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
much detest them was that this Tribute was not only a grievance to their Purses but an affront to the liberty and freedom of their Nation for they looked upon themselves as a Free-born People and that they had been immediatlely invested in this priviledge by God himself and accordingly beheld this as a daily and standing instance of their slavery which of all other things they could least endure and which therefore betrayed them into so many unfortunate Rebellions against the Romans Add to this that these Publicans were not only obliged by the necessity of their Trade to have frequent dealing and converse with the Gentiles which the Jews held unlawful and abominable but that being Jews themselves they rigorously exacted these things of their Brethren and thereby seemed to conspire with the Romans to entail perpetual slavery upon their own Nation For though Tertullian thought that none but Gentiles were employed in this fordid office yet the contrary is too evident to need any argument to prove it 2. BY these means Publicans became so universally abhorred by the Jewish Nation that it was accounted unlawful to do them any office of common kindness and courtesie nay they held it no sin to couzen and over-reach a Publican and that with the solemnity of an Oath they might not eat or drink walk or travel with them they were looked upon as common Thieves and Robbers and Money received of them might not be put to the rest of a Man's Estate it being presumed to have been gained by rapine and violence they were not admitted as Persons fit to give testimony and evidence in any cause so infamous were they as not only to be banished all communion in the matters of Divine Worship but to be shunned in all affairs of civil society and commerce as the Pests of their Country Persons of an infectious converse of as vile a Classe as Heathens themselves Hence the common Proverb among them Take not a Wife out of that Family wherein there is a Publican for they are all Publicans that is Thieves Robbers and wicked sinners To this Proverbial usage our Lord alludes when speaking of a contumacious sinner whom neither private reproofs nor the publick censures and admonitions of the Church can prevail upon Let him be unto thee says he as an Heathen and a Publican as elsewhere Publicans and sinners are yoked together as Persons of equal esteem and reputation Of this Trade and Office was our S. Matthew and it seems more particularly to have consisted in gathering the Customs of Commodities that came by the Sea of Galilee and the Tribute which Passengers were to pay that went by Water a thing frequently mentioned in the Jewish writings where we are also told of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ticket consisting of two greater Letters written in Paper or some such matter called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ticket or signature of the Publicans which the Passenger had with him to certifie them on the other side the Water that he had already paid the Toll or Custom upon which account the Hebrew Gospel of S. Matthew published by Munster renders Publican by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of the Passage For this purpose they kept their Office or Custom-house by the Sea-side that they might be always near at hand and here it was as S. Mark intimates that Matthew had his Toll-both where He sate at the Receipt of Custom 3. OUR Lord having lately cured a famous Paralytick retired out of Capernaum to walk by the Sea-side where he taught the People that flocked after him Here he espied Matthew sitting in his Custom-office whom he called to come and follow Him The Man was rich had a wealthy and a gainful Trade a wise and prudent Person no fools being put into that Office and understood no doubt what it would cost him to comply with this new employment that he must exchange Wealth for Poverty a Custom-house for a Prison gainful Masters for a naked and despised Saviour But he overlooked all these considerations left all his Interests and Relations to become our Lord's Disciple and to embrace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom observes a more spiritual way of commerce traffick We cannot suppose that he was before wholly unacquainted without Saviour's Person or Doctrine especially living at Capernaum the place of Christ's usual residence where his Sermons and Miracles were so frequent by which he could not but in some measure be prepared to receive the impressions which our Saviour's call now made upon him And to shew that he was not discontented at his change nor apprehended himself a loser by this bargain he entertained our Lord and his Disciples at a great Dinner in his House whither he invited his Friends especially those of his own Profession piously hoping that they also might be caught by our Saviour's converse and company The Pharisees whose Eye was constantly evil where another Man 's was good and who would either find or make occasions to snarle at him began to suggest to his Disciples that it was unbecoming so pure and holy a Person as their Master pretended himself to be thus familiarly to converse with the worst of men Publicans and sinners Persons infamous to a Proverb But he presently replied upon them that they were the sick that needed the Physician not the sound and healthy that his company was most suitable where the necessities of Souls did most require it that God himself preferred acts of Mercy and Charity especially in reclaiming sinners and doing good to Souls infinitely before all ritual observances and the nice rules of Persons conversing with one another and that the main design of his coming into the World was not to bring the righteous or those who like themselves proudly conceited themselves to be so and in a vain Opinion of their own strictness loftily scorned all Mankind besides but sinners modest humble self-convinced offenders to repentance and to reduce them to a better state and course of life 4. AFTER his election to the Apostolate he continued with the rest till our Lord's Ascension and then for the first eight Years at least Preached up and down Judaea After which being to betake himself to the Conversion of the Gentile-world he was intreated by the Convert Jews to commit to Writing the History of our Saviour's Life and Actions and to leave it among them as the standing Record of what he had Preached to them which he did accordingly and so composed his Gospel whereof more in due place Little certainty can be had what Travels he underwent for the advancement of the Christian Faith so irrecoverably is truth lost in a crowd of Legendary stories Aethiopia is generally assigned as the Province of his Apostolical Ministry Metaphrastes tells us that he went first into Parthia and having successfully planted Christianity in those Parts thence travelled into Aethiopia that is the Asiatick Aethiopia lying near to India
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
raised by Demetrius and his party S. Paul ' s first Epistle to the Corinthians upon what occasion written His Epistle to Titus Apollonius Tyanaeus whether at Ephesus at the same time with S. Paul His Miracles pretended to be done in that City 1. AFTER his departure from Athens he went to Corinth the Metropolis of Greece and the residence of the Proconsul of Achaia where he found Aquila and Priscilla lately come from Italy banished out of Rome by the Decree of Claudius And they being of the same trade and profession wherein he had been educated in his youth he wrought together with them lest he should be unnecessarily burdensom unto any which for the same reason he did in some other places Hither after some time Silas and Timothy came to him In the Synagogue he frequently disputed with the Jewes and Proselytes reasoning and proving that Jesus was the true Messiah They according to the nature of the men made head and opposed him and what they could not conquer by argument and force of reason they endeavoured to carry by noise and clamour mixed with blasphemies and revilings the last refuges of an impotent and baffled cause Whereat to testifie his resentment he shook his Garments and told them since he saw them resolved to pull down vengeance and destruction upon their own heads he for his part was guiltless and innocent and would henceforth address himself unto the Gentiles Accordingly he left them and went into the house of Justus a religious Proselyte where by his preaching and the many miracles which he wrought he converted great Numbers to the Faith Amongst which were Crispus the Chief Ruler of the Synagogue Gaius and Stephanus who together with their Families embraced the Doctrine of the Gospel and were baptized into the Christian Faith But the constant returns of malice and ingratitude are enough to tire the largest charity and cool the most generous resolution therefore that the Apostle might not be discouraged by the restless attempts and machinations of his enemies our Lord appeared to him in a Vision told him that notwithstanding the bad success he had hitherto met with there was a great Harvest to be gathered in that place that he should not be afraid of his enemies but go on to preach confidently and securely for that he himself would stand by him and preserve him 2. ABOUT this time as is most probable he wrote his first Epistle to the Thessalonians Silas and Timothy being lately returned from thence and having done the message for which he had sent them thither The main design of the Epistle is to confirm them in the belief of the Christian Religion and that they would persevere in it notwithstanding all the afflictions and persecutions which he had told them would ensue upon their profession of the Gospel and to instruct them in the main duties of a Christian and Religious life While the Apostle was thus employed the malice of the Jewes was no less at work against him and universally combining together they brought him before Gallio the Proconsul of the Province elder Brother to the famous Seneca Before him they accused the Apostle as an Innovator in Religion that sought to introduce a new way of worship contrary to what was established by the Jewish Law and permitted by the Roman Powers The Apostle was ready to have pleaded his own cause but the Proconsul told them that had it been a matter of right or wrong that had fall'n under the cognizance of the Civil Judicature it had been very fit and reasonable that he should have heard and determined the case but since the controversie was only concerning the punctilio's and niceties of their Religion it was very improper for him to be a Judge in such matters And when they still clamoured about it he threw out their Indictment and commanded his Officers to drive them out of Court Whereupon some of the Towns-men seized upon Sosthenes one of the Rulers of the Jewish Consistory a man active and busie in this Insurrection and beat him even before the Court of Judicature the Proconsul not at all concerning himself about it A year and an half Saint Paul continued in this place and before his departure thence wrote his second Epistle to the Thessalonians to supply the want of his coming to them which in his former he had resolved on and for which in a manner he had engaged his promise In this therefore he endeavours again to confirm their minds in the truth of the Gospel and that they would not be shaken with those troubles which the wicked unbelieving Jewes would not cease to create them a lost and undone race of men and whom the Divine vengeance was ready finally to overtake And because some passages in his former Letter relating to this destruction had been mis-understood as if this day of the Lord were just then at hand he rectifies those mistakes and shews what must precede our Lord's coming unto Judgment 3. S. PAUL having thus fully planted and cultivated the Church at Corinth resolved now for Syria And taking along with him Aquila and Priscilla at Cenchrea the Port and Harbour of Corinth Aquila for of him it is certainly to be understood shaved his head in performance of a Nazarite-Vow he had formerly made the time whereof was now run out In his passage into Syria he came to Ephesus where he preached a while in the Synagogue of the Jewes And though desired to stay with them yet having resolved to be at Jerusalem at the Passeover probably that he might have the fitter opportunity to meet his friends and preach the Gospel to those vast numbers that usually flock'd to that great solemnity he promised that in his return he would come again to them Sailing thence he landed at Caesarea and thence went up to Jerusalem where having visited the Church and kept the Feast he went down to Antioch Here having staid some time he traversed the Countries of Galatia and Phrygia confirming as he went the new-converted Christians and so came to Ephesus where finding certain Christian Disciples he enquired of them whether since their conversion they had received the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost They told him that the Doctrine which they had received had nothing in it of that nature nor had they ever heard that any such extraordinary Spirit had of late been bestowed upon the Church Hereupon he further enquired unto what they had been baptized the Christian Baptism being administred in the name of the Holy Ghost They answered they had received no more than John's Baptism which though it obliged men to repentance yet did it explicitly speak nothing of the Holy Ghost or its gifts and powers To this the Apostle replied That though John's Baptism did openly oblige to nothing but Repentance yet that it did implicitly acknowledge the whole Doctrine concerning Christ and the Holy Ghost Whereto they assenting were solemnly initiated by Christian
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
long 220 broad supported by 127 Pillars 60 Foot high for its antiquity it was in some degree before the times of Bacchus equal to the Reign of the Amazons by whom it is generally said to have been first built as the Ephesian Ambassadors told Tiberius till by degrees it grew up into that greatness and splendor that it was generally reckoned one of the seven wonders of the World But that which gave the greatest fame and reputation to it was an Image of Diana kept there made of no very costly materials but which the crafty Priests perswaded the People was beyond all humane artifice or contrivement and that it was immediately formed by Jupiter and dropt down from Heaven having first killed or banished the Artists that made it as Suidas informs us that the cheat might not be discovered by which means they drew not Ephesus only but the whole World into a mighty veneration of it Besides there were within this Temple multitudes of Silver Cabinets or Chappelets little Shrines made in fashion of the Temple wherein was placed the Image of Diana For the making of these holy shrines great numbers of Silver-smiths were employed and maintained among whom one Demetrius was a Leading-man who foreseeing that if the Christian Religion still got ground their gainful Trade would soon come to nothing presently called together the Men of his Profession especially those whom he himself set on work told them that now their welfare and livelihood were concerned and that the fortunes of their Wives and Children lay at stake that it was plain that this Paul had perverted City and Country and perswaded the People that the Images which they made and worshipped were no real Gods by which means their Trade was not only like to fall to the ground but also the honour and magnificence of the great Goddess Diana whom not Asia only but the whole World did worship and adore Enraged with this discourse they cried out with one voice that Great was Diana of the Ephesians The whole City was presently in an uproar and seizing upon two of S. Paul's Companions hurried them into the Theatre probably with a design to have cast them to the wild Beasts S. Paul hearing of their danger would have ventured himself among them had not the Christians nay some even of the Gentile Priests Governours of the popular Games and Sports earnestly disswaded him from it well knowing that the People were resolved if they could meet with him to throw him to the wild Beasts that were kept there for the disport and pleasure of the People And this doubtless he means when elsewhere he tells us that he fought with Beasts at Ephesus probably intending what the People designed though he did not actually suffer though the brutish rage the savage and inhumane manners of this People did sufficiently deserve that the censure and character should be fixed upon themselves 8. GREAT was the confusion of the Multitude the major-part not knowing the reason of the Concourse In which distraction Alexander a Jewish Convert being thrust forward by the Jews to be questioned and examined about this matter he would accordingly have made his Apologie to the People intending no doubt to clear himself by casting the whole blame upon S. Paul This being very probably that Alexander the Copper-smith of whom our Apostle elsewhere complains That he did him much evil and greatly withstood his words and whom he delivered over unto Satan for his Apostasie for blaspheming Christ and reproaching Christianity But the Multitude perceiving him to be a Jew and thereby suspecting him to be one of S. Paul's Associates began to raise an out-cry for near two Hours together wherein nothing could be heard but Great is Diana of the Ephesians The noise being a little over the Recorder a discreet and prudent Man came out and calmly told them That it was sufficiently known to all the World what a mighty honour and veneration the City of Ephesus had for the great Goddess Diana and the famous Image which fell from Heaven that therefore there needed not this stir to vindicate and assert it That they had seized Persons who were not guilty either of Sacriledge or Blasphemy towards their Goddess that if Demetrius and his Company had any just charge against them the Courts were sitting and they might prefer their Indictment or if the Controversie were about any other matter it might be referred to such a proper Judicature as the Law appoints for the determination of such cases That therefore they should do well to be quiet having done more already than they could answer if called in question as 't is like they would there being no cause sufficient to justifie that days riotous Assembly With which prudent discourse he appeased and dismissed the Multitude 9. IT was about this time that S. Paul heard of some disturbance in the Church at Corinth hatched and fomented by a pack of false heretical Teachers crept in among them who endeavoured to draw them into Parties and Factions by perswading one Party to be for Peter another for Paul a third for Apollos as if the main of Religion consisted in being of this or that Denomination or in a warm active zeal to decry and oppose whoever is not of our narrow Sect. 'T is a very weak and slender claim when a Man holds his Religion by no better a title than that he has joyned himself to this Man's Church or that Man's Congregation and is zealously earnest to maintain and promote it to be childishly and passionately clamorous for one Man's mode and way of administration or for some particular humour or opinion as if Religion lay in nice and curious disputes or in separating from our Brethren and not rather in righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost By this means Schisms and Factions broke into the Corinthian Church whereby many wild and extravagant Opinions and some of them such as undermined the fundamental Articles of Christianity were planted and had taken root there As the envious Man never fishes more successfully than in troubled Waters To cure these Distempers S. Paul who had received an Account of all this by Letters which Apollos and some others had brought to him from the Church of Corinth writes his first Epistle to them Wherein he smartly reproves them for their Schisms and Parties conjures them to peace and unity corrects those gross corruptions that were introduced among them and particularly resolves those many cases and controversies wherein they had requested his advice and counsel Shortly after Apollos designing to go for Crete by him and Zenas S. Paul sends his Epistle to Titus whom he had made Bishop of that Island and had left there for the propagating of the Gospel Herein he fully instructs him in the execution of his Office how to carry himself and what directions he should give to others to all particular ranks and relations of men especially those who were to be advanced