad Florin ubi supr elsewhere that in his youth when he was with S. Polycarp in the lesser Asia he took such particular notice of things that he perfectly remembred the very place where he used to sit while he discoursed his goings out and coming in the shape of his body and the manner of his life his discourses to the People and the account he was wont to give of his familiar converse with S. John and others who had seen our Lord whose sayings he rehearsed and whatever they had told him concerning our Saviour concerning his Miracles and his Doctrine which themselves had either seen or heard agreeing exactly with the relations of the Sacred History All which Irenaeus tells us he particularly took notice of and faithfully treasured them up in his mind and made them part of his constant meditation These are all the material remarks which I find among the Ancients concerning Polycarp during the time of his Government of the Church at Smyrna Indeed there are several Miracles and particular passages of his life related by the above-mentioned Pionius which tend infinitely to exalt the honour of this holy man But seeing the Author is obscure and that we can have no reasonable satisfaction who he was and whence he borrowed his notices and accounts of things I chuse rather to suspend my belief then to entertain the Reader with those at best uncertain relations which he has given us VI. IN the reign of M. Antoninus and L. Verus began a severe Persecution whether fourth or fifth let others enquire against the Christians Melito Bishop of Sardis who lived at that time and dedicated his Apology to the Emperours making mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Apud Euseb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. new Edicts and Decrees which the Emperours had issued out through Asia by virtue whereof impudent and greedy Informers spoiled and vexed the innocent Christians But the storm increased into a more violent tempest about the seventh year of their reign Ann. Chr. CLXVII when the Emperour Marcus Antoninus designing an expedition against the c Jul. Capit. in vit M. Antonin c. 13. p. 181. Marcomanni the terrour of whom had sufficiently awakened them at Rome summoned the Priests together and began more solemnly to celebrate their Religious Rites and no doubt but he was told that there was no better way to propitiate and atone the gods then to bear hard upon the Christians generally looked upon as the most open and hateful enemies to their gods And now it was that S. Polycarp after along and diligent discharge of his duty in his Episcopal station received his Crown So vastly wide of the mark are the later d Men. Graec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks making him in their public Offices to suffer Martyrdom under the Decian Persecution Nor much nearer is that of e H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 22. p. 284. Socrates however he fell into the errour who tells us that he was martyred under Gordianus Mistakes so extravagant that there needs no more to confute them then to mention them Concerning his Sufferings and Martyrdom we have a full and particular relation in a Letter of the Church of Smyrna written not long after his death to the Church of Philomelium or more truly Philadelphia and in the nature of an Encyclical Epistle to all the Dioceses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Holy Catholic Church the far greatest part whereof Eusebius has inserted into his History leaving out onely the beginning and the end though the entire Epistle together with its ancient Version or rather Paraphrase is since published by Bishop Vsher It was penned by Euaristus and afterwards as appears by their several subscriptions at the end of it transcribed out of Irenaeus his Copy by Caius contemporary and familiar with Irenaeus out of his by one Socrates at Corinth and from his by Pionius who had with great diligence found it out A piece it is that challenges a singular esteem and reverence both for the subject matter and the antiquity of it with which a Animadv ad Easeb Chr. ad N. MMCLXXXIII p. 221. Scaliger thinks every serious and devout mind must needs be so affected as never to think it has enough on 't professing for his own part that he never met with any thing in all the History of the Church with the reading whereof he was more transported so that he seemed no longer to be himself Which effect that it may have upon the pious well-disposed Reader we shall present him with this following account VII THE Persecution growing hot at b Epist Eccles Smyrn de Mart. Polycarp Edit Usser p. 16. apad Euseb l. 4. c. 15. p. 129. Smyrna and many having already sealed their confession with their bloud the general out-cry was Away with the impious or the Atheists such they generally called and accounted the Christians let Polycarp be sought for The good man was not disturbed at the news but resolved to endure the brunt till his friends knowing his singular usefulness and that our Lord had given leave to his Disciples when persecuted in one City to flee to another prevailed with him to withdraw into a neighbouring Village where with a few companions he continued day and night in prayer earnestly interceding with Heaven as afore-time it had ever been his custom for the peace and tranquillity of all the Churches in the World Three days before his apprehension falling at night as he was at prayer into a trance he dreamt that his Pillow was on fire and burned to ashes which when he awakened he told his friends was a prophetic presage that he should be burnt alive for the cause of Christ In the mean time he was every where narrowly sought for upon notice whereof his friends perswaded him to retire into another Village whither he was no sooner come but his enemies were at hand who seizing upon a couple of youths one of whom by stripes they forced to a confession were by them conducted to his lodging Entering the house at Evening they perceived him to be in bed in an upper Room and though upon notice before hand of their coming he might easily have saved himself by slipping into another house yet he refused saying The will of the Lord be done Understanding his Persecutors were there he came down and saluted them with a very chearful and gentle countenance in so much that they
was the true standard and measure of truth he considered that no man knows every thing that some things are obvious to one that are overseen or neglected by another that there are wholsom herbs and flowers in every Field and that if the thing be well said 't is no matter who 't is that says it that reason is to be submitted to before authority and though a fair regard be due to the opinions and principles of our Friends yet that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as e Ethic. l. 1. c. 4. p. 3. Tom. 2. Aristotle himself confesses more pious and reasonable to honour and esteem the truth And thus he picked up a System of noble principles like so many Flowers out of several Gardens professing f Laert. loc â—it this to be the great end of all his disquisitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life perfected according to all the rules of Vertue Of this incomparable Order was our divine Philosopher I espoused not says he g Strom. l. 2. p. 288. this or that Philosophy not the Stoic nor the Platonic not the Epicurean or that of Aristotle but whatever any of these Sects had said that was fit and just that taught righteousness with a divine and religious knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that being selected I call Philosophy Though it cannot be denied but that of any Sect he came nearest to the Stoics as appears from his discoursing by way of Paradoxes and his affected novelty of words two things peculiar to the men of that way as a very learned and ingenious person h H. Dodwel Prolâ—â—â—â— Apol. ad 〈…〉 de 〈…〉 115. has observed And I doubt not but he was more peculiarly disposed towards this Sect by the instructions of his Master Pantaenus so great and professed an admirer of the Stoical Philosophy IV. PANTAENVS being dead he succeeded him in the Schola 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catechetic School at Alexandria though questionless he taught in it long before that and probably during Pantaenus his absence in India supplying his place till his return and succeeding in it after his death for that he was Pantaenus his Successor the Ancients * Euseb l. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Hieron de Script in Clement Phot. Cod. CXVIII col 297. are all agreed Here he taught with great industry and fidelity and with no less success some of the most eminent men of those times Origen Alexander Bishop of Hicrusalem and others being bred under him And now as a Strom. l. 1. p. 278. himself confesses he found his Philosophy and Gentile-Learning very useful to him for as the Husbandman first waters the soil and then casts in the Seed so the notions he derived out of the Writings of the Gentiles served first to water and soften 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gross and terrestrial parts of the soul that the spiritual seed might be the better cast in and take vital root in the minds of men Besides the Office of a Catechist he was made Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria and that at least about the beginning of Severus his reign for under that capacity Eusebius takes notice of him Ann. CXCV. About which time prompted by his own zeal and obliged by the iniquity of the times he set himself to vindicate the cause of Christianity both against Heathens and Heretics which he has done at large with singular learning and dexterity in his Book called Stromata published about this time for drawing down a Chronological b Strom. l. 1. p. 336. account of things he ends his computation in the death of the Emperour Commodus Whence 't is evident as c Lib. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Eusebius observes that he compiled that Volume in the reign of Severus that succeeded him V. THE Persecution under Severus raged in all Provinces of the Empire and particularly at Alexandria which made many of the Christians for the present willing to retire and Clemens probably among the rest whom we therefore find particularly discoursing d Stromat l. 4. p. 504. the lawfulness of withdrawing in a time of Persecution that though we may not cowardly decline a danger or death when 't is necessary for the sake of Religion yet in other cases we are to follow the direction of our Saviour when they persecute you in one City flee ye into another and not to obey in such a case is to be bold and rash and unwarrantably to precipitate our selves into danger that if it be a great sin against God to destroy a man who is his image that man makes himself guilty of the crime who offers himself to the public tribunal and little better does he that when he may declines not the Persecution but rashly exposes himself to be apprehended thereby to his power conspiring with the wickedness of his Persecutors And if further he irritate and provoke them he is unquestionably the cause of his own ruine like a man that needlesly rouzes and enrages a wild Beast to fall upon him And this opportunity I doubt not he took to visit the Eastern parts where he had studied in his younger days We find him about this time at Jerusalem with Alexander shortly after Bishop of that place between whom there seems to have been a peculiar intimacy insomuch that S. Clemens dedicated e Euseb l. 6. c. 14. pag. 214. Hieron in Clement his Book to him called The Ecclesiastical Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or against them that Judaize During his stay here he preached constantly and declined no pains even in that evil time and with what success we may see by a piece of a Letter written by Alexander then in prison and sent by our S. Clemens to Antioch which we here insert * Apud Euseb ib. c. 11. p. 212. Alexander a Servant of God and a prisoner of Jesus Christ to the blessed Church at Antioch in the Lord greeting Our Lord has made my bonds in this time of my imprisonment light and easie to me while I understood that Asclepiades a person admirably qualified by his eminency in the faith was by the divine Providence become Bishop of your holy Church of Antioch Concluding these Letters worthy Brethren I have sent you by Clemens the blessed Presbyter a man virtuous and approved whom ye both do and shall yet further know who having been here with us according to the good will and providence of God has greatly established and encreased the Church of Christ By which Epistle we may by the way remarque the errour of ⸫ In Chron. ad Ann. CCXII. Eusebius who places Asclepiades his coming to the See of Antioch in the first year of Caracalla Ann. CCXII. whereas we see it was while Alexander was yet in prison under Severus which he himself makes to be Ann. CCV From Jerusalem then Clemens went to Antioch where we cannot question but he took the same pains and laboured with the same zeal and
b Vid. l. de Menogam c. 1. p. 525. c. 3. 4. passim de Jejun c. 12. p. 550 551. more then once particularly tells us Not to say that Montanus his followers as is usual with the after-brood of every Sect asserted many things which their Master himself never dreamt of which yet without distinction are laid at his door and Tertullian too because a favourer of the Party drawn into the guilt and made liable to many improvements to the Hay and Stubble which the successors of that Sect built upon it X. BUT however it was he stomached his excommunication and was highly offended at the looseness and remissness of the Discipline among the Catholics whom with great smartness he persecutes under the name of Psychici or Animal persons as those that took too much liberty in their manners and practices of devotion stiling his own party Spiritales as whom he thought more immediately guided by the Spirit more plentifully endowed with the gifts of it and conversant in a more divine and spiritual life Against these Psychici he presently published a Tract De Jejuniis wherein he defends the Montanists in the observation of their Fasts their abstinence from Flesh and feeding onely upon dried meats their Stationary days and the keeping them till the very evening while the Orthodox broke up theirs about three of the Clock in the afternoon in all which respects he makes many tart and severe reflections upon them Indeed the devotions of those times were brisk and fervent their usages strict and punctual their Ecclesiastic Discipline generally very rigid and extreme seldom admitting persons that had lapsed after Baptism to Penance and the Communion of the Church But this was looked upon by moderate and sober men as making the gate too strait and that which could not but discourage Coverts from entering in Accordingly it began to be relaxed in several places and particularly the Bishop of Rome c Tert. de Pudic cit c. 1. p. 555. had lately published a constitution wherein he admitted persons guilty of Adultery and Fornication and probably other crimes to a place among the Penitents Against this Tertullian storms cries up the severity of the antient Discipline writes his Book De Pudicitia wherein he considers and disputes the case and aggravates the greatness of those offences and undertakes the Arguments that pleaded for remission and indulgence And if in the mentioning this Decree the Bishop of Rome be stiled Episcopus Episcoporum the Champions of that Church before they make such advantage of it should do well to prove it to have been a part of the Decree or if it was that it was mentioned by Tertullian as his just right and priviledge and not rather which is infinitely more probable Tertullians Sarcasm intended by him as an Ironical reflection and a tart upbraiding the pride and ambition of the Bishops of that Church who took too much upon them and began as appears from Pope Victors carriage towards the Asian Churches in the case of Easter to domineer over their Brethren and usurp an insolent authority over the whole Christian Church And that this was his meaning I am abundantly satisfied from a Apud Cyprian p. 282. Cyprians using the phrase in this very sense in the famous Synod at Carthage where reflecting upon the rash and violent proceedings of the Bishops of Rome whom though he particularly names not yet all who are acquainted with the Story know whom he means against those who were engaged in the cause of rebaptizing Heretics he adds that as for themselves the Bishops then in the Synod none of them made himself Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannical threatning forced his Colleagues into a necessity of Compliance since every Bishop according to the power and liberty granted to him had his proper jurisdiction and could no more be judged by another then he himself could judge others XI WHETHER ever he was reconciled to the Catholic Communion appears not 't is certain that for the main he forsook the b August de Haeres c. 86. Tom. 6. col 31. Cataphrygians and kept his separate meetings at Carthage and his Church was yet remaining till S. Augustins time by whose labours the very reliques of his followers called Tertullianists were dispersed and quite disappeared How long he continued after his departure from the Church is not known S. Hierom c De Script in Tertull. says that he lived to a very decrepit age but whether he died under the reign of Alexander Severus or before the Ancients tell us not as neither whether he died a natural or violent death He seems indeed to have been possessed with a passionate desire of laying down his life for the Faith though had he been a Martyr some mention would without peradventure have been made of it in the Writings of the Church XII HE was a man of a smart and acute wit though a little too much edged with Keeness and Satyrism acris vehementis ingenii as d Loc. citat S. Hierom characters him one that knew not how to treat an adversary without salt and sharpness He was of a stiff and rugged disposition a rigid Censor inclined to choler and impatient of opposition a strict observer of Rites and Discipline and a zealous asserter of the highest rigors and most nice severities of Religion His learning was admirable wherein though many excelled he had no superiours and few equals in the Age he lived in Tertulliano quid eruditius quid acutius says e Epist ad Mag. Grator p. 328. T. 2. S. Hierom who adds that his Apology and Book against the Gentiles took in all the treasures of Humane Learning f Commonit adv Haeres cap. 24 p. 59 60. Vincentius of Lire gives him this notable Elogium He is justly says he to be esteemed the Prince among the Writers of the Latin Church For what more learned who more conversant both in divine and humane Studies who by a strange largeness and capacity of mind had drawn all Philosophy and its several Sects the Authors and Abettors of Heresies with all their Rites and Principles and the whole circumference of History and all kind of Study within the compass of his own breast A man of such quick and weighty parts that there was scarce any thing which he set himself against which he did not either pierce through with the acumen of his Wit or batter down with the strength and solidity of his Arguments Who can sufficiently commend his Discourses so thick set with Troops of Reasons that whom they cannot persuade they are ready to force to an assent who hath almost as many sentences as words and not more periods then victories over those whom he hath to deal with XIII FOR his Books though time has devoured many yet a great number still remain and some of them written after his withdrawment from the Church His stile is for the most part abrupt and
several columns in this order in the first column was the Original Hebrew in its native characters in the next the Hebrew in Greek Letters in the third the translation of Aquila then that of Symmachus next the Septuagint in the sixth that of Theodotion and in the two last that of Jericho and the other of Nicopolis Indeed plain it is from what d Comment in Tit. c. 3. p. 256. T. 9. S. Hierom tells us that these two last were not compleat and intire Translations but contained only some parts of the Old Testament especially the Prophetical Books But whether from hence we may conclude the Hexapla and the Octapla to have been but one and the same Work onely receiving its different title according to those Parts that had these two last Versions annexed to them I will not say Besides these there was a Seventh Edition but this belonging onely to the Book of Psalms made no alteration in the title of the whole The frame and order of this excellent contrivance the Reader will better apprehend by this following Scheme formed according to a Specimen of the Hexapla extant in Cardinal Barberines very ancient Manuscript of the Minor Prophets upon these words Hos XI 1. When Israel was a child then I loved him and called my Son out of Egypt Octapla Hexapla Tetrapla Text. Hebr. lit Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut supra Heb. lit Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. lit Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hebr. lit Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Edit V. Hierich Desideratur   Edit VI. Nicopol Desideratur   And to make the Work more compleat and useful he distinguished the additions and deficiences by several marks a Vid. praeter script citat Orig. Comment in in Matth. Edit Haet gr l. p. 381. Resp ad Epist Afric p. 226 227. Edit Basil vid. Ruffin Invect II. in Hieron inter oper Hier. T. 4. p. 230. where any thing had been added by the LXX besides the faith of the Original Text he prefixed an Obelus before it where any thing was wanting which yet was in the Hebrew he in serted the words with an Asteric to distinguish them from the rest of the Septuagint Translation Where various Lections were confirmed by the greater number of Translations he added a note called Lemniscus where two of them onely concurred an Hypolemniscus By which means he did right to truth without doing wrong to any A work of infinite labour and admirable use and which was therefore peculiarly stiled by the Ancients Opus Ecclesiae the Work of the Church upon the account whereof S. Hierom a In Tit. loc supr cit calls him Immortale illud ingenium as indeed had there been nothing else this alone had been sufficient to have eternized his name and to have rendred him memorable to posterity and how happy had it been had it been preserved the loss whereof I can attribute to nothing more then the pains and charge the trouble and difficulty of transcribing it Though some part of it viz. the Septuagint was taken out and published more exact and correct from the faults which had crept into it by transcribing by Eusebius and Pamphilus afterwards It was a Work of time and not finished by Origen all at once begun by him at Caesarea and perfected at Tyre as Epiphanius plainly intimates XIX FROM Caesarea Origen upon what occasion I know not seems to have taken a second journey to Athens For during his stay there we find him finishing his Commentaries b Euseb ib. c. 32. p. 231. upon Ezechiel and beginning his Exposition upon the Canticles five Books whereof he there perfected making an end of the rest at his return to Caesarea The opportunity of this journy it 's conceived by some he took to go to Nicomedia to visit his friend Ambrosius who with his wife and children at that time resided there While he continued here which was not long he returned an answer to the Letter which he had lately received from Julius Africanus concerning the History of Susanna which Africanus by short but very forcible arguments maintained to be a fictitious and spurious relation Origen undertakes the case and justifies the Story to be sincere and genuine but by arguments which rather manifest the acuteness of his parts then the goodness of his cause and clearly shew how much men of the greatest learning and abilities are put to it when engaged to uphold a weak side and which has no truth of its own to support it self It happened about this time that Beryllus c Ibid. c. 33. Bishop of Bostra in Arabia fell into absurd and dangerous errours asserting that our Lord before his incarnation had no proper subsistence no personal Deity but onely a derivative divinity from his Father The Bishops of those parts met about it but could not reclaim the man whereupon Origen's assistance was requested who went thither and treated with him both in private conferences and in public Synods His greatest difficulty was to know what the man meant which when he had once found out he plied him so hard with cogent reasonings and demonstrations that he was forced to let go his hold recant his errours and return back into the way of truth Which done Origen took his leave and came back for Palestin And Beryllus d Hieron de Script in Beryll as became a true Convert in several Letters gave thanks to Origen for his kind pains in his conviction kissing the hand that brought him back XX. ORIGEN was now advanced e Eus Ibid. c. 36. p. 232. above the age of threescore and yet remitted nothing of his incredible industry either in preaching or writing At Ambrosius his intreaty he took to task Celsus his Book against the Christians This Celsus was an Epicurean Philosopher contemporary with Lucian the witty Atheist who dedicated his Pseudomantis to him as indeed there seems to have been a more then ordinary sympathy of humour and genius between these two persons Celsus was a man of Wit and Parts and had all the advantages which Learning Philosophy and Eloquence could add to him but a severe and incurable enemy to the Christian Religion against which he wrote a Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the true Discourse wherein he attempted Christianity with all the Arts of insinuation all the witty reflections virulent aspersions plausible reasonings wherewith a man of parts and malice was capable to assault it To this Origen returns a
full and solid answer in eight Books wherein as he had the better cause so he managed it with that strength of Reason clearness of Argument and convictive evidence of truth that were there nothing else to testifie the abilities of this great man this Book alone were enough to do it It was written probably about the beginning of the reign of Philip the Emperour with whom Origen seems to have had some acquaintance who a Id. ibid. p. 233 wrote one Letter to him and another to the Empress From whence and some other little probabilities Eusebius first and after him the generality of Ecclesiastic Writers have made that Emperour to have been a Christian and the first of the Imperial line that was so The vanity of which mistake and the original from whence it sprung we have shewed elsewhere Nor is the matter mended by those who say that Philip was privately baptized by Fabian Bishop of Rome and so his Christian Profession was known onely to the Christians but concealed from the Gentiles which being but a conjecture and a gratis dictum without any authority to confirm it may with the same ease and as much justice be rejected as it is obtruded and imposed upon us Nor has the late learned publisher b Rod. Wetsteinius Praefat. in Orig. Dial. contr Marc. c. Ã se Edit Basil 1674. 4 of some Tracts of Origen who in order to the securing the Dialogue against the Marcionites to belong to Origen has newly enforced this argument said any thing that may persuade a wise man to believe a Story so improbable in all its circumstances and which must have made a louder noise in the World and have had more and better witnesses to attest it then an obscure and uncertain report the onely authority which Eusebius who gave the first hint of it pretends in this matter XXI THE good success which Origen lately had in Arabia in the cause of Beryllus made him famous in all those parts and his help was now again c Ibid. c. 37. desired upon a like occasion For a sort of Hereties were start up who affirmed that at death both body and soul did expire together and were resolved into the same state of corruption and that at the resurrection they should revive and rise together to eternal life For this purpose a general Synod of those parts was called and Origen desired to be present at it who managed the cause with such weighty Arguments such unanswerable and clear convictions that the adverse party threw down their weapons and relinquished the sentiments which they maintained before Another heretical crew appeared at this time in the East the impious and abominable Sect of the Helcesaitae against whom also Origen seems to have been engaged concerning whom himself d Homil. in Psal 82. ap Euseb ibid. c. 38. p. 233. gives us this account They rejected a great part both of the Old and New Canon making use onely of some few parts of Scripture and such without question as they could make look most favourably upon their cause S. Paul they wholly rejected and held that it was lawful and indifferent to deny the faith and that he was the wise man that in his words would renounce Christianity in a time of danger and Persecution but maintain the truth in his heart They carried a Book about with them which they affirmed to have been immediately dropt down from Heaven which whoever received and gave credit to should receive remission of sins though different from that pardon which our Lord Jesus bestowed upon his followers But how far Origen was concerned against this absurd and sensless generation is to me unknown The best on 't is this Sect like a blazing Comet though its influence was malignant and pestilential suddenly arose and as suddenly disappeared XXII PHILIP the Emperour being slain by the Souldiers Decius made a shift by the help of the Army to step into the Throne a mortal enemy to the a Ibid. â— 3â— p. 234. Church in whose short reign more Martyrs especially men of note and eminency came to the Stake then in those who governed that Empire ten times his reign In Palaestin Alexander the aged and venerable Bishop of Jerusalem was thrown into prison where after long and hard usage and an illustrious confession of the Christian Faith before the public Tribunal he died This Alexander whom we have often mentioned had been first Bishop in Cappadocia b Ibid. c. 11. p. 212. where out of a religious curiosity he had resolved upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the holy and venerable Antiquities of that place whereto he was particularly excited by a divine revelation intimating to him that it was the will of God that he should be assistant to the Bishop of that place It happened at this time that Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem being some years since returned to his See which he had deserted many years before was become incapable through his great age and infirmity being CXVI years old duly to manage his charge Alexander approaching near Jerusalem they were warned by a Vision and a Voice from Heaven to go out of the City and there receive him whom Heaven had designed to be their Bishop They did so and finding Alexander entertained and introduced him with all possible kindness and respect where by the importunity of the People and the consent of all the neighbour-Bishops he was constrained to become Colleague with Narcissus in the government of that Church This I suppose is the first express instance that we meet with in Church-antiquity of two Bishops sitting at once and that by consent in one See But the case was warranted by an extraordinary authority besides that Narcissus seems rather to have resigned and quitted the place retaining nothing but the title nor intermedling any further then by joining in prayers and devotions for the good of the Church surviving not above three or four years at most Alexander succeeding in the sole Presidency governed his Church with singular prudence and fidelity and among other memorable acts erected a Library at Jerusalem c Ibid. c. 20. p. 222. which he especially stored with Ecclesiastical Epistles and Records from whence Eusebius confesses he furnished himself with many considerable Memoirs and materials for the composing of his History He sate Bishop XXXIX years and after several arraignments and various imprisonments and sufferings died now in prison at Caesarea to the unconceivable loss and resentment of the whole Church and especially of Origen who had been ordained by him and whom he had ever found a fast Friend and Patron Nor did Origen himself who was at this time at Tyre escape without his share Eusebius does but briefly intimate his sufferings having given a larger account of them in another Book long since lost he tells d Ubi supr p. 234. us that the Devil mustered up all his Forces against him and assaulted him with all
passage to happen especially at this time to demonstrate the vanity of the Gentile Religion to correct the infidelity of the Emperour and to give testimony to that Religion which he scorned with so much insolence and sarcasm and pursued with so much vigour and opposition If any enquire why Julian should so far gratifie the Christians as to bestow the Martyrs bones upon them and suffer them to convey them with so much pomp and honour into the City and not rather scatter the ashes into the air throw them into the fire or drown the Coffin in the River c Ibid. p. 681. Chrysostom answers that he durst not he was afraid lest the divine vengeance should overtake him lest a thunderbolt from heaven should strike him or an incurable disease arrest him as such kind of miserable fates had overtaken some of his predecessors in the height of their activity against the Christians and he had lately seen sad instances of it that came very near him his Uncle Julian Praefect of the East a petulant scorner and apostate derider of Christians who having broken into the great Church at Antioch had treated their Communion Plate with the greatest irreverence and contempt throwing it upon the ground spurning and sitting upon it and after all carrying it away into the Emperours Exchequer was immediately seized with a loathsom disease which I am not willing to mention which within a few days in spight of all the Arts of Physic put an end to his miserable life And Faelix the Treasurer a man of the same spirit and temper and engaged with him in the same design coming up to the Palace on a sudden fell down upon the top of the steps and burst asunder Ammianus Marcellinus * Lib. 23. p. 1641. himself confessing that he died of a sudden Flux of bloud Others there were who about that time came to wretched and untimely ends but these two onely are particularly noted by Chrysostom Examples which 't is probable had put an awe and restraint upon him XI BUT evil men wax worse and worse Julian however awed at present yet his rage quickly found a vent which all his Philosophy could not stop Vexed d Socr. c. 19. p. 191. Sozom. Theod. ibid. to see the Christians pay so solemn a veneration to the Martyr and especially stung with the hymns which the Christians sung the very next day he gave order against the advice of his Privy Council to Salust the Praefect to persecute the Christians many of whom were accordingly apprehended and cast into Prison And among the rest one Theodorus a Youth was caught up in the streets and put upon the Rack his flesh torn off with iron Pincers scourged and beaten and when no tortures could shake his constancy or so much as move his patience he was at length dismissed Rufinus afterwards met with this Theodorus and asking him whether in the midst of his torments he felt any pain he told him at first he was a little sensible but that one in the shape of a young man stood by him who gently wiped off the sweat from his face refreshed him with cold water and supported his spirit with present consolations so that his Rack was rather a pleasure then a torment to him But to return XII HEAVEN shewed it self not well pleased with the proceedings of the Emperour For immediately the Temple of Apollo in the Daphne took fire which in a few hours burnt the famed image of the god and reduced the Temple excepting onely the Walls and Pillars into ashes This the Christians ascribed to the divine vengeance the Gentiles imputed it to the malice of the Christians and though the Priests and Warders of the Temple were racked to make them say so yet could they not be brought to affirm any more then that it was fired by a light from Heaven This conflagration is mentioned not onely by Christian Writers but by a Lib. 22. p. 1629. Ammianus Marcellinus and by b Loc. supr cit Julian himself but especially by Libanius the Orator who in an Oration on purpose made to the People elegantly bewails its unhappy fate whose Discourse S. Chrysostom takes to task and makes witty and eloquent remarques upon it If the Reader ask what became of Babylas his Remains after all this noise and bustle they were entombed within the City in a Church dedicated to his name and memory and in after-Ages are c Vid. Bolland ad Jan. XXIV p. 580. said to have been translated by some Christian Princes probably during their Wars in the holy Land to Cremona in Italy where how oft they have been honourably reposed and with how much pomp and ceremonious veneration they are still entertained they who are curious after such things may enquire The End of S. BABYLAS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. CYPRIAN BISHOP OF CARTHAGE Micha Burgh deli et sculp S. CYPRIANUS CARTHAGINIENSIS His Birth-place The Nobility of his Family exploded The confounding him with another Cyprian Bishop of Antioch These two vastly distinct S. Cyprian 's education His professing Rhetoric His conversion to Christianity by the persuasions of Caecilius Their mutual endearment His great charity to the Poor His Baptism Made Presbyter and Bishop of Carthage His modest declining the honour His proscription recess and care of his Church during that retirement The case of the Lapsed A brief account of the rise of the Novatian Sect. The fierceness of the Persecution at Carthage under Decius The courage and patience of the Christians Cyprian 's return A Synod at Carthage about the case of the Lapsed and the cause of Novatian Their determination of these matters Ratified by a Synod at Rome and another at Antioch A second Synod about the same affair Moderation in the Ecclesiastic Discipline used in the time of Persecution The great Pestilence at Carthage The miserable state of that City The mighty charity of S. Cyprian and the Christians at that time These evils charged upon the Christians S. Cyprians vindication of them The time of baptizing Infants determined in a Synod Another Synod to decide the case of the Spanish Bishops that had lapsed in the time of Persecution The Controversie concerning the Rebaptizing those who had been baptized by Hereties This resolved upon in a Synod of LXXXVII African Bishops The immoderate heats between Cyprian Firmilian and Stephen Bishop of Rome about this matter Cyprian arraigned before the Proconsul His resolute carriage His banishment to Curubis His Martyrdom foretold him by a Vision His Letters during his exile The severe usage of the Christians His withdrawment and why His apprehension and examination before the Proconsul The sentence passed upon him His Martyrdom and place of burial His piety fidelity chastity humility modesty charity c. His natural parts His learning wherein it mainly consisted The politeness and elegancy of his stile His quick proficiency in Christian studies His frequent converse with Tertullian 's Writings His Books The
he was carried aside into a by-place where he rested himself upon a seat which by chance was covered with a linnen cloth that so says my Author even in the hour of his Passion he might enjoy some part of Episcopal honour The length and hurry of his walk had put the infirm and aged man into a violent sweat which being observed by a Military Messenger who had formerly been a Christian he came to him and offered to accommodate him with dry linnen in stead of that wet and moist that was about him this he did in a pretended civility but really with design to have secured some monument of the Martyrs last agony and labour who returned no other answer then We seek to cure complaints and sorrows which perhaps to day shall be no more for ever By this time the Proconsul was come out who looking upon him said Art thou Thascius Cyprian who hast been Bishop and Father to men of an impious mind the sacred Emperours command thee to do sacrifice Be well advised and do not throw away thy life The holy Martyr replied I am Cyprian I am a Christian and I cannot sacrifice to the gods do as thou art commanded as for me in so just a cause there needs no consultation The Proconsul was angry at his resolute constancy and told him that he had been a long time of this sacrilegious humour had seduced abundance into the same wicked conspiracy with himself and shewn himself an enemy to the gods and religion of the Roman Empire one whom the pious and religious Emperours could never reduce to the observance of their holy Rites that therefore being found to be the Author and Ring-leader of so hainous a crime he should be made an example to those whom he had seduced into so great a wickedness and that disciplin and severity should be established in his bloud Whereupon he read his sentence out of a Table-book I will that Thascius Cyprian be beheaded To which the Martyr onely answered I heartily thank Almighty God who is pleased to set me free from the chains of the body XVI SENTENCE being passed he was led away from the Tribunal with a strong guard of Souldiers infinite numbers of people crouding after the Christians weeping and mourning and crying out let us also be beheaded with him The place of Execution was Sextus his Field a large Circuit of ground where the Trees whereof the place was full were loaded with persons to behold the Spectacle The Martyr presently began to strip himself first putting off his cloak which he folded up and laid at his feet and falling down upon his knees recommended his soul to God in prayer after which he put off his Dalmatic or under-coat which he delivered to the Deacons and so standing in nothing but a linnen vestment expected the headsman to whom he commanded the sum of about VI. Cum venisset Spiculator jussit suis ut eidem Spiculatori XXV alia Acta habent XX. aureos darent Act. Cypr. p. 18. Aureus sub imperatoribus Romanis valuit de nostro 15 s. sed sub Alexandro Severo primo cusi sunt Semissis Aurei de nostro 7 s. 6 d. Tremissis Aurei qui valuit de nostro 5 s. vid. Brierw de Num. cap. 14. de ultimo hunc ex Actis Cypriani locum intelligindum puto pounds to be given the Brethren spreading linnen cloths about him to preserve his bloud from being spread upon the ground His shirt sleeves being tied by Julian or as one of the Acts calls him Tullian the Presbyter and Julian the Sub-deacon he covered his eyes with his own hand and the Executioner did his Office His body was by the Christians deposited not far off but at night for fear of the Gentiles removed and with abundance of lights and torches solemnly interred in the Coemetery of Macrobius Candidus a Procurator near the Fish-ponds in the Mappalian way This was done Ann. CCLVIII. Valeriani Gallien V. so extravagantly wide is the account of the a Ann. 4. Olymplad CCLIII Indict XIII p. 626. Alexandrin Chronicle if it means the same person when it tells us that S. Cyprian suffered Martyrdom Ann. Alexandri Imp. XIII that is Ann. Chr. CCXXXIV though the Consuls under which he places it and this agrees better with his other accounts both of the Olympiads and of Christs Ascension assign it to the last year of Maximinus Ann. Chr. CCXXXVII for so he says that it was CCV years after our Lords ascension into Heaven Which was however far enough from truth Indeed elsewhere a An. I. Olymp. 259. Ind. IV. Valer. II. he places S. Cyprian's Martyrdom Valeriani II. which as appears by the Consuls should be V. that is Ann. Chr. CCLVIII. But it is no new thing with that Author to confound times and persons and assign the same events to different years Thus died this good man the first Bishop of his See that suffered Martyrdom as b Ibid. pag. 16. Pontius his Deacon informs us who was a true lover of him and followed him to the last and professes himself not to rejoice so much at the glory and triumph of his Master as to mourn that he himself was left behind XVII S. CYPRIAN though starting late ran apace in the Christian race He had a soul inflamed with a mighty love and zeal for God whose honour he studied by all ways to promote A wise and prudent Governour a great asserter of the Churches Rights a resolute Patron and defender of the Truth a faithful and vigilant Overseer of his flock powerful and diligent in preaching prudent in his determinations moderate in his counsels Quaecunque bona in multis libris tuis intulisâ—â— nescius ipsum te nobis designasti es enim omnibus in tractatu major in sermone sacundior in consiliâ— sapientior in patientia simplicior in operibus largior in abstinentia sanctior in obsequio hamilior in actu bono innocentioâ— Nemes c. Martyr Epist ad Cypr. p. 157. grave and severe in his admonitions pathetical and affectionate in his persuasives indulgent to the Penitent but inflexible to the obstinate and contumacious Infinite pains he took to reclaim the lapsed and to restore them to the Church by methods of penance c Vid. ad Cornel Epist 55. p. 85. and due humiliation he invited them kindly treated them tenderly if their minds were honest and their desires sincere he would not rigorously examine their crimes by over-nice weights and measures so prone to pity and compassion that he was afraid lest he himself offended in remitting other mens offences He valued the good of souls above the love of his own life constant in the profession of Religion from which neither by hopes nor fears could he be drawn aside How strictly chast and continent he was even in his first entrance upon Christianity we have noted in the beginning of his life His humility eminently appeared in his declining the honour of the