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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31408	Antiquitates apoitolicæ, 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, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Dissuasive from popery.	1676 (1676)	Wing C1587; ESTC R12963	411,541	341

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

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

Philo tells Caius the Emperor suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberin Region and undisturbedly to live according to the Rites of their Institutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and also to have their Proseucha's and to meet in them especially upon their holy Sabbaths that they might be familiarly instructed in the Laws and Religion of their Countrey Such they had also in other places especially where they had not or were not suffered to have Synagogues for their publick worship But to return 4. AS they were going to this Oratory they were often followed by a Pythonesse a Maid-servant acted by a spirit of Divination who openly cried out That these men were the servants of the most high God who came to shew the way of Salvation to the World So easily can Heaven extort a Testimony from the mouth of Hell But S. Paul to shew how little he needed Satan to be his witness commanded the Daemon to come out which immediately left her The evil Spirit thus thrown out of possession presently raised a storm against the Apostles for the Masters of the Damsel who used by her Diabolical arts to raise great advantages to themselves being sensible that now their gainful Trade was spoil'd resolved to be revenged on them that had spoiled it Accordingly they laid hold upon them and drag'd them before the Seat of Judicature insinuating to the Governours that these men were Jews and sought to introduce different customs and ways of worship contrary to the Laws of the Roman Empire The Magistrates and People were soon agreed the one to give Sentence the other to set upon the Execution In fine they were stript beaten and then commanded to be thrown into Prison and the Jaylor charged to keep them with all possible care and strictness Who to make sure of his charge thrust them into the Inner-Dungeon and made their feet fast in the Stocks But a good man can turn a Prison into a Chappel and make a den of Thieves to be an house of Prayer Our feet cannot be bound so fast to the Earth but that still our hearts may mount up to Heaven At midnight the Apostles were over-heard by their fellow-prisoners praying and singing Hymns to God But after the still voice came the Tempest An Earthquake suddenly shook the foundations of the Prison the Doors flew open and their Chains fell off The Jaylor awaking with this amazing accident concluded with himself that the Prisoners were fled and to prevent the Sentence of publick Justice was going to lay violent hands upon himself which S. Paul espying called out to him to hold his hand and told him they were all there Who thereupon came in to them with a greater Earthquake in his own Conscience and falling down before them asked them What he should do to be saved They told him there was no other way of Salvation for him or his than an hearty and sincere embracing of the Faith of Christ. What a happy change does Christianity make in the minds of men How plain does it smooth the roughest tempers and instill the sweetest principles of civility and good nature He who but a little before had tyrannized over the Apostles with the most merciless and cruel usage began now to treat them with all the arts of kindness and charity bringing them out of the Dungeon and washing their stripes and wounds and being more fully instructed in the principles of Christianity was together with his whole Family immediately baptized by them Early in the morning the Magistrates sent Officers privately to release them Which the Apostles refused telling them That they were not only innocent persons but Romans that they had been illegally condemned and beaten that therefore their delivery should be as publick as the injury and an open vindication of their innocency and that they themselves that had sent them thither should fetch them thence for the Roman Government was very tender of the lives and liberties of its own subjects those especially that were free Denizens of Rome every injury offered to a Roman being look'd upon as an affront against the Majesty of the whole People of Rome Such a one might not be beaten but to be scourged or bound without being first legally heard and tried was not only against the Roman but the Laws of all Nations and the more publick any injury was the greater was its aggravation and the Laws required a more strict and solemn reparation S. Paul who was a Roman and very well understood the Laws and priviledges of Rome insisted upon this to the great startling and affrighting of the Magistrates who sensible of their error came to the Prison and intreated them to depart Whereupon going to Lydia's house and having saluted and encouraged the Brethren they departed from that place 5. LEAVING Philippi they came next to Thessalonica the Metropolis of Macedonia where Paul according to his custom presently went to the Jewish Synagogue for three Sabbath days reasoning and disputing with them proving from the predictions of the Old Testament that the Messiah was to suffer and to rise again and that the blessed Jesus was this Messiah Great numbers especially of religious Proselytes were converted by his preaching while like the Sun that melts wax but hardens clay it wrought a quite contrary effect in the unbelieving Jews who presently set themselves to blow up the City into a tumult and an uproar and missing S. Paul who had withdrawn himself they fell foul upon Jason in whose house he lodged representing to the Magistrates that they were enemies to Caesar and sought to undermine the peace and prosperity of the Roman Empire At night Paul and Silas were conducted by the Brethren to Beraea Where going to the Synagogue they found the People of a more noble and generous a more pliable and ingenuous temper ready to entertain the Christian Doctrine but yet not willing to take it merely upon the Apostles word till they had first compared his preaching with what the Scriptures say of the Messiah and his Doctrine And the success was answerable in those great numbers that came over to them But the Jewish malice pursued them still for hearing at Thessalonica what entertainment they had found in this place they presently came down to exasperate and stir up the People To avoid which S. Paul leaving Silas and Timothy behind him thought good to withdraw himself from that place 6. FROM Beroea he went to Athens one of the most renowned Cities in the World excelling all others says an Ancient Historian in Antiquity Humanity and Learning Indeed it was the great seat of Arts and Learning and as Cicero will have it the Fountain whence Civility Learning Religion Arts and Laws were derived into all other Nations So universally flocked to by all that had but the least kindness for the Muses or good Manners that he who had not seen Athens was accounted a Block he who having seen it was not in love with

Souls of Error and Idolatry their Bodies of infirmities and distempers healing diseases dispossessing Daemons settling Churches and appointing them Guides and Ministers of Religion 5. HAVING for many years successfully managed his Apostolical Office in all those parts he came in the last periods of his life to Hierapolis in Phrygia a City rich and populous but answering its name in its Idolatrous Devotions Amongst the many vain and trifling Deities to whom they payed religious adoration was a Serpent or Dragon in memory no doubt of that infamous Act of Jupiter who in the shape of a Dragon insinuated himself into the embraces of Proserpina his own Daughter begot of Ceres and whom these Phrygians chiefly worshipped as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us so little reason had Baronius to say that they worshipped no such God of a more prodigious bigness than the rest which they worshipped with great and solemn veneration S. Philip was troubled to see the people so wretchedly enslaved to error and therefore continually solicited Heaven till by prayer and calling upon the name of Christ he had procured the death or at least vanishing of this famed and beloved Serpent Which done he told them how unbecoming it was to give Divine honours to such odious creatures that God alone was to be worshipped as the great Parent of the World who had made man at first after his own glorious Image and when fallen from that innocent and happy state had sent his own Son into the World to redeem him who died and rose from the dead and shall come again at the last day to raise men out of their Graves and to sentence and reward them according to their works The success was that the people were ashamed of their fond Idolatry and many broke loose from their chains of darkness and ran over to Christianity Whereupon the great enemy of mankind betook himself to his old methods cruelty and persecution The Magistrates of the City seize the Apostle and having put him into prison caused him to be severely whipp'd and scourg'd This preparatory cruelty passed he was led to execution and being bound was hanged up by the neck against a pillar though others tell us that he was crucified We are further told that at his execution the Earth began suddenly to quake and the ground whereon the people stood to sink under them which when they apprehended and bewailed as an evident act of Divine vengeance pursuing them for their sins it as suddenly stopt and went no further The Apostle being dead his body was taken down by S. Bartholomew his fellow-sufferer though not finally executed and Mariamne S. Philip's Sister who is said to have been the constant companion of his travels and decently buried after which having confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed from them 6. THAT S. Philip was married is generally affirmed by the Ancients Clemens of Alexandria reckons him one of the married Apostles and that he had Daughters whom he disposed in marriage Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus tell us that Philip one of the Twelve Apostles died at Hierapolis with two of his Daughters who persevered in their Virginity and that he had a third which died at Ephesus The truth is the not careful distinguishing between Philip the Deacon who lived at Caesarea and of whose four Virgin-daughters we read in the History of the Apostles Acts and our Apostle has bred some confusion among the Ancients in this matter But the account concerning them is greatly different for as they differed in their Persons and Offices the one a Deacon the other an Apostle so also in the number of their Children four Daughters being ascribed to the one while three only are attributed to the other He was one of the Apostles who left no Sacred writings behind him the greater part of the Apostles as Eusebius observes having little leisure to write Books being employed in ministeries more immediately useful and subservient to the happiness of mankind Though Epiphanius tells us that the Gnosticks were wont to produce a Gospel forged under S. Philip's name which they abused to the patronage of their horrible principles and more brutish practices The End of S. Philip 's Life THE LIFE OF S. BARTHOLOMEW S BARTHOLOMEW He was flea'd aliue by the command of a Barbarous King Place this to the Collect for St. Bartholomews day St. Bartholomew's Martyrdom Rom. 8.36 37. For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter But in all these things we are more then Conquerours The-silence concerning this Apostle in the History of the Gospel That he is the same with Nathanael proved by many probable arguments His title of Bar-Tholmai whence The School of the Tholmaeans An objection against his being Nathanael answered His descent and way of life His first coming to Christ and converse with him In what parts of the World he planted the Christian Faith His preaching in India and leaving S. Matthew 's Gospel there His return to Hierapolis and deliverance there from Crucifixion His removal to Albanopolis in Armenia and suffering Martyrdom there for the Faith of Christ. His being first flead alive and then crucified The fabulous Gospel attributed to him 1. THAT S. Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles the Evangelical History is most express and clear though it seems to take no further notice of him than the bare mention of his name Which doubtless gave the first occasion to many both anciently and of later time not without reason to suppose that he lies concealed under some other name and that this can be no other than Nathanael one of the first Disciples that came to Christ. Accordingly we may observe that as S. John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the Apostles so the other Evangelists never take notice of Nathanael probably because the same person under two several names And as in John Philip and Nathanael are joyned together in their coming to Christ so in the rest of the Evangelists Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation for no other reason I conceive than because as they were joyntly called to the Discipleship so they are joyntly referred in the Apostolick Catalogue as afterwards we find them joynt companions in the writings of the Church But that which renders the thing most specious and probable is that we find Nathanael particularly reckoned up with the other Apostles to whom our Lord appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after his Resurrection where there were together Simon Peter and Thomas and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee and the two sons of Zebedee and two other of his Disciples who probably were Andrew and Philip. That by Disciples is here meant Apostles is evident partly from the names of those that are reckoned up partly because it is said that this was the third time that Jesus appeared to his Disciples it being plain that the