ceased then Heresie begun to spring apace among the Christians among whom Iuglers and Impâ—…stors crept in as Euseb. relates who bear the same Name and Title and in shew professed the same Doctrine with them thereby the sooner to insnare the Faithful in the slippery way of Perdition and under pretence of reducing them to the Faith over-whelmed them in the Whirl-pool and deep Dungeon of Damnation What a slander Hereticks were unto Christian Religion Eusebius shews how that some Hereticks taught how that they that would attain unto the Perfection of their Mysteries or rather abominable Devices they were to work such Facts though they were never so filthy otherwise they could not overcome the secular i. e. worldly Potentates unless every one played his part after the secret Operation And through the subtilty of Satan came many thereby to be seduced and great occasion was given to the Infidels to blaspheme against the divine Doctrine and a great slander came to be spread in that the Fame of them was bruted abroad throughout Christendom and by this means it fell out often that the Infidels of those times conceived a wicked absurd and shameful Opinion of the Christians saying That they used the unlawful Company of Mothers and Sisters and that they fed upon the tender Infants and Sucklings How the Christians were threatned and how some were converted by beholding their innocent Sufferings In the Judaical Wars it was commanded that the Christians should be grievously punished except they would renounce Christ and blaspheme God but some were Converted by beholding the patient and innocent Suffering of the Christians from Paganism to Piety as one said for my self saith he delighted with the Doctrine of Plato hearing that the Christians were led captive neither fearing Death nor any Torments which are accounted terrible I thought it could not be that this kind of Men were subject unto Malice and set on Pleasure for what voluptuous Person or intemperate or delighted with devouring of Man's Flesh can so imbrace Death that he be deprived of his desire and not rather endeavour that this may always last that he be able to deceive Princes and not betray himself to death Moreover Iustinus writeth how that Adrianus receiving Letters from a noble President signifying in the behalf of the Christians That it was very injurious that for no Crime but only at the cut-cry of the People they should be brought and Executed An Epistle of Adrian the Emperor who ordered that no Christians should be accused neither suffer without just Cause Unto M. F. Proconsul of Asia Adrian sendeth greeting I received an Epistle from S. G thy Predecessor the occasion whereof I cannot with silence leave untouched least that thereby Men be troubled and a gap left open to the malice of Sycophants that is Talebearers wherefore if your Provincials can prove ought against the Christians whereof they charge them and justifie it before the Bar let them proceed on and not appeach that is accuse or bewray them only for the name with making out-cryes against them For it is very expedient that if any be disposed to accuse the accusation be thoroughly known of you and siftod therefore if any accuse the Christians that they transgress the Laws see that you judge and punish according to the quality of the Offence But in plain words if any upon spite or malice in way of Cavillation complain against them see you chastise him for his Malice and punish him with Revengment Antoninus Pius Epistle in the behalf of the Christians The Emperor Caesar Marcus c. sendeth greeting unto the Commons of Asia I know saith he the Gods are careful to discover hurtful Persons for they punish such as will not worship them more grievously than ye do those whom ye bring in trouble confirming that Opinion which they conceive of you to be wicked and ungodly Men. It is their desire in Gods Quarrel rather to die than to live so that they become Conquerors yielding their lives unto the Death rather than to obey your Edicts It shall seem very necessary to admonish you of the Earth-Quake which have and do happen among us that being therewith moved you may compare our Estate with theirs They have more Confidence to God-wards than you have you during the time of your Ignorance despise other Gods contemn the Religion of the Immortal God Banish the Christians which Worship him and Persecute them unto Death In the behalf of these men many of the Provincial Presidents have Written heretofore unto our Father of Famous Memory whom he Answered in Writing again that they were not to be longer molested unless they had practised Treason aganst the Roman Empire And many have given notice unto us of the same Matter whom we answered as our Father did before us If any therefore hereafter be found thus busied in other Mens affairs we command that the accused be absolute and free tho he be found such an one I mean faulty and that the accuser be grievously Punished This Ediâ—…t was Proclaimed at Ephesus in the hearing of that great Assembly of Asia An Extract out of the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna unto all the Congregations of the Holy Catholick Church throughout Pontus Mercy Peace and the Love of God the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied We have written unto you Brethren of such as suffered Martyrdom The beholders of them were amazed seeing their Flesh rent with Scourges even unto the Inner Veins and Sinews so that the most secret Entrails of their Bodies their Bowels and inward Privities were piteously to be seen beholding again the sharp Shells of Sea-fish and pibble Stones strowed under the Martyrs Backs and bruised Bodies with every kind of Torment that could be devised last of all they were thrown to be torn in pieces and devoured of Wild Beasts But there was a certain Phrygian by Name Quintus that trembled at the fierce Rage of the terrible Beasts and shrinked at the sight of their grim Visage and betrayed his own safety with slackness of Courage for the same Epistle testifieth of him that he personally appeared together with the rest before the Bar more of rashness than of any Religion and being taken he publickly professed That none ought to intrude himself among such Men without good Devotion neither to intermeddle in matters wherewith he hath not to do The same Chapters sheweth how that after Polycarpus was apprehended he was brought to the City upon an Ass on the great Sabbath day And a Justice of Peace with his Father meeting him they received him into their Chariot and perswaded him saying What harm is it to say Lord Caesar to sacrifice and so be saved At the first he answered nothing but when they urged him he said I will not condescend unto your Counsel They perceiving he would not be perswaded gave him very rough Language and tumbled him down out of the Wagon and afterwards he was brought upon the Theatre or Stage and when the Multitude saw him
AN ABRIDGMENT OF Eusebius Pamphilius's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN TWO PARTS Part I. A Compendious Commemoration of the Remarkablest Chronologies which are Contained in that Famous History Part II. A Summary or brief Hint of the Twelve Persecutions sustained by the Antient Christians with a Compendious Paraphrase upon the same Whereunto is Added a Catalogue of the Synods and Councels which were after the days of the Apostles together with a hint of what was Decreed in the same By WILLIAM CATON Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked as saith the Proverb of the Antients 1 Sam. 24. 13. The Second Ed. with larg Editions by another hand LONDON Printed for Francis Holden in the Passage going into White-Hart-Yard in Lombard-street 1698. To his well Beloved Friends the CHRISTIAN QUAKERS In ENGLAND or else where William Caton Your dear Brother in the Truth wisheth that Mercy and Peace with every good and perfect gift necessary for your Salvation and Consolation may be plenteously multiplied among you from God the Father of our Lord Jesus-Christ My Beloved SInce I have heard of your manifold Tribulations and frequent Sufferings which of late have befallen you in your Native Country my heart hath often been filled with heaviness not only â—hrough the Report which plenteously have had thereof but much rather â—hrough the sensible feeling which I have â—ad of the same well my Friends this the day which we have looked for having foreseen its coming in the light the Lord and therefore did some of thâ—… Brethren often put you in mind of it 〈◊〉 I believe many of you can testifie Aâ—… since this gloomy and dark day came upoâ—… the Nation I know your tryals have beeâ—… sharp your burthens many your Tribulations great and your Temptations noâ—… a sew Yet Nevertheless many of our Ancestors who have striven for the same Faitâ—… and suffer for the same Truth for whicâ—… you suffer at present have endured a greâ—…ter fight of Torments Exilements and mâ—… terrible Afflictions then as yet you havâ—… sustained as may in part appear by this foâ—…lowing Treatise yet in their days the firâ—… had a time to kindle before it brok oâ—… into such a vehement and consuming flame in which many of the Antient believing Christians were tryed and their faith and patience thereby exercised and when thâ—… Lord had sufficiently proved and tryeâ—… his jewels as in a fiery Furnace then the vigor of the fire ceased the flame came to be quenched and then the jewels they were gathered spared and treasured up in thâ—… Closset of the Lord's Sanctuary where neither moth rust nor thief could in any wise enter This seems to be a day of your eternal trouble my dearly beloved wherein your Faith and Patience must be yet tryed as in a Furnace of hot persecution and surely the flames thereof have lowed and blazed already about you though as yet it doth not appear that the vehemency thereof hath so much as scorched that vesture wherewith the Lord had adorned you although the fury of man's wrath and indignation hath been greater against you that would not fall down to worship then against many Malefactors and Truce-breakers but O will not the Lord open their eyes that they may see that through the fiery indignation of their wrath and jealousie were kindled seventy times hotter than ever it hath been against any others yet shall it not be able to consume your Faith nor to burn that garment wherewith your God hath arrayed you would they but see this I know they would stand Astonished yea and fall down in submission to the power of God in the light of his Son to worship him with you O ye worshippers of the only true God who can bow to no Imagâ—… that is formed in the likeness of the true faith true worship true Religion but is it not that which it resembleth neither Conform to or obey any Decree which enjoyneth you to act contrary to the Righteous and Royal Law which God the Father hath put in your hearts neither can purchase any freedom or liberty by fraud guile Treachery falshood or deceit surely your liberty shall be glorious your reward shall be great and your Fame and Renown shall spread among the Godly and upright who when they hear of your Constancy and Fidelity will be glad and rejoyce therein and offer sacrifice of Praise unto the Highest on your behalf with me Wherefore my dearly beloved lift up the heads that droop and the hands that hang down yea strengthen the mind that is fee ble and cheer up the heart that is heavy and sad for your Redeemer is at hand and his salvation is very nigh yet not withstanding his pleasure may be farther to try you that for the future you may be more Precious in his sight and his delight may be more and more in you who above many of the Children of this world have obtained great favour in his sight O loose not loose not the same but rather grow and increase therein to the enriching of your souls with the Coelestial or heavenly Treasure which will remain when that which is uncertain is vanished and gone I have here Composed a little Treatise which Consisteth chiefly of a Cloud of witnesses who have been ingaged in the same case for which you now suffer spoyling of your goods the external Ruin of some of your families Estates the deprivation of your liberties and what not And now through perusing of the same you may behold as in a glass what the Antient Christians have suffered first by the Jews secondly by the Gentiles or heathen and finally by false Christians yet I do believe that the notion of these things to some will be but as the shell to the kernel or as the chaff to the wheat in comparison of that Internal sweet joy comfort and living refreshment which I do not doubt but that many of you plentiously injoy yea even in the heat of these troublesome and Perilous times This same Abridgment of Remarkable things which I have found upon Record I have thought good to Dedicate unto you in as much as you above many in the nation are aquainted with the Christian suffering state and condition who heretofore have been men of sorrows and well acquainted with grief as by that which followeth will more palpably and evidently appear Let not the Innocent and simple be offended at it because it is extracted out of some Ecclesiastical Histories For this I say that many Frivolous Histories which frequently are perused by such as are Prone and inclining to that wisdom and knowledge which is from below are not to be compared to this for they being oft-times Stuffed with forged fables and lying tales they stir up the vain light frothy minds in people but the perusing of this which I have here Collected will rather stir up zeal love and tenderness to the truth and such as now suffer for it as the Antient Christians heretofore have done Moreover through the viewing over
these alone but especially the wantonness and rudness folly and naughtiness of my School fellows that also became grievous unto me at times and a dread and fear was upon me when I minded the Lord that I durst not run with them to folly and wantonness as I had done before So that when they have gone to play I have retired my self into some private place to ponder upon the things which the Lord put into my heart And when with a retired mind and upright heart I came in sincerity to wait upon the Lord then came my Soul to feel some secret Communion with him and to receive some Crummes of living Refreshment from him and then was I joyful in him at night whereas formerly I had sorrow and heaviness by reason of my folly and wantonness But then again at other times when I neglected waiting upon the Lord in the Light of his Son in my heart and that I came to be entiâ—…ed by my School-fellows or some of them to go with them too or to joyn with them in or partake with them of one vanity or another And some time rather then I would displease them or one especially unto whom I was then obliged I have consenâ—…ed to their request and some time I have seemed to be cheerful and merry among them in the time of our pastime when it was more in Appearance than in my heart that being smitten and I inwardly wounded for my folly and vanity unto which I had condescended yet I allowed not of it nevertheless that which I the Light hated and would not that I that was born in sin did and â—…mbraced and even then a good desire was present with me in my heart but how to perform it knew not otherwise then through the Cross yet on these daies when I did well through keeping in the fear of the Lord then was it well with me but when I condescended to evil and was thereby overcome inwardly and outwardly then was my troubles and sorrow great and my stripes many and that in the daies of my youth but since I have seen it to be the everlasting love of God to me These things I rehearse unto you whereby you may understand how the Lord dealt with me and how it was with me while I was yet a Scholar to the end that you may somewhat the better know how to behave your selves I mean you that are tender among them that are wild and rude in Schools where you are Appointed to learn and to be instructed Moreover dear Children I have considered how that many of you are naturally Inclining to knowledge and understanding in the things which are Laudable or worthy of praise among juditious men And these things which I have here Composed being worthy not only of Recording but also of perusing I have thought them very fit for you to Learn or read at home and at Schools yea fitter then other writings which are hard to be understood and beyond your weak Childish Capacity to Comprehend for the much reading of such deep things which you can not perceive nor Comprehend doth rather dull your understanding then enliven your senses and rather mitigates your desires then kindles your inclinations to Reading and Learning But as for many of those things which I have here published they are so worthy to be looked into and the knowledge of them may be so good and profitable that after you are entred into the reading of them your desires may be augmented or enlarged not only to look over part of them but even to see the end and Conclusion of them that henceforth they may be retained by you in your minds that when you see things fall out of the same nature in this your age then you may remember hâ—…w that many of our Ancestors have suffered and sustained a great Fight of sore Afflictions And that the same you may Communicate to your Children that they also may hear of them and Learn them For Irenaeus in his Epistle to Florinus said I remember better the things of old then the Affairs of Late for the things we Learn in our Childhood sink farther into our minds and grow together with us Euseb. Lib. 5. Ch. 18. Now for your furtherance and profit O Little Children have I in part taken some what the more time in this matter that so I might explain and interpret the most hard words I met withal In this Abridgment and that as I found them that you might understand them even as you read them for I believe there are but few of the School-masters that do teach those Children that do only read English rightly to understand such hard words when they meet with them in their Lessons as you may find in this following Treatise explained And thus may you know my interpretation of them which I have Commonly written in a Parenthesis as for example Let the whole Clergy mourn i. e. Bishops Priests Deacons or the whole number of them that take upon them the Ministry Again the Antient Christians were forbidden formerly to hold Conventicles i. e. private Assemblies or meetings that are small in which there is Plotting and Conspiring against the Powers or that are for other evil ends such are commonly called Conventicles These two Letters i. e. serve for id est which is as much as to say that is likewise in the margent of the first Part of my Book you may often find Lib. and a certain figure with it as Lib. 4. know ye O Little Children that Lib. serves for Liber which by interpretation is a Book as Lib. 4. the forth Book And Ch. serves for Chapter and such as the figure is that followes Ch such is the Chapter as Lib. 4. Ch. 15. that is the fourth Book and fifteenth Chapter Moreover the use of the Index or Table is this Suppose you would know something concerning the Christians formerly whether of their Prosperity or Sufferings Then turn to the Table which I have placed in the begining of the First Part of my Book and see for the Letter C which when you have found then see in what Book or Chapter that is to be found which you desire to see And then and there with very little trouble when you come to understand my directions aright may you find the thing So that the choicest things in the first part of my book may you soon find out by the help of the Index if your time will not permit you to look through the whole Yet this ought you to note that the aforesaid Index serves only to the former part of my book in which some of the things contained in the latter part are to be found more at Large And as concerning the Twelve Persecutions which I have here inserted they are so exceeding largly Treated on in the Book of Martyrs that there are but few that will take the pains to look them through nor not many of the Vulgar or Common sort of people that will or can
well buy them they being of such high prices And again they being locked up in Chaines in Steeple-houses and so in the Custody often times of Persecutors where you can have little bénefit by them therefore was there the more necessity of such an Abridgment as this which will neither cost much mony to buy it nor yet very much paines to reà d it As for the Martyers that have Suffered in our own Nation formerly I have scarce medled with them their Sufferings being yet fresh in the remembrance of many and may yet be brought up fresher into the remembrance of many through the present lingering Martyrdom which may become more sharp and bloody if a high hand prevent it not Wherefore Record Record as with a pen of iron and as with a point of a Diamond the noble observations and transactions of this Age which your eyes O ye Little Children shall see and behold let them be told to your Childrens Children In the mean time O you little ones mind you the fear of the Lord and be not you intangled in or with the snare of Satan though he would give you all the glory of the world yea and all that which your eyes in the world can behold which may as truly now be Accounted Vanity of Vanitis yea and all to be concluded to be Vanity as in the daies of Solomon who said that all things under the Sun were vanity and vexation of Spirit One thing more must I add as a very testimony indeed of truth unto you towards whom my bowels yearnes and that is this the sooner that you take up the Cross the lighter will it be for you the sooner that you stoop under the yoak the easier it will be for you the sooner you imbrace the Truth the more natural it will become unto you And the sooner that you forsake the Divel and all his works together with the world and the pomp and vanity thereof the easier it will be for you and the more blessed and happy will you become These things as my own experience do I commit unto you in as much as in the daies of my youth I obtained great mercy from the hand of my God through whose unspeakable Love I am at times constrained to intreat and perswade them that yet are young to learn the fear of the Lord and the perfect knowledge of his way into which God Almighty of his infinit love bring all you whose eyes may see and hands handle this same book that every one of you in your Generation may become faithful and true witnesses in your Generation unto him who is your Creator and who created you to serve him in righteousness and true holiness in the Creation therefore I say again remember him in the days of your youth and love him with all your hearts who gives you life and breath and thorugh whose blessing you obtain food and raiment that when your Parents have finished their testimony and sealed it with their blood that then you their off spring may stand up in the name strength and power of our God to the bearing of your faithful testimony to and for the same blessed Cause for which many of your dear Parents at this day do suffer And if it be the good will and pleasure of our God to honour any of them with Banishment or to Crown any of them with Martyrdom as he hath done many of his pretious Saints before them be you therewith Content without murmuring against the Lord or entertaining a revengful spirit in your hearts And peradventer that you shall in your days see him repay to whom vengeance belongs who hath said unto his seed and off-spring I will never leave thee nor forsake thee This faithful Creator is he unto whom you must look and unto whom you must come then will he not leave you comfortless though you be deprived of many external comforts yet behold O ye dear little ones he hath enough reserved in store for to comfort and refresh you withal if you love him and keep his commandments yea and all the Comfortless that come unto him who is said to be A father to the fatherless A comforter of the comfortless with whom there is mercy that he may be feared to whose disposing and protection I commend you wishing your good success and prosperity in all vertue and in every goodwork farewel dear Children Your Real and entire Friend W. C. Rotterdam in Holland the 6 of the 3 Mo. 1661. A FATHER'S ADVISE TO HIS CHILD OR THE MAIDENS BEST ADORNING Being a Directory for Youth Setting forth the greatest Beauty by a Holy Conversation DEar Child these words which briefly I declare Let them not hang like Jewels in thine ear But in the secret Closet of thy heart Safe lock 'em up that they may n'er depart Give first to God the flower of thy Youth Take for thy guide the blessed Word of Truth Adorn thy self with Grace prize Wisdom more Than all the Pearls upon the Indian shore Think not to live still free from grief and sorrow The man that laughs to day may weep to morrow Nor dream on Joys unmixed here below The fragrant Roses on the thorn do grow Scorn the deluding world that most bewitches And place thy hope in everlasting riches Make room for Christ let not so base a guess As Earth have any lodging in thy breast Bad company as deadly poyson shun Thousands by that are ruin'd and undone The giddy multitude still go a stray Turn from the broad and chuse the narrow way Keep Death and Judgment always in thine Eye Non's sit to live but who are fit to dye Make use of present time because thou must Shortly take up thy lodging in the dust 'T is dreadful to behold a settin Sun And night appearing e're our work be done Let not thy winged days be spent in vain When gone no gold will call 'em back again Strive to subdue thy sin when first beginning Custom when once confin'd is strangly winning Be much at Prayer it is the begging trade By which true Christians are the richest made Of meditation get the blessed art And often search thy own deceitful heart Fret not nor envy at thy neighbours wealth Preferment beauty Learning strength or health Abhor the lying tongue vile fraud detest Plain hearted men by Providence are blest Take heed of Idleness that cursed nurse And mother of all vice ther 's nothing worse And fly from pride high hills are barren found But lowly vallies with Christ fruits are crownd Short sinful pleasures and delights eschue Eternal Torments are their wages due I' th race of temperance run and always keep A mean in eating drinking and in sleep Nor costly Garments weare let men admire Thy person most and not thy rich attire Lay treasures that are good up in thy heart Which by discourse thou wisely mayst impart To profit others holy thoughts within Will guide thy tongue and guard thy lips from sin Learn to
have died in Prison as some did in the aforesaid Persecution where they-Sealed their Testimony with their Blood as many have done before them And sometimes it hath hapened that Affliction hath been added to the Bonds of some of the true Christians when they have told a Judge or an Inferior Officer that Malefactors have had more freedom and liberty then they and more favour shewn them by such as were in place of Trust and this hath been manifest enough in many parts of the Nation as is well knowd to many The Fifth Persecution IN the year 201. did the fifth Persecution begin under the Emperor Severus which was hence in part occasioned to wit when the Emperor had a War and had gotten the Victory the Christians kept themselves Still without making tokens of Joy with Fires or May-polls or other Triumphs according to the manner of the Heathen Whereupon they accused the Christians out of Envy as if they had despised and hated the Emperour and the rather because the Christians would not Swear by his Fortune Again they reported that the Christians blew out their Candles in their Meeting in the Evenings and that they did behave themselves unseemly one towards another so that the Christians were despised of almost all Something to this purpose Tertullian rehearseth saying The Heathen accused the Christians of Meeting together to Sacrifice a Child and after they had taken away his Life in a Barbarous Superstition that then they committed Incest i. e. Carnal knowledge betwixt near Kindred they also added That the Christians had Doggs which served to overthrow the Candles and loosing all shame in taking the Lights from them and covering their Actions under the vaile of Darkness Emboldened them to seek the use of Ungodly and Sacrilegious i. e. Abominable pleasures Again said he The Christians were accused of Sacriledge i. e. an abusing of Sacraments or Holy Misteryes for they did not Solemnize with the Heathen the days they Feasted on in Honour to the Emperours with all kind of Beastly Ceremonies Repugnant i. e. contrary to the Christians Modesty Chastity and Purity In those days it was a manner among the Christians not to go to any Comedies or Stage-Plays for they understood that if they did forsake the Devil and all his Works with the World that then they must forsake Comedies and Stage-plays Moreover the Christians said We renounce i. e. resign or refuse your Shews as we condemn their divers Originals by the knowledge we have that they are effects of Superstition and Idolatry c. Note Doth it not from hence plainly appear that the Tokens of Triumph which are used by Anti-Christians in England are Heathenish Inventions and Traditions in which many have been found of late who profess themselves to be Christians Did not many of our English People who glory so much of Christianity make Bone-fires so called set up May-poles and In and With such like Heathenish Inventions Tryumph when the King was Proclaimed when he came to London and when he was Crowned And did not then the true Christians that Feared the Lord keep themselves Still and Quiet like unto the antient Christians And were not they judged to be Enemies to the King and Despisers of him because they did not run with the Multitude to the like excess of Vanity But renounced their Idolatrous Superstitious Shewes which many did not only produce upon the times before mentioned but which are produced by Popishly affected Anti-christians upon their Popish Holy but rather Prophane Days and upon their Mayor Days even like unto the Heathen whose manner was to set forth such vain Shews upon the days on which they Feasted in whose practise the Anti-Christians are now found who also are offended as the Heathen were when they that fear the Lord do not observe their days and times which they or the Heathen have appointed to be Solemnized which sometime they spend in Voluptuousness Fulness and Excess with all kind of Beastly Ceremonies as Tertullian well calls them which are now indeed as disagreeing and contrary to Christians Modesty Chastity and Purity as the Ceremonies were which the Heathen joyned the Christians to observe Moreover the true Christians have been the rather supposed to be Evilly affected to the KING and to be despisers of him because they can no more take the Oaths of Allegance i. e. Obedience of a Subject to his Prince and Supremay i. e. chief Authority then the Christians heretofore could swear by the Emperours Fortune for the true Christians now are of Basilides mind who said It did not become him to swear because he was a Christian neither would it become them now to do that which their Lord and Master hath forbid who said Swear not at all Again Have not the true Christians been also upbraided with such false Accusations as if they put out their Candles and did behave themselves uncivilly in the Evening Meetings but let such as have thus falsly accused them see in whose steps and practise they are found Moreover it appears that it was the practise of the Heathen to have Comedies or Stage-Playes but the Christians manner then was not to go to them and behold it is not the manner now of Antichristians to have Comedies but the manner of the good Christians is not to come at them except it be to bear a Testimony against them wherefore may not even little Children judge that they who have their Comedies for their pastime at set times and appointed places that such are in the nature and practise of the Heathen who derided the Christians and said Their pleasures were not the Christians and therefore they had Reason to reject the things which pleased them as they said even as Anti-Christians now reject Piety and Godliness which pleaseth the true Christians who have pleasure in the Lord and not in Unrighteousness in which the Apostatized Christians now take pleasure as the Heathen herefore have done The Sixth Persecution IN the year 237. did the Sixth Persecution under the Emperour Maximinus arise who partly out of Envy to his Kinsman Alexander who had been favourable to the Christians did persecute the Christians In which persecution there were many put to death For the Heathen in those days were so spiteful against the Christians that when there was an Earth-Quake or a storm or the like they laid the blame upon the Christians saying Their Gods were Angry because their Honour went to nothing through the Christians This Emperour did not Raign very long therefore did this Persecution cease the sooner Note The same spirit of Envy which was in the Heathen hath often appeared in the Anti-Christians against the true Christians in these latter days who have boren a faithful Testimony against the vain Honour of false Christians which must be brought to nothing by the Power and People of God even as the Honour of the Gods of the Heathen was brought to nothing by the Antient-Christians
indicting himself for this Fact and pleading Guilty when the blood of thy Martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the Raiment of them that Slew him Acts 22. 20. God chiefly inspects the Heart and if the Vote be passed there writes the man Guilty though he stur no farther in all moral Actions God values the will for the deed the storm thus increased apace and a violent persecution began to arise in which our Apostle was a prime Agent and Minister Raging about in all Parts with a mad and ungoverned Zeal searching for the Saints beating some imprisoning others and procuring them to be put to death indeed he was a kind of Inquisitor imployed to hunt and find out these upstart Hereticks accordingly took a Warrant and Commission to go down to Damascus in fury and a misguided Zeal whether many of those persecuted Christians had fled for shelter but God who had designed him for a work of another nature and separated him from his Mother's womb to the Preaching of the Gospel stopt him in his journey as Acts 22. 9. and he fell unto the ground and heard a voice saying Saul Saul why Persecutest thou me and he went to Damascus another man from a Persecutor he became one of the Persecuted from hence he Traveled to Arabia and spent three years in the Ministery there and then retunned to Damascus a great and populus City from hence he went to Ierusalem and converst with Peter and Iames it was at Antioch about the beginning of Claudious's Reign ten years after Christ's Ascension where the Desiples was first called Christians being usually stiled before Nazarens from Jerusalem he set Sail to Cyprus and planted Christianity there and now the Old Spirit of the Iews did begin to hunt and persue them who coming from Antioch and Iconium exasperated and stired up the multitude and they who just before accounted them as Gods used them not only worse then men but slaves for in a mighty Rage they fell upon Paul stoned him and as they thought Dead and then drag'd him out of the City where the Christians of that place coming probable to Inter him he suddenly Revived and Rose up among them and the next day went hence to Debe and so Traveled to several places to Confirm the new planted Church he was Imprisoned and Ill-used at Phylippi His Parents were Tent Makers by Trade Preaching Christ at Jerusalem Italy Spain Labouring much among the Gentiles suffered at Rome under Nero as he was leading to Execution it is said Three of the Soulders that Guarded him seeing his Courage become Christians and suffered Death he kneeled down and his head strucken off with a Sword as some write in the 68 year of his Age and was buried with Peter The description of his Person He was a Man said to be of Low and tittle Stature and somewhat stooping his Complection fair his Countenance grave his head small his Eyes carried a kind of beauty and sweetness in them that he was Low himself plainly intimates when he tells us they were wont to say of him that his bodily person was weak and his speech contemptable in which respect he is stiled by Chrysostom a Man Three Cubits or a little more than four Foot high and yet tall enough to reach Heaven The Life of Andrew HIstory which hath hitherto been very Large and Copius in describing the Acts of the two first Apostles is hence forward very sparing in its accounts giving us only now and then a few oblique and accidental Remarks concerning the Rest and some of them no farther mentioned than the meer recording of their Names for what Reason it pleased the divine Wisdom and Providence that no more of their Acts should be consigned to writing by the Pen Men of Old is to us unknown Andrew was Born at Bethsaida a City of Galile standing upon the bank of the Lake of Genesareth Son to John or Jonas a Fisher-man of that Town Brother he was to Simon Peter he had Scythia and the Neighbouring Country primary alloted him for his Provinces first then he Traveled through Cappadocia Galatia and Bithynia and Instructed them in the Faith of Christ. Passing all along the Euxine Seas formerly called Axenus from the Barbarous and Inhospitable temper of the People who were wont to sacrificed strangers and of their Skulls make Cups to drink in at their Feasts and Banquets he was brought before the Proconsul who perswaded him that he would not foolishly destroy himself but live and injoy with him the pleasures of this Life the Apostle after many more words replyed that now he saw it was in vain any longer to deal with him a person incapable of sober Counsel and hardened in his on blindness and folly he might now 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 suffering for Christ the more acceptable he should be to his Lord and Master the Procounsul first Commanded him to be scourged seven lashes successively whipping his naked body and seeing his invincable 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 the more lingering 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 being come within sight of the Cross he saluted it with this kind adress that he had long desired and expected that happy hour thus having prayed and exhorted the People to constancy and perceverance in that Relgion 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 was used to the Proconsul to spare his Life he earnestly begs of the Lord that he might at this time depart and seal the Truth of his Religion with his blood God heard his prayers and he immediately expired in the 9th month though in what year no certain account can be Recorded his Body being taken down and Embalmed was decently and honourably Interred by Maximilla a Woman of great Quality and Estate JAMES The Son of Zebede a Fisher-man by Birth a Galilean suppos'd to be one of the Brethren that their Mother asked that one might sit at the right hand and the other at the left hand of Jesus in his Kingdom he Preach't Christ unto the 12 Tribes some write that he came to Spain and other Western parts and also Britain Ireland he was slain with a Sword by Herod the Tetrach of the Jews in Judaea where he was buried JOHN The Brother of James by Birth a Galilean Preach't Christ in Asia coming near Rome was accused to the Emperor as an Assertor of Athesim and Subvertor of the Religion of the Empire whereupon he was sent bound to Rome and put into a Coldron
of this a litteral knowledge may in part be obtained of the Fruits Doctrines Principles and Practises of the Apostatized Christians after their degeneration of their Synods and Counsels and what they Decreed of the temptations and provocations which they had who retained their integrity both from the Heathen and from the false Christians and how sad and lamentable their conditions were that did not continue faithful which may serve for examples to such among you beloved as are inconstant and of a doubtful mind let them look upon Origen and hear what he saith in his lamentation after his fall and let them consider the Faith and patience of such as chuseth rather to die than they would swear or sacrifice renounce the faith or deny their Lord and Master and therefore were some torn in pieces of wild beasts some Crucified some beheaded some stoned to death some stifled some fryed or Rosted some burned to ashes some hanged some brained some had their eyes pulled out and the empty place seared with a hot Iron some were drowned in the Sea some fettered and famished to death in noysome Prisons and dungeons Oh the torments that they endured are hard to be uttered and that about the exercise of their Conscience and the worship of their God And truly I must tell you O beloved that I was constrained to lay those things before you that if peradventure they might in any wise tend to the Confirming and strengthening of the faith of some to the forewarning of others of shrinking in the time of tryal and to the strengthening of the hands of the weak and feeble against their Persecutors who also hereby may see what judgment and misery came upon sundry of their Persecuting fore-fathers so that in my judgment it may be of use not only to you who are persecuted but also to your oppressors and persecutors who now persist in their wickedness and impiety as if they should never come to judgment for the same well my dearly beloved be not you discomforted and cast down in your spirits because the wicked is set up and the ungodly prospers in his ways and the workers of iniquity they are counted happy yet it was not thus in the beginning neither shall it allways so continue for the Lord our God in his due time will strik the hook into the jaw of the Leviathan so that he shall be Restrained and the pure and upright in heart shall be delivered out of his paw and snare into the glorious liberty of the Children of God wherefore let none be afraid who are called to follow the lamb in this Notable day for I am perswaded that Tribulation nor Persecution Exilment nor Banishment Fire nor Sword things present nor things to come though all these do come shall not be able to seperate us from that love which we are made partakers of in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom I bid you farewel my dearly beloved A GENERAL EPISTLE FOR Young Schoollars and LITTLE CHILDREN Dear Children REmember Your Creator and the end wherefore you were Created now in the day of your Youth before you grow Old in Sin and take rooting in corrupt ground of Unighteousness incline your hearts to Holiness and to the Fear of the Lord that you may abound in wisdom and knowledge learn you to know a tender principle in your hearts to teach and instruct you to withhold and restrain you from Folly and Wantonness from frivolous or vain Gaming and Sporting your selves with idle Toyes and unprofitable Playes which do not only strengthen that which is thereunto addicted in your selves but doth toyle and weary your tender bodies And when you sit down at night some times hungry and often weary consider then what you have reaped by your Playes Sports and Pastimes have you not thereby some time provoked your Tutors to Wrath and Anger against you for neglecting of your Books and Learning have you not also offended and grieved your Parents by your neglect of your business and imployment And then you being sencible of your Fault and Transgression the shew of your Countenance that witnesseth against you and inwardly you are perplexed and terrified partly through fear of your Tutors and partly through fear of your Parents when through your Folly you have procured their Displeasure and then are you afraid of Chastisement now if for the time to come you would be freed from this fear do that which is good by being diligent and keeping in the fear of the Lord and then shall you obtain Praise and Commendation both of your Parents and Tutors Again O Children when you are together whether in Families Schools or else where be not Wild Rude Brutish nor provoke not one another to Folly and Wantonness but be Sober Gentle Meek and Civil and let the Fear of the Lord be before your eyes least you sall into Condemnation And you that are of a Mild Gentle and Tender Nature who seel something in your Hearts restraining you from the Evil which abounds among your fellows if you cannot get dominion over it while you are with them then separate your selves from them at convenient seasons and pertake not with them in their Wantonness in their Folly Plays Sports and Pastimes but rather betake your selves to your Books or in some retired place to wait upon the Lord And if they that be Wild and Wanton through their play and wantonness do get Recreation to their Bodies you through your stillness and waiting upon the Lord shall get Refreshment to their Souls in which you shall have joy and pleasure when they shall be ashamed of their folly and have trouble and sorrow for the same When I was A School boy I was for many years as much inclined to wantonness and play as my Fellows though sometime I was enticed and drawn by them into things which I knew then certainly to be evil and contrary to the tender principle of God in my Conscience yet rather than I would be behind them in their wonton childish follies and thereby have come to have been jeered and derided by them I chused rather at that time to run with them to the same excess of vanity though I knew for certain I ought not to have done it and when for the same I came to be corrected by my Tutor and judged of the Lord I was made to confess that it was just and that I had justly deserved the same Afterwards through the mercy and goodness of the Lord I came to be farther Illuminated or enlightned before I left the School And come to have a perfect sense of true judgment being set up in my heart And then I came to be filled with Sorrow and Heaviness for the loss of my mispent pretious time and the Sins of my Youth even while I was yet a youth were brought exceeding fresh into my remembrance and became in those daies my great burthen and withal in those daies my study and learning became also burthensome and not
a true Testimony wishing that the Declaration of such things had been Printed in their Books which were done at the first Preaching of Christ. Iohn passeth over with silence the Genealogy i. e. of the Birth or Pedigree of our Saviour according unto the flesh being before amply laid down by Matthew and Luke and beginning with his Divinity reserved of the Holy Ghost for him as the Mightier The cause why Mark wrote his Gospel we have declared before And Luke in the beginning of his History sheweth the occasion of his writing signifying that divers now had already imployed their diligent care to the setting forth of such things as he was fully perswaded of necessarily delivering us from the doubtful opinion of others when by his Gospel he declareth unto us the sure and certain Narration of such things whereof he had received the Truth sufficiently Concerning the Books of the New Testament It shall also be Convenient saith Easebins if in this place we Collect briefly the Books of the New Testament In the first place must be set the fourfold writings of the Evangelists next the Acts of the Apostles then the Epistles of Paul are to be added after these the first of Iohn and that of Peter which are Authentick that is undeniable or approved of all Lastly if you please the Revelation of Iohn all these are received for undoubted The Books which are gainsaid though well known unto many are these the Epistle of Iames the Epistle of Iude the later of Peter the second and third of Iohn whether they were Iohn the Evangelists or some others of the same name Divers do number the Gospel to the Hebrews among them that were disallowed which was used especially of them which received Christ of the Hebrews Of Nicolas and his Sect. Concerning Nieolas of whom the Revelation of Iohn makes mention it is Written of him that he was one of the Dâ—…acons Ordained together with Stephen by the Apostles to Minister unto the Poor but thus it is Written of him This Nicolas having a Beautiful Woman to his Wife after the Ascention of our Saviour was accused of Jealousie and to clear himself of that Crime he brought forth his Wife and permitted him that listed to Marry her But his followers say that their doing is agreeable with that saying that is the Flesh is to be Bridled And so following that doing and saying without all discretion they Sin without all shame in filthy Fornication Concerning Iohn and Philip with his Daughters it was wrote thus by Policrates unto the Bishop of Rome for in Asia said he the great Founders of Christian Religion died who shall rise the last day at the coming of the Lord when he shall come from Heaven with Glory to gather all the Saints Philip one of the twelve Apostles was Buryed at Hierapolis and two of his Daughters which led their Lives in Virginity And Iohn who leaned on the Breast of our Saviour rested at Ephesus The Martyrdom of Simeon the Bishop Simeon the second Bishop of Ierusalem being accused for being a Christian was scourged several days and when he was a Hundred and Twenty years Old he suffered Martyrdom Anno Dom. 110. It is reported that unto those times the Church of God remained a Pure and Uncorrupted Virgin for such as endeavoured to corrupt the perfect Rule and the Sound Preaching of the Word if then there were any such hid themselves unto that time in some secret and obscure place but after that the sacred Company of the Apostles was worn out and come to an end and that Generation was wholly spent which by special Favour had heard with their Ears the Heavenly Wisdom of the Son of God then the Conspiracy of detestable Error through deceipt of such as delivered strange Doctrine took rooting And because that not one of the Apostles survived they Published boldly with all might possible the Doctrine of Falsehood and Impugned that is resisted or assaulted the open manifest known Truth How Plinius Secundus wrote to the Emperour in the Christians behalf Under Trajan the Emperour there was a grievous Persecution of the Christians and it seems that Plinius Secundus a notable president was stirred up to write unto the Emperour in the Christians behalf who wrote as followeth saying That he found nothing in them that was Impious or Wicked but that they refused the Worship ing of Images signifying this withal that the manner of the Christians was to rise before day to Celebrate Christ as God and to the end their Discipline might strictly be observed they forbid sheding of Blood Adultery Fraud Trayterous dealing and such like And for answer hereunto the Emperour wrote again That there should be no Inquisition for Christians but if they were met with they should be Punished Through which meanes the grievous Persecution was somewhat qualified yet nevertheless there was scope enough left for such as were willing to Afflict them Concerning Ignatius his Valour and Courage It is reported that one Ignatius Bishop of Antioch was sent from Syria to Rome for the Confession of his Faith to be Food for Wild Beasts who passing through Asia curiously Guarded with a great Troop of Keepers confirmed the Congregations throughout every City where he came with Preaching the Word of God and Wholsome Exhortations and specially giving charge to avoid the Heresies lately sprung and at that time overflowing c. And in his Journey he wrot unto several Churches saying I strive with beasts by Sea by Land nights and days fettered among ten I eopards that is a band of Souldiers And the more they receive the worse they become I thus exercised with their Injuryes am the more Instructed yet hereby am I not justified Now do I begin to be a Diciple I weigh neither visible nor Invisible things so that I gaine Christ let Fire Gallowes Violence of Beasts bruising of the Bones Racking of the Members stamping of the whole Body and all the Plagues invented by the mischief of Satan light upon me so that I win Christ-Jesus This he wrot from Syria to the Churches Concerning Mark the Evangelist Eusebius rehearseth one thing touching Mark the Evangelist as followeth The elder meaning Iohn said Mark the Interpreter of Peter look what he remembred that diligently he wrot not in that order in which the Lord spake and did them neither was he the hearer and follower of the Lord but of Peter who delivered his Doctrine not by way of Exposition but as necessity constrained so that Mark offended nothing in that he wrote as he had before committed to Memory Of this one thing was he fearful in omitting nothing of that he had heard and in delivering that was false Concerning Matthew it is thus written Matthew wrote his Book in the Hebrew Tongue which every one after his skili Interpreted by Allegations The Fourth BOOK OF EUSEBIUS When Heresie crept into the Church WHen Persecution
hainous offences he should become Fortunate so that he became a deadly foe unto the Catholick i. e. Universal or General Christian Faith under which was raised the Eighth Persecution against the Christians Of Dionysius constancy and fidelity in the time of Tryaly of his Banishment and Suffering In as much saith Dionysius as it is commendable to conceal the secrecy of the King and Glorious to publish abroad the Works of God forthwith then will I shew the willfulness of Germanus a Bishop who at times Backbited Dion I came unto Aemilianus with some of the Brethren And Aemil. said not unto me specially raise no Conventicle i. e. a small Assembly commenly for Evil for this would have been Superfluous i. e. that which is too much And the last of all he having recourse unto that which was first his speech was not of making no Conventicles but that we should be no Christians at all and commanded me to cease henceforth from Christianity For he thought that if I altered mine Opinion divers others would follow me I made him answer neither unreverently nor tediously That we ought to obey God rather than Man Yea I spoke with open protestation I worshiped God which is only to be worshiped and no other neither will I be changed neither cease henceforth from being a Christian This being said he commanded us to depart to a certain Village adjoyning upon the Desert called Cephro afterwards Dionysius with others were brought forth and Aemilianus sat in the Presidents room and said I have here signified by word unto you the Clemency i. e. gentleness or mercy of our Liege and Lord the Emperours towards you They have granted you Pardon so that you turn unto that which Nature it self doth bind you unto so that you Adore i. e. Worship the Gods which guard the Empire and forget the things which Repugn i. e. Resist Nature What answer make you unto these I hope you will not Ungratefully i. e. Unthankfully refuse their Clemency insomuch as they Counsel you to the better Dionysius answered All men do not worship all Gods but several men do worship several Gods whom they think good to be worshiped But we Worship and Adore the one God the Worker of all things c. Then Aemilianus the President said What lett is there I beseech you but that naturally you adore that your God insomuch as he is a God together with these our Gods Dionysius said We Worship no other Gods To whom Aemili the President said I see you are altogether unthankful you perceive not the Clemency of the Emperour wherefore you shall not remain in this City but shall be sent into the Parts of Lybia unto a place called Cephro this place by the Commandment of the Emperour I have picked out for you It shall not be lawful for you and others to frequent Conventicles neither to have recourse as they call them unto Church-Yards If any of you be not found in that place which I have appointed for you or in any Conventicle let him under his peril There shall not want sufficient Provision depart therefore whither you are commanded So he commanded me saith Dionysius although sickly to depart with speed not deferring no not one day Afterwards he wrote thus Truly we are not absent no not from the corporal Congregation of the Lord i. e. from some that were of or belonging to the Body for saith he I gather such as are in the City as if I were present being indeed absent in the Body but present in the Spirit And there continued with us in Cephro a great Congregation partly of the Brethren which followed us from out of the City and partly of them which came out of Egypt and there God opened to me a door unto his Word that was in the place to which he was banished yet at the beginning we suffered persecution and stoning but at the length not a few of the Painims i. e. Country-men forsaking their carved Images were converted For unto such as before had not received then first of all we preached the Word of God and insomuch as therefore God had brought us among them after that the Ministry was there compleat he to wit Aemilianus removed us unto another place which was thought to be more rough I hearing we must depart from thence and knowing not the place whither we were commanded to go neither remembred I that ever afore I heard it named for all that took my Journey willingly and cheerfully Yet here I will accuse my self for at the first I fretted and took it very grievously If Places better known and more frequented had fallen unto our Lot it should never have grieved me but that Place whither I should repair was reported to be destitute of all Brotherly and Friendly Consolation subject to the troublesome Tumult of Travellers and violent Invasion i. e. assault of Thieves Moreover he relates how Germanus peradventure gloried of many Confessions and could tell a long Tale of the Afflictions which he endured But what can be repeated on our behalf Sentences of Condemnation Confiscations i. e. Forfeiture of their Goods to the Emperor or King's use Prescriptions i. e. Banishment or open sale made of their Goods spoiling of Substance deposition of Dignities i. e. deprivation of Honour no regard of worldly Glory contempt of the Praises due unto Presidents and Consuls threatning of the Adversaries the suffering of Reclamations i. e. Gainsayings Perils Persecutions Errors Griefs Anguishes and sundry Tribulations c. Yea there were Men Women young Men old Men Virgins and old Women Souldiers and simple Men of all sorts and sects of People whereof some after stripes and fire were crowned Victors i. e. Conquerors some after Sword some other in small time sufficiently tried seemed acceptable Sacrifices unto the Lord. And yet to this day said he the President ceaseth not cruelly to slay some that are brought forth to tear in pieces othersome with Torments to consume other with imprisonment and Fetters commanding that none come nigh them and enquiring daily if any such Men be attainted i. e. convicted or proved guilty of some great Crime Yet for all that GOD refresheth the Afflicted with chearfulness and frequenting of the Brethren How Persecution ceased When Valerianus's Son got the Supremacy i. e. chief Place Rule or Authority he wrote unto the Bishops as followeth The Emperor Caesar P. L. c. unto D. P. D. together with the rest of the Bishops sendeth greeting The Benefit of our gracious Pardon we command to be published throughout the whole World that they which are detained in Banishment depart the Places inhabited of Pagans i. e. Heathens For the execution whereof the Copy of this our Edict i. e. Proclamation or Decree shall be your discharge lest any go about to molest you And this which you now may lawfully put in ure i. e. use was granted by us long ago Marinus a Souldier suffered
Service due unto God but rather may occupy themselves about their profession without any molesting at all who while they perform the great Ministry of the Holy Worship do seem to profit very much the publick Affairs Licinnius's Cruelty towards the Christians Afterwards Licinnius began to imitate the Wickedness and Impiety of cruel Tyrants and secretly endeavoured by little and little to impugn i. e. resist or assault the Saints under his Dominion who never molested or endamaged his Empire neither hurt him any kind of way at all Yet by his Injunctions commanded That no Charity by any man should be extended towards them which were afflicted in Prison neither Compassion should be had on them which in Fetters were like to perish with Famine neither was it lawful for any to be honest or to practise Charity towards their Kinsfolk whom they were bound to pity even by the Law of Nature The Law was indeed shameful and cruel and far from a Good Nature unto the which there was a penalty annexed That such as had shewed Compassion were punished alike with them unto whom they had been merciful and such as had shewed any Kindness towards them were fettered imprisoned and punished alike with the afflicted Such were the Constitutions i. e. Decrees or Appointments of Licinnius So that the flattering Presidents to gratifie the mischievous Tyrant tormented some without cause that had done no evil as if they had been Murtherers whereof some endured a strange Death their Bodies being cut in small pieces as Butchers do use and after this cruel and horrible Spectacle thrown into the bottom of the Sea to become Food for Fishes But in a short time after Licinnius was overcome by Constantine who favoured the Christians and restored unto them external Peace The End of the First Part. A SUMMARY Or brief Hint of the Twelve Persecutions Sustained by the Ancient Christians With a compendious Paragragh upon the same and a Catalogue of the Synods and Councils which were after the Days of the Apostles Together with a Hint of what was decreed in the same as also the Judgment of some Wise Men concerning such Convocation LIKE-WISE An Appendix of some observable Things concerning the Christians which lived about a Thousand and Four hundred Years since with whose State Principle and Condition is parallell'd the Suffering Christians of this Age. PART II. Qui est Crucianus non est Christianus He that beareth not the Cross of Christ is no Disciple of Christ. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake Phil. 1. 29. LONDON Printed for Francis Holder in the Passage going into White-Hart-Yard in Lombard-street 1698. PART II. How from the beginning the Enmity of Satan hath been great against the Reghteous and Innocent People of God OF a truth he that is born after the Flesh persecuteth him that is after the Spirit and that irreconcielable Enmity which God after many Transgression put betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent hath in all the ages of the World appeared in Satans Instruments against the Righteous and Harmless People of the Most High who since the Fall have suffered through many Generations And it is observed how that when the Adversary of Mankind had got possession in Cain Adam's first Son Gen. 4. 1 8. that then did Cain rise up against his Brother Abel and slew him And this same Adversary is he who hath been a Murtherer and a Lyar from the beginning who until this day hath retained a place in the Hearts of Cain's Posterity and one remarkable Token whereby he might be known in all Ages hath been Persecution And after he had gotten Dominion in Mans Heart the Wickedness of Man became great in the Earth and the Imaginations and Thoughts of his Heart were evil continually so that the Earth came to be corrupted yea to be filled with violence And then did the Wicked and Ungodly often offer violence unto the Just and Righteous even as the wicked Sodomites did unto just Lot whose Enmity was not only against him but also against the Angels whom he had entertained Gen. 19. 5. And likewise this Adversary of God and good Men had gotten place in the Hearts of Joseph's Brethren who conspired together to slay him but they not being suffered of the Lord to do that they cast him into a Pit in the Wilderness Moreover it appears that Satan i. e. an Adversary or Devil had a possession in Pharoah and in the Egyptians who did much perplex and afflict the Righteous in those days for they were grieved with them and therefore did they make the Lives of the Righteous bitter with hard bondage c. Again the Enmity of this Adversary was great in many of the Potentates of the Earth against the People of God in the days of old as appears in sundry Places of the Old Testament And it may be observed how that when they that were called the Lords People departed from his Counsel that then this Adversary got place in them also which plainly appeared by their murmuring against the Lord when they were wroth over his Servants and cried out Stone them with stones c. Numb 14. 10. Again this Adversary of God and of good People got possession yea dominion in the Sons of Belial who beset the House of him that entertained the way-faring Levite and intended to have slain him Again we may see how that when Saul departed from the Gounsel of the Lord then did the Evil Spirit of this Adversary enter into him and then commanded he his Footmen to slay the Lord's Priests and although they would not do it yet Doeg slew fourscore and five of them upon one day 1 Sam. 22. 17 18. Again the evil persecuting spirit of this Adversary appeared also in Jezebel Ahab's Wife who stirred up the Elders and the Nobles to procure two false Witnesses against Naboth to testifie falsly against him as if he had blasphemed against God and the King and the People of the City being leavened with the aforesaid Spirit they carried him out of the City and stoned him to death Again when the Israelites were departed from the Lord then did the Enmity of this Adversary of God and all Goodness appear in them which manifested it self by the wrath and indignation which appeared in them against the Prophet Jeremiah whom they cast into Prison and against Zechariah whom they slew betwixt the Temple and the Altar Yea so mightily did the Enmity of Satan's persecuting Spirit prevail over them that in the end they killed and crucified those whom God sent among them and scourged them in their Synagogues and persecured them from City to City Mat. 23. 24 25. From these few Examples which I have here alledged it doth most plainly appear that Satan this Adversary of God of the Creation and of Mankind hath of old had a mighty Enmity against
such I call so as are found professing Christianity in words but deny it in works as some that professed in Words they knew God but in Works they denyed him so they that profess to be Christians and live in all manner of Unchastity they by their Works deny that which they profess in words and so are not worthy to be called Christians while they are found in that which is against or contrary to Christianity in which thousands of persecuting false Christians are found and therefore do I call such Antichristians How the Ancient Christians suffered by the Heathen and how true Christians now suffer by the same Spirit of Enmity and Persecution which is entered into the false Christians alias Antichristians The First Persecution WHen that the Jews were bereaved of their Power by the Heathen and that the time was expired wherein they had so cruelly used the People of God nevertheless the Christians were not therefore freed from suffering for they were therein exercised under the Heathens Power and Nero was said to be the first Tyrannical Emperour that persecuted the Christians it was called the first Persecution because it was under the Emperors Power and it began in the year 66 after the Birth of Christ and at that time was chiefly within the City of Rome About that time did People begin to accuse the Christians with all manner of Wickedness and to esteem them as Reprobates because they did not honour the Gods Note Have not the true Christians suffered in England under the sundry Powers that have been of late even as the Antient Christians suffered under the Iewes And it appears that when the Iewes were deprived of their Power then did the Heathens Persecute the Christians And did not both Protectors and Parliaments persecute the Innocent when they were in Authority but since they have been deprived of the power and turned out as the Iewes were when the Gentiles came to have the preheminence hath not the King himself become Guilty of their Sin in persecuting or suffering the Innocent to be persecuted within his Dominions And hath not all manner of Evil been spoken of them and they been accounted unfit to live in either Kingdom or Commonwealth and that chiefly because they could no more honour that Proud and Ambitious Spirit which is gotten up in the hearts of Men then the Antient Christians heretofore could honour the Gods of the Heathen The Second Persecution IN the Year of our Lord 93. did the second Persecution begin under the Emperour Domitianus under whom several were put to Death and about the same time was the Apostle Iohn Banished unto the Island Pathmos where he Wrote his Revelation In those days the Christians were so little esteemed that the People called them Cobler Weavers Combers of Wool Illiterate and exceeding Rustick or Clownish yea such as knew no good fashions Note Have not some of the true Christians been put to death of late in New England and have not many of them suffered the spoiling of their Goods and their Bodies to be cast into Prison to be Whipt and shamefully intreated by the Anti-Christians and that about their Religion And have not many of the true Christians been in derision called Coblers Taylers Weavers Plowmen c. So little esteem have the true Christians now among the Children of this World as the Antient Christians heretofore have had among the Children of Men. The Third Persecution IN the Year 102. did the third Persecution begin under the Emperour Trajanus who tho' he was called a good Emperour did nevertheless Persecute the Christians out of Humility to the Gods in which Persecution several Bishops were put to Death as the Bishop of Rome the Bishop of Ierusalem c. And at that time the Bishop of Antioch testified That Sufferings made us like unto Christ who had suffered for us himself preparing a way through suffering unto Eternal Life About the same time did a Governour Write unto the Emperour in the Christians behalf whereupon the Emperour wrot That they should seek no more of them but those they had in Prison should they put to Death Note Without Controversie the Bishop or Pope of Rome must needs be much degenerated from that State in which those Bishops then were forasmuch as he now by that Power through which they were put to death doth put others to Death about their Religion for which they then suffered Martyrdom From hence it may be observed that the Bishops now which persecute tender Consciences about Religion are found rather in the Footsteps of the Heathen then in the condition of those Bishops that suffered Martyrdom Moreover in these latter days the Lord hath stirred up some at times to speak a Word or to Write a few Lines in the behalf of the true Christians unto them in Authority whereby their hearts have been so far moved and reached that they have done something in order to the mitigating of the Sufferings of the Innocent who at this day share with their Brethren in the Fellowship of the Suffering of the Gospel The Fourth Persecution IN the year 164. was the fourth Persecution of the Christians which arose under the Emperour Marcus Aurelius and Lucias Verus in which Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna was put to Death who had been a Disciple of John and had been many years in the service of the Lord as he himself acknowledged About the same time was Iulianus put to death at Rome in whose time the Christians were accused for having a Fleshly conversion one with another which he marked to be Lyes by their willingness to Die and thereby he coming to be Converted became an Eminent Teacher of the Christians At Lyons in France did there go forth a Proclamation That the Christians might not dwell in their Houses nor that they must not converse upon the Streets nor shew their Faces which being Impossible for them to perform their sufferings became exceeding great and in the mean time some of the Slaves gave out that the Christians lived in filthy Lasciviousness among themselves In this Persecution there was one Lucius put to Death for reproving the Judge for puting the Christians to crueller Deaths then any other Transgressors Note Though the true Christians now are Vilified and Falsly accused by Anti-Christians as the ancient Christians were in former Ages yet wise men can see their Innocency and therefore do they love them in their Hearts and some time some have been Convinced by beholding the Patience Long-suffering and Innecency of the Innocent in these latter days who now some time do suffer the loss of their Liberty and the spoyling of their Gods if not Banishment either by vertue of Proclamations or of Decrees or of corrupt Laws which true Christians now can no more observe and obey then the antient Christians observed the aforesaid Preclamation of the King and this hath been evident that sundry of the true Christiant in these later days
who could not bow to the Gods of the Heathen no more then the true Christians now can bow to the corrupt wills of Ambitious and unreasonable men and though the Innocent suffer therefore for the present yet for their sakes will the Lord shorten the days of the Wicked as he did the days of that Persecuting Emperour The Seventh Persecution IN the year 253. did the Seventh Persecution arise under the Emperour Decius who with Excessive Cruelty did Persecute the Christians In this Persecution several of the Bishops were put to death and such as were the chief among the Christians did they torture with many Torments and the Houses of the Christians they Plundred and that which the Plunderers did not esteem that they burned In this Persecution many suffered Martyrdom some being Burned some Beheaded Women so well as Men some being whipt to death and some Souldiers for Incouraging these Martyrs in their Suffering were put to death In this Terrible Persecution several departed from the Faith for fear of the Torments yet afterwards came to be restored again the Suffering of the Christians was great under this Emperour but his days were also shortened for he had not Raigned two years but was caught in a Whag of Mire where he met with a check or Reproof for his cruelty Note Thus it appears that the Christians that lived Godly in Christ-Iesus suffered Persecution according to what the Apostle hath said 2 Tim. 3 12. And many now that live Godly and Righteously do suffer not only the Imprisonment of their Bodies but also the Spoyling of their Goods which have been Spoyled both by Priests and People who have sometime as it were Plundred their Houses for their dishonest gain and they have shewed themselves in their carriage and behaviour to be liker unto the Heathen then the suffering Christians who suffered their Houses to be Plundred but we do not Read that they then Plundred the Houses of any but with patience suffered the Plundring of their Goods and in this patience and long Suffering are the Christians that are so not in Name only but in Nature found in these Perillous times Again have not some Souldiers been turned out of their places yea and brought into suffering for countenancing and favouring the Sober Innocent true Christians among whom some for fear of Suffering may in some respect desert the Truth as some faithless ones among the ancient Christians did yet we know certainly there are a Remnant that cannot bow their knee to Baall but would chuse rather to die the death which many ancient Christians suffered then they will forsake the Lords Truth or Transgress his Righteous Law by breaking his commands The Eighth Persecution IN the year 259. did the eighth Persecution arise under the Emperour Valerianus who put forth a Proclamation against the Christians wherein he forbad their Meetings and when this Proclamation or Order was not observed then did there follow a great Persecution of the Christians in which there was very many put to death and some were Banished and they converted of the Heathen in the place to which they were Banished but the Emperour under whom the Christians thus suffered did not go unreproved for his cruelty for he was taken Prisoner by the King of Persia who made use of him for a Foot-stool when he got up upon his Horse c. Note Hath it not happned so in England that by the Kings Proclamation the Meetings of the true Christians have been forbidden And when that they observed the Kings Proclamation no more then the antient Christians observed the Emperours hath not a great Persecution followed have not many of the Prisons he silled with them partly because they could not Swear and partly because they continved their Meetings when they were forbidden by the Kings Proclamation as the Religion of the Christians was forbidden by the Laws of the Heathen and therefore did the Heathen with much rigour pronounce these words unto the Christians Your Religion is forbidden by the Laws c. And did not Anti-christians the like when they abused them in their Meetings and broke them up with much Violence did they not also pronounce these words with much Rigour Your Meetings are forbidden by the Kings Proclamation c. And forasmuch as the true Christians now have chused rather to suffer Bonds and Imprisonment yea the spoyling of their Goods and what not then they would renounce the Faith deny their Religion or forsak the Assembling of themselves together it doth therefore appear that the same mind is found in them now which was heretofore in the antient Christians who chused rather to suffer the loss of their Lives then to forsake him for whose cause they suffered yet we see their Persecutors did not always go unreproved Oh! that other Kings Princes and Magistrates would take warning from that which happened to these Persecuting Emperours The Ninth Persecution IN the year 273. did the ninth Persecution arise under the Emperour Aurelianus but this Persecution was not so great as the other because he was cut off by death soon after he had determined the same yet in this Persecution was Felix the Bishop of Rome put to Death with several others here and there in divers places Note Often doth the Lord frustate the purposes and Determinations of such as conspire Mischief against his People yea have we not seen sundry Powers overturned in England and Parliments broken up and Councels if not Committees also shattered to pieces when they have been determined to do Wickedly so that sometime they have not had power to bring that forth which they had Conceived and brought to the Birth so mightily hath the Lord confounded their Conspiracies and brought their devices to nought and this the true Christians have concluded to be the Lords doing which they have beheld and which thing hath been indeed marvelous in their Eyes The Tenth Persecution IN the year 302. begun the Tenth Persecution which was so great that it exceeded all that had been before it not only in cruelty but in continuance for it continued 12 Years Eusebius who lived at that time Writes of it at large in his Eclesiastical History saying it was occasioned through the freedom of the Christians who were come into great Reputation and were put in places of Office to Rule in Countrys and Cities but through their prosperity and voluptuousness Brotherly Love came to decrease Haughtyness and Pride got up and in stead of the worship of God an insolent authority begun to get up in the Church of the Christians And at that time the Emperour Diocletianus gave forth a Proclamation wherein he commanded that all the Christian Churches should be pulled down and the Holy Scriptures Burned and that the Christians should be turned out of their places with other such like things After that there came another Order that they should cause the chief of of the Church to offer unto Idols or else they were to be put to
death then did they begin to Rack Torture and put to death such as resisted and some were constrained to offer This Persecution hegun as a little sparke but it spread over the whole Church and the Persecution was so hot and great that the Persecutors themselves were troubled if not wearyed In Syria there was so many of the Chritians in hold that their Prisons were filled with them and with joy they went unbound to their death Eusebius Writes how that many of the Christians had their Ears cut off and their Noses slit and other of their Members were cut off also but they who caused it to be thus done unto the Christians did not escape the Hand of the Lord For Diocletianus who had endeavoured to root out the Name of Christians did nevertheless see in his Old Age that the Christians flourished at which he was troubled and killed himself and Maximinianus another Persecutor was terribly perplexed with Pain in his Bowels and other Misery which came upon him the Hand of the Lord was heavy upon others who had Persecuted the Christians yea and some was made to confess that they had deserved the Iudgement from the Hand of the Lord. Note As the Christians were then much prejudiced by their external Prosperity and Preferment so have many Thousands been Since And it's like the most of the Sects that are yet in being among the Christians may experience somthing of this to wit that their great external liberty and Prosperity in the flesh with their Promotion and Preferment in the World hath been a great Snare unto them as it was unto the Antient Christians who afterwards felt the Chastizing hand of the Lord and if all wanton Persecuting Christians in Europe and all the World over felt the same it might I am perswaded be good for the humbling of them who have exalted themselves higher then ever the Lord exalted them and so are become Haughty and insolent the Brotherly Love being Extinguished and so have set up an Usurpation of Authority in matters of Religion concerning the Worship of God But Oh will not the Lord visit for these things will he not avenge his Soul of such Hypocritical Anti Christians who are now found Persecuting and shamefully intreating the Lambs of God with whom in those latter days Prisons have been filled and some of them have had their Ears cut off and the Lives of others have been taken away and that by professing but Persecuting Christians who have run on in their Blind Zeal in Persecuting the Innocent and Harmless Christians and sometime the remakeable hand of the Lord hath been upon their Persecutors though others have not laid it to Heart yet they that have felt it have Mourned under it and therefore true is that saying Qui ante non cavet post dolebit The Eleventh Persecution IN the year 316 did the Eleventh Persecution of the Christians arise under the Emperour Licinius who formerly had been inclining to the Christians and a favourer of them yet afterwards did he Imitate the Wickedness and Impiety of other Tyrants for he by his Injunctions gave Commandment that no Charrity should be extended to the Christians for they that shewed them favour were to be Punished like the rest In this Persecution the Bodies of some were cut in small pieces and thrown into the Sea for to feed the Fish And the flattering Presidents to gratify this Tyrant Tormented such as had done no Evil even as if they had been Murtherers but when the Emperour Constantine could bear his Wickedness no longer he made War with him and overcame him then did this Persecution cease by whose means also the Christians lived in External Peace and Tranquillity but after this Peace there ensued Wars and deadly hatred among the Christians themselves Note Many were the Tribulations of the Antient Christians during the time of these Persecutions whereof I writ howbeit it is very like that then true Brotherly Love abounded among them and that they had a perfect fellow feeling of one anothers Sufferings for their Hearts was bound up in the bond of Love while they were kept in the unity of the Faith and exercised together in the fellowship of the sufferings of the Gospel But when these profitable Chastizments ceased and that they who succeeded in the places of those Persecutors became the great Friends and Favourers of the Christians so that they thereby came to enjoy external Peace ease in the Flesh and liberty in the outward How soon then did they Entertain Prejudice and Evil surmizing one against another how then did they begin to rend and tear one another and that often about their Bishopricks an Benefects How then did they run into Sects heaps and Partys and how did they weary the Emperour their special Friend with their complaints one against another and with the perpetul strife and division that superabounded among them To demonstrate these things at large would require a greater Volum then I intend to make at this time and particularly to prescribe them would ask more time then at present I have to spend about this matter yet thus much I may avouch or boldly affirm that in those days many evils crept in among Christians which unto this day could not be totally excluded root and Branch And about that very time when the Church was thought to Flourish most of all did many hurtful Weeds and degenerat Plants took rooting which have much more thriven and grown among the Anti-Christians then the Seed of the Kingdom which Seed hath been so overgrown and overtopt that that little which yet thereof remains is as hard to be found now in the Children of Men as Faith wili be to be found upon the Earth at the coming of the Son of Man The Twelfth Persecution IN the year 362 did the Twelfth Persecution arise under the Emperour Julianus the Apostate i. e. one that revolted from true Religion who had been accounted a Christian but was an Hyprocritical dissembler and counterfeated a Monkish life who being sent into France by the Emperour to make War with the Barbarians and obtaining some notable Victories was afterwards Proclaimed Emperour by the Souldiers and then did he set wide open the Temples and Idoll groves and Sacrificed to Pictures and Intituled himself an High Priest Then the Pagans at Alexandria stomaked the Christians and that the more because they went about to disclose unto the World the Pagans Pictures to the end their fond Ceremonies might be derided of all Men Whereupon they Boyled within themselves for Anger and took what first came to their Hands set upon them and Slew of them every kind of way so that some were run through with Swords some others Brained with Clubs other some Stoned to Death some Strangled with Haltors about their Necks in the end as commonly it falleth out in such hurly-burlies they held not their Hands from their dearest Friends for one Brother sought the other Brothers Life
Isai. 56. 10. Ezech. 34. Jer. 23. And the Church being gathered into a Synod may be a Church yet not of God but of malignity Likewise they that profess the name of God may abuse their power against the Truth Yet they that do so will not say that of themselves not yet acknowledge themselves to be guilty May not every one then judge of Synods and declare their opinion concerning them X. Museulus said Concerning the Synods of Priests which the unexperienced think to be the only remedy against differences yet they are nothing else said he but Fencing-Schooles Nevertheless the complaining Church cryeth after the Synod then after the Synod will they not do that c. XI Gregorius Nazianzenus used to say that he never had seen any good end of any Counsel or Synod vide Inst. Calv. 4. lib. 9. ch 11. XII The States of Holland said to the Lords of Amsterdam This hath men heretofore observed that the reformation was not accomplished by Synods for the remedy was not to be expected from the Clergy who were the cause of the desease Anno. 1616. Mark-teeck FOrasmuch as many at this day have great expectations in their minds of peace and tranquillity together with an uniformity and settlement in Ecclesiastical affaires which they suppose might be procured through the means of a Synod or Convocation which some imagin would be a speedy remedy for their deplorable disease I have therefore thought good not only to give a brief hint of the many Synods of which I have spoken but also in short to instance the approbation and judgment of them that were accounted wiser men in their generation then the Christian-QUAKERS are accounted by this generation that if peradventer I might thereby in any wise convince them through alledging that which some that are renowned among them have affirmed even as Paul when he sought to convince the Athenians of the Lords being near unto them he instanced their own Poets who also said the same Acts 17 27 28. In like manner have I alledged the sayings of those noted men to the end that they whose expectations are to see such great things produced by Synods or Convocations may the rather be perswaded that the notable work of real Reformationâ—… and the true and perfect establishing of the Church or people of God in lasting peace and pure tranquility must be the Lord's work by his eternal power and Spirit and not by the consultations of Synodal Conversations nor yet by the Arm of flesh Far that is not the means which God chuseth but that which the sons of men have chosen in the Apostasie and therefore hath these excessive persecutions ensued of which I have made mentlon And now let England take heed how she heaps up Counsels or Convocations least she look and run more unto them for help then unto the Lord for I testifie unto her in the name of the God of the living that they shall not be able to heal her deseases nor yet to bind up her breaches Oh that she would therefore fly unto the Lord and look unto him rather then unto the Convocations or Synods of mortal men how soon would he then heal all her backslidings bind up all her breaches and with everlasting loving kindness gather her AN APENDIX UNTO THE ABRIDGMENT Whein is contained many Notable things which passed betwixt the Antient Christians and the Heathen which are extracted out of Tertullian's Apology the which he made in the Defence of the Christians against the Accusation of the Gentiles To the end that all may see how the like railing accusations which are and have of late been so frequently produced against the true Christians of this age have also been produced by the Heathen against the Antient Christians 1406. Years ago Section 1. The Heathens opinion of Christianity how they vilified them and their God how they were Judged when they denied to sacrifice and how they were condemned THE Heathen believed a man could not make profession of Christianity without being Tainted with all sorts of Crimes without beâ—…g an enemy to the Gods to Princes to the Law 's to good manners and to nature neither could a Christian at that time be acquitted unless he denied himself to be a Christian. Tert. Apol. pag 12. Are not many now of the like opinion that a man cannot be a true Christian-Quaker without being an enemy to the worship of God to the King to the Laws of the Kingdom to good manners and to nature The Heathen reproached the Christians as wiched Superstitious persons whom they accounted worthy the infamy of punishment and in conclusion objects of laughter and contempt and with much rigour did the Heathen pronounce these words unto the Christians Your Religion is forbidden by the Laws c. page 19. Are not such now become objects of laughter and contempt as cannot run with the multitude to excess of Riot and be conformable to the workers of iniquity in their vain customs and frivolous fashions which the true Christians are redeemed from and cannot be conformable unto though they therefore be accounted worthy the infamy of punishment and have it inflicted upon them by vertue of unwholesom Laws which prohibit their Liberty now as the Laws of the Heathen prohibited the true Christian Religion Such were the calumnits i. e. false accusation that were invented against the Christians Religion that upon a certain time a picture of their God was shewn by a certain infamous person who openly shewed the same with this inscription therein this is Onochoetes i. e. the God of the Christans This supposed God pretended by him had the ears of an Asse a hoof on his foot carried a book and was cloathed with a Gown page 71. Hath there not been something of the like nature acted among the Stageplayers of this age in contempt and derision of the Religion if not of the God himself of the true Christians whose profession is now reproached and vilified by infamous lewd men as the profession of the Antient Christians was by the Heathen The Christians were forbidden to have their Religion apart though none besids them were forbidden the like and because they did not serve the Gods of the Romans therefore did they offend the Romans and were accounted unworthy the name of Romans page 105. Have not many in the nation laboured and endeavoured much to have the like brought to pass concerning the true Christians who are not conformable to the national way of worship which is much rather formal then spiritual and therefore is it renounced by the true Christians who worship God in the spirit as the Antient Christians did When the Christians were injoyned to offer sacrifice they resisted Then said some there was folly in their resistance and that they might sacrifice when they were prest to it and preserve their lives without injuring their consciences in keeping a secret resolution to remain
their whole substance and freely to communicate thereof unto one anothers necessity even as they would have others to communicate unto them in the time of their necessity And that brotherly love which in this particular hath been manifested among the true Christian Quakers hath caused their Adversaries much to admire and wonder even as the Heathen did over that entire love which was among the Antient Christians Tertullian told the Gentiles there was cause to wonder their passion was so irregular i. e. contrary to rule that in prosecuting the Christians they made no difficulty to take away the life of men that were profitable to the Common-wealth farther he said the State received by their injustice an evident damage and important loss and yet no body looks to it said he no body weighes of what consequence the sufferings are of so many persons of good life and the punishment of so great a number of Innocent pag. 153. There hath also been cause to wonder at the rashness and imprudency of many bitter willful Antichristians whose foolish indiscreet behaviour towards the true Christians hath been not a little prejudicial to the Nation in which no great difficulty hath been made of casting thousands of them into prison and they who have done it or have been the cause of it have fought and endeavoured thereby to procure the ruine of their Families and Estates which thing certainly hath brought no honour to the King neither hath it been any profit or advantage to his Kingdom but certain external inconveniencies have been thereby procured to some of his faithful Subjects the true Christians yet few in authority seemed to lay to heart nor yet see seriously to consider of what sad consequence the undeserved sufferings of so many harmless people might be Thus have I briefly stated the suffering condition of the Antient Christians with which I have truly parallelled the true Christians state in this present age And let now the upright in heart judge how far both Papists and Protestants that are accustomed to prosecute about Religion are degenerated from the same and how disagreeing their principles and practises are to the principles and practises of the Antient Christians yet notwithstanding will they glory of their Antiquity and condemn others as New upstart Sects and unheard os Religions that differ from them and Worship God in the Spirit but by these things which I have re-capitulated in this Treatise the wise in heart may see how that the CHRISTIAN-QUAKERS have whereof to glory so well as others if not beyond many others who at this day glory so much of their Antiquity but this I know to be their resolution and determination viz. that they will glory in the Lord and in the fellowship of the sufferings of his dear Son their Lord and Saviour This knowing how that he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit Thus it hath been yea thus it is and thus it will be until he Reign whose right it is A REGISTER OF THE Death Sufferings and Martyrdome of the Prophets and APOSTLES According to the Testimony of the Scripture and other Historical RECORDS ISAIAH was sawn asunder with a woodden saw Ierimiah was often persecuted and imprisoned yea he was thrown into a deep Dungeon where it is said he stood in the mire to the head and at length was stoned to death in Egypt Ezekiel was slain in Babylon by the Duke of the people Daniel was thrown among the hungry Lyons yet the Lord preserved him The three Children were thrown into the Fiery Furnace but the Fire did them no harm Micah was thrown down and his neck broken Amos was smitten with a club on the Temples of the head and so brained Zachariah was stoned to death The Life of Peter PETER was born at Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village till lately re-edified and inlarger by Philip the Tetrarch Cituate it was upon the banks of Gallile and had a wilderness on the other side called the desert of Bethsada whither our Saviour used often to retire the privacies and solituds of the place advantageously Ministring to Divine Contemplation but Bethsaida was not so remarkable as it self was memorable for a worse sort of barrenness ingratitude and unprofitableness under the influence of four Sermons and Mericles thence severely upbraided by him and threatned till one of his deepest woes Woe unto the Chorarin Woe unto thee Bethsaida c. A Woe that stuck close to it for according to one who surveyed it in the last Age it was sunk again into a very mean and small Village consisting only of a few Cottages of Moors and wild Arabs and Travellers have since assured us that even these are dwindled away into one poor Cottage so fatally does sin undermine the Greatest the goodliest Places so certainly does God's Word take place and not one jot either of his Promise or Threatning fall to the ground the particular time of his Birth cannot be Recorded in General we may conclude him to be at least two years Elder than his Master his Married condition and setled course of life at his first coming to Christ and that Authority and Respect which the Gravity of his Person procured him amongst the rest of the Apostles can speak him no less the Name given him at his Circumcision was Simon or Symeon a Name common among the Iews our Saviour adds thereunto Cephas signifies a Stone or Rock was hence derived into the Greek and by Us Peter his Father was Ionah probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida for the Sacred Story take no farther notice of him than by the bare mention of of his Name and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake thought Metaphrastes had not told us that it was not Ionas the Prophet who come out of the Belly of the Whale Brother he was to Andrew the Apostle and it was as certain that he was a Fisherman by Trade a very survile course of life as besides the great pain and labour it required exposing him to all the injuries of Wind and Weather to the storm of the Sea the darkness and tempestuousness of the Night and all to make a very small return but meanness is no bar in God's way the Poor if vertuous are as dear to heaven as the wealthy and the honourable equally alike to him with whom there is no respect of persons Nay our Lord seemed to cast a peculiar honour upon this Profession when afterwards calling him and some others of the same Trade from catching of Fish to be as he told them Fishers of Men. And hear we may justly reflect upon the wise and admirable method of divine providence which in planting and propagating the Christian Religion in the world made choice of such mean and unlikely instruments that he should hid these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto Babes Men that had not been Educated at the Accademy and the
such charitable Employments called them forth for none denied her Neighbour her care nor could any worldly Rspects discharge them from that Officiousness If any were Rich or Noble they were the readier to express their compassion and Women of the highest Descent were the forwardest to assist the Calamitous in their need for Religion had mortifi'd in them all Punctilio's of Honour and State and made them remember that in Christ they were all equal She in whose Veins the Noblest Blood did run would say of her poor distressed Nighbour she is my Sister my Fellow-member one that hath part with me in my Dear Redemer If she be antient she is my Mother said she if younger she is my Daughter nor were these expressions names of course only but they were written in their hearts and their Lips spoke what their Minds believed and these words were at once pronounced and thought Hence it was that the greatest Ladies touch'd their poorer Neighbours Sores bound up their Wounds applied Plaisters to them made their Beds and tended them as the meanest Servants Here you might see the industry of one there the sweetness and patience of another one would turn the sick Sister the other help her up the third dress her the fourth feed her and in all this the sick Creature saw as it were the Face of the Lord JESUS She that tended the Sick look'd upon Christ in her that was sick and she that was sick thought she saw Christ in the person that tended her So Divine so heavenly were their Works of Mercy that one was to the other in God's stead and that saying of Christ What you haue done unto the least of these my Brethren you have done it unto me did not depart from their Memories Thus stood the case with the Holy Women then and this advantage they reapt by their Charitable care that when their Husbands died they were taken as Deaconnesses into the Church and thus they prepared themselves for Christ and the Church's Service If any were imprisoned upon the account of Religion all that knew them would fly to them No Keeper so hard-hearted but they would find out a way to smooth him no Lock no Bar so strong but they would make a shift to break it either by their Gifts or their soft Answers not to make the Jaylers false to their Trusts but to get an oppertunity to see their Suffering Friends and when they saw them one would kiss their Chains and Fetters another lay his Lips to their Wounds a third give their bruised Members and tired Bodies such refreshment as was needful 〈◊〉 any of them were driven into Exile in every place they met with Brethren and Feliow-Christians and these would run to to them comfort them lead them into their Houses and treat them as Members of their own Family especially when by Letters from their Brethren they understood that for CHRIST his sake they were driven from their native home Were any condemned to work in Mines or Quarries the neighbouring Christians that that heard of it would presently come together help the innocent Man endeavour to make his burthen light feed him with Victuals and assist him in the performing of his Task Were any of them sent through the malice of the Heathen Governors to the Correction-house or forced to labour hard in Caves and Dens or lamentably scourg'd beaten and abused for the name of the Lord JESUS The rest that heard of it would not complain nor think their Brethren unhappy but rather count themselves so because they were not counted worthy to suffer for the Name of JESUS and therefore would wish that this might be their Lot and Portion too If the fury of Tyrants abated or remitted at any time and the imprison'd and afflicted Believers got leave to return home again some wounded some bruised some with disjoynted Bones some half Burnt some Maimed some with one Arm some with one Eye some with one Leg only their Friends would run out to them and strive who should first receive them into their Houses Happy the man that could kifs their Wounds and refresh them with Necessaries and Conveniences and the longer any Man could harbour such a Christian at his House the happier he thought himself to be And such Men as had thus suffer'd for Christ they honour'd for the future and esteem'd them equal with their Pastors and Presidents Indeed out of these they chose their Bishops thinking those fittest to serve at Christ's Altar who had already made themselves a Sacrifice for him Thus Men purchased the degree of Pastours by their Holiness and their eminent Sanctity which pressed even through Wounds and Tortures for the Name of Christ prepared them for that Function Men that were strong to suffer they justly thought might be fittest to lalabour in God's Church and they that had been such Champions for the truth they looked upon as the properest Instruments to defend it to their death Nor did their kindness extend only to their Friends but reacht even to their greatest Enemies and they that jush before were persecuted by them if their Persecutors fell fick or were afflicted or the Plague of God came upon them these injured Christians would offer their Services support them comfort them admonish them attend at their Beds side and Lend them their helping-hand cherish them supple their Sores relieve them and with a pity great and magnanimous weep over their calamitious Estate to the amazement of the Pagan World who were now ready to look upon them as Angels when but just before they thought them as bad as Devils Poverty was the least thing that troubled them nor did Want sit so heavy on their Souls as it doth on ours for they had learned to undervalue Riches and that which made them slight it were these two impressions the Apostles Doctrine had made on their Souls This sunk deep into their Hearts that here we have no Continuing City but we seek one to come That all we see here is but shadow and imagery but the substance is not yet Visible that the fashions of this World will pass away and the Gaudes and Glories below the Moon afford no real satisfaction This made it ridiculous in their eyes to snatch at a Butterfly or a Flying Feather and they rationally believe that what-ever is subject to time and change will certainly make it self Wings and flee away and leave the Soul as empty as it found it and that therefore their Thoughts must be turned another way even there where constant satisfaction lasting content permanent happiness perfect beauty and uninterrupted joys are to be found and indeed this duly weigh'd will breed a mighty contempt of Temporal things and a certain expectation of future Bliss Nor did the care of their Children fill their Hearts with anexious Thoughts for they were sensible that when-ever the Church had notice of their want they would certainly be relieved and looked after for as many Fathers and Mothers left their