Church and say no more to them than Little children love one another And when his Auditors wearied with the constant repetition of the same thing asked him why he always spoke the same he answered Because it was the command of our Lord and that if they did nothing else this alone was enough 11. BUT the largest measures of his Charity he expressed in the mighty care that he shewed to the Souls of men unweariedly spending himself in the service of the Gospel travelling from East to West to leaven the World with the Principles of that holy Religion which he was sent to propagate patiently enduring all torments breaking through all difficulties and discouragements shunning no dangers that he might do good to Souls redeem Mens minds from error and idolatry and reduce them from the snares of a debauched and a vicious life Witness one famous instance In his visitation of the Churches near to Ephesus he made choice of a young man whom with a special charge for his instruction and education he committed to the Bishop of that place The spiritual man undertook the charge instructed his Pupil and baptized him And then thinking he might a little remit the reins of discipline the youth made an ill use of his liberty and was quickly debauched by bad companions making himself Captain to a company of High-way men the most loose cruel and profligate wretches of the Country S. John at his return understanding this and sharply reproving the negligence and unfaithfulness of his Tutor resolved to find him out And without any consideration of what danger he entred upon in venturing himself upon Persons of desperate fortunes and forfeited consciences he went to the Mountains where their usual haunt was and being here taken by the Sentinel he desired to be brought before their Commander who no sooner espied him coming towards him but immediately fled The aged Apostle followed after but not able to overtake him passionately entreated him to stay promising him to undertake with God for his peace and pardon He did so and both melted into tears and the Apostle having prayed with and for him returned him a true Penitent and Convert to the Church This story we have elsewhere related more at large out of Eusebius as he does from Clemens Alexandrinus since which that Tract it self of Clemens is made publick to the World 12. NOR was it the least instance of his care of the Church and charity to the Souls of men that he was so infinitely vigilant against Hereticks and Seducers countermining their artifices antidoting against the poison of their errors and shunning all communion and conversation with their persons Going along with some of his friends at Ephesus to the Bath whither he used frequently to resort and the ruines whereof of Porphyry not far from the place where stood the famous Temple of Diana as a late eye-witness informs us are still shewed at this day he enquired of the servant that waited there who was within the servant told him Cerinthus Epiphanius says it was Ebion and 't is not improbable that they might be both there which the Apostle no sooner understood but in great abhorrency he turned back Let 's be gone my brethren said he and make haste from this place lest the Bath wherein there is such an Heretick as Cerinthus the great enemy of the truth fall upon our heads This account Irenaeus delivers from John's own Scholar and Disciple This Cerinthus was a Man of loose and pernicious principles endeavouring to corrupt Christianity with many damnable Errors To make himself more considerable he struck in with the Jewish Converts and made a bustle in that great controversie at Jerusalem about Circumcision and the observation of the Law of Moses But his usual haunt was Asia where amongst other things he openly denied Christ's Resurrection affirmed the World to have been made by Angels broaching unheard of Dogmata and pretending them to have been communicated to him by Angels venting Revelations composed by himself as a great Apostle affirming that after the Resurrection the Reign of Christ would commence here upon Earth and that Men living again at Jerusalem should for the space of a Thousand Years enjoy all manner of sensual pleasures and delights hoping by this fools Paradise that he should tempt Men of loose and brutish minds over to his party Much of the same stamp was Ebion though in some principles differing from him as error agrees with it self as little as with truth who held that the Holy Jesus was a mere and a mean man begotten by Joseph of Mary his Wife and that the observance of the Mosaick Rites and Laws was necessary to Salvation And because they saw S. Paul stand so full in their way they reproached him as an Apostate from his Religion and rejected his Epistles owning none but Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew having little or no value for the rest the Sabbath and Jewish Rites they observed with the Jews and on the Lord's day celebrated the memory of our Lord's Resurrection according to the custom and practice of the Christians 13. BESIDES these there was another sort of Hereticks that infested the Church in John's time the Nicolaitans mentioned by him in his Revelation and whose doctrine our Lord is with a particular Emphasis there said to hate indeed a most wretched and brutish Sect generally supposed to derive their original from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons whom we read of in the Acts whereof Clemens of Alexandria gives this probable account This Nicolas having a beautiful Wife and being reproved by the Apostles for being jealous of her to shew how far he was from it brought her forth and gave any that would leave to marry her affirming this to be suitable to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to abuse the flesh This speech he tells us was ascribed to S. Matthias who taught That we must fight with the flesh and abuse it and not allowing it any thing for pleasure encrease the Soul by faith and knowledge These words and actions of his his disciples and followers misunderstanding and perverting things to the worst sence imaginable began to let loose the reins and henceforwards to give themselves over to the greatest filthiness the most shameless and impudent uncleanness throwing down all inclosures making the most promiscuous mixtures lawful and pleasure the ultimate end and happiness of Man Such were their principles such their practices whereas Nicolas their pretended Patron and Founder was says Clemens a sober and a temperate Man never making use of any but his own Wife by whom he had one Son and several Daughters who all liv'd in perpetual Virginity 14. THE last instance that we shall remark of our Apostles care for the good of the Church is the Writings which he left to Posterity Whereof the first in time though plac'd last is his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations written while confined in
to any that would abuse it to confirm and countenance delusions and impostures Nicodemus his reasoning was very plain and convictive when he concludes that Christ must needs be a Teacher come from God for that no man could do those Miracles that he did except God were with him The force of which argument lies here that nothing but a Divine power can work Miracles and that Almighty God cannot be supposed miraculously to assist any but those whom he himself sends upon his own errand The stupid and barbarous Lycaonians when they beheld the Man who had been a Cripple from his Mothers womb cured by S. Paul in an instant only with the speaking of a word saw that there was something in it more than humane and therefore concluded that the Gods were come down to them in the likeness of Men. Upon this account S. Paul reckons Miracles among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the signs and evidences of an Apostle whom therefore Chrysostom brings in elegantly pleading for himself that though he could not shew as the signs of his Priesthood and Ministry long Robes and gaudy Vestments with Bells sounding at their borders as the Aaronical Priests did of old though he had no golden Crowns or holy Mitres yet could he produce what was infinitely more venerable and regardable than all these unquestionable Signs and Miracles He came not with Altars and Oblations with a number of strange and symbolick Rites but what was greater raised the dead cast out Devils cured the blind healed the lame making the Gentiles obedient by word and deed thorough many signs and wonders wrought by the power of the spirit of God These were the things that clearly shewed that their mission and ministry was not from men nor taken up of their own heads but that they acted herein by a Divine warrant and authority That therefore it might plainly appear to the World that they did not falsify in what they said or deliver any more than God had given them in commission he enabled them to do strange and miraculous operations bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost This was a power put into the first draught of their commission when confined only to the Cities of Israel As ye go preach saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out Devils freely you have received freely give but more fully confirmed upon them when our Lord went to Heaven then he told them that these signs should follow them that believe that in his Name they should cast out Devils and speak with new tongues that they should take up serpents and if they drank any deadly thing it should not hurt them that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover And the event was accordingly for they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following When Paul and Barnabas came up to the Council at Jerusalem this was one of the first things they gave an account of all the multitude keeping silence while they declared what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them Thus the very shadow of Peter as he passed by cured the sick thus God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them So that besides the innate characters of Divinity which the Christian religion brought along with it containing nothing but what was highly reasonable and very becoming God to reveal it had the highest external evidence that any Religion was capable of the attestation of great and unquestionable Miracles done not once or twice not privately and in corners not before a few simple and credulous persons but frequently and at every turn publickly and in places of the most solemn concourse before the wisest and most judicious enquirers and this power of miracles continued not only during the Apostles time but for some Ages after X. But because besides Miracles in general the Scripture takes particular notice of many gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost conferred upon the Apostles and first Preachers of the Gospel it may not be amiss to consider some of the chiefest and most material of them as we find them enumerated by the Apostle only premising this observation that though these gifts were distinctly distributed to persons of an inferiour order so that one had this and another that yet were they probably all conferr'd upon the Apostles and doubtless in larger proportions than upon the rest First we take notice of the gift of Prophecy a clear evidence of divine inspiration and an extraordinary mission the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy It had been for many Ages the signal and honourable priviledge of the Jewish Church and that the Christian Oeconomy might challenge as sacred regards from men and that it might appear that God had not withdrawn his Spirit from his Church in this new state of things it was revived under the dispensation of the Gospel according to that famous Prophecy of Joel exactly accomplished as Peter told the Jews upon the day of Pentecost when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were so plentifully shed upon the Apostles and Primitive Christians This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It shall come to pass in the last days saith God I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie and your young Men shall see Visions and your old Men shall dream Dreams and on my servants and on my Hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesie It lay in general in revealing and making known to others the mind of God but discovered it self in particular instances partly in foretelling things to come and what should certainly happen in after-times a thing set beyond the reach of any finite understanding for though such effects as depend upon natural agents or moral and political causes may be foreseen by studious and considering persons yet the knowledge of futurities things purely contingent that meerly depend upon mens choice and their mutable and uncertain wills can only fall under his view who at once beholds things past present and to come Now this was conferred upon the Apostles and some of the first Christians as appears from many instances in the History of the Apostolick Acts and we find the Apostles writings frequently interspersed with prophetical predictions concerning the great apostasie from the faith the universal corruption and degeneracy of manners the rise of particular heresies the coming of Antichrist and several another things which the spirit said expresly should come to pass in the latter times besides that S. John's whole Book of
Creation and not see in every place evident footsteps of an infinite wisdom power and goodness Who can look up unto the Heavens and not there discern an Almighty wisdom beautifully garnishing those upper Regions distinguishing the circuits and perpetuating the motions of the Heavenly lights placing the Sun in the middle of the Heavens that he might equally dispense and communicate his light and heat to all parts of the World and not burn the Earth with the too near approach of his scorching beams by which means the Creatures are refreshed and cheared the Earth impregnated with fruits and flowers by the benign influence of a vital heat and the vicissitudes and seasons of the year regularly distinguished by their constant and orderly revolutions Whence are the great Orbs of Heaven kept in continual motion always going in the same tract but because there 's a Superiour power that keeps these great wheels a going Who is it that poises the balancings of the Clouds that divides a water-course for the overflowing of waters and a way for the lightning of the Thunder Who can bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Or who can bring forth Mazaroth in his season or guide Arcturus with his sons Do these come by chance or by the secret appointment of infinite wisdom Who can consider the admirable thinness and purity of the Air its immediate subserviency to the great ends of the Creation it s being the treasury of vital breath to all living Creatures without which the next moment must put a period to our days and not reflect upon that Divine wisdom that contrived it If we come down upon the Earth there we discover a Divine providence supporting it with the pillars of an invisible power stretching the North over the empty space and hanging the Earth upon nothing filling it with great variety of admirable and useful Creatures and maintaining them all according to their kinds at his own cost and charges 'T is he that clothes the Grass with a delightful verdure that crowns the Year with his loving kindness and makes the Valleys stand thick with corn that causes the Grass to grow for the Cattel and Herb for the service of Man that he may bring forth food out of the Earth and Wine that maketh glad the heart of man and Oil to make his face to shine and Bread which strengtheneth man's heart that beautifies the Lilies that neither toil nor spin and that with a glory that out shines Solomon in all his pomp and grandeur From Land let us ship our observations to Sea and there we may descry the wise effects of infinite understanding A wide Ocean fitly disposed for the mutual commerce and correspondence of one part of mankind with another filled with great and admirable Fishes and enriched with the treasures of the deep What but an Almighty arm can shut in the Sea with doors bind it by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass and tye up its wild raging waves with no stronger cordage than ropes of Sand Who but he commands the storm and stills the tempest and brings the Mariner when at his wits-end in the midst of the greatest dangers to his desired Haven They that go down to the Sea in ships and do business in great waters these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep So impossible is it for a man to stand in any part of the Creation wherein he may not discern evidences enough of an infinitely wise gracious and Omnipotent Being Thus much I thought good to add to illustrate the Apostles argument whence he strongly infers that 't is very reasonable that we should worship and adore this great Creator and Benefactor and not transfer the honours due to him alone upon men of frail and sinful passions and much less upon dumb Idols unable either to make or to help themselves An argument which though very plain and plausible and adapted to the meanest understandings yet was all little enough to restrain the people from offering Sacrifice to them But how soon was the wind turned into another corner The old spirit of the Jews did still haunt and pursue them Who coming from Antioch and Iconium exasperated and stirred up the multitude And they who just before accounted them as Gods used them now worse not only than ordinary men but slaves For in a mighty rage they fall upon S. Paul stone him as they thought dead and then drag him out of the City Whither the Christians of that place coming probably to interr him he suddenly revived and rose up amongst them and the next day went thence to Derbe 7. HERE they preached the Gospel and then returned to Lystra Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia confirming the Christians of those places in the belief and profession of Christianity earnestly perswading them to persevere and not be discouraged with those troubles and persecutions which they must expect would attend the profession of the Gospel And that all this might succeed the better with fasting and prayer they ordained Governours and Pastors in every Church and having recommended them to the grace of God departed from them From hence they passed through Pisidia and thence came to Pamphilia and having preached to the people at Perga they went down to Attalia And thus having at this time finished the whole circuit of their Ministery they returned back to Antioch in Syria the place whence they had first set out Here they acquainted the Church with the various transactions and successes of their travels and how great a door had hereby been opened to the conversion of the Gentile World 8. WHILE S. Paul staid at Antioch there arose that famous controversie about the observation of the Mosaick Rites set on foot and brought in by some Jewish Converts that came down thither whereby great disturbances and distractions were made in the minds of the people For the composing whereof the Church of Antioch resolved to send Paul and Barnabas to consult with the Apostles and Church at Jerusalem In their way thither they declared to the Brethren as they went along what success they had had in the conversion of the Gentiles Being come to Jerusalem they first addressed themselves to Peter James and John the pillars and principal persons in that place By whom they were kindly entertained and admitted to the right hand of fellowship And perceiving by the account which S. Paul gave them that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to him as that of the circumcision was to Peter they ratified it by compact and agreement that Peter should preach to the Jews and Paul unto the Gentiles Hereupon a Council was summoned wherein Peter having declared his sence of things Paul and Barnabas acquainted them what great things God by their Ministery had done among the Gentiles A plain evidence that though uncircumcised they were accepted by God as well as the Jews with all their legal Rites and Priviledges The issue
which they discovered not far off But falling into a place where two Seas met the fore-part of the Ship ran a-ground while the hinder-part was beaten in pieces with the violence of the Waves Awakened with the danger they were in the Souldiers cried out to kill the Prisoners to prevent their escape which the Captain desirous to save S. Paul and probably in confidence of what he had told them refused to do commanding that every one should shift for himself the issue was that part by swimming part on planks part on pieces of the broken Ship they all to the number of two hundred threescore and sixteen the whole number in the Ship got safe to shore 8. THE Island upon which they were cast was Melita now Malta situate in the Libyan Sea between Syracuse and Africk Here they found civility among Barbarians and the plain acknowledgments of a Divine justice written among the naked and untutored notions of Mens minds The People treated them with great humanity entertaining them with all necessary accommodations but while S. Paul was throwing sticks upon the Fire a Viper dislodged by the heat came out of the Wood and fastned on his Hand This the People no sooner espyed but presently concluded that surely he was some notorious Murderer whom though the Divine vengeance had suffered to escape the Hue-and-Cry of the Sea yet had it only reserved him for a more publick and solemn execution But when they saw him shake it off into the Fire and not presently swell and drop down they changed their opinions and concluded him to be some God So easily are light and credulous minds transported from one extreme to another Not far off lived Publius a Man of great Estate and Authority and as we may probably guess from an Inscription found there and set down by Grotius wherein the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is reckoned amongst the Roman Offices Governor of the Island by him they were courteously entertained three Days at his own charge and his Father lying at that time sick of a Feaver and a Dysentery S. Paul went in and having prayed and laid his hands upon him healed him as he did also many of the Inhabitants who by this Miracle were encouraged to bring their diseased to him whereby great honours were heaped upon him and both he and his company furnished with provisions necessary for the rest of their Voyage Nay Publius himself is said by some to have been hereby converted to the Faith and by S. Paul to have been constituted Bishop of the Island and that this was he that succeeded S. Denys the Areopagite in the See of Athens and was afterwards crowned with Martyrdom 9. AFTER three Months stay in this Island they went a-board the Castor and Pollux a Ship of Alexandria bound for Italy At Syracuse they put in and staid three Days thence failed to Rhegium and so to Puteoli where they landed and finding some Christians there staid a Week with them and then set forward in their Journey to Rome The Christians at Rome having heard of their arrival several of them came part of the way to meet them some as far as the Three Taverns a place thirty three Miles from Rome others as far as Appii Forum fifty one Miles distant thence Great was their mutual salutation and the encouragement which the Apostle received by it glad no doubt to see that Christians found so much liberty at Rome By them he was conducted in a kind of triumph into the City where when they were arrived the rest of the Prisoners were delivered over to the Captain of the Guard and by him disposed in the common Gaol while S. Paul probably at Julius his request and recommendation was permitted to stay in a private House only with a Souldier to secure and guard him SECT VII S. Paul's Acts from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom S. Paul 's summoning the chief of the Jews at Rome and his discourse to them Their refractoriness and infidelity His first hearing before Nero. The success of his Preaching Poppaea Sabina Nero 's Concubine one of his Converts Tacitus his character of her Onesimus converted by S. Paul at Rome and sent back with an Epistle to Philemon his Master The great obligation which Christianity lays upon Servants to diligence and fidelity in their duty The rigorous and arbitrary power of Masters over Servants by the Roman Laws This mitigated by the Laws of the Gospel S. Paul 's Epistle to the Philippians upon what occasion sent His Epistle to the Ephesians and another to the Colossians His second Epistle to Timothy written probably at his first being at Rome The Epistle to the Hebrews by whom written and in what Language The aim and design of it S. Paul 's Preaching the Gospel in the West and in what parts of it His return to Rome when His imprisonment under Nero and why His being beheaded Milk instead of blood said to flow from his body Different Accounts of the time of his suffering His burial where and the great Church erected to his memory 1. THE first thing S. Paul did after he came to Rome was to summon the Heads of the Jewish Consistory there whom he acquainted with the cause and manner of his coming that though he had been guilty of no violation of the Law of their Religion yet had he been delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Roman Governours who would have acquitted him once and again as innocent of any capital offence but by the perversness of the Jews he was forced not with an intention to charge his own Nation already sufficiently odious to the Romans but only to vindicate and clear himself to make his Appeal to Caesar that being come he had sent for them to let them know that it was for his constant asserting the Resurrection the hope of all true Israelites that he was bound with that Chain which they saw upon him The Jews replied that they had received no advice concerning him nor had any of the Nation that came from Judaea brought any Charge against him only for the Religion which he had espoused they desired to be a little better informed about it it being every where decried both by Jew and Gentile Accordingly upon a day appointed he discoursed to them from morning to night concerning the Religion and Doctrine of the Holy Jesus proving from the promises and predictions of the Old Testament that he was the true Messiah His discourse succeeded not with all alike some being convinced others persisted in their infidelity And as they were departing in some discontent at each other the Apostle told them it was now too plain God had accomplished upon them the Prophetical curse of being left to their own wilful hardness and impenitency to be blind at noon-day and to run themselves against all means and methods into irrecoverable ruine That since the case was thus with them they must expect that henceforth he should turn
discourse two Consectaries especially plainly follow I Consect That works of Evangelical obedience are not opposed to Faith in Justification By works of Evangelical obedience I mean such Christian duties as are the fruits not of our own power and strength but God's Spirit done by the assistance of his grace And that these are not opposed to Faith is undeniably evident in that as we observed before Faith as including the new nature and the keeping God's commands is made the usual condition of Justification Nor can it be otherwise when other graces and virtues of the Christian life are made the terms of pardon and acceptance with Heaven and of our title to the merits of Christ's death and the great promise of eternal life Thus Repentance which is not so much a single Act as a complex body of Christian duties Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out So Charity and forgiveness of others Forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father also will forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive yours Sometimes Evangelical obedience in general God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him If we walk in the light as God is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin What priviledge then has Faith above other graces in this matter are we justified by Faith We are pardoned and accepted with God upon our repentance charity and other acts of Evangelical obedience Is Faith opposed to the works of the Mosaick Law in Justification so are works of Evangelical obedience Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Does Faith give glory to God and set the crown upon his head Works of Evangelical obedience are equally the effects of Divine grace both preventing and assisting of us and indeed are not so much our works as his So that the glory of all must needs be intirely resolved into the grace of God nor can any man in such circumstances with the least pretence of reason lay claim to merit or boast of his own atchievments Hence the Apostle magnifies the Evangelical method of Justification above that of the Law that it wholly excludes all proud reflections upon our selves Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the Law of Faith The Mosaical Oeconomy softered men up in proud and high thoughts of themselves they looked upon themselves as a peculiar People honoured above all other Nations of the World the seed of Abraham invested with mighty priviledges c. whereas the Gospel proceeding upon other principles takes away all foundations of pride by acknowledging our acceptance with God and the power whereby we are enabled to make good the terms and conditions of it to be the mere result of the Divine grace and mercy and that the whole scheme of our Salvation as it was the contrivance of the Divine wisdom so is the purchase of the merit and satisfaction of our crucified Saviour Nor is Faith it self less than other graces an act of Evangelical obedience and if separated from them is of no moment or value in the accounts of Heaven Though I have all Faith and have no Charity I am nothing All Faith be it of what kind soever To this may be added that no tolerable account can be given why that which is on all hands granted to be the condition of our Salvation such is Evangelical obedience should not be the condition of our Justification And at the great Day Christians shall be acquitted or condemned according as in this World they have fulfilled or neglected the conditions of the Gospel The decretory sentence of absolution that shall then be passed upon good men shall be nothing but a publick and solemn declaration of that private sentence of Justification that was passed upon them in this World so that upon the same terms that they are justified now they shall be justified and acquitted then and upon the same terms that they shall then be judged and acquitted they are justified now viz. an hearty belief and a sincere obedience to the Gospel From all which I hope 't is evident that when S. Paul denies men to be justified by the works of the Law by works he either means works done before conversion and by the strength of Mens natural powers such as enabled them to pride and boast themselves and lay claim to merit or which most-what includes the other the works of the Mosaick Law And indeed though the controversies on foot in those times did not plainly determine his reasonings that way yet the considerations which we have now suggested sufficiently shew that they could not be meant of any other sence 16. CONSECT II. That the doctrines of S. Paul and S. James about Justification are fairly consistent with each other For seeing Paul's design in excluding works from Justification was only to deny the works of the Jewish Law or those that were meritorious as being wrought by our own strength and in asserting that in opposition to such works we are justified by Faith he meant no more than that either we are justified in an Evangelical way or more particularly by Faith intended a practical-belief including Evangelical obedience And seeing on the other hand S. James in affirming that we are justified by Works and not by Faith only by works means no more than Evangelical obedience in opposition to a naked and an empty Faith these two are so far from quarrelling that they mutually embrace each other and both in the main pursue the same design And indeed if any disagreement seem between them 't is most reasonable that S. Paul should be expounded by S. James not only because his propositions are so express and positive and not justly liable to ambiguity but because he wrote some competent time after the other and consequently as he perfectly understood his meaning so he was capable to countermine those ill principles which some men had built upon Paul's assertions For 't is evident from several passages in Paul's Epistles that even then many began to mistake his doctrine and from his assertions about Justification by Faith and not by works to infer propositions that might serve the purposes of a bad life They slanderously reported him to say that we might do evil that good might come that we might continue in sin that the grace of the Gospel might the more abound They thought that so long as they did but believe the Gospel in the naked notion and
Abylene the remaining portions of his Grandfathers dominions Claudius being settled in the Empire over comes Herod from Rome to take possession and to manage the affairs of his new acquired Kingdom A Prince noble and generous prudent and politick throughly versed in all the arts of Courtship able to oblige enemies and to mollifie or decline the displeasure of the Emperor witness his subtil and cunning insinuations to Caligula when he commanded the Jews to account him a God he was one that knew let the wind blow which way it would how to gain the point he aimed at of a courteous and affable demeanour but withall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty zealot for the Jewish Religion and a most acurate observer of the Mosaick Law keeping himself free from all legal impurities and suffering no day to pass over his head in which he himself was not present at sacrifice Being desirous in the entrance upon his soveraignty to insinuate himself into the favour of the populacy and led no less by his own zealous inclination he saw no better way than to fall heavy upon the Christians a sort of men whom he knew the Jews infinitely hated as a novel and an upstart Sect whose Religion proclaimed open defiance to the Mosaick Institutions Hereupon he began to raise a persecution but alas the commonalty were too mean a sacrifice to fall as the only victim to his zeal and popular designs he must have a fatter and more honourable sacrifice It was not long before S. James his stirring and active temper his bold reproving of the Jews and vigorous contending for the truth and excellency of the Christian Religion rendred him a fit object for his turn Him he commands to be apprehended cast into prison and sentence of death to be passed upon him As he was led forth to the place of Martyrdom the Souldier or Officer that had guarded him to the Tribunal or rather his Accuser and so Suidas expresly tells us it was having been convinced by that mighty courage and constancy which S. James shewed at the time of his trial repented of what he had done came and fell down at the Apostle's feet and heartily begged pardon for what he said against him The holy man after a little surprise at the thing raised him up embraced and kissed him Peace said he my son peace be to thee and the pardon of thy faults Whereupon before them all he publickly professed himself to be a Christian and so both were beheaded at the same time Thus fell S. James the Apostolick Proto-Martyr the first of that number that gained the Crown chearfully taking that cup which he had long since told his Lord he was most ready to drink of 9. BUT the Divine vengeance that never sleeps suffered not the death of this innocent and righteous man to pass long unrevenged of which though S. Luke gives us but a short account yet Josephus who might himself remember it being a youth at that time of seven or eight years of age sets down the story with its particular circumstances agreeing almost exactly with the Sacred Historian Shortly after S. James his Martyrdom Herod removed to Caesarea being resolved to make war upon the neighbouring Tyrians and Sidonians While he was here he proclaimed solemn sights and Festival entertainments to be held in honour of Caesar to which there flocked a great confluence of all the Nobility thereabouts Early in the morning on the second day he came with great state into the Theatre to make an Oration to the people being clothed in a Robe all over curiously wrought with silver which encountring with the beams of the rising Sun reflected such a lustre upon the eyes of the people who make sensible appearances the only true measures of greatness as begot an equal wonder and veneration in them crying out prompted no doubt by flatterers who began the cry that it was some Deity which they beheld and that he who spake to them must be something above the ordinary standard of humanity This impious applause Herod received without any token of dislike or sense of that injury that was hereby done to the supreme Being of the World But a sudden accident changed the scene and turned the Comick part into a black fatal Tragedy Looking up he espied an Owle sitting upon a rope over his head as probably also he did an Angel for so S. Luke mentions it which he presently beheld as the fatal messenger of his death as heretofore it had been of his prosperity and success An incurable melancholy immediately seized upon his mind as exquisite torments did upon his bowels caused without question by those Worms S. Luke speaks of which immediately fed and preyed upon him Behold said he turning to those about him the Deity you admired and your selves evidently convinced of flattery and falshood see me here by the Laws of Fate condemned to die whom just now you stiled immortal Being removed into the Palace his pains still encreased upon him and though the people mourned and wept fasted and prayed for his life and health yet his acute torments got the upper hand and after five days put a period to his life But to return to S. James 10. BEING put to death his Body is said to have taken a second voyage into Spain where we are with confidence enough told it rests at this day Indeed I meet with a very formal account of its translation thither written says the Publisher above DC years since by a Monk of the Abby of La-Fleury in France The summ whereof is this The Apostles at Jerusalem designing Ctesiphon for Spain ordained him Bishop and others being joyned to his assistance they took the Body of S. James and went on board a Ship without Oars without a Pilot or any to steer and conduct their voyage trusting only to the merits of that Apostle whose remains they carried along with them In seven days they arrived at a Port in Spain where landing the Corps was suddenly taken from them and with great appearances of an extraordinary light from Heaven conveyed they knew not whither to the place of its interment The men you may imagine were exceedingly troubled that so great a treasure should be ravished from them but upon their prayers and tears they were conducted by an Angel to the place where the Apostle was buried twelve miles from the Sea Here they addressed themselves to a rich Noble Matron called Luparia who had a great Estate in those parts but a severe Idolatress begging of her that they might have leave to entomb the bones of the holy Apostle within her jurisdiction She entertained them with contempt and scorn with curses and execrations bidding them go and ask leave of the King of the Country They did so but were by him treated with all the instances of rage and fury and pursued by him till himself perished in the attempt They returned
was intent at prayer they first load him with darts and stones till one of them coming nearer ran him through with a Lance. His Body was taken up by his Disciples and buried in the Church which he had lately built and which was afterwards improved into a fabrick of great stateliness and magnificence Gregory of Tours relates many miracles done upon the annual solemnities of his Martyrdom and one standing miracle an account whereof he tells us he received from one Theodorus who had himself been in that place viz. that in the Temple where the Apostle was buried there hung a Lamp before his Tomb which burnt perpetually without Oil or any Fewel to feed and nourish it the light whereof was never diminished nor by wind or any other accident could be extinguished But whether Travellers might not herein be imposed upon by the crafty artifices of the Priests or those who did attend the Church or if true whether it might not be performed by art I leave to others to enquire Some will have his Body to have been afterwards translated to Edessa a City in Mesopotamia but the Christians in the East constantly affirm it to have remained in the place of his Martyrdom where if we may believe relations it was after dug up with great cost and care at the command of Don Emmanuel Frea Governor of the Coast of Cormandel and together with it was found the Bones of the Sagamo whom he had converted to the Faith 5. WHILE Don Alfonso Sousa one of the first Vice Roys in India under John the Third King of Portugal resided in these Parts certain Brass Tables were brought to him whose ancient Inscriptions could scarce be read till at last by the help of a Jew an excellent Antiquary they were found to contain nothing but a donation made to S. Thomas whereby the King who then reign'd granted to him a piece of ground for the building of a Church They tell us also of a famous Cross found in S. Thomas his Chappel at Malipur wherein was an unintelligible Inscription which by a Learned Bramin whom they compelled to read and expound it gave an account to this effect That Thomas a Divine person was sent into those Countries by the Son of God in the time of King Sagamo to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God that he built a Church and performed admirable Miracles but at last while upon his Knees at Prayer was by a Brachman thrust through with a Spear and that that Cross stained with his bloud had been left as a memorial of these matters An interpretation that was afterwards confirmed by another grave and learned Bramin who expounded the Inscription to the very same effect The judicious Reader will measure his belief of these things by the credit of the Reporters and the rational probability of the things themselves which for my part as I cannot certainly affirm to be true so I will not utterly conclude them to be false 6. FROM these first plantations of Christianity in the Eastern India's by our Apostle there is said to have been a continued series and succession of Christians hence called S. Thomas-Christians in those Parts unto this day The Portugals at their first arrival here found them in great numbers in several places no less as some tell us than fifteen or sixteen thousand Families They are very poor and their Churches generally mean and sordid wherein they had no Images of Saints nor any representations but that of the Cross they are governed in Spirituals by an High-Priest whom some make an Armenian Patriarch of the Sect of Nestorius but in truth is no other than the Patriarch of Muzal the remainder as is probable of the ancient Selencia and by some though erroneously stiled Babylon residing North-ward in the Mountains who together with twelve Cardinals two Patriarchs and several Bishops disposes of all affairs referring to Religion and to him all the Christians of the East yield subjection They promiscuously admit all to the Holy Communion which they receive under both kinds of Bread and Wine though instead of Wine which their Country affords not making use of the juice of Raisons steep'd one Night in Water and then pressed forth Children unless in case of sickness are not baptized till the Fortieth day At the death of Friends their kindred and relations keep an Eight-days feast in memory of the departed Every Lord's day they have their publick Assemblies for Prayer and Preaching their devotions being managed with great reverence and solemnity Their Bible at least the New Testament is in the Syriack Language to the study whereof the Preachers earnestly exhort the People They observe the times of Advent and Lent the Festivals of our Lord and many of the Saints those especially that relate to S. Thomas the Dominica in Albis or Sunday after Easter in memory of the famous confession which S. Thomas on that day made of Christ after he had been sensibly cured of his unbelief another on the first of July celebrated not only by Christians but by Moors and Pagans the People who come to his Sepulchre on Pilgrimage carrying away a little of the red Earth of the place where he was interred which they keep as an inestimable treasure and conceit it soveraign against Diseases They have a kind of Monasteries of the Religious who live in great abstinence and chastity Their Priests are shaven in fashion of a Cross have leave to marry once but denied a second time No marriages to be dissolved but by Death These rites and customs they solemnly pretend to have derived from the very time of S. Thomas and with the greatest care and diligence do observe them at this Day The End of S. Thomas 's Life THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Less S. JAMES Minor This Apostle being a Kinsman of our Lord and having Sate first Bishop of Hierusalem was cost down from the top of the Temple and after killed with a Fullers club Barou May 1 0 The Martyrdom of St. James the lesse Matth. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets stonest them which are sent unto thee S. James the Less proved to be the same with him that was Bishop of Jerusalem His Kindred and Relations The Son of Joseph by a former Wife The Brethren of our Lord who His Country what Our Lord's appearance to him after his Resurrection Invested in the See of Jerusalem by whom and why His authority in the Synod at Jerusalem His great diligence and fidelity in his Ministry The conspiracy of his Enemies to take away his Life His Discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees about the Messiah His Martyrdom and the manner of it His Burial where His Death resented by the Jews His strictness in Religion His Priesthood whence His singular delight in Prayer and efficacy in it His great love and charity to Men. His admirable Humility His Temperance according to the rules of the Nazarite-Order The Love
was the success of his Ministry that he converted Multitudes both of Men and Women not only to the embracing of the Christian Religion but to a more than ordinarily strict profession of it insomuch that Philo wrote a Book of their peculiar Rites and way of Life the only reason why S. Hierom reckons him among the Writers of the Church Indeed Philo the Jew wrote a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extant at this day wherein he speaks of a sort of Persons called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in many parts of the World but especially in a pleasant place near the Meraeotick Lake in Egypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies and gives a large account of their Rites and Customs their strict philosophical and contemplative course of life He tells us of them that when they first enter upon this way they renounce all secular interests and employments and leaving their Estates to their Relations retire into Groves and Gardens and Places devoted to solitude and contemplation that they had their Houses or Colleges not contiguous that so being free from noise and tumult they might the better minister to the designs of a contemplative life nor yet removed at too great a distance that they might maintain mutual society and be conveniently capable of helping and assisting one another In each of these Houses there was an Oratory call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they discharged the more secret and solemn Rites of their Religion divided in the middle with a Partition-wall three or four Cubits high the one apartment being for the Men and the other for the Women Here they publickly met every Seventh day where being set according to their seniority and having composed themselves with great decency and reverence the most aged Person among them and best skilled in the Dogmata and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst gravely and soberly discoursing what might make the deepest impression upon their minds the rest attending with a profound silence and only testifying their assent with the motion of their Eyes or Head Their discourses were usually mystical and allegorical seeking hidden sences under plain words and of such an allegorical Philosophy consisted the Books of their Religion left them by their Ancestors The Law they compared to an Animal the Letter of it resembling the Body while the Soul of it lay in those abstruse and recondite notions which the external veil and surface of the words concealed from vulgar understandings He tells us also that they took very little care of the Body perfecting their minds by Precepts of Wisdom and Religion the day they intirely spent in Pious and Divine Meditations in reading and expounding the Law and the Prophets and the Holy Volumes of the ancient Founders of their Sect and in singing Hymns to the honour of their Maker absolutely temperate and abstemious neither eating nor drinking till Night the only time they thought fit to refresh and regard the Body some of them out of an insatiable desire of growing in knowledge and vertue fasting many days together What Diet they had was very plain and simple sufficient only to provide against hunger and thirst a little Bread Salt and Water being their constant bill of fare their clothes were as mean as their food designed only as a present security against cold and nakedness And this not only the case of men but of pious and devout Women that lived though separately among them that they religiously observed every Seventh Day and especially the preparatory Week to the great solemnity which they kept with all expressions of a more severe abstinence and devotion This and much more he has in that Tract concerning them 3. THESE excellent Persons Eusebius peremptorily affirms to have been Christians converted and brought under these admirable Rules and Institutions of Life by S. Mark at his coming hither accommodating all passages to the Manners and Discipline of Christians followed herein by Epiphanius Hierom and others of old as by Baronius and some others of later time and this so far taken for granted that many have hence fetched the rise of Monasteries and Religious Orders among Christians But whoever seriously and impartially considers Philo's account will plainly find that he intends it of Jews and Professors of the Mosaick Religion though whether Essenes or of some other particular Sect among them I stand not to determine That they were not Christians is evident besides that Philo gives not the least intimation of it partly because it is improbable that Philo being a Jew should give so great a character and commendation of Christians so hateful to the Jews at that time in all places of the World partly in that Philo speaks of them as an Institution of some considerable standing whereas Christians had but lately appeared in the World and were later come into Egypt partly because many parts of Philo's account does no way suit with the state and manners of Christians at that time as that they withdrew themselves from publick converse and all affairs of civil life which Christians never did but when forced by violent Persecutions for ordinarily as Justin Martyr and Tertullian tell us they promiscuously dwelt in Towns and Cities plowed their Lands and followed their Trades ate and drank and were clothed and habited like other men So when he says that besides the Books of Moses and the Prophets they had the Writings of the Ancient Authors of their Sect and Institution this cannot be meant of Christians for though Eusebius would understand it of the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles yet besides that there were few of them published when Philo wrote this discourse they were however of too late an Edition to come under the character of ancient Authors Not to say that some of their Rites and Customs were such as the Christians of those days were mere strangers to not taken up by the Christian Church till many Years and some of them not till some Ages after Nay some of them never used by any of the Primitive Christians such were their religious dances which they had at their Festival Solemnities especially that great one which they held at the end of every Seven Weeks when their entertainment being ended they all rose up the Men in one Company and the Women in another dancing with various measures and motions each Company singing Divine Hymns and Songs and having a Precentor going before them now one singing and anon another till in the conclusion they joyned in one common Chorus in imitation of the triumphant Song sung by Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red Sea To all which let me add what a Learned Man has observed that the Essenes if Philo means them were great Physicians thence probably called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Healers though Philo who is apt to turn all things into Allegory refers it only to their