being more usual in those times than for persons excommunicate and cut off from the body of the Church to be presently arrested by Satan as the common Serjeant and Executioner and by him either actually possessed or tormented in their bodies by some diseases which he brought upon them And indeed this severe discipline was no more than necessary in those times when Christianity was wholly destitute of any civil or coercive power to beget and keep up a due reverence and regard to the sentence and determinations of the Church and to secure the Laws of Religion and the holy censures from being sleighted by every bold and contumacious offender And this effect we find it had after the dreadful instance of Ananias and Saphira Great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things To what has been said concerning these Apostolical gifts let me further observe That they had not only these gifts residing in themselves but a power to bestow them upon others so that by imposition of hands or upon hearing and embracing the Apostle's doctrine and being baptized into the Christian Faith they could confer these miraculous powers upon persons thus qualified to receive them whereby they were in a moment enabled to speak divers Languages to Prophesie to Interpret and do other miracles to the admiration and astonishment of all that heard and saw them A priviledge peculiar to the Apostles for we do not find that any inferiour Order of gifted persons were intrusted with it And therefore as Chrysostom well observes though Philip the Deacon wrought great miracles at Samaria to the conversion of many yea to the conviction of Simon Magus himself yet the Holy Ghost fell upon none of them only they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus till Peter and John came down to them who having prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost they laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost Which when the Magician beheld he offered the Apostles money to enable him that on whom soever he laid his hands he might derive these miraculous powers upon them XIV Having seen how fitly furnished the Apostles were for the execution of their Office let us in the last place enquire into its duration and continuance And here it must be considered that in the Apostolical Office there was something extraordinary and something ordinary What was extraordinary was their immediate Commission derived from the mouth of Christ himself their unlimited charge to preach the Gospel up and down the World without being tied to any particular places the supernatural and miraculous powers conferr'd upon them as Apostles their infallible guidance in delivering the doctrines of the Gospel and these all expired and determined with their persons The standing and perpetual part of it was to teach and instruct the People in the duties and principles of Religion to administer the Sacraments to constitute Guides and Officers and to exercise the discipline and government of the Church and in these they are succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides who were to superintend and discharge the affairs and offices of the Church to the end of the World Whence it is that Bishops and Governours came to be styled Apostles as being their successors in ordinary for so they frequently are in the writings of the Church Thus Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus is called an Apostle Clemens of Rome Clemens the Apostle S. Mark Bishop of Alexandria by Eusebius styled both an Apostle and Evangelist Ignatius a Bishop and Apostle A title that continued in after Ages especially given to those that were the first planters or restorers of Christianity in any Country In the Coptick Kalendar published by Mr. Selden the VIIth day of the month Baschnes answering to our Second of May is dedicated to the memory of S. Athanasius the Apostle Acacius and Paulus in their Letter to Epiphanius style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Apostle and Preacher and Sidonius Apollinaris writing to Lupus Bishop of Troyes in France speaks of the honour due to his eminent Apostleship An observation which it were easie enough to confirm by abundant instances were it either doubtful in it self or necessary to my purpose but being neither I forbear Joan. Euchait Metropolitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE LIFE OF S. PETER St. PETER He was crucified at Rome with his head down-wards and Buried in the Vatican there S. Hierom. after he had planted a Christian Church first at Antioch and afterwards at Rome S. Peter 's Martyrdom Ioh. 21.18.19 Verily verily I say unto thee when thou most young thou girdedst thy self walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands another shall gird thee carry thee whither thou wouldst not This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God SECT I. Of S. Peter from his Birth till his First coming to Christ. Bethsaida S. Peter 's Birth-place Its dignity of old and fate at this day The time of his Birth enquired into Some Errors noted concerning it His names Cephas the imposing of it notes on Superiority over the rest of the Apostles The custom of Popes assuming a new Name at their Election to the Papacy whence His kindred and relations whether He or Andrew the elder Brother His Trade and way of life what before his coming to Christ. The Sea of Galilee and the conveniency of it The meanness and obscurity of his Trade The remarkable appearances of the Divine Providence in propagating Christianity in the World by mean and unlikely Instruments THE Land of Palestine was at and before the coming of our Blessed Saviour distinguished into three several Provinces Judaea Samaria and Galilee This last was divided into the Upper and the Lower In the Upper called also Galilee of the Gentiles within the division anciently belonging to the Tribe of Nephthali stood Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village till lately reedified and enlarged by Philip the Tetrarch by him advanced to the place and title of a City replenished with inhabitants and fortified with power and strength and in honour of Julia the daughter of Augustus Caesar by him stiled Julias Situate it was upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee and had a Wilderness on the other side thence called the Desart of Bethsaida whither our Saviour used often to retire the privacies and solitudes of the place advantageously ministring to Divine contemplations But Bethsaida was not so remarkable for this adjoyning Wilderness as it self was memorable for a worse sort of
to places of Office and Authority in the Church 10. A LITTLE before S. Paul's departure from Ephesus we may not improbably suppose that Apollonius Tyancus the famous Philosopher and Magician of the Heathen World a Man remarkable for the strictness of his manners and his sober and regular course of life but especially for the great Miracles said to have been done by him whom therefore the Heathens generally set up as the great Corrival of our Saviour though some of his own pary and particularly Euphratus the Philosopher who lived with him at the same time at Rome accused him for doing his strange feats by Magick came to Ephesus The enemy of Mankind probably designing to obstruct the propagation of Christianity by setting up one who by the Arts of Magick might at least in the Vogue and estimation of the People equal or eclipse the Miracles of S. Paul Certain it is if we compare times and actions set down by the Writer of his Life we shall find that he came hither about the beginning of Nero's Reign and he particularly sets down the strange things that were done by him especially his clearing the City of a grievous Plague for which the People of Ephesus had him in such veneration that they erected a Statue to him as to a particular Deity and did divine honour to it But whether this was before S. Paul's going thence I will not take upon me to determine it seems most probable to have been done afterwards SECT V. S. Paul's Acts from his departure from Ephesus till his Arraignment before Felix S. Paul 's journey into Macedonia His preaching as far as Illyricum and return into Greece His second Epistle to the Corinthians and what the design of it His first Epistle to Timothy His Epistle to the Romans whence written and with what design S. Paul ' s preaching at Troas and raising Eutychus His summoning the Asian Bishops to Myletus and pathetical discourse to them His stay at Caesarea with Philip the Deacon The Churches passionate disswading him from going to Jerusalem His coming to Jerusalem and compliance with the indifferent Rites of the Mosaick Law and why The tumults raised against him by the Jews and his rescue by the Roman Captain His asserting his Roman freedom His carriage before the Sanhedrim The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees about him The Jews conspiracy against his life discovered His being sent unto Caesarea 1. IT was not long after the tumult at Ephesus when S. Paul having called the Church together and constituted Timothy Bishop of that place took his leave and departed by Troas for Macedonia And at this time it was that as he himself tells us he preached the Gospel round about unto Illyricum since called Sclavonia some parts of Macedonia bordering on that Province From Macedonia he returned back unto Greece where he abode three months and met with Titus lately come with great contributions from the Church at Corinth By whose example he stirr'd up the liberality of the Macedonians who very freely and somewhat beyond their ability contributed to the poor Christians at Jerusalem From Titus he had an account of the present state of the Church at Corinth and by him at his return together with S. Luke he sent his second Epistle to them Wherein he endeavours to set right what his former Epistle had not yet effected to vindicate his Apostleship from that contempt and scorn and himself from those slanders and aspersions which the seducers who had found themselves lasht by his first Epistle had cast upon him together with some other particular cases relating to them Much about the same time he writ his first Epistle to Timothy whom he had left at Ephesus wherein at large he counsels him how to carry himself in the discharge of that great place and authority in the Church which he had committed to him instructs him in the particular qualifications of those whom he should make choice of to be Bishops and Ministers in the Church How to order the Deaconesses and to instruct Servants warning him withall of that pestilent generation of hereticks and seducers that would arise in the Church During his three months stay in Greece he went to Corinth whence he wrote his famous Epistle to the Romans which he sent by Phoebe a Deaconess of the Church of Cenchrea nigh Corinth wherein his main design is fully to state and determine the great controversie between the Jews and Gentiles about the obligation of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Law and those main and material Doctrines of Christianity which did depend upon it such as of Christian liberty the use of indifferent things c. And which is the main end of all Religion instructs them in and presses them to the duties of an holy and good life such as the Christian Doctrine does naturally tend to oblige men to 2. S. PAUL being now resolved for Syria to convey the contributions to the Brethren at Jerusalem was a while diverted from that resolution by a design he was told of which the Jews had to kill and rob him by the way Whereupon he went back into Macedonia and so came to Philippi and thence went to Troas where having staid a week on the Lords-day the Church met together to receive the holy Sacrament Here S. Paul preached to them and continued his discourse till mid-night the longer probably being the next day to depart from them The length of his discourse and the time of the night had caused some of his Auditors to be overtaken with sleep and drowziness among whom a young man called Eutychus being fast asleep fell down from the third story and was taken up dead but whom S. Paul presently restored to life and health How indefatigable was the industry of our Apostle how close did he tread in his Masters steps who went about doing good He compassed Sea and Land preached and wrought miracles where-ever he came In every place like a wise Master-builder he either laid a foundation or raised the superstructure He was instant in season and out of season and spared not his pains either night or day that he might do good to the Souls of men The night being thus spent in holy exercises S. Paul in the morning took his leave and went on foot to Assos a Sea-port Town whither he had sent his company by Sea Thence they set sail to Mytilene from thence to Samos and having staid some little time at Trogyllium the next day came to Myletus not so much as putting in at Ephesus because the Apostle was resolved if possible to be at Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost 3. AT Myletus he sent to Ephesus to summon the Bishops and Governours of the Church who being come he put them in mind with what uprightness and integrity with what affection and humility with how great trouble and danger with how much faithfulness to their Souls he had been conversant among them
IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passeover 14. SECT V. Of S. Peter from the last Passeover till the Death of Christ. 20. SECT VI. Of S. Peter from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension 25. SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the dispersion of the Church 29. SECT VIII Of S. Peter's Acts from the dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch 37. SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred story till his Martyrdom 43. SECT X. The Character of his Person and Temper and an account of his Writings 49. SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome 54. The Life of S. Paul SECT I. Of S. Paul from his Birth till his Conversion Page 61. SECT II. Of S. Paul from his Conversion till the Council at Jerusalem 67. SECT III. Of S. Paul from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem till his departure from Athens 73. SECT IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus 82. SECT V. S. Paul's Acts from his departure from Ephesus till his Arraignment before Felix 88. SECT VI. Of S. Paul from his first Trial before Felix till his coming to Rome 95. SECT VII S. Paul's Acts from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom 101. SECT VIII The description of his Person and Temper together with an account of his Writings 108. SECT IX The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time 116. The Life of S. Andrew Page 131. The Life of S. James the Great 139. The Life of S. John 149. The Life of S. Philip. 163. The Life of S. Bartholomew 169. The Life of S. Matthew Page 175. The Life of S. Thomas Page 183. The Life of S. James the Less 189. The Life of S. Simon the Zealot 197. The Life of S. Jude 201. The Life of S. Matthias 207. The Life of S. Mark the Evangelist 213. The Life of S. Luke the Evangelist 221. Diptycha Apostolica Or an Enumeration of the Apostles and their Successors for the first three hundred years in the five great Churches said to have been founded by them pag. 227. The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick Catholick EPISCOPACY compared with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives Place 〈◊〉 Figure at Page ◠THE INTRODUCTION Christs faithfulness in appointing Officers in his Church The dignity of the Apostles above the rest The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nature of the Apostolick Office considered Respect had in founding it to the custom among the Jews Their Apostoli who The number of the Apostles limited Why twelve the several conjectures of the Ancients Their immediate election Their work wherein it consisted The Universality of their Commission Apostolical Churches what How soon the Apostles propagated Christianity through the World An argument for the Divinity of the Christian Religion inferr'd thence The power conveyed to the Apostles equally given to all Peter 's superiority over the rest disprov'd both from Scripture and Antiquity The Apostles how qualified for their Mission Immediately taught the Doctrine they delivered Infallibly secur'd from Error in delivering it Their constant and familiar converse with their Master Furnished with a power of working Miracles The great evidence of it to prove a Divine Doctrine Miraculous powers conferr'd upon the Apostles particularly considered Prophecy what and when it ceas'd The gift of discerning Spirits The gift of Tongues The gift of Interpretation The unreasonable practice of the Church of Rome in keeping the Scripture and Divine Worship in an Unknown Tongue The gift of Healing Greatly advantageous to Christianity How long it lasted Power of Immediately inflicting corporal punishments and the great benefit of it in those times The Apostles enabled to confer miraculous powers upon others The Duration of the Apostolical Office What in it extraordinary what ordinary Bishops in what sence styled Apostles 1. JESUS CHRIST the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession being appointed by God to be the Supreme Ruler and Governor of his Church was like Moses faithful in all his house but with this honourable advantage that Moses was faithful as a servant Christ as a Son over his own house which he erected established and governed with all possible care and diligence Nor could he give a greater instance either of his fidelity towards God or his love and kindness to the Souls of men than that after he had purchas'd a Family to himself and could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own person he would not return back to Heaven till he had constituted several Orders of Officers in his Church who might superintend and conduct its affairs and according to the various circumstances of its state administer to the needs and exigencies of his Family Accordingly therefore he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The first and prime Class of Officers is that of Apostles God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. First Apostles as far in office as honour before the rest their election more immediate their commission more large and comprehensive the powers and priviledges wherewith they were furnished greater and more honourable Prophecy the gift of Miracles and expelling Daemons the order of Pastors and Teachers were all spiritual powers and ensigns of great authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Chrysostom but the Apostolick eminency is far greater than all these which therefore he calls a spiritual Consulship an Apostle having as great preheminence above all other officers in the Church as the Consul had above all other Magistrates in Rome These Apostles were a few select persons whom our Lord chose out of the rest to devolve part of the Government upon their shoulders and to depute for the first planting and setling Christianity in the World He chose twelve whom he named Apostles of whose Lives and Acts being to give an Historical account in the following work it may not possibly be unuseful to premise some general remarks concerning them not respecting this or that particular person but of a general relation to the whole wherein we shall especially take notice of the importance of the word the nature of the imployment the fitness and qualification of the persons and the duration and continuance of the Office II. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sent is among ancient Writers applied either to things actions or persons To things thus those Dimissory letters that were granted to such who appeal'd from an Inferiour to a Superiour
Revelation is almost intirely made up of Prophecies concerning the future state and condition of the Church Sometimes by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of present concernment to the exigences of the Church as when he signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas for the conversion of the Gentiles and many times immediately designed particular persons to be Pastors and Governours of the Church Thus we read of the gift that was given to Timothy by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery that is his Ordination to which he was particularly pointed out by some prophetick designation But the main use of this prophetick gift in those times was to explain some of the more difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine especially to expound and apply the ancient Prophecies concerning the Messiah and his Kingdom in their publick Assemblies whence the gift of prophecy is explained by understanding all mysteries and all knowledge that is the most dark and difficult places of Scripture the types and figures the ceremonies and prophecies of the Old Testament And thus we are commonly to understand those words Prophets and prophesying that so familiarly occur in the New Testament Having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesie according to the proportion of faith that is expound Scripture according to the generally-received principles of Faith and Life So the Apostle elsewhere prescribing Rules for the decent and orderly managing of Divine worship in their publick Assemblies let the Prophets says he speak two or three that is at the same Assembly and let the other judge and if while any is thus expounding another has a Divine afflatus whereby he is more particularly enabled to explain some difficult and emergent passage let the first hold his peace for ye may all all that have this gift prophesie one by one that so thus orderly proceeding all may learn and all may be comforted Nor can the first pretend that this interruption is an unseasonable check to his revelation seeing he may command himself for though among the Gentiles the prophetick and ecstatick impulse did so violently press upon the inspired Person that he could not govern himself yet in the Church of God the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets may be so ruled and restrained by them as to make way for others This order of Christian Prophets considered as a distinct Ministery by it self is constantly placed next to the Apostolical Office and is frequently by S. Paul preferred before any other spiritual Gifts then bestowed upon the Church When this spirit of Prophecy ceased in the Christian Church we cannot certainly finde It continued some competent time beyond the Apostolick Age. Justin Martyr expresly tells Trypho the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifts of Prophecy are even yet extant among us an argument as he there tells him that those things which had of old been the great Priviledges of their Church were now translated into the Christian Church And Eusebius speaking of a Revelation made to one Alcibiades who lived about the time of Irenaeus adds that the Divine Grace had not withdrawn its Presence from the Church but that they still had the Holy Ghost as their Counsellor to direct them XI Secondly They had the gift of discerning spirits whereby they were enabled to discover the truth or falshood of mens pretences whether their gifts were real or counterfeit and their persons truly inspired or not For many men acted only by diabolical impulses might entitle themselves to Divine inspirations and others might be imposed upon by their delusions and mistake their dreams and fancies for the Spirits dictates and revelations or might so subtilly and artificially counterfeit revelations that they might with most pass for currant especially in those times when these supernatural gifts were so common and ordinary and our Lord himself had frequently told them that false Prophets would arise and that many would confidently plead for themselves before him that they had prophesied in his name That therefore the Church might not be imposed upon God was pleased to endue the Apostles and it may be some others with an immediate faculty of discerning the Caffe from the Wheat true from false Prophets nay to know when the true Prophets delivered the revelations of the Spirit and when they expressed only their own conceptions This was a mighty priviledge but yet seems to me to have extended farther to judge of the sincerity or hypocrisie of mens hearts in the profession of Religion that so bad men being discovered suitable censures and punishments might be passed upon them and others cautioned to avoid them Thus Peter at first sight discovered Ananias and Saphira and the rotten hypocrisie of their intentions before there was any external evidence in the case and told Simon Magus though baptized before upon his embracing Christianity that his heart was not right in the sight of God for I perceive says he that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Thirdly the Apostles had the gift of Tongues furnished with variety of utterance able to speak on a sudden several Languages which they had never learnt as occasion was administred and the exigences of persons and Nations with whom they conversed did require For the Apostles being principally designed to convert the World and to plant Christianity in all Countries and Nations it was absolutely necessary that they should be able readily to express their minds in the Languages of those Countries to which they addressed themselves seeing otherwise it would have been a work of time and difficulty and not consistent with the term of the Apostles lives had they been first to learn the different Languages of those Nations before they could have preached the Gospel to them Hence this gift was diffused upon the Apostles in larger measures and proportions than upon other men I speak with Tongues more than you all says S. Paul that is than all the gifted persons in the Church of Corinth Our Lord had told the Apostles before his departure from them that they should be endued with power from on high which upon the day of Pentecost was particularly made good in this instance when in a moment they were enabled to speak almost all the Languages of the then known World and this as a specimen and first-fruits of the rest of those miraculous powers that were conferr'd upon them XII A fourth gift was that of Interpretation or unfolding to others what had been delivered in an unknown tongue For the Christian Assemblies in those days were frequently made up of men of different Nations and who could not understand what the Apostles or others had spoken to the Congregation this God supplied by this gift of interpretation enabling some to interpret what others did not understand and to speak it to
and had preached the Gospol to them ever since his first coming into those parts That he had not failed to acquaint them both publickly and privately with whatever might be useful and profitable to them urging both upon Jews and Gentiles repentance and reformation of life and an hearty entertainment of the Faith of Christ That now he was resolved to go to Jerusalem where he did not know what particular sufferings would befall him more than this That it had been foretold him in every place by those who were endued with the Prophetical gifts of the Holy Ghost that afflictions and imprisonment would attend him there But that he was not troubled at this no nor unwilling to lay down his life so he might but successfully preach the Gospel and faithfully serve his Lord in that place and station wherein he had set him That he knew that henceforth they should see his face no more but that this was his encouragement and satisfaction that they themselves could bear him witness that he had not by concealing from them any parts of the Christian Doctrine betray'd their Souls That as for themselves whom God had made Bishops and Pastors of his Church they should be careful to feed guide and direct those Christians under their inspection and be infinitely tender of the good of Souls for whose redemption Christ laid down his own life That all the care they could use was no more than necessary it being certain that after his departure Heretical Teachers would break in among them and endanger the ruine of mens Souls nay that even among themselves there would some arise who by subtil and crafty methods by corrupt and pernicious Doctrines would gain Proselytes to their party and thereby make Rents and Schisms in the Church That therefore they should watch remembring with what tears and sorrow he had for three years together warned them of these things That now he recommended them to the Divine care and goodness and to the rules and instructions of the Gospel which if adhered to would certainly dispose and perfect them for that state of happiness which God had prepared for good men in Heaven In short that he had all a-long dealt faithfully and uprightly with them they might know from hence that in all his preaching he had no crafty or covetous designs upon any man's Estate or Riches having as themselves could witness industriously laboured with his own hands and by his own work maintained both himself and his company Herein leaving them an example what pains they ought to take to support the weak and relieve the poor rather than to be themselves chargeable unto others according to that incomparable saying of our Saviour which surely S. Paul had received from some of those that had conversed with him in the days of his flesh It is more blessed to give than to receive This Concio ad Clerum or Visitation-Sermon being ended the Apostle kneeled down and concluded all with Prayer Which done they all melted into tears and with the greatest expressions of sorrow attended him to the Ship though that which made the deepest impression upon their minds was that he had told them That they should see his face no more 4. DEPARTING from Myletus they arrived at Coos thence came to Rhodes thence to Patara thence to Tyre where meeting with some Christians he was advised by those among them who had the gift of Prophecy that he should not go up to Jerusalem with them he staid a week and then going all together to the shore he kneeled down and prayed with them and having mutually embraced one another he went on board and came to Ptolemais where only saluting the Brethren they came next day unto Caesarea Here they lodged in the house of Philip the Evangelist one of the seven Deacons that were at first set apart by the Apostles who had four Virgin-daughters all endued with the gift of prophecy During their stay in this place Agabus a Christian Prophet came down hither from Judaea who taking Paul's girdle bound with it his own hands and feet telling them that by this external Symbol the Holy Ghost did signifie and declare that S. Paul should be thus serv'd by the Jews at Jerusalem and be by them delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles Whereupon they all passionately besought him that he would divert his course to some other place The Apostle ask'd them what they meant by these compassionate disswasives to add more affliction to his sorrow that he was willing and resolved not only to be imprisoned but if need were to die at Jerusalem for the sake of Christ and his Religion Finding his resolution fixed and immoveable they importuned him no further but left the event to the Divine will and pleasure All things being in readiness they set forwards on their journey and being come to Jerusalem were kindly and joyfully entertained by the Christians there 5. THE next day after their arrival S. Paul and his company went to the house of S. James the Apostle where the rest of the Bishops and Governours of the Church were met together after mutual salutations he gave them a particular account with what success God had blessed him in propagating Christianity among the Gentiles for which they all heartily blessed God but withall told him that he was now come to a place where there were many thousands of Jewish converts who all retained a mighty zeal and veneration for the Law of Moses and who had been informed of him that he taught the Jews whom he had converted in every place to renounce Circumcision and the Ceremonies of the Law That as soon as the multitude heard of his arrival they would come together to see how he behaved himself in this matter and therefore to prevent so much disturbance it was advisable that there being four men there at that time who were to accomplish a Vow probably not the Nazarite-vow but some other which they had made for deliverance from sickness or some other eminent danger and distress for so Josephus tells us they were wont to do in such cases and before they came to offer the accustomed Sacrifices to abstain for some time from Wine and to shave their heads he would joyn himself to them perform the usual Rites and Ceremonies with them and provide such Sacrifices for them as the Law required in that case and that in discharge of their Vow they might shave their heads Whereby it would appear that the reports which were spread concerning him were false and groundless and that he himself did still observe the Rites and Orders of the Mosaical Institution That as for the Gentile converts they required no such observances at their hands nor expected any thing more from them in these indifferent matters than what had been before determined by the Apostolical Synod in that place S. Paul who in such things was willing to become all things to all men that he might gain the
thereupon made them understand 't was Judas whom he designed by the Traitor This favour our Apostle endeavoured in some measure to answer by returns of particular kindness and constancy to our Saviour staying with him when the rest deserted him Indeed upon our Lord's first apprehension he fled after the other Apostles it not being without some probabilities of reason that the Ancients conceive him to have been that young man that followed after Christ having a linnen cloath cast about his naked body whom when the Officers laid hold upon he left the linnen cloath and fled naked from them This in all likelihood was that garment that he had cast about him at Supper for they had peculiar Vestments for that purpose and being extremely affected with the Treason and our Lord 's approaching Passion had forgot to put on his other garments but followed him into the Garden in the same habit wherewith he arose from the Table it being then night and so less liable to be taken notice of either by himself or others But though he fled at present to avoid that sudden violence that was offered to him yet he soon recovered himself and returned back to seek his Master confidently entred into the High-Priests Hall and followed our Lord through the several passages of his Trial and at last waited upon him and for any thing we know was the only Apostle that did so at his Execution owning him as well as being own'd by him in the midst of arms and guards and in the thickest crowds of his most inveterate enemies Here it was that our Lord by his last Will and Testament made upon the Cross appointed him Guardian of his own Mother the Blessed Virgin When he saw his Mother and the Disciple standing by whom he loved he said unto his Mother Woman behold thy Son see here is one that shall supply my place and be to thee instead of a Son to love and honour thee to provide and take care for thee and to the Disciple he said Behold thy Mother Her whom thou shalt henceforth deal with treat and observe with that duty and honourable regard which the relation of an indulgent Mother challenges from a pious and obedient Son whereupon he took her into his own House her Husband Joseph being some time since dead and made her a principal part of his charge and care And certainly the Holy Jesus could not have given a more honourable testimony of his particular respect and kindness to S. John than to commit his own Mother whom of all earthly Relations he held most dear and valuable to his trust and care and to substitute him to supply that duty which he himself paid her while he was here below 3. AT the first news of our Lord's return from the dead he accompanied with Peter presently hasted to the Sepulchre Indeed there seems to have been a mutual intimacy between these two Apostles more than the rest 'T was to Peter that S. John gave the notice of Christ's appearing when he came to them at the Sea of Tiberias in the habit of a stranger and it was for John that Peter was so solicitously inquisitive to know what should become of him After Christ's Ascension we find these two going up to the Temple at the Hour of Prayer and miraculously healing the poor impotent Cripple both Preaching to the People and both apprehended together by the Priests and Sadducees and thrown into Prison and the next Day brought forth to plead their cause before the Sanhedrim These were the two chosen by the Apostles to send down to Samaria to settle and confirm the Plantations which Philip had made in those Parts where they confounded and baffled Simon the Magician and set him in an hopeful way to repentance To these S. Paul addressed himself as those that seemed to be Pillars among the rest who accordingly gave him the right hand of fellowship and confirmed his mission to the Gentiles 4. IN the division of Provinces which the Apostles made among themselves Asia fell to his share though he did not presently enter upon his charge otherwise we must needs have heard of him in the account which S. Luke gives of Paul's several Journies into and residence in those parts Probable therefore it is that he dwelt still in his own House at Jerusalem at least till the death of the Blessed Virgin and this is plainly asserted by Nicephorus from the account of those Historians that were before him whose death says Eusebius hapned Ann. Chr. XLVIII about Fifteen Years after our Lord's Ascension Some time probably Years after her death he took his Journey into Asia and industriously applied himself to the propagating Christianity Preaching where the Gospel had not yet taken place and confirming it where it was already planted Many Churches of note and eminency were of his foundation Smyrna Pergamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia Laodicea and others but his chief place of residence was at Ephesus where S. Paul had many Years before settled a Church and constituted Timothy Bishop of it Nor can we suppose that he confined his Ministry meerly to Asia Minor but that he Preached in other Parts of the East probably in Parthia his first Epistle being anciently intitled to them and the Jesuits in the relation of their success in those Parts assure us that the Bassorae a People of India constantly affirm from a Tradition received from their Ancestors that S. John Planted the Christian Faith there 5. HAVING spent many Years in this employment he was at length accused to Domitian who had begun a Persecution against the Christians as an eminent assertor of Atheism and impiety and a publick subverter of the Religion of the Empire By his command the Proconsul of Asia sent him bound to Rome where his treatment was what might be expected from so bloudy and barbarous a Prince he was cast into a Cauldron of boyling Oyl or rather Oyl set on Fire But that Divine Providence that secured the three Hebrew Captives in the flames of a burning Furnace brought this holy Man safe out of this one would have thought unavoidable destruction An instance of so signal preservation as had been enough to perswade a considering Man that there must be a Divinity in that Religion that had such mighty and solemn attestations But Miracles themselves will not convince him that 's fallen under an hard heart and an injudicious mind The cruel Emperor was not satisfied with this but presently orders him to be banished and transported into an Island This was accounted a kind of capital punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Pachymer speaking of this very instance where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not to be understood as extending to life but loss of priviledge Therefore this punishment in the Roman Laws is called Capitis diminutio and it was the second sort of it because the Person thus banished was disfranchised and the City thereby lost an head
written no doubt at Rome at the end of Paul's two Years imprisonment there with which he concludes his story it contains the Actions and sometimes the sufferings of some principal Apostles especially S. Paul for besides that his activity in the cause of Christ made him bear a greater part both in doing and suffering S. Luke was his constant attendant an eye-witness of the whole carriage of his life and privy to his most intimate transactions and therefore capable of giving a more full and satisfactory account and relation of them seeing no evidence or testimony in matters of fact can be more rational and convictive than his who reports nothing but what he has heard and seen Among other things he gives us a particular account of those great miracles which the Apostles did for the confirmation of their doctrine And this as Chrysostom informs us was the reason why in the Primitive times the Book of the Acts though containing those Actions of the Apostles that were done after Pentecost were yet usually read in the Church before it in the space between that and Easter when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season it was says he because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christ's Resurrection and those Miracles recorded in that Book it was therefore thought most proper to be read next to the feast of the Resurrection In both these Books his way and manner of writing is exact and accurate his stile polite and elegant sublime and lofty and yet clear and perspicuous flowing with an easie and natural grace and sweetness admirably accommodate to an historical design all along expressing himself in a vein of purer Greek than is to be found in the other Writers of the Holy Story Indeed being born and bred at Antioch than which no place more famous for Oratory and Eloquence he could not but carry away a great share of the native genius of that place though his stile is sometimes allayed with a tang of the Syriack and Hebrew dialect It was observed of old as S. Hierom tells us that his skill was greater in Greek than Hebrew that therefore he always makes use of the Septuagint Translation and refuses sometimes to render words when the propriety of the Greek Tongue will not bear it In short as an Historian he was faithful in his relations elegant in his Writings as a Minister careful and diligent for the good of Souls as a Christian devout and pious and who crowned all the rest with the laying down his life for the testimony of that Gospel which he had both Preached and Published to the World The End of S. Luke ' s Life DYPTYCHA APOSTOLICA OR A Brief Enumeration and Account of the APOSTLES and their SUCCESSORS FOR THE First Three Hundred Years in the Five Great Churches said to have been Founded by them thence called by the Ancients APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES VIZ. Antioch Rome Jerusalem Byzantium or Constantinople and Alexandria ANTIOCH THIS I place first partly because 't is generally acknowledged even by the Romish Writers that a Church was founded here by S. Peter some considerable time before that at Rome partly because here it was that the Venerable name of Christians did first commence In which respect the Fathers in the Council at Constantinople under Nectarius in their Synodicon to them at Rome stile the Church of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most Ancient and truly Apostolical and S. Chrysostom The head of the whole World The Succession of its Bishops till the time of Constantine which shall be the Boundary of this Catalogue was as followeth I. S. Peter the Apostle who governed this Church at least 7. Years Nicephorus of Constantinople says Eleven II. Euodius who sat 23. Years In his time the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch III. Ignatius After near 40. Years Presidency over this Church he was carried out of Syria to Rome and there thrown to wild Beasts in the Theatre Ann. Chr. 110. Trajan 11. IV. Heron he was Bishop 20. Years To him succeeded V. Corneliu◠who kept the place 13. Years dying Ann. Chr. 142. VI. Eros 26 or as Eusebius 24. years VII Theophilus 13. a man of great Parts and Learning many of his Works were extant in Eusebius his time and some of them we still have at this day VIII Maximinus 13. he dying the next that was chosen was IX Serapio 25. many of his Works are mentioned by Eusebius and S. Hierom. To him succeeded X. Asclepiades a man of great worth and eminency and invincible constancy in the time of persecution he continued in this See 9. years XI Philetus 8. XII Zebinus or Zebennus he sat 6. years XIII Babylas 13. after many conflicts and sufferings for the Faith he received the crown of Martyrdom under Decius and commanded his Chains to be buried with him XIV Fabius or as the Patriarch Nicephorus calls him Flavius possessed the Chair 9. years He was a little inclining towards Novatianism XV. Demetrianus he sat Bishop says Nicephorus 4 says Eusebius 8. years XVI Paulus Samosatenus sat in the chair 8. years when for his Unepiscopal manners and practices his unfound Dogmata and principles and especially his mean and unworthy opinions concerning our Saviour he was condemned and deposed by a Synod at Antioch whose Synodical determination is at large extant in Eusebius XVII Domnus succeeded in the place of the deposed He was son to Demetrian Paulus his predecessor in that See constituted and ordained to the place by the Fathers of that Synod who farther give him this honourable character that he was a man indued with all Episcopal vertues and ornaments Eusebius makes him to have sitten 6 Nicephorus but 2. years XVIII Timaeus he sat in the Chair 10. years XIX Cyrillus who presided over that Church in the account of Nicephorus 15 of Eusebius 24. years XX. Tyrannus he sat 13. years in his time began the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian which rag'd with great severity XXI Vitalis 6. XXII Philogonius 5 succeeded by XXIII Paulinus or as Nicephorus calls him Paulus who after five years was deposed and driven out by the prevalency of the Arrian faction XXIV Eustathius formerly Bishop of Beroea a learned man and of great note and eminency in the Council of Nice the first general Council summoned by the Great Constantine after he had restored peace and prosperity to the Church ROME THE foundation of this Church is with just probabilities of reason by many of the Fathers equally attributed to Peter and Paul the one as Apostle of the Circumcision preaching to the Jews while the other probably as the Apostle of the Uncircumcision preached to the Gentiles Its Bishops succeeded in this order I. S. Peter and S. Paul who both suffered Martyrdom under Nero. II. Linus the son of Herculaneus a Tuscan he is mentioned by S. Paul he sat between 11. and 12. years
Coenantibus eis accepit Iesus panem et benedixit at fregit deditque discipulis suis et ait accipite et comedite hoc â—… And as they did eate Iesus tooke the bread and when he had blessed he broke it and gaue it to the Disciples and sayd eate this is my body Matth. 26. Place this before the 〈◊〉 Page Antiquitates Apostolicae OR THE HISTORY OF THE LIVES ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES OF OUR SAVIOUR And the Two EVANGELISTS SS MARK and LVKE To which is added An Introductory Discourse concerning the Three great Dispensations of the Church Patriarchal Mosaical and Evangelical Being a Continuation of ANTIQUITATES CHRISTIANAE OR The Life and Death of the Holy JESVS By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Orig. contr Gelf lib. 1. in Prooem p. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXVI TO THE Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God NATHANAEL Lord BISHOP of DURHAM And Clerk of the Closet to His MAJESTY MY LORD NOTHING but a great experience of Your Lordships Candor could warrant the laying what concernment I have in these Papers at Your Lordships feet Not but that the subject is in it self Great and Venerable and a considerable part of it built upon that Authority that needs no Patronage to defend it But to prefix Your Lordships Name to a subject so thinly and meanly manag'd may perhaps deserve a bigger Apologie than I can make I have only brought some few scattered handfuls of Primitive Story contenting my self to Glean where I could not Reap And I am well assur'd that Your Lordships wisdom and love to Truth would neither allow me to make my Materials nor to trade in Legends and Fabulous reports And yet alas how little solid Foundation is left to Build upon in these matters So fatally mischievous was the carelesness of those who ought to have been the Guardians of Books and Learning in their several Ages in suffering the Records of the Ancient Church to perish Vnfaithful Trustees to look no better after such Divine and inestimable Treasures committed to them Not to mention those infinite Devastations that in all Ages have been made by Wars and Flames which certainly have prov'd the most severe and merciless Plagues and Enemies to Books By such unhappy accidents as these we have been robb'd of the Treasures of the wiser and better Ages of the World and especially the Records of the first times of Christianity whereof scarce any footsteps do remain So that in this Enquiry I have been forc'd to traverse remote and desert paths ways that afford little fruit to the weary Passenger but the consideration that it was Primitive and Apostolical sweetned my journey and rendred it pleasant and delightful Our inbred thirst after knowledge naturally obliges us to pursue the notices of former times which are recommended to us with this peculiar advantage that the Stream must needs be purer and clearer the nearer it comes to the Fountain for the Ancients as Plato speaks were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 better than we and dwelt nearer to the Gods And though 't is true the state of those times is very obscure and dark and truth oft covered over with heaps of idle and improbable Traditions yet may it be worth our labour to seek for a few Jewels though under a whole heap of Rubbish Is not the Gleaning of the Ancients say the Jews better than the Vintage of later times The very fragments of Antiquity are Venerable and at once instruct our minds and gratifie our curiosity Besides I was somewhat the more inclinable to retire again into these studies that I might get as far as I could from the crowd and the noise of a quarrelsome and contentious Age. MY LORD We live in times wherein Religion is almost wholly disputed into talk and clamour men wrangle eternally about useless and insignificant Notions and which have no tendency to make a man either wiser or better And in these quarrels the Laws of Charity are violated and men persecute one another with hard names and characters of reproach and after all consecrate their fierceness with the honourable title of Zeal for Truth And what is yet a much sorer evil the Peace and Order of an excellent Church incomparably the best that ever was since the first Ages of the Gospel is broken down her holy Offices derided her solemn Assemblies deserted her Laws and Constitutions slighted the Guides and Ministers of Religion despised and reduc'd to their Primitive Character The Scum and Off-scouring of the World How much these evils have contributed to the Atheism and Impiety of the present Age I shall not take upon me to determine Sure I am the thing it self is too sadly visible men are not content to be modest and retired Atheists and with the Fool to say only in their hearts there is no God but Impiety appears with an open forehead and disputes its place in every company and without any regard to the Voice of Nature the Dictates of Conscience and the common sence of Mankind men peremptorily determine against a Supreme Being account it a pleasant divertisement to Droll upon Religion and a piece of Wit to plead for Atheism To avoid the Press and troublesome importunity of such uncomfortable Reflections I find no better way than to retire into those Primitive and better times those first and purest Ages of the Gospel when men really were what they pretended to be when a solid Piety and Devotion a strict Temperance and Sobriety a Catholick and unbounded Charity an exemplary Honesty and Integrity a great reverence for every thing that was Divine and Sacred rendred Christianity Venerable to the World and led not only the Rude and the Barbarous but the Learned and Politer part of Mankind in triumph after it But My Lord I must remember that the Minutes of great Men are Sacred and not to be invaded by every tedious impertinent address I have done when I have begg'd leave to acquaint Your Lordship that had it not been more through other mens fault than my own these Papers had many Months since waited upon You in the number of those Publick Congratulations which gave You joy of that great Place which You worthily sustain in the Church Which that You may long and prosperously enjoy happily adorn and successfully discharge to the honour of God the benefit of the Church and the endearing Your Lordships Memory to Posterity is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your Lordships faithfully devoted Servant WILLIAM CAVE TO THE READER THE design of the following APPARATUS is only to present the Reader with a short Scheme of the state of things in the preceding periods of the Church to let him see by what degrees and measures the Evangelical state was introduc'd and what Methods God in all Ages made use of to conduct Mankind
plainly confessed that he could be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to die a thousand times over were he but assured that those things were true and being condemned concludes his Apologie with this farewell And now Gentlemen I am going off the stage it 's your lot to live and mine to die but whether of us two shall fare better is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown to any but to God alone But our blessed Saviour has put the case past all peradventure having plainly published this doctrine to the World and sealed the truth of it and that by raising others from the dead and especially by his own Resurrection and Ascension which were the highest pledge and assurance of a future Immortality But besides the security he hath given the clearest account of the nature of it 'T is very probable that the Jews generally had of old as 't is certain they have at this day the most gross and carnal apprehensions concerning the state of another Life But to us the Gospel has perspicuously revealed the invisible things of the other World told us what that Heaven is which is promised to good men a state of spiritual joys of chaste and rational delights a conformity of ours to the Divine Nature a being made like to God and an endless and uninterrupted communion with him 9. BUT because in our lapsed and degenerate state we are very unable without some foreign assistance to attain the promised rewards hence arises in the next place another great priviledge of the Evangelical Oeconomy that it is blessed with larger and more abundant communications of the Divine Spirit than was afforded under the Jewish state Under the one it was given by drops under the other it is poured forth The Law laid heavy and hard commands but gave little strength to do them it did not assist humane nature with those powerful aids that are necessary for us in our present state it could do nothing in that it was weak through the flesh and by reason of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof it could make nothing perfect 'T was this made it an heavy yoke when the commands of it were uncouth and troublesome and the assistances so small and inconsiderable Whereas now the Gospel does not only prescribe such Laws as are happily accommodate to the true temper of humane nature and adapted to the reason of mankind such as every wise and prudent man must have pitched upon but it affords the influences of the Spirit of God by whose assistance our vitiated faculties are repaired and we enabled under so much weakness and in the midst of so many temptations to hold on in the paths of piety and vertue Hence it is that the plentiful effusions of the Spirit were reserved as the great blessing of the Evangelical state that God would then pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground that he would pour out his Spirit upon their seed and his blessing upon their off-spring whereby they should spring up as among the grass as willows by the water-courses That he would give them a new heart and put his Spirit within them and cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his judgments to do them And this is the meaning of those branches of the Covenant so oft repeated I will put my Law into their minds and write it in their hearts that is by the help of my Grace and Spirit I 'le enable them to live according to my Laws as readily and willingly as if they were written in their hearts For this reason the Law is compared to a dead letter the Gospel to the Spirit that giveth life thence stiled the ministration of the Spirit and as such said to exceed in glory and that to such a degree that what glory the Legal Dispensation had in this case is eclipsed into nothing For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth for if that which was done away was glorious much more that which remaineth is glorious Hence the Spirit is said to be Christ's peculiar mission I will pray the Father and he will send you another comforter even the Spirit of truth which was done immediately after his Ascension when he ascended up on high and gave gifts to men even the Holy Ghost which he shed on them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified Not but that he was given before even under the old Oeconomy but not in those large and diffusive measures wherein it was afterwards communicated to the World 10. FIFTHLY The Dispensation of the Gospel had a better establishment and confirmation than that of the Law for though the Law was introduced with great scenes of pomp and Majesty yet was the Gospel ushered in by more kindly and rational methods ratified by more and greater miracles whereby our Lord unquestionably evinced his Divine Commission and shewed that he came from God doing more miracles in three years than were done through all the periods of the Jewish Church and many of them such as were peculiar to him alone He often raised the dead which Moses never did commanded the winds and waves of the Sea expelled Devils out of Lunaticks and possessed persons who fled assoon as ever he commanded them to be gone cured many inveterate and chronical distempers with the speaking of a word and some without a word spoken vertue silently going out from him He searched men's hearts and revealed the most secret transactions of their minds had this miraculous power always residing in him and could exert it when and upon what occasions he pleased and impart it to others communicating it to his Apostles and followers and to the Primitive Christians for the three first Ages of the Church he never exerted it in methods of dread and terror but in doing such miracles as were highly useful and beneficial to the World And as if all this had not been enough he laid down his own life after all to give testimony to it Covenants were ever wont to be ratified with bloud and the death of sacrifices But when our Lord came to introduce the Covenant of the Gospel he did not consecrate it with the bloud of Bulls and Goats but with his own most precious bloud as of a Lamb without spot and blemish And could he give a greater testimony to the truth of his doctrine and those great things he had promised to the World than to seal it with his bloud Had not these things been so 't were infinitely unreasonable to suppose that a person of so much wisdom and goodness as our Saviour was should have made the World believe so and much less would he have chosen to die for it and that the most acute and ignominious death But he died and rose again for us and appeared after his Resurrection His
of our dependance upon God in the publick Solemnities of his praise and worship For the Law and the Gospel did not differ in this that the one commanded publick worship the other not but that under the one publick worship was fixed to one only place under the other it is free to any where the providence of God has placed us it being part of the duty bound upon us by natural and unalterable obligations that we should publickly meet together for the solemn Celebration of the Divine honour and service 13. NOR is the Oeconomy of the Gospel less extensive in time than place the Old Testament was only a temporary dispensation that of the Gospel is to last to the end of the World the Law was to continue only for a little time the Gospel is an Everlasting Covenant the one to be quickly antiquated and abolished the other never to be done away by any other to succeed it The Jews indeed stickle hard for the perpetual and immutable obligation of the Law of Moses and frequently urge us with those places where the Covenant of Circumcision is called an Everlasting Covenant and God said to chuse the Temple at Jerusalem to place his name there for ever to give the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession thus the Law of the Passeover is called an Ordinance for ever the command of the First-fruits a statute for ever and the like in other places which seem to intimate a perpetual and unalterable Dispensation But the answer is short and plain that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever though when 't is applied to God it always denotes Eternity yet when 't is attributed to other things it implies no more than a periodical duration limited according to the will of the Lawgiver or the nature of the thing thus the Hebrew Servant was to serve his Master for ever that is but for seven years till the next year of Jubilee He shall walk before mine anointed for ever says God concerning Samuel that i◠be a Priest all his days Thus when the Ritual services of the Mosaick Law are called Statutes for ever the meaning is that they should continue a long time obligatory until the time of the Messiah in whose days the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease and those carnal Ceremonies to give way to the more spiritual services of the Gospel Indeed the very typical nature of that Dispensation evidently argued it to be but for a time the shadow being to cease that the substance might take place and though many of them continued some considerable time after Christ's death yet they lost their positive and obligatory power and were used only as things indifferent in compliance with the inveterate prejudices of new Converts lately brought over from Judaism and who could not quickly lay aside that great veneration which they had for the Rites of the Mosaick Institution Though even in this respect it was not long before all Jewish Ceremonies were thrown off and Moses quite turn'd out of doors Whereas the Evangelical state is to run parallel with the age and duration of the World 't is the Everlasting Covenant the Everlasting Gospel the last Dispensation that God will make to the World God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son in which respect the Gospel in opposition to the Law is stiled a Kingdom that cannot be moved The Apostle in the foregoing Verses speaking concerning the Mosaical state Whose voice says he then shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also the Heaven a phrase peculiar to the Scripture to note the introducing a new scene and state of things and this word Yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain that is that the state of the Gospel may endure for ever Hence Christ is said to have an unchangeable Priesthood to be a Priest for ever to be consecrated for evermore From all which it appears how incomparably happy we Christians are under the Gospel above what the Jews were in the time of the Law God having placed us under the best of Dispensations freed us from those many nice and troublesome observances to which they were tied put us under the clearest discoveries and revelations and given us the most noble rational and masculine Religion a Religion the most perfective of our natures and the most conducive to our happiness while their Covenant at best was faulty and after all could not make him that did the service perfect in things pertaining to the Conscience Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see for I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them The End of the APPARATUS Antiquitates Apostolicae OR THE LIVES ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES OF OUR SAVIOUR To which are added The Lives of the two EVANGELISTS SS MARK and LVKE AS ALSO A brief Enumeration and Account of the Apostles and their Successors for the first Three Hundred Years in the Five great Apostolical Churches By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Euseb. H. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Praefat. in Epist. ad Philem. pag. 1733. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXVI TO THE READER IT will not I suppose seem improbable to the Reader when I tell him with how much reluctancy and unwillingness I set upon this undertaking Besides the disadvantage of having this piece annexed to the Elaborate Book of that excellent Prelate so great a Master both of Learning and Language I was intimately conscious to my own unfitness for such a Work at any time much more when clogg'd with many habitual Infirmities and Distempers I considered the difficulty of the thing it self perhaps not capable of being well managed by a much better Pen than mine few of the Ancient Monuments of the Church being extant and little of this nature in those few that are Indeed I could not but think it reasonable that all possible honour should be done to those that first Preached the Gospel of peace and brought glad tidings of good things that it was fit men should be taught how much they were obliged to those excellent Persons who were willing at so dear a rate to plant Christianity in the World who they were and what was that Piety and that Patience that Charity and that Zeal which made them to be reverenc'd while they liv'd and their Memories ever since to be
Judicature were in the language of the Roman Laws usually called Apostoli thus a Packet-boat was styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because sent up and down for advice and dispatch of business thus though in somewhat a different sence the lesson taken out of the Epistles is in the Ancient Greek Liturgies called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because usually taken out of the Apostles Writings Sometimes it is applied to actions and so imports no more than mission or the very act of sending thus the setting out a Fleet or a Naval expedition was wont to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Suidas tells us that as the persons designed for the care and management of the Fleet were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the very sending forth of the Ships themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly what principally falls under our present consideration it is applied to persons and so imports no more than a messenger a person sent upon some special errand for the discharge of some peculiar affair in his name that sent him Thus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle or Messenger of the Philippians when sent by them to S. Paul at Rome thus Titus and his Companions are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messengers of the Churches So our Lord he that is sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostle or Messenger is not greater than him that sent him This then being the common notion of the word our Lord fixes it to a particular use applying it to those select persons whom he had made choice of to act by that peculiar authority and commission which he had deriv'd upon them Twelve whom he also named Apostles that is Commissioners those who were to be Embassadors for Christ to be sent up and down the World in his name to plant the Faith to govern and superintend the Church at present and by their wise and prudent settlement of affairs to provide for the future exigencies of the Church III. The next thing then to be considered is the nature of their Office and under this enquiry we shall make these following remarks First it is not to be doubted but that our Lord in founding this Office had some respect to the state of things in the Jewish Church I mean not only in general that there should be superiour and subordinate Officers as there were superiour and inferiour Orders under the Mosaic dispensation but that herein he had an eye to some usage and custom common among them Now among the Jews as all Messengers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apostles so were they wont to dispatch some with peculiar letters of authority Commission whereby they acted as Proxies and Deputies of those that sent them thence their Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man's Apostle is as himself that is whatever he does is look'd upon to be as firm and valid as if the person himself had done it Thus when Saul was sent by the Sanhedrim to Damascus to apprehend the Jewish converts he was furnished with letters from the High-Priest enabling him to act as his Commissary in that matter Indeed Epiphanius tells us of a sort of persons called Apostles who were Assessors and Counsellors to the Jewish Patriarch constantly attending upon him to advise him in matters pertaining to the Law and sent by him as he intimates sometimes to inspect and reform the manners of the Priests and Jewish Clergy and the irregularities of Country-Synagogues with commission to gather the Tenths and First-fruits due in all the Provinces under his jurisdiction Such Apostles we find mention'd both by Julian the Emperor in an Epistle to the Jews and in a Law of the Emperor Honorius imploy'd by the Patriarch to gather once a year the Aurum Coronarium or Crown-Gold a Tribute annually paid by them to the Roman Emperors But these Apostles could not under that notion be extant in our Saviour's time though sure we are there was then something like it Philo the Jew more than once mentioning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sacred messengers annually sent to collect the holy treasure paid by way of First-fruits and to carry it to the Temple at Jerusalem However our Lord in conformity to the general custom of those times of appointing Apostles or Messengers as their Proxies and Deputies to act in their names call'd and denominated those Apostles whom he peculiarly chose to represent his person to communicate his mind and will to the World and to act as Embassadors or Commissioners in his room and stead IV. Secondly We observe that the persons thus deputed by our Saviour were not left uncertain but reduced to a fixed definite number confin'd to the just number of Twelve he ordained twelve that they should be with him A number that seems to carry something of mystery and peculiar design in it as appears in that the Apostles were so careful upon the fall of Judas immediately to supply it The Fathers are very wide and different in their conjectures about the reason of it S. Augustine thinks our Lord herein had respect to the four quarters of the World which were to be called by the preaching of the Gospel which being multiplied by three to denote the Trinity in whose name they were to be called make Twelve Tertullian will have them typified by the twelve fountains in Elim the Apostles being sent out to water and refresh the dry thirsty World with the knowledge of the truth by the twelve precious stones in Aaron's breast-plate to illuminate the Church the garment which Christ our great High-Priest has put on by the twelve stones which Joshua chose out of Jordan to lay up within the Ark of the Testament respecting the firmness and solidity of the Apostles Faith their being chosen by the true Jesus or Joshua at their Baptism in Jordan and their being admitted in the inner Sanctuary of his Covenant By others we are told that it was shadowed out by the twelve Spies taken out of every Tribe and sent to discover the Land of Promise or by the twelve gates of the City in Ezekiel's vision or by the twelve Bells appendant to Aaron's garment their sound going out into all the World and their words unto the ends of the Earth But it were endless and to very little purpose to reckon up all the conjectures of this nature there being scarce any one number of Twelve mentioned in the Scripture which is not by some of the Ancients adapted and applied to this of the Twelve Apostles wherein an ordinary fancy might easily enough pick out a mystery That which seems to put in the most rational plea is that our Lord pitched upon this number in conformity either to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of the twelve Tribes of Israel or to the twelve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief heads as standing Rulers of those Tribes among the Jews as we
shall afterwards possibly more particularly remark Thirdly these Apostles were immediately called and sent by Christ himself elected out of the body of his Disciples and followers and receiv'd their Commission from his own mouth Indeed Matthias was not one of the first election being taken in upon Judas his Apostasie after our Lord's Ascension into Heaven But besides that he had been one of the seventy Disciples called and sent out by our Saviour that extraordinary declaration of the Divine will and pleasure that appeared in determining his election was in a manner equivalent to the first election As for S. Paul he was not one of the Twelve taken in as a supernumerary Apostle but yet an Apostle as well as they and that not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ as he pleads his own cause against the insinuations of those Impostors who traduced him as an Apostle only at the second hand whereas he was immediately call'd by Christ as well as they and in a more extraordinary manner they were called by him while he was yet in his state of meanness and humiliation he when Christ was now advanced upon the Throne and appeared to him encircled with those glorious emanations of brightness and majesty which he was not able to endure V. Fourthly The main work and imployment of these Apostles was to preach the Gospel to establish Christianity and to govern the Church that was to be founded as Christ's immediate Deputies and Vicegerents they were to instruct men in the doctrines of the Gospel to disciple the World and to baptize and initiate men into the Faith of Christ to constitute and ordain Guides and Ministers of Religion persons peculiarly set a-part for holy ministrations to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious offenders to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions to command or countermand as occasion was being vested with an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for the edification of the Church This Office the Apostles never exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence upon Earth for though upon their election he sent them forth to Preach and to Baptize yet this was only a narrow and temporary imployment and they quickly returned to their private stations the main power being still executed and administred by Christ himself the complete exercise whereof was not actually devolved upon them till he was ready to leave the World for then it was that he told them as my father hath sent me even so send I you receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Whereby he conferr'd in some proportion the same authority upon them which he himself had derived from his Father Fifthly This Commission given to the Apostles was unlimited and universal not only in respect of power as enabling them to discharge all acts of Religion relating either to Ministry or Government but in respect of place not confining them to this or that particular Province but leaving them the whole World as their Diocese to Preach in they being destinati Nationibus Magistri in Tertullian's phrase designed to be the Masters and Instructors of all Nations so runs their Commission Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature that is to all men the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Evangelist answering to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to all creatures whereby they used to denote all men in general but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews Indeed while our Saviour lived the Apostolical ministry extended no further than Judaea but he being gone to Heaven the partition-wall was broken down and their way was open into all places and Countries And herein how admirably did the Christian Oeconomy transcend the Jewish dispensation The preaching of the Prophets like the light that comes in at the window was confin'd only to the house of Israel while the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the Apostles was like the light of the Sun in the Firmament that diffused its beams and propagated its heat and influence into all quarters of the World their sound going out into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World It 's true for the more prudent and orderly management of things they are generally said by the Ancients to have divided the World into so many quarters and portions to which they were severally to betake themselves Peter to Pontus Galatia Cappadocia c. S. John to Asia S. Andrew to Scythia c. But they did not strictly tye themselves to those particular Provinces that were assigned to them but as occasion was made excursions into other parts though for the main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that were allotted to them usually residing at some principal City of the Province as S. John at Ephesus S. Philip at Hierapolis c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of affairs round about them and hence it was that these places more peculiarly got the title of Apostolical Churches because first planted or eminently watered and cultivated by some Apostle Matrices Originales Fidei as Tertullian calls them Mother-Churches and the Originals of the Faith because here the Christian doctrine was first sown and hence planted and propagated to the Countries round about Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt à quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt as his own words are VI. In pursuance of this general Commission we find the Apostles not long after our Lord's Ascension traversing almost all parts of the then known World S. Andrew in Scythia and those Northern Countries S. Thomas and Bartholomew in India S. Simon and S. Mark in Afric Egypt and the parts of Libya and Mauritania S. Paul and probably Peter and some others in the farthest Regions of the West And all this done in the space of less than forty years viz. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus and the Roman Army For so our Lord had expresly foretold that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations before the end came that is the end of the Jewish State which the Apostles a little before had called the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shutting up or consummation of the Age the putting a final period to that present State and dispensation that the Jews were under And indeed strange it is to consider that in so few years these Evangelical Messengers should over-run all Countries with what an incredible swiftness did the Christian Faith like lightning pierce from East to West and diffuse it self over all quarters of the World and that not only unassisted by any secular advantages but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition
which every where set it self against it 'T is true the impostures of Muhammed in a very little time gained a great part of the East But besides that this was not comparable to the universal spreading of Christianity his doctrine was calculated on purpose to gratifie mens lusts and especially to comply with the loose and wanton manners of the East and which is above all had the sword to hew out its way before it and we know how ready even without force in all changes and revolutions of the World the conquered have been to follow the Religion of the Conquerors Whereas the Apostles had no visible advantages nay had all the enraged powers of the World to contend against them And yet in despite of all went on in triumph and quickly made their way into those places where for so many Ages no other conquest ever came those parts of Britain as Tertullian observes which were unconquerable and unapproachable by the power of the Roman Armies submitting their necks to the yoke of Christ. A mighty evidence as he there argues of Christ's Divinity and that he was the true Messiah And indeed no reasonable account can be given of the strange and successful progress of the Christian Religion in those first Ages of it but that it was the birth of Heaven and had a Divine and Invisible power going along with it to succeed and prosper it S. Chrysostom discourses this argument at large some of whose elegant reasonings I shall here transcribe He tells the Gentile with whom he was disputing that he would not prove Christ's Deity by a demonstration from Heaven by his Creation of the World his great and stupendious miracles his raising the dead curing the blind expelling Devils nor from the mighty promises of a future state and the resurrection of the dead which an Infidel might easily not only question but deny but from what was sufficiently evident and obvious to the meanest Idiot his planting and propagating Christianity in the World For it is not says he in the power of a meer man in so short a time to encircle the World to compass Sea and Land and in matters of so great importance to rescue mankind from the slavery of absurd and unreasonable customs and the powerful tyranny of evil habits and these not Romans only but Persians and the most barbarous Nations of the World A reformation which he wrought not by force and the power of the sword nor by pouring into the world numerous Legions and Armies but by a few inconsiderable men no more at first than Eleven a company of obscure and mean simple and illiterate poor and helpless naked and unarmed persons who had scarce a shooe to tread on or a coat to cover them And yet by these he perswaded so great a part of mankind to be able freely to reason not only of things of the present but of a future state to renounce the Laws of their Country and throw off those ancient and inveterate customs which had taken root for so many Ages and planted others in their room and reduced men from those easie ways whereinto they were hurried into the more rugged and difficult paths of vertue All which he did while he had to contend with opposite powers and when he himself had undergone the most ignominious death even the death of the Cross. Afterwards he addresses himself to the Jew and discourses with him much after the same rate Consider says he and bethink thy self what it is in so short a time to fill the whole World with so many famous Churches to convert so many Nations to the Faith to prevail with Men to forsake the Religion of their Country to root up their rites and customs to shake off the Empire of lust and pleasure and the Laws of vice like dust to abolish and abominate their Temples and their Altars their Idols and their Sacrifices their profane and impious Festivals as dirt and dung and instead hereof to set up Christian Altars in all places among the Romans Persians Scythians Moors and Indians and not there only but in the Countries beyond this World of ours For even the British Islands that lie beyond the Ocean and those that are in it have felt the power of the Christian Faith Churches and Altars being erected there to the service of Christ. A matter truly great and admirable and which would clearly have demonstrated a Divine and Supereminent Power although there had been no opposition in the case but that all things had run on calmly and smoothly to think that in so few years the Christian Faith should be able to reclaim the whole World from its vicious customs and to win them over to other manners more laborious and difficult repugnant both to their native inclinations and to the Laws and Principles of their education and such as oblig'd them to a more strict and accurate course of life and these persons not one or two not twenty or an hundred but in a manner all Mankind and this brought about by no better instruments than a few rude and unlearned private and unknown tradesmen who had neither estate nor reputation learning nor eloquence kindred nor Country to recommend them to the World a few Fishermen and Tent-makers and whom distinguished by their Language as well as their Religion the rest of the World scorn'd as barbarous And yet these were the men by whom our Lord built up his Church and extended it from one end of the World unto the other Other considerations there are with which the Father does urge and illustrate this argument which I forbear to insist on in this place VII Sixthly The power and authority convey'd by this Commission to the Apostles was equally conferr'd upon all of them They were all chosen at the same time all equally impowred to Preach and Baptize all equally intrusted with the power of binding and loosing all invested with the same mission and all equally furnished with the same gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost Indeed the Advocates of the Church of Rome do with a mighty zeal and fierceness contend for S. Peter's being Head and Prince of the Apostles advanced by Christ to a supremacy and prerogative not only above but over the rest of the Apostles and not without reason the fortunes of that Church being concerned in the supremacy of S. Peter No wonder therefore they ransack all corners press and force in whatever may but seem to give countenance to it Witness those thin and miserable shifts which Bellarmine calls arguments to prove and make it good so utterly devoid of all rational conviction so unable to justifie themselves to sober and considering men that a Man would think they had been contrived for no other purpose than to cheat fools and make wise men laugh And the truth is nothing with me more shakes the reputation of the wisdom of that learned man than his making use of such weak and trifling arguments in so
important and concerning an Article so vital and essential to the constitution of that Church As when he argues Peter's superiority from the meer changing of his name for what 's this to supremacy besides that it was not done to him alone the same being done to James and John from his being first reckoned up in the Catalogue of Apostles his walking with Christ upon the water his paying tribute for his Master and himself his being commanded to let down the Net and Christ's teaching in Peter's ship and this ship must denote the Church and Peter's being owner of it entitle him to be supreme Ruler and Governour of the Church so Bellarmine in terms as plain as he could well express it from Christ's first washing Peter's feet though the story recorded by the Evangelist says no such thing and his foretelling only his death all which and many more prerogatives of S. Peter to the number of no less than XXVIII are summoned in to give in evidence in this cause and many of these two drawn out of Apocryphal and supposititious Authors and not only uncertain but absurd and fabulous and yet upon such arguments as these do they found his paramount authority A plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause when such twigs must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water Had they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of Order which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him no wise and peaceable man would have denied it as being a thing ordinarily practised among equals and necessary to the well governing a society but when nothing but a primacy of Power will serve the turn as if the rest of the Apostles had been inferiour to him this may by no means be granted as being expresly contrary to the positive determination of our Saviour when the Apostles were contending about this very thing which of them should be accounted the greatest he thus quickly decides the case The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But ye shall not be so but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant Than which nothing could have been more peremptorily spoken to rebuke this naughty spirit of preheminence Nor do we ever find S. Peter himself laying claim to any such power or the Apostles giving him the least shadow of it In the whole course of his affairs there are no intimations of this matter in his Epistle he styles himself but their fellow-Presbyter and expresly forbids the Governours of the Church to Lord it over God's heritage When dispatched by the rest of the Apostles upon a message to Samaria he never disputes their authority to do it when accused by them for going in unto the Gentiles does he stand upon his prerogative no but submissively apologizes for himself nay when smartly reprov'd by S. Paul at Antioch when if ever his credit lay at stake do we find him excepting against it as an affront to his supremacy and a sawcy controlling his superiour surely the quite contrary he quietly submitted to the reproof as one that was sensible how justly he had deserved it Nor can it be supposed but that S. Paul would have carried it towards him with a greater reverence had any such peculiar soveraignty been then known to the World How confidently does S. Paul assert himself to be no whit inferiour to the chiefest Apostles not to Peter himself the Gospel of the uncircumcision being committed to him as that of the circumcision was to Peter Is Peter oft named first among the Apostles elsewhere others sometimes James sometimes Paul and Apollos are placed before him Did Christ honour him with some singular commendations an honourable elogium conveys no super-eminent power and soveraignty Was he dear to Christ we know another that was the beloved Disciple So little warrant is there to exalt one above the rest where Christ made all alike If from Scripture we descend to the ancient Writers of the Church we shall find that though the Fathers bestow very great and honourable Titles upon Peter yet they give the same or what are equivalent to others of the Apostles Hesychius stiles S. James the Great the Brother of our Lord the Commander of the new Jerusalem the Prince of Priests the Exarch or chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top or crown amongst the heads the great light amongst the Lamps the most illustrious and resplendent amongst the stars 't was Peter that preach'd but 't was James that made the determination c. Of S. Andrew he gives this encomium that he was the sacerdotal Trumpet the first born of the Apostolick Quire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime and firm Pillar of the Church Peter before Peter the foundation of the foundation the first fruits of the beginning Peter and John are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally honourable by S. Cyril with his whole Synod of Alexandria S. John says Chrysostom was Christ's beloved the Pillar of all the Churches in the World who had the Keys of Heaven drank of his Lord's cup was wash'd with his Baptism and with confidence lay in his bosome And of S. Paul he tells us that he was the most excellent of all men the Teacher of the World the Bridegroom of Christ the Planter of the Church the wise Master-builder greater than the Apostles and much more to the same purpose Elsewhere he says that the care of the whole World was committed to him that nothing could be more noble or illustrious yea that his Miracles considered he was more excellent than Kings themselves And a little after he calls him the tongue of the Earth the light of the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the faith the pillar and ground of truth And in a discourse on purpose wherein he compares Peter and Paul together he makes them of equal esteem and vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What greater than Peter What equal to Paul a Blessed pair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who had the Souls of the whole World committed to their charge But instances of this nature were endless and infinite If the Fathers at any time style Peter Prince of the Apostles they mean no more by it than the best and purest Latine writers mean by princeps the first or chief person of the number more considerable than the rest either for his age or zeal Thus Eusebius tells us Peter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prolocutor of all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the greatness and generosity of his mind that is in Chrysostome's language he was the mouth and chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because eager and forward at every turn and ready to answer those questions which were put to others In
them in their own native Language S. Paul largely discourses the necessity of this gift in order to the instructing and edifying of the Church seeing without it their meetings could be no better than the Assembly at Babel after the confusion of Languages where one man must needs be a Barbarian to another and all the praying and preaching of the Minister of the Assembly be to many altogether fruitless and unprofitable and no better than a speaking into the Air. What 's the speaking though with the tongue of Angels to them that do not understand it How can the Idiot and unlearned say Amen who understands not the language of him that giveth thanks The duty may be done with admirable quaintness and accuracy but what 's he the better from whom 't is lock'd up in an unknown tongue A consideration that made the Apostle solemnly profess that he had rather speak five words in the Church with his understanding that by his voice he may teach others also than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue Therefore if any man speak in an unknown tongue let it be but by two or at most by three and let one interpret what the rest have spoken but if there be no interpreter none present able to do this let him keep silence in the Church and speak to himself and to God A man that impartially reads this discourse of the Apostle may wonder how the Church of Rome in defiance of it can so openly practise so confidently defend their Bible and Divine Services in an unknown tongue so flatly repugnant to the dictates of common reason the usage of the first Christian Church and these plain Apostolical commands But this is not the only instance wherein that Church has departed both from Scripture Reason and the practice of the first and purest Ages of Christianity Indeed there is some cause why they are so zealous to keep both Scripture and their Divine Worship in a strange Language lest by reading the one the People should become wise enough to discover the gross errors and corruptions of the other Fifthly The Apostles had the gift of Healing of curing Diseases without the arts of Physick the most inveterate distempers being equally removable by an Almighty power and vanishing at their speaking of a word This begot an extraordinary veneration for them and their Religion among the common sort of men who as they are strongliest moved with sensible effects so are most taken with those miracles that are beneficial to the life of man Hence the infinite Cures done in every place God mercifully providing that the Body should partake with the Soul in the advantages of the Gospel the cure of the one ushering in many times the conversion of the other This gift was very common in those early days bestowed not upon the Apostles only but the ordinary Governours of the Church who were wont to lay their hands upon the sick and sometimes to anoint them with Oil a symbolick rite in use among the Jews to denote the grace of God and to pray over and for them in the name of the Lord Jesus whereby upon a hearty confession and forsaking of their sins both health and pardon were at once bestowed upon them How long this gift with its appendant ceremony of Unction lasted in the Church is not easie to determine that it was in use in Tertullian's time we learn from the instance he gives us of Proculus a Christian who cured the Emperor Severus by anointing him with Oil for which the Emperor had him in great honour and kept him with him at Court all his life it afterwards vanishing by degrees as all other miraculous powers as Christianity gain'd firm footing in the World As for Extreme Unction so generally maintained and practised in the Church of Rome nay and by them made a Sacrament I doubt it will receive very little countenance from this Primitive usage Indeed could they as easily restore sick men to health as they can anoint them with Oil I think no body would contradict them but till they can pretend to the one I think it unreasonable they should use the other The best is though founding it upon this Apostolical practice they have turn'd it to a quite contrary purpose instead of recovering men to life and health to dispose and fit them for dying when all hopes of life are taken from them XIII Sixthly The Apostles were invested with a power of immediately inflicting corporal punishments upon great and notorious sinners and this probably is that which he means by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operations of powers or working miracles which surely cannot be meant of miracles in general being reckoned up amongst the particular gifts of the Holy Ghost nor is there any other to which it can with equal probability refer A power to inflict diseases upon the body as when S. Paul struck Elymas the Sorcerer with blindness and sometimes extending to the loss of life it self as in the sad instance of Ananias and Saphira This was the Virga Apostolica the Rod mentioned by S. Paul which the Apostles held and shak'd over scandalous and insolent offenders and sometimes laid upon them What will ye shall I come to you with a rod or in love and the spirit of meekness Where observe says Chrysostom how the Apostle tempers his discourse the love and meekness and his desire to know argued care and kindness but the rod spake dread and terror a Rod of severity and punishment and which sometimes mortally chastised the offender Elsewhere he frequently gives intimations of this power when he has to deal with stubborn and incorrigible persons Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled for though I should boast something more of our authority which the Lord hath given us for edification and not for your destruction I should not be ashamed that I may not seem as if I would terrifie you by letters And he again puts them in mind of it at the close of his Epistle I told you before and foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all others that if I come again I will not spare But he hop'd these smart warnings would supersede all further severity against them Therefore I write these things being absent lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification and not to destruction Of this nature was the delivering over persons unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh the chastising the body by some present pain or sickness that the spirit might be saved by being brought to a seasonable repentance Thus he dealt with Hymeneus and Alexander who had made shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience he delivered them unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme Nothing
Barrenness Ingratitude and Unprofitableness under the influences of Christ's Sermons and Miracles thence severely upbraided by him and threatned with one of his deepest woes Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida c. A woe that it seems stuck close to it for whatever it was at this time one who surveyed it in the last Age tells us that it was shrunk again into a very mean and small Village consisting only of a few cottages of Moores and wild Arabs and later travellers have since assured us that even these are dwindled away into one poor cottage at this day So fatally does sin undermine the greatest the goodliest places so certainly does God's Word take place and not one Iota either of his promises or threatnings fall to the ground Next to the honour that was done it by our Saviour's presence who living most in these parts frequently resorted hither it had nothing greater to recommend it to the notice of posterity than that besides some other of the Apostles it was the Birth-place of S. Peter a person how inconsiderable soever in his private fortunes yet of great note and eminency as one of the prime Embassadors of the Son of God to whom both Sacred and Ecclesiastical stories give though not a superiority a precedency in the Colledge of Apostles 2. THE particular time of his Birth cannot be recovered no probable footsteps or intimations being left of it in the general we may conclude him at least Ten years elder than his Master his married condition and setled course of life at his first coming to Christ and that authority and respect which the gravity of his person procured him amongst the rest of the Apostles can speak him no less but for any thing more particular and positive in this matter I see no reason to affirm Indeed might we trust the account which one who pretends to calculate his Nativity with ostentation enough has given of it we are told that he was born three years before the Blessed Virgin and just XVII before the Incarnation of our Saviour But let us view his account Nat. est An. ab Orbe cond à Diluvio V. C. 4034 2378 734 Ann. Oct. August à 1º ejus consul à pugna Actiae 8 24 12 Ann. Herodis Reg. ante B. Virg. ante Chr. nat 20 3 17 When I met with such a pompous train of Epocha's the least I expected was truth and certainty This computation he grounds upon the date of S. Peter's death placed as elsewhere he tells us by Bellarmine in the LXXXVI year of his Age so that recounting from the year of Christ LXIX when Peter is commonly said to have suffered he runs up his Age to his Birth and spreads it out into so many several dates But alas all is built upon a sandy bottom For besides his mistake about the year of the World few of his dates hold due correspondence But the worst of it is that after all this Bellarmine upon whose single testimony all this fine fabrick is erected says no such thing but only supposes merely for arguments-sake that S. Peter might very well be LXXXVI 't is erroneously printed LXXVI years old at the time of his Martyrdom So far will confidence or ignorance or both carry men aside if it could be a mistake and not rather a bold imposing upon the World But of this enough and perhaps more than it deserves 3. BEING circumcised according to the Rites of the Mosaick Law the name given him at his circumcision was Symon or Symeon a name common amongst the Jews especially in their latter times This was afterwards by our Saviour not abolished but additioned with the title of Cephas which in Syriack the vulgar Language of the Jews at that time signifying a stone or rock was thence derived into the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by us Peter so far was Hesychius out when rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Expounder or Interpreter probably deriving it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to explain and interpret By this new imposition our Lord seemed to denote the firmness and constancy of his Faith and his vigorous activity in building up the Church as a spiritual house upon the the true rock the living and corner-stone chosen of God and precious as S. Peter himself expresses it Nor can our Saviour be understood to have hereby conferred upon him any peculiar Supremacy or Sovereignty above much less over the rest of the Apostles for in respect of the great trusts committed to them and their being sent to plant Christianity in the World they are all equally stiled Foundations nor is it accountable either to Scripture or reason to suppose that by this Name our Lord should design the person of Peter to be that very rock upon which his Church was to be built In a fond imitation of this new name given to S. Peter those who pretend to be his Successors in the See of Rome usually lay by their own and assume a new name upon their advancement to the Apostolick Chair it being one of the first questions which the Cardinals put to the new-elected Pope by what name he will please to be called This custom first began about the Year 844 when Peter di Bocca-Porco or Swines-mouth being chosen Pope changed his name into Sergius the Second probably not so much to avoid the uncomeliness of his own name as if unbefitting the dignity of his place for this being but his Paternal name would after have been no part of his Pontifical stile and title as out of a mighty reverence to S. Peter accounting himself not worthy to bear his name though it was his own baptismal name Certain it is that none of the Bishops of that See ever assumed S. Peter's name and some who have had it as their Christian name before have laid it aside upon their election to the Papacy But to return to our Apostle 4. HIS Father was Jonah probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida for the Sacred story takes no further notice of him than by the bare mention of his Name and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake though Metaphrastes had not told us that it was not Jonas the Prophet who came out of the Belly of the Whale Brother he was to S. Andrew the Apostle and some question there is amongst the Ancients which was the elder Brother Epiphanius probably from some Tradition current in his time clearly adjudges it to S. Andrew herein universally followed by those of the Church of Rome that the precedency given to S. Peter may not seem to be put upon the account of his Seniority But to him we may oppose the authority of S. Chrysostom a Person equal both in time and credit who expresly says that though Andrew came later into life than Peter yet he first brought him to the knowledge of the Gospel which Baronius
a moment restored her to perfect health and ability to return to the business of her Family all cures being equally easie to Omnipotence SECT III. Of S. Peter from his Election to the Apostolate till the Confession which he made of Christ. The Election of the Apostles and our Lord 's solemn preparation for it The powers and Commission given to them Why Twelve chosen Peter the first in order not power The Apostles when and by whom Baptized The Tradition of Euodius of Peter ' s being immediately Baptized by Christ rejected and its authorities proved insufficient Three of the Apostles more intimately conversant with our Saviour Peter ' s being with Christ at the raising Jairus his Daughter His walking with Christ upon the Sea The creatures at God's command act contrary to their natural Inclinations The weakness of Peter ' s Faith Christ ' s power in commanding down the storm an evidence of his Divinity Many Disciples desert our Saviour's preaching Peter ' s profession of constancy in the name of the rest of the Apostles 1. OUR Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons as his immediate Vicegerents upon Earth to whose care and trust he might commit the building up of his Church and the planting that Religion in the World for which he himself came down from Heaven In order to it he privately over-night withdrew himself into a solitary Mountain commonly called the Mount of Christ from his frequent repairing thither though some of the Ancients will have it to be Mount Tabor there to make his solemn address to Heaven for a prosperous success on so great a work Herein leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the Governours of his Church how to proceed in setting apart persons to so weighty and difficult an employment Upon this Mountain we may conceive there was an Oratory or place of prayer probably intimated by S. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such Profeucha's or houses of Prayer usually uncovered and standing in the fields the Jews had in several places wherein our Lord continued all night not in one continued and intire act of devotion but probably by intervals and repeated returns of duty 2. EARLY the next morning his Disciples came to him out of whom he made choice of Twelve to be his Apostles that they might be the constant attendants upon his person to hear his Discourses and be Eye-witnesses of his Miracles to be always conversant with him while he was upon Earth and afterwards to be sent abroad up and down the World to carry on that work which he himself had begun whom therefore he invested with the power of working Miracles which was more completely conferr'd upon them after his Ascension into Heaven Passing by the several fancies and conjectures of the Ancients why our Saviour pitch'd upon the just number of Twelve whereof before it may deserve to be considered whether our Lord being now to appoint the Supreme Officers and Governours of his Church which the Apostle styles the Commonwealth of Israel might not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of their several Tribes or to the constant Heads and Rulers of those twelve Tribes of which the body of the Jewish Nation did consist Especially since he himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it when he tells the Apostles that when the Son of man shall fit on the Throne of his Glory that is be gone back to Heaven and have taken full possession of his Evangelical Kingdom which principally commenc'd from his Resurrection that then they also should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is they should have great powers and authorities in the Church such as the power of the Keys and other Rights of Spiritual Judicature and Sovereignty answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which the Heads and Rulers of the twelve Tribes of Israel did enjoy 3. IN the enumeration of these twelve Apostles all the Evangelists constantly place S. Peter in the front and S. Matthew expresly tells us that he was the first that is he was the first that was called to be an Apostle his Age also and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a Primacy of Order amongst the rest of the Apostles as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained Less than this as none will deny him so more than this neither Scripture nor Primitive antiquity do allow him And now it was that our Lord actually conferr'd that name upon him which before he had promised him Simon he surnamed Peter It may here be enquired when and by whom the Apostles were baptized That they were is unquestionable being themselves appointed to confer it upon others but when or how the Scripture is altogether silent Nicephorus from no worse an Author as he pretends than Euodius S. Peter's immediate successor in the See of Antioch tells us That of all the Apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands that Peter baptized Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee and they the rest of the Apostles This if so would greatly make for the honour of S. Peter But alas his authority is not only suspicious but supposititious in a manner deserted by S. Peter's best friends and the strongest champions of his cause Baronius himself however sometimes willing to make use of him elsewhere confessing that this Epistle of Euodius is altogether unknown to any of the Ancients As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius though not Sophronius but Johannes Moschus as is notoriously known be the Author of that Book besides that it is delivered upon an uncertain report pretended to have been alledged in a discourse between one Dionysius Bishop of Ascalon and his Clergy out of a Book of Clemens not now extant his Authors are much alike that is of no great value and authority 4. AMONGST these Apostles our Lord chose a Triumvirate Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to be his more intimate companions whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his Life The first instance of which was on this occasion Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue had a daughter desperately sick whose disease having baffled all the arts of Physick was only curable by the immediate agency of the God of Nature He therefore in all humility addresses himself to our Saviour which he had no sooner done but servants came post to tell him that it was in vain to trouble our Lord for that his daughter was dead Christ bids him not despond if his Faith held out there was no danger And suffering none to follow him but Peter James and John goes along with him to the house where he was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours for telling them that she was not perfectly dead
But notwithstanding this fair and plausible testimony he tells them that they were not all of this mind that there was a Satan amongst them one that was moved by the spirit and impulse and that acted according to the rules and interest of the Devil intimating Judas who should betray him So hard is it to meet with a body of so just and pure a constitution wherein some rotten member or distempered part is not to be found SECT IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passover Our Saviour's Journy with his Apostles to Caesarea The Opinions of the People concerning Him Peter ' s eminent Confession of Christ and our Lord 's great commendation of it Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven how given The advantage the Church of Rome makes of these passages This confession made by Peter in the name of the rest and by others before him No personal priviledge intended to S. Peter the same things elsewhere promised to the other Apostles Our Lord's discourse concerning his Passion Peter ' s unseasonable Zeal in disswading him from it and our Lord 's severe rebuking him Christ's Transfiguration and the glory of it Peter how affected with it Peter ' s paying Tribute for Christ and himself This Tribute what Our Saviour's discourse upon it Offending brethren how oft to be forgiven The young man commanded to sell all What compensation made to the followers of Christ. Our Lord 's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem Preparation made to keep the Passover 1. IT was some time since our Saviour had kept his third Passover at Jerusalem when he directed his Journy towards Caesarea Philippi where by the way having like a careful Master of his Family first prayed with his Apostles he began to ask them having been more than two Years publickly conversant amongst them what the world thought concerning him They answered that the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jews had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into Zacharias Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not sufficing our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of S. Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preferred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea before he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is erected and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and
to suffer and Peter again renewed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering and dying with him yea out of an excessive confidence told him That though all the rest should forsake and deny him yet would not he deny him How far will zeal and an indiscreet affection transport even a good man into vanity and presumption Peter questions others but never doubts himself So natural is self-love so apt are we to take the fairest measures of our selves Nay though our Lord had but a little before once and again reproved this vain humour yet does he still not only persist but grow up in it So hardly are we brought to espy our own faults or to be so throughly convinced of them as to correct and reform them This confidence of his inspired all the rest with a mighty courage all the Apostles likewise assuring him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him Our Lord returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before From hence they went down into the Village of Gethsemane where leaving the rest of the Apostles he accompanied with none but Peter James and John retired into a neighbouring Garden whither Eusebius tells us Christians even in his time were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven and where as the Arabian Geographer informs us a fair and stately Church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary to enter upon the Ante-scene of the fatal Tragedy that was now approaching it bearing a very fit proportion as some of the Fathers have observed that as the first Adam fell and ruin'd mankind in a Garden so a Garden should be the place where the second Adam should begin his Passion in order to the Redemption of the World Gardens which to us are places of repose and pleasure and scenes of divertisement and delight were to our Lord a school of Temptation a Theatre of great horrors and sufferings and the first approaches of the hour of darkness 4. HERE it was that the Blessed Jesus laboured under the bitterest Agony that could fall upon humane Nature which the holy Story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the highest grief and sorrow he was afraid sorrowful and very heavy yea his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding sorrowful and that even unto death he was sore amazed and very heavy he was troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul was shaken with a vehement commotion yea he was in an Agony a word by which the Greeks are wont to represent the greatest conflicts and anxieties The effect of all which was that he prayed more earnestly offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears as the Apostle expounds it and sweat as it were great drops of bloud falling to the ground What this bloudy sweat was and how far natural or extraordinary I am not now concerned to enquire Certain it is it was a plain evidence of the most intense grief and sadness for if an extreme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's mind which could force open the pores of his body lock'd up by the coldness of the night and make not drops of sweat but great drops or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies clods of bloud to issue from them While our Lord was thus contending with these Ante-Passions the three Apostles whom he had left at some distance from him being tired out with watching and disposed by the silence of the Night were fallen fast asleep Our Lord who had made three several addresses unto Heaven that if it might consist with his Father's will this bitter Cup might pass from him expressing herein the harmless and innocent desires of humane Nature which always studies its own preservation between each of them came to visit the Apostles and calling to Peter asked him Whether they could not watch with him one hour advising them to watch and pray that they enter'd not into temptation adding this Argument That the spirit indeed was willing but that the flesh was weak and that therefore there was the more need that they should stand upon their guard Observe here the incomparable sweetness the generous candor of our blessed Saviour to pass so charitable a censure upon an action from whence malice and ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies and have represented it black as the shades of darkness The request which our Lord made to these Apostles was infinitely reasonable to watch with him in this bitter Agony their company at least being some refreshment to one under such sad fatal circumstances and this but for a little time one hour it would soon be over and then they might freely consult their own ease and safety 'T was their dear Lord and Master whom they now were to attend upon ready to lay down his life for them sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings and expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would fall upon him But all these considerations were drown'd in a profound security the men were fast asleep and though often awakened and told of it regarded it not as if nothing but ease and softness had been then to be dream'd of An action that look'd like the most prodigious ingratitude and the highest unconcernedness for their Lord and Master and which one would have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency of affection towards him But he would not set it upon the Tenters nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn to he imputes it not to their unthankfulness or want of affection nor to their carelesness of what became of him but merely to their infirmity and the weakness of their bodily temper himself making the excuse when they could make none for themselves the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Hereby teaching us to put the most candid and favourable construction upon those actions of others which are capable of various interpretations and rather with the Bee to suck honey than with the Spider to draw poison from them His last Prayer being ended he came to them and told them with a gentle rebuke That now they might sleep on if they pleased that the hour was at hand that he should be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men 5. WHILE he was thus discoursing to them a Band of Souldiers sent from the High-Priests with the Traitor Judas to conduct and direct them rush'd into the Garden and seized upon him which when the Apostles saw they asked him whether they should attempt his rescue Peter whose ungovernable zeal put him upon all dangerous undertakings without staying for an answer drew his Sword and espying one more busie than the rest in laying hold upon our Saviour which was Malchus who though carrying Kingship in his name was but Servant to the High-Priest struck at him with an intention to dispatch him
threefold denial had given so much cause to question should now by a threefold confession give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his Master Peter was a little troubled at this frequent questioning of his love and therefore more expresly appeals to our Lord's omnisciency that He who knew all things must needs know that he loved him To each of these confessions our Lord added this signal trial of his affection then Feed my sheep that is faithfully instruct and teach them carefully rule and guide them perswade not compel them feed not fleece nor kill them And so 't is plain S. Peter himself understood it by the charge which he gives to the Guides and Rulers of the Church that they should feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but as examples to the flock But that by feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs here commended to S. Peter should be meant an universal and uncontrollable Monarchy and Dominion over the whole Christian Church and that over the Apostles themselves and their Successors in ordinary and this power and supremacy solely invested in S. Peter and those who were to succeed him in the See of Rome is so wild an inference and such a melting down words to run into any shape as could never with any face have been offered or been possible to have been imposed upon the belief of mankind if men had not first subdued their reason to their interest and captivated both to an implicite faith and a blind obedience For granting that our Lord here addressed his speech only unto Peter yet the very same power in equivalent terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the Apostles and in some measure to the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church As when our Lord told them That all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's flock Rule well inspect and watch over those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and fury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena Mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the slanders of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Gripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides for subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphirak The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the
vacancy in their Colledge lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper-room Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was whether in the house of S. John or of John-Mark's Mother or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites and as Repositories where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up though it be not probable that the Jews and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple I stand not to enquire 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more private exercises of their devotions Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his upper-Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God and Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time Ann. Chr. 1172. the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the Prophet himself built Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-Chamber was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas and such probably this where the Apostles were now met together and in all likelihood the same where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies as we have elsewhere observed more at large Here the Church being met to the number of about CXX Peter as President of the Assembly put them in mind that Judas one of our Lord's Apostles being betrayed by his own covetous and insatiable mind had lately fallen from the honour of his place and ministery that this was no more than what the Prophet had long since foretold should come to pass and that the rule and over-sight in the Church which had been committed unto him should be devolved upon another that therefore it was highly necessary that one should be substituted in his room and especially such a one as had been familiarly conversant with our Saviour from first to last that so he might be a competent witness both of his doctrine and miracles his life and death but especially of his Resurrection from the dead For seeing no evidence is so valid and satisfactory as the testimony of an eye-witness the Apostles all along mainly insisted upon this that they delivered no other things concerning our Saviour to the World than what they themselves had seen and heard And seeing his rising from the Dead was a principle likely to meet with a great deal of opposition and which would hardliest gain belief and entertainment with the minds of men therefore they principally urg'd this at every turn that they were eye-witnesses of his Resurrection that they had seen felt eaten and familiarly conversed with him after his return from the Grave That therefore such an Apostle might be chosen two Candidates were proposed Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias And having prayed that the Divine Providence would immediately guide and direct the choice they cast lots and the lot fell upon Matthias who was accordingly admitted into the number of the twelve Apostles 2. FIFTY days since the last Passeover being now run out made way for the Feast of Pentecost At what time the great promise of the Holy Ghost was fully made good unto them The Christian Assembly being met together for the publick services of their Worship on a sudden a sound like that of a mighty wind rush'd in upon them representing the powerful efficacy of that Divine Spirit that was now to be communicated to them After which there appeared little flames of fire which in the fashion of Cloven Tongues not only descended but sate upon each of them probably to note their perpetual enjoyment of this gift upon all occasions that when necessary they should never be without it not like the Prophetick gifts of old which were conferred but sparingly and only at some particular times and seasons As the seventy Elders prophesied and ceased not but it was only at such times as the Spirit came down and rested upon them Hereupon they were all immediately filled with the Holy Ghost which enabled them in an instant to speak several Languages which they had never learn'd and probably never heard of together with other miraculous gifts and powers Thus as the confounding of Languages became a curse to the old World separating men from all mutual offices of kindness and commerce rendring one part of Mankind Barbarians to another so here the multiplying several Languages became a blessing being intended as the means to bring men of all Nations into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into the fellowship of that Religion that would banish discords cement differences and unite mens hearts in the bond of peace The report of so sudden and strange an action presently spread it self into all corners of the City and there being at that time at Jerusalem multitudes of Jewish Proselytes Devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites or Persians the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea Cappadocia Pontus and Asia minor from Phrygia and Pamphylia from Egypt and the parts of Libya and Cyrene from Rome from Crete from Arabia Jews and Proselytes probably drawn thither by the general report and expectation which had spread it self over all the Eastern parts and in a manner over all places of the Roman Empire of the Jewish Messiah that about this time should be born at Jerusalem they no sooner heard of it but universally flocked to this Christian Assembly where they were amazed to hear these Galileans speaking to them in their own native Languages so various so vastly different from one another And it could not but exceedingly encrease the wonder to reflect upon the meanness and inconsiderableness of the persons neither assisted by natural parts nor polished by education nor improved by use and custom which three things Philosophers require to render a man accurate and extraordinary in any art or discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch Natural disposition without institution is blind instruction without a genius and disposition is defective and exercise without both is lame and imperfect Whereas these Disciples had not one of these to set them off their parts were mean below the rate of the common people the Galileans being generally accounted the rudest and most stupid of the whole Jewish Nation their education had been no higher than to catch Fish and to mend Nets nor had they been used to plead causes or to deliver themselves
away rejoycing But what the carriage of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the Gospel we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the World We may not withhold our obedience till the Magistrate invades God's Throne and countermands his authority and may then appeal to the sence of Mankind whether it be not most reasonable that God's authority should first take place as the Apostles here appealed to their very Judges themselves Nor do we find that the Sanhedrim did except against the Plea At least whatever they thought yet not daring to punish them for fear of the People they only threatned them and let them go who thereupon presently return'd to the rest of the Apostles and Believers 8. The Church exceedingly multiplied by these means And that so great a Company most whereof were poor might be maintained they generally sold their Estates and brought the Money to the Apostles to be by them deposited in one common Treasury and thence distributed according to the several exigences of the Church which gave occasion to this dreadful Instance Ananias and his Wife Saphira having taken upon them the profession of the Gospel according to the free and generous spirit of those times had consecrated and devoted their Estate to the honour of God and the necessities of the Church And accordingly sold their Possessions and turned them into Money But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable Persons so were they loth wholly to cast themselves upon the Divine Providence by letting go all at once and therefore privately withheld part of what they had devoted and bringing the rest laid it at the Apostles feet hoping herein they might deceive the Apostles though immediately guided by the Spirit of God But Peter at his first coming in treated Ananias with these sharp enquiries Why he would suffer Satan to fill his heart with so big a wickedness as by keeping back part of his estate to think to deceive the Holy Ghost That before it was sold it was wholly at his own disposure and after it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow So that it was capable of no other interpretation than that herein he had not only abused and injured men but mocked God and what in him lay lyed to and cheated the Holy Ghost who he knew was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart This was no sooner said but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that were present Ananias was arrested with a stroke from Heaven and fell down dead to the ground Not long after his Wise came in whom Peter entertained with the same severe reproofs wherewith he had done her Husband adding that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her who thereupon dropt down dead As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin becoming sharer with him in the punishment An instance of great severity filling all that heard of it with fear and terror and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World Curing all manner of Diseases and dispossessing Devils In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets and laid them upon Beds and Couches that at least Peter's shadow as he passed by might come upon them These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons than they took them for poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness And methinks Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable that no honour or soveraignty no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle that the things of Christ though in another way were more noble and excellent than any thing that this World could afford And therefore he tells us that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia and then at Rome equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter who converted the World not by Power or Armies not by Engines or artifices of pomp and grandeur but by Faith in the power of Christ and drew it to the admiration of himself and the same state says he would no doubt attend the Apostles Successors were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church sent to apprehend the Apostles and cast them into Prison But God who is never wanting to his own cause sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors commanding them to repair to the Temple and to the exercise of their Ministery Which they did early in the Morning and there taught the People How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen when God frowns upon them how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper In vain is it to shut the doors where God is resolved to open them the firmest Bars the strongest Chains cannot hold where once God has designed and decreed our liberty The Officers returning the next Morning found the Prison shut and guarded but the Prisoners gone Wherewith they acquainted the Council who much wondred at it but being told where the Apostles were they sent to bring them without any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim where the High-Priest asked them how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach Peter in the name of the rest told them That they must in this case obey God rather than men That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus yet that God had raised him up and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins That they were witnesses of these things and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians Vexed was the Council with this Answer and began to consider how to cut them off But Gamaliel a grave and learned Senator having commanded the Apostles to withdraw bad the Council take heed what they did to them putting them in mind that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions and drawn vast Numbers after them but that they had miscarried and they and their designs come to nought that therefore they should do well to let these men alone that if their doctrines and designs were merely humane they would in time of themselves fall to the ground but if they were of God it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them and that
they themselves would herein appear to oppose the counsels and designs of Heaven With this prudent and rational advice they were satisfied and having commanded the Apostles to be scourged and charged them no more to preach this doctrine restored them to their liberty Who notwithstanding this charge and threatning returned home in a kind of triumph that they were accounted worthy to suffer in so good a cause and to undergo shame and reproach for the sake of so good a Master Nor could all the hard usage they met with from men discourage them in their duty to God or make them less zealous and diligent both publickly and privately to preach Christ in every place SECT VIII Of S. Peter's Acts from the Dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch The great care of the Divine Providence over the Church Peter dispatched by the Apostles to confirm the Church newly planted at Samaria His baffling and silencing Simon Magus there His going to Lydda and curing Aeneas His raising Dorcas at Joppa The Vision of all sorts of Creatures presented to him to prepare him for the conversion of the Gentiles His going to Cornelius and declaring God's readiness to receive the Gentiles into the Church The Baptizing Cornelius and his Family Peter censured by the Jews for conversing with the Gentiles The mighty prejudices of the Jews against the Gentiles noted out of Heathen Writers Peter cast into prison by Herod Agrippa miraculously delivered by an Angel His discourse in the Synod at Jerusalem that the Gentiles might be received without being put under the obligation of the Law of Moses His unworthy compliance with the Jews at Antioch in opposition to the Gentiles Severely checked and resisted by S. Paul The ill use Porphyry makes of this difference The conceit of some that it was not Peter the Apostle but one of the Seventy 1. THE Church had been hitherto tossed with gentle storms but now a more violent tempest overtook it by which began in the Proto-Martyr Stephen and was more vigorously carried on afterwards occasion whereof the Disciples were dispersed And God who always brings good out of evil hereby provided that the Gospel should not be confin'd only to Jerusalem Hitherto the Church had been crowded up within the City-walls and the Religion had crept up and down in private corners but the professors of it being now dispersed abroad by the malice and cruelty of their enemies carried Christianity along with them and propagated it into the neighbour-Countries accomplishing hereby an ancient prophecy That out of Sion should go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Thus God over-rules the malice of men and makes intended poison to become food or physick That Divine Providence that governs the World more particularly superintends the affairs and interests of his Church so that no weapon form'd against Israel shall prosper curses shall be turned into blessings and that become an eminent means to enlarge and propagate the Gospel which they designed as the only way to suppress and stifle it Amongst those that were scattered Philip the Deacon was driven down unto Samaria where he preached the Gospel and confirmed his preaching by many miraculous cures and dispossessing Devils In this City there was one Simon who by Magick Arts and Diabolical Sorceries sought to advance himself into a great fame and reputation with the People insomuch that they generally beheld him as the great power of God for so the Ancients tell us he used to style himself giving out himself to be the first and chiefest Deity the Father who is God over all that is that he was that which in every Nation was accounted the supreme Deity This man hearing the Sermons and beholding the Miracles that were done by Philip gave up himself amongst the number of believers and was baptized with them The Apostles who yet remained at Jerusalem having heard of the great success of Philip's ministery at Samaria thought good to send some of their number to his assistance And accordingly deputed Peter and John who came thither Where having prayed for and laid their hands upon these new converts they presently received the Holy Ghost Simon the Magician observing that by laying on of the Apostle's hands miraculous gifts were conferred upon men offered them a considerable summ of money to invest him with this power that on whom he laid his hands they might receive the Holy Ghost Peter perceiving his rotten and insincere intentions rejected his impious motion with scorn and detestation Thy money perish with thee He told him that his heart was naught and hypocritical that he could have no share nor portion in so great a priviledge that it more concerned him to repent of so great a wickedness and sincerely seek to God that so the thought of his heart might be forgiven him for that he perceived that he had a very vicious and corrupt temper and constitution of mind and was as yet bound up under a very wretched and miserable state displeasing to God and dangerous to himself The Conscience of the man was a little startled with this and he prayed the Apostles to intercede with Heaven that God would pardon his sin and that none of these things might fall upon him But how little cure this wrought upon him we shall find elsewhere when we shall again meet with him afterwards The Apostles having thus confirmed the Church at Samaria and preached up and down in the Villages thereabouts returned back to Jerusalem to joyn their counsel and assistance to the rest of the Apostles 2. THE storm though violent being at length blown over the Church enjoyed a time of great calmness and serenity during which Peter went out to visit the Churches lately planted in those parts by those Disciples who had been dispersed by the persecution at Jerusalem Coming down to Lydda the first thing he did was to work a cure upon one Aeneas who being crippl'd with the Palsie had layn bed-rid for eight years together Peter coming to him bad him in the name of Christ to arise and the man was immediately restored to perfect health A miracle that was not confined only to his person for being known abroad generally brought over the Inhabitants of that place The fame of this miracle having flown to Joppa a Sea-port Town some six miles thence the Christians there presently sent for Peter upon this occasion Tabitha whose Greek name was Dorcas a woman venerable for her piety and diffusive charity was newly dead to the great lamentation of all good men and much more to the loss of the poor that had been relieved by her Peter coming to the house found her dressed up for her Funeral solemnity and compassed about with the sorrowful Widows who shewed the Coats and Garments wherewith she had clothed them the badges of her charitable liberality Peter shutting all out kneeled down and prayed and then turning him to
offending and displeasing them he withdrew his converse with the Gentiles as if it had been unlawful for him to hold Communion with uncircumcised persons when yet he knew and was fully satisfied that our Lord had wholly removed all difference and broken down the Wall of separation between Jew and Gentile In which affair as he himself acted against the light of his own mind and judgment condemning what he had approved and destroying what he had before built up so hereby he confirmed the Jewish zealots in their inveterate error cast infinite scruples into the minds of the Gentiles filling their Consciences with fears and dissatisfactions reviving the old feuds and prejudices between Jew and Gentile by which means many others were ensnared yea the whole number of Jewish Converts followed his example separating themselves from the company of the Gentile Christians Yea so far did it spread that Barnabas himself was carried away with the stream and torrent of this unwarrantable practice S. Paul who was at this time come to Antioch unto whom Peter gave the right hand of fellowship acknowledging his Apostleship of the Circumcision observing these evil and unevangelical actings resolutely withstood Peter to the face and publickly reproved him as a person worthy to be blamed for his gross prevarication in this matter severely expostulating and reasoning with him that he who was himself a Jew and thereby under a more immediate obligation to the Mosaick Law should cast off that Yoke himself and yet endeavour to impose it upon the Gentiles who were not in the least under any obligation to it A smart but an impartial charge and indeed so remarkable was this carriage of S. Paul towards our Apostle that though it set things right for the present yet it made some noise abroad in the World Yea Porphyry himself that acute and subtil enemy of Christianity makes use of it as an argument against them both charging the one with error and falshood and the other with rudeness and incivility and that the whole was but a compact of forgery and deceit while the Princes of the Church did thus fall out among themselves And so sensible were some of this in the first Ages of Christianity that rather than such a dishonour and disgrace as they accounted it should be reflected upon Peter they tell us of two several Cephas's one the Apostle the other one of the seventy Disciples and that it was the last of these that was guilty of this prevarication and whom S. Paul so vigorously resisted and reproved at Antioch But for this plausible and well-meant Evasion the Champions of the Romish Church conn them no great thanks at this day Nay S. Hierom long since fully confuted it in his Notes upon this place SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred Story till his Martyrdom Peter's story prosecuted out of Ecclesiastical Writers His planting of a Church and an Episcopal See at Antioch when said to be His first Journey to Rome and the happiness it brought to the Roman Empire His preaching in other places and return to Rome His encounter with Simon Magus The impostures of the Magician His familiarity with the Emperours and the great honours said to be done to him His Statue and Inscription at Peter's victory over him by raising one from the Dead Simon attempting to fly is by Peter's Prayers hindred falls down and dies Nero's displeasure against Peter whence His being cast into Prison His flight thence and being brought back by Christ appearing to him Crucified with his head downwards and why The place of his Martyrdom and Burial The original and greatness of S. Peter's Church in Rome His Episcopal Chair pretended to be still kept there HITHERTO in drawing up the Life of this great Apostle we have had an infallible Guide to conduct and lead us But the sacred Story breaking off here forces us to look abroad and to pick up what Memoires the Ancients have left us in this matter which we shall for the main digest according to the order wherein Baronius and other Ecclesiastick Writers have disposed the series of S. Peter's Life Reserving what is justly questionable to a more particular examination afterward And that we may present the account more entire and perfect we must step back a little in point of time that so we may go forward with greater advantage We are to know therefore that during the time of peace and calmness which the Church enjoyed after Saul's Persecution when S. Peter went down to visit the Churches he is said to have gone to Antioch where great Numbers of Jews inhabited and there to have planted the Christian Faith That he founded a Church here Eusebius expresly tells us and by others it is said that he himself was the first Bishop of this See Sure I am that S. Chrysostom reckons it one of the greatest honours of that City that S. Peter staid so long there and that the Bishops of it succeeded him in that See The care and precedency of this Church he had between Six and Seven Years Not that he staid there all that time but that having ordered and disposed things to the best advantage he returned to other affairs and exigencies of the Church confirming the new Plantations bringing in Cornelius and his Family and in him the first fruits of the Gentiles conversion to the faith of Christ. After which he returned unto Jerusalem where he was imprisoned by Herod and miraculously delivered by an Angel sent from Heaven 2. WHAT became of Peter after his deliverance out of Prison is not certainly known probably he might preach in some parts a little further distant from Judaea as we are told he did at Byzantium and in the Countries thereabouts though I confess the evidence to me is not convincing After this he resolved upon a Journey to Rome where most agree he arrived about the Second Year of the Emperor Claudius Orosius tells us that coming to Rome he brought prosperity along with him to that City For besides several other extraordinary advantages which at that time hapned to it this was not the least observable that Camillus Scribonianus Governor of Dalmatia soliciting the Army to rebell against the Emperor the Eagles their Military Standard remained so fast in the Ground that no power nor strength was able to pluck them up With which unusual accident the minds of the Souldiers were surprized and startled and turning their Swords against the Author of the sedition continued firm and loyal in their obedience Whereby a dangerous Rebellion was prevented likely enough otherwise to have broken out This he ascribes to Saint Peter's coming to Rome and the first Plantation of the Christian Faith in that City Heaven beginning more particularly to smile upon that place at his first coming thither 'T is not to be doubted but that at his first arrival he disposed himself amongst the Jews his Country-men who ever since the
least sign of motion Peter standing at a good distance from the Bed silently made his address to Heaven and then before them all commanded the young Gentleman in the Name of the Lord Jesus to arise who immediately did so spoke walked and ate and was by Peter restored to his Mother The People who saw this suddenly changed their opinions and fell upon the Magician with an intent to stone him But Peter begged his life and told them that it would be a sufficient punishment to him to live and see that in despite of all his power and malice the Kingdom of Christ should increase and flourish The Magician was inwardly tormented with this defeat and vext to see the triumph of the Apostle and therefore mustering up all his powers summoned the People told them that he was offended at the Galileans whose Protector and Guardian he had been and therefore set them a Day when he promised that they should see him fly-up into Heaven At the time appointed he went up to the Mount of the Capitol and throwing himself from the top of the Rock began his flight A sight which the People entertained with great wonder and veneration affirming that this must be the power of God and not of man Peter standing in the Croud prayed to our Lord that the People might be undeceived and that the vanity of the Impostor might be discovered in such a way that he himself might be sensible of it Immediately the Wings which he had made himself began to fail him and he fell to the ground miserably bruised and wounded with the fall Whence being carried into a neighbouring Village he soon after dyed This is the story for the particular circumstances whereof the Reader must rely upon the credit of my Author the thing in general being sufficiently acknowledged by most ancient Writers This contest of Peter's with Simon Magus is placed by Eusebius under the Reign of Claudius but by the generality both of ancient and later Authors it is referred to the Reign of Nero. 5. SUCH was the end of this miserable and unhappy Man Which no sooner came to the ears of the Emperor to whom by wicked artifices he had indeared himself but it became an occasion of hastning Peter's ruine The Emperor probably had before been displeased with Peter not only upon the acount of the general disagreement and inconformity of his Religion but because he had so strictly pressed temperance and chastity and reclaimed so many Women in Rome from a dissolute and vicious life thereby crossing that wanton and lascivious temper to which that Prince was so immoderate a slave and vassal And being now by his means robbed of his dear favourite and companion he resolved upon revenge commanded Peter as also S. Paul who was at this time at Rome to be apprehended and cast into the Mamertine Prison where they spent their time in the exercises of Religion and especially in Preaching to the Prisoners and those who resorted to them And here we may suppose it was if not a little before that Peter wrote his second Epistle to the dispersed Jews wherein he endeavours to confirm them in the belief and practice of Christianity and to fortifie them against those poysonous and pernicious principles and practices which even then began to break in upon the Christian Church 6. NERO returning from Achaia and entring Rome with a great deal of pomp and triumph resolved now the Apostles should fall as a Victim and Sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge While the fatal stroke was daily expected the Christians in Rome did by daily prayers and importunities solicite S. Peter to make an escape and to reserve himself to the uses and services of the Church This at first he rejected as what would ill reflect upon his courage and constancy and argue him to be afraid of those sufferings for Christ to which he himself had so often perswaded others but the prayers and the tears of the People overcame him and made him yield Accordingly the next Night having prayed with and taken his farewell of the Brethren he got over the Prison-wall and coming to the City-gate he is there said to have met with our Lord who was just entring into the City Peter asked him Lord whither art thou going from whom he presently received this answer I am come to Rome to be crucified a second time By which answer Peter apprehended himself to be reproved and that our Lord meant it of his death that he was to be crucified in his Servant Whereupon he went back to the Prison and delivered himself into the hands of his Keepers shewing himself most ready and chearful to acquiesce in the will of God And we are told that in the stone whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Peter he left the impression of his Feet which stone has been ever since preserved as a very sacred Relique and after several translations was at length fixed in the Church of S. Sebastian the Martyr where it is kept and visited with great expressions of reverence and devotion at this day Before his suffering he was no question scourged according to the manner of the Romans who were wont first to whip those Malefactors who were adjudged to the most severe and capital punishments Having saluted his Brethren and especially having taken his last farewell of S. Paul he was brought out of the Prison and led to the top of the Vatican Mount near to Tybur the place designed for his Execution The death he was adjudged to was crucifixion as of all others accounted the most shameful so the most severe and terrible But he intreated the favour of the Officers that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way but might suffer with his Head downwards and his Feet up to Heaven affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him Happy man as Chrysostom glosses to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from Earth to Heaven His Body being taken from the Cross is said to have been imbalmed by Marcellinus the Presbyter after the Jewish manner and was then buried in the Vatican near the Triumphal way Over his Grave a small Church was soon after erected which being destroyed by Heliogabalus his Body was removed to the Cemetery in the Appian way two Miles from Rome where it remained till the time of Pope Cornelius who re-conveyed it to the Vatican where it rested somewhat obscurely until the Reign of Constantine who out of the mighty reverence which he had for the Christian Religion caused many Churches to be built at Rome but especially rebuilt and enlarged the Vatican to the honour of S. Peter In the doing whereof Himself is said to have been the first that began to dig the Foundation and to have carried thence twelve Baskets of Rubbish with his own hands in honour as it should seem of the twelve Apostles He infinitely
earnestly exhorting her and calling her by her Name bad her to be mindful of our Lord. Such says he was the Wedlock of that blessed couple and the perfect disposition and agreement in those things that were dearest to them By her he is said to have had a Daughter called Petronilla Metaphrastes adds a Son how truly I know not This only is certain that Clemens of Alexandria reckons Peter for one of the Apostles that was Married and had Children And surely he who was so good a man and so good an Apostle was as good in the relation both of an Husband and a Father SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome Peter ' 's being at Rome granted in general The account of it given by Baronius and the Writers of that Church rejected and disproved No foundation for it in the History of the Apostolick Acts. No mention of it in S. Paul ' s Epistle to the Romans No news of his being there at S. Paul ' s coming to Rome nor intimation of any such thing in the several Epistles which S. Paul wrote from thence S. Peter ' s first being at Rome inconsistent with the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem And with an Ancient Tradition that the Apostles were commanded to stay Twelve years in Judaea after Christ ' s death A passage out of Clemens Alexandrinus noted and corrected to that purpose Difference among the Writers of the Romish Church in their Accounts Peter 's being XXV years Bishop of Rome no solid foundation for it in Antiquity The Planting and Governing that Church equally attributed to Peter and Paul S. Peter when probably came to Rome Different dates of his Martyrdom assigned by the Ancients A probable account given of it 1. THOUGH it be not my purpose to swim against the Stream and Current of Antiquity in denying S. Peter to have been at Rome an Assertion easilier perplexed and entangled than confuted and disproved yet may we grant the main without doing any great service to that Church there being evidence enough to every impartial and considering man to spoil that smooth and plausible Scheme of Times which Baronius and the Writers of that Church have drawn with so much care and diligence And in order to this we shall first enquire whether that Account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Rome be tolerably reconcileable with the History of the Apostles Acts recorded by S. Luke which will be best done by briefly presenting S. Peter's Acts in their just Series and order of Time and then seeing what countenance and foundation their Account can receive from hence 2. AFTER our Lord's Ascension we find Peter for the first year at least staying with the rest of the Apostles at Jerusalem In the next year he was sent together with S. John by the command of the Apostles to Samaria to preach the Gospel to that City and the parts about it About three years after S. Paul meets him at Jerusalem with whom he staid some time In the two following years he visited the late planted Churches preached at Lydda and Joppa where having tarried many days he thence removed to Caesarea where he preached to and baptized Cornelius and his Family Whence after some time he returned to Jerusalem where he probably staid till cast into prison by Herod and delivered by the Angel After which we hear no more of him till three or four years after we find him in the Council at Jerusalem After which he had the contest with S. Paul at Antioch And thence forward the Sacred Story is altogether silent in this matter So that in all this time we find not the least footstep of any intimation that he went to Rome This Baronius well foresaw and therefore once and again inserts this caution that S. Luke did not design to record all the Apostles Acts and that he has omitted many things which were done by Peter Which surely no man ever intended to deny But then that he should omit a matter of such vast moment and importance to the whole Christian World that not one syllable should be said of a Church planted by Peter at Rome a Church that was to be Paramount the seat of all Spiritual Power and Infallibility and to which all other Churches were to vail and do homage nay that he should not so much as mention that ever he was there and yet all this said to be done within the time he designed to write of is by no means reasonable to suppose Especially considering that S. Luke records many of his journeys and travels and his preaching at several places of far less consequence and concernment Nor let this be thought the worse of because a negative Argument since it carries so much rational evidence along with it that any man who is not plainly byassed by Interest will be satisfied with it 3. BUT let us proceed a little further to enquire whether we can meet any probable footsteps afterwards About the year Fifty three towards the end of Claudius his Reign S. Paul is thought to have writ his Epistle to the Church at Rome wherein he spends the greatest part of one Chapter in saluting particular persons that were there amongst whom it might reasonably have been expected that S. Peter should have had the first place And supposing with Baronius that Peter at this time might be absent from the City preaching the Gospel in some parts in the West yet we are not sure that S. Paul knew of this and if he did it is strange that in so large an Epistle wherein he had occasion enough there should be neither direct nor indirect mention of him or of any Church there founded by him Nay S. Paul himself intimates what an earnest desire he had to come thither that he might impart unto them some spiritual gifts to the end they might be established in the Faith for which there could have been no such apparent cause had Peter been there so lately and so long before him Well S. Paul himself not many years after is sent to Rome Ann. Chr. LVI or as Eusebius LVII though Baronius makes it two years after about the second year of Nero when he comes thither does he go to sojourn with Peter as 't is likely he would had he been there No but dwelt by himself in his own hired house No sooner was he come but he called the chief of the Jews together acquainted them with the cause and end of his coming explains the doctrine of Christianity which when they rejected he tells them That henceforth the Salvation of God was sent unto the Gentiles who would hear it to whom he would now address himself Which seems to intimate that however some few of the Gentiles might have been brought over yet that no such harvest had been made before his coming as might reasonably have been expected from S. Peter's having been so many years amongst them Within
manner of it His blindness His rapture into the third Heaven when probably His sight restored His being Baptized and preaching Christ. THOUGH S. Paul was none of the Twelve Apostles yet had he the honour of being an Apostle extraordinary and to be immediately called in a way peculiar to himself He justly deserves a place next S. Peter for as in their lives they were pleasant and lovely so in their death they were not divided especially if it be true that they both suffered not only for the same cause but at the same time as well as place S. Paul was born at Tarsus the Metropolis of Cilicia a City infinitely rich and populous and what contributed more to the fame and honour of it an Academy furnished with Schools of Learning where the Scholars so closely plied their Studies that as Strabo informs us they excelled in all Arts of polite Learning and Philosophy those of other places yea even of Alexandria and Athens it self and that even Rome was beholden to it for many of its best Professors It was a Roman Municipium or free Corporation invested with many Franchises and Priviledges by Julius Caesar and Augustus who granted to the Inhabitants of it the honours and immunities of Citizens of Rome In which respect S. Paul owned and asserted it as the priviledge of his Birth-right that he was a Roman and thereby free from being bound or beaten True it is that S. Hierom followed herein by one who himself travelled in these parts makes him born at Gischalis a well fortified Town in Judaea which being besieged and taken by the Roman Army his Parents fled away with him and dwelt at Tarsus But besides that this contradicts S. Paul who expresly affirms that he was born at Tarsus there needs no more to confute this opinion than that S. Hierom elsewhere slights it as a fabulous report 2. HIS Parents were Jews and that of the Ancient stock not entring in by the Gate of proselytism but originally descended from that Nation which surely he means when he says That he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews either because both his Parents were Jews or rather that all his Ancestors had been so They belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin whose Founder was the youngest son of the old Patriarch Jacob who thus prophesied of him Benjamin shall raven as a Wolf in the morning he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil This prophetical character Tertullian and others after him will have to be accomplished in our Apostle As a ravening Wolf in the morning devouring the prey that is as a persecutor of the Churches in the first part of his life destroying the flock of God In the evening dividing the spoil that is in his declining and reduced age as Doctor of the Nations feeding and distributing to Christ's sheep 3. WE find him described by two names in Scripture one Hebrew and the other Latin probably referring both to his Jewish and Roman capacity and relation The one Saul a name frequent and common in the Tribe of Benjamin ever since the first King of Israel who was of that name was chosen out of that Tribe In memory whereof they were wont to give their Children this name at their Circumcision His other was Paul assumed by him as some think at his Conversion to denote his humility as others in memory of his converting Sergius Paulus the Roman Governour in imitation of the Generals and Emperors of Rome who were wont from the places and Nations that they conquered to assume the name as an additional honour and title to themselves as Scipio Africanus Caesar Germanicus Parthicus Sarmaticus c. But this seems no way consistent with the great humility of this Apostle More probable therefore it is what Origen thinks That he had a double name given him at his Circumcision Saul relating to his Jewish original and Paul referring to the Roman Corporation where he was born And this the Scripture seems to favour when it says Saul who also is called Paul Or if it was taken up by him afterwards it was probably done at his Conversion according to the custom and manner of the Hebrews who used many times upon solemn and eminent occasions especially upon their entering upon a more strict and religious course of life to change their names and assume one which they had not before 4. IN his Youth he was brought up in the Schools of Tarsus fully instructed in all the liberal Arts and Sciences whereby he became admirably acquainted with foreign and external Authors Together with which he was brought up to a particular Trade and course of life according to the great Maxim and principle of the Jews That He who teaches not his son a Trade teaches him to be a Thief They thought it not only fit but a necessary part of Education for their wisest and most learned Rabbins to be brought up to a manual Trade whereby if occasion was they might be able to maintain themselves Hence as Drusius observes nothing more common in their writings than to have them denominated from their callings Rabbi Jose the Tanner Rabbi Jochanan the Shoomaker Rabbi Juda the Baker c. A custom taken up by the Christians especially the Monks and Asceticks of the Primitive times who together with their strict profession and almost incredible exercises of devotion each took upon him a particular Trade whereat he daily wrought and by his own hand-labour maintained himself And this course of life the Jews were very careful should be free from all suspicion of scandal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call it a clean that is honest Trade being wont to say That he was happy that had his Parents employed in an honest and commendable Calling as he was miserable who saw them conversant in any sordid and dishonest course of life The Trade our Apostle was put to was that of Tent-making whereat he wrought for some particular reasons even after his calling to the Apostolate An honest but mean course of life and as Chrysostom observes an argument that his Parents were not of the nobler and better rank however it was an useful and gainful Trade especially in those war-like Countries where Armies had such frequent use of Tents 5. HAVING run through the whole circle of the Sciences and laid the sure foundations of humane Learning at Tarsus he was by his Parents sent to Jerusalem to be perfected in the study of the Law and put under the Tutorage of Rabban Gamaliel This Gamaliel was the son of Rabban Symeon probably presumed to be the same Symeon that came into the Temple and took Christ into his arms President of the Court of the Sanhedrim he was a Doctor of the Law a Person of great wisdom and prudence and head at that time of one of the Families of the Schools at Jerusalem A man of chief eminency and authority in the
Jewish Sanhedrim and President of it at that very time when our Blessed Saviour was brought before it He lived to a great Age and was buried by Onkelos the Proselyte Author of the Chaldee Paraphrase one who infinitely loved and honoured him at his own vast expence and charge He it was that made that wise and excellent speech in the Sanhedrim in favour of the Apostles and their Religion Nay he himself is said though I know not why to have been a Christian and his sitting amongst the Senators to have been conniv'd at by the Apostles that he might be the better friend to their affairs Chrysippus Presbyter of the Church of Jerusalem adds that he was brothers son to Nicodemus together with whom he and his son Abib were baptized by Peter and John This account he derives from Lucian a Presbyter also of that Church under John Patriarch of Jerusalem who in an Epistle of his still extant tells us that he had this together with some other things communicated to him in a Vision by Gamaliel himself Which if true no better evidence could be desired in this matter At the feet of this Gamaliel S. Paul tells us he was brought up alluding to the custom of the Jewish Masters who were wont to sit while their Disciples and Scholars stood at their feet Which honorary custom continued till the death of this Gamaliel and was then left off Their own Talmud telling us That since old Rabban Gamaliel died the honour of the Law was perished Purity and Pharisaism were destroyed which the Gloss thus explains That whilest he lived men were sound and studied the Law standing but he being dead weakness crept into the World and they were forced to sit 6. UNDER the Tuition of this great Master S. Paul was Educated in the knowledge of the Law wherein he made such quick and vast improvements that he soon out-stript his fellow-Disciples Amongst the various Sects at that time in the Jewish Church he was especially Educated in the Principles and Institutions of the Pharisees Of which Sect was both his Father and his Master whereof he became a most earnest and zealous professor This being as himself tells us the strictest Sect of their Religion For the understanding whereof it may not be amiss a little to enquire into the Temper and Manners of this Sect. Josephus though himself a Pharisee gives this character of them That they were a crafty and subtil generation of men and so perverse even to Princes themselves that they would not fear many times openly to affront and oppose them And so far had they insinuated themselves into the affections and estimations of the populacy that their good or ill word was enough to make or blast any one with the People who would implicitly believe them let their report be never so false or malicious And therefore Alexander Jannaeus when he lay a dying wisely advised his Queen by all means to comply with them and to seem to Govern by their counsel and direction affirming that this had been the greatest cause of his fatal miscarriage and that which had derived the odium of the Nation upon him that he had offended this sort of men Certain it is that they were infinitely proud and insolent surly and ill-natured that they hated all mankind but themselves and censured whoever would not be of their way as a Villain and a Reprobate greatly zealous to gather Proselytes to their party not to make them more religious but more fierce and cruel more carping and censorious more heady and high-minded in short twofold more the children of the Devil than they were before All Religion and kindness was confined within the bounds of their own party and the first principles wherewith they inspired their new converts were That none but they were the godly party and that all other persons were slaves and sons of the Earth and therefore especially endeavoured to inspire them with a mighty zeal and fierceness against all that differed from them so that if any one did but speak a good word of our Saviour he should be presently excommunicated and cast out persecuted and devoted to the death To this end they were wont not only to separate but discriminate themselves from the herd and community by some peculiar notes and badges of distinction such as their long Robes broad Phylacteries and their large Fringes and Borders of their Garments whereby they made themselves known from the rest of men These dogged and ill-natured principles together with their seditious unnatural unjust unmerciful and uncharitable behaviour which otherwise would have made them stink above-ground in the nostrils of men they sought to palliate and varnish over with a more than ordinary pretence and profession of Religion but were especially active and diligent in what cost them little the outward instances of Religion such duties especially as did more immediately refer to God as frequent fasting and praying which they did very often and very long with demure and mortified looks in a whining and an affected tone and this almost in every corner of the streets and indeed so contrived the scheme of their Religion that what they did might appear above-ground where they might be seen of men to the best advantage 7. THOUGH this seems to have been the general temper and disposition of the party yet doubtless there were some amongst them of better and honester principles than the rest In which number we have just reason to reckon our Apostle who yet was deeply leavened with the active and fiery genius of the Sect not able to brook any opposite party in Religion especially if late and novel Insomuch that when the Jews were resolved to do execution upon Stephen he stood by and kept the cloaths of them that did it Whether he was any further engaged in the death of this innocent and good man we do not find However this was enough loudly to proclaim his approbation and consent And therefore elsewhere we find him indicting himself for this fact and pleading guilty When the blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment of them that slew him God chiefly inspects the heart and if the vote be passed there writes the man guilty though he stir no farther 'T is easie to murder another by a silent wish or a passionate desire In all moral actions God values the will for the deed and reckons the man a companion in the sin who though possibly he may never actually joyn in it does yet inwardly applaud and like it The storm thus begun encreased a pace and a violent persecution began to arise which miserably afflicted and dispersed the Christians at Jerusalem In which our Apostle was a prime Agent and Minister raging about in all parts with a mad and ungovernable zeal searching out the Saints beating them in the Synagogues compelling many to blaspheme imprisoning others
and procuring them to be put to death Indeed he was a kind of Inquisitor Haereticae pravitatis to the High-Priest by whom he was employed to hunt and find out these upstart Hereticks who preached against the Law of Moses and the Traditions of the Fathers Accordingly having made strange havock at Jerusalem he addressed himself to the Sanhedrim and there took out a Warrant and Commission to go down and ransack the Synagogues at Damascus How eternally insatiable is fury and a misguided zeal how restless and unwearied in its designs of cruelty it had already sufficiently harassed the poor Christians at Jerusalem but not content to have vexed them there and to have driven them thence it persecuted them unto strange Cities following them even to Damascus it self whither many of these persecuted Christians had fled for shelter resolving to bring up those whom he found there to Jerusalem in order to their punishment and execution For the Jewish Sanhedrim had not only power of seizing and scourging offenders against their Law within the bounds of their own Country but by the connivence and favour of the Romans might send into other Countries where there were any Synagogues that acknowledged a dependence in Religious matters upon the Council at Jerusalem to apprehend them as here they sent Paul to Damascus to fetch up what Christians he could find to be arraigned and sentenced at Jerusalem 8. BUT God who had designed him for work of another nature and separated him from his Mothers womb to the preaching of the Gospel stopt him in his journey For while he was together with his company travelling on the Road not far from Damascus on a sudden a gleam of light beyond the splendor and brightness of the Sun was darted from Heaven upon them whereat being strangely amazed and confounded they all fell to the ground a Voice calling to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me To which he replied Lord who art thou Who told him That he was Jesus whom he persecuted that what was done to the members was done to the head that it was hard for him to kick against the pricks that he now appeared to him to make choice of him for a Minister and a Witness of what he had now seen and should after hear that he would stand by him and preserve him and make him a great instrument in the conversion of the Gentile World This said He asked our Lord what he would have him to do who bad him go into the City where he should receive his Answer S. Paul's companions who had been present at this transaction heard the voice but saw not him that spoke to him though elsewhere the Apostle himself affirms that they saw the light but heard not the voice of him that spake that is they heard a confused sound but not a distinct and articulate voice or more probably being ignorant of the Hebrew Language wherein our Lord spake to Saint Paul they heard the words but knew not the sence and the meaning of them 9. S. PAUL by this time was gotten up but though he found his feet yet he had lost his eyes being stricken blind with the Extraordinary brightness of the light and was accordingly led by his companions into Damascus In which condition he there remained fasting three days together At this time we may probably suppose it was that he had that vision and ecstasie wherein he was taken up into the third Heaven where he saw and heard things great and unutterable and was fully instructed in the mysteries of the Gospel and hence expresly affirms that he was not taught the Gospel which he preached by man but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. There was at this time at Damascus one Ananias a very devout and religious man one of the seventy Disciples as the Ancients inform us and probably the first planter of the Christian Church in this City and though a Christian yet of great reputation amongst all the Jews To him our Lord appeared commanding him to go into such a street and to such an house and there enquire for one Saul of Tarsus who was now at Prayer and had seen him in a Vision coming to him to lay his hands upon him that he might receive his sight Ananias startled at the name of the man having heard of his bloudy temper and practices and upon what errand he was now come down to the City But our Lord to take off his fears told him that he mistook the man that he had now taken him to be a chosen vessel to preach the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles and before the greatest Potentates upon Earth acquainting him with what great things he should both do and suffer for his sake what chains and imprisonments what racks and scourges what hunger and thirst what shipwracks and death he should undergo Upon this Ananias went laid his hands upon him told him that our Lord had sent him to him that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost which was no sooner done but thick films like scales fell from his eyes and his sight returned And the next thing he did was to be baptized and solemnly initiated into the Christian Faith After which he joyned himself to the Disciples of that place to the equal joy and wonder of the Church that the Wolf should so soon lay down its fierceness and put on the meek nature of a Lamb that he who had lately been so violent a persecutor should now become not a professor only but a preacher of that Faith which before he had routed and destroyed SECT II. Of S. Paul from his Conversion till the Council at Jerusalem S. Paul ' s leaving Damascus and why His Three Years Ministry in Arabia His return to Damascus The greatness of that City The design of the Jews to surprize S. Paul and the manner of his escape His coming to Jerusalem and converse with Peter and James His departure thence The Disciples first stiled Christians at Antioch This when done and by whom The solemnity of it The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what S. Paul ' s Journey to Jerusalem with contributions His voyage to Cyprus and planting Christianity there The opposition made by Elymas and his severe punishment The Proconsuls conversion His preaching to the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia His curing a Cripple at Lystra and discourse to the people about their Idolatry The Apostles way of arguing noted and his discourse concerning the Being and Providence of God illustrated His confirming the Churches in the Faith The controversie at Antioch and S. Paul ' s account of it in the Synod at Jerusalem SAINT Paul staid not long at Damascus after his Conversion but having received an immediate intimation from Heaven probably in the Ecstasie wherein he was caught up thither he waited for no other counsel or direction in the case lest he should seem to derive his Mission and Authority from
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
of the debate was That the Gentiles were not under the obligation of the Law of Moses and that therefore some persons of their own should be joyned with Paul and Barnabas to carry the Canons and decrees of the Council down to Antioch for their fuller satisfaction in this matter But of this affair we shall give the Reader a more distinct and particular account in another place SECT III. Of S. Paul from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem till his departure from Athens S. Paul ' s carrying the Apostolick Decree to Antioch His contest with Peter The dissention between him and Barnabas His Travels to confirm the new-planted Churches The conversion of Lydia at Philippi The Jewish Proseuchae what the frequency of them in all places The dispossessing of a Pythonesse S. Paul ' s imprisonment and ill usage at Philippi The great provision made by the Roman Laws for the security of its Subjects His preaching at Thessalonica and Beroea His going to Athens The same of that place His doctrine opposed by the Stoicks and Epicureans and why The great Idolatry and Superstition of that City The Altar to the Unknown God This Unknown God who The Superstition of the Jews in concealing the name of God This imitated by the Gentiles Their general Forms of Invocating their Deities noted The particular occasion of these Altars at Athens whence S. Paul ' s discourse to the Philosophers in the Areopagus concerning the Divine Being and Providence The different entertainment of his Doctrine Dionysius the Areopagite who His Learning Conversion and being made Bishop of Athens The difference between him and S. Denys of Paris The Books published under his name SAINT Paul and his Companions having received the Decretal Epistle returned back to Antioch where they had not been long before Peter came thither to them And according to the Decree of the Council freely and inoffensively conversed with the Gentiles Till some of the Jews coming down thither from Jerusalem he withdrew his converse as if it were a thing unwarrantable and unlawful By which means the minds of many were dissatisfied and their Consciences very much ensnared Whereat S. Paul being exceedingly troubled publickly rebuked him for it and that as the case required with great sharpness and severity It was not long after that S. Paul and Barnabas resolved upon visiting the Churches which they had lately planted among the Gentiles To which end Barnabas determined to take his cousin Mark along with them This Paul would by no means agree to he having deserted them in their former journey A little spark which yet kindled a great feud and dissention between these two good men and arose to that height that in some discontent they parted from each other So natural is it for the best of men sometimes to indulge an unwarrantable passion and so far to espouse the interest of a private and particular humour as rather to hazard the great Law of Charity and violate the bands of friendship than to recede from it The effect was Barnabas taking his Nephew went for Cyprus his native Country S. Paul made choice of Silas and the success of his undertaking being first recommended to the Divine care and goodness they set forwards on their journey 2. THEIR first passage was into Syria and Cilicia confirming the Churches as they went along And to that end they left with them Copies of the Synodical Decrees lately ordained in the Council at Jerusalem Hence we may suppose it was that he set sail for Crete where he preached and propagated Christianity and constituted Titus to be the first Bishop and Pastor of that Island whom he left there to settle and dispose those affairs which the shortness of his own stay in those parts would not suffer him to do Hence he returned back unto Cilicia and came to Lystra where he found Timothy whose Father was a Greek his Mother a Jewish convert by whom he had been brought up under all the advantages of a pious and religious education and especially an incomparable skill and dexterity in the holy Scriptures S. Paul designed him for the companion of his travels and a special instrument in the Ministery of the Gospel and knowing that his being uncircumcised would be a mighty prejudice in the opinion and estimation of the Jews caused him to be circumcised being willing in lawful and indifferent matters such was Circumcision now become to accommodate himself to mens humors and apprehensions for the saving of their Souls 3. FROM hence with his company he passed through Phrygia and the Country of Galatia where he was entertained by them with as mighty a kindness and veneration as if he had been an Angel immediately sent from Heaven And being by Revelation forbidden to go into Asia by a second Vision he was commanded to direct his journey for Macedonia And here it was that S. Luke joyned himself to his company and became ever after his inseparable companion Sailing from Troas they arrived at the Island Samothracia and thence to Neapolis from whence they went to Philippi the chief City of that part of Macedonia and a Roman Colony where he staid some considerable time to plant the Christian Faith and where his Ministery had more particular success on Lydia a Purple-seller born at Thyatira baptized together with her whole Family and with her the Apostle sojourned during his residence in that place A little without this City there was a Proseucha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Syriack renders it an Oratory or house of Prayer whereto the Apostle and his company used frequently to retire for the exercise of their Religion and for preaching the Gospel to those that resorted thither The Jews had three sorts of places for their publick worship The Temple at Jerusalem which was like the Cathedral or mother-Mother-Church where all Sacrifices and Oblations were offered and where all Males were bound three times a year personally to pay their devotions Their Synagogues many whereof they had almost in every place not unlike our Parochial Churches where the Scriptures were read and expounded and the people taught their duty Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath-day And then they had their Proseuchae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo sometimes calls them or Oratories which were like Chappels of Ease to the Temple and the Synagogues whither the people were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven They were built as Epiphanius informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the City in the open Air and uncovered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being large spacious places after the manner of Fora or Market-places and these they called Proseucha's And that the Jews and Samaritans had such places of Devotion he proves from this very place at Philippi where S. Paul preached For they had them not in Judaea only but even at Rome it self where Tiberius as
Baptism and the Apostle laying his hands upon them they immediately received the Holy Ghost in the gift of Tongues Prophecy and other miraculous powers conferred upon them 4. AFTER this he entred into the Jewish Synagogues where for the first three months he contended and disputed with the Jews endeavouring with great earnestness and resolution to convince them of the truth of those things that concerned the Christian Religion But when instead of success he met with nothing but refractoriness and infidelity he left the Synagogue and taking those with him whom he had converted instructed them and others that resorted to him in the School of one Tyrannus a place where Scholars were wont to be educated and instructed In this manner he continued for two years together In which time the Jews and Proselytes of the whole Proconsular Asia had opportunity of having the Gospel preached to them And because Miracles are the clearest evidence of a Divine commission and the most immediate Credentials of Heaven those which do nearliest affect our senses and consequently have the strongest influence upon our minds therefore God was pleased to ratifie the doctrine which S. Paul delivered by great and miraculous operations and those of somewhat a more peculiar and extraordinary nature Insomuch that he did not only heal those that came to him but if Napkins or Handkerchiefs were but touched by him and applied unto the sick their diseases immediately vanished and the Daemons and evil Spirits departed out of those that were possessed by them 5. EPHESUS above all other places in the World was noted of old for the study of Magick and all secret and hidden Arts whence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often spoken of by the Ancients which were certain obscure and mystical Spells and Charms by which they endeavoured to heal Diseases and drive away evil Spirits and do things beyond the reach and apprehensions of common people Besides other professors of this black Art there were at this time at Ephesus certain Jews who dealt in the arts of Exorcism and Incantation a craft and mystery which Josephus affirms to have been derived from Solomon who he tells us did not only find it out but composed forms of Exorcism and Inchantment whereby to cure diseases and expel Daemons so as they should never return again and adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That this Art was still in force among the Jews Instances whereof he tells us he himself had seen having beheld one Eâ—â—azar a Jew in the presence of Vespasian his Sons and the great Officers of his Army curing Daemoniacks by holding a ring to their nose under whose Seal was hid the root of a certain Plant prescribed by Solomon at the scent whereof the Daemon presently took leave and was gone the Patient falling to the ground while the Exorcist by mentioning Solomon and reciting some Charms made by him stood over him and charged the evil Spirit never to return And to let them see that he was really gone he commanded the Daemon as he went out to overturn a cup full of water which he had caused to be set in the room before them In the number of these Conjurers now at Ephesus there were the seven Sons of Sceva one of the chief heads of the Families of the Priests who seeing what great things were done by calling over Daemoniacks the name of Christ attempted themselves to do the like Conjuring the evil Spirit in the name of that Jesus whom Paul preached to depart But the stubborn Daemon would not obey the warrant telling them he knew who Jesus and Paul were but did not understand what authority they had to use his name And not content with this forced the Daemoniack violently to fall upon them to tear their clothes and wound their bodies scarce suffering them to escape with the safety of their lives An accident that begot great terror in the minds of men and became the occasion of converting many to the Faith who came to the Apostle and confessed the former course and manner of their lives Several also who had traded in curious Arts and the mysterious methods of Spells and Charms freely brought their Books of Magick Rites whose price had they been to be sold according to the rates which men who dealt in those cursed mysteries put upon them would have amounted to the value of above One thousand Five hundred pounds and openly burnt them before the people themselves adjudging them to those flames to which they were condemned by the Laws of the Empire For so we find the Roman Laws prohibiting any to keep Books of Magick Arts and that where any such were found their Goods should be forfeited the Books publickly burned the persons banished and if of a meaner rank beheaded These Books the penitent converts did of their own accord sacrifice to the fire not tempted to spare them either by their former love to them or the present price and value of them With so mighty an efficacy did the Gospel prevail over the minds of men 6. ABOUT this time it was that the Apostle writ his Epistle to the Galatians For he had heard that since his departure corrupt opinions had got in amongst them about the necessary observation of the legal Rites and that several Impostors were crept into that Church who knew no better way to undermine the Doctrine he had planted there than by vilifying his person slighting him as an Apostle only at the second hand not to be compared with Peter James and John who had familiarly conversed with Christ in the days of his flesh and been immediately deputed by him In this Epistle therefore he reproves them with some necessary smartness and severity that they had been so soon led out of that right way wherein he had set them and had so easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon by the crafty artifices of seducers He vindicates the honour of his Apostolate and the immediate receiving his Commission from Christ wherein he shews that he came not behind the very best of those Apostles He largely refutes those Judaical opinions that had tainted and infected them and in the conclusion instructs them in the rules and duties of an holy life While the Apostle thus staid at Ephesus he resolved with himself to pass through Macedonia and Achaia thence to Jerusalem and so to Rome But for the present altered his resolution and continued still at Ephesus 7. DURING his stay in this place an accident happened that involved him in great trouble and danger Ephesus above all the Cities of the East was renowned for the famous Temple of Diana one of the stateliest Temples of the World It was as Pliny tells us the very wonder of magnificence built at the common charges of all Asia properly so called 220 Years elsewhere he says 400 in building which we are to understand of its successive rebuildings and reparations being often wasted and destroyed It was 425 Foot
had taken root amongst them 5. IT is not improbable but that about this or rather some considerable time before S. Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy I know Eusebius and the Ancients and most Moderns after them will have it written a little before his Martyrdom induced thereunto by that passage in it that he was then ready to be offered and that the time of his departure was at hand But surely it 's most reasonable to think that it was written at his first being at Rome and that at his first coming thither presently after his Trial before Nero. Accordingly the passage before mentioned may import no more than that he was in imminent danger of his life and had received the sentence of death in himself not hoping to escape out of the paws of Nero But that God had delivered him out of the mouth of the Lion i. e. the great danger he was in at his coming thither Which exactly agrees to his case at his first being at Rome but cannot be reconciled with his last coming thither together with many more circumstances in this Epistle which render it next door to certain In it he appoints Timothy shortly to come to him who accordingly came whose name is joyned together with his in the front of several Epistles to the Philippians Colossians and to Philemon The only thing that can be levelled against this is that in this Epistle to Timothy he tells him that he had sent Tychicus to Ephesus by whom 't is plain that the Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians were dispatched and that therefore this to Timothy must be written after them But I see no inconvenience to affirm that Tychicus might come to Rome presently after Paul's arrival there be by him immediately sent back to Ephesus upon some emergent affair of that Church and after his return to Rome be sent with those two Epistles The design of the Epistle was to excite the holy man to a mighty zeal and diligence care and fidelity in his office and to antidote the People against those poisonous principles that in those parts especially began to debauch the minds of men 6. AS for the Epistle to the Hebrews 't is very uncertain when or whence and for some Ages doubted by whom 't was written Eusebius tells us 't was not received by many because rejected by the Church of Rome as none of Paul's genuine Epistles Origen affirms the style and phrase of it to be more fine and elegant and to contain in it a richer vein of purer Greek than is usually found in Paul's Epistles as every one that is able to judge of a style must needs confess That the sentences indeed are grave and weighty and such as breath the Spirit and Majesty of an Apostle That therefore 't was his judgment that the matter contained in it had been dictated by some Apostle but that it had been put into phrase form and order by some other person that did attend upon him That if any Church owned it for Paul's they were not to be condemned it not being without reason by the Ancients ascribed to him though God only knew who was the true Author of it He further tells us that report had handed it down to his time that it had been composed partly by Clemens of Rome partly by Luke the Evangelist Tertullian adds that it was writ by Barnabas What seems most likely in such variety of opinions is that S. Paul originally wrote it in Hebrew it being to be sent to the Jews his Country-men and by some other person probably S. Luke or Clemens Romanus translated into Greek Especially since both Eusebius and S. Hierom observed of old such a great affinity both in style and sence between this and Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians as thence positively to conclude him to be the Translator of it 'T was written as we may conjecture a little after he was restored to his liberty and probably while he was yet in some parts of Italy whence he dates his salutations The main design of it is to magnifie Christ and the Religion of the Gospel above Moses and the Jewish Oeconomy and Ministration that by this means he might the better establish and confirm the Convert Jews in the firm belief and profession of Christianity notwithstanding those sufferings and persecutions that came upon them endeavouring throughout to arm and fortifie them against Apostasie from that noble and excellent Religion wherein they had so happily engaged themselves And great need there was for the Apostle severely to urge them to it heavy persecutions both from Jews and Gentiles pressing in upon them on every side besides those trains of specious and plausible insinuations that were laid to reduce them to their Ancient Institutions Hence the Apostle calls Apostasie the sin which did so easily beset them to which there were such frequent temptations and into which they were so prone to be betrayed in those suffering times And the more to deter them from it he once and again sets before them the dreadful state and condition of Apostates those who having been once enlightned and baptized into the Christian Faith tasted the promises of the Gospel and been made partakers of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost those powers which in the world to come or this new state of things were to be conferred upon the Church if after all this these men fall away and renounce Christianity it 's very hard and even impossible to renew them again unto repentance For by this means they trod under foot and crucified the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame prophaned the bloud of the Covenant and did despite to the Spirit of Grace So that to sin thus wilfully after they had received the knowledge of the truth there could remain for them no more sacrifice for sins nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which should devour these adversaries And a fearful thing it was in such circumstances to fall into the hands of the living God who had particularly said of this sort of sinners that if any man drew back his soul should have no pleasure in him Hence it is that every where in this Epistle he mixes exhortations to this purpose that they would give earnest heed to the things which they had heard lest at any time they should let them slip that they would hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end and beware lest by an evil heart of unbelief they departed from the living God that they would labour to enter into his rest lest any man fall after the example of unbelief that leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ they would go on to perfection shewing diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end not being slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises that they would
hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some was nor cast away their confidence which had great recompence of reward that they had need of patience that after they had done the will of God they might receive the promise that they would not be of them who drew back unto perdition but of them that believed to the saving of the Soul that being encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses who with the most unconquerable constancy and resolution had all holden on in the way to Heaven they would lay aside every weight and the sin which did so easily beset them and run with patience the race that was set before them especially looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith who endured the cross and despised the shame that therefore they should consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest they should be wearied and faint in their minds for that they had not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin looking diligently lest any man should fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble them and thereby many be defiled By all which and much more that might be observed to this purpose it is evident what our Apostles great design was in this excellent Epistle 7. OUR Apostle being now after two Years custody perfectly restored to liberty remembred that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and had therefore a larger Diocese than Rome and accordingly prepared himself for a greater Circuit though which way he directed his course is not absolutely certain By some he is said to have returned back into Greece and the parts of Asia upon no other ground that I know of than a few intimations in some of his Epistles that he intended to do so By others he is thought to have preached both in the Eastern and Western parts which is not inconsistent with the time he had after his departure from Rome But of the latter we have better evidence Sure I am an Author beyond all exception Paul's contemporary and Fellow-labourer I mean Clemens in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians expresly tells us that being a Preacher both in the East and West he taught righteousness to the whole world went to the utmost bounds of the West Which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of One otherwise a Man of great parts and learning who so peremptorily denies that ever our Apostle preached in the West merely because there are no Monuments left in Primitive Antiquity of any particular Churches there founded by him As if all the particular passages of his life done at so vast a distance must needs have been recorded or those records have come down to us when it is so notoriously known that almost all the Writings and Monuments of those first Ages of Christianity are long since perished or as if we were not sufficiently assured of the thing in general though not of what particularly he did there Probable it is that he went into Spain a thing which himself tells us he had formerly once and again resolved on Certain it is that the Ancients do generally assert it without seeming in the least to doubt of it Theodoret and others tell us that he preached not only in Spain but that he went to other Nations and brought the Gospel into the Isles of the Sea by which he undoubtedly means Britain and therefore elsewhere reckons the Gauls and Britains among the Nations which the Apostles and particularly the Tent-maker perswaded to embrace the Law of Christ. Nor is he the only Man that has said it others having given in their testimony and suffrage in this case 8. TO what other parts of the World S. Paul preached the Gospel we find no certain foot-steps in Antiquity nor any further mention of him till his return to Rome which probably was about the Eighth or Ninth Year of Nero's Reign Here he met with Peter and was together with him thrown into Prison no doubt in the general Persecution raised against the Christians under the pretence that they had fir'd the City Besides the general we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes of his Imprisonment Some of the Ancients make him engaged with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus and that that derived the Emperor's fury and rage upon him S. Chrysostome gives us this account that having converted one of Nero's Concubines a Woman of whom he was infinitely fond and reduced her to a life of great strictness and chastity so that now she wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces the Emperor stormed hereat calling the Apostle a Villain and Impostor a wretched perverter and debaucher of others giving order that he should be cast into Prison and when he still persisted to perswade the Lady to continue her chast and pious resolutions commanding him to be put to death 9. HOW long he remained in Prison is not certainly known at last his Execution was resolved on what his preparatory treatment was whether scourged as Malefactors were wont to be in order to their death we find not As a Roman Citizen by the Valerian and the Porcian Law he was exempted from it Though by the Law of the XII Tables notorious Malefactors condemned by the Centuriate Assemblies were first to be scourged and then put to death and Baronius tells us that in the Church of S. Mary beyond the Bridge in Rome the Pillars are yet extant to which both Peter and Paul are said to have been bound and scourged As he was led to Execution he is said to have converted three of the Souldiers that were sent to conduct and guard him who within few days after by the Emperours command became Martyrs for the Faith Being come to the place which was the Aquae Salviae three Miles from Rome after some solemn preparation he chearfully gave his Neck to the fatal stroke As a Roman he might not be put upon the Cross too infamous a Death for any but the worst of Slaves and Malefactors and therefore was beheaded accounted a more noble kind of Death among the Romans fit for Persons of better Quality and more ingenuous Education And from this Instrument of his Execution the custom no doubt first arose that in all Pictures and Images of this Apostle he is constantly represented with a Sword in his right hand Tradition reports justified herein by the suffrage of many of the Fathers that when he was beheaded a Liquor more like Milk than Bloud flowed from his Veins and spirted upon the Clothes of his Executioner and had I lift or leisure for such things I might entertain the Reader with the little glosses that are made upon it S. Chrysostom adds that it became a means of converting his Executioner and many more to the Faith and that the
Apostle suffered in the sixty eighth Year of his Age. Some question there is whether he suffered at the same time with Peter many of the Ancients positively affirm that both suffered on the same day and Year but others though allowing the same Day tell us that S. Paul suffered not till the Year after nay some interpose the distance of several Years A Manuscript writer of the Lives and Travels of Peter and Paul brought amongst other venerable Monuments of Antiquity out of Greece will have Paul to have suffered no less than five Years after Peter which he justifies by the authority of no less than Justin Martyr and Irenaeus But what credit is to be given to this nameless Author I see not and therefore lay no weight upon it nor think it fit to be put into the balance with the testimonies of the Ancients Certainly if he suffered not at the very same time with Peter it could not be long after not above a Year at most The best is which of them soever started first they both came at last to the same end of the race to those Palms and Crowns which are reserved for all good Men in Heaven but most eminently for the Martyrs of the Christian Faith 10. HE was buried in the Via Ostiensis about two Miles from Rome over whose Grave about the Year CCCXVIII Constantine the Great at the instance of Pope Sylvester built a stately Church within a Farm which Lucina a noble Christian Matron of Rome had long before settled upon that Church He adorned it with an hundred of the best Marble columns and beautified it with the most exquisit workmanship the many rich gifts and endowments which he bestowed upon it being particularly set down in the Life of Sylvester This Church as too narrow and little for the honour of so great an Apostle Valentinian or rather Theodosius the Emperor the one but finishing what the other began by a Rescript directed to Sallustius Praefect of the City caused to be taken down and a larger and more noble Church to be built in the room of it Further beautified as appears from an ancient Inscription by Placidia the Empress at the perswasion of Leo Bishop of Rome What other additions of Wealth Honour or stateliness it has received since concerns not me to enquire SECT VIII The Description of his Person and Temper together with an Account of his Writings The Person of S. Paul described His infirm constitution His natural endowments His ingenuous Education and admirable skill in humane Learning and Sciences The Divine temper of his mind His singular humility and condescension His temperance and sobriety and contempt of the World Whether he lived a married or a single life His great kindness and compassion His charity to mens Bodies and Souls His mighty Zeal for Religion His admirable industry and diligence in his Office His unconquerable Patience The many great troubles he underwent His constancy and fidelity in the profession of Christianity His Writings His style and way of Writing what S. Hierom 's bold censure of it The perplexedness and obscurity of his Discourses whence The account given of it by the Ancients The Order of his Epistles what Placed not according to the time when but the dignity of Persons or Places to which they were written The Subscriptions at the end of them of wat value The writings fathered upon S. Paul His Gospel A third Epistle to the Corinthians The Epistle to the Laodiceans His Apocalypse His Acts. The Epistles between him and Seneca 1. THOUGH we have drawn S. Paul at large in the account we have given of his Life yet may it be of use to represent him in little in a brief account of his Person Parts and those Graces and Virtues for which he was more peculiarly eminent and remarkable For his Person we find it thus described He was low and little of stature and somewhat stooping his complexion fair his countenance grave his head small his eyes carrying a kind of beauty and sweetness in them his eye-brows a little hanging over his nose long but gracefully bending his beard thick and like the hair on his head mixed with grey hairs Somewhat of this description may be learnt from Lucian when in the person of Trypho one of S. Paul's disciples he calls him by way of derision the high-nosed bald-pated Galilean that was caught up through the Air unto the third Heaven where he learnt great and excellent things That he was very low himself plainly intimates when he tells us they were wont to say of him that his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible in which respect he is styled by Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man three cubits or a little more than four foot high and yet tall enough to reach Heaven He seems to have enjoyed no very firm and athletick constitution being often subject to distempers S. Hierom particularly reports that he was frequently afflicted with the head-ach and that this was thought by many to have been the thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him and that probably he intended some such thing by the temptation in his flesh which he elsewhere speaks of Which however it may in general signifie those afflictions that came upon him yet does it primarily denote those diseases and infirmities that he was obnoxious to 2. BUT how mean soever the Cabinet was there was a treasure within more precious and valuable as will appear if we survey the accomplishments of his mind For as to his natural abilities and endowments he seems to have had a clear and solid judgment quick invention a prompt and ready memory all which were abundantly improved by Art and the advantages of a more liberal Education The Schools of Tarsus had sharpned his discursive faculty by Logick and the Arts of reasoning instructed him in the Institutions of Philosophy and enriched him with the furniture of all kinds of humane Learning This gave him great advantage above others and ever raised him to a mighty reputation for Parts and Learning insomuch that S. Chrysostom tells us of a dispute between a Christian and a Heathen wherein the Christian endeavoured to prove against the Gentile that S. Paul was more Learned and Eloquent than Plato himself How well he was versed not only in the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets but even in Classick and Foreign writers he has left us sufficient ground to conclude from those excellent sayings which here and there he quotes out of Heathen Authors Which as at once it shews that 't is not unlawful to bring the spoils of Egypt into the service of the Sanctuary and to make use of the advantages of Foreign studies and humane literature to Divine and excellent purposes so does it argue his being greatly conversant in the paths of humane Learning which upon every occasion he could so readily
command Indeed he seemed to have been furnished out on purpose to be the Doctor of the Gentiles to contend with and confute the grave and the wise the acute and the subtil the sage and the learned of the Heathen World and to wound them as Julian's word was with arrows drawn out of their own Quiver Though we do not find that in his disputes with the Gentiles he made much use of Learning and Philosophy it being more agreeable to the designs of the Gospel to confound the wisdom and learning of the World by the plain doctrine of the Gross 3. THESE were great accomplishments and yet but a shadow to that Divine temper of mind that was in him which discovered it self through the whole course and method of his life He was humble to the lowest step of abasure and condescension none ever thinking better of others or more meanly of himself And though when he had to deal with envious and malicious adversaries who by vilifying his person sought to obstruct his Ministry he knew how to magnifie his office and to let them know that the was no whit inferiour to the very chiefest Apostles yet out of this case he constantly declared to all the World that he looked upon himself as an Abortive and an untimely Birth as the least of the Apostles not meet to be called an Apostle and as if this were not enough he makes a word on purpose to express his humility stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 less than the least of all Saints yea the very chief of sinners How freely and that at every turn does he confess what he was before his conversion a Blasphemer a Persecutor and Injurious both to God and Men Though honoured with peculiar Acts of the highest grace and favour taken up to an immediate converse with God in Heaven yet did not this swell him with a supercilious loftiness over the rest of his brethren Intrusted he was with great power and authority in the Church but never affected dominion over men's Faith nor any other place than to be an helper of their joy nor ever made use of his power but to the edification not destruction of any How studiously did he decline all honours and commendations that were heaped upon him When some in the church of Corinth cried him up beyond all measures and under the patronage of his name began to set up for a party he severely rebuked them told them that it was Christ not he that was crucified for them that they had not been baptized into his name which he was so far from that he did not remember that he had baptized above three or four of them and was heartily glad he had baptized no more left a foundation might have been laid for that suspicion that this Paul whom they so much extolled was no more than a minister of Christ whom our Lord had appointed to plant and build up his Church 4. GREAT was his temperance and sobriety so far from going beyond the bounds of regularity that he abridged himself of the conveniences of lawful and necessary accommodations frequent his hungrings and thirstings not constrained only but voluntary it 's probably thought that he very rarely drank any Wine certain that by abstinence and mortification he kept under and subdued his body reducing the extravagancy of the sensual appetites to a perfect subjection to the laws of Reason By this means he easily got above the World and its charms and frowns had his mind continually conversant in Heaven his thoughts were fixed there his desires always ascending thither what he taught others he practised himself his conversation was in Heaven and his desires were to depart and to be with Christ this World did neither arrest his affections nor disturb his fears he was not taken with its applause nor frighted with its threatnings he studied not to please men nor valued the censures and judgments which they passed upon him he was not greedy of a great estate or titles of honour or rich presents from men not seeking theirs but them food and raiment was his bill of fare and more than this he never cared for accounting that the less he was clogged with these things the lighter he should march to Heaven especially travelling through a World over-run with troubles and persecutions Upon this account it 's probable he kept himself always within a single life though there want not some of the Ancients who expresly reckon him in the number of the married Apostles as Clemens Alexandrinus Ignatius and some others 'T is true that passage is not to be found in the genuine Epistle of Ignatius but yet is extant in all those that are owned and published by the Church of Rome though they have not been wanting to banish it out of the World having expunged S. Paul's name out of some ancient Manuscripts as the learned Bishop Usher has to their shame sufficiently discovered to the World But for the main of the question we can readily grant it the Scripture seeming most to favour it that though he asserted his power and liberty to marry as well as the rest yet that he lived always a single life 5. HIS kindness and charity was truly admirable he had a compassionate tenderness for the poor and a quick sense of the wants of others To what Church soever he came it was one of his first cares to make provision for the poor and to stir up the bounty of the rich and the wealthy nay himself worked often with his own hands not only to maintain himself but to help and relieve them But infinitely greater was his charity to the Souls of men fearing no dangers refusing no labours going through good and evil report that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth reduce them out of the crooked paths of vice and idolatry and set them in the right way to eternal life Nay so insatiable his thirst after the good of Souls that he affirms that rather than his Country-men the Jews should miscarry by not believing and entertaining the Gospel he could be content nay wished that himself might be accursed from Christ for their sake i. e. that he might be anathematized and cut off from the Church of Christ and not only lose the honour of the Apostolate but be reckoned in the number of the abject and execrable persons such as those are who are separated from the communion of the Church An instance of so large and passionate a charity that lest it might not find room in mens belief he ushered it in with this solemn appeal and attestation that he said the truth in Christ and lied not his conscience bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost And as he was infinitely solicitous to gain men over to the best Religion in the World so was he not less careful to keep them from being seduced from it ready to suspect every thing that might corrupt their minds from the simplicity
former and indeed was greatly abominable to the Jews being so expresly forbidden in their Law But it was not more offensive to the Jews than acceptable to the Gentiles who were wont with great art and care to strangle living Creatures that they might stew or dress them with their bloud in them as a point of curious and exquisite delicacy This and the foregoing prohibition abstinence from bloud died not with the Apostles nor were buried with other Jewish rites but were inviolably observed for several Ages in the Christian Church as we have elsewhere observed from the Writers of those times Lastly From Fornication This was a thing commonly practised in the Heathen World who generally beheld simple Fornication as no sin and that it was lawful for persons not engaged in wedlock to make use of women that exposed themselves A custom justly offensive to the Jews and therefore to cure two evils at once the Apostles here solemnly declare against it Not that they thought it a thing indifferent as the rest of the prohibited rites were for it is forbidded by the natural Law as contrary to that chastness and modesty that order and comeliness which God has planted in the minds of men but they joyned it in the same Class with them because the Gentiles looked upon it as a thing lawful and indifferent It had been expresly forbidden by the Mosaick Law There shall be no Whore of the daughters of Israel and because the Heathens had generally thrown down this fence and bar set by the Law of nature it was here again repaired by the first planters of Christianity as by S. Paul elsewhere Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God even your Sanctification that you should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God Though after all I must confess my self inclinable to embrace Heinsius his ingenious conjecture that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fornication we are here to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the harlots hire or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offering which those persons were wont to make For among the Gentiles nothing was more usual than for the common women that prostituted themselves to lewd embraces those especially that attended at the Temples of Venus to dedicate some part of their gain and present it to the Gods Athanasius has a passage very express to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The women of old were wont to fit in the Idol-Temples of Phoenicia and to dedicate the gain which they got by the prostitution of their bodies as a kind of first-fruits to the Deities of the place supposing that by fornication they should pacifie their Goddess and by this means render her favourable and propitious to them Where 't is plain he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fornication in this very sence for that gain or reward of it which they consecrated to their Gods Some such thing Solomon had in his eye when he brings in the Harlot thus courting the young man I have peace-offerings with me this day have I paid my Vows These presents were either made in specie the very money thus unrighteously gotten or in Sacrifices bought with it and offered at the Temple the remainders whereof were taken and sold among the ordinary sacrificial portions This as it holds the nearest correspondence with the rest of the rites here forbidden so could it not chuse but be a mighty scandal to the Jews it being so particularly prohibited in their Law Thou shalt not bring the hire of an Whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any Vow for it is an abomination to the Lord. 6. THESE prohibitions here laid upon the Gentiles were by the Apostles intended only for a temporary compliance with the Jewish Converts till they could by degrees be brought off from their stiffness and obstinacy and then the reason of the thing ceasing the obligation to it must needs cease and fail Nay we may observe that even while the Apostolical decree lasted in its greatest force and power in those places where there were few or no Jewish Converts the Apostle did not stick to give leave that except in case of scandal any kind of meats even the portions of the Idol-sacrifices might be indifferently bought and taken by Christians as well as Heathens These were all which in order to the satisfaction of the Jews and for the present peace of the Church the Apostles thought necessary to require of the Converted Gentiles but that for all the rest they were perfectly free from legal observances obliged only to the commands of Christianity So that the Apostolical decision that was made of this matter was this That besides the temporary observation of those few indifferent rites before mentioned the belief and practice of the Christian Religion was perfectly sufficient to Salvation without Circumcision and the observation of the Mosaick Law This Synodical determination allayed the controversie for a while being joyfully received by the Gentile-Christians But alas the Jewish zeal began again to ferment and spread it self they could not with any patience endure to see their beloved Moses deserted and those venerable Institutions trodden down and therefore laboured to keep up their credit and still to assert them as necessary to Salvation Than which nothing created S. Paul greater trouble at every turn being forced to contend against these Judaizing teachers almost in every Church where he came as appears by that great part that they bear in all his Epistles especially that to the Romans and Galatians where this leaven had most diffused it self whom the better to undeceive he discourses at large of the nature and institution the end and design the antiquating and abolishing of that Mosaick Covenant which these men laid so much stress and weight upon 7. HENCE then we pass to the third thing considerable for the clearing of this matter which is to shew that the main passages in Paul's Epistles concerning Justification and Salvation have an immediate reference to this controversie But before we enter upon that something must necessarily be premised for the explicating some terms and phrases frequently used by our Apostle in this question these two especially what he means by Law and what by Faith By Law then 't is plain he usually understands the Jewish Law which was a complex body of Laws containing Moral Ceremonial and Judicial precepts each of which had its use and office as a great instrument of duty The Judicial Laws being peculiar Statutes accommodated to the state of the Jew's Commonwealth as all civil constitutions restrained men from the external acts of sin The Ceremonial Laws came somewhat nearer and besides their Typical relation to the Evangelical state by external and symbolical representments signified
Great solemnly removed to Constantinople and buried in the great Church which he had built to the honour of the Apostles Which being taken down some hundred years after by Justinian the Emperor in order to its reparation the Body was found in a wooden-Coffin and again reposed in its proper place 9. I SHALL conclude the History of this Apostle with that Encomiastick Character which one of the Ancients gives of him S. Andrew was the first-born of the Apostolick Quire the main and prime pillar of the Church a rock before the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of that foundation the first-fruits of the beginning a caller of others before he was called himself he preached that Gospel that was not yet believed or entertained revealed and made known that life to his brother which he had not yet perfectly learn'd himself So great treasures did that one question bring him Master where dwellest thou which he soon perceived by the answer given him and which he deeply pondered in his mind Come and see How art thou become a Prophet whence thus Divinely skilful what is it that thou thus soundest in Peter's ears We have found him c. why dost thou attempt to compass him whom thou canst not comprehend how can he be found who is Omnipresent But he knew well what he said We have found him whom Adam lost whom Eve injured whom the clouds of sin have hidden from us and whom our transgressions had hitherto made a stranger to us c. So that of all our Lord's Apostles S. Andrew had thus far the honour to be the first Preacher of the Gospel The End of S. Andrew 's Life THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Great St. Iames Major He being the Son of Zebedee was at the Command of Herod beheaded at Hierusalem Act. 122. St. James the Great his Martyrdom Act. 12.1 2. About that time Herod the King streched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church And he killed James the brother of John with the sword S. James why surnamed the Great His Country and Kindred His alliance to Christ. His Trade and way of Life Our Lord brought up to a Manual Trade The quick reparteé of a Christian Schoolmaster to Libanius His being called to be a Disciple and great readiness to follow Christ. His election to the Apostolick Office and peculiar favours from Christ. Why our Lord chose some few of the Apostles to be witnesses of the more private passages of his life The imposition of a new name at his election to the Apostleship He and his Brother stiled Boanerges and why The zeal and activity of their temper Their ambition to sit on Christ 's right and left hand in his Kingdom and confident promise of suffering This ill resented by the rest Our Lord's discourse concerning the nature of the Evangelical state Where he preached after Christ 's Ascension The story of his going into Spain exploded Herod Agrippa in favour with the Roman Emperors The character of his temper His zeal for the Law of Moses His condemning S. James to death The sudden conversion of his Accuser as he was led to Martyrdom Their being beheaded The Divine Justice that pursued Herod His grandeur and arrogance at Caesarea His miserable death The story of the Translation of S. James his Corps to Compostella in Spain and the Miracles said to be done there 1. SAINT James surnamed the Great either because of his Age being much elder than the other or for some peculiar honours and favours which our Lord conferred upon him was by Country a Galilean born probably either at Capernaum or Bethsaida being one of Peter's Partners in the Trade of Fishing He was the Son of Zebdai or Zebedee and probably the same whom the Jews mention in their Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi James or Jacob the Son of Zebedee a Fisherman and the many servants which he kept for that employment a circumstance not taken notice of in any other speak him a man of some more considerable note in that Trade and way of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nicephorus notes His Mother's name was Mary surnamed Salome called first Taviphilja says an ancient Arabick writer the Daughter as is most probable not Wife of Cleopas Sister to Mary the Mother of our Lord not her own Sister properly so called the Blessed Virgin being in all likelihood an only Daughter but Cousin-german stiled her Sister according to the mode and custom of the Jews who were wont to call all such near relations by the names of Brothers and Sisters and in this respect he had the honour of a near relation to our Lord himself His education was in the Trade of Fishing no employment is base that 's honest and industrious nor can it be thought mean and dishonourable to him when it is remembred that our Lord himself the Son of God stoop'd so low as not only to become the reputed Son of a Carpenter but during the retirements of his private life to work himself at his Father's Trade not devoting himself merely to contemplations nor withdrawing from all useful society with the World and hiding himself in the solitudes of an Anchoret but busying himself in an active course of life working at the Trade of a Carpenter and particularly as one of the Ancients tells us making Ploughs and Yokes And this the sacred History does not only plainly intimate but it is generally asserted by the Ancient writers of the Church A thing so notorious that the Heathens used to object it as a reproach to Christianity Thence that smart and acute reparteé which a Christian School-master made to Libanius the famous Orator at Antioch when upon Julian's expedition into Persia where he was killed he asked in scorn what the Carpenters Son was now a doing The Christian replied with salt enough That the great Artificer of the World whom he scoffingly called the Carpenter's Son was making a Coffin for his Master Julian the news of whose death was brought soon after But this only by the way 2. S. JAMES applied himself to his Father's Trade not discouraged with the meanness not sinking under the difficulties of it and as usually the blessings of Heaven meet men in the way of an honest and industrious diligence it was in the exercise of this calling when our Saviour passing by the Sea of Galilee saw him and his brother in the Ship and called them to be his Disciples A Divine power went along with the word which they no sooner heard but chearfully complied with it immediately leaving all to follow him They did not stay to dispute his commands to argue the probability of his promise solicitously to enquire into the minute consequences of the undertaking what troubles and hazards might attend this new employment but readily delivered up themselves to whatever services he should appoint them And the chearfulness of their obedience is yet further
that he tarry till I come Which doubtless our Lord meant of his coming so often mentioned in the New Testament in Judgment upon the Jews at the final overthrow of Jerusalem which S. John out-lived many years and which our Lord particularly intended when elsewhere he told them Verily I say unto you there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom 9. FROM the same Original sprang the report that he only lay sleeping in his Grave The story was currant in S. Augustines days from whom we receive this account though possibly the Reader will smile at the conceit He tells us 't was commonly reported and believed that S. John was not dead but that he rested like a Man asleep in his Grave at Ephesus as plainly appeared from the Dust sensibly boiling and bubling up which they accounted to be nothing else but the continual motion of his breath This report S. Augustine seems inclinable to believe having received it as he tells us from very credible hands He further adds out of some Apocryphal Writings what was generally known and reported that when S. John then in health had caused his Grave to be dug and prepared he laid himself down in it as in a Bed and as they thought only fell asleep Nicephorus relates the story more at large from whom if it may be any pleasure to entertain the Reader with these things we shall give this account S. John foreseeing his Translation into Heaven took the Presbyters and Ministers of the Church of Ephesus and several of the Faithful along with him out of the City carried them unto a Cemetery near at hand whither he himself was wont to retire to Prayer and very earnestly recommended the state of the Churches to God in Prayer Which being done he commanded a Grave to be immediately dug and having instructed them in the more recondite mysteries of Theologie the most excellent Precepts of a good Life concerning Faith Hope and especially Charity confirmed them in the practice of Religion commended them to the care and blessing of our Saviour and solemnly taking his leave of them he signed himself with the sign of the Cross and before them all went down into the Grave strictly charging them to put on the Grave-stone and to make it fast and the next day to come and open it and take a view of it They did so and having opened the Sepulchre found nothing there but the Grave-clothes which he had left behind him To all which let me add while my hand is in these things what Ephrem relates that from this Grave wherein he rested so short a time a kind of Sacred Oil or Unguent was wont to be gathered Gregory of Tours says 't was Manna which even in his time like flour was cast up from the Sepulchre and was carried up and down the World for the curing of diseases This report of our Apostles being yet alive some men made use of to wild and phantastick purposes Beza tells us of an Impostor in his time whom Postellus who vainly boasted that he had the Soul of Adam was wont to call his Brother who publickly professed himself to be our S. John and was afterwards burnt at Tholose in France Nor was this any more than what was done in the more early Ages of Christianity For Sulpitius Severus giving us an account of a young Spaniard that first professed himself to be Elias and then Christ himself adds That there was one at the same time in the East who gave out himself to be S. John So fast will Error like circles in the water multiply it self and one mistaken place of Scripture give countenance to an hundred stories that shall be built upon it I have no more to add but what we meet with in the Arabick writer of his life though it little agrees with the preceding passages who reports that there were none present at his burial but his disciple Phogsir probably Proghor or Prochorus one of the seven Deacons and generally said to have been John's companion and assistent whom he strictly charged never to discover his Sepulchre to any it may be for the same reason for which it is thought God concealed the Body of Moses to prevent the Idolatrous worshipping of his Reliques And accordingly the Turks who conceit him to be buried in the confines of Lydia pay great honour and veneration to his Tomb. 10. S. JOHN seems always to have led a single life and so the Ancients tell us nay S. Ambrose positively affirms that all the Apostles were married except S. John and S. Paul There want not indeed some and especially the middle Writers of the Church who will have our Apostle to have been married and that it was his marriage which our Lord was at in Cana of Galilee invited thither upon the account of his consanguinity and alliance But that being convinced by the Miracle of the Water turned into Wine he immediately quitted his conjugal relation and became one of our Lord's Disciples But this as Baronius himself confesses is trifling and the issue of fabulous invention a thing wholly unknown to the Fathers and best Writers of the Church and which not only has no just authority to support it but arguments enough to beat it down As for his natural temper he seems as we have observed in his Brother's Life to have been of a more eager and resolute disposition easily apt to be inflamed and provoked which his reduced Age brought to a more staid and a calmer temper He was polished by no study or arts of Learning but what was wanting in that was abundantly made up in the excellent temper and constitution of his mind and that furniture of Divine graces which he was adorned withall His humility was admirable studiously concealing his own worth and honour in all his Epistles as Eusebius long since observed he never puts down the honourable Titles of Apostle or Evangelist but only stiles himself and that too but sometimes Presbyter or Elder alluding probably to his Age as much as Office in his Gospel when he speaks of the Disciple whom Jesus loved he constantly conceals his own name leaving the Reader to conjecture who was meant Love and Charity he practised himself and affectionately pressed upon others our Lord 's great love to him seems to have inspired his Soul with a bigger and more generous charity than the rest 'T is the great vein that runs through his Writings and especially his Epistles where he urges it as the great and peculiar Law of Christianity and without which all other pretenses to Christian Religion are vain and frivolous useless and insignificant And this was his constant practice to his dying day When Age and Weakness grew upon him at Ephesus that he was no longer able to Preach to them he used at every publick Meeting to be led to the
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
Athanasius more expresly attributes the Translation to S. James the less The best is it matters not much whether it was translated by an Apostle or some Disciple so long as the Apostles approved the Version and that the Church has ever received the Greek Copy for Authentick and reposed it in the Sacred Canon 8. AFTER the Greek Translation was entertained the Hebrew Copy was chiefly owned and used by the Nazaraei a middle Sect of Men between Jews and Christians with the Christians they believed in Christ and embraced his Religion with the Jews they adhered to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law and hence this Gospel came to be stiled the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazarenes By them it was by degrees interpolated several Passages of the Evangelical History which they had heard either from the Apostles or those who had familiarly conversed with them being inserted which the ancient Fathers frequently refer to in their Writings as by the Ebionites it was mutilated and many things cut off for the same reason for which the followers of Cerinthus though making use of the greatest part of it rejected the rest because it made so much against them This Hebrew Copy though whether exactly the same as it was written by S. Matthew I will not say was found among other Books in the Treasury of the Jews at Tiberias by Joseph a Jew and after his Conversion a Man of great honour and esteem in the time of Constantine and another S. Hierom assures us was kept in the Library at Caesarea in his time and another by the Nazarenes at Beraea from whom he had the liberty to transcribe it and which he afterwards translated both into Greek and Latin with this particular observation than in quoting the Texts of the Old Testament the Evangelist immediately follows the Hebrew without taking notice of the Translation of the Septuagint A Copy also of this Gospel was Ann. CCCCLXXXV dug up and found in the Grave of Barnabas in Cyprus transcribed wih his own hand But these Copies are long since perished and for those that have been since published to the World both by Tile and Munster were there no other argument they too openly betray themselves by their barbarous and improper stile not to be the genuine issue of that less corrupt and better Age. THE LIFE OF S. THOMAS St. Thomas By the command of an Indian King he was thrust through with lanees Baron Martyrolog Dec. 21 St. Thomas his Martyrdom Joh. 11.16 Thomas which is called Didimus said unto his fellow-desciples Let us also goe that we may die with him The custom of the Jews to have both an Hebrew and a Roman name S. Thomas his name the same in Syriack and Greek His Country and Trade His call to the Apostleship His great affection to our Saviour Christ's discourse with him concerning the way to Eternal life His obstinate refusal to believe our Lord's Resurrection and the unreasonableness of his Infidelity Our Lord's convincing him by sensible demonstrations S. Thomas his deputing Thaddaeus to Abgarus of Edessa His Travels into Parthia Media Persia c. Aethiopia what and where situate His coming into India and the success of his Preaching there An account of his Acts in India from the relation of the Portugals at their first coming thither His converting the King of Malipur The manner of his Martyrdom by the Brachmans The Miracles said to be done at his Tomb. His Bones dug up by the Portugals A Cross and several Brass Tables with Inscriptions found there An account of the Indian or S. Thomas-Christians their Number State Rites and way of life 1. IT was customary with the Jews when travelling into foreign Countries or familiarly conversing with the Greeks and Romans to assume to themselves a Greek or a Latin name of great affinity and sometimes of the very same signification with that of their own Country Thus our Lord was called Christ answering to his Hebrew title Mashiach or the Anointed Simon stiled Peter according to that of Cephas which our Lord put upon him Tabitha called Dorcas both signifying a Goat Thus our S. Thomas according to the Syriack importance of his name had the title of Didymus which signifies a Twin Thomas which is called Didymus Accordingly the Syriack Version renders it Thauma which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamae that is a Twin The not understanding whereof imposed upon Nonnus the Greek Paraphrast who makes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have had two distinct names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being but the same name expressed in different Languages The History of the Gospel takes no particular notice either of the Country or Kindred of this Apostle That he was a Jew is certain and in all probability a Galilean He was born if we may believe Symeon Metaphrastes of very mean Parents who brought him up to the trade of Fishing but withall took care to give him a more useful education instructing him in the knowledge of the Scriptures whereby he learnt wisely to govern his life and manners He was together with the rest called to the Apostleship and not long after gave an eminent instance of his hearty willingness to undergo the saddest fate that might attend them For when the rest of the Apostles disswaded our Saviour from going into Judaea whither he was now resolved for the raising his dear Lazarus lately dead lest the Jews should stone him as but a little before they had attempted it S. Thomas desires them not to hinder Christ's journey thither though it might cost their lives Let us also go that we may die with him probably concluding that instead of raising Lazarus from the dead they themselves should be sent with him to their own Graves So that he made up in pious affections what he seemed to want in the quickness and acumen of his understanding not readily apprehending some of our Lord's discourses nor over-forward to believe more than himself had seen When the holy Jesus a little before his fatal sufferings had been speaking to them of the joys of Heaven and had told them that he was going to prepare that they might follow him that they knew both the place whither he was going and the way thither Our Apostle replied that they knew not whither he went and much less the way that led to it To which our Lord returns this short but satisfactory answer That he was the true living way the person whom the Father had sent into the World to shew men the paths of Eternal life and that they could not miss of Heaven if they did but keep to that way which he had prescribed and chalked out before them 2. OUR Lord being dead 't is evident how much the Apostles were distracted between hopes and fears concerning his Resurrection not yet fully satisfied about it Which engaged him the sooner to hasten
and respect of the People towards him His Death an inlet to the destruction of the Jewish Nation His Epistle when written What the design and purpose of it The Proto-evangelium ascribed to him 1. BEFORE we can enter upon the Life of this Apostle some difficulty must be cleared relating to his Person Doubted it has been by some whether this was the same with that S. James that was Bishop of Jerusalem three of this Name being presented to us S. James the Great this S. James the Less both Apostles and a third sirnamed the Just distinct say they from the former and Bishop of Jerusalem But this however pretending to some little countenance from antiquity is a very great mistake and built upon a sandy bottom For besides that the Scripture mentions no more than two of this Name and both Apostles nothing can be plainer than that that S. James the Apostle whom S. Paul calls our Lord's Brother and reckons with Peter and John one of the Pillars of the Church was the same that presided among the Apostles no doubt by vertue of his place it being his Episcopal Chair and determined in the Synod at Jerusalem Nor do either Clemens Alexandrinus or Eusebius out of him mention any more than two S. James put to death by Herod and S. James the Just Bishop of Jerusalem whom they expresly affirm to be the same with him whom S. Paul calls the Brother of our Lord. Once indeed Eusebius makes our S. James one of the Seventy though elsewhere quoting a place of Clemens of Alexandria he numbers him with the Chief of the Apostles and expresly distinguishes him from the Seventy Disciples Nay S. Hierom though when representing the Opinion of others he stiles him the Thirteenth Apostle yet elsewhere when speaking his own sence sufficiently proves that there were but two James the Son of Zebedee and the other the Son of Alphaeus the one sirnamed the Greater the other the Less Besides that the main support of the other Opinion is built upon the authority of Clemens his Recognitions a Book in doubtful cases of no esteem and value 2. THIS doubt being removed we proceed to the History of his Life He was the Son as we may probably conjecture of Joseph afterwards Husband to the Blessed Virgin and his first Wife whom S. Hierom from Tradition stiles Escha Hippolytus Bishop of Porto calls Salome and further adds that she was the Daughter of Aggi Brother to Zacharias Father to John the Baptist. Hence reputed our Lord's Brother in the same sence that he was reputed the Son of Joseph Indeed we find several spoken of in the History of the Gospel who were Christ's Brethren but in what sence was controverted of old S. Hierom Chrysostom and some others will have them so called because the Sons of Mary Cousin-german or according to the custome of the Hebrew Language Sister to the Virgin Mary But Eusebius Epiphanius and the far greater part of the Ancients from whom especially in matters of fact we are not rashly to depart make them the Children of Joseph by a former Wife And this seems most genuine and natural the Evangelists seeming very express and accurate in the account which they give of them Is not this the Carpenter's Son Is not his Mother called Mary and his Brethren James and Joses and Simon and Jude and his Sisters whose Names says the foresaid Hippolytus were Esther and Thamar are they not all with us whence then hath this man these things By which it is plain that the Jews understood these Persons not to be Christ's Kinsmen only but his Brothers the same Carpenter's Sons having the same relation to him that Christ himself had though indeed they had more Christ being but his reputed they his natural Sons Upon this account the Blessed Virgin is sometimes called the Mother of James and Joses for so amongst the Women that attended at our Lord's Crucifixion we find three eminently taken notice of Mary Magdalen Mary the Mother of James and Joses and the Mother of Zebedees Children Where by Mary the Mother of James and Joses no other can be meant than the Virgin Mary it not being reasonable to suppose that the Evangelists should omit the Blessed Virgin who was certainly there and therefore S. John reckoning up the same Persons expresly stiles her the Mother of Jesus And though it is true she was but S. James his Mother-in-law yet the Evangelists might chuse so to stile her because commonly so called after Joseph's death and probably as Gregory of Nyssa thinks known by that Name all along chusing that Title that the Son of God whom as a Virgin she had brought forth might be better concealed and less exposed to the malice of the envious Jews nor is it any more wonder that she should be esteemed and called the Mother of James than that Joseph should be stiled and accounted the Father of Jesus To which add that Josephus eminently skilful in matters of Genealogy and descent expresly says that our S. James was the Brother of Jesus Christ. One thing there is that may seem to lye against it that he is called the Son of Alphaeus But this may probably mean no more than either that Joseph was so called by another Name it being frequent yea almost constant among the Jews for the same Person to have two Names Quis unquam prohibuerit duobus vel tribus nominibus hominem unum vocari as S. Augustin speaks in a parallel case or as a learned Man conjectures it may relate to his being a Disciple of some particular Sect or Synagogue among the Jews called Alphaeans from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a Family or Society of devout and learned Men of some-what more eminency than the rest there being as he tells us many such at this time among the Jews and in this probably S. James had entred himself the great reputation of his Piety and strictness his Wisdom Parts and Learning rendring the conjecture above the censure of being trifling and contemptible 3. OF the place of his Birth the Sacred story makes no mention The Jewes in their Talmud for doubtless they intend the same Person stile him more than once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of the Town of Sechania though where that was I am not able to conjecture What was his particular way and course of life before his being called to the Discipleship and Apostolate we find no intimations of in the History of the Gospel nor any distinct account concerning him during our Saviour's life After the Resurrection he was honoured with a particular Appearance of our Lord to him which though silently passed over by the Evangelists is recorded by S. Paul next to the manifesting himself to the Five Hundred Brethren at once he was seen of James which is by all understood of our Apostle S. Hierom out of the Hebrew Gospel
the Brother of James a character that can belong to none but our Apostle beside that the Title of the Epistle which is of great Antiquity runs thus The general Epistle of Jude the Apostle One great argument as S. Hierom informs us against the authority of this Epistle of old was its quoting a passage out of an Apocryphal Book of Enoch This Book called the Apocalypse of Enoch was very early extant in the Church frequently mentioned and passages cited out of it by Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and others some of whom accounted it little less than Canonical But what if our Apostle had it not out of this Apocryphal Book but from some prophecy currant from age to age handed to him by common tradition or immediately revealed to him by the Spirit of God But suppose it taken out of that Book going under Enoch's name this makes nothing against the authority of the Epistle every thing I hope is not presently false that 's contained in an Apocryphal and Uncanonical writing nor does the taking a single testimony out of it any more infer the Apostles approbation of all the rest than S. Paul's quoting a good sentence or two out of Menander Arâ—tus and Epimenides imply that he approved all the rest of the writings of those Heathen Poets And indeed nothing could be more fit and proper than this way if we consider that the Apostle in this Epistle chiefly argues against the Gnosticks who mainly traded in such Traditionary and Apocryphal writings and probably in this very Book of Enoch The same account may be given of that other passage in this Epistle concerning the contention between Michael the Archangel and the Devil about the burial of Moses his Body no where extant in the holy Records supposed to have been taken out of a Jewish writing called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Dismission of Moses mentioned by some of the Greek Fathers under the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Ascension of Moses in which this passage was upon record Nor is it any more a wonder that S. Jude should do this than that S. Paul should put down Jannes and Jambres for the two Magicians of Pharaoh that opposed Moses which he must either derive from Tradition or fetch out of some Uncanonical Author of those times there being no mention of their names in Moses his relation of that matter But be these passages whence they will 't is enough to us that the Spirit of God has made them Authentick and consecrated them part of the holy Canon 6. BEING thus satisfied in the Canonicalness of this Epistle none but S. Jude could be the Author of it for who but he was the Brother of S. James a character by which he is described in the Evangelical story more than once Grotius indeed will needs have it written by a younger Jude the fifteenth Bishop of Jerusalem in the reign of Adrian and because he saw that that passage the Brother of James stood full in his way he concludes without any shadow of reason that it was added by some Transcriber But is not this to make too bold with Sacred things is not this to indulge too great a liberty this once allowed 't will soon open a door to the wildest and most extravagant conjectures and no man shall know where to find sure-footing for his Faith But the Reader may remember what we have elsewhere observed concerning the Posthume Annotations of that learned man Not to say that there are many things in this Epistle that evidently refer to the time of this Apostle and imply it to have been written upon the same occasion and about the same time with the second Epistle of Peter between which and this there is a very great affinity both in words and matter nay there want not some that endeavour to prove this Epistle to have been written no less than twenty seven years before that of Peter and that hence it was that Peter borrowed those passages that are so near a-kin to those in this Epistle The design of the Epistle is to preserve Christians from the infection of Gnosticism the loose and debauched principles vented by Simon Magus and his followers whose wretched doctrines and practices he briefly and elegantly represents perswading Christians heartily to contend for the Faith that had been delivered to them and to avoid these pernicious Seducers as pests and fire-brands not to communicate with them in their sins lest they perished with them in that terrible vengeance that was ready to overtake them The End of S. Jude 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHIAS S. MATHIAS He preached the Gospell in Ethiopia suffered Martyrdome and was buried there S. Hierom. St. Matthias his Martyrdom Hebr. 11.37 They were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted were slain with the sword S. Matthias one of the Seventy Judas Iscariot whence A bad Minister nulls not the ends of his Ministration His worldly and covetous temper His monstrous ingratitude His betraying his Master and the agravations of the sin The distraction and horror of his mind The miserable state of an evil and guilty Conscience His violent death The election of a new Apostle The Candidates who The Lot cast upon Matthias His preaching the Gospel and in what parts of the World His Martyrdom when where and how His Body whither translated The Gospel and Traditions vented under his name 1. SAINT Matthias not being an Apostle of the first Election immediately called and chosen by our Saviour particular remarks concerning him are not to be expected in the History of the Gospel He was one of our Lord's Disciples and probably one of the Seventy that had attended on him the whole time of his publick Ministry and after his death was elected into the Apostleship upon this occasion Judas Iscariot so called probably from the place of his nativity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Kerioth a City anciently situate in the Tribe of Judah had been one of the Twelve immediately called by Christ to be one of his intimate Disciples equally impowered and commissioned with the rest to Preach and work Miracles was numbred with them and had obtained part of their Ministry And yet all this while was a man of vile and corrupt designs branded with no meaner a character than Thief and Murderer To let us see that there may be bad servants in Christ's own family and that the wickedness of a Minister does not evacuate his Commission nor render his Office useless and ineffectual The unworthiness of the instrument hinders not the ends of the ministration Seeing the efficacy of an ordinance depends not upon the quality of the person but the Divine institution and the blessing which God has entailed upon it Judas preached Christ no doubt with zeal and servency and for any thing we know with as much success as the rest of the Apostles and yet he was a bad man a man acted by
sordid and mean designs one that had prostituted Religion and the honour of his place to covetousness and evil arts The love of money had so intirely possessed his thoughts that his resolutions were bound for nothing but interest and advantage But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare This covetous temper betrayed him as in the issue to the most fatal end so to the most desperate attempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen calls the putting Christ to death the most prodigious impiety that the Sun ever shone on the betraying his innocent Lord into the hands of those who he knew would treat him with all the circumstances of insolent scorn and cruelty How little does kindness work upon a disingenuous mind It was not the honour of the place to which when thousands of other were passed by our Lord had called him the admitting him into a free and intimate fellowship with his person the taking him to be one of his peculiar domesticks and attendants that could divert the wretch from his wicked purpose He knew how desirous the great men of the Nation were to get Christ into their hands especially at the time of the Passeover that he might with the more publick disgrace be sacrificed before all the people and therefore bargains with them and for no greater a summ than under four pounds to betray the Lamb of God into the paws of these Wolves and Lions In short he heads the party conducts the Officers and sees him delivered into their hands 2. BUT there 's an active principle in man's breast that seldom suffers daring sinners to pass in quiet to their Graves Awakened with the horror of the fact conscience began to rouze and follow close and the man was unable to bear up under the furious revenges of his own mind As indeed all wilfull and deliberate sins and especially the guilt of bloud are wont more sensibly to alarm the natural notions of our minds and to excite in us the fears of some present vengeance that will seize upon us And how intolerable are those scourges that lash us in this vital and tender part The spirit of the man sinks under him and all supports snap asunder As what ease or comfort can he enjoy that carries a Vultur in his bosom always gnawing and preying upon his heart Which made Plutarch compare an evil Conscience to a Cancer in the breast that perpetually gripes and stings the Soul with the pains of an intolerable repentance Guilt is naturally troublesome and uneasie it disturbs the peace and serenity of the mind and fills the Soul with storms and thunder Did ever any harden himself against God and prosper And indeed how should he when God has such a powerful and invisible executioner in his own bosom Whoever rebels against the Laws of his duty and plainly affronts the dictates of his Conscience does that moment bid adieu to all true repose and quiet and expose himself to the severe resentments of a self-tormenting mind And though by secret arts of wickedness he may be able possibly to drown and stifle the voice of it for a while yet every little affliction or petty accident will be apt to awaken it into horror and to let in terror like an armed man upon him A torment infinitely beyond what the most ingenious Tyrants could ever contrive Nothing so effectually invades our ease as the reproaches of our own minds The wrath of man may be endured but the irruptions of Conscience are irresistible it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom very elegantly stiles it to be choaked or strangled with an evil Conscience which oft reduces the man to such distresses as to make him chuse death rather than life A sad instance of all which we have in this unhappy man who being wearied with furious and melancholy reflexions upon what was past threw back the wages of iniquity in open Court and dispatched himself by a violent death Vainly hoping to take sanctuary in the Grave and that he should meet with that ease in another World which he could not find in this He departed and went and hanged himself and falling down burst asunder and his bowels gushed out Leaving a memorable warning to all treacherous and ingrateful to all greedy and covetous persons not to let the World insinuate it self too far into them and indeed to all to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation Our present state is slippery and insecure Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall What priviledges can be a sufficient fence a foundation firm enough to rely upon when the Miracles Sermons favours and familiar converses of Christ himself could not secure one of the Apostles from so fatal an Apostasie 3. A VACANCY being thus made in the Colledge of Apostles the first thing they did after their return from Mount Olivet where our Lord took his leave of them to S. John's house in Mount Sion the place if we may believe Nicephorus where the Church met together was to fill up their number with a fit proper person To which purpose Peter acquainted them that Judas according to the prophetical prediction being fallen from his ministry it was necessary that another should be substituted in his room one that had been a constant companion and disciple of the holy Jesus and consequently capable of bearing witness to his life death and resurrection Two were propounded in order to the choice Joseph called Barsabas and Justus whom some make the same with Joses one of the brothers of our Lord and Matthias both duly qualified for the place The way of election was by Lots a way frequently used both among Jews and Gentiles for the determination of doubtful and difficult cases and especially the chusing Judges and Magistrates And this course the Apostles the rather took because the Holy Ghost was not yet given by whose immediate dictates and inspirations they were chiefly guided afterwards And that the business might proceed with the greater regularity and success they first solemnly make their address to Heaven that the Omniscient Being that governed the World and perfectly understood the tempers and dispositions of men would immediately guide and direct the choice and shew which of these two he would appoint to take that part of the Apostolick charge from which Judas was so lately fallen The Lots being put into the Urn Matthias his name was drawn out and thereby the Apostolate devolved upon him 4. NOT long after the promised powers of the Holy Ghost were conferred upon the Apostles to fit them for that great and difficult employment upon which they were sent And among the rest S. Matthias betook himself to his Charge and Province The first-fruits of his Ministry he spent in Judaea where having reaped a considerable harvest he betook himself to other Provinces An Author I confess of no great credit in these matters tells us that he preached the Gospel in
Chapter of his Gospel at least part of it was as Hierom informs us wanting in all ancient Greek Copies rejected upon pretence of some disagreement with the other Gospels though as he there shews they are fairly consistent with each other His great impartiality in his Relations appears from hence that he is so far from concealing the shameful lapse and denial of Peter his dear Tutor and Master that he sets it down with some particular circumstances and aggravations which the other Evangelists take no notice of Some dispute has been made in what Language it was written whether in Greek or Latin That which seems to give most countenance to the Latin Original is the note that we find at the end of the Syriack Version of this Gospel where it is said that Mark preached and declared his Holy Gospel at Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Roman or the Latin Tongue An evidence that with me would almost carry the force of a demonstration were I assured that this note is of equal value and authority with that Ancient Version generally supposed to come very few Centuries short of the Apostolick Age. But we know how usual it is for such additions to be made by some later hand And what credit is to be given to the subscriptions at the end of S. Paul's Epistles we have shewed elsewhere Besides that it is not here said that he wrote but that he Preached his Gospel at Rome in that Language The Advocates of the Romish Church plead that it 's very congruous and suitable that it should at first be consigned to Writing in that Language being principally designed for the use of the Christians at Rome An objection that will easily vanish when we consider that as the Convert Jews there understood very little Latin so there were very few Romans that understood not Greek it being as appears from the Writers of that Age the gentile and fashionable Language of those Times Nor can any good reason be assigned why it should be more inconvenient for S. Mark to write his Gospel in Greek for the use of the Romans than that S. Paul should in the same Language write his Epistle to that Church The Original Greek Copy written with S. Mark 's own hand is said to be extant at Venice at this Day Written they tell us by him at Aquileia and thence after many Hundreds of Years translated to Venice where it is still preserved though the Letters so worn out with length of time that they are not capable of being read A story which as I cannot absolutely disprove so am I not very forward to believe and that for more reasons than I think worth while to insist on in this place The End of S. Mark 's Life THE LIFE OF S. LUKE the Evangelist S. LUKE 2. COR. 8.8.19 The Brother whose praise is in the Gospel through out all the Churches And not that onely but who was also chosen of the Churches to travell with us St. Luke his Martyrdom Col. 4.14 Luke the beloved Physician The brother whose Praise is in the Gospel 2 Cor. 4.11 We are delivered unto death for Jesus sake Bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Antioch S. Luke 's birth-place The fame and dignity of it His learned and liberal education His study of Physick His skill in Painting S. Luke none of the Seventy Converted where and by whom His constant attendance upon S. Paul In what parts he principally exercised his Ministry The place and manner of his Death The translation of his Body to Constantinople His Writings Theophilus who His Gospel where written and upon what occasion How fitted for it The Acts of the Apostles written at Rome and when Why principally containing the Acts of S. Paul This Book why publickly read just after Easter in the Primitive Church S. Luke 's polite and exact stile and way of writing above the rest 1. SAINT Luke was born at Antioch the Metropolis of Syria a City celebrated for its extraordinary blessings and eminences the pleasantness of its situation the fertility of its soil the riches of its Traffick the wisdom of its Senate the learning of its Professors the civility and politeness of its Inhabitants by the Pens of some of the greatest Orators of their times And yet above all these renowned for this one peculiar honour that here it was that the Disciples were first called Christians It was an University replenished with Schools of learning wherein were Professors of all Arts and Sciences So that being born in the very lap of the Muses he could not well miss of an ingenuous and liberal education his natural parts meeting with the advantages of great improvements Nay we are told that he studied not only at Antioch but in all the Schools both of Greece and Egypt whereby he became accomplished in all parts of Learning and humane Sciences Being thus furnished out with skill in all the preparatory Institutions of Philosophy he more particularly applied himself to the study of Physick for which the Grecian Academies were most famous though they that hence infer the quality of his Birth and Fortunes forget to consider that this noble Art was in those times generally managed by persons of no better rank than servants Upon which account a Learned man conceives S. Luke though a Syrian by birth to have been a servant at Rome where he sometimes practised Physick and whence being manumitted he returned into his own Country and probably continued his profession all his life it being so fairly consistent with and in many cases so subservient to the Ministry of the Gospel and the care of Souls Besides his abilities in Physick he is said to have been very skilful in Painting and there are no less than three or four several pieces still in being pretended to have been drawn with his own hand a tradition which Gretser the Jesuit sets himself with a great deal of pains and to very little purpose to defend though his Authors either in respect of credit or antiquity deserve very little esteem and value Of more authority with me would be an ancient Inscription found in a Vault near the Church of S. Mary in via lata at Rome supposed to have been the place where S. Paul dwelt wherein mention is made of a Picture of the B. Virgin UNA EX VII AB LUCA DEPICTIS being one of the seven painted by S. Luke 2. HE was a Jewish Proselyte Antioch abounding with men of that Nation who had here their Synagogues and Schools of Education so that we need not with Theophylact send him to Jerusalem to be instructed in the study of the Law As for that opinion of Epiphanius and others that he was one of the Seventy Disciples one of those that deserted our Lord for the unwelcome discourse he made to them but recalled afterwards by S. Paul I behold it as a story of the same coin and
stamp with that of S. Mark 's leaving Christ upon the same occasion and being reduced by Peter and that the one was made to answer the other as upon no better ground it is said that he was one of those two Disciples that were going to Emmaus For besides the silence of Scripture in the case he himself plainly confesses that he was not from the beginning an Eye-witness and minister of the Word Most probable it is that he was coverted by S. Paul during his abode at Antioch when as the Apostles of catchers of Fish were become fishers of men so he of a Physician of the Body became a Physician of the Soul This Nicephorus will have to have been done at Thebes the chief City of Boeotia about forty miles from Athens though it appears not to me by any credible Author that ever S. Paul was there He became ever after his inseparable companion and fellow-labourer in the Ministry of the Gospel especially after his going into Macedonia from which time in recording the History of S. Paul's travels he always speaks of himself in his own Person He followed him in all his dangers was with him at his several arraignments at Jerusalem accompanied him in his desperate Voyage to Rome where he still attended on him to serve his necessities and supply those ministerial Offices which the Apostle's confinement would not suffer him to undergo and especially in carrying messages to those Churches where he had planted Christianity This infinitely endeared him to S. Paul who own'd him for his fellow-labourer called him the beloved Physician and the Brother whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches which the Ancients and especially Ignatius apply to our Evangelist 3. PROBABLE it is that he did not wholly leave S. Paul till he had finished his course and crowned all with Martyrdom though there are that tell us that he left S. Paul at Rome and returned back into the East travelled into Egypt and the parts of Libya Preached the Gospel wrought Miracles converted Multitudes constituted Guides and Ministers of Religion yea that he himself took upon him the Episcopal charge of the City of Thebais Epiphanius gives us this account that he first Preached in Dalmatia and Galatia he reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Gaul or France and peremptorily affirms that they are all mistaken that say that it was Galatia where Crescens Preached though some think that himself in the mean while is under the most confident mistake then in Italy and Macedonia where he spared no pains declined no dangers that he might faithfully discharge the trust committed to him The Ancients are not very well agreed either about the time or manner of his death some affirming him to die in Egypt others in Greece the Roman Martyrologie in Bithynia Dorotheus at Ephesus some make him die a natural others a violent death Indeed neither Eusebius nor S. Hierom take any notice of it But Nazianzen Paulinus Bishop of Nola and several other expresly assert his Martyrdom whereof Nicephorus gives this particular account that coming into Greece he successfully Preached and baptized many Converts into the Christian Faith till a Party of Infidels making head against him drew him to execution and in want of a Cross whereon to dispatch him presently hanged him upon an Olive-Tree in the eightieth the eighty-fourth says S. Hierom year of his Age. Kirstenius from an Ancient Arabick Writer makes him to have suffered Martyrdom at Rome which he thinks might probably be after Paul's first imprisonment there and departure thence when S. Luke being left behind as his Deputy to supply his place was shortly after put to death the reason says he why he no longer continued his History of the Apostles Acts which surely he would have done had he lived any considerable time after Paul's departure His Body afterwards by the command of Constantine or his Son Constantius was solemnly removed to Constantinople and buried in the great Church built to the memory of the Apostles 4. TWO Books he wrote for the use of the Church his Gospel and the History of the Apostles Acts both dedicated to Theophilus which many of the Ancients suppose to be but a feigned name denoting no more than a lover of God a title common to every Christian. While others with better reason conclude it the proper name of a particular person especially since the stile of most excellent is attributed to him the usual title and form of address in those times to Princes and great men Theophylact stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of Consular dignity and probably a Prince the Author of the Recognitions makes him a Nobleman of Antioch converted by Peter and who upon his conversion gave his House to the Church for the place of their publick and solemn Meetings We may probably suppose him to have been some Magistrate whom S. Luke had converted and baptized to whom he now dedicated these Books not only as a testimony of honourable respect but as a means of giving him further certainty and assurance of those things wherein he had been instructed by him For his Gospel S. Hierom supposes it to have been written in Achaia during his travels with S. Paul in those parts whose help he is generally said to have made use of in the composing of it and that this the Apostle primarily intends when he so often speaks of his Gospel But whatever assistance S. Paul might contribute towards it we are sure the Evangelist himself tells us that he derived his intelligence in these matters from those who from the beginning had been eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Nor does it in the least detract from the authority of his relations that he himself was not present at the doing of them for if we consider who they were from whom he derived his accounts of things Habuit utique authenticam paraturam as Tertullian speaks he had a stock both of credit and intelligence sufficiently authentick to proceed upon delivering nothing in his whole History but what he had immediately received from persons present at and concerned in the things which he has left upon record The occasion of his writing it is thought to have been partly to prevent those false and fabulous relations which even then began to be obtruded upon the World partly to supply what seemed wanting in those two Evangelists that wrote before him and the additions or larger explications of things are particularly enumerated by Irenaeus He mainly insists upon what relates to Christ's Priestly Office and though recording other parts of the Evangelical story yet it ever is with a peculiar respect to his Priesthood Upon which account the Ancients in accommodating the four Symbolical representments in the Prophets Vision to the four Evangelists assigned the Oxe or Calf to S. Luke 5. HIS History of the Apostolick Acts was
the Great He sat 23 Nicephorus says 28. years JERUSALEM THE Church of Jerusalem may in some sence be said to have been founded by our Lord himself as it was for some time cultivated and improved by the Ministery of the whole Colledge of Apostles The Bishops of it were as followeth I. S. James the Less the Brother of our Lord by him say some immediately constituted Bishop but as others more probably by the Apostles He was thrown off the Temple and knock'd on the head with a Fullers Club. II. Symeon the son of Cleopas brother to Joseph our Lord 's reputed Father He sat in this Chair 23. years and suffered martyrdom in the reign of Trajan in the one hundred and twentieth year of his Age. III. Justus succeeded in his room and sat 6. years IV. Zachaeus or as Nicephorus the Patriarch calls him Zacharias 4. V. Tobias to him after 4. years succeeded VI. Benjamin who sat 2. years VII John who continued the same space VIII Matthias or Matthaeus 2. years IX Philippus one Year next came X. Seneca who sat 4. years XI Justus 4. XII Levi or Lebes 2. XIII Ephrem or Ephres or as Epiphanius stiles him Vaphres 2. XIV Joseph 2. XV. Judas 2. Most of these Bishops we may observe to have sat but a short time following one another with a very quick succession Which doubtless was in a great measure owing to the turbulent unquiet humour of the Jewish Nation frequently rebelling against the Roman powers whereby they provoked them to fall heavy upon them and cut off all that came in their way making no distinction between Jews and Christians as indeed they were all Jews though differing in the Rites of their Religion For hitherto the Bishops of Jerusalem had successively been of the Circumcision the Church there having been intirely made up of Jewish converts But Jerusalem being now utterly laid waste and the Jews dispersed into all other Countries the Gentiles were admitted not onely into the body of that Church but even into the Episcopal chair The first whereof was XVI Marcus who sat 8. years XVII Cassianus 8. XVIII Publius 5. XIX Maximus 4. XX. Julianus 2. XXI Caianus 3. XXII Symmachus 2. XXIII Caius 3. XXIV Julianus 4. XXV Elias 2. I find not this Bishop mentioned by Eusebius but he is recorded by Nicephorus of Constantinople XXVI Capito 4. XXVII Maximus 4. XXVIII Antoninus 5. XXIX Valens 3. XXX Dulichianus 2. XXXI Narcissus 4. He was a man of eminent piety famous for the great miracles which he wrought but not being able to bear the aspersions which some unjustly cast upon him though God signally and miraculously vindicated his innocency he left his Church and retired into desarts and solitudes In his absence was chosen XXXII Dius who sat 8. years After him XXXIII Germanio 4. XXXIV Gordius 5. In his time Narcissus as one from the dead returned from his solitudes and was importuned by the People again to take the government of the Church upon him being highly reverenced by them both for his strict and Philosophical course of life and the signal vengeance which God took of his accusers And in this second administration he continued 10. years suffering martyrdom when he was near 120. years old To relieve the infirmities of his great Age they took in to be his Colleague XXXV Alexander formerly Bishop in Cappadocia who at that time had out of devotion taken a pilgrimage to Jerusalem the choice being extraordinarily designed by a particular revelation from Heaven He was an eminent Confessor and after having sat 15. Years died in Prison under the Decian Persecution By him Origen was ordained Presbyter He was a great Patron of Learning as well as Religion a studious preserver of the Records of the Church He erected a Library at Jerusalem which he especially furnished with the Writings and Epistles of Ecclesiastical Persons And out of this treasury it was that Eusebius borrowed a great part of his materials for the composing of his History XXXVI Mazabanes 9. years XXXVII Hymenaeus 23. XXXVIII Zabdas 10. XXXIX Hermon 9. He was as Eusebius tells us the last Bishop of this See before that fatal Persecution that rag'd even in his time XL. Macarius ordain'd Ann. Christ. CCCXV. He was present in the great Nicene Council He sat says Nicephorus of Constantinople 20. years but S. Hierom allows him a much longer time BYZANTIUM afterwards called CONSTANTINOPLE THAT this Church was first founded by S. Andrew we have shewed in his Life The succession of its Bishops was as followeth I. S. Andrew the Apostle He was crucified at Patrae in Achaia II. Stachys whom S. Paul calls his beloved Stachys ordained Bishop by S. Andrew he sat 16. years III. Onesimus 14. IV. Polycarpus 17. V. Plutarchus 16. VI. Sedecio 9. VII Diogenes 15. Of the last three no mention is made in Nicephorus of Constantinople but they are delivered by Nicephorus Callistus lib. 8. c. 6. p. 540. VIII Eleutherius 7. IX Felix 5. X. Polycarpus 17. XI Athenodorus 4. He erected a Church called Elea afterwards much beautified and enlarged by Constantine the Great XII Euzoius 16. Though Nicephorus Callistus allow but 6. XIII Laurentius 11. Years and 6. months XIV Alypius 13. XV. Pertinax a man of Consular dignity he built another Church near the Sea-side which he called Peace He sat 19. years which Nicephorus Callistus reduces to 9. XVI Olympianus 11. XVII Marcus 13. XVIII Cyriacus or Cyrillianus 16. XIX Constantinus 7. In the first year of his Bishoprick he built a Church in the North part of the City which he dedicated to the honour of Euphemia the Martyr who had suffered in that Place In this Oratory he spent the remainder of his life quitting his Episcopal Chair to XX. Titus who sat 35. years and 6. months though Nicephorus Callistus makes it 37. years After him came XXI Dometius Brother as they tell us to the Emperor Probus he was Bishop 21. years 6. months XXII Probus succeeded his Father Dometius and sat 12. Years As after him XXIII Metrophanes his brother who governed that Church 10. Years And in his time it was that Constantine translated the Imperial Court hither enlarged and adorned it called it after his own name and made it the seat of the Empire XXIV Alexander succeeded a man of great piety and integrity zealous and constant in maintaining the truth against the blasphemies of Arius He sat 23. years ALEXANDRIA THE foundations of this Church were laid and a great part of its superstructure rais'd by S. Mark who though not strictly and properly an Apostle yet being an Apostle at large and immediately commissionated by S. Peter it justly obtained the honour of an Apostolical Church Its Bishops and Governours are thus recorded I. S. Mark the Evangelist of whose Travels and Martyrdom we have spoken in his Life Nicephorus of Constantinople makes him to sit two years II. Anianus charactered by Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man beloved of God and
continuing obedient to their lawful Sovereign and firmly adhering to the worship of the Temple though even here too impiety in some places maintained its ground having taken root in the Reign of Solomon who through his over-great partiality and fondness to his Wives had been betrayed to give too much countenance to Idolatry The extirpation hereof was the design and attempt of all the pious and good Princes of Judah Jehosaphat set himself in good earnest to recover Religion and the state of the Church to its ancient purity and lustre he abolished the Groves and high places and appointed itinerant Priests and Levites to go from City to City to expound the Law and instruct the people in the knowledge of their duty nay he himself held a royal Visitation Going quite through the Land and bringing back the people to the Lord God of their Fathers But under the succeeding Kings Religion again lost its ground and had been quite extinct during the tyranny and usurpation of Athaliah but that good Jehoiada the High-Priest kept it alive by his admirable zeal and industry While he lived his Pupil Joas who owed both his Crown and his life to him promoted the design and purged the Temple though after his Tutors death he apostatized to prophaneness and idolatry Nor indeed was the reformation effectually advanced till the time of Hezekiah who no sooner ascended the Throne but he summoned the Priests and Levites exhorted them to begin at home and first to reform themselves then to cleanse and repair the Temple he resetled the Priests and Levites in their proper places and offices and caused them to offer all sorts of Sacrifices and the Passeover to be universally celebrated with great strictness and solemnity he destroyed the Monuments of Idolatry took away the Altars in Jerusalem and having given commission the people did the like in all parts of the Kingdom breaking the Images cutting down the Groves throwing down the Altars and high places until they had utterly destroyed them all But neither greatness nor piety can exempt any from the common Laws of mortality Hezekiah dies and his son Manasseh succeeds a wicked Prince under whose influence impiety like a land-floud broke in upon Religion and laid all waste before it But his Grandchild Josiah made some amends he gave signal instances of an early piety for in the eighth year of his Reign while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem he defaced whatever had been abused and prostituted to Idolatry and Superstition throughout the whole Kingdom repaired God's house and ordered its worship according to the prescript of the Mosaick Law a copy whereof they had found in the ruines of the Temple solemnly engaged himself and his people to be true to Religion and the worship of God and caused so great and solemn a Passeover to be held that there was no Passeover like to it kept in Israel from the days of Samuel And more he had done had not an immature death cut him off in the midst both of his days and his pious designs and projects Not many years after God being highly provoked by the prodigious impieties of that Nation delivered it up to the Army of the King of Babylon who demolished the City harassed the Land and carried the people captive unto Babylon And no wonder the Divine patience could hold no longer when all the chief of the Priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the Heathen and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem Seventy years they remained under this captivity during which time the Prophet Daniel gave lively and particular accounts of the Messiah that he should come into the World to introduce a Law of everlasting righteousness to die as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the people and to put a period to the Levitical sacrifices and oblations And whereas other prophecies had only in general defined the time of the Messiah's coming he particularly determines the period that all this should be at the end of LXX weeks that is at the expiration of CCCCXC years which exactly fell in with the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World The seventy years captivity being run out by the favour of the King of Babylon they were set free and by him permitted and assisted to repair Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple which was accordingly done under the government of Nehemiah and the succeeding Rulers and the Temple finished by Zorobabel and things brought into some tolerable state of order and decency and so continued till the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes King of Syria by whom the Temple was prophaned and violated and the Jewish Church miserably afflicted and distressed he thrust out Onias the High-Priest and put in his brother Jason a man lost both to Religion and good manners and who by a vast summ of money had purchased the Priest-hood of Antiochus At this time Matthias a Priest and the head of the Asmonaean Family stood up for his Country after whom came Judas Macchabaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus truly characters him a man of a generous temper and a valiant mind ready to do or suffer any thing to assert the Liberties and Religion of his Country followed both in his zeal and prosperous success by his two Brothers Jonathan and Simon successively High-Priests and Commanders after him Next him came John surnamed Hyrcanus then Aristobulus Alexander Hyrcanus Aristobulus junior Alexander Antigonus in whose time Herod the Great having by the favour of Antony obtained of the Roman Senate the Sovereignty over the Jewish Nation and being willing that the Priesthood should intirely depend upon his arbitrary disposure abrogated the succession of the Asmonaean Family and put in one Ananel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus calls him an obscure Priest of the line of those who had been Priests in Babylon To him succeeded Aristobulus to him Jesus the son of Phabes to him Simon who being deposed next came Matthias deposed also by Herod next him Joazar who underwent the same fate from Archelaus then Jesus the son of Sie after whom Joazar was again restored to the Chair and under his Pontificate though before his first deposition Christ was born things every day growing worse among them till about seventy years after the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost and brought the Romans who finally took away their place and Nation 18. BEFORE we go off from this part of our discourse it may not be amiss to take a more particular view of the state of the Jewish Church as it stood at the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World as what may reflect some considerable light upon the History of CHRIST and his Apostles And if we cast our eyes upon it at this time How was the Gold become dim
and the most fine Gold changed How miserably deformed was the face of the Church how strangely degenerated from its Primitive Institution whereof we shall observe some particular instances Their Temple though lately repaired and rebuilt by Herod and that with so much pomp and grandeur that Josephus who yet may justly be presumed partial to the honour of his own Nation says of it that it was the most admirable structure that was ever seen or heard of both for the preparation made for it the greatness and magnificence of the thing it self and the infinite expence and cost bestowed upon it as well as for the glory of that Divine worship that was performed in it yet was it infinitely short of that of Solomon besides that it had been often exposed to rudeness and violence Not to mention the horrible prophanations of Antiochus it had been of late invaded by Pompey who boldly ventured into the Sanctum Sanctorum and without any scruple curiously contemplated the mysteries of that place but suffered no injury to be offered to it After him came Crassus who to the others boldness added Sacriledge seizing what the others piety and modesty had spared plundering the Temple of its vast wealth and treasure Herod having procured the Kingdom besieged and took the City and the Temple and though to ingratiate himself with the People he endeavoured what in him lay to secure it from rapine and impiety and afterwards expended incredible Summs in its reparation yet did he not stick to make it truckle under his wicked policies and designs The more to indear himself to his Patrons at Rome he set up a Golden Eagle of a vast dimension the Arms of the Roman Empire over the great Gate of the Temple a thing so expresly contrary to the Law of Moses which forbids all Images and accounted so monstrous a prophanation of that holy place that while Herod lay a dying the People in a great tumult and up-roar gathered together and pull'd it down A great part of it was become an Exchange and a Market the place where Men were to meet with God and to trade with Heaven was now turned into a Ware-house for Merchants and a Shop for Usurers and the House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves The worship formerly wont to be performed there with pious and devout affections was now shrunk into a meer shell and out-side they drew near to God with their mouths and honoured him with their lips but their hearts were far from him Rites of humane invention had justled out those of Divine Institution and their very Prayers were made traps to catch the unwary People and to devour the Widow and the Fatherless Their Priesthood was so changed and altered that it retain'd little but its ancient Name the High-Priests who by their Original Charter were lineally to succeed and to hold their place for life were become almost annual scarce a Year passing over wherein one was not thrust out and another put in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius notes out of their own Historian Nay which was far worse it was become not only annual but venal Herod exposing it to sale and scarce admitting any to the Sacerdotal Office who had not first sufficiently paid for his Patent and which was the natural consequence of that the place was filled with the refuse of the People Men of mean abilities and debauched manners who had neither parts nor piety to recommend them he being the best and the fittest man that offered most Nay into so strange a degeneracy were they fallen in this matter that Josephus reports that one Phannias was elected High-Priest not only a rustick and illiterate fellow not only not of the Sacerdotal Line but so intolerably stupid and ignorant that when they came to acquaint him he knew not what the High-Priesthood meant And not content to be imposed upon and tyrannized over by a Foreign Power they fell a quarrelling among themselves and mutually prey'd upon one another the High-Priests falling out with the inferiour Orders and both Parties going with an armed retinue after them ready to clash and fight where-ever they met the High-Priest sending his Servants to fetch away the Tithes due to the inferiour Priests insomuch that many of the poorest of them were famished for want of necessary food 19. THEIR Law which had been delivered with so much majesty and magnificence and for which they themselves pretended so great a reverence they had miserably corrupted and depraved the moral part of it especially and that two ways First by gross and absurd interpretations which the Teachers of those times had put upon it The Scribes and Pharisees who ruled the Chair in the Jewish Church had by false and corrupt glosses debased the majesty and purity of the Law and made it to serve the purposes of an evil life they had taught the People that the Law required no more than external righteousness that if there was but a visible conformity of the life they needed not be solicitous about the government of their minds or the regular conduct of their thoughts or passions that so Men did but carry themselves fair to the eye of the World it was no great matter how things went in the secret and unseen retirements of the Soul nay that a punctual observance of some external Precepts of the Law would compensate and quit scores with God for the neglect or violation of the rest They told Men that when the Law forbad murder so they did not actually kill another and sheath their Sword in their Brother's bowels it was well enough Men were not restrained from furious and intemperate passions they might be angry yea though by peevish and uncomely speeches they betray'd the rancor and malice of their minds They confessed the Law made it adultery actually to embrace the bosom of a stranger but would not have it extend to wanton thoughts and unchast desires or that it was adultery for a man to lust after a Woman and to commit folly with her in his heart they told them that in all oaths and vows if they did but perform what they had sworn to God the Law took no further notice of it when as every vain and unnecessary oath all customary and trifling use of the name of God was forbidden by it They made them believe that it was lawful for them to proceed by the rigorous Law of retaliation to exact their own to the utmost and to right and revenge themselves when as the Law requires a tender compassionate and benevolent temper of mind and is so far from owning the rigorous punctilio's of revenge that it obliges to meekness and patience to forgiveness and charity and which is the very height of charity not only to pardon but to love and befriend our greatest enemies quite contrary to the doctrine which these men taught that though they were to love their neighbours that is Jews yet might they hate their
almost in the very same terms and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely encouraged and endeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his passions ready to over-run the banks not able to endure a thought that so much evil should befall his Master broke out into an over-confident and unseasonable interruption of him He took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Besides his great kindness and affection to his Master the minds of the Apostles were not yet throughly purged from the hopes and expectations of a glorious reign of the Messiah so that Peter could not but look upon these sufferings as unbecoming and inconsistent with the state and dignity of the Son of God And therefore thought good to advise his Lord to take care of himself and while there was time to prevent and avoid them This our Lord who valued the redemption of Mankind infinitely before his own ease and safety resented at so high a rate that he returned upon him with this tart and stinging reproof Get thee behind me Satan The very same treatment which he once gave to the Devil himself when he made that insolent proposal to him To fall down and worship him though in Satan it was the result of pure malice and hatred in Peter only an error of love and great regard However our Lord could not but look upon it as mischievous and diabolical counsel prompted and promoted by the great Adversary of Mankind A way therefore says Christ with thy hellish and pernicious counsel Thou art an offence unto me in seeking to oppose and undermine that great design for which I purposely came down from Heaven In this thou savourest not the things of God but those that be of men in suggesting to me those little shifts and arts of safety and self-preservation which humane prudence and the love of mens own selves are wont to dictate to them By which though we may learn Peter's mighty kindness to our Saviour yet that herein he did not take his measures right A plain evidence that his infallibility had not yet taken place 5. ABOUT a week after this our Saviour being to receive a Type and Specimen of his future glorification took with him his three more intimate Apostles Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and went up into a very high Mountain which the Ancients generally conceive to have been Mount Thabor a round and very high Mountain situate in the Plains of Galilee And now was even literally fulfilled what the Psalmist had spoken Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name for what greater joy and triumph than to be peculiarly chosen to be the holy Mount whereon our Lord in so eminent a manner received from God the Father honour and glory and made such magnificent displays of his Divine power and Majesty For while they were here earnestly imployed in Prayer as seldom did our Lord enter upon any eminent action but he first made his address to Heaven he was suddenly transformed into another manner of appearance such a lustre and radiancy darted from his face that the Sun it self shines not brighter at Noon-day such beams of light reflected from his garments as out-did the light it self that was round about them so exceeding pure and white that the Snow might blush to compare with it nor could the Fullers art purifie any thing into half that whiteness an evident and sensible representation of the glory of that state wherein the just shall walk in white and shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father During this Heavenly scene there appeared Moses and Elias who as the Jews say shall come together clothed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state familiarly conversing with him and discoursing of the death and sufferings which he was shortly to undergo and his departure into Heaven Behold here together the three greatest persons that ever were the Ministers of Heaven Moses under God the Instituter and promulgator of the Law Elias the great reformer of it when under its deepest degeneracy and corruption and the blessed Jesus the Son of God who came to take away what was weak and imperfect and to introduce a more manly and rational institution and to communicate the last Revelation which God would make of his mind to the World Peter and the two Apostles that were with him were in the mean time fallen asleep heavy through want of natural rest it being probably night when this was done or else over powred with these extraordinary appearances which the frailty and weakness of their present stare could not bear were fallen into a Trance But now awaking were strangely surprised to behold our Lord surrounded with so much glory and those two great persons conversing with him knowing who they were probably by some particular marks and signatures that were upon them or else by immediate revelation or from the discourse which passed betwixt Christ and them or possibly from some communication which they themselves might have with them While these Heavenly guests were about to depart Peter in a great rapture and ecstasie of mind addressed himself to our
enriched the Church with Gifts and Ornaments which in every Age encreased in Splendor and Riches till it is become one of the wonders of the World at this day Of whose glories stateliness and beauty and those many venerable Monuments of antiquity that are in it they who desire to know more may be plentifully satisfied by Onuphrius Only one amongst the rest must not be forgotten there being kept that very wooden Chair wherein S. Peter sate when he was at Rome by the only touching whereof many Miracles are said to be performed But surely Baronius his wisdom and gravity were from home when speaking of this Chair and fearing that Hereticks would imagine that it might be rotten in so long a time he tells us that it 's no wonder that this Chair should be preserved so long when Eusebius affirms that the wooden Chair of S. James Bishop of Jerusalem was extant in the time of Constantine But the Cardinal it seems forgot to consider that there is some difference between three and sixteen hundred Years But of this enough S. Peter was crucified according to the common computation in the Year of Christ sixty nine and the thirteenth or as Eusebius the fourteenth of Nero how truly may be enquired afterwards SECT X. The Character of his Person and Temper and an Account of his Writings The description of S. Peter ' s person An account of his Temper A natural fervor and eagerness predominant in him Fierceness and animosity peculiarly remarkable in the Galileans The abatements of his zeal and courage His humility and lowliness of mind His great love to and Zeal for Christ. His constancy and resolution in confessing Christ. His faithfulness and diligence in his Office His Writings genuine and supposititious His first Epistle what the design of it What meant by Babylon whence it was dated His second Epistle a long time questioned and why Difference in the style no considerable objection Grotius his conceit of its being written by Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem exploded A concurrence of circumstances to entitle S. Peter to it Some things in it referred to which he had preached at Rome particularly the destruction of Jerusalem Written but a little before his death The spurious Writings attributed to him mentioned by the Ancients His Acts. Gospel Petri Praedicatio His Apocalypse Judicium Petri. Peter ' s married relation His Wife the companion of his Travels Her Martyrdom His Daughter Petronilla 1. HAVING run through the current History of S. Peter's Life it may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his Person and Temper His Body if we may believe the description given of him by Nicephorus was somewhat slender of a middle size but rather inclining to tallness his complexion very pale and almost white The hair of his Head and Beard curl'd and thick but withall short though S. Hierom tells us out of Clemens his Periods that he was Bald which probably might be in his declining age his Eyes black but speckt with red which Baronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping his Eye-brows thin or none at all his Nose long but rather broad and flat than sharp such was the Case and out-side Let us next look inwards and view the Jewel that was within Take him as a Man and there seems to have been a natural eagerness predominant in his Temper which as a Whetstone sharpned his Soul for all bold and generous undertakings It was this in a great measure that made him so forward to speak and to return answers sometimes before he had well considered them It was this made him expose his person to the most eminent dangers promise those great things in behalf of his Master and resolutely draw his Sword in his quarrel against a whole Band of Souldiers and wound the High-Priests Servant and possibly he had attempted greater matters had not our Lord restrained and taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him 2. THIS Temper he owed in a great measure to the Genius and nature of his Country of which Josephus gives this true character That it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness and animosity whereby they were fearlesly carried out upon any action and in all things shew'd a great strength and courage both of mind and body The Galileans says he being fighters from their childhood the men being as seldom overtaken with cowardize as their Country with want of men And yet notwithstanding this his fervor and fierceness had its intervals there being some times when the Paroxysms of his heat and courage did intermit and the man was surprised and betrayed by his own fears Witness his passionate crying out when he was upon the Sea in danger of his life and his fearful deserting his Master in the Garden but especially his carriage in the High-Priests Hall when the confident charge of a sorry Maid made him sink so far beneath himself and notwithstanding his great and resolute promises so shamefully deny his Master and that with curses and imprecations But he was in danger and passion prevailed over his understanding and fear betrayed the succours which reason offered and being intent upon nothing but the present safety of his life he heeded not what he did when he disown'd his Master to save himself so dangerous is it to be left to our selves and to have our natural passions let ' loose upon us 3. CONSIDER him as a Disciple and a Christian and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of Religion Singular his Humility and lowliness of mind With what a passionate earnestness upon the conviction of a Miracle did he beg of our Saviour to depart from him accounting himself not worthy that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner When our Lord by that wonderful condescension stoopt to wash his Apostles feet he could by no means be perswaded to admit it not thinking it fit that so great a person should submit himself to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself nor could he be induced to accept it till our Lord was in a manner forced to threaten him into obedience When Cornelius heightned in his apprehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honour and veneration so far was he from complying with it that he plainly told him he was no other than such a man as himself With how much candor and modesty does he treat the inferiour Rulers and Ministers of the Church He upon whom Antiquity heaps so many honourable titles stiling himself no other than their fellow-Presbyter Admirable his love to and zeal for his Master which he thought he could never express at too high a rate for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers and exposing himself to the most imminent hazards of life 'T was in his quarrel that he drew his Sword against a Band
his appearance that by the sensible manifestations of himself he might put the case beyond all possibilities of dispute The very day whereon he arose he came into the house where they were while for fear of the Jews the doors were yet fast shut about them and gave them sufficient assurance that he was really risen from the dead At this meeting S. Thomas was absent having probably never recovered their company since their last dispersion in the Garden when every ones fears prompted him to consult his own safety At his return they told him that their Lord had appeared to them but he obstinately refused to give credit to what they said or to believe that it was he presuming it rather a phantasm or mere apparition unless he might see the very prints of the Nails and feel the Wounds in his hands and sides A strange piece of infidelity Was this any more than what Moses and the Prophets had long since foretold had not our Lord frequently told them in plain terms that he must rise again the third day could he question the possibility of it who had so often seen him do the greatest miracles was it reasonable to reject the testimony of so many eye-witnesses ten to one against himself and of whose fidelity he was assured or could he think that either themselves should be deceived or that they would jest and trifle with him in so solemn and serious a matter A stubbornness that might have betrayed him into an eternal infidelity But our compassionate Saviour would not take the advantage of the mans refractory unbelief but on that day sevennight again came to them as they were solemnly met at their devotions and calling to Thomas bad him look upon his hands put his fingers into the prints of the Nails and thrust his hand into the hole of his side and satisfie his faith by a demonstration from sense The man was quickly convinced of his error and obstinacy confessing that he now acknowledged him to be his very Lord and Master a God omnipotent that was thus able to rescue himself from the powers of death Our Lord replied no more than that it was well he believed his own senses but that it was a more noble and commendable act of Faith to acquiesce in a rational evidence and to entertain the doctrines and relations of the Gospel upon such testimonies and assurances of the truth of things as will satisfie a wise and sober man though he did not see them with his own eyes 3. THE Blessed Jesus being gone to Heaven and having eminently given gifts and miraculous powers to the Apostles S. Thomas moved thereto by some Divine intimation is said to have dispatched Thaddaeus one of the Seventy Disciples to Abgarus Toparch of Edessa between whom and our Saviour the letters commonly said to have passed are still extant in Eusebius whom he first cured of an inveterate distemper and after converted him and his subjects to the Faith The Apostolical Province assigned to S. Thomas as Origen tells us was Parthia after which Sophronius and others inform us that he preached the Gospel to the Medes Persians Carmans Hyrcani Bactrians and the neighbour Nations In Persia one of the Ancients upon what ground I know not acquaints us that he met with the Magi or Wise men who came that long journey from the East to bring presents to our new-born Saviour whom he baptized and took along with him as his companions and assistants in the propagation of the Gospel Hence he preached in and passed through Aethiopia that is that we may a little clear this by the way the Asian Aethiopia conterminous to if not the same with Chaldaea whence Tacitus does not only make the Jews descendents from the Aethiopians as whose Ancestors came from Ur of the Chaldeans but Hesychius makes the inhabitants of Zagrus a mountain beyond Tygris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of the Aethiopians this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Benjamin the Jew in his Itinerary the land of Cush or Aethiopia the inhabitants whereof are stiled by Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the oriental Aethiopians by way of distinction from those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who lived South of Aegypt and were under the same military Prefecture with the Arabians under the command of Arsames as the other were joyned with the Indians and in the same place are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Asian Aethiopians Having travelled through these Countries he at last came to India We are told by Nicephorus that he was at first unwilling to venture himself into those Countries fearing he should find their manners as rude and intractable as their faces were black and deformed till encouraged by a Vision that assured him of the Divine Presence to assist him He travelled a great way into those Eastern Nations as far as the Island Taprobane since called Sumatra and the Country of the Prachmans preaching every where with all the arts of gentleness and mild perswasives not flying out into tart invectives and furious heats against their idolatrous practices but calmly instructing them in the principles of Christianity by degrees perswading them to renounce their follies knowing that confirmed habits must be cured by patience and long forbearing by slow and gentle methods and by these means he wrought upon the people and brought them over from the grossest errors and superstition to the hearty belief and entertainment of Religion 4. IN want of better evidence from Antiquity it may not be amiss to enquire what account the Portugals in their first discoveries of these Countries received of these matters partly from ancient Monuments and Writings partly from constant and uncontrolled Traditions which the Christians whom they found in those parts preserved amongst them They tell us that S. Thomas came first to Socotora an Island in the Arabian Sea thence to Cranganor where having converted many he travelled futher into the East and having successfully preached the Gospel returned back into the Kingdom of Cormandel where at Malipur the Metropolis of the Kingdom not far from the influx of Ganges into the Gulph of Bengala he began to erect a place for Divine worship till prohibited by the Priests and Sagamo Prince of that Country But upon the conviction of several miracles the work went on and the Sagamo himself embraced the Christian Faith whose example was soon followed by great numbers of his friends and subjects The Brachmans who plainly perceived that this would certainly spoil their Trade and in time extirpate the Religion of their Country thought it high time to put a stop to this growing Novelism and resolved in Council that some way or other the Apostle must be put to death There was a Tomb not far from the City whither the Apostle was wont to retire to his solitudes and private devotions hither the Brachmans and their armed followers pursue the Apostle and while he
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