being more usual in those times than for persons excommunicate and cut off from the body of the Church to be presently arrested by Satan as the common Serjeant and Executioner and by him either actually possessed or tormented in their bodies by some diseases which he brought upon them And indeed this severe discipline was no more than necessary in those times when Christianity was wholly destitute of any civil or coercive power to beget and keep up a due reverence and regard to the sentence and determinations of the Church and to secure the Laws of Religion and the holy censures from being sleighted by every bold and contumacious offender And this effect we find it had after the dreadful instance of Ananias and Saphira Great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things To what has been said concerning these Apostolical gifts let me further observe That they had not only these gifts residing in themselves but a power to bestow them upon others so that by imposition of hands or upon hearing and embracing the Apostle's doctrine and being baptized into the Christian Faith they could confer these miraculous powers upon persons thus qualified to receive them whereby they were in a moment enabled to speak divers Languages to Prophesie to Interpret and do other miracles to the admiration and astonishment of all that heard and saw them A priviledge peculiar to the Apostles for we do not find that any inferiour Order of gifted persons were intrusted with it And therefore as Chrysostom well observes though Philip the Deacon wrought great miracles at Samaria to the conversion of many yea to the conviction of Simon Magus himself yet the Holy Ghost fell upon none of them only they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus till Peter and John came down to them who having prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost they laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost Which when the Magician beheld he offered the Apostles money to enable him that on whom soever he laid his hands he might derive these miraculous powers upon them XIV Having seen how fitly furnished the Apostles were for the execution of their Office let us in the last place enquire into its duration and continuance And here it must be considered that in the Apostolical Office there was something extraordinary and something ordinary What was extraordinary was their immediate Commission derived from the mouth of Christ himself their unlimited charge to preach the Gospel up and down the World without being tied to any particular places the supernatural and miraculous powers conferr'd upon them as Apostles their infallible guidance in delivering the doctrines of the Gospel and these all expired and determined with their persons The standing and perpetual part of it was to teach and instruct the People in the duties and principles of Religion to administer the Sacraments to constitute Guides and Officers and to exercise the discipline and government of the Church and in these they are succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides who were to superintend and discharge the affairs and offices of the Church to the end of the World Whence it is that Bishops and Governours came to be styled Apostles as being their successors in ordinary for so they frequently are in the writings of the Church Thus Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus is called an Apostle Clemens of Rome Clemens the Apostle S. Mark Bishop of Alexandria by Eusebius styled both an Apostle and Evangelist Ignatius a Bishop and Apostle A title that continued in after Ages especially given to those that were the first planters or restorers of Christianity in any Country In the Coptick Kalendar published by Mr. Selden the VIIth day of the month Baschnes answering to our Second of May is dedicated to the memory of S. Athanasius the Apostle Acacius and Paulus in their Letter to Epiphanius style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Apostle and Preacher and Sidonius Apollinaris writing to Lupus Bishop of Troyes in France speaks of the honour due to his eminent Apostleship An observation which it were easie enough to confirm by abundant instances were it either doubtful in it self or necessary to my purpose but being neither I forbear Joan. Euchait Metropolitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE LIFE OF S. PETER St. PETER He was crucified at Rome with his head down-wards and Buried in the Vatican there S. Hierom. after he had planted a Christian Church first at Antioch and afterwards at Rome S. Peter 's Martyrdom Ioh. 21.18.19 Verily verily I say unto thee when thou most young thou girdedst thy self walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands another shall gird thee carry thee whither thou wouldst not This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God SECT I. Of S. Peter from his Birth till his First coming to Christ. Bethsaida S. Peter 's Birth-place Its dignity of old and fate at this day The time of his Birth enquired into Some Errors noted concerning it His names Cephas the imposing of it notes on Superiority over the rest of the Apostles The custom of Popes assuming a new Name at their Election to the Papacy whence His kindred and relations whether He or Andrew the elder Brother His Trade and way of life what before his coming to Christ. The Sea of Galilee and the conveniency of it The meanness and obscurity of his Trade The remarkable appearances of the Divine Providence in propagating Christianity in the World by mean and unlikely Instruments THE Land of Palestine was at and before the coming of our Blessed Saviour distinguished into three several Provinces Judaea Samaria and Galilee This last was divided into the Upper and the Lower In the Upper called also Galilee of the Gentiles within the division anciently belonging to the Tribe of Nephthali stood Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village till lately reedified and enlarged by Philip the Tetrarch by him advanced to the place and title of a City replenished with inhabitants and fortified with power and strength and in honour of Julia the daughter of Augustus Caesar by him stiled Julias Situate it was upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee and had a Wilderness on the other side thence called the Desart of Bethsaida whither our Saviour used often to retire the privacies and solitudes of the place advantageously ministring to Divine contemplations But Bethsaida was not so remarkable for this adjoyning Wilderness as it self was memorable for a worse sort of
written no doubt at Rome at the end of Paul's two Years imprisonment there with which he concludes his story it contains the Actions and sometimes the sufferings of some principal Apostles especially S. Paul for besides that his activity in the cause of Christ made him bear a greater part both in doing and suffering S. Luke was his constant attendant an eye-witness of the whole carriage of his life and privy to his most intimate transactions and therefore capable of giving a more full and satisfactory account and relation of them seeing no evidence or testimony in matters of fact can be more rational and convictive than his who reports nothing but what he has heard and seen Among other things he gives us a particular account of those great miracles which the Apostles did for the confirmation of their doctrine And this as Chrysostom informs us was the reason why in the Primitive times the Book of the Acts though containing those Actions of the Apostles that were done after Pentecost were yet usually read in the Church before it in the space between that and Easter when as at all other times those parts of the Gospel were read which were proper to the season it was says he because the Apostles miracles being the grand confirmation of the truth of Christ's Resurrection and those Miracles recorded in that Book it was therefore thought most proper to be read next to the feast of the Resurrection In both these Books his way and manner of writing is exact and accurate his stile polite and elegant sublime and lofty and yet clear and perspicuous flowing with an easie and natural grace and sweetness admirably accommodate to an historical design all along expressing himself in a vein of purer Greek than is to be found in the other Writers of the Holy Story Indeed being born and bred at Antioch than which no place more famous for Oratory and Eloquence he could not but carry away a great share of the native genius of that place though his stile is sometimes allayed with a tang of the Syriack and Hebrew dialect It was observed of old as S. Hierom tells us that his skill was greater in Greek than Hebrew that therefore he always makes use of the Septuagint Translation and refuses sometimes to render words when the propriety of the Greek Tongue will not bear it In short as an Historian he was faithful in his relations elegant in his Writings as a Minister careful and diligent for the good of Souls as a Christian devout and pious and who crowned all the rest with the laying down his life for the testimony of that Gospel which he had both Preached and Published to the World The End of S. Luke ' s Life DYPTYCHA APOSTOLICA OR A Brief Enumeration and Account of the APOSTLES and their SUCCESSORS FOR THE First Three Hundred Years in the Five Great Churches said to have been Founded by them thence called by the Ancients APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES VIZ. Antioch Rome Jerusalem Byzantium or Constantinople and Alexandria ANTIOCH THIS I place first partly because 't is generally acknowledged even by the Romish Writers that a Church was founded here by S. Peter some considerable time before that at Rome partly because here it was that the Venerable name of Christians did first commence In which respect the Fathers in the Council at Constantinople under Nectarius in their Synodicon to them at Rome stile the Church of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most Ancient and truly Apostolical and S. Chrysostom The head of the whole World The Succession of its Bishops till the time of Constantine which shall be the Boundary of this Catalogue was as followeth I. S. Peter the Apostle who governed this Church at least 7. Years Nicephorus of Constantinople says Eleven II. Euodius who sat 23. Years In his time the Disciples were first called Christians at Antioch III. Ignatius After near 40. Years Presidency over this Church he was carried out of Syria to Rome and there thrown to wild Beasts in the Theatre Ann. Chr. 110. Trajan 11. IV. Heron he was Bishop 20. Years To him succeeded V. Corneliu◠who kept the place 13. Years dying Ann. Chr. 142. VI. Eros 26 or as Eusebius 24. years VII Theophilus 13. a man of great Parts and Learning many of his Works were extant in Eusebius his time and some of them we still have at this day VIII Maximinus 13. he dying the next that was chosen was IX Serapio 25. many of his Works are mentioned by Eusebius and S. Hierom. To him succeeded X. Asclepiades a man of great worth and eminency and invincible constancy in the time of persecution he continued in this See 9. years XI Philetus 8. XII Zebinus or Zebennus he sat 6. years XIII Babylas 13. after many conflicts and sufferings for the Faith he received the crown of Martyrdom under Decius and commanded his Chains to be buried with him XIV Fabius or as the Patriarch Nicephorus calls him Flavius possessed the Chair 9. years He was a little inclining towards Novatianism XV. Demetrianus he sat Bishop says Nicephorus 4 says Eusebius 8. years XVI Paulus Samosatenus sat in the chair 8. years when for his Unepiscopal manners and practices his unfound Dogmata and principles and especially his mean and unworthy opinions concerning our Saviour he was condemned and deposed by a Synod at Antioch whose Synodical determination is at large extant in Eusebius XVII Domnus succeeded in the place of the deposed He was son to Demetrian Paulus his predecessor in that See constituted and ordained to the place by the Fathers of that Synod who farther give him this honourable character that he was a man indued with all Episcopal vertues and ornaments Eusebius makes him to have sitten 6 Nicephorus but 2. years XVIII Timaeus he sat in the Chair 10. years XIX Cyrillus who presided over that Church in the account of Nicephorus 15 of Eusebius 24. years XX. Tyrannus he sat 13. years in his time began the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian which rag'd with great severity XXI Vitalis 6. XXII Philogonius 5 succeeded by XXIII Paulinus or as Nicephorus calls him Paulus who after five years was deposed and driven out by the prevalency of the Arrian faction XXIV Eustathius formerly Bishop of Beroea a learned man and of great note and eminency in the Council of Nice the first general Council summoned by the Great Constantine after he had restored peace and prosperity to the Church ROME THE foundation of this Church is with just probabilities of reason by many of the Fathers equally attributed to Peter and Paul the one as Apostle of the Circumcision preaching to the Jews while the other probably as the Apostle of the Uncircumcision preached to the Gentiles Its Bishops succeeded in this order I. S. Peter and S. Paul who both suffered Martyrdom under Nero. II. Linus the son of Herculaneus a Tuscan he is mentioned by S. Paul he sat between 11. and 12. years
offending and displeasing them he withdrew his converse with the Gentiles as if it had been unlawful for him to hold Communion with uncircumcised persons when yet he knew and was fully satisfied that our Lord had wholly removed all difference and broken down the Wall of separation between Jew and Gentile In which affair as he himself acted against the light of his own mind and judgment condemning what he had approved and destroying what he had before built up so hereby he confirmed the Jewish zealots in their inveterate error cast infinite scruples into the minds of the Gentiles filling their Consciences with fears and dissatisfactions reviving the old feuds and prejudices between Jew and Gentile by which means many others were ensnared yea the whole number of Jewish Converts followed his example separating themselves from the company of the Gentile Christians Yea so far did it spread that Barnabas himself was carried away with the stream and torrent of this unwarrantable practice S. Paul who was at this time come to Antioch unto whom Peter gave the right hand of fellowship acknowledging his Apostleship of the Circumcision observing these evil and unevangelical actings resolutely withstood Peter to the face and publickly reproved him as a person worthy to be blamed for his gross prevarication in this matter severely expostulating and reasoning with him that he who was himself a Jew and thereby under a more immediate obligation to the Mosaick Law should cast off that Yoke himself and yet endeavour to impose it upon the Gentiles who were not in the least under any obligation to it A smart but an impartial charge and indeed so remarkable was this carriage of S. Paul towards our Apostle that though it set things right for the present yet it made some noise abroad in the World Yea Porphyry himself that acute and subtil enemy of Christianity makes use of it as an argument against them both charging the one with error and falshood and the other with rudeness and incivility and that the whole was but a compact of forgery and deceit while the Princes of the Church did thus fall out among themselves And so sensible were some of this in the first Ages of Christianity that rather than such a dishonour and disgrace as they accounted it should be reflected upon Peter they tell us of two several Cephas's one the Apostle the other one of the seventy Disciples and that it was the last of these that was guilty of this prevarication and whom S. Paul so vigorously resisted and reproved at Antioch But for this plausible and well-meant Evasion the Champions of the Romish Church conn them no great thanks at this day Nay S. Hierom long since fully confuted it in his Notes upon this place SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred Story till his Martyrdom Peter's story prosecuted out of Ecclesiastical Writers His planting of a Church and an Episcopal See at Antioch when said to be His first Journey to Rome and the happiness it brought to the Roman Empire His preaching in other places and return to Rome His encounter with Simon Magus The impostures of the Magician His familiarity with the Emperours and the great honours said to be done to him His Statue and Inscription at Peter's victory over him by raising one from the Dead Simon attempting to fly is by Peter's Prayers hindred falls down and dies Nero's displeasure against Peter whence His being cast into Prison His flight thence and being brought back by Christ appearing to him Crucified with his head downwards and why The place of his Martyrdom and Burial The original and greatness of S. Peter's Church in Rome His Episcopal Chair pretended to be still kept there HITHERTO in drawing up the Life of this great Apostle we have had an infallible Guide to conduct and lead us But the sacred Story breaking off here forces us to look abroad and to pick up what Memoires the Ancients have left us in this matter which we shall for the main digest according to the order wherein Baronius and other Ecclesiastick Writers have disposed the series of S. Peter's Life Reserving what is justly questionable to a more particular examination afterward And that we may present the account more entire and perfect we must step back a little in point of time that so we may go forward with greater advantage We are to know therefore that during the time of peace and calmness which the Church enjoyed after Saul's Persecution when S. Peter went down to visit the Churches he is said to have gone to Antioch where great Numbers of Jews inhabited and there to have planted the Christian Faith That he founded a Church here Eusebius expresly tells us and by others it is said that he himself was the first Bishop of this See Sure I am that S. Chrysostom reckons it one of the greatest honours of that City that S. Peter staid so long there and that the Bishops of it succeeded him in that See The care and precedency of this Church he had between Six and Seven Years Not that he staid there all that time but that having ordered and disposed things to the best advantage he returned to other affairs and exigencies of the Church confirming the new Plantations bringing in Cornelius and his Family and in him the first fruits of the Gentiles conversion to the faith of Christ. After which he returned unto Jerusalem where he was imprisoned by Herod and miraculously delivered by an Angel sent from Heaven 2. WHAT became of Peter after his deliverance out of Prison is not certainly known probably he might preach in some parts a little further distant from Judaea as we are told he did at Byzantium and in the Countries thereabouts though I confess the evidence to me is not convincing After this he resolved upon a Journey to Rome where most agree he arrived about the Second Year of the Emperor Claudius Orosius tells us that coming to Rome he brought prosperity along with him to that City For besides several other extraordinary advantages which at that time hapned to it this was not the least observable that Camillus Scribonianus Governor of Dalmatia soliciting the Army to rebell against the Emperor the Eagles their Military Standard remained so fast in the Ground that no power nor strength was able to pluck them up With which unusual accident the minds of the Souldiers were surprized and startled and turning their Swords against the Author of the sedition continued firm and loyal in their obedience Whereby a dangerous Rebellion was prevented likely enough otherwise to have broken out This he ascribes to Saint Peter's coming to Rome and the first Plantation of the Christian Faith in that City Heaven beginning more particularly to smile upon that place at his first coming thither 'T is not to be doubted but that at his first arrival he disposed himself amongst the Jews his Country-men who ever since the
whereof there were many in the land of Canaan but a pious and devout man and a worshipper of the true God as there were many others in those days among the Idolatrous Nations he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among the Canaanites and brought in without mention of Parents original or end without any Predecessor or Successor in his office that he might be a fitter type of the Royal and Eternal Priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account concerning his person it were folly and rashness over-curiously to enquire after what God seems industriously to have concealed from us The great character under which the Scripture takes notice of him is his relation to our blessed Saviour who is more than once said to be a Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the order in the same way and manner that Melchisedeck was or as the Apostle explains himself after the similitude of Melchisedeck Our Lord was such a Priest as Melchisedeck was there being a nearer similitude and conformity between them than ever was between any other Priests whatsoever A subject which S. Paul largely and particularly treats of Passing by the minuter instances of the parallel taken from the name of his person Melchisedeck that is King of righteousness and his title to his Kingdom King of Salem that is of Peace we shall observe three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ. First in the peculiar qualification of his person something being recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men and that is that he was without Father without Mother and without descent Not that Melchisedeck like Adam was immediately created or in an instant dropt down from Heaven but that he hath no kindred recorded in the story which brings him in without any mention of Father or Mother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom glosses we know not what Father or Mother he had He was says S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without genealogie without having any pedigree extant upon record whence the ancient Syriack Version truly expresses the sence of the whole passage thus Whos 's neither Father nor Mother are written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the generations that is the genealogies of the ancient Patriarchs And thus he eminently typified Christ of whom this is really true He is without Father in respect of his humane nature begotten only of a pure Virgin without Mother in respect of his Divinity being begotten of his Father before all Worlds by an eternal and ineffable generation Secondly Melchisedeck typified our Saviour in the duration and continuance of his office for so 't is said of him that he was without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest continually By which we are not to understand that Melchisedeck never died for being a man he was subject to the same common Law of mortality with other men But the meaning is that as he is said to be without Father and Mother because the Scripture speaking of him makes no mention of his Parents his Genealogy and descent So he is said to abide a Priest for ever without any beginning of days or end of life because we have no account of any that either preceeded or succeeded him in his office no mention of the time either when he took it up or laid it down And herein how lively and eminent a type of Christ the true Melchisedeck who as to his Divine nature was without beginning of days from Eternal Ages and who either in the execution or vertue of his office abides for ever There is no abolition no translation of his office no expectation of any to arise that shall succeed him in it He was made a Priest not after the Law of a carnal Commandment a transient and mutable dispensation but after the power of an endless life Thirdly Melchisedeck was a type of Christ in his excellency above all other Priests S. Paul's great design is to evince the preheminence and precedency of Melchisedeck above all the Priests of the Mosaick ministration yea above Abraham himself the Founder and Father of the Jewish Nation from whom they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves And this the Apostle proves by a double instance First that Abraham in whose loins the Levitical Priests then were paid tithes to Melchisedeck when he gave him the tenth of all his spoils as due to God and his Ministers thereby confessing himself and his posterity inferiour to him Now consider how great this man was unto whom even the Patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils Secondly that Melchisedeck conferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction it being a standing part of the Priests office to bless the people And this was an undeniable argument of his superiority He whose descent is not counted from them the legal Priests received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better Whereby it evidently appears that Melchisedeck was greater than Abraham and consequently than all the Levitical Priests that descended from him Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed out our blessed Saviour a person peculiarly chosen out by God sent into the World upon a nobler and a more important errand owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from Heaven than ever was any other person his office incomparably beyond that of the legal Oeconomy his person greater his undertaking weightier his design more sublime and excellent his oblation more valuable and meritorious his prayers more prevalent and successful his office more durable and lasting than ever any whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God and man 20. THE other extraordinary person under this Oeconomy is Job concerning whom two things are to be enquired into Who he was and when he lived For the first we find him described by his Name his Country his Kindred his Quality his Religion and his Sufferings though in many of them we are left under great uncertainties and to the satisfaction only of probable conjectures For his name among many conjectures two are especially considerable though founded upon very different reasons one that it is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying one that grieves or groans mystically pre saging those grievous miseries and sufferings that afterwards came upon him the other more probably from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love or to desire noting him the desire and delight of his Parents earnestly prayed for and affectionately embraced with the tenderest endearments His Country was the land of Uz though where that was is almost as much disputed as about the source of Nilus Some will have it Armenia others Palestine or the land of Canaan and some of the Jewish Masters assure us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his School or place of institution was at Tiberias and nothing more commonly shewed to Travellers than Job's
enemies had taken him away by a most bitter and cruel death had guarded and secured his Sepulchre with all the care power and diligence which they could invent And yet he rose again the third day in triumph visibly conversed with his Disciples for forty days together and then went to Heaven By which he gave the most solemn and undeniable assurance to the World that he was the Son of God for he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead and the Saviour of mankind and that those doctrines which he had taught were most true and did really contain the terms of that solemn transaction which God by him had offered to men in order to their eternal happiness in another World 11. THE last instance I shall note of the excellency of this above the Mosaical Dispensation is the universal extent and latitude of it and that both in respect of place and time First it 's more universally extensive as to place not confined as the former was to a small part of mankind but common unto all Heretofore in Judah only was God known and his name was great in Israel he shewed his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel but he did not deal so with any other Nation neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws In those times Salvation was only of the Jews a few Acres of Land like Gideon's Fleece was watered with the dew of Heaven while all the rest of the World for many Ages lay dry and barren round about it God suffering all Nations in times past to walk in their own ways the ways of their own superstition and Idolatry being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World that is they were without those promises discoveries and declarations which God made to Abraham and his Seed and are therefore peculiarly described under this character the Gentiles which knew not God Indeed the Religion of the Jews was in it self incapable to be extended over the World many considerable parts of it as Sacrifices First-fruits Oblations c. called by the Jews themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statutes belonging to that land being to be performed at Jerusalem and the Temple which could not be done by those Nations that lay a considerable distance from the Land of promise They had it 's true now and then some few Proselytes of the Gentiles who came over and imbodied themselves into their way of worship but then they either resided among the Jews or by reason of their vicinity to Judaea were capable to make their personal appearance and to comply with the publick Institutions of the Divine Law Other Proselytes they had called Proselytes of the Gate who lived dispersed in all Countries whom the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pious of the Nations Men of devout minds and Religious lives but these were obliged to no more than the observation of the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah that is in effect to the Precepts of the Natural Law But now the Gospel has a much wider sphere to move in as vast and large as the whole World it self it is communicable to all Countries and may be exercised in any part or corner of the Earth Our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all Nations and to Preach the Gospel to every Creature and so they did their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World by which means the grace of God that brings salvation appeared unto all men and the Gospel was Preached to every Creature under Heaven So that now there is neither Jew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male nor female but we are all one in Christ Jesus and in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him The Prophet had long since foretold it of the times of Christ that the House of God that is his Church should be called an House of Prayer for all People the Doors should be open and none excluded that would enter in And the Divine providence was singularly remarkable in this affair that after our Lord's Ascension when the Apostles were going upon their Commission and were first solemnly to proclaim it at Jerusalem there were dwelling there at that time Parthians Medes Elamites c. persons out of every Nation under Heaven that they might be as the First-fruits of those several Countries which were to be gathered in by the preaching of the Gospel which was accordingly done with great success the Christian Religion in a few years spreading its triumphant Banners over the greatest part of the then known World 12. AND as the true Religion was in those Days pent up within one particular Country so the more publick and ordinary worship of God was confined only to one particular place of it viz. Jerusalem hence called the Holy City Here was the Temple here the Priests that ministred at the Altar here all the more publick Solemnities of Divine adoration Thither the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Now this was not the least part of the bondage of that dispensation to be obliged thrice every Year to take such long and tedious Journies many of the Jews living some Hundreds of Miles distance from Jerusalem and so strictly were they limited to this place that to build an Altar and offer Sacrifices in any other place unless in a case or two wherein God did extraordinarily dispense although it were to the true God was though not false yet unwarrantable worship for which reason the Jews at this day abstain from Sacrifices because banished from Jerusalem and the Temple the only legal place of offering But behold the liberty of the Gospel in this case we are not tied to present our devotions at Jerusalem a pious and sincere mind is the best Sacrifice that we can offer up to God and this may be done in any part of the World no less acceptably than they of old sacrificed in the Temple The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain Mount Gerizim nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth as our Lord told the Woman of Samaria in spirit and in truth in spirit in opposition to that carnal and Idolatrous worship that was in use among the Samaritans who worshipped God under the representation of a Dove in truth in opposition to the typical and figurative worship of the Jews which was but a shadow of the true worship of the Gospel The great Sacrifice required in the Christian Religion is not the fat of Beasts or the first-fruits of the Ground but an honest heart and a pious life and a grateful acknowledgment
of our dependance upon God in the publick Solemnities of his praise and worship For the Law and the Gospel did not differ in this that the one commanded publick worship the other not but that under the one publick worship was fixed to one only place under the other it is free to any where the providence of God has placed us it being part of the duty bound upon us by natural and unalterable obligations that we should publickly meet together for the solemn Celebration of the Divine honour and service 13. NOR is the Oeconomy of the Gospel less extensive in time than place the Old Testament was only a temporary dispensation that of the Gospel is to last to the end of the World the Law was to continue only for a little time the Gospel is an Everlasting Covenant the one to be quickly antiquated and abolished the other never to be done away by any other to succeed it The Jews indeed stickle hard for the perpetual and immutable obligation of the Law of Moses and frequently urge us with those places where the Covenant of Circumcision is called an Everlasting Covenant and God said to chuse the Temple at Jerusalem to place his name there for ever to give the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession thus the Law of the Passeover is called an Ordinance for ever the command of the First-fruits a statute for ever and the like in other places which seem to intimate a perpetual and unalterable Dispensation But the answer is short and plain that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever though when 't is applied to God it always denotes Eternity yet when 't is attributed to other things it implies no more than a periodical duration limited according to the will of the Lawgiver or the nature of the thing thus the Hebrew Servant was to serve his Master for ever that is but for seven years till the next year of Jubilee He shall walk before mine anointed for ever says God concerning Samuel that i◠be a Priest all his days Thus when the Ritual services of the Mosaick Law are called Statutes for ever the meaning is that they should continue a long time obligatory until the time of the Messiah in whose days the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease and those carnal Ceremonies to give way to the more spiritual services of the Gospel Indeed the very typical nature of that Dispensation evidently argued it to be but for a time the shadow being to cease that the substance might take place and though many of them continued some considerable time after Christ's death yet they lost their positive and obligatory power and were used only as things indifferent in compliance with the inveterate prejudices of new Converts lately brought over from Judaism and who could not quickly lay aside that great veneration which they had for the Rites of the Mosaick Institution Though even in this respect it was not long before all Jewish Ceremonies were thrown off and Moses quite turn'd out of doors Whereas the Evangelical state is to run parallel with the age and duration of the World 't is the Everlasting Covenant the Everlasting Gospel the last Dispensation that God will make to the World God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son in which respect the Gospel in opposition to the Law is stiled a Kingdom that cannot be moved The Apostle in the foregoing Verses speaking concerning the Mosaical state Whose voice says he then shook the Earth but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the Earth only but also the Heaven a phrase peculiar to the Scripture to note the introducing a new scene and state of things and this word Yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain that is that the state of the Gospel may endure for ever Hence Christ is said to have an unchangeable Priesthood to be a Priest for ever to be consecrated for evermore From all which it appears how incomparably happy we Christians are under the Gospel above what the Jews were in the time of the Law God having placed us under the best of Dispensations freed us from those many nice and troublesome observances to which they were tied put us under the clearest discoveries and revelations and given us the most noble rational and masculine Religion a Religion the most perfective of our natures and the most conducive to our happiness while their Covenant at best was faulty and after all could not make him that did the service perfect in things pertaining to the Conscience Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see for I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them The End of the APPARATUS Antiquitates Apostolicae OR THE LIVES ACTS and MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES OF OUR SAVIOUR To which are added The Lives of the two EVANGELISTS SS MARK and LVKE AS ALSO A brief Enumeration and Account of the Apostles and their Successors for the first Three Hundred Years in the Five great Apostolical Churches By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Euseb. H. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. Praefat. in Epist. ad Philem. pag. 1733. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R. Norton for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCLXXVI TO THE READER IT will not I suppose seem improbable to the Reader when I tell him with how much reluctancy and unwillingness I set upon this undertaking Besides the disadvantage of having this piece annexed to the Elaborate Book of that excellent Prelate so great a Master both of Learning and Language I was intimately conscious to my own unfitness for such a Work at any time much more when clogg'd with many habitual Infirmities and Distempers I considered the difficulty of the thing it self perhaps not capable of being well managed by a much better Pen than mine few of the Ancient Monuments of the Church being extant and little of this nature in those few that are Indeed I could not but think it reasonable that all possible honour should be done to those that first Preached the Gospel of peace and brought glad tidings of good things that it was fit men should be taught how much they were obliged to those excellent Persons who were willing at so dear a rate to plant Christianity in the World who they were and what was that Piety and that Patience that Charity and that Zeal which made them to be reverenc'd while they liv'd and their Memories ever since to be
shall afterwards possibly more particularly remark Thirdly these Apostles were immediately called and sent by Christ himself elected out of the body of his Disciples and followers and receiv'd their Commission from his own mouth Indeed Matthias was not one of the first election being taken in upon Judas his Apostasie after our Lord's Ascension into Heaven But besides that he had been one of the seventy Disciples called and sent out by our Saviour that extraordinary declaration of the Divine will and pleasure that appeared in determining his election was in a manner equivalent to the first election As for S. Paul he was not one of the Twelve taken in as a supernumerary Apostle but yet an Apostle as well as they and that not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ as he pleads his own cause against the insinuations of those Impostors who traduced him as an Apostle only at the second hand whereas he was immediately call'd by Christ as well as they and in a more extraordinary manner they were called by him while he was yet in his state of meanness and humiliation he when Christ was now advanced upon the Throne and appeared to him encircled with those glorious emanations of brightness and majesty which he was not able to endure V. Fourthly The main work and imployment of these Apostles was to preach the Gospel to establish Christianity and to govern the Church that was to be founded as Christ's immediate Deputies and Vicegerents they were to instruct men in the doctrines of the Gospel to disciple the World and to baptize and initiate men into the Faith of Christ to constitute and ordain Guides and Ministers of Religion persons peculiarly set a-part for holy ministrations to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious offenders to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions to command or countermand as occasion was being vested with an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for the edification of the Church This Office the Apostles never exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence upon Earth for though upon their election he sent them forth to Preach and to Baptize yet this was only a narrow and temporary imployment and they quickly returned to their private stations the main power being still executed and administred by Christ himself the complete exercise whereof was not actually devolved upon them till he was ready to leave the World for then it was that he told them as my father hath sent me even so send I you receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Whereby he conferr'd in some proportion the same authority upon them which he himself had derived from his Father Fifthly This Commission given to the Apostles was unlimited and universal not only in respect of power as enabling them to discharge all acts of Religion relating either to Ministry or Government but in respect of place not confining them to this or that particular Province but leaving them the whole World as their Diocese to Preach in they being destinati Nationibus Magistri in Tertullian's phrase designed to be the Masters and Instructors of all Nations so runs their Commission Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature that is to all men the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Evangelist answering to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to all creatures whereby they used to denote all men in general but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews Indeed while our Saviour lived the Apostolical ministry extended no further than Judaea but he being gone to Heaven the partition-wall was broken down and their way was open into all places and Countries And herein how admirably did the Christian Oeconomy transcend the Jewish dispensation The preaching of the Prophets like the light that comes in at the window was confin'd only to the house of Israel while the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the Apostles was like the light of the Sun in the Firmament that diffused its beams and propagated its heat and influence into all quarters of the World their sound going out into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World It 's true for the more prudent and orderly management of things they are generally said by the Ancients to have divided the World into so many quarters and portions to which they were severally to betake themselves Peter to Pontus Galatia Cappadocia c. S. John to Asia S. Andrew to Scythia c. But they did not strictly tye themselves to those particular Provinces that were assigned to them but as occasion was made excursions into other parts though for the main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that were allotted to them usually residing at some principal City of the Province as S. John at Ephesus S. Philip at Hierapolis c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of affairs round about them and hence it was that these places more peculiarly got the title of Apostolical Churches because first planted or eminently watered and cultivated by some Apostle Matrices Originales Fidei as Tertullian calls them Mother-Churches and the Originals of the Faith because here the Christian doctrine was first sown and hence planted and propagated to the Countries round about Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt à quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt as his own words are VI. In pursuance of this general Commission we find the Apostles not long after our Lord's Ascension traversing almost all parts of the then known World S. Andrew in Scythia and those Northern Countries S. Thomas and Bartholomew in India S. Simon and S. Mark in Afric Egypt and the parts of Libya and Mauritania S. Paul and probably Peter and some others in the farthest Regions of the West And all this done in the space of less than forty years viz. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus and the Roman Army For so our Lord had expresly foretold that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations before the end came that is the end of the Jewish State which the Apostles a little before had called the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shutting up or consummation of the Age the putting a final period to that present State and dispensation that the Jews were under And indeed strange it is to consider that in so few years these Evangelical Messengers should over-run all Countries with what an incredible swiftness did the Christian Faith like lightning pierce from East to West and diffuse it self over all quarters of the World and that not only unassisted by any secular advantages but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition
the body commanded her to arise and lifting her up by the hand presented her in perfect health to her friends and those that were about her by which he confirmed many and converted more to the Faith After which he staid some considerable time at Joppa lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner 3. WHILE he abode in this City retiring one morning to the house-top to pray as the Jews frequently did having thence a free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the Temple it being now near Noon which was the conclusion of one of their stated times of Prayer he found himself hungry and called for meat but while it was preparing he himself fell into a Trance wherein was presented to him a large sheet let down from Heaven containing all sorts of Creatures clean and unclean a voice at the same time calling to him that he should rise kill freely and indifferently feed upon them Peter tenacious as yet of the Rites and Institutions of the Mosaick Law rejoyn'd That he could not do it having never eaten any thing that was common or unclean To which the voice replied That what God had cleansed he should not account or call common Which being done thrice the Vessel was again taken up into Heaven and the Vision presently disappeared By this symbolick representment though Peter at present knew not what to make of it God was teaching him a new lesson and preparing him to go upon an Errand and Embassy which the Spirit at the same time expresly commanded him to undertake While he was in this doubtful posture of mind three messengers knock'd at the door enquiring for him from whom he received this account That Cornelius a Roman Captain of a Band of Italian Souldiers at Caesarea a person of great Piety and Religion being a Proselyte of the Gate who though not observing an exact conformity to the Rites of the Mosaick Law did yet maintain some general correspondence with it and lived under the obligation of the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah had by an immediate command from God sent for him The next day Peter accompanied with some of the Brethren went along with them and the day after they came to Caesarea Against whose arrival Cornelius had summoned his friends and kindred to his house Peter arriving Cornelius who was affected with a mighty reverence for so great a Person fell at his Feet and worshipped him a way of address frequent in those Eastern Countries towards Princes and great men but by the Greeks and Romans appropriated as a peculiar honour to the Gods Peter rejecting the honour as due only to God entred into the house where he first made his Apology to the Company that though they could not but know that it was not lawful for a Jew to converse in the duties of Religion with those of another Nation yet that now God had taught him another lesson And then proceeded particularly to enquire the reason of Cornelius his sending for him Whereupon Cornelius told him That four days since being conversant in the duties of Fasting and Prayer an Angel had appeared to him and told him that his Prayers and Alms were come up for a memorial before God that he should send to Joppa for one Simon Peter who lodged in a Tanner's house by the Sea side who should further make known his mind to him that accordingly he had sent and being now come they were there met to hear what he had to say to them Where we see that though God sent an Angel to Cornelius to acquaint him with his will yet the Angel was only to direct him to the Apostle for instruction in the Faith which no doubt was done partly that God might put the greater honour upon an institution that was likely to meet with contempt and scorn enough from the World partly to let us see that we are not to expect extraordinary and miraculous ways of teaching and information where God affords ordinary means 4. HEREUPON Peter began this discourse that by comparing things it was now plain and evident that the partition-wall was broken down that God had no longer a particular kindness for Nations or Persons that it was not the Nation but the Religion not the outward quality of the man but the inward temper of the mind that recommends men to God that the devout and the pious the righteous and the good man where-ever he be is equally dear to Heaven that God has as much respect for a just and a virtuous person in the Wilds of Scythia as upon Mount Sion that the reconciling and making peace between God and Man by Jesus Christ was the Doctrine published by the Prophets of old and of late since the times of John preached through Galilee and Judaea viz. that God had anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with Divine Powers and Graces in the exercise whereof he constantly went about to do good to men that they had seen all he had done amongst the Jews whom though they had slain and crucified yet that God had raised him again the third day and had openly show'd him to his Apostles and followers whom he had chosen to be his peculiar witnesses and whom to that end he had admitted to eat and drink with him after his Resurrection commanding them to preach the Gospel to Mankind and to testifie that he was the person whom God had ordained to be the great Judge of the World that all the Prophets with one consent bore witness of him that this Jesus is he in whose Name whosoever believes should certainly receive remission of sins While Peter was thus preaching to them the Holy Ghost fell upon a great part of his Auditory enabling them to speak several Languages and therein to magnifie the giver of them Whereat the Jews who came along with Peter did sufficiently wonder to see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost should be poured upon the Gentiles Peter seeing this told the Company that he knew no reason why these persons should not be baptized having received the Holy Ghost as well as they and accordingly commanded them to be baptized For whose further confirmation he staid some time longer with them This act of Peter's made a great noise among the Apostles and Brethren at Jerusalem who being lately converted from their Judaism were as yet zealous for the Religion of their Country and therefore severely charged Peter at his return for his too familiar conversing with the Gentiles See here the powerful prejudice of education The Jews had for several Ages conceived a radicated and inveterate prejudice against the Gentiles Indeed the Law of Moses commanded them to be peculiarly kind to their own Nation and the Rites and Institutions of their Religion and the peculiar form of their Commonwealth made them different from the fashion of other Countries a separation which in after-times they drew into a narrower compass Besides they were mightily puffed up with their external priviledges that
time of Augustus had dwelt in the Region beyond Tybur But when afterwards he began to preach to the Gentiles he was forced to change his Lodging and was taken in by one Pudens a Senator lately converted to the Faith Here he closely plyed his main office and employment to establish Christianity in that place Here we are told he met with Philo the Jew lately come on his second Embassy unto Rome in the behalf of his Countrymen at Alexandria and to have contracted an intimate friendship and acquaintance with him And now it was says Baronius that Peter being mindful of the Churches which he had founded in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Bithynia and Asia the less wrote his first Epistle to them which he probably infers hence that Saint Mark being yet with him at the time of the date of this Epistle it must be written at least some time this Year for that now it was that S. Mark was sent to preach and propagate the Faith in Egypt Next to the planting Religion at Rome he took care to propagate it in the Western parts And to that end if we may believe one of those that pretend to be his Successors he sent abroad Disciples into several Provinces That so their sound might go into all the Earth and their words into the ends of the World 3. IT hapned that after S. Peter had been several Years at Rome Claudius the Emperor taking advantage of some seditions and tumults raised by the Jews by a publick Edict banished them out of Rome In the Number of whom S. Peter they say departed thence and returned back to Jerusalem where he was present at that great Apostolical Synod of which before After this we are left under great uncertainties how he disposed of himself for many Years Confident we may be that he was not idle but spent his time sometimes in preaching in the Eastern parts sometimes in other parts of the World as in Africk Sicily Italy and other places And here it may not be amiss to insert a claim in behalf of our own Country Eusebius telling us as Metaphrastes reports it that Peter was not only in these Western parts but particularly that he was a long time in Britain where he converted many Nations to the Faith But we had better be without the honour of Saint Peter's company than build the story upon so sandy a foundation Metaphrastes his Authority being of so little value in this case that it is slighted by the more learned and moderate Writers of the Church of Rome But where-ever it was that Saint Peter employed his time towards the latter part of Nero's Reign he returned to Rome where he found the minds of People strangely bewitched and hardned against the embracing of the Christian Religion by the subtilties and Magick arts of Simon Magus whom as we have before related he had formerly baffled at Samaria This Simon was born at Gitton a Village of Samaria bred up in the Arts of Sorcery and Divination and by the help of the Diabolical powers performed many strange feats of wonder and activity Insomuch that People generally looked upon him as some great Deity come down from Heaven But being discovered and confounded by Peter at Samaria he left the East and fled to Rome Where by Witchcraft and Sorceries he insinuated himself into the favour of the People and at last became very acceptable to the Emperours themselves insomuch that no honour and veneration was too great for him Justin Martyr assures us that he was honoured as a Deity that a Statue was erected to him in the Insula Tyberina between two Bridges with this Inscription SIMONI DEO SANCTO To Simon the holy God that the Samaritans generally and very many of other Nations did own and worship him as the chief principal Deity I know the credit of this Inscription is shrewdly shaken by some later Antiquaries who tell us that the good Father being a Greek might easily mistake in a Latin Inscription or be imposed upon by others and that the true Inscription was SEMONI SANGO DEO FIDIO c. such an Inscription being in the last Age dug up in the Tyberine Island and there preserved to this day It is not impossible but this might be the foundation of the story But sure I am that it is not only reported by the Martyr who was himself a Samaritan and lived but in the next Age but by others almost of the same time Irenaeus Tertullian and by others after them It further deserves to be considered that J. Martyr was a person of great learning and gravity inquisitive about matters of this nature at this time at Rome where he was capable fully to satisfie himself in the truth of things that he presented this Apology to the Emperor and the Senate of Rome to whom he would be careful what he said and who as they knew whether it was true or no so if false could not but ill resent to be so boldly imposed upon by so notorious a fable But be it as it will he was highly in favour both with the People and their Emperors especially Nero who was the Great Patron of Magicians and all who maintained secret ways of commerce with the infernal powers With him S. Peter thought fit in the first place to encounter and to undeceive the People by discovering the impostures and delusions of that wretched man 4. THAT he did so is generally affirmed by the Ancient Fathers who tell us of some particular Instances wherein he baffled and confounded him But because the matter is more intirely drawn up by Hegesippus the younger an Author contemporary with S. Ambrose if not which is most probable S. Ambrose himself we shall from him represent the summary of the story There was at this time at Rome an eminent young Gentleman and a Kinsman of the Emperors lately dead The fame which Peter had for raising persons to life perswaded his friends that he might be called Others also prevailing that Simon the Magician might be sent for Simon glad of the occasion to magnifie himself before the People propounded to Peter that if he raised the Gentleman unto life then Peter who had so injuriously provoked the great power of God as he stiled himself should lose his life But if Peter prevailed he himself would submit to the same fate and sentence Peter accepted the termes and Simon began his Charmes and Inchantments Whereat the dead Gentleman seemed to move his hand The People that stood by presently cryed out that he was alive and that he talked with Simon and began to fall foul upon Peter for daring to oppose himself against so great a power The Apostle entreated their patience told them that all this was but a phantasm and appearance that if Simon was but taken from the Bed-side all this pageantry would quickly vanish Who being accordingly removed the Body remained without the
they removed to Paphos the residence of Sergius Paulus the Proconsul of the Island a Man of great wisdom and prudence but miserably seduced by the wicked Artifices of Ear-Jesus a Jewish Impostor who called himself Elymas or the Magician vehemently opposed the Apostles and kept the Proconsul from embracing of the Faith Nay one who pretends to be ancient enough to know it seems to intimate that he not only spake but wrote against S. Paul's Doctrine and the Faith of Christ. However the Proconsul calls for the Apostles and S. Paul first takes Elymas to task and having severely checked him for his malicious opposing of the truth told him that the Divine Vengeance was now ready to seize upon him Upon which he was immediately struck blind The Vengeance of God observing herein a kind of just proportion that he should be punished with the loss of his Bodily eyes who had so wilfully and maliciously shut the eyes of his mind against the light of the Gospel and had endeavoured to keep not only himself but others under so much blindness and darkness This Miracle turned the Scale with the Proconsul and quickly brought him over a Convert to the Faith 4. AFTER this success in Cyprus he went to Perga in Pamphilia where taking Titus along with him in the room of Mark who was returned to Jerusalem they went to Antioch the Metropolis of Pisidia Where entring into the Jewish Synagogue on the Sabbath Day after some Sections of the Law were read they were invited by the Rulers of the Synagogue to discourse a little to the People Which S. Paul did in a large and eloquent Sermon wherein he put them in mind of the many great and particular blessings which God had heaped upon the Jews from the first Originals of that Nation that he had crowned them all with the sending of his Son to be the Messiah and the Saviour that though the Jews had ignorantly crucified this just innocent Person yet that God according to his own predictions had raised him up from the dead that through Him they preached forgiveness of sins and that by Him alone it was that Men if ever must be justified and acquitted from that Guilt and Condemnation which all the pompous Ceremonies and Ministeries of the Mosaick Law could never do away That therefore they should do well to take heed lest by their opposing this way of Salvation they should bring upon themselves that prophetical curse which God had threatned to the Jews of old for their great contumacy and neglect This Sermon wanted not its due effects The Proselyte-Jews desired the Apostles to discourse again to them of this matter the next Sabbath Day the Apostles also perswading them to continue firm in the belief of these things The Day was no sooner come but the whole City almost flocked to be their Auditors which when the Jews saw acted by a spirit of envy they began to blaspheme and to contradict the Apostles who nothing daunted told them that our Lord had charged them first to preach the Gospel to the Jews which since they so obstinately rejected they were now to address themselves to the Gentiles who hearing this exceedingly rejoyced at the good news and magnified the Word of God and as many of them as were thus prepared and disposed towards eternal life heartily closed with it and embraced it the Apostles preaching not there only but through the whole Country round about The Jews more exasperated than before resolved to be rid of their company and to that end perswaded some of the more devout and honourable Women to deal with their Husbands Persons of prime rank and quality in the City by whose means they were driven out of those parts Whereat Paul and Barnabas shaking off the dust of their Feet as a Testimony against their ingratitude and infidelity departed from them 5. THE next place they went to was Iconium where at first they found kind entertainment and good success God setting a Seal to their Doctrine by the Testimony of his Miracles But here the Jewish malice began again to ferment exciting the People to sedition and a mutiny against them Insomuch that hearing of a design to stone them they seasonably withdrew to Lystra where they first made their way by a miraculous cure For S. Paul seeing an impotent Cripple that had been lame from his Mothers Womb cured him with the speaking of a word The People who beheld the Miracle had so much natural Logick as to infer that there was a Divinity in the thing though mistaking the Author they applied it to the Instruments crying out That the Gods in humane shape were come down from Heaven Paul as being chief Speaker they termed Mercury the God of speech and eloquence Barnabas by reason of his Age and gravity they called Jupiter the Father of their Gods accordingly the Syriack Interpreter here renders Jupiter by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord or Soveraign of the Gods The fame of this being spread over the City the Priest of Jupiter brought Oxen dressed up with Garlands after the Gentile Rites to the House where the Apostles were to do Sacrifice to them Which they no sooner understood but in detestation of those undue honours offered to them they rent their clothes and told them that they were Men of the same make and temper of the same passions and infirmities with themselves that the design of their Preaching was to convert them from these vain Idolatries and superstitions to the worship of the true God the great Parent of the World who though heretofore he had left Men to themselves to go on in their own ways of Idolatrous worship yet had he given sufficient evidence of himself in the constant returns of a gracious and benign providence in crowning the Year with fruitful Seasons and other acts of common kindness and bounty to Mankind 6. A SHORT discourse but very rational and convictive which it may not be amiss a little more particularly to consider and the method which the Apostle uses to convince these blind Idolaters He proves Divine honours to be due to God alone as the Sovereign Being of the World and that there is such a Supreme infinite Being he argues from his Works both of Creation and Providence Creation He is the living God that made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are therein Providence He left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Than which no argument can be more apt and proper to work upon the minds of men That which may be known of God is manifest to the Gentiles for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World even his eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen and understood by the things that are made It being impossible impartially to survey the several parts of the
Patrae a City of Achaia where he gave his last and great testimony to it I mean laid down his own Life to ratifie and ensure it in describing whose Martyrdom we shall for the main follow the account that is given us in the Acts of his Passion pretended to have been written by the Presbyters and Deacons of Achaia present at his Martyrdom which though I dare not with some assert to be the genuine work of those persons yet can it not be denied to be of considerable antiquity being mentioned by Philastrius who flourished Ann. 380. and were no doubt written long before his time The summ of it is this 5. AEGEAS Proconsul of Achaia came at this time to Patrae where observing that multitudes were fallen off from Paganism and had embraced Christianity he endeavoured by all arts both of favour and cruelty to reduce the people to their old Idolatries To him the Apostle resolutely makes his address calmly puts him in mind that he being but a judge of men should own and revere him who was the supreme and impartial Judge of all that he should give him that Divine honour that was due to him and leave off the impieties of his false Heathen-worship The Proconsul derided him as an Innovator in Religion a propagator of that superstition whose Author the Jews had infamously put to death upon a Cross. Hereat the Apostle took occasion to discourse to him of the infinite love and kindness of our Lord who came into the World to purchase the Salvation of mankind and for that end did not disdain to die upon the Cross. To whom the Proconsul answered that he might perswade them so that would believe him for his part if he did not comply with him in doing sacrifice to the Gods he would cause him to suffer upon that Cross which he had so much extolled and magnified S. Andrew replied That he did sacrifice every day to God the only true and omnipotent Being not with fumes and bloudy offerings but in the sacrifice of the immaculate Lamb of God The issue was the Apostle was committed to prison whereat the people were so enraged that it had broken out into a mutiny had not the Apostle restrained them perswading them to imitate the mildness and patience of our meek humble Saviour and not to hinder him from that crown of Martyrdom that now waited for him 6. THE next day he was again brought before the Proconsul who perswaded him that he would not foolishly destroy himself but live and enjoy with him the pleasures of this life The Apostle told him that he should have with him eternal joys if renouncing his execrable idolatries he would heartily entertain Christianity which he had hitherto so successfully preached amongst them That answered the Proconsul is the very reason why I am so earnest with you to sacrifice to the Gods that those whom you have every where seduced may by your example be brought to return back to that ancient Religion which they have forsaken Otherwise I 'le cause you with exquisite tortures to be crucified The Apostle replied That now he saw it was in vain any longer to deal with him a person incapable of sober counsels and hardned in his own blindness and folly that as for himself he might do his worst and if he had one torment greater than another he might heap that upon him The greater constancy he shewed in his sufferings for Christ the more acceptable he should be to his Lord and Master Aegeas could now hold no longer but passed the sentence of death upon him and Nicephorus gives us some more particular account of the Proconsul's displeasure and rage against him which was that amongst others he had converted his wife Maximilla and his brother Stratocles to the Christian Faith having cured them of desperate distempers that had seized upon them 7. THE Proconsul first commanded him to be scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked body and seeing his invincible patience and constancy commanded him to be crucified but not to be fastned to the Cross with Nails but Cords that so his death might be more lingring and tedious As he was led to execution to which he went with a chearful and composed mind the people cried out that he was an innocent and good man and unjustly condemned to die Being come within sight of the Cross he saluted it with this kind of address That he had long desired and expected this happy hour that the Cross had been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it and adorned with his members as with so many inestimable Jewels that he came joyful and triumphing to it that it might receive him as a disciple and follower of him who once hung upon it and be the means to carry him safe unto his Master having been the instrument upon which his Master had redeemed him Having prayed and exhorted the people to constancy and perseverance in that Religion which he had delivered to them he was fastned to the Cross whereon he hung two days teaching and instructing the people all the time and when great importunities in the mean while were used to the Proconsul to spare his life he earnestly begged of our Lord that he might at this time depart and seal the truth of his Religion with his bloud God heard his prayer and he immediately expired on the last of November though in what year no certain account can be recovered 8. THERE seems to have been something peculiar in that Cross that was the instrument of his Martyrdom commonly affirmed to have been a Cross decussate two pieces of Timber crossing each other in the middle in the form of the letter X hence usually known by the name of S. Andrew's Cross though there want not those who affirm him to have been crucified upon an Olive Tree His body being taken down and embalmed was decently and honourably interred by Maximilla a Lady of great quality and estate and whom Nicephorus I know not upon what ground makes wife to the Proconsul As for that report of Gregory Bishop of Tours that on the Anniversary day of his Martyrdom there was wont to flow from S. Andrew's Tomb a most fragrant and precious Oil which according to its quantity denoted the scarceness or plenty of the following year and that the sick being anointed with this Oil were restored to their former health I leave to the Readers discretion to believe what he please of it For my part if any ground of truth in the story I believe it no more than that it was an exhalation and sweating forth at some times of those rich costly perfumes and ointments wherewith his Body was embalmed after his crucifixion Though I must confess this conjecture to be impossible if it be true what my Author adds that some years the Oil burst out in such plenty that the stream arose to the middle of the Church His Body was afterwards by Constantine the
Great solemnly removed to Constantinople and buried in the great Church which he had built to the honour of the Apostles Which being taken down some hundred years after by Justinian the Emperor in order to its reparation the Body was found in a wooden-Coffin and again reposed in its proper place 9. I SHALL conclude the History of this Apostle with that Encomiastick Character which one of the Ancients gives of him S. Andrew was the first-born of the Apostolick Quire the main and prime pillar of the Church a rock before the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of that foundation the first-fruits of the beginning a caller of others before he was called himself he preached that Gospel that was not yet believed or entertained revealed and made known that life to his brother which he had not yet perfectly learn'd himself So great treasures did that one question bring him Master where dwellest thou which he soon perceived by the answer given him and which he deeply pondered in his mind Come and see How art thou become a Prophet whence thus Divinely skilful what is it that thou thus soundest in Peter's ears We have found him c. why dost thou attempt to compass him whom thou canst not comprehend how can he be found who is Omnipresent But he knew well what he said We have found him whom Adam lost whom Eve injured whom the clouds of sin have hidden from us and whom our transgressions had hitherto made a stranger to us c. So that of all our Lord's Apostles S. Andrew had thus far the honour to be the first Preacher of the Gospel The End of S. Andrew 's Life THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Great St. Iames Major He being the Son of Zebedee was at the Command of Herod beheaded at Hierusalem Act. 122. St. James the Great his Martyrdom Act. 12.1 2. About that time Herod the King streched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church And he killed James the brother of John with the sword S. James why surnamed the Great His Country and Kindred His alliance to Christ. His Trade and way of Life Our Lord brought up to a Manual Trade The quick reparteé of a Christian Schoolmaster to Libanius His being called to be a Disciple and great readiness to follow Christ. His election to the Apostolick Office and peculiar favours from Christ. Why our Lord chose some few of the Apostles to be witnesses of the more private passages of his life The imposition of a new name at his election to the Apostleship He and his Brother stiled Boanerges and why The zeal and activity of their temper Their ambition to sit on Christ 's right and left hand in his Kingdom and confident promise of suffering This ill resented by the rest Our Lord's discourse concerning the nature of the Evangelical state Where he preached after Christ 's Ascension The story of his going into Spain exploded Herod Agrippa in favour with the Roman Emperors The character of his temper His zeal for the Law of Moses His condemning S. James to death The sudden conversion of his Accuser as he was led to Martyrdom Their being beheaded The Divine Justice that pursued Herod His grandeur and arrogance at Caesarea His miserable death The story of the Translation of S. James his Corps to Compostella in Spain and the Miracles said to be done there 1. SAINT James surnamed the Great either because of his Age being much elder than the other or for some peculiar honours and favours which our Lord conferred upon him was by Country a Galilean born probably either at Capernaum or Bethsaida being one of Peter's Partners in the Trade of Fishing He was the Son of Zebdai or Zebedee and probably the same whom the Jews mention in their Talmud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabbi James or Jacob the Son of Zebedee a Fisherman and the many servants which he kept for that employment a circumstance not taken notice of in any other speak him a man of some more considerable note in that Trade and way of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nicephorus notes His Mother's name was Mary surnamed Salome called first Taviphilja says an ancient Arabick writer the Daughter as is most probable not Wife of Cleopas Sister to Mary the Mother of our Lord not her own Sister properly so called the Blessed Virgin being in all likelihood an only Daughter but Cousin-german stiled her Sister according to the mode and custom of the Jews who were wont to call all such near relations by the names of Brothers and Sisters and in this respect he had the honour of a near relation to our Lord himself His education was in the Trade of Fishing no employment is base that 's honest and industrious nor can it be thought mean and dishonourable to him when it is remembred that our Lord himself the Son of God stoop'd so low as not only to become the reputed Son of a Carpenter but during the retirements of his private life to work himself at his Father's Trade not devoting himself merely to contemplations nor withdrawing from all useful society with the World and hiding himself in the solitudes of an Anchoret but busying himself in an active course of life working at the Trade of a Carpenter and particularly as one of the Ancients tells us making Ploughs and Yokes And this the sacred History does not only plainly intimate but it is generally asserted by the Ancient writers of the Church A thing so notorious that the Heathens used to object it as a reproach to Christianity Thence that smart and acute reparteé which a Christian School-master made to Libanius the famous Orator at Antioch when upon Julian's expedition into Persia where he was killed he asked in scorn what the Carpenters Son was now a doing The Christian replied with salt enough That the great Artificer of the World whom he scoffingly called the Carpenter's Son was making a Coffin for his Master Julian the news of whose death was brought soon after But this only by the way 2. S. JAMES applied himself to his Father's Trade not discouraged with the meanness not sinking under the difficulties of it and as usually the blessings of Heaven meet men in the way of an honest and industrious diligence it was in the exercise of this calling when our Saviour passing by the Sea of Galilee saw him and his brother in the Ship and called them to be his Disciples A Divine power went along with the word which they no sooner heard but chearfully complied with it immediately leaving all to follow him They did not stay to dispute his commands to argue the probability of his promise solicitously to enquire into the minute consequences of the undertaking what troubles and hazards might attend this new employment but readily delivered up themselves to whatever services he should appoint them And the chearfulness of their obedience is yet further
considerable that they left their aged Father in the Ship behind them For elsewhere we find others excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ upon pretence that they must go bury their Father or take their leave of their kindred at home No such slight and trivial pretences could stop the resolution of our Apostles who broke through these considerations and quitted their present interests and relations Say not it was unnaturally done of them to desert their Father an aged person and in some measure unable to help himself For besides that they left servants with him to attend him it is not cruelty to our Earthly but obedience to our Heavenly Father to leave the one that we may comply with the call and summons of the other It was the triumph of Abraham's Faith when God called him to leave his kindred and his Father's house to go out and sojourn in a foreign Country not knowing whither he went Nor can we doubt but that Zebedee himself would have gone along with them had not his Age given him a Supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory course of life But though they left him at this time it 's very reasonable to suppose that they took care to instruct him in the doctrine of the Messiah and to acquaint him with the glad tidings of Salvation especially since we find their Mother Salome so hearty a friend to so constant a follower of our Saviour But this if we may believe the account which one gives of it was after her Husbands decease who probably lived not long after dying before the time of our Saviour's Passion 3. IT was not long after this that he was called from the station of an ordinary Disciple to the Apostolical Office and not only so but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond most of the Apostles being one of the three whom our Lord usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate transactions of his life from which the others were excluded Thus with Peter and his Brother John he was taken to the miraculous raising of Jairus his Daughter admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration upon the Mount and the discourses that there passed between him and the two great Ministers of Heaven taken along with him into the Garden to be a Spectator of those bitter Agonies which the Holy Jesus was to undergo as the preparatory sufferings to his Passion What were the reasons of our Lord 's admitting these three Apostles to these more special acts of favour than the rest is not easie to determine though surely our Lord who governed all his actions by Principles of the highest prudence and reason did it for wise and proper ends whether it was that he designed these three to be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages of his life than the other Apostles or that they would be more eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the Apostolick Office or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage them against suffering as intending them for some more eminent kinds of Martyrdom or suffering than the rest were to undergo 4. NOR was it the least instance of that particular honour which our Lord conferr'd upon these three Apostles that at his calling them to the Apostolate he gave them the addition of a new Name and Title A thing not unusual of old for God to impose a new Name upon Persons when designing them for some great and peculiar services and employments thus he did to Abraham and Jacob. Nay the thing was customary among the Gentiles as had we no other instances might appear from those which the Scripture gives us of Pharaoh's giving a new name to Joseph when advancing him to be Vice-Roy of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel c. Thus did our Lord in the Election of these three Apostles Simon he sirnamed Peter James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother he sirnamed Boanerges which is the Sons of Thunder What our Lord particularly intended in this Title is easier to conjecture than certainly to determine some think it was given them upon the account of their being present in the Mount when a voice came out of the Cloud and said This is my beloved Son c. The like whereto when the People heard at another time they cried out that it Thundred But besides that this account is in it self very slender and inconsiderable if so then the title must equally have belonged to Peter who was then present with them Others think it was upon the account of their loud bold and resolute preaching Christianity to the World fearing no threatnings daunted with no oppositions but going on to thunder in the Ears of the secure sleepy World rouzing and awakening the consciences of Men with the earnestness and vehemency of their Preaching as Thunder which is called God's Voice powerfully shakes the natural World and breaks in pieces the Cedars of Lebanon Or if it relate to the Doctrines they delivered it may signifie their teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact notes which how true it might be of our S. James the Scripture is wholly silent but was certainly verified of his Brother John whose Gospel is so full of the more sublime notions and mysteries of the Gospel concerning Christ's Deity eternal pre-existence c. that he is generally affirmed by the Ancients not so much to speak as thunder Probably the expression may denote no more than that in general they were to be prime and eminent Ministers in this new scene and state of things the introducing of the Gospel or Evangelical dispensation being called a Voice shaking the Heavens and the Earth and so is exactly correspondent to the native importance of the Word signifying an Earth-quake or a vehement commotion that makes a noise like to Thunder 5. HOWEVER it was our Lord I doubt not herein had respect to the furious and resolute disposition of those two Brothers who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than the rest of the Apostles whereof we have this memorable instance Our Lord being resolved upon his Journy to Jerusalem sent some of his Disciples as Harbingers to prepare his way who coming to a Village of Samaria were uncivilly rejected and refused entertainment probably because of that old and inveterate quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews and more especially at this time because that our Saviour seemed to slight Mount Gerizim where was their staple and solemn place of worship by passing it by to go worship at Jerusalem the reason in all likelihood why they denied him those common courtesies and conveniences due to all Travellers This piece of rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by S. James and his Brother that they came to their Master to know whether as Elias did of
Stoicks but much more for his hearty affection to Christianity in a devout and zealous imitation of the Apostles was inflamed with a desire to propagate the Christian Religion unto the Eastern Countries he came as far as India it self Here amongst some that yet retained the knowledge of Christ he found S. Matthew's Gospel written in Hebrew left here as the tradition was by S. Bartholomew one of the twelve Apostles when he preached the Gospel to these Nations 5. AFTER his labours in these parts of the World he returned to the more Western and Northern parts of Asia At Hieropolis in Phrygia we find him in company with S. Philip instructing that place in the principles of Christianity and convincing them of the folly of their blind Idolatries Here by the enraged Magistrates he was at the same time with Philip designed for Martyrdom in order whereunto he was fastned upon the Cross with an intent to dispatch him but upon a sudden conviction that the Divine Justice would revenge their death he was taken down again and dismissed Hence probably he went into Lycaonia the people whereof Chrysostom assures us he instructed and trained up in the Christian discipline His last remove was to Albanople in Armenia the Great the same no doubt which Nicephorus calls Urbanople a City of Cilicia a place miserably overgrown with Idolatry from which while he sought to reclaim the people he was by the Governour of the place commanded to be crucified which he chearfully underwent comforting and confirming the Convert Gentiles to the last minute of his life Some add that he was crucified with his head downwards others that he was flead and his skin first taken off which might consist well enough with his Crucifixion excoriation being a punishment in use not only in Egypt but amongst the Persians next neighbours to these Armenians as Ammianus Marcellinus assures us and Plutarch records a particular instance of Mesabates the Persian Eunuch first flead alive and then crucified from whom they might easily borrow this piece of barbarous and inhumane cruelty As for the several stages to which his Body removed after his death first to Daras a City in the borders of Persia then to Liparis one of the Aeolian Islands thence to Beneventum in Italy and last of all to Rome they that are fond of those things and have better leisure may enquire Hereticks persecuted his memory after his death no less than Heathens did his person while alive by forging and fathering a fabulous Gospel upon his name which together with others of like stamp Gelasius Bishop of Rome justly branded as Apocryphal altogether unworthy the name and patronage of an Apostle The End of S. Bartholomew 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHEW S. MATHEW S. Mathew the Apostle and Evangelist preached the Gospel in Aethiopia and was there slayn with an Halbert Bed et Borea Sept 21 St. Mathew his Martyrdom 1 Pet. 3.14 If ye suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are ye be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled His Birth-place and Kindred His Trade the Office of a Publican The great dignity of this Office among the Romans The honours done to Vespasian 's Father for the faithful discharge of it This Office infamous among the Greeks but especially the Jews What things concurr'd to render it odious and grievous to them Their bitter abhorrency of this sort of men S. Matthew 's employment wherein it particularly consisted The Publican's Ticket what S. Matthew 's call and his ready obedience His inviting our Lord to Dinner The Pharisees cavil and our Saviour's answer His Preaching in Judaea His travels into Parthia Aethiopia c. to propagate Christianity The success of his Ministry His Death His singular contempt of the World Censured herein by Julian and Porphyry His exemplary temperance and sobriety His humility and modesty Unreasonable to reproach Penitents with the vices of their former Life His Gospel when and why written Composed by him in Hebrew The general consent of Antiquity herein It s translation into Greek when and by whom The Hebrew Copy by whom owned and interpolated Those now extant not the same with those mentioned in Antiquity 1. SAINT Matthew called also Levi was though a Roman Officer an Hebrew of the Hebrews both his Names speaking him purely of Jewish extract and Original and probably a Galilean and whom I should have concluded born at or near Capernaum but that the Arabick Writer of his life tells us he was born at Nazareth a City in the Tribe of Zebulun famous for the habitation of Joseph and Mary but especially the education and residence of our Blessed Saviour who though born at Bethlehem was both conceiv'd and bred up here where he lived the whole time of his private life whence he derived the Title of Jesus of Nazareth S. Matthew was the Son of Alpheus and Mary Sister or Kinswoman to the Blessed Virgin in the same Arabick Author his Father is called Ducu and his Mother Karutias both originally descended of the Tribe of Issachar nothing being more common among the Jews than for the same Person to have several names these latter probably express'd in Arabick according to their Jewish signification His Trade or way of life was that of a Publican or Toll-gatherer to the Romans which probably had been his Father's Trade his Name denoting a Broker or Money-changer an Office of bad report amongst the Jews Indeed among the Romans it was accounted a place of power and credit and honourable reputation not ordinarily conferred upon any but Roman Knights insomuch that T. Fl. Sabinus Father to the Emperor Vespasian was the Publican of the Asian Provinces an Office which he discharged so much to the content and satisfaction of the People that they erected Statues to him with his Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that has well managed the Publican-Office These Officers being sent into the Provinces to gather the Tributes were wont to employ the Natives under them as Persons best skilled in the affairs and customs of their own Country Two things especially concurred to render this Office odious to the Jews First that the Persons that managed it were usually covetous and great Exactors for having themselves farmed the Customs of the Romans they must gripe and scrape by all methods of Extortion that they might be able both to pay their Rent and to raise gain and advantage to themselves which doubtless Zachaeus the Chief of these Farmers was sensible of when after his Conversion he offered four-fold restitution to any Man from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and evil arts And upon this account they became infamous even among the Gentiles themselves who commonly speak of them as Cheats and Thieves and publick Robbers and worse members of a community more voracious and destructive in a City than wild Beasts in the Forest. The other thing that made the Jews so
great degeneracy and declension of manners coming on and that the purity of the Christian Faith began to be undermined by the loose doctrines and practices of the Gnosticks who under a pretence of zeal for the legal rites generally mixed themselves with the Jewes he beheld Libertinism marching on a-pace and the way to Heaven made soft and easie Men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary and asserting a naked belief of the Christian doctrine to be sufficient to salvation Against these the Apostle opposes himself presses Purity Patience and Charity and all the Vertues of a good Life and by undeniable Arguments evinces that that faith only that carries along with it obedience and an holy life can justifie us before God and intitle us to eternal Life Besides this Epistle there is a kind of preparatory Gospel ascribed to him published under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still extant at this Day containing the descent birth and first Originals of Christ and the Virgin Mary at the end whereof the Author pretends to have written it at a time when Herod having raised a great tumult in Jerusalem he was forced to retire into the Wilderness But though in many things consistent enough with the History of the Gospels yet has it ever been rejected as spurious and Apochryphal forged in that licentious Age when Men took the boldness to stamp any Writing with the Name of an Apostle The End of the Life of S. James the Less THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot S. SIMON S. Simon Zelotes preached in Aegypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified Niceph. l. 2. c. 40. Baron Oct. 28. St. Simon 's Martyrdom Matth. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves 1. Cor. 4.9 God hath set forth US the Apostles last as it were men appointed to death For we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men His Kindred Whence stiled the Cananite and the Zealot An enquiry into the nature and temper and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews An account of their wild and licentious practices This no reflection upon our Apostle In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel His planting Christianity in Africk His removal into the West and Preaching in Britain His Martyrdom there By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem 1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was as some think one of the four Brothers of our Saviour Sons of Joseph by his former marriage though no other evidence appear for it but that there was a Simon one of the number too infirm a foundation to build any thing more upon than a mere conjecture In the Catalogue of the Apostles he is stiled Simon the Cananite whence some led by no other reason that I know of than the bare sound of the name have concluded him born at Cana in Galilee as for the same reason others have made him the Bridegroom at whose marriage our Lord was there present when he honoured the solemnity with his first Miracle turning Water into Wine But this word has no relation to his Country or the place from whence he borrowed his Original as plainly descending from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Zeal and denote a hot and sprightly temper Therefore what some of the Evangelists call Cananite others rendring the Hebrew by the Greek word stile Simon Zelotes or the Zealot So called not as Nicephorus thinks from his burning zeal and ardent affection to his Master and his eager desire to advance his Religion in the World but from his warm active temper and zealous forwardness in some particular way and profession of Religion before his coming to our Saviour 2. FOR the better understanding of this we are to know that as there were several Sects and Parties among the Jews so was there one either a distinct Sect or at least a branch of the Pharisees called the Sect of the Zealots They were mighty assertors of the honour of the Law and the strictness and purity of Religion assuming a liberty to themselves to question notorious offenders without staying for the ordinary formalities of Law nay when they thought good and as the case required executing capital vengeance upon them Thus when a blasphemer cursed God by the name of any Idol says Maimonides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Zealots that next met him might immediately kill him without ever bringing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sanhedrim They looked upon themselves as the successors of Phineas who in a mighty passion for the honour of God did immediate execution upon Zimri and Cosbi An act which was counted unto him for righteousness unto all posterities for evermore and God so well pleased with it that he made with him and his seed after him the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for Israel In imitation whereof these Men took upon them to execute judgment in extraordinary cases and that not only by the connivance but with the leave both of the Rulers and the People till in after-times under a pretence of this their zeal degenerated into all manner of licentiousness and wild extravagance and they not only became the Pests of the Commonwealth at home but opened the door for the Romans to break in upon them to their final and irrecoverable ruine they were continually prompting the People to throw off the Roman yoke and vindicate themselves into their native liberty and when they had turned all things into hurry and confusion themselves in the mean while fished in these troubled Waters Josephus gives a large account of them and every where bewails them as the great plague of the Nation He tells us of them that they scrupled not to rob any to kill many of the prime Nobility under pretence of holding correspondence with the Romans and betraying the liberty of their Countrey openly glorifying that herein they were the benefactors and Saviours of the people They abrogated the succession of ancient Families thrusting obscure and ignoble persons into the High-Priests office that so they might oblige the most infamous villains to their party and as if not content to injure men they affronted Heaven and proclaimed defiance to the Divinity it self breaking into and prophaning the most holy place Stiling themselves Zealots says he as if their undertakings were good and honourable while they were greedy and emulous of the greatest wickednesses and out-did the worst of men Many attempts were made especially by Annas the High-Priest to reduce them to order and sobriety But neither force of arms nor fair and gentle methods could do any good upon them they held out and went on in their violent proceedings and joyning with the Idumeans committed all manner of out-rage slaying the
threefold denial had given so much cause to question should now by a threefold confession give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his Master Peter was a little troubled at this frequent questioning of his love and therefore more expresly appeals to our Lord's omnisciency that He who knew all things must needs know that he loved him To each of these confessions our Lord added this signal trial of his affection then Feed my sheep that is faithfully instruct and teach them carefully rule and guide them perswade not compel them feed not fleece nor kill them And so 't is plain S. Peter himself understood it by the charge which he gives to the Guides and Rulers of the Church that they should feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but as examples to the flock But that by feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs here commended to S. Peter should be meant an universal and uncontrollable Monarchy and Dominion over the whole Christian Church and that over the Apostles themselves and their Successors in ordinary and this power and supremacy solely invested in S. Peter and those who were to succeed him in the See of Rome is so wild an inference and such a melting down words to run into any shape as could never with any face have been offered or been possible to have been imposed upon the belief of mankind if men had not first subdued their reason to their interest and captivated both to an implicite faith and a blind obedience For granting that our Lord here addressed his speech only unto Peter yet the very same power in equivalent terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the Apostles and in some measure to the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church As when our Lord told them That all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's flock Rule well inspect and watch over those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and fury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena Mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the slanders of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Gripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides for subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphirak The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the
vacancy in their Colledge lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper-room Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was whether in the house of S. John or of John-Mark's Mother or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites and as Repositories where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up though it be not probable that the Jews and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple I stand not to enquire 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more private exercises of their devotions Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his upper-Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God and Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time Ann. Chr. 1172. the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the Prophet himself built Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-Chamber was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas and such probably this where the Apostles were now met together and in all likelihood the same where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies as we have elsewhere observed more at large Here the Church being met to the number of about CXX Peter as President of the Assembly put them in mind that Judas one of our Lord's Apostles being betrayed by his own covetous and insatiable mind had lately fallen from the honour of his place and ministery that this was no more than what the Prophet had long since foretold should come to pass and that the rule and over-sight in the Church which had been committed unto him should be devolved upon another that therefore it was highly necessary that one should be substituted in his room and especially such a one as had been familiarly conversant with our Saviour from first to last that so he might be a competent witness both of his doctrine and miracles his life and death but especially of his Resurrection from the dead For seeing no evidence is so valid and satisfactory as the testimony of an eye-witness the Apostles all along mainly insisted upon this that they delivered no other things concerning our Saviour to the World than what they themselves had seen and heard And seeing his rising from the Dead was a principle likely to meet with a great deal of opposition and which would hardliest gain belief and entertainment with the minds of men therefore they principally urg'd this at every turn that they were eye-witnesses of his Resurrection that they had seen felt eaten and familiarly conversed with him after his return from the Grave That therefore such an Apostle might be chosen two Candidates were proposed Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias And having prayed that the Divine Providence would immediately guide and direct the choice they cast lots and the lot fell upon Matthias who was accordingly admitted into the number of the twelve Apostles 2. FIFTY days since the last Passeover being now run out made way for the Feast of Pentecost At what time the great promise of the Holy Ghost was fully made good unto them The Christian Assembly being met together for the publick services of their Worship on a sudden a sound like that of a mighty wind rush'd in upon them representing the powerful efficacy of that Divine Spirit that was now to be communicated to them After which there appeared little flames of fire which in the fashion of Cloven Tongues not only descended but sate upon each of them probably to note their perpetual enjoyment of this gift upon all occasions that when necessary they should never be without it not like the Prophetick gifts of old which were conferred but sparingly and only at some particular times and seasons As the seventy Elders prophesied and ceased not but it was only at such times as the Spirit came down and rested upon them Hereupon they were all immediately filled with the Holy Ghost which enabled them in an instant to speak several Languages which they had never learn'd and probably never heard of together with other miraculous gifts and powers Thus as the confounding of Languages became a curse to the old World separating men from all mutual offices of kindness and commerce rendring one part of Mankind Barbarians to another so here the multiplying several Languages became a blessing being intended as the means to bring men of all Nations into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into the fellowship of that Religion that would banish discords cement differences and unite mens hearts in the bond of peace The report of so sudden and strange an action presently spread it self into all corners of the City and there being at that time at Jerusalem multitudes of Jewish Proselytes Devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites or Persians the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea Cappadocia Pontus and Asia minor from Phrygia and Pamphylia from Egypt and the parts of Libya and Cyrene from Rome from Crete from Arabia Jews and Proselytes probably drawn thither by the general report and expectation which had spread it self over all the Eastern parts and in a manner over all places of the Roman Empire of the Jewish Messiah that about this time should be born at Jerusalem they no sooner heard of it but universally flocked to this Christian Assembly where they were amazed to hear these Galileans speaking to them in their own native Languages so various so vastly different from one another And it could not but exceedingly encrease the wonder to reflect upon the meanness and inconsiderableness of the persons neither assisted by natural parts nor polished by education nor improved by use and custom which three things Philosophers require to render a man accurate and extraordinary in any art or discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch Natural disposition without institution is blind instruction without a genius and disposition is defective and exercise without both is lame and imperfect Whereas these Disciples had not one of these to set them off their parts were mean below the rate of the common people the Galileans being generally accounted the rudest and most stupid of the whole Jewish Nation their education had been no higher than to catch Fish and to mend Nets nor had they been used to plead causes or to deliver themselves