which she shakes off the Old Man to cloath her selfe with the New that all those who received it were thereby interred with Christ and as they had part in his death they should also share in his Resurrection if as Christ being once dead dies no more they shall likewise being once delivered from the yoak of sin and there dead in baptisme commit sin no more This discourse prepared them with holy dispositions to enter into that celestial bath They received holy baptisme and the holy Ghost descended upon them rendered them Prophets and made them speak unknown tongues the Apostle desirous to gain all the other Inhabitants and principally the Jewes went to their Synagogues every Sabbath for the space of three moneths proving unto them by invinsible reasons and with an undanted courage the truth of the Doctrine he preached But though he convinced them all yet he gained few of them many remaining obdurate and perverse even to the blaspheming of Jesus Christ which obliged this faithful servant of his to separate himself from amongst them together with those Disciples who believed and were converted by his discourse He chose for the place of his preaching the School of a Sophister called Tyrannus either because he was converted to the faith or perhaps God had disposed him to afford this civility to his Apostle For the space of three years he omitted not a day to teach the Gospell in so much as all Asia received these delightfull tydings God confirming his words by divers miracles the very touch alone of his Handcharchieffs and Girdles healed the sick and drove the Divels out of bodies tormented by them A man named Sceva in the Acts he is called Prince of the Priests had seven Sons who made profession of being Exorcists and passed up and down for such perswading simple people to get money from them that they knew the secret of casting forth Divels When they beheld the command which Saint Paul exercised over Divels and that the Divels could not resist him whether out of Emulation or Covetousness they would needs exercise a possest person in the name of Jesus whom Paul preached The Divel who was a very cruel one answered them that he knew Jesus Christ and Paul but for them he scorned their Exorcismes and flew upon them with that violence as they were forced to save themselves by flight out of the house naked and much wounded This accident comming to the knowledge of the Iewes and Gentils that dwelt at Ephesus much astonished them and made them highly to honour the name of Jesus Christ Many amongst the faithfull were seized with a holy feare which made them confess publickly their misdeeds It is observed in Saint Matthew that those who went to present themselves to the Baptisme of Saint Iohn confessed their sinnes and in my opinion one passage explicates the other Saint Luke seemes also to distinguish the first from those others whereupon he sayes that they acknowledging the errour and abomination of Magick to the which they were much addicted burnt all their wicked Books and there were so many of them and those so rare as they were valued at a vast sum of money It is not to be wondred at for Ephesus at all times was much addicted to Magick Characters were there sold to obtaine victory in their publick games Suidas relates how an Ephesian at the Olympick Games overcame 30. Champions at wrestling that a Milesian trying with him and no odds being betwixt them the Judges doubted that he had characters about him as indeed they found and taking them away he was easily overcome Plutarch sayes that by the name Ephesian Devils were cast out of bodies which they possest Eustathius observes that there were writings about the feet middle and crown of the Statue of Diana Apollonius Thianeus accomplished the corruption of this great City for he taught Magick publiquely and was so honoured there that they erected him a Statue as unto a God The happy progress of the Gospel there was stopped by great persecutions raised by the rage of the Iewes against the Apostle Writing to the Corinthians he sayes The toyle he there underwent was such as life became wearysome to him and that he had fought against wilde beasts But I conceive this ought to be understood Allegorically and not literally wicked and cruel men being ordinarily in the Holy Scriptures termed wild and furious beasts Demetrius well deserves this name This man was a Goldsmith by profession and had great trading in workes of silver which the Gentiles offered to Diana Some say they were Images and others little Temples of the false Goddess in the form of the great one He seeing that by the preaching of St. Paul his gain with Idolatry dayly decayed assembles all the workmen that wrought under him who were many and told them They were now in danger to be reduced unto great misery for Paul declared in his Sermons that Idols made by the hands of men had no understanding much less any Divinity in them and this Doctrin once received they should not be able to get their living They must leave their trade and that Temple of Diana which Asia and other Provinces of the world adored ran a great hazard suddenly to be deprived of Reputation and Sacrifices These reasons in which they were concerned put them into fury They running about the streets like mad men cryed Great is Diana of Ephesus to see if they could excite the people to sedition and unluckily meeting with Gaius and Aristarchus both Macedonians and presently remembring them to be companions of Saint Paul whom they sought they dragged them to the Theatre to expose them to the fury of the people The Apostle hearing of the danger they were in would have gone unto them but his disciples and some others of quality of Asia that loved him hindered it and represented to him the danger he would run to be ill treated by such a multitude in commotion The Jewes were no lesse afraid then the Christians because in this occasion there was no difference made betwixt them they being no lesse enemies to Idolatry then the others So to prevent the danger which threatned them they sent to the Theatre one of theirs called Alexander to see if he could appease the people and stop the mischiefe which might arise from that sedition He a long time made signe with his hand that he had something to speak unto them But when the seditious called to minde he was a Jew they made a greater noise then before and for two hours space ceased not to cry out Great is Diana of the Ephesians At last a Magistrate being there behaved himselfe so well as he appeased the people and spake in this manner to them O Ephesians who is ignorant that knowes not how faithfully your City adores the great Diana daughter of Jupiter together with her Image sent downe from Heaven and in this worship we surpass all the people of the Earth nor is
Gods permission who would have him thereby known a viper issuing forth fastned upon his hand there hung the Islanders according to their feeble understanding judged him to be some wicked man whom the divine Justice had saved from the fury of the sea to punish more exemplarly rigorously at land But when they beheld him to shake the viper into the fire and that he had no harm by the biting of it As the mindes of the Vulgar in the same moment are capable of different impressions they presently took him for a God hidden under a humane form The marvelous cure of Publius his Father Prince of that Island oppressed by a strong Fever and Disentery increased their respect and esteem of his sanctity and caused them to bring to him from all parts diseased persons whom he restored to health by invocating the name of Jesus Christ He converted there many to the faith and at this day it is the Bulwark against the fury of the Turks who finde it a stubborn rock to resist their power by the visible protection of God He stayed there three moneths and at the end departed thence in a vessel of Alexandria which had wintred there The winde was favourable to them till they came to Syracusa where they tarried three dayes from thence coasting along the land they got to Regium and the next day arrived at Putzeoli They found Christians there who conjured him to stay seven dayes with them to which he easily condescended in acknowledgment of their charity and of the honour which they had done him The report of his arrival being spread through Rome most of the faithfull that dwelt there came to meet him some as farre as the market place of Appius and others to a structure called the Three Taverns the sight of them afforded him great consolation He with them entered into this great City which one may call the seat of Idolatry as well as of the Empire in whose conversion that of the whole world was included So great a worke required a zeale no less ardent and a minde no less cleare then that of the Apostle whom God had ordained together with S. Peter by their preaching to found the principal Church upon earth to cultivate it by their cares and as we shall see a little after to consecrate it with their bloud The Captain who conducted him remitted him with the rest of his prisoners into the hands of the Prefect of the Pretorium who was named Burrus this man was content to allow the Apostle a souldier for his guard so that though he was not intirely free yet he might go whither he pleased with his guard who was fastned to him with the same chain as the custom was but so as it hindered him not from walking he by that meanes with facility declared the Gospel to the Jewes Gentiles that lived in Rome He began first with the Jewes and the third day after his arrival assembled the principal of them together and told them That he was made Prisoner at Hierusalem and put into the hands of the Romanes by those of his own nation although he was not guilty of any crime either in word or deed against any particular person or against the Law That the hatred and fury of his accusers constrained him to appeale to Caesar that he came thither to present himself not to accuse his Country-men but onely to defend his owne innocency That he found his chain very pleasing since he bore it for declaring the coming of him who was the hope of Israel and that he might give them an account of all things hee defired them they would come unto him They answered him they had received no letters from Judea nor seen any body that had made the least complaint against him and for the rest they desired him hee would freely tell them what this new Sect was which he preached and which they understood was generally opposed with great contradiction The Apostle unable then to satisfie their desires appointed them another day when he should have more time to explicate so highly important verities They failed not to come to this conference and when every one had taken his place S. Paul spake much after this manner Brethren in the subject you desire to be instructed it is a great advantage to me and likewise a great consolation that I am not obliged to prove the principles to you from which I am to draw my Consequences You receive Moses for the Law giver and with reason esteem his words as Oracles Certainly it is most reasonable we should hearken to him whom God treated with so much familiarity upon the Mountain and by whom he hath wrought so many wonders in favour of our fore-fathers We must onely be careful that we go not contrary to the intentions of this great man He hath been faithful in the house of God but it has been in quality of a Servant He hath declared to the people the will of the eternal Father but as Interpreter He has established Purifications and sacrifices but it was onely for that time according as providence had ordained which was to preceed the birth of the new Law giver whom I preach and who is no other then Jesus Christ It is he Brethren by whom God hath vouchsafed to speake to us in these last ages having spoken in the former by the Prophets after divers manners This is the Son to the Father of that Family whereof Moses is a member This is the truth of all our figures the end of the whole body of the Law the object of all the Prophesies His death was figured in that of Abell whose innocent blood Cain spilt througy a raging jealousie Moses in delivering our Ancestors from the bondage of Egypt represents the exemption from the tyranny of sin and death wrought by him whom I preach unto you The brazen Serpent erected in the Desart which was a Cure for the biting of real Serpents teacheth us that the Son of man was to be lifted up from the Earth and placed upon the Cross and that he should prove a saving Physitian to the Mortal desease of humane nature The immolation of the Paschal Lamb the sacrifice of the Goat emissary on whom were charged all the sins of the people were the images of his bloody oblation which hath opened us the way to eternal life and which has expiated all the sins of the world The Prophet Esay seems to have beheld it with his eyes and unless you will blind your selves you must acknowledge that which he spake of a Virgin that should conceive and bring forth a Son who should be the light the hope the leader the Master and King of Nations in whom the Spirit of Wisedome Counsel and Force should reside whose feet and hands should be pierced who should be made a man of dolours a man chastised by God for the sins of his people and in whom neither beauty nor comlinesse should appear insomuch
himself with their Wool But all that was permitted seemed not to him expedient to do he would take away from the enemies of the Gospell all manner of pretexts that they should not accuse him of seeking his own interest or making a Commerce of his preaching He would preserve this glory to have announced the Gospell gratis to them by that means might speak with more liberty Many spiritual directours ought to consider this great example of disingagement if they imitate it with prudence and courage their conduct would be more honourable to them more profitable to those whom they govern and more advantagious to the honour of the Church The Apostle esteemed not this corporal exercise to be any reproach to his condition since it did not any way hinder him from his times of prayer or from the Function of his Ministry Every Sabboth day he preached in the Synagogue of the Jewes and made it appear to them as well as to the Greekes that Jesus Christ was the true Messias and true God Silas and Timothy being come from Thesalonica he found himself more then usually moved by the Spirit of God to speak his zeal was enkindled a new and he preached with more efficacy to those of his Nation the Divinity of his Master But when he perceived that instead of profiting by his words they remained more obstinate and uttered more horrible blasphemies against Jesus Christ he shaked his garments and told them Your blood be upon your own heads I have my hands clean and I will goe from this Country and carry to the Gentiles this light which you refuse This familiar fashion of speech to the Hebrewes was as much as to say that he had done all that lay in him to bring them to the knowledge of the truth and they would not believe him therefore he should not be responsable for their perdition which was infallible At the same instant he changed his lodging and retired himself to lodge with an honest man called Titus Justus one who feared God whose house was neer to the place where the Jewes used to assemble Crispus who was Prince of the Synagogue imbraced the Gospell and all his family and many more of the City were also baptized This good success gave incouragement to the Apostle and to augment it our Saviour appeared to him in a vision saying Fear nothing speak boldly take heed you hold not your peace for I am with you and none shall be able to hurt you I have many people in this Town The event made him know the truth of this revelation He remained eighteen moneths in Corinth and in that time the Church was exceedingly increased by the conversion of divers persons of all sorts He preached continually and in the first Epistle which he wrote afterwards to them he shews that in declaring the Gospel to them He made no use of the flowers of humane eloquence nor arguments of Philosophy for fear they might extinguish the vertue of the Cross which wants not the art of words to perswade the belief of it He puts them in minde that he exercised his Ministry amongst them with fear and with humility and that he pretended to know no other thing but Jesus Christ crucified that he did not feed them with solid meat but with milke because they were not capable of other nourishment We know not the particular things which he did at Corinth nor what he endured there for the name of Jesus Christ He onely sayes that the marks of his Apostleship amongst the Corinthians were many paines which he suffered with a long patience and that many miracles were wrought in confirmation of his Doctrine The Jews who were never weary of persecuting him found notinâ— Gallion the Proconsul of Achaya and Brother of Seneca the Philosopher a Spirit that would easily imbrace the injustice of their passions to him they presented the Apostle and accused him of teaching a religious worship contrary to their Law But no sooner the accused offered to open his mouth in his own defence when Gallion told them that if they would complain of any evil action he had committed he would hear and do them justice but if it onely concerned some controversies of their Religion he would not meddle in it but leave the Judgement of it to themselves With this answer he dismissed them And they in a fury fell upon Sosthenes Prince of the Synagogue who was a Christian nor did the Consul hinder them from the prosecution of that insolent cruelty Saint Paul makes mention of this Sosihenes in the salutation of his first Epistle to the Corinthians and speaks of him as of his Companion which shewes he was considerable both to the Apostle and to that Church which he had care to instruct it may be also from him that Saint Paul understood of their disorders which obliged him to write unto them Some Authors make him Bishop of Colophone The Apostle applied not himself so much to the salvation of the Inhabitants of Corinth that he forgat the other Churches and when he understood the necessities of the Church of Thessalonica he wrote two Epistles to them in a short time one after another His designe in the first Epistle was to confirm the faithful in the profession of the Gospel and to instruct them in the mystery of the Resurrection to the end they might take courage in their present and future persecutions He commended them for having made so great a progress in faith the report whereof was spread every where and that they served for an example to other Churches Afterwards he puts them in minde of his manner of preaching how free it was from any self-interest never consenting to be any burthen to them He expresses to them a great desire to see them again and assures them that he continually remembers them in his Prayers He exhorts them not to be sad for the death of their Parents or Friends as the Gentiles are who doe not believe the happiness of a future life nor have any hope to be rejoyned unto them again That the death of Christians is but as it were a sleep that Jesus Christ who is their head being risen again they who are his members shall also rise at the last day at the voice of the Arch-Angel and at the-sound of a Trumpet they shall be lifted up in the Aire and goe before our Lord who shall come in his glory to pronounce the last sentence of eternall happiness or eternall misery to men that his Elect shall follow him into Heaven where they shall live eternally with him in an unspeakable felicity Many not comprehending well that which he sayed of this last Judgement conceived strange fears which were increased by the imprudence or malice of some false Doctors who preached that this last day was neer at hand This caused him to write unto them a second Epistle to dissipate those fears which troubled them to fortifie them against those persecutions which they
then suffered and against such as might still befall them He told them of signes which should preceed the day of Judgement as first a general Apostacy that is the abandoning of the true worship of God Secondly the appearance of Antichrist whom he calls the man of sinne because he shall be the greatest of all sinners and shall draw almost all men to sin and to the greatest sin which can be committed If Heretick who say that the Pope is Antichrist would seriously consider the portrature of him as the Apostle sets him forth in this Epistle they would finde it very little Cohaerent with him and would be ashamed to believe so ridiculous a dream which the wisest and most learned amongst them with reason doe make but a jest Thus did Saint Paul labour for the glory of Jesus Christ both with his tongue and pen at the same time and did not let slip one minute of time whilest he was at Corinth which he imployed not in the Functions of his Ministry He departed thence having staied there eighteen moneths with Aquila and Priscilla his hosts but before he left Corinth he shaved his head for some reason which Saint Luke does not mention no more then he does the vow which he made to let his hair grow For the better understanding this place in the Acts of the Apostles I will tell you as it were in passing by that in the ancient Law there were two sorts of Nazareans that is to say men separated and consecrated to God The one of them were perpetual and the other but for a certain time according as their devotion invited them to make this vow both the one and the other were obliged to abstain from Wine and from any other Liquour that might cause drunkenness and to let their hair grow The time allotted for the vow of these latter being expired they were to present themselves at the door of the Tabernacle where they offered the sacrifice which was ordained for it They were shaved and their hair was burnt in the fire of the Sacrifice of Pacifical Oblations with many ceremonies which are set down in the Book of Numbers Now in the time of their Consecration if they happened to contract any pollution contrary to the law either by the touch of some dead body or that by change any died suddainly in their presence they were bound at the same instant to begin to shave their hair to finish it the seventh day and on the eighth day to offer the sacrifice ordained for their purification I therefore easily believe that Saint Paul having made this vow of the Nazareans to comply in some occasions with the weakness of the Jewes as he had circumcised Timothy to the end he might not scandalize them or for some other reason which St. Luke does not mention might by chance have met some dead Corps or touched some dead body and this having happened in the company of some Jews who were converted and observed the Ceremonies of the Law he shaved his hair at that instant remitting his offering sacrifice till he came to Hierusalem as in effect he did by the Counsel of Saint James and the Priests of that Church which we shall see in the Sequel of this History It is true some Authors say that Aquila made this vow and not the Apostle But Saint Hierome and Saint Augustine Bede and almost all Interpreters maintain that it ought to be understood of Saint Paul and I have in this followed the common opinion The Sea favouring Saint Paul he arrived safe at Ephesus and immediately went into the Synagogue of the Jews to declare the Gospell unto them They earnestly desired him to stay some time with them but he told them he could not desiring to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost at Hierusalem but if it pleased God he would return to see them He went a Ship-board and the weather being favourable landed at Cesarea in Palestine from whence according as some interpret the Book of the Acts he went up to Hierusalem He onely saluted the Church of this City and so went to Antioch of Syria There he made his aboad some time and having there given order in that which he thought necessary he went to visit the Churches of Galatia and Phrygia where he confirmed the faithful in their faith by admirable discourses and by new miracles At the end of this Voyage which lasted at the least a yeare he came back to Ephesus This City was very famous by reason of Diana's Temple which was accounted in the number of the seven Wonders of the World Asia built it in two Ages by a general contribution and it was a place cautionary for the Kings Princes and people of the East but Nero who seemed to be borne for the ruine of all noble things plundered all the riches of it and under the Empire of Galienus the Goths entirely ruined it The Idol of Diana was made of the wood of Vines and the Priests making use of the peoples simplicity brought them easily to beleeve that it was descended from Heaven The like thing was beleeved at Rome of a Buckler which for that cause was kept with great care The Apostle found at Ephesus twelve Disciples who were onely baptised with the Baptisme of John and had never heard the Holy Ghost once spoken of Some Authors beleeve that they had been instructed by this Apollo who came a little before to Ephesus and of whom Saint Luke speaking sayes He was an eloquent man and very well versed in the holy Scriptures that he knew the Doctrine of our Saviour and preached Jesus Christ with great fervour of spirit but that he knew no other Baptisme then that of John which is to say in my opinion that as yet he had onely received that Baptism Aquila and Priscilla finding him so well disposed taught him more particularly the verities of the Gospel which he presently declared to those of Corinth where he confounded the Jewes by the force of his discourse and by the authority of holy Scriptures which he officaciously alledged to shew them that Jesus Christ was the Messias For my part I believe that he and the others also of whom we speak received their baptisme at the hands of Saint John himselfe in Judea For it is certain that onely the Precursor did baptise and after him this baptisme was not practised as a thing necessary for those who believed in Jesus Christ However it was Saint Paul teaches his Disciples that he found in Ephesus John to have baptised the people with a baptisme of pennance ordeining them to believe in him who was to come after him and to whose faith he prepared them by this exterior Ceremony intended to mind them of their uncleanness and what necessity there was of an interiour parification which could not be done but by that Lamb which takes away the sinnes of the World in fine he tells them that the baptisme of Jesus Christ is a renovation of the soul by
pleased both in Heaven and Earth could doe nothing he desired in our will without wounding the liberty of it he I say who has created it free and who knowes best how it must be moved It is just we should be careful of our will but it is more reasonable we should be careful of the honour and power of him that hath bestowed it upon us and who healing its infirmity contracted by sin communicates this liberality unto us for the glory of his grace and not for the satisfaction of our vanity we must not stop at verity because it is harsh and humbles our humane understanding it is sufficient that it is an Evangelical verity which will have us to captivate our reaâ—on to the yoak of Faith and will not suffer that man should believe himselfe to have the greatest part in the work of his salvation The portion properly due to him is falshood and sinne and when God crownes his good works with the Crown of justice 't is after he has given him those good works as the Father of mercies We hold of him both our will and our acting as he begins in us 't is fit he should prosecute and bring to an end the designs of grace and love which he sets on foot for our eternal salvation The Apostle was resolved to take the way of Syria but the Jewes way-laying him enforced him to lengthen his journey and to turn back to pass by Macedonia Sosipater of the City of Beroe Aristarchus Secundus Caius and Timothy all of them Thessalonians Tichycus and Trophymus went before to expect him at Troad Thither he came with Saint Luke the Historian of his life After the Feast of Easter he abode there seven dayes during which time without intermission he announced unto them the Mysteries of God Upon a Sunday towards Evening the faithful being assembled together to receive the Eucharist he made them a long discourse the which if we consider his divine instructions we may suppose was much after this manner This action we have now in hand fills me with joy beyond expression for certainly our Master could not leave us a better testimony of his extream love then in giving this Bread which we break and this Cup which we bless For in eating the one doe we not participate of his body and in drinking the other doe we not participate of his bloud And could he close up his life better then in the institution of this adorable Mystery by which he continues amongst men to the end of the world 'T is he himselfe who has vouchsafed to reveale unto me that in that night when Judas delivered him into the hands of his enemies he took bread and giving thankes to his Father brake it and gave it to his Apostles saying to them Take and eat this is my Body which shall be delivered up for you Doe this in remembrance of me Likewise he took the Chalice after he had supped and said This Chalice is the new Testament in my bloud Doe this in commemoration of me every time you drink of it So that as often as you eat of this Bread and drink of this Chalice you declare the death of our Lord until his comming again But what doe you think Commemoration is and unto what in your opinions does it oblige you I will tell you in few words You must not onely call to minde the death of Jesus Christ but you must make it shine in your affections in your desires in your words to be brief in every passage of your life You must become Preachers of the Cross without speaking and by the Sanctity of your examples you must make that to be honoured and loved which to the Gentiles is a folly and to the Jewes a scandal If you be animated with this Spirit like persons grafted on the Cross of Jesus Christ you will produce fruits answerable to the root from which you sprung up If you hate the world which the Cross condemnes and which the Cross shall one day judge If you have shame ignominy reproaches poverty hunger thirst torments persecution of strangers displeasure of Parents deceits of Servants treason of false Brothers All which are fruits of the Cross of Jesus Christ I say if you be thus disposed and in the practise of these things then believe you are well prepared to eat the bread of which I speak and to thrive by its nourishment But if contrarywise you love the world and are wedded to Honours Riches Reputation Pleasures and other things of the Earth either by enjoying them or by an inordinate affection to them In a word if you eat this bread unworthily know that you are guilty of high Treason against the Body and Bloud of our Lord. God will not have the Kings of the Earth to be touched and declares that he will revenge their injuries because they are his anointed though onely by an exteriour and material Unction How severely then may ye think he will punish those who shall pollute the Body and Bloud of his Sonne whom he has established King upon Mount Sion to command over all the Kings of the Earth and who is his anointed by the ineffable Unction of his Divinity which inhabites corporally in him You abhor those Executioners who fastned him to the Cross pierced his feet and hands spit in his face and crowned his head with thornes But if you approach unworthily to his Table to eat his flesh and drink his bloud you are the greater offenders for they were Infidels and took him for a Criminal But you profess to believe in him and know that he is the Holy of God and the Source of the Sanctity of men Therefore try your selves diligently without flattering your selves in your evil customes Make a strict scrutiny against your selves enter into the bottome of your soule to discerne there the difference betwixt a lively and dead Faith betwixt a firme and a faint languishing hope betwixt a true and a feined Charity betwixt your love of Jesus Christ your love of creatures and your selves Notwithstanding this examine doe not think your selves so saintly disposed as is requisite to be altogether worthy of this heavenly bread for so long as we live in this world we cannot our selves be free from many defects and frailties But there is a great deal of difference betwixt faults which spring against our will from the corruption of our natures and the love of those defaults or our obstinacy to continue in wickedness For I speak not here of dogs that live in filth and often turn to their vomit biting their neighbors with their slandering tongues I have often told you that netiher Fornicators nor those who commit other villanies which I will not so much as name to you nor Theeves nor covetous persons nor envious nor slanderous nor proud shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Now all those who are excluded from a Heavenly Kingdome must be also banished from that which God has upon Earth
this unknown voyage he spent eight yeares during which time the Church lost many of her Masters and Children or rather sent them to heaven by a glorious martyrdom The death of S. James who was called the brother of our Lord according to the testimony of Jesephus himselfe drew upon the city of Hierusalem the horrid calamities of that famous siege which ruined it intirely Hee had governed that Church twenty nine yeares with so great a reputation of sanctity that the people when hee walked in the streets thought themselves very happy if they could but touch the hemm of his garment Eusebius and before him Hegesippus sayes that he was sanctified in his mothers womb that he ever abstained from all sort of liquours which might cause drunkenness and from flesh that a rasor never toucht his head that hee was never in the bathes and that by his long continuance in prayer there was a scale like to the skin of a Camel grown over his knees The Scribes Pharisees alwaies the same could not support the credit reputation of this man who converted sinners by his example as well as words Wherefore in a great assembly of the people they endeavoured to perswade him publickly to profess Judaism which hee refusing was forthwith precipitated from the top of the Temple where at the foot a dyer with a Lever killed him out-right We have a Canonical Epistle of his in which hee labours principally to prove the necessity of good works to refute the error of Simon the Magician who said faith alone was sufficient to salvation After him Simon the son of Cleophas also called the brother of Jesus Christ because he was his cozen was chosen Bishop of Hierusalem S. Barnaby the faithfull companion of the Apostle in his peregrinations at the same time time received also the crown of martyrdom in the Isle of Cyprus On the other side Mark the disciple of S. Peter and one of the Evangelists after he had governed the Church of Alexandria with great sanctity was taken on a Sunday by the Gentiles who put a rope about his neck and so dragged him for two dayes together about the streets and in rough and uneven places where in the end he finished his life The Christians that were under his conduct led a marvelous holy life Philo the Jew composed a book expresly in their praise called The Contemplative Life wherein hee gives them the name of Essens taking them for Jewes because in that time they retained many legal Ceremonies I know there are great disputes among learned men upon this passage but since I write not for them it were to little purpose to go about to cleare tha difficulty more curious then profitable wee shall doe better to return to Rome where the Church was agitated with a horrible persecution Nero in the tenth of his Empire increasing in wickedness as he grew up in years gave fire himself to the Citie of Rome The streets were too narrow for him and he had a mind to rebuild it that it might bear his name The fire began in that part of the Cirque which joyned to the Mounts Palatine and Caelius and from thence meeting with Magazines filled with combustible matter and being carried with the winde which began to rise it spread it selfe with such violence that remedies were too late to resist its fury The air ecchoed with the lamentable cryes of Women and children who in that apprehension of fear knew not whither to go for safety and hindered those that would have helpt them for whilest some either expected or would secure others they so troubled one another that they found themselves encompassed with flames In the narrow streets where there were many turnings the throng was so great there was no passing When men were gotten so far as they thought the fire could not reach them then they were suddenly surprised by it as it seemed rather to flie then to creep along Many to save their wives perisht themselves and others would not out-live them although they might easily have been saved Fathers lost their lives staying by their children in fine never was seen so horrible a spectacle such as would have brought water or pulled down houses before the fire were hindered with Officers who at the corners of streets throwing about fiery balls cryed out that what they did was by order meaning by the command of the Emperour who as is commonly reported during this sad calamity was singing on the stage the Burning of Troy Notwithstanding he sought to suppress this opinion causing many hutts to be built in his gardens for those who had lost their houses by the fire Of fourteen quarters which composed the city there were but four left intire The houses of three of them were intirely levelled with the ground and in the other seven there remained onely the tops of buildings half burnt and ruined Thus all the riches heaped together since the foundation of the Common-wealth of so many Statues so many Pictures and other other rarities transported from all the Nations of the world of so many Temples built with such magnificence and by the Superstition of the people rendered so famous and renowned there remained onely a little heap of Ashes a sad example of the vanity of all humane things But to see that great City all in flames was not so dreadfull as afterwards to behold a great number of Christians tormented by Nero as authors of the fire without distinction either of age or quality and adding derision to his cruelty hee commanded some to be covered with the skins of wilde beasts to the end they might be worried to death by fierce dogs Others he nailed upon Crosses and caused their bodies to be rubbed over with pitch and other things apt to take fire that in the night time they served for torches to light those who passed by whilest they consumed like living holocausts for the defence of the name of J. Christ His gardens were the theatre of this abominable execution Although the Christians were odious to the Romanes who distinguished them not from the Jewes Hereticks of that time whose abominations indeed by right deserved their publick hatred yet they had compassion of these for every one saw they perished not for their own crimes but to satisfie the unsatiable cruelty of the Emperor who would justifie himself at their costs This was the first persecution in which God would try his Church amongst the Gentiles It was a while interrupted by a conspiracy discovered against this Tyrant in which Seneca being accused to have a hand was forced to make satisfaction with his life let out by his veins a greater resolution could not be desired then what he shewed in his death but me thinks 't is yet to be deplored since this constancy was only Philosophical not Christian Plautus Lateranus whose Palace was afterwards changed into a Church which yet bears the name of Lateran many other persons of quality perished for