But notwithstanding this fair and plausible testimony he tells them that they were not all of this mind that there was a Satan amongst them one that was moved by the spirit and impulse and that acted according to the rules and interest of the Devil intimating Judas who should betray him So hard is it to meet with a body of so just and pure a constitution wherein some rotten member or distempered part is not to be found SECT IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passover Our Saviour's Journy with his Apostles to Caesarea The Opinions of the People concerning Him Peter ' s eminent Confession of Christ and our Lord 's great commendation of it Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven how given The advantage the Church of Rome makes of these passages This confession made by Peter in the name of the rest and by others before him No personal priviledge intended to S. Peter the same things elsewhere promised to the other Apostles Our Lord's discourse concerning his Passion Peter ' s unseasonable Zeal in disswading him from it and our Lord 's severe rebuking him Christ's Transfiguration and the glory of it Peter how affected with it Peter ' s paying Tribute for Christ and himself This Tribute what Our Saviour's discourse upon it Offending brethren how oft to be forgiven The young man commanded to sell all What compensation made to the followers of Christ. Our Lord 's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem Preparation made to keep the Passover 1. IT was some time since our Saviour had kept his third Passover at Jerusalem when he directed his Journy towards Caesarea Philippi where by the way having like a careful Master of his Family first prayed with his Apostles he began to ask them having been more than two Years publickly conversant amongst them what the world thought concerning him They answered that the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jews had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into Zacharias Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not sufficing our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of S. Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preferred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea before he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is erected and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and
retired to Bethany whence he dispatched Peter and John to make preparation for the Passeover giving them instructions where he would have it kept Accordingly they found the person he had described to them whom they followed home to his house Whether this was the house of John the Evangelist as Nicephorus tells us situate near Mount Sion or of Simon the Leper or of Nicodemus or of Joseph of Arimathea as others severally conjecture seeing none of the Evangelists have thought fit to tell us it may not become us curiously to enquire SECT V. Of S. Peter from the last Passeover till the death of Christ. The Passeover celebrated by our Lord and his Apostles His washing their feet Peter ' s imprudent modesty The mystery and meaning of the action The Traitor who The Lord's Supper instituted Peter ' s confident promise of suffering with and for Christ. Our Lord's dislike of his confidence and foretelling his denial Their going to the Mount of Olives Peter renews his resolution His indiscreet zeal and affection Our Saviour's Passion why begun in a Garden The bitterness of his Ante-passion The drowziness of Peter and the two sons of Zebedee Our Lord 's great candor towards them and what it ought to teach us Christ ' s apprehension and Peter ' s bold attempt upon Malchus Christ deserted by the Apostles Peter ' s following his Master to the High-Priests Hall and thrice denying him with Oaths and Imprecations The Galilean dialect what The Cock-crowing and Peter ' s repentance upon it ALL things being now prepared our Saviour with his Apostles comes down for the celebration of the Passeover And being entred into the house they all orderly took their places Our Lord who had always taught them by his practice no less than by his doctrine did now particularly design to teach them humility and charity by his own example And that the instance might be the greater he underwent the meanest offices of the Ministery towards the end therefore of the Paschal Supper he arose from the Table and laying aside his upper garment which according to the fashion of those Eastern Countries being long was unfit for action and himself taking a Towel and pouring water into a Bason he began to wash all the Apostles feet not disdaining those of Judas himself Coming to Peter he would by no means admit an instance of so much condescension What the Master do this to the Servant the Son of God to so vile a sinner This made him a second time refuse it Thou shalt never wash my feet But our Lord soon corrects his imprudent modesty by telling him That if he wash'd him not he could have no part with him Insinuating the mystery of this action which was to denote Remission of sin and the purifying vertue of the Spirit of Christ to be poured upon all true Christians Peter satisfied with this answer soon altered his resolution Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head If the case be so let me be wash'd all over rather than come short of my portion in thee This being done he returned again to the Table and acquainted them with the meaning and tendency of this mystical action and what force it ought to have upon them towards one another The washing it self denoted their inward and Spiritual cleansing by the Bloud and Spirit of Christ symbolically typified and represented by all the washings and Baptisms of the Mosaick Institution The washing of the feet respected our intire sanctification in our whole Spirit Soul and Body no part being to be left impure And then that all this should be done by so great a person their Lord and Master preached to their very senses a Sermon of the greatest humility and condescension and taught them how little reason they had to boggle at the meanest offices of kindness and charity towards others when he himself had stoop'd to so low an abasure towards them And now he began more immediately to reflect upon his sufferings and upon him who was to be the occasion of them telling them that one of them would be the Traitor to betray him Whereat they were strangely troubled and every one began to suspect himself till Peter whose love and care for his Master commonly made him start sooner than the rest made signs to S. John who lay in our Saviour's bosom to ask him particularly who it was which our Saviour presently did by making them understand that it was Judas Iscariot who not long after left the company 2. AND now our Lord began the Institution of his Supper that great solemn Institution which he was resolved to leave behind him to be constantly celebrated in all Ages of the Church as the standing monument of his love in dying for mankind For now he told them that he himself must leave them and that whither he went they could not come Peter not well understanding what he meant asked him whither it was that he was going Our Lord replied It was to that place whither he could not now follow him but that he should do it afterwards intimating the Martyrdom he was to undergo for the sake of Christ. To which Peter answered that he knew no reason why he might not follow him seeing that if it was even to the laying down of his life for his sake he was most ready and resolved to do it Our Lord liked not this over-confident presumption and therefore told him they were great things which he promised but that he took not the true measures of his own strength nor espied the snares and designs of Satan who desired no better an occasion than this to sift and winnow them But that he had prayed to Heaven for him That his faith might not fail by which means being strengthened himself he should be obliged to strengthen and confirm his brethren And whereas he so confidently assured him that he was ready to go along with him not only into prison but even to death it self our Lord plainly told him That notwithstanding all his confident and generous resolutions before the Cock crowed twice that is before three of the Clock in the morning he would that very night three several times deny his Master With which answer our Lord wisely rebuked his confidence and taught him had he understood the lesson not to trust to his own strength but intirely to depend upon him who is able to keep us from falling Withall insinuating that though by his sin he would justly forfeit the Divine grace and favour yet upon his repentance he should be restored to the honour of the Apostolate as a certain evidence of the Divine goodness and indulgence to him 3. HAVING sung an Hymn and concluded the whole affair he left the house where all these things had been transacted and went with his Apostles unto the Mount of Olives where he again put them in mind how much they would be offended at those things which he was now
to suffer and Peter again renewed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering and dying with him yea out of an excessive confidence told him That though all the rest should forsake and deny him yet would not he deny him How far will zeal and an indiscreet affection transport even a good man into vanity and presumption Peter questions others but never doubts himself So natural is self-love so apt are we to take the fairest measures of our selves Nay though our Lord had but a little before once and again reproved this vain humour yet does he still not only persist but grow up in it So hardly are we brought to espy our own faults or to be so throughly convinced of them as to correct and reform them This confidence of his inspired all the rest with a mighty courage all the Apostles likewise assuring him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him Our Lord returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before From hence they went down into the Village of Gethsemane where leaving the rest of the Apostles he accompanied with none but Peter James and John retired into a neighbouring Garden whither Eusebius tells us Christians even in his time were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven and where as the Arabian Geographer informs us a fair and stately Church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary to enter upon the Ante-scene of the fatal Tragedy that was now approaching it bearing a very fit proportion as some of the Fathers have observed that as the first Adam fell and ruin'd mankind in a Garden so a Garden should be the place where the second Adam should begin his Passion in order to the Redemption of the World Gardens which to us are places of repose and pleasure and scenes of divertisement and delight were to our Lord a school of Temptation a Theatre of great horrors and sufferings and the first approaches of the hour of darkness 4. HERE it was that the Blessed Jesus laboured under the bitterest Agony that could fall upon humane Nature which the holy Story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the highest grief and sorrow he was afraid sorrowful and very heavy yea his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding sorrowful and that even unto death he was sore amazed and very heavy he was troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul was shaken with a vehement commotion yea he was in an Agony a word by which the Greeks are wont to represent the greatest conflicts and anxieties The effect of all which was that he prayed more earnestly offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears as the Apostle expounds it and sweat as it were great drops of bloud falling to the ground What this bloudy sweat was and how far natural or extraordinary I am not now concerned to enquire Certain it is it was a plain evidence of the most intense grief and sadness for if an extreme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's mind which could force open the pores of his body lock'd up by the coldness of the night and make not drops of sweat but great drops or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies clods of bloud to issue from them While our Lord was thus contending with these Ante-Passions the three Apostles whom he had left at some distance from him being tired out with watching and disposed by the silence of the Night were fallen fast asleep Our Lord who had made three several addresses unto Heaven that if it might consist with his Father's will this bitter Cup might pass from him expressing herein the harmless and innocent desires of humane Nature which always studies its own preservation between each of them came to visit the Apostles and calling to Peter asked him Whether they could not watch with him one hour advising them to watch and pray that they enter'd not into temptation adding this Argument That the spirit indeed was willing but that the flesh was weak and that therefore there was the more need that they should stand upon their guard Observe here the incomparable sweetness the generous candor of our blessed Saviour to pass so charitable a censure upon an action from whence malice and ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies and have represented it black as the shades of darkness The request which our Lord made to these Apostles was infinitely reasonable to watch with him in this bitter Agony their company at least being some refreshment to one under such sad fatal circumstances and this but for a little time one hour it would soon be over and then they might freely consult their own ease and safety 'T was their dear Lord and Master whom they now were to attend upon ready to lay down his life for them sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings and expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would fall upon him But all these considerations were drown'd in a profound security the men were fast asleep and though often awakened and told of it regarded it not as if nothing but ease and softness had been then to be dream'd of An action that look'd like the most prodigious ingratitude and the highest unconcernedness for their Lord and Master and which one would have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency of affection towards him But he would not set it upon the Tenters nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn to he imputes it not to their unthankfulness or want of affection nor to their carelesness of what became of him but merely to their infirmity and the weakness of their bodily temper himself making the excuse when they could make none for themselves the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Hereby teaching us to put the most candid and favourable construction upon those actions of others which are capable of various interpretations and rather with the Bee to suck honey than with the Spider to draw poison from them His last Prayer being ended he came to them and told them with a gentle rebuke That now they might sleep on if they pleased that the hour was at hand that he should be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men 5. WHILE he was thus discoursing to them a Band of Souldiers sent from the High-Priests with the Traitor Judas to conduct and direct them rush'd into the Garden and seized upon him which when the Apostles saw they asked him whether they should attempt his rescue Peter whose ungovernable zeal put him upon all dangerous undertakings without staying for an answer drew his Sword and espying one more busie than the rest in laying hold upon our Saviour which was Malchus who though carrying Kingship in his name was but Servant to the High-Priest struck at him with an intention to dispatch him
but God over-ruling the stroak it only cut off his right Ear. Our Lord liked not this wild and unwarrantable zeal and therefore intreated their patience whilest he miraculously healed the Wound And turning to Peter bad him put up his Sword again told him that they who unwarrantably use the Sword should themselves perish by it that there was no need of these violent and extravagant courses that if he had a mind to be rid of his Keepers he could ask his Father who would presently send more than twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue and deliverance But he must drink the Cup which his Father had put into his hand for how else should the Scriptures be fulfilled which had expresly foretold That these things must be Whereupon all the Apostles forsook him and fled from him and they who before in their promises were as bold as Lions now it came to it like fearful and timorous Hares ran away from him Peter and John though staying last with him yet followed the same way with the rest preferring their own safety before the concernments of their Master 6. NO sooner was he apprehended by the Souldiers and brought out of the Garden but he was immediately posted from one Tribunal to another brought first to Annas then carried to Caiaphas where the Jewish Sanhedrim met together in order to his Trial and Condemnation Peter having a little recovered himself and gotten loose from his fears probably encouraged by his Companion S. John returns back to seek his Master And finding them leading him to the High-Priests Hall followed afar off to see what would be the event and issue But coming to the Door could get no admittance till one of the Disciples who was acquainted there went out and perswaded the Servant who kept the Door to let him in Being let into the Hall where the Servants and Officers stood round the Fire Peter also came thither to warm himself where being espied by the Servant-maid that let him in she earnestly looking upon him charged him with being one of Christ's Disciples which Peter publickly denied before all the Company positively affirming that he knew him not And presently withdrew himself into the Porch where he heard the Cock crow An intimation which one would have thought should have awakened his Conscience into a quick sense of his duty and the promise he had made unto his Master In the Porch another of the Maids set upon him charging him that he also was one of them that had been with Jesus of Nazareth which Peter stoutly denied saying that he knew not Christ and the better to gain their belief to what he said ratified it with an Oath So natural is it for one sin to draw on another 7. ABOUT an Hour after he was a third time set upon by a Servant of the High-Priest Malchus his Kinsman whose Ear Peter had lately cut off By him he was charged to be one of Christ's Disciples Yea that his very speech betrayed him to be a Galilean For the Galileans though they did not speak a different language had yet a different Dialect using a more confused and barbarous a broader and more unpolished way of pronunciation than the rest of the Jews whereby they were easily distinguishable in their speaking from other men abundant instances whereof there are extant in the Talmad at this day Nay not only gave this evidence but added that he himself had seen him with Jesus in the Garden Peter still resolutely denied the matter and to add the highest accomplishment to his sin ratified it not only with an Oath but a solemn Curse and execration that he was not the person that he knew not the man 'T is but a very weak excuse which S. Ambrose and some others make for this Act of Peter's in saying I knew not the Man He did well says he to deny him to be Man whom he knew to be God S. Hierom takes notice of this pious and well-meant excuse made for Peter though out of modesty he conceals the name of its Authors but yet justly censures it as trifling and frivolous and which to excuse Man from folly would charge God with falshood for if he did not deny him then our Lord was out when he said that that Night he should thrice deny him that is his Person and not only his humanity Certainly the best Apology that can be made for Peter is that he quickly repented of this great sin for no sooner had he done it but the Cock crew again at which intimation our Saviour turn'd about and earnestly looked upon him a glance that quickly pierced him to the Heart and brought to his remembrance what our Lord had once and again foretold him of how foully and shamefully he should deny him whereupon not being able to contain his sorrow he ran out of Doors to give it vent and wept bitterly passionately bewailing his folly and the aggravations of his sin thereby endeavouring to make some reparation for his fault and recover himself into the favour of Heaven and to prevent the execution of Divine Justice by taking a severe revenge upon himself by these penitential tears he endeavoured to wash off his guilt as indeed Repentance is the next step to Innocence SECT VI. Of S. Peter from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension Our Lord's care to acquaint Peter with his Resurrection His going to the Sepulchre Christ's appearance to Peter when and the Reasons of it The Apostles Journey into Christ's appearing to them at the Sea of Tiberias His being discovered by the great draught of Fishes Christ's questioning Peter's love and why Feed my Sheep commended to Peter imports no peculiar supereminent power and soveraignty Peter's death and sufferings foretold Our Lord takes his last leave of the Apostles at Bethany His Ascension into Heaven The Chappel of the Ascension The Apostles joy at their Lord's Exaltation 1. WHAT became of Peter after his late Prevarication whether he followed our Saviour through the several stages of his Trial and personally attended as a Mourner at the Funerals of his Master we have no account left upon Record No doubt he stayed at Jerusalem and probably with S. John together with whom we first find him mentioned when both setting forwards to the Sepulchre which was in this manner Early on that Morning whereon our Lord was to return from the Grave Mary Magdalen and some other devout and pious Women brought Spices and Ointments with a design to Imbalm the Body of our crucified Lord. Coming to the Sepulchre at Sun-rising and finding the Door open they entred in where they were suddenly saluted by an Angel who told them that Jesus was risen and bad them go and acquaint his Apostles and particularly Peter that he was returned from the dead and that he would go before them into Galilee where they should meet with him Hereupon they returned back and acquainted the Apostles with what had passed who beheld the story as the
product of a weak frighted fancy But Peter and John presently hastned towards the Garden John being the younger and nimbler out-ran his Companion and came first thither where he only looked but entred not in either out of fear in himself or a great Reverence to our Saviour Peter though behind in space was before in zeal and being elder and more considerate came and resolutely entred in where they found nothing but the Linnen Clothes lying together in one place and the Napkin that was about his Head wrapped together in another which being disposed with so much care and order shewed what was falsly suggested by the Jews that our Saviour's Body was not taken away by Thieves who are wont more to consult their escape than how to leave things orderly disposed behind them 2. THE same Day about Noon we may suppose it was that our Lord himself appeared alone to Peter being assured of the thing though not so precisely of the time That he did so S. Paul expresly tells us and so did the Apostles the two Disciples that came from Emmaus The Lord is risen and hath appeared unto Simon which probably intimates that it was before his appearing to those two Disciples And indeed we cannot but think that our Lord would hasten the manifestation of himself to him as compassionating his case being overwhelmed with sorrow for the late shameful denial of his Master and was therefore willing in the first place to honour him with his presence at once to confirm him in the Article of his Resurrection and to let him see that he was restored to the place which before he had in his grace and favour S. Paul mentioning his several appearances after his Resurrection seems to make this the first of them That he was seen of Cephas Not that it was simply the first for he first appeared to the Women But as Chrysostom observes it was the first that was made to men He was first seen by him who most desired to see him He also adds several probable conjectures why our Lord first discovered himself to Peter As that it required a more than ordinary firmness and resolution of mind to be able to bear such a sight For they who beheld him after others had seen him and had heard their frequent Testimonies and Reports had had their Faith greatly prepared and encouraged to entertain it But he who was to be honoured with the first appearance had need of a bigger and more undaunted Faith left he should be over-born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with such a strange and unwonted sight That Peter was the first that had made a signal confession of his Master and therefore it was fit and reasonable that he should first see him alive after his Resurrection That Peter had lately denied his Lord the grief whereof lay hard upon him that therefore our Saviour was willing to administer some consolation to him and as soon as might be to let him see that he had not cast him off like the kind Samaritan he made haste to help him and to pour Oil into his wounded Conscience 3. SOME time after this the Apostles began to resolve upon their journey into Galilee as he himself had commanded them If it be enquired why they went no sooner seeing this was the first message and intimation they had received from him S. Ambrose his resolution seems very rational that our Lord indeed had commanded them to go thither but that their fears for some time kept them at home not being as yet fully satisfied in the truth of his Resurrection till our Lord by often appearing to them had confirmed their minds and put the case beyond all dispute They went as we may suppose in several Companies lest going all in one Body they should awaken the power and malice of their enemies and alarm the care and vigilancy of the state which by reason of the Noise that our Saviour's Trial and Execution had made up and down the City and Country was yet full of jealousies and fears We find Peter Thomas Nathanael and the two Sons of Zebedee and two more of the Disciples arrived at some Town about the Sea of Tiberias Where the Providence of God guiding the Instance of their employment Peter accompanied with the rest returns to his old Trade of Fishing They laboured all Night but caught nothing Early in the Morning a grave Person probably in the habit of a Traveller presents himself upon the shore And calling to them asked them whether they had any meat When they told him No He advised them to cast the Net on the right side of the Ship that so the Miracle might not seem to be the effect of chance and they should not fail to speed They did so and the Net presently inclosed so great a draught that they were scarce able to drag it a shore S. John amazed with the strangeness of the matter told Peter that surely this must be the Lord whom the Winds and the Sea and all the Inhabitants of that watry Region were so ready to obey Peter's zeal presently took fire notwithstanding the coldness of the Season and impatient of the least moments being kept from the company of his dear Lord and Master without any consideration of the danger to which he exposed himself he girt his Fishers Coat about him and throwing himself into the Sea swam to shore not being able to stay till the Ship could arrive which came presently after Landing they found a Fire ready made and Fish laid upon it either immediately created by his Divine power or which came to the shore of its own accord and offered it self to his hand Which notwithstanding he commands them to bring of the Fish which they had lately caught and prepare it for their Dinner He himself dining with them both that he might give them an instance of mutual love and fellowship and also assure them of the truth of his humane nature since his return from the dead 4. DINNER being ended our Lord more particularly addressed himself to Peter urging him to the utmost diligence in his care of Souls and because he knew that nothing but a mighty love to himself could carry him through the troubles and hazards of so dangerous and difficult an employment an employment attended with all the impediments which either the perversness of men or the malice and subtilty of the Devil could cast in the way to hinder it therefore he first enquired of him whether he loved him more than the rest of the Apostles herein mildly reproving his former over-confident resolution that though all the rest should deny him yet would not he deny him Peter modestly replyed not censuring others much less preferring himself before them that our Lord knew the integrity of his affection towards him This Question he puts three several times to Peter who as often returned the same Answer It being but just and reasonable that he who by a
were their frequent washings of their Pots and Cups their brazen Vessels and Tables the purifying themselves after they came from Market as if the touching of others had defiled them the washing their hands before every Meal and many other things which they had received to hold In all which they were infinitely nice and scrupulous making the neglect of them of equal guilt with the greatest immorality not sticking to affirm that he who eats Bread with unwashen hands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as if he lay with an Harlot This it 's plain they thought a sufficient charge against our Lord's Disciples that they were not zealous observers of these things When they saw some of his Disciples eat Bread with defiled that is to say with unwashen hands they found fault and asked him Why walk not thy Disciples according to the Tradition of the Elders but eat Bread with unwashen hands To whom our Saviour smartly answered that they were the Persons of whom the Prophet had spoken who honoured God with their lips but their hearts were far from him that in vain did they worship him while for Doctrines they taught the commandments of men laying aside and rejecting the commandments of God that they might hold the Tradition of men For they were not content to make them of equal value and authority with the Word of God but made them a means wholly to evacuate and supersede it Whereof our Lord gives a notorious instance in the case of Parents They could not say but that the Law obliged Children to honour and revere their Parents and to administer to their necessities in all straits and exigencies but then had found out a fine way to evade the force of the command and that under a pious and plausible pretence Moses said Honour thy Father and thy Mother and who so curseth Father or Mother let him die the death But ye say If a man shall say to his Father or Mother It is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me he shall be free And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father or Mother By which is commonly understood that when their Parents required relief and assistance from their Children they put them off with this excuse that they had consecrated their Estate to God and might not divert it to any other use Though this seems a specious and plausible pretence yet it is not reasonable to suppose that either they had or would pretend that they had intirely devoted whatever they had to God and must therefore refer to some other custom Now among the many kinds of oaths and vows that were among the Jews they had one which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vow of interdict whereby a man might restrain himself as to this or that particular person and this or that particular thing as he might vow not to accept of such a courtesie from this friend or that neighbour or that he would not part with this or that thing of his own to such a man to lend him his Horse or give him any thing towards his maintenance c. and then the thing became utterly unlawful and might not be done upon any consideration whatsoever lest the Man became guilty of the violation of his Vow The form of this Vow frequently occurs in the Jewish Writings and even in the very same words wherein our Lord expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it Corban or a gift that is a thing sacred whereby I may be any ways profitable to thee that is be that thing unlawful or prohibited to me wherein I may be helpful and assistant to thee And nothing more common than this way of vowing in the particular case of Parents whereof there are abundant instances in the writings of the Jewish Masters who thus explain the forementioned Vow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever I shall gain hereafter shall be sacred as to the maintenance of my Father or as Maimonides expresses it That what I provide my Father shall eat nothing of it that is says he he shall receive no profit by it and then as they tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that had thus vowed might not transgress or make void his Vow So that when indigent Parents craved relief and assistance from their Children and probably wearied them with importunity it was but vowing in a passionate resentment that they should not be better for what they had and then they were safe and might no more dispose any part of their Estate to that use than they might touch the Corban that which was most solemnly consecrated to God By which means they were taught to be unnatural under a pretence of Religion and to suffer their Parents to starve lest themselves should violate a senceless and unlawful Vow So that though they were under the precedent obligations of a natural duty a duty as clearly commanded by God as words could express it yet a blind Tradition a rash and impious Vow made for the most part out of passion or covetousness should cancel and supersede all these obligations it being unlawful henceforth to give them one penny to relieve them Ye suffer him no more says our Lord to do ought for his Father or his Mother making the word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered 22. THE last instance that I shall note of the corruption and degeneracy of this Church is the many Sects and divisions that were in it a thing which the Jews themselves in their writings confess would happen in the days of the Messiah whose Kingdom should be over-run with heretical opinions That Church which heretofore like Jerusalem had been at unity within it self was now miserably broken into Sects and Factions whereof three most considerable Pharisees Sadducees and the Essenes The Pharisees derive their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may admit of a double signification and either not unsuitable to them It may refer to them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explainers or Interpreters of the Law which was a peculiar part of their work and for which they were famous and venerable among the Jews or more probably to their separation the most proper and natural importance of the word so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius observed of old because separated from all others in their extraordinary pretences of piety the very Jews themselves thus describing a Pharisee he is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that separates himself from all uncleanness and from all unclean meats and from the people of the Earth the common rout who accurately observe not the difference of Meats It is not certain when this Sect first thrust up its head into the World probably not long after the times of the Macchabees 't is certain they were of considerable standing and great account in the time of our Saviour To be sure strangely wide of the mark
IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passeover 14. SECT V. Of S. Peter from the last Passeover till the Death of Christ. 20. SECT VI. Of S. Peter from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension 25. SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the dispersion of the Church 29. SECT VIII Of S. Peter's Acts from the dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch 37. SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred story till his Martyrdom 43. SECT X. The Character of his Person and Temper and an account of his Writings 49. SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome 54. The Life of S. Paul SECT I. Of S. Paul from his Birth till his Conversion Page 61. SECT II. Of S. Paul from his Conversion till the Council at Jerusalem 67. SECT III. Of S. Paul from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem till his departure from Athens 73. SECT IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus 82. SECT V. S. Paul's Acts from his departure from Ephesus till his Arraignment before Felix 88. SECT VI. Of S. Paul from his first Trial before Felix till his coming to Rome 95. SECT VII S. Paul's Acts from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom 101. SECT VIII The description of his Person and Temper together with an account of his Writings 108. SECT IX The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time 116. The Life of S. Andrew Page 131. The Life of S. James the Great 139. The Life of S. John 149. The Life of S. Philip. 163. The Life of S. Bartholomew 169. The Life of S. Matthew Page 175. The Life of S. Thomas Page 183. The Life of S. James the Less 189. The Life of S. Simon the Zealot 197. The Life of S. Jude 201. The Life of S. Matthias 207. The Life of S. Mark the Evangelist 213. The Life of S. Luke the Evangelist 221. Diptycha Apostolica Or an Enumeration of the Apostles and their Successors for the first three hundred years in the five great Churches said to have been founded by them pag. 227. The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick Catholick EPISCOPACY compared with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives Place 〈◊〉 Figure at Page ◠THE INTRODUCTION Christs faithfulness in appointing Officers in his Church The dignity of the Apostles above the rest The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nature of the Apostolick Office considered Respect had in founding it to the custom among the Jews Their Apostoli who The number of the Apostles limited Why twelve the several conjectures of the Ancients Their immediate election Their work wherein it consisted The Universality of their Commission Apostolical Churches what How soon the Apostles propagated Christianity through the World An argument for the Divinity of the Christian Religion inferr'd thence The power conveyed to the Apostles equally given to all Peter 's superiority over the rest disprov'd both from Scripture and Antiquity The Apostles how qualified for their Mission Immediately taught the Doctrine they delivered Infallibly secur'd from Error in delivering it Their constant and familiar converse with their Master Furnished with a power of working Miracles The great evidence of it to prove a Divine Doctrine Miraculous powers conferr'd upon the Apostles particularly considered Prophecy what and when it ceas'd The gift of discerning Spirits The gift of Tongues The gift of Interpretation The unreasonable practice of the Church of Rome in keeping the Scripture and Divine Worship in an Unknown Tongue The gift of Healing Greatly advantageous to Christianity How long it lasted Power of Immediately inflicting corporal punishments and the great benefit of it in those times The Apostles enabled to confer miraculous powers upon others The Duration of the Apostolical Office What in it extraordinary what ordinary Bishops in what sence styled Apostles 1. JESUS CHRIST the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession being appointed by God to be the Supreme Ruler and Governor of his Church was like Moses faithful in all his house but with this honourable advantage that Moses was faithful as a servant Christ as a Son over his own house which he erected established and governed with all possible care and diligence Nor could he give a greater instance either of his fidelity towards God or his love and kindness to the Souls of men than that after he had purchas'd a Family to himself and could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own person he would not return back to Heaven till he had constituted several Orders of Officers in his Church who might superintend and conduct its affairs and according to the various circumstances of its state administer to the needs and exigencies of his Family Accordingly therefore he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The first and prime Class of Officers is that of Apostles God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. First Apostles as far in office as honour before the rest their election more immediate their commission more large and comprehensive the powers and priviledges wherewith they were furnished greater and more honourable Prophecy the gift of Miracles and expelling Daemons the order of Pastors and Teachers were all spiritual powers and ensigns of great authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Chrysostom but the Apostolick eminency is far greater than all these which therefore he calls a spiritual Consulship an Apostle having as great preheminence above all other officers in the Church as the Consul had above all other Magistrates in Rome These Apostles were a few select persons whom our Lord chose out of the rest to devolve part of the Government upon their shoulders and to depute for the first planting and setling Christianity in the World He chose twelve whom he named Apostles of whose Lives and Acts being to give an Historical account in the following work it may not possibly be unuseful to premise some general remarks concerning them not respecting this or that particular person but of a general relation to the whole wherein we shall especially take notice of the importance of the word the nature of the imployment the fitness and qualification of the persons and the duration and continuance of the Office II. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sent is among ancient Writers applied either to things actions or persons To things thus those Dimissory letters that were granted to such who appeal'd from an Inferiour to a Superiour
shall afterwards possibly more particularly remark Thirdly these Apostles were immediately called and sent by Christ himself elected out of the body of his Disciples and followers and receiv'd their Commission from his own mouth Indeed Matthias was not one of the first election being taken in upon Judas his Apostasie after our Lord's Ascension into Heaven But besides that he had been one of the seventy Disciples called and sent out by our Saviour that extraordinary declaration of the Divine will and pleasure that appeared in determining his election was in a manner equivalent to the first election As for S. Paul he was not one of the Twelve taken in as a supernumerary Apostle but yet an Apostle as well as they and that not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ as he pleads his own cause against the insinuations of those Impostors who traduced him as an Apostle only at the second hand whereas he was immediately call'd by Christ as well as they and in a more extraordinary manner they were called by him while he was yet in his state of meanness and humiliation he when Christ was now advanced upon the Throne and appeared to him encircled with those glorious emanations of brightness and majesty which he was not able to endure V. Fourthly The main work and imployment of these Apostles was to preach the Gospel to establish Christianity and to govern the Church that was to be founded as Christ's immediate Deputies and Vicegerents they were to instruct men in the doctrines of the Gospel to disciple the World and to baptize and initiate men into the Faith of Christ to constitute and ordain Guides and Ministers of Religion persons peculiarly set a-part for holy ministrations to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious offenders to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions to command or countermand as occasion was being vested with an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for the edification of the Church This Office the Apostles never exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence upon Earth for though upon their election he sent them forth to Preach and to Baptize yet this was only a narrow and temporary imployment and they quickly returned to their private stations the main power being still executed and administred by Christ himself the complete exercise whereof was not actually devolved upon them till he was ready to leave the World for then it was that he told them as my father hath sent me even so send I you receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Whereby he conferr'd in some proportion the same authority upon them which he himself had derived from his Father Fifthly This Commission given to the Apostles was unlimited and universal not only in respect of power as enabling them to discharge all acts of Religion relating either to Ministry or Government but in respect of place not confining them to this or that particular Province but leaving them the whole World as their Diocese to Preach in they being destinati Nationibus Magistri in Tertullian's phrase designed to be the Masters and Instructors of all Nations so runs their Commission Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature that is to all men the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Evangelist answering to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to all creatures whereby they used to denote all men in general but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews Indeed while our Saviour lived the Apostolical ministry extended no further than Judaea but he being gone to Heaven the partition-wall was broken down and their way was open into all places and Countries And herein how admirably did the Christian Oeconomy transcend the Jewish dispensation The preaching of the Prophets like the light that comes in at the window was confin'd only to the house of Israel while the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the Apostles was like the light of the Sun in the Firmament that diffused its beams and propagated its heat and influence into all quarters of the World their sound going out into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World It 's true for the more prudent and orderly management of things they are generally said by the Ancients to have divided the World into so many quarters and portions to which they were severally to betake themselves Peter to Pontus Galatia Cappadocia c. S. John to Asia S. Andrew to Scythia c. But they did not strictly tye themselves to those particular Provinces that were assigned to them but as occasion was made excursions into other parts though for the main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that were allotted to them usually residing at some principal City of the Province as S. John at Ephesus S. Philip at Hierapolis c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of affairs round about them and hence it was that these places more peculiarly got the title of Apostolical Churches because first planted or eminently watered and cultivated by some Apostle Matrices Originales Fidei as Tertullian calls them Mother-Churches and the Originals of the Faith because here the Christian doctrine was first sown and hence planted and propagated to the Countries round about Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt à quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt as his own words are VI. In pursuance of this general Commission we find the Apostles not long after our Lord's Ascension traversing almost all parts of the then known World S. Andrew in Scythia and those Northern Countries S. Thomas and Bartholomew in India S. Simon and S. Mark in Afric Egypt and the parts of Libya and Mauritania S. Paul and probably Peter and some others in the farthest Regions of the West And all this done in the space of less than forty years viz. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus and the Roman Army For so our Lord had expresly foretold that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations before the end came that is the end of the Jewish State which the Apostles a little before had called the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shutting up or consummation of the Age the putting a final period to that present State and dispensation that the Jews were under And indeed strange it is to consider that in so few years these Evangelical Messengers should over-run all Countries with what an incredible swiftness did the Christian Faith like lightning pierce from East to West and diffuse it self over all quarters of the World and that not only unassisted by any secular advantages but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition
important and concerning an Article so vital and essential to the constitution of that Church As when he argues Peter's superiority from the meer changing of his name for what 's this to supremacy besides that it was not done to him alone the same being done to James and John from his being first reckoned up in the Catalogue of Apostles his walking with Christ upon the water his paying tribute for his Master and himself his being commanded to let down the Net and Christ's teaching in Peter's ship and this ship must denote the Church and Peter's being owner of it entitle him to be supreme Ruler and Governour of the Church so Bellarmine in terms as plain as he could well express it from Christ's first washing Peter's feet though the story recorded by the Evangelist says no such thing and his foretelling only his death all which and many more prerogatives of S. Peter to the number of no less than XXVIII are summoned in to give in evidence in this cause and many of these two drawn out of Apocryphal and supposititious Authors and not only uncertain but absurd and fabulous and yet upon such arguments as these do they found his paramount authority A plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause when such twigs must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water Had they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of Order which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him no wise and peaceable man would have denied it as being a thing ordinarily practised among equals and necessary to the well governing a society but when nothing but a primacy of Power will serve the turn as if the rest of the Apostles had been inferiour to him this may by no means be granted as being expresly contrary to the positive determination of our Saviour when the Apostles were contending about this very thing which of them should be accounted the greatest he thus quickly decides the case The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But ye shall not be so but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant Than which nothing could have been more peremptorily spoken to rebuke this naughty spirit of preheminence Nor do we ever find S. Peter himself laying claim to any such power or the Apostles giving him the least shadow of it In the whole course of his affairs there are no intimations of this matter in his Epistle he styles himself but their fellow-Presbyter and expresly forbids the Governours of the Church to Lord it over God's heritage When dispatched by the rest of the Apostles upon a message to Samaria he never disputes their authority to do it when accused by them for going in unto the Gentiles does he stand upon his prerogative no but submissively apologizes for himself nay when smartly reprov'd by S. Paul at Antioch when if ever his credit lay at stake do we find him excepting against it as an affront to his supremacy and a sawcy controlling his superiour surely the quite contrary he quietly submitted to the reproof as one that was sensible how justly he had deserved it Nor can it be supposed but that S. Paul would have carried it towards him with a greater reverence had any such peculiar soveraignty been then known to the World How confidently does S. Paul assert himself to be no whit inferiour to the chiefest Apostles not to Peter himself the Gospel of the uncircumcision being committed to him as that of the circumcision was to Peter Is Peter oft named first among the Apostles elsewhere others sometimes James sometimes Paul and Apollos are placed before him Did Christ honour him with some singular commendations an honourable elogium conveys no super-eminent power and soveraignty Was he dear to Christ we know another that was the beloved Disciple So little warrant is there to exalt one above the rest where Christ made all alike If from Scripture we descend to the ancient Writers of the Church we shall find that though the Fathers bestow very great and honourable Titles upon Peter yet they give the same or what are equivalent to others of the Apostles Hesychius stiles S. James the Great the Brother of our Lord the Commander of the new Jerusalem the Prince of Priests the Exarch or chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top or crown amongst the heads the great light amongst the Lamps the most illustrious and resplendent amongst the stars 't was Peter that preach'd but 't was James that made the determination c. Of S. Andrew he gives this encomium that he was the sacerdotal Trumpet the first born of the Apostolick Quire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime and firm Pillar of the Church Peter before Peter the foundation of the foundation the first fruits of the beginning Peter and John are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally honourable by S. Cyril with his whole Synod of Alexandria S. John says Chrysostom was Christ's beloved the Pillar of all the Churches in the World who had the Keys of Heaven drank of his Lord's cup was wash'd with his Baptism and with confidence lay in his bosome And of S. Paul he tells us that he was the most excellent of all men the Teacher of the World the Bridegroom of Christ the Planter of the Church the wise Master-builder greater than the Apostles and much more to the same purpose Elsewhere he says that the care of the whole World was committed to him that nothing could be more noble or illustrious yea that his Miracles considered he was more excellent than Kings themselves And a little after he calls him the tongue of the Earth the light of the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the faith the pillar and ground of truth And in a discourse on purpose wherein he compares Peter and Paul together he makes them of equal esteem and vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What greater than Peter What equal to Paul a Blessed pair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who had the Souls of the whole World committed to their charge But instances of this nature were endless and infinite If the Fathers at any time style Peter Prince of the Apostles they mean no more by it than the best and purest Latine writers mean by princeps the first or chief person of the number more considerable than the rest either for his age or zeal Thus Eusebius tells us Peter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prolocutor of all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the greatness and generosity of his mind that is in Chrysostome's language he was the mouth and chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because eager and forward at every turn and ready to answer those questions which were put to others In
short as he had no Prerogative above the rest besides his being the Chair-man and President of the Assembly so was it granted to him upon no other considerations than those of his age zeal and gravity for which he was more eminent than the rest VIII We proceed next to enquire into the fitness and qualification of the Persons commissionated for this employment and we shall finde them admirably qualified to discharge it if we consider this following account First They immediately received the Doctrine of the Gospel from the mouth of Christ himself he intended them for Legati à latere his peculiar Embassadors to the World and therefore furnished them with instructions from his own mouth and in order hereunto he train'd them up for some years under his own Discipline and institution he made them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven when to others it was not given treated them with the affection of a Father and the freedom and familiarity of a friend Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you They heard all his Sermons were privy both to his publick and private discourses what he preach'd abroad he expounded to them at home he gradually instructed them in the knowledge of Divine things and imparted to them the notions and mysteries of the Gospel not all at once but as they were able to bear them By which means they were sufficiently capable of giving a satisfactory account of that doctrine to others which had been so immediately so frequently communicated to themselves Secondly They were infallibly secured from error in delivering the Doctrines and Principles of Christianity for though they were not absolutely priviledg'd from failures and miscarriages in their lives these being of more personal and private consideration yet were they infallible in their Doctrine this being a matter whereupon the salvation and eternal interests of men did depend And for this end they had the spirit of truth promised to them who should guide them into all truth Under the conduct of this unerring Guide they all steer'd the same course taught and spake the same things though at different times and in distant places and for what was consign'd to writing all Scripture was given by inspiration of God and the holy men spake not but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Hence that exact and admirable harmony that is in all their writings and relations as being all equally dictated by the same spirit of truth Thirdly They had been eye-witnesses of all the material passages of our Saviour's life continually conversant with him from the commencing of his publick ministery till his ascension into Heaven they had survey'd all his actions seen all his miracles observ'd the whole method of his conversation and some of them attended him in his most private solitudes and retirements And this could not but be a very rational satisfaction to the minds of men when the publishers of the Gospel solemnly declared to the World that they reported nothing concerning our Saviour but what they had seen with their own eyes and of the truth whereof they were as competent Judges as the acutest Philosopher in the World Nor could there be any just reason to suspect that they impos'd upon men in what they delivered for besides their naked plainness and simplicity in all other passages of their lives they chearfully submitted to the most exquisite hardships tortures and sufferings meerly to attest the truth of what they published to the World Next to the evidence of our own senses no testimony is more valid and forcible than his who relates what himself has seen Upon this account our Lord told his Apostles that they should be witnesses to him both in Judaea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the Earth And so necessary a qualification of an Apostle was this thought to be that it was almost the only condition propounded in the choice of a new Apostle after the fall of Judas Wherefore says Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection Accordingly we find the Apostles constantly making use of this argument as the most rational evidence to convince those whom they had to deal with We are witnesses of all things which Jesus did both in the Land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to be Judge of the quick and dead Thus S. John after the same way of arguing appeals to sensible demonstration That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have look'd upon and our hands have handled of the word of life For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us This to name no more S. Peter thought a sufficient vindication of the Apostolical doctrine from the suspicion of forgery and imposture We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his majesty God had frequently given testimony to the divinity of our blessed Saviour by visible manifestations and appearances from Heaven and particularly by an audible voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now this Voice which came from Heaven says he we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount IX Fourthly The Apostles were invested with a power of working Miracles as the readiest means to procure their Religion a firm belief and entertainment in the minds of Men. For Miracles are the great confirmation of the truth of any doctrine and the most rational evidence of a divine commission For seeing God only can create and controll the Laws of nature produce something out of nothing and call things that are not as if they were give eyes to them that were born blind raise the dead c. things plainly beyond all possible powers of nature no man that believes the wisedom and goodness of an infinite being can suppose that this God of truth should affix his seal to a lye or communicate this power
Barrenness Ingratitude and Unprofitableness under the influences of Christ's Sermons and Miracles thence severely upbraided by him and threatned with one of his deepest woes Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida c. A woe that it seems stuck close to it for whatever it was at this time one who surveyed it in the last Age tells us that it was shrunk again into a very mean and small Village consisting only of a few cottages of Moores and wild Arabs and later travellers have since assured us that even these are dwindled away into one poor cottage at this day So fatally does sin undermine the greatest the goodliest places so certainly does God's Word take place and not one Iota either of his promises or threatnings fall to the ground Next to the honour that was done it by our Saviour's presence who living most in these parts frequently resorted hither it had nothing greater to recommend it to the notice of posterity than that besides some other of the Apostles it was the Birth-place of S. Peter a person how inconsiderable soever in his private fortunes yet of great note and eminency as one of the prime Embassadors of the Son of God to whom both Sacred and Ecclesiastical stories give though not a superiority a precedency in the Colledge of Apostles 2. THE particular time of his Birth cannot be recovered no probable footsteps or intimations being left of it in the general we may conclude him at least Ten 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 but for any thing more particular and positive in this matter I see no reason to affirm Indeed might we trust the account which one who pretends to calculate his Nativity with ostentation enough has given of it we are told that he was born three years before the Blessed Virgin and just XVII before the Incarnation of our Saviour But let us view his account Nat. est An. ab Orbe cond à Diluvio V. C. 4034 2378 734 Ann. Oct. August à 1º ejus consul à pugna Actiae 8 24 12 Ann. Herodis Reg. ante B. Virg. ante Chr. nat 20 3 17 When I met with such a pompous train of Epocha's the least I expected was truth and certainty This computation he grounds upon the date of S. Peter's death placed as elsewhere he tells us by Bellarmine in the LXXXVI year of his Age so that recounting from the year of Christ LXIX when Peter is commonly said to have suffered he runs up his Age to his Birth and spreads it out into so many several dates But alas all is built upon a sandy bottom For besides his mistake about the year of the World few of his dates hold due correspondence But the worst of it is that after all this Bellarmine upon whose single testimony all this fine fabrick is erected says no such thing but only supposes merely for arguments-sake that S. Peter might very well be LXXXVI 't is erroneously printed LXXVI years old at the time of his Martyrdom So far will confidence or ignorance or both carry men aside if it could be a mistake and not rather a bold imposing upon the World But of this enough and perhaps more than it deserves 3. BEING circumcised according to the Rites of the Mosaick Law the name given him at his circumcision was Symon or Symeon a name common amongst the Jews especially in their latter times This was afterwards by our Saviour not abolished but additioned with the title of Cephas which in Syriack the vulgar Language of the Jews at that time signifying a stone or rock was thence derived into the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by us Peter so far was Hesychius out when rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Expounder or Interpreter probably deriving it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to explain and interpret By this new imposition our Lord seemed to denote the firmness and constancy of his Faith and his vigorous activity in building up the Church as a spiritual house upon the the true rock the living and corner-stone chosen of God and precious as S. Peter himself expresses it Nor can our Saviour be understood to have hereby conferred upon him any peculiar Supremacy or Sovereignty above much less over the rest of the Apostles for in respect of the great trusts committed to them and their being sent to plant Christianity in the World they are all equally stiled Foundations nor is it accountable either to Scripture or reason to suppose that by this Name our Lord should design the person of Peter to be that very rock upon which his Church was to be built In a fond imitation of this new name given to S. Peter those who pretend to be his Successors in the See of Rome usually lay by their own and assume a new name upon their advancement to the Apostolick Chair it being one of the first questions which the Cardinals put to the new-elected Pope by what name he will please to be called This custom first began about the Year 844 when Peter di Bocca-Porco or Swines-mouth being chosen Pope changed his name into Sergius the Second probably not so much to avoid the uncomeliness of his own name as if unbefitting the dignity of his place for this being but his Paternal name would after have been no part of his Pontifical stile and title as out of a mighty reverence to S. Peter accounting himself not worthy to bear his name though it was his own baptismal name Certain it is that none of the Bishops of that See ever assumed S. Peter's name and some who have had it as their Christian name before have laid it aside upon their election to the Papacy But to return to our Apostle 4. HIS Father was Jonah probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida for the Sacred story takes no further notice of him than by the bare mention of his Name and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake though Metaphrastes had not told us that it was not Jonas the Prophet who came out of the Belly of the Whale Brother he was to S. Andrew the Apostle and some question there is amongst the Ancients which was the elder Brother Epiphanius probably from some Tradition current in his time clearly adjudges it to S. Andrew herein universally followed by those of the Church of Rome that the precedency given to S. Peter may not seem to be put upon the account of his Seniority But to him we may oppose the authority of S. Chrysostom a Person equal both in time and credit who expresly says that though Andrew came later into life than Peter yet he first brought him to the knowledge of the Gospel which Baronius
vindicate the Apostles from all suspicion of forgery and imposture in the thoughts of sober and unbyassed persons to see their Doctrine readily entertained by men of the most discerning and inquisitive minds Had they dealt only with the rude and the simple the idiot and the unlearned there might have been some pretence to suspect that they lay in wait to deceive and designed to impose upon the World by crafty and insinuative arts and methods But alas they had other persons to deal with men of the acutest wits and most profound abilities the wisest Philosophers and most subtil disputants able to weigh an argument with the greatest accuracy and to decline the force of the strongest reasonings and who had their parts edg'd with the keenest prejudices of education and a mighty veneration for the Religion of their Country a Religion that for so many Ages had governed the World and taken firm possession of the minds of men And yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages these plain men conquered the wise and the learned and brought them over to that Doctrine that was despised and scorned opposed and persecuted and that had nothing but its own native excellency to recommend it A clear evidence that there was something in it beyond the craft and power of men Is not this says an elegant Apologist making his address to the Heathens enough to make you believe and entertain it to consider that in so short a time it has diffused it self over the whole World civilized the most barbarous Nations softned the roughest and most intractable tempers that the greatest Wits and Scholars Orators Grammarians Rhetoricians Lawyers Physicians and Philosophers have quitted their formerly dear and beloved sentiments and heartily embraced the Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel Upon this account Theodoret does with no less truth than elegancy insult and triumph over the Heathens He tells them that whoever would be at the pains to compare the best Law-makers either amongst the Greeks or Romans with our Fishermen and Publicans would soon perceive what a Divine vertue and efficacy there was in them above all others whereby they did not only conquer their neighbours not only the Greeks and Romans but brought over the most barbarous Nations to a compliance with the Laws of the Gospel and that not by force of Arms not by numerous bands of Souldiers not by methods of torture and cruelty but by meek perswasives and a convincing the World of the excellency and usefulness of those Laws which they propounded to them A thing which the wisest and best men of the Heathen-world could never do to make their dogmata and institutions universally obtain nay that Plato himself could never by all his plausible and insinuative arts make his Laws to be entertained by his own dear Athenians He farther shews them that the Laws published by our Fishermen and Tent-makers could never be abolished like those made by the best amongst them by the policies of Caius the power of Claudius the cruelties of Nero or any of the succeeding Emperors but still they went on conquering and to conquer and made Millions both of Men and Women willing to embrace flames and to encounter Death in its most horrid shapes rather than disown and forsake them whereof he calls to witness those many Churches and Monuments every where erected to the memory of Christian Martyrs no less to the honour than advantage of those Cities and Countries and in some sence to all Mankind 7. THE summ of the Discourse is in the Apostles words that God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise the weak to confound those that are mighty the base things of the world things most vilified and despised yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are These were the things these the Persons whom God sent upon this errand to silence the Wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World and to make foolish the wisdom of this World For though the Jews required a sign and the Greeks sought after wisdom though the preaching a crucified Saviour was a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the learned Graecians yet by this foolishness of preaching God was pleased to save them that believed and in the event made it appear that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men That so the honour of all might intirely redound to himself so the Apostle concludes that no Flesh should glory in his presence but that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord. SECT II. Of S. Peter from his first coming to Christ till his being call'd to be a Disciple Peter before his coming to Christ a Disciple probably of John the Baptist His first approaches to Christ. Our Lord's communication with him His return to his Trade Christ ' s entring into Peter ' s Ship and preaching to the people at the Sea of Galilee The miraculous draught of Fishes Peter ' s great astonishment at this evidence of our Lord's Divinity His call to be a Disciple Christ 's return to Capernaum and healing Peter 's Mother-in-Law THOUGH we find not whether Peter before his coming to Christ was engag'd in any of the particular Sects at this time in the Jewish Church yet is it greatly probable that he was one of the Disciples of John the Baptist. For first 't is certain that his brother Andrew was so and we can hardly think these two brothers should draw contrary ways or that he who was so ready to bring his brother the early tidings of the Messiah that the Sun of righteousness was already risen in those parts should not be as solicitous to bring him under the discipline and influences of John the Baptist the Day-star that went before him Secondly Peter's forwardness and curiosity at the first news of Christ's appearing to come to him and converse with him shew that his expectations had been awakened and some light in this matter conveyed to him by the preaching and ministry of John who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight shewing them who it was that was coming after him 2. HIS first acquaintance with Christ commenced in this manner The Blessed Jesus having for thirty years passed through the solitudes of a private life had lately been baptized in Jordan and there publickly owned to be the Son of God by the most solemn attestations that Heaven could give him whereupon he was immediately hurried into the wilderness to a personal contest with the Devil for forty days together So natural is it to the enemy of mankind to malign our happiness and to seek to blast our joys when we are under the highest instances of the Divine grace and favour His enemy being conquered in three set battels and fled he returned hence and came down to Bethabar a beyond Jordan where John was baptizing his
Proselytes and endeavouring to satisfie the Jews who had sent to him curiously to enquire concerning this new Messiah that appeared among them Upon the great testimony which the Baptist gave him and his pointing to our Lord then passing by him two of John's disciples who were then with him presently followed after Christ one of which was Simon 's brother It was towards Evening when they came and therefore probably they stayed with him all night during which Andrew had opportunity to inform himself and to satisfie his most scrupulous enquiries Early the next morning if not that very evening he hastned to acquaint his brother Simon with these glad tidings 'T is not enough to be good and happy alone Religion is a communicative principle that like the circles in the water delights to multiply it self and to diffuse its influences round about it and especially upon those whom nature has placed nearest to us He tells him they had found the long look'd for Messiah him whom Moses and the Prophets had so signally foretold and whom all the devout and pious of that Nation had so long expected 3. SIMON one of those who look'd for the Kingdom of God and waited for redemption in Israel ravished with this joyful news and impatient of delay presently follows his brother to the place whither he was no sooner come but our Lord to give him an evidence of his Divinity salutes him at first sight by name tells him what and who he was both as to his name and kindred what title should be given him that he should be calld Cephas or Peter a name which he afterwards actually conferr'd upon him What passed further between them and whether these two brothers henceforward personally attended our Saviour's motions in the number of his Disciples the Sacred Story leaves us in the dark It seems probable that they stayd with him for some time till they were instructed in the first rudiments of his doctrine and by his leave departed home For it 's reasonable to suppose that our Lord being unwilling at this time especially to awaken the jealousies of the State by a numerous retinue might dismiss his Disciples for some time and Peter and Andrew amongst the rest who hereupon returned home to the exercise of their calling where he found them afterwards 4. IT was now somewhat more than a year since our Lord having entred upon the publick stage of action constantly went about doing good healing the sick and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom residing usually at Capernaum and the parts about it where by the constancy of his preaching and the reputation of his miracles his fame spread about all those Countries by means whereof multitudes of people from all parts flock'd to him greedily desirous to become his Auditors And what wonder if the parch'd and barren Earth thirsted for the showers of Heaven It hapned that our Lord retiring out of the City to enjoy the privacies of contemplation upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee it was not long before the multitude found him out to avoid the crowd and press whereof he step'd into a Ship or Fisher-Boat that lay near to the shore which belonged to Peter who together with his companions after a tedious and unsuccessful night were gone a-shore to wash and dry their Nets He who might have commanded was yet pleased to intreat Peter who by this time was returned into his Ship to put a little from the shore Here being sate he taught the people who stood along upon the shore to hear him Sermon ended he resolv'd to seal up his doctrine with a miracle that the people might be the more effectually convinced that he was a Teacher come from God To this purpose he had Simon lanch out further and cast his Net into the Sea Simon tells him they had dont already that they had been fishing all the last night but in vain and if they could not succeed then the most proper season for that employment there was less hope to speed now it being probably about Noon But because where God commands it is not for any to argue but obey at our Lord's instance he let down the Net which immediately inclosed so great a multitude of Fishes that the Net began to break and they were forced to call to their partners who were in a Ship hard by them to come in to their assistance A draught so great that it loaded both their Boats and that so full that it endangered their sinking before they could get safe to shore An instance wherein our Saviour gave an ocular demonstration that as Messiah God had put all things under his feet not only Fowls of the Air but the Fish of the Sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the Seas 5. AMAZ'D they were all at this miraculous draught of Fishes whereupon Simon in an ecstasie of admiration and a mixture of humility and fear threw himself at the feet of Christ and pray'd him to depart from him as a vile and a sinful person So evident were the appearances of Divinity in this miracle that he was over-powred and dazled with its brightness and lustre and reflecting upon himself could not but think himself unworthy the presence of so great a person so immediately sent from God and considering his own state Conscience being hereby more sensibly awakened was afraid that the Divine vengeance might pursue and overtake him But our Lord to abate the edge of his fears assures him that this miracle was not done to amaze and terrifie him but to strengthen and confirm his Faith that now he had nobler work and employment for him instead of catching Fish he should by perswading men to the obedience of the Gospel catch the Souls of men And accordingly commanded him and his brother to follow him the same command which presently after he gave to the two Sons of Zebedee The word was no sooner spoken and they landed but disposing their concerns in the hands of friends as we may presume prudent and reasonable men would they immediately left all and followed him and from this time Peter and the rest became his constant and inseparable Disciples living under the rules of his Discipline and Institutions 6. FROM hence they returned to Capernaum where our Lord entring into Simon 's house the place in all likelihood where he was wont to lodge during his residence in that City found his Mother-in-law visited with a violent Fever No priviledges afford an exemption from the ordinary Laws of humane Nature Christ under her roof did not protect this Woman from the assaults and invasions of a Fever Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick as they said concerning Lazarus Here a fresh opportunity offered it self to Christ of exerting his Divine Power No sooner was he told of it but he came to her bed-side rebuked the Paroxysms commanded the Fever to be gone and taking her by the hand to lift her up in
a moment restored her to perfect health and ability to return to the business of her Family all cures being equally easie to Omnipotence SECT III. Of S. Peter from his Election to the Apostolate till the Confession which he made of Christ. The Election of the Apostles and our Lord 's solemn preparation for it The powers and Commission given to them Why Twelve chosen Peter the first in order not power The Apostles when and by whom Baptized The Tradition of Euodius of Peter ' s being immediately Baptized by Christ rejected and its authorities proved insufficient Three of the Apostles more intimately conversant with our Saviour Peter ' s being with Christ at the raising Jairus his Daughter His walking with Christ upon the Sea The creatures at God's command act contrary to their natural Inclinations The weakness of Peter ' s Faith Christ ' s power in commanding down the storm an evidence of his Divinity Many Disciples desert our Saviour's preaching Peter ' s profession of constancy in the name of the rest of the Apostles 1. OUR Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons as his immediate Vicegerents upon Earth to whose care and trust he might commit the building up of his Church and the planting that Religion in the World for which he himself came down from Heaven In order to it he privately over-night withdrew himself into a solitary Mountain commonly called the Mount of Christ from his frequent repairing thither though some of the Ancients will have it to be Mount Tabor there to make his solemn address to Heaven for a prosperous success on so great a work Herein leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the Governours of his Church how to proceed in setting apart persons to so weighty and difficult an employment Upon this Mountain we may conceive there was an Oratory or place of prayer probably intimated by S. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such Profeucha's or houses of Prayer usually uncovered and standing in the fields the Jews had in several places wherein our Lord continued all night not in one continued and intire act of devotion but probably by intervals and repeated returns of duty 2. EARLY the next morning his Disciples came to him out of whom he made choice of Twelve to be his Apostles that they might be the constant attendants upon his person to hear his Discourses and be Eye-witnesses of his Miracles to be always conversant with him while he was upon Earth and afterwards to be sent abroad up and down the World to carry on that work which he himself had begun whom therefore he invested with the power of working Miracles which was more completely conferr'd upon them after his Ascension into Heaven Passing by the several fancies and conjectures of the Ancients why our Saviour pitch'd upon the just number of Twelve whereof before it may deserve to be considered whether our Lord being now to appoint the Supreme Officers and Governours of his Church which the Apostle styles the Commonwealth of Israel might not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of their several Tribes or to the constant Heads and Rulers of those twelve Tribes of which the body of the Jewish Nation did consist Especially since he himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it when he tells the Apostles that when the Son of man shall fit on the Throne of his Glory that is be gone back to Heaven and have taken full possession of his Evangelical Kingdom which principally commenc'd from his Resurrection that then they also should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is they should have great powers and authorities in the Church such as the power of the Keys and other Rights of Spiritual Judicature and Sovereignty answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which the Heads and Rulers of the twelve Tribes of Israel did enjoy 3. IN the enumeration of these twelve Apostles all the Evangelists constantly place S. Peter in the front and S. Matthew expresly tells us that he was the first that is he was the first that was called to be an Apostle his Age also and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a Primacy of Order amongst the rest of the Apostles as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained Less than this as none will deny him so more than this neither Scripture nor Primitive antiquity do allow him And now it was that our Lord actually conferr'd that name upon him which before he had promised him Simon he surnamed Peter It may here be enquired when and by whom the Apostles were baptized That they were is unquestionable being themselves appointed to confer it upon others but when or how the Scripture is altogether silent Nicephorus from no worse an Author as he pretends than Euodius S. Peter's immediate successor in the See of Antioch tells us That of all the Apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands that Peter baptized Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee and they the rest of the Apostles This if so would greatly make for the honour of S. Peter But alas his authority is not only suspicious but supposititious in a manner deserted by S. Peter's best friends and the strongest champions of his cause Baronius himself however sometimes willing to make use of him elsewhere confessing that this Epistle of Euodius is altogether unknown to any of the Ancients As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius though not Sophronius but Johannes Moschus as is notoriously known be the Author of that Book besides that it is delivered upon an uncertain report pretended to have been alledged in a discourse between one Dionysius Bishop of Ascalon and his Clergy out of a Book of Clemens not now extant his Authors are much alike that is of no great value and authority 4. AMONGST these Apostles our Lord chose a Triumvirate Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to be his more intimate companions whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his Life The first instance of which was on this occasion Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue had a daughter desperately sick whose disease having baffled all the arts of Physick was only curable by the immediate agency of the God of Nature He therefore in all humility addresses himself to our Saviour which he had no sooner done but servants came post to tell him that it was in vain to trouble our Lord for that his daughter was dead Christ bids him not despond if his Faith held out there was no danger And suffering none to follow him but Peter James and John goes along with him to the house where he was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours for telling them that she was not perfectly dead
But our Lord entering in with the commanding efficacy of two words restor'd her at once both to life and perfect health 5. OUR Lord after this preached many Sermons and wrought many Miracles amongst which none more remarkable than his feeding a multitude of five thousand men besides women and children but with five Loaves and two Fishes of which nevertheless twelve Baskets of fragments were taken up Which being done and the multitude dismissed he commanded the Apostles to take Ship it being now near night and to cross over to Capernaum whilest he himself as his manner was retired to a neighbouring mountain to dispose himself to Prayer and Contemplation The Apostles were scarce got into the middle of the Sea when on a sudden a violent Storm and Tempest began to arise whereby they were brought into present danger of their lives Our Saviour who knew how the case stood with them and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears having himself caused this Tempest for the greater trial of their Faith a little before morning for so long they remained in this imminent danger immediately conveyed himself upon the Sea where the Waves received him being proud to carry their Master He who refused to gratifie the Devil when tempting him to throw himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple did here commit himself to a boisterous and instable Element and that in a violent Storm walking upon the water as if it had been dry ground But that infinite power that made and supports the World as it gave rules to all particular beings so can when it pleaseth countermand the Laws of their Creation and make them act contrary to their natural inclinations If God say the word the Sun will stand still in the middle of the Heavens if Go back 't will retrocede as upon the Dial of Ahaz if he command it the Heavens will become as Brass and the Earth as Iron and that for three years and an half together as in the case of Elijah's prayer if he say to the Sea Divide 't will run upon heaps and become on both sides as firm as a wall of Marble Nothing can be more natural than for the fire to burn and yet at God's command it will forget its nature and become a screen and a fence to the three Children in the Babylonian Furnace What heavier than Iron or more natural than for gravity to tend downwards and yet when God will have it Iron shall float like Cork on the top of the water The proud and raging Sea that naturally refuses to bear the bodies of men while alive became here as firm as Brass when commanded to wait upon and do homage to the God of Nature Our Lord walking towards the Ship as if he had an intention to pass by it he was espied by them who presently thought it to be the Apparition of a Spirit Hereupon they were seiz'd with great terror and consternation and their fears in all likelihood heightned by the vulgar opinion that they are evil Spirits that chuse rather to appear in the night than by day While they were in this agony our Lord taking compassion on them calls to them and bids them not be afraid for that it was no other than he himself Peter the eagerness of whose temper carried him forward to all bold and resolute undertakings entreated our Lord that if it was he he might have leave to come upon the water to him Having received his orders he went out of the Ship and walked upon the Sea to meet his Master But when he found the wind to bear hard against him and the waves to rise round about him whereby probably the sight of Christ was intercepted he began to be afraid and the higher his fears arose the lower his Faith began to sink and together with that his body to sink under water whereupon in a passionate fright he cried out to our Lord to help him who reaching out his arm took him by the hand and set him again upon the top of the water with this gentle reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt It being the weakness of our Faith that makes the influences of the Divine power and goodness to have no better effect upon us Being come to the Ship they took them in where our Lord no sooner arrived but the winds and waves observing their duty to their Sovereign Lord and having done the errand which they came upon mannerly departed and vanished away and the Ship in an instant was at the shore All that were in the Ship being strangely astonished at this Miracle and fully convinced of the Divinity of his person came and did homage to him with this confession Of a truth thou art the Son of God After which they went ashore and landed in the Country of Genezareth and there more fully acknowledged him before all the people 6. THE next day great multitudes flocking after him he entred into a Synagogue at Capernaum and taking occasion from the late Miracle of the loaves which he had wrought amongst them he began to discourse concerning himself as the true Manna and the Bread that came down from Heaven largely opening to them many of the more sublime and Spiritual mysteries and the necessary and important duties of the Gospel Hereupon a great part of his Auditory who had hitherto followed him finding their understandings gravelled with these difficult and uncommon Notions and that the duties he required were likely to grate hard upon them and perceiving now that he was not the Messiah they took him for whose Kingdom should consist in an external Grandeur and plenty but was to be managed and transacted in a more inward and Spiritual way hereupon fairly left him in open field and henceforth quite turned their backs upon him Whereupon our Lord turning about to his Apostles asked them whether they also would go away from him Peter spokes-man generally for all the rest answered whither should they go to mend and better their condition should they return back to Moses Alas he laid a yoke upon them which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Should they go to the Scribes and Pharisees they would feed them with Stones instead of Bread obtrude humane Traditions upon them for Divine dictates and Commands Should they betake themselves to the Philosophers amongst the Gentiles they were miserably blind and short-sighted in their Notions of things and their sentiments and opinions not only different from but contrary to one another No 't was he only had the words of Eternal life whose doctrine could instruct them in the plain way to Heaven that they had fully assented to what both John and he had said concerning himself that they were fully perswaded both from the efficacy of his Sermons which they heard and the powerful conviction of his Miracles which they had seen that he was the Son of the living God the true Messiah and Saviour of the World
almost in the very same terms and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely encouraged and endeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his passions ready to over-run the banks not able to endure a thought that so much evil should befall his Master broke out into an over-confident and unseasonable interruption of him He took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Besides his great kindness and affection to his Master the minds of the Apostles were not yet throughly purged from the hopes and expectations of a glorious reign of the Messiah so that Peter could not but look upon these sufferings as unbecoming and inconsistent with the state and dignity of the Son of God And therefore thought good to advise his Lord to take care of himself and while there was time to prevent and avoid them This our Lord who valued the redemption of Mankind infinitely before his own ease and safety resented at so high a rate that he returned upon him with this tart and stinging reproof Get thee behind me Satan The very same treatment which he once gave to the Devil himself when he made that insolent proposal to him To fall down and worship him though in Satan it was the result of pure malice and hatred in Peter only an error of love and great regard However our Lord could not but look upon it as mischievous and diabolical counsel prompted and promoted by the great Adversary of Mankind A way therefore says Christ with thy hellish and pernicious counsel Thou art an offence unto me in seeking to oppose and undermine that great design for which I purposely came down from Heaven In this thou savourest not the things of God but those that be of men in suggesting to me those little shifts and arts of safety and self-preservation which humane prudence and the love of mens own selves are wont to dictate to them By which though we may learn Peter's mighty kindness to our Saviour yet that herein he did not take his measures right A plain evidence that his infallibility had not yet taken place 5. ABOUT a week after this our Saviour being to receive a Type and Specimen of his future glorification took with him his three more intimate Apostles Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and went up into a very high Mountain which the Ancients generally conceive to have been Mount Thabor a round and very high Mountain situate in the Plains of Galilee And now was even literally fulfilled what the Psalmist had spoken Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name for what greater joy and triumph than to be peculiarly chosen to be the holy Mount whereon our Lord in so eminent a manner received from God the Father honour and glory and made such magnificent displays of his Divine power and Majesty For while they were here earnestly imployed in Prayer as seldom did our Lord enter upon any eminent action but he first made his address to Heaven he was suddenly transformed into another manner of appearance such a lustre and radiancy darted from his face that the Sun it self shines not brighter at Noon-day such beams of light reflected from his garments as out-did the light it self that was round about them so exceeding pure and white that the Snow might blush to compare with it nor could the Fullers art purifie any thing into half that whiteness an evident and sensible representation of the glory of that state wherein the just shall walk in white and shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father During this Heavenly scene there appeared Moses and Elias who as the Jews say shall come together clothed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state familiarly conversing with him and discoursing of the death and sufferings which he was shortly to undergo and his departure into Heaven Behold here together the three greatest persons that ever were the Ministers of Heaven Moses under God the Instituter and promulgator of the Law Elias the great reformer of it when under its deepest degeneracy and corruption and the blessed Jesus the Son of God who came to take away what was weak and imperfect and to introduce a more manly and rational institution and to communicate the last Revelation which God would make of his mind to the World Peter and the two Apostles that were with him were in the mean time fallen asleep heavy through want of natural rest it being probably night when this was done or else over powred with these extraordinary appearances which the frailty and weakness of their present stare could not bear were fallen into a Trance But now awaking were strangely surprised to behold our Lord surrounded with so much glory and those two great persons conversing with him knowing who they were probably by some particular marks and signatures that were upon them or else by immediate revelation or from the discourse which passed betwixt Christ and them or possibly from some communication which they themselves might have with them While these Heavenly guests were about to depart Peter in a great rapture and ecstasie of mind addressed himself to our
Saviour telling him how infinitely they were pleased and delighted with their being there and to that purpose desiring his leave that they might erect three Tabernacles one for him one for Moses and one for Elias While he was thus saying a bright cloud suddenly over-shadowed the two great Ministers and wrapt them up out of which came a voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him which when the Apostles heard and saw the cloud coming over themselves they were seized with a great consternation and fell upon their faces to the ground whom our Lord gently touched bad them arise and disband their fears whereupon looking up they saw none but their Master the rest having vanished and disappeared In memory of these great transactions Bede tells us that in pursuance of S. Peter's petition about the three Tabernacles there were afterwards three Churches built upon the top of this Mountain which in after times were had in great veneration which might possibly give some foundation to that report which one makes that in his time there were shew'd the ruines of those three Tabernacles which were built according to S. Peter's desire 6. After this our Lord and his Apostles having travelled through Galilee the gatherers of the Tribute-money came to Peter and asked him whether his Master was not obliged to pay the Tribute which God under the Mosaick Law commanded to be yearly paid by every Jew above Twenty Years old to the use of the Temple which so continued to the times of Vespatian under whom the Temple being destroyed it was by him transferred to the use of the Capitol at Rome being to the value of half a Shekel or Fifteen pence of our money To this question of theirs Peter positively answers yes knowing his Master would never be backward either to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's or to God the things that are God's Peter going into the house to give an account to his Master and to know his mind concerning it Christ prevented him with this question What thinkest thou Simon of whom do Earthly Kings exact Tribute of their own Children and Family or from other People Peter answered Not from their own Servants and Family but from Strangers To which our Lord presently replied That then according to his own argument and opinion both he himself as being the Son of God and they whom he had taken to be his Menial and Domestick Servants were free from this Tax of Head-money yearly to be paid to God But rather than give offence by seeming to despise the Temple and to undervalue that Authority that had settled this Tribute he resolves to put himself to the expence and charges of a Miracle and therefore commanded Peter to go to the Sea and take up the first Fish which came to his Hook in whose mouth he should find a piece of money a Stater in value a Shekel or half a Crown which he took and gave to the Collectors both for his Master and himself 7. OUR Lord after this discoursing to them how to carry themselves towards their offending Brethren Peter being desirous to be more particularly informed in this matter asked our Saviour How oft a man was obliged to forgive his Brother in case of offence and trespass whether seven times were not enough He told him That upon his Neighbours repentance he was not only bound to do it seven times but until seventy times seven that is he must be indulgent to him as oft as the offender returns and begs it and heartily professes his sorrow and repentance Which he further illustrates by a plain and excellent Parable and thence draws this Conclusion That the same measures either of compassion or cruelty which men show to their fellow Brethren they themselves shall meet with at the hands of God the Supreme Ruler and Justiciary of the World It was not long after when a brisk young man addressed himself to our Saviour to know of him by what methods he might best attain Eternal life Our Lord to humble his confidence bad him sell his Estate and give it to the poor and putting himself under his discipline he should have a much better treasure in Heaven The man was rich and liked not the counsel nor was he willing to purchase happiness at such a rate and accordingly went away under great sorrow and discontent Upon which Christ takes occasion to let them know how hardly those men would get to Heaven who build their comfort and happiness upon the plenty and abundance of these outward things Peter taking hold of this opportunity ask'd What return they themselves should make who had quitted and renounced whatever they had for his sake and service Our Saviour answers that no man should be a loser by his service that for their parts they should be recompenced with far greater priviledges and that whoever should forsake houses or lands kindred and relations out of love to him and his Religion should enjoy them again with infinite advantages in this World if consistent with the circumstances of their state and those troubles and persecutions which would necessarily arise from the profession of the Gospel however they should have what would make infinite amends for all Eternal life in the other World 8. OUR Saviour in order to his last fatal journey to Jerusalem that he might the better comply with the prophecy that went before of him sent two of his Apostles who in all probability were Peter and John with an Authoritative Commission to fetch him an Asse to ride on he had none of his own he who was rich for our sakes made himself poor he lived upon charity all his life had neither an Asse to ride on nor an House where to lay his head no nor after his death a Tomb to lie in but what the charity of others provided for him whereon being mounted and attended with the festivities of the people he set forward in his journey wherein there appears an admirable mixture of humility and Majesty The Asse he rode on became the meanness and meekness of a Prophet but his arbitrary Commission for the fetching it and the ready obedience of its owners spake the prerogative of a King The Palms born before him the Garments strew'd in his way and the joyful Hosannahs and Acclamations of the people proclaim at once both the Majesty of a Prince and the Triumph of a Saviour For such expressions of joy we find were usual in publick and festival solemnities thus the Historian describing the Emperor Commodus his triumphant return to Rome tells us that the Senate and whole people of Rome to testifie their mighty kindness and veneration for him came out of the City to meet him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carrying Palms and Laurels along with them and throwing about all sorts of Flowers that were then in season In this manner our Lord being entred the City he soon after
threefold denial had given so much cause to question should now by a threefold confession give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his Master Peter was a little troubled at this frequent questioning of his love and therefore more expresly appeals to our Lord's omnisciency that He who knew all things must needs know that he loved him To each of these confessions our Lord added this signal trial of his affection then Feed my sheep that is faithfully instruct and teach them carefully rule and guide them perswade not compel them feed not fleece nor kill them And so 't is plain S. Peter himself understood it by the charge which he gives to the Guides and Rulers of the Church that they should feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but as examples to the flock But that by feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs here commended to S. Peter should be meant an universal and uncontrollable Monarchy and Dominion over the whole Christian Church and that over the Apostles themselves and their Successors in ordinary and this power and supremacy solely invested in S. Peter and those who were to succeed him in the See of Rome is so wild an inference and such a melting down words to run into any shape as could never with any face have been offered or been possible to have been imposed upon the belief of mankind if men had not first subdued their reason to their interest and captivated both to an implicite faith and a blind obedience For granting that our Lord here addressed his speech only unto Peter yet the very same power in equivalent terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the Apostles and in some measure to the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church As when our Lord told them That all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's flock Rule well inspect and watch over those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and fury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena Mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the slanders of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Gripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides for subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphirak The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the
vacancy in their Colledge lately made by the unhappy fall and Apostasie of Judas To which end no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem but they went 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into an upper-room Where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was whether in the house of S. John or of John-Mark's Mother or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the Temple for the Temple had over the Cloisters several Chambers for the service of the Priests and Levites and as Repositories where the consecrated Vessels and Utensils of the Temple were laid up though it be not probable that the Jews and especially the Priests would suffer the Apostles and their company to be so near the Temple I stand not to enquire 'T is certain that the Jews usually had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 private Oratories in the upper parts of their houses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the more private exercises of their devotions Thus Daniel had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his upper-Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LXX render it whither he was wont to retire to pray to his God and Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time Ann. Chr. 1172. the Jews at Babylon were wont to pray both in their Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the Prophet himself built Such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-Chamber was that wherein S. Paul preached at Troas and such probably this where the Apostles were now met together and in all likelihood the same where our Lord had lately kept the Passeover where the Apostles and the Church were assembled on the day of Pentecost and which was then the usual place of their Religious Assemblies as we have elsewhere observed more at large Here the Church being met to the number of about CXX Peter as President of the Assembly put them in mind that Judas one of our Lord's Apostles being betrayed by his own covetous and insatiable mind had lately fallen from the honour of his place and ministery that this was no more than what the Prophet had long since foretold should come to pass and that the rule and over-sight in the Church which had been committed unto him should be devolved upon another that therefore it was highly necessary that one should be substituted in his room and especially such a one as had been familiarly conversant with our Saviour from first to last that so he might be a competent witness both of his doctrine and miracles his life and death but especially of his Resurrection from the dead For seeing no evidence is so valid and satisfactory as the testimony of an eye-witness the Apostles all along mainly insisted upon this that they delivered no other things concerning our Saviour to the World than what they themselves had seen and heard And seeing his rising from the Dead was a principle likely to meet with a great deal of opposition and which would hardliest gain belief and entertainment with the minds of men therefore they principally urg'd this at every turn that they were eye-witnesses of his Resurrection that they had seen felt eaten and familiarly conversed with him after his return from the Grave That therefore such an Apostle might be chosen two Candidates were proposed Joseph called Barsabas and Matthias And having prayed that the Divine Providence would immediately guide and direct the choice they cast lots and the lot fell upon Matthias who was accordingly admitted into the number of the twelve Apostles 2. FIFTY days since the last Passeover being now run out made way for the Feast of Pentecost At what time the great promise of the Holy Ghost was fully made good unto them The Christian Assembly being met together for the publick services of their Worship on a sudden a sound like that of a mighty wind rush'd in upon them representing the powerful efficacy of that Divine Spirit that was now to be communicated to them After which there appeared little flames of fire which in the fashion of Cloven Tongues not only descended but sate upon each of them probably to note their perpetual enjoyment of this gift upon all occasions that when necessary they should never be without it not like the Prophetick gifts of old which were conferred but sparingly and only at some particular times and seasons As the seventy Elders prophesied and ceased not but it was only at such times as the Spirit came down and rested upon them Hereupon they were all immediately filled with the Holy Ghost which enabled them in an instant to speak several Languages which they had never learn'd and probably never heard of together with other miraculous gifts and powers Thus as the confounding of Languages became a curse to the old World separating men from all mutual offices of kindness and commerce rendring one part of Mankind Barbarians to another so here the multiplying several Languages became a blessing being intended as the means to bring men of all Nations into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into the fellowship of that Religion that would banish discords cement differences and unite mens hearts in the bond of peace The report of so sudden and strange an action presently spread it self into all corners of the City and there being at that time at Jerusalem multitudes of Jewish Proselytes Devout men out of every Nation under Heaven Parthians Medes Elamites or Persians the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judaea Cappadocia Pontus and Asia minor from Phrygia and Pamphylia from Egypt and the parts of Libya and Cyrene from Rome from Crete from Arabia Jews and Proselytes probably drawn thither by the general report and expectation which had spread it self over all the Eastern parts and in a manner over all places of the Roman Empire of the Jewish Messiah that about this time should be born at Jerusalem they no sooner heard of it but universally flocked to this Christian Assembly where they were amazed to hear these Galileans speaking to them in their own native Languages so various so vastly different from one another And it could not but exceedingly encrease the wonder to reflect upon the meanness and inconsiderableness of the persons neither assisted by natural parts nor polished by education nor improved by use and custom which three things Philosophers require to render a man accurate and extraordinary in any art or discipline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Plutarch Natural disposition without institution is blind instruction without a genius and disposition is defective and exercise without both is lame and imperfect Whereas these Disciples had not one of these to set them off their parts were mean below the rate of the common people the Galileans being generally accounted the rudest and most stupid of the whole Jewish Nation their education had been no higher than to catch Fish and to mend Nets nor had they been used to plead causes or to deliver themselves
away rejoycing But what the carriage of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the Gospel we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the World We may not withhold our obedience till the Magistrate invades God's Throne and countermands his authority and may then appeal to the sence of Mankind whether it be not most reasonable that God's authority should first take place as the Apostles here appealed to their very Judges themselves Nor do we find that the Sanhedrim did except against the Plea At least whatever they thought yet not daring to punish them for fear of the People they only threatned them and let them go who thereupon presently return'd to the rest of the Apostles and Believers 8. The Church exceedingly multiplied by these means And that so great a Company most whereof were poor might be maintained they generally sold their Estates and brought the Money to the Apostles to be by them deposited in one common Treasury and thence distributed according to the several exigences of the Church which gave occasion to this dreadful Instance Ananias and his Wife Saphira having taken upon them the profession of the Gospel according to the free and generous spirit of those times had consecrated and devoted their Estate to the honour of God and the necessities of the Church And accordingly sold their Possessions and turned them into Money But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable Persons so were they loth wholly to cast themselves upon the Divine Providence by letting go all at once and therefore privately withheld part of what they had devoted and bringing the rest laid it at the Apostles feet hoping herein they might deceive the Apostles though immediately guided by the Spirit of God But Peter at his first coming in treated Ananias with these sharp enquiries Why he would suffer Satan to fill his heart with so big a wickedness as by keeping back part of his estate to think to deceive the Holy Ghost That before it was sold it was wholly at his own disposure and after it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow So that it was capable of no other interpretation than that herein he had not only abused and injured men but mocked God and what in him lay lyed to and cheated the Holy Ghost who he knew was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart This was no sooner said but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that were present Ananias was arrested with a stroke from Heaven and fell down dead to the ground Not long after his Wise came in whom Peter entertained with the same severe reproofs wherewith he had done her Husband adding that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her who thereupon dropt down dead As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin becoming sharer with him in the punishment An instance of great severity filling all that heard of it with fear and terror and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World Curing all manner of Diseases and dispossessing Devils In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets and laid them upon Beds and Couches that at least Peter's shadow as he passed by might come upon them These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons than they took them for poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness And methinks Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable that no honour or soveraignty no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle that the things of Christ though in another way were more noble and excellent than any thing that this World could afford And therefore he tells us that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia and then at Rome equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter who converted the World not by Power or Armies not by Engines or artifices of pomp and grandeur but by Faith in the power of Christ and drew it to the admiration of himself and the same state says he would no doubt attend the Apostles Successors were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church sent to apprehend the Apostles and cast them into Prison But God who is never wanting to his own cause sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors commanding them to repair to the Temple and to the exercise of their Ministery Which they did early in the Morning and there taught the People How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen when God frowns upon them how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper In vain is it to shut the doors where God is resolved to open them the firmest Bars the strongest Chains cannot hold where once God has designed and decreed our liberty The Officers returning the next Morning found the Prison shut and guarded but the Prisoners gone Wherewith they acquainted the Council who much wondred at it but being told where the Apostles were they sent to bring them without any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim where the High-Priest asked them how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach Peter in the name of the rest told them That they must in this case obey God rather than men That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus yet that God had raised him up and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins That they were witnesses of these things and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians Vexed was the Council with this Answer and began to consider how to cut them off But Gamaliel a grave and learned Senator having commanded the Apostles to withdraw bad the Council take heed what they did to them putting them in mind that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions and drawn vast Numbers after them but that they had miscarried and they and their designs come to nought that therefore they should do well to let these men alone that if their doctrines and designs were merely humane they would in time of themselves fall to the ground but if they were of God it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them and that
least sign of motion Peter standing at a good distance from the Bed silently made his address to Heaven and then before them all commanded the young Gentleman in the Name of the Lord Jesus to arise who immediately did so spoke walked and ate and was by Peter restored to his Mother The People who saw this suddenly changed their opinions and fell upon the Magician with an intent to stone him But Peter begged his life and told them that it would be a sufficient punishment to him to live and see that in despite of all his power and malice the Kingdom of Christ should increase and flourish The Magician was inwardly tormented with this defeat and vext to see the triumph of the Apostle and therefore mustering up all his powers summoned the People told them that he was offended at the Galileans whose Protector and Guardian he had been and therefore set them a Day when he promised that they should see him fly-up into Heaven At the time appointed he went up to the Mount of the Capitol and throwing himself from the top of the Rock began his flight A sight which the People entertained with great wonder and veneration affirming that this must be the power of God and not of man Peter standing in the Croud prayed to our Lord that the People might be undeceived and that the vanity of the Impostor might be discovered in such a way that he himself might be sensible of it Immediately the Wings which he had made himself began to fail him and he fell to the ground miserably bruised and wounded with the fall Whence being carried into a neighbouring Village he soon after dyed This is the story for the particular circumstances whereof the Reader must rely upon the credit of my Author the thing in general being sufficiently acknowledged by most ancient Writers This contest of Peter's with Simon Magus is placed by Eusebius under the Reign of Claudius but by the generality both of ancient and later Authors it is referred to the Reign of Nero. 5. SUCH was the end of this miserable and unhappy Man Which no sooner came to the ears of the Emperor to whom by wicked artifices he had indeared himself but it became an occasion of hastning Peter's ruine The Emperor probably had before been displeased with Peter not only upon the acount of the general disagreement and inconformity of his Religion but because he had so strictly pressed temperance and chastity and reclaimed so many Women in Rome from a dissolute and vicious life thereby crossing that wanton and lascivious temper to which that Prince was so immoderate a slave and vassal And being now by his means robbed of his dear favourite and companion he resolved upon revenge commanded Peter as also S. Paul who was at this time at Rome to be apprehended and cast into the Mamertine Prison where they spent their time in the exercises of Religion and especially in Preaching to the Prisoners and those who resorted to them And here we may suppose it was if not a little before that Peter wrote his second Epistle to the dispersed Jews wherein he endeavours to confirm them in the belief and practice of Christianity and to fortifie them against those poysonous and pernicious principles and practices which even then began to break in upon the Christian Church 6. NERO returning from Achaia and entring Rome with a great deal of pomp and triumph resolved now the Apostles should fall as a Victim and Sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge While the fatal stroke was daily expected the Christians in Rome did by daily prayers and importunities solicite S. Peter to make an escape and to reserve himself to the uses and services of the Church This at first he rejected as what would ill reflect upon his courage and constancy and argue him to be afraid of those sufferings for Christ to which he himself had so often perswaded others but the prayers and the tears of the People overcame him and made him yield Accordingly the next Night having prayed with and taken his farewell of the Brethren he got over the Prison-wall and coming to the City-gate he is there said to have met with our Lord who was just entring into the City Peter asked him Lord whither art thou going from whom he presently received this answer I am come to Rome to be crucified a second time By which answer Peter apprehended himself to be reproved and that our Lord meant it of his death that he was to be crucified in his Servant Whereupon he went back to the Prison and delivered himself into the hands of his Keepers shewing himself most ready and chearful to acquiesce in the will of God And we are told that in the stone whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Peter he left the impression of his Feet which stone has been ever since preserved as a very sacred Relique and after several translations was at length fixed in the Church of S. Sebastian the Martyr where it is kept and visited with great expressions of reverence and devotion at this day Before his suffering he was no question scourged according to the manner of the Romans who were wont first to whip those Malefactors who were adjudged to the most severe and capital punishments Having saluted his Brethren and especially having taken his last farewell of S. Paul he was brought out of the Prison and led to the top of the Vatican Mount near to Tybur the place designed for his Execution The death he was adjudged to was crucifixion as of all others accounted the most shameful so the most severe and terrible But he intreated the favour of the Officers that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way but might suffer with his Head downwards and his Feet up to Heaven affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him Happy man as Chrysostom glosses to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from Earth to Heaven His Body being taken from the Cross is said to have been imbalmed by Marcellinus the Presbyter after the Jewish manner and was then buried in the Vatican near the Triumphal way Over his Grave a small Church was soon after erected which being destroyed by Heliogabalus his Body was removed to the Cemetery in the Appian way two Miles from Rome where it remained till the time of Pope Cornelius who re-conveyed it to the Vatican where it rested somewhat obscurely until the Reign of Constantine who out of the mighty reverence which he had for the Christian Religion caused many Churches to be built at Rome but especially rebuilt and enlarged the Vatican to the honour of S. Peter In the doing whereof Himself is said to have been the first that began to dig the Foundation and to have carried thence twelve Baskets of Rubbish with his own hands in honour as it should seem of the twelve Apostles He infinitely
earnestly exhorting her and calling her by her Name bad her to be mindful of our Lord. Such says he was the Wedlock of that blessed couple and the perfect disposition and agreement in those things that were dearest to them By her he is said to have had a Daughter called Petronilla Metaphrastes adds a Son how truly I know not This only is certain that Clemens of Alexandria reckons Peter for one of the Apostles that was Married and had Children And surely he who was so good a man and so good an Apostle was as good in the relation both of an Husband and a Father SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome Peter ' 's being at Rome granted in general The account of it given by Baronius and the Writers of that Church rejected and disproved No foundation for it in the History of the Apostolick Acts. No mention of it in S. Paul ' s Epistle to the Romans No news of his being there at S. Paul ' s coming to Rome nor intimation of any such thing in the several Epistles which S. Paul wrote from thence S. Peter ' s first being at Rome inconsistent with the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem And with an Ancient Tradition that the Apostles were commanded to stay Twelve years in Judaea after Christ ' s death A passage out of Clemens Alexandrinus noted and corrected to that purpose Difference among the Writers of the Romish Church in their Accounts Peter 's being XXV years Bishop of Rome no solid foundation for it in Antiquity The Planting and Governing that Church equally attributed to Peter and Paul S. Peter when probably came to Rome Different dates of his Martyrdom assigned by the Ancients A probable account given of it 1. THOUGH it be not my purpose to swim against the Stream and Current of Antiquity in denying S. Peter to have been at Rome an Assertion easilier perplexed and entangled than confuted and disproved yet may we grant the main without doing any great service to that Church there being evidence enough to every impartial and considering man to spoil that smooth and plausible Scheme of Times which Baronius and the Writers of that Church have drawn with so much care and diligence And in order to this we shall first enquire whether that Account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Rome be tolerably reconcileable with the History of the Apostles Acts recorded by S. Luke which will be best done by briefly presenting S. Peter's Acts in their just Series and order of Time and then seeing what countenance and foundation their Account can receive from hence 2. AFTER our Lord's Ascension we find Peter for the first year at least staying with the rest of the Apostles at Jerusalem In the next year he was sent together with S. John by the command of the Apostles to Samaria to preach the Gospel to that City and the parts about it About three years after S. Paul meets him at Jerusalem with whom he staid some time In the two following years he visited the late planted Churches preached at Lydda and Joppa where having tarried many days he thence removed to Caesarea where he preached to and baptized Cornelius and his Family Whence after some time he returned to Jerusalem where he probably staid till cast into prison by Herod and delivered by the Angel After which we hear no more of him till three or four years after we find him in the Council at Jerusalem After which he had the contest with S. Paul at Antioch And thence forward the Sacred Story is altogether silent in this matter So that in all this time we find not the least footstep of any intimation that he went to Rome This Baronius well foresaw and therefore once and again inserts this caution that S. Luke did not design to record all the Apostles Acts and that he has omitted many things which were done by Peter Which surely no man ever intended to deny But then that he should omit a matter of such vast moment and importance to the whole Christian World that not one syllable should be said of a Church planted by Peter at Rome a Church that was to be Paramount the seat of all Spiritual Power and Infallibility and to which all other Churches were to vail and do homage nay that he should not so much as mention that ever he was there and yet all this said to be done within the time he designed to write of is by no means reasonable to suppose Especially considering that S. Luke records many of his journeys and travels and his preaching at several places of far less consequence and concernment Nor let this be thought the worse of because a negative Argument since it carries so much rational evidence along with it that any man who is not plainly byassed by Interest will be satisfied with it 3. BUT let us proceed a little further to enquire whether we can meet any probable footsteps afterwards About the year Fifty three towards the end of Claudius his Reign S. Paul is thought to have writ his Epistle to the Church at Rome wherein he spends the greatest part of one Chapter in saluting particular persons that were there amongst whom it might reasonably have been expected that S. Peter should have had the first place And supposing with Baronius that Peter at this time might be absent from the City preaching the Gospel in some parts in the West yet we are not sure that S. Paul knew of this and if he did it is strange that in so large an Epistle wherein he had occasion enough there should be neither direct nor indirect mention of him or of any Church there founded by him Nay S. Paul himself intimates what an earnest desire he had to come thither that he might impart unto them some spiritual gifts to the end they might be established in the Faith for which there could have been no such apparent cause had Peter been there so lately and so long before him Well S. Paul himself not many years after is sent to Rome Ann. Chr. LVI or as Eusebius LVII though Baronius makes it two years after about the second year of Nero when he comes thither does he go to sojourn with Peter as 't is likely he would had he been there No but dwelt by himself in his own hired house No sooner was he come but he called the chief of the Jews together acquainted them with the cause and end of his coming explains the doctrine of Christianity which when they rejected he tells them That henceforth the Salvation of God was sent unto the Gentiles who would hear it to whom he would now address himself Which seems to intimate that however some few of the Gentiles might have been brought over yet that no such harvest had been made before his coming as might reasonably have been expected from S. Peter's having been so many years amongst them Within
the two first years after S. Paul's coming to Rome he wrote Epistles to several Churches to the Colossians Ephesians Philippians and one to Philemon in none whereof there is the least mention of S. Peter or from whence the least probability can be derived that he had been there In that to the Colossians he tells them that of the Jews at Rome he had had no other fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God which had been a comfort unto him save only Aristarchus Marcus and Jesus who was called Justus which evidently excludes S. Peter And in that to Timothy which Baronius confesses to have been written a little before his Martyrdom though probably it was written the same time with the rest above mentioned he tells him That at his first answer at Rome no man stood with him but that all men forsook him Which we can hardly believe S. Peter would have done had he then been there He further tells him That only Luke was with him that Crescens was gone to this place Titus to that and Tychicus left at another Strange that if Peter was at this time gone from Rome S. Paul should take no notice of it as well as the rest Was he so inconsiderable a person as not to be worth the remembring or his errand of so small importance as not to deserve a place in S. Paul's account as well as that of Crescens to Galatia or of Titus to Dalmatia Surely the true reason was that S. Peter as yet had not been at Rome and so there could be no foundation for it 4. IT were no hard matter further to demonstrate the inconsistency of that Account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Rome from the time of the Apostolical Synod at Jerusalem For if S. Paul went up to that Council Fourteen years after his own Conversion as he plainly intimates and that he himself was converted Ann. XXXV somewhat less than two years after the death of Christ then it plainly appears that this Council was holden Ann. XLVIII in the sixth year of Claudius if not somewhat sooner for S. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not necessarily imply that Fourteen years were completely past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying circa as well as post but that it was near about that time This being granted and if it be not it is easie to make it good then three things amongst others will follow from it First That whereas according to Bellarmine and Baronius S. Peter after his first coming to Rome which they place Ann. XLIV and the second of Claudius was seven years before he returned thence to the Council at Jerusalem they are strangely out in their story there being but three or at most four years between his going thither and the celebration of that Council Secondly That when they tell us that S. Peter's leaving Rome to come to the Council was upon the occasion of the decree of Claudius banishing all Jews out of the City this can no ways be For Orosius does not only affirm but prove it from Josephus that Claudius his Decree was published in the Ninth Year of his Reign or Ann. Chr. LI Three Years at least after the Celebration of the Council Thirdly That when Baronius tells us that the Reason why Peter went to Rome after the breaking up of the Synod was because Claudius was now dead he not daring to go before for fear of the Decree this can be no reason at all the Council being ended at least Three Years before that Decree took place so that he might safely have gone thither without the least danger from it It might further be shewed if it were necessary that the account which even they themselves give us is not very consistent with it self So fatally does a bad cause draw Men whether they will or no into Errors and Mistakes 5. THE truth is the learned Men of that Church are not well agreed among themselves to give in their verdict in this case And indeed how should they when the thing it self affords no solid foundation for it Onuphrius a man of great learning and industry in all matters of antiquity and who as the writer of Baronius his Life informs us designed before Baronius to write the History of the Church goes a way by himself in assigning the time of S. Peter's founding his See both at Antioch and Rome For finding by the account of the Sacred story that Peter did not leave Judaea for the Ten first Years after our Lord's Ascension and consequently could not in that time erect his See at Antioch he affirms that he went first to Rome whence returning to the Council at Jerusalem he thence went to Antioch where he remained Seven Years till the Death of Claudius and having spent almost the whole Reign of Nero in several parts of Europe returned in the last of Nero's Reign to Rome and there died An opinion for which he is sufficiently chastised by Baronius and others of that Party And here I cannot but remark the ingenuity for the learning sufficiently commends it self of Monsieur Valois who freely confesses the mistake of Baronius Petavius c. in making Peter go to Rome Ann. XLIV the Second Year of Claudius when as it is plain says he from the History of the Acts that Peter went not out of Judaea and Syria till the Death of Herod Claudii Ann. IV Two whole years after Consonant to which as he observes is what Apollonius a Writer of the Second Century reports from a Tradition current in his time that the Apostles did not depart a sunder till the Twelfth Year after Christ's Ascension our Lord himself having so commanded them In confirmation whereof let me add a passage that I meet with in Clemens of Alexandria where from S. Peter he records this Speech of our Saviour to his Apostles spoken probably either a little before his Death or after his Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any Israelite shall repent and believe in God through my Name his sins shall be forgiven him after twelve years Go ye into the World lest any should say we have not heard This passage as ordinarily pointed in all Editions that I have seen is scarce capable of any tolerable sence for what 's the meaning of a penitent Israelite's being pardoned after twelve years It is therefore probable yea certain with me that the stop ought to be after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to the following clause and then the sence will run clear and smooth If any Jew shall repent and believe the Gospel he shall be pardoned but after twelve years go ye into all the World that none may pretend that they have not heard the sound of the Gospel The Apostles were first to Preach the Gospel to the Jews for some considerable time Twelve Years after Christ's Ascension in and about Judaea and then to betake
Men and being not disobedient to the Heavenly Vision he presently rerired out of the City and the sooner probably to decline the Odium of the Jews and the effects of that rage and malice which he was sure would pursue and follow him He withdrew into the parts of Arabia where he spent the first fruits of his Ministery Preaching up and down for three Years together After which he returned back to Damascus Preached openly in the Synagogues and convinced the Jews of Christ's Messiah-ship and the truth of his Religion Angry and enraged hereat they resolved his Ruine which they knew no better way to effect than by exasperating and incensing the Civil powers against him Damascus was a place not more venerable for its Antiquity if not built by at least it gave title to Abraham's steward hence called Eliezer of Damascus than it was considerable for its strength stateliness and situation it was the noblest City of all Syria as Justin of old and the Arabian Geographer has since informed us and the Prophet Isaiah before both calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of Syria seated in a most healthful Air in a most fruitful Soil watered with most pleasant Fountains and Rivers rich in Merchandize adorned with stately Buildings goodly and magnificent Temples and fortified with strong Guards and Garrisons in all which respects Julian calls it the Holy and great Damascus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the whole East Scituate it was between Libanus and Mount Hermon and though properly belonging to Syria yet Arabiae retro deputabatur as Tertullian tells us was in after-times reckoned to Arabia Accordingly at this time it was under the Government of Aretas Father-in-law to Herod the Tetrarch King of Arabia Petraea a Prince tributary to the Roman Empire By him there was an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governour who had Jurisdiction over the whole Syria Damascena placed over it who kept constant residence in the City as a place of very great importance To him the Jews made their address with crafty and cunning insinuations perswading him to apprehend S. Paul possibly under the notion of a Spy there being War at this time between the Romans and that King Hereupon the Gates were shut and extraordinary Guards set and all Engines that could be laid to take him But the Disciples to prevent their cruel designs at Night put him into a Basket and let him down over the City wall And the place we are told is still shewed to Travellers not far from the Gate thence called S. Paul's Gate at this day 2. HAVING thus made his escape he set forwards for Jerusalem where when he arrived he addressed himself to the Church But they knowing the former temper and principles of the Man universally shunn'd his company till Barnabas brought him to Peter who was not yet cast into Prison and to James our Lord's Brother Bishop of Jerusalem acquainting them with the manner of his conversion and by them he was familiarly entertained Here he staid fifteen days preaching Christ and confuting the Hellenist Jews with a mighty courage and resolution But snares were here again laid to intrap him as malice can as well cease to be as to be restless and active Whereupon he was warned by God in a Vision that his Testimony would not find acceptance in that place that therefore he should leave it and betake himself to the Gentiles Accordingly being conducted by the Brethren to Caesarea he set sail for Tarsus his Native City from whence not long after he was fetched by Barnabas to Antioch to assist him in propagating Christianity in that place In which employment they continued there a whole Year And now it was that the Disciples of the Religion were at this place first called Christians according to the manner of all other Institutions who were wont to take their denominations from the first Authors and Founders of them Before this they were usually stiled Nazarenes as being the Disciples and followers of Jesus of Nazareth a Name by which the Jews in scorn call them to this day with the same intent that the Gentiles of old used to call them Galileans The name of Nazarenes was hence-forward fixed upon those Jewish converts who mixed the Law and the Gospel and compounded a Religion out of Judaism and Christianity The fixing this honourable Name upon the Disciples of the crucified Jesus was done at Antioch as an ancient Historian informs us about the beginning of Claudius his Reign Ten Years after Christ's Ascension nay he further adds that Euodius lately ordained Bishop of that place was the person that imposed this name upon them stiling them Christians who before were called Nazarenes and Galileans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Authors words are I may not omit what a learned Man has observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by S. Luke they were called implies the thing to have been done by some publick and solemn act and declaration of the whole Church such being the use of the word in the Imperial Edicts and proclamations of those times the Emperors being said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stile themselves when they publickly proclaimed by what titles they would be called When any Province submitted it self to the Roman Empire the Emperor was wont by publick Edict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to entitle himself to the Government and Jurisdiction of it and the People to several great priviledges and immunities In a grateful sense whereof the People usually made this time the solemn date of their common Epocha or computation Thus as the forementioned Historian informs us it was in the particular case of Antioch and thence their publick Aera was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ascription of the People at Antioch Such being the general acception of the word S. Luke who was himself a Native of this City makes use of it to express that solemn declaration whereby the Disciples of the Religion entitled themselves to the Name of Christians 3. IT happened about this time that a terrible Famine foretold by Agabus afflicted several parts of the Roman Empire but especially Judaea The consideration whereof made the Christians at Antioch compassionate the case of their suffering Brethren and accordingly raised considerable contributions for their relief and succour which they sent to Jerusalem by Barnabas and Paul who having dispatched their Errand in that City went back to Antioch Where while they were joyning in the publick exercises of their Religion it was revealed to them by the H. Ghost that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel in other places Which was done accordingly and they by Prayer Fasting and Imposition of Hands immediately deputed for that service Hence they departed to Seleucia and thence sailed to Cyprus where at Salamis a great City in that Island they Preached in the Synagogues of the Jews Hence
considerable that they left their aged Father in the Ship behind them For elsewhere we find others excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ upon pretence that they must go bury their Father or take their leave of their kindred at home No such slight and trivial pretences could stop the resolution of our Apostles who broke through these considerations and quitted their present interests and relations Say not it was unnaturally done of them to desert their Father an aged person and in some measure unable to help himself For besides that they left servants with him to attend him it is not cruelty to our Earthly but obedience to our Heavenly Father to leave the one that we may comply with the call and summons of the other It was the triumph of Abraham's Faith when God called him to leave his kindred and his Father's house to go out and sojourn in a foreign Country not knowing whither he went Nor can we doubt but that Zebedee himself would have gone along with them had not his Age given him a Supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory course of life But though they left him at this time it 's very reasonable to suppose that they took care to instruct him in the doctrine of the Messiah and to acquaint him with the glad tidings of Salvation especially since we find their Mother Salome so hearty a friend to so constant a follower of our Saviour But this if we may believe the account which one gives of it was after her Husbands decease who probably lived not long after dying before the time of our Saviour's Passion 3. IT was not long after this that he was called from the station of an ordinary Disciple to the Apostolical Office and not only so but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond most of the Apostles being one of the three whom our Lord usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate transactions of his life from which the others were excluded Thus with Peter and his Brother John he was taken to the miraculous raising of Jairus his Daughter admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration upon the Mount and the discourses that there passed between him and the two great Ministers of Heaven taken along with him into the Garden to be a Spectator of those bitter Agonies which the Holy Jesus was to undergo as the preparatory sufferings to his Passion What were the reasons of our Lord 's admitting these three Apostles to these more special acts of favour than the rest is not easie to determine though surely our Lord who governed all his actions by Principles of the highest prudence and reason did it for wise and proper ends whether it was that he designed these three to be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages of his life than the other Apostles or that they would be more eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the Apostolick Office or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage them against suffering as intending them for some more eminent kinds of Martyrdom or suffering than the rest were to undergo 4. NOR was it the least instance of that particular honour which our Lord conferr'd upon these three Apostles that at his calling them to the Apostolate he gave them the addition of a new Name and Title A thing not unusual of old for God to impose a new Name upon Persons when designing them for some great and peculiar services and employments thus he did to Abraham and Jacob. Nay the thing was customary among the Gentiles as had we no other instances might appear from those which the Scripture gives us of Pharaoh's giving a new name to Joseph when advancing him to be Vice-Roy of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel c. Thus did our Lord in the Election of these three Apostles Simon he sirnamed Peter James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother he sirnamed Boanerges which is the Sons of Thunder What our Lord particularly intended in this Title is easier to conjecture than certainly to determine some think it was given them upon the account of their being present in the Mount when a voice came out of the Cloud and said This is my beloved Son c. The like whereto when the People heard at another time they cried out that it Thundred But besides that this account is in it self very slender and inconsiderable if so then the title must equally have belonged to Peter who was then present with them Others think it was upon the account of their loud bold and resolute preaching Christianity to the World fearing no threatnings daunted with no oppositions but going on to thunder in the Ears of the secure sleepy World rouzing and awakening the consciences of Men with the earnestness and vehemency of their Preaching as Thunder which is called God's Voice powerfully shakes the natural World and breaks in pieces the Cedars of Lebanon Or if it relate to the Doctrines they delivered it may signifie their teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact notes which how true it might be of our S. James the Scripture is wholly silent but was certainly verified of his Brother John whose Gospel is so full of the more sublime notions and mysteries of the Gospel concerning Christ's Deity eternal pre-existence c. that he is generally affirmed by the Ancients not so much to speak as thunder Probably the expression may denote no more than that in general they were to be prime and eminent Ministers in this new scene and state of things the introducing of the Gospel or Evangelical dispensation being called a Voice shaking the Heavens and the Earth and so is exactly correspondent to the native importance of the Word signifying an Earth-quake or a vehement commotion that makes a noise like to Thunder 5. HOWEVER it was our Lord I doubt not herein had respect to the furious and resolute disposition of those two Brothers who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than the rest of the Apostles whereof we have this memorable instance Our Lord being resolved upon his Journy to Jerusalem sent some of his Disciples as Harbingers to prepare his way who coming to a Village of Samaria were uncivilly rejected and refused entertainment probably because of that old and inveterate quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews and more especially at this time because that our Saviour seemed to slight Mount Gerizim where was their staple and solemn place of worship by passing it by to go worship at Jerusalem the reason in all likelihood why they denied him those common courtesies and conveniences due to all Travellers This piece of rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by S. James and his Brother that they came to their Master to know whether as Elias did of
back to their Gallaecian Matron whom by many miracles and especially the destroying a Dragon that miserably infested those parts they at last made Convert to the Faith who thereupon commanded her Images to be broken the Altars to be demolished and her own Idol-Temple being cleansed and purged to be dedicated to the honour of S. James by which means Christianity mightily prevailed and triumphed over Idolatry in all those Countries This is the summ of the Account call it Romance or History which I do not desire to impose any further upon the Readers faith than he shall find himself disposed to believe it I add no more than that his Body was afterwards translated from Iria Flavia the place of its first repose to Compostella Though a Learned person will have it to have been but one and the same place and that after the story of S. James had gotten some footing in the belief of men it began to be called ad Jacobum Apostolum thence in after-times Giacomo Postolo which was at last jumbled into Compostella where it were to tire both the Reader and my self to tell him with what solemn veneration and incredible miracles reported to be done here this Apostle's reliques are worshipped at this day Whence Baronius calls it the great store-house of Miracles lying open to the whole World and wisely confesses it one of the best arguments to prove that his Body was translated thither And I should not scruple to be of his mind could I be assured that such Miracles were truly done there The End of the Life of S. James the Great THE LIFE OF S. JOHN S. IOHN Evangelist Having lived to a great age he died at Ephesus 68 years after our Lords Passion and was Buried neere that City Baron St. John put into a Cauldron of boyling oyl Joh. 21.21 22. Peter saith Lord what shall this man do Jesus saith unto him if I will that he carry till I come what is that to thee 1 Pet. 4.12 Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing hapned to you His kindred and relations whether eminent for Nobility The peculiar favours conferred upon him by our Saviour His lying in our Lord's Bosom His attending at the crucifixion Our Lord 's committing the Blessed Virgin to his care The great intimacy between Him and Peter How long he resided at Jerusalem Asia theEast His being sent prisoner to Rome and being put into a Caldron of boiling Oil by the command of Domitian His banishment into Patmos Transportation what kind of punishment Capitis Diminutio what His writing the Apocalypse there The tradition of his hand wherewith he wrote it being still kept there His return to Ephesus and governing the affairs of that Province His great Age and Death The fancy of his being still alive whence derived by the Ancients The Tradition of his going alive into his Grave and sleeping there Several counterfeits pretending themselves to be S. John His Celibacy whether he was ever married His humility His admirable love and charity and hearty recommending it to the last His charity to mens Souls His endangering himself to reclaim a debauched young man His singular vigilancy against Hereticks and Seducers His publick disowning Cerinthus his company Cerinthus who and what his principles The Heresie of Ebion what Nicolaitans who whence their Original An account of Nicolas the Deacon's separating from his Wife The vile principles and practices of his pretended followers S. John 's writings His Revelation Dionysius Alexandrinus his judgment concerning it and its Author Asserted and proved to be S. John ' s. The ground of doubting what His Gospel when and where written The solemn preparation and causes moving him to undertake it The subject of it sublime and mysterious Admired and cited by Heathen Philosophers It s Translation into Hebrew His first Epistle and the design of it His two other Epistles to whom written and why not admitted of old His stile and way of writing considered The great Encomium given of his writings by the ancient Fathers 1. SAINT John was a Galilean the son of Zebedee and Salome younger Brother to S. James together with whom he was brought up in the Trade of Fishing S. Hierom makes him remarkable upon the account of his Nobility whereby he became acquainted with the High-Priest and resolutely ventured himself amongst the Jews at our Saviour's Trial prevailed to introduce Peter into the Hall was the only Apostle that attended our Lord at his Crucifixion and afterwards durst own his Mother and keep her at his own house But the nobility of his Family and especially that it should be such as to procure him so much respect from persons of the highest rank and quality seems not reconcileable with the meanness of his Father's Trade and the privacy of his fortunes And for his acquaintance with the High-Priest I should rather put it upon some other account especially if it be true what Nicephorus relates That he had lately sold his Estate left by his Father in Galilee to Annas the High-Priest and had therewith purchased a fair house at Jerusalem about Mount Sion whence he became acquainted with him Before his coming to Christ he seems for some time to have been Disciple to John the Baptist being probably that other disciple that was with Andrew when they left the Baptist to follow our Saviour so particularly does he relate all circumstances of that transaction though modestly as in other parts of his Gospel concealing his own name He was at the same time with his Brother called by our Lord both to the Discipleship and Apostolate by far the youngest of all the Apostles as the Ancients generally affirm and his great Age seems to evince living near LXX years after our Saviour's suffering 2. THERE is not much said concerning him in the Sacred story more than what is recorded of him in conjunction with his Brother James which we have already remarked in his life He was peculiarly dear to his Lord and Master being the Disciple whom Jesus loved that is treated with more freedom and familiarity than the rest And indeed he was not only one of the Three whom our Saviour made partakers of the private passages of his life but had some instances of a more particular kindness and favour conferred upon him Witness his lying in our Saviour's bosom at the Paschal Supper it being the custom of those times to lie along at meals upon Couches so that the second lay with his head in the bosom of him that was before him this honourable place was not given to any of the Aged but reserved for our Apostle Nay when Peter was desirous to know which of them our Saviour meant when he told them that one of them should betray him and durst not himself propound the question he made use of S. John whose familiarity with him might best warrant such an enquiry to ask our Lord who
It succeeded in the room of that ancient punishment Aqua igni inter dicere to interdict a Person the use of Fire and Water the two great and necessary conveniences of Man's life whereby was tacitly implied that he must for his own defence betake himself into banishment it being unlawful for any to accommodate him with Lodging or Diet or any thing necessary to the support of life This banishing into Islands was properly called Deportatio and was the worst and severest kind of exile whereby the criminal forfeited his Estate and being bound and put on Ship-board was by publick Officers transported into some certain Island which none but the Emperor himself might assign there to be confined to perpetual banishment The place of our S. John's banishment was not Ephesus as Chrysostome by a great mistake makes it but Patmos a disconsolate Island in the Archipelago where he remained several Years instructing the Inhabitants in the Faith of Christ. Here it was about the latter end of Domitian's Reign as Irenaeus tells us that he wrote his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations wherein by frequent Visions and Prophetical representments he had a clear Scheme and Prospect of the state and condition of Christianity in the future Periods and Ages of the Church Which certainly was not the least instance of that kindness and favour which our Lord particularly shew'd to this Apostle and it seemed very suitable at this time that the goodness of God should over-power the malice of Men and that he should be entertained with the more immediate converses of Heaven who was now cut off from all ordinary conversation and society with Men. In a Monastery of Caloires or Greek Monks in this Island they shew a dead Man's hand at this day the Nails of whose Fingers grow again as oft as they are paired which the Turks will have to be the hand of one of their Prophets while the Greeks constantly affirm it to have been the hand of S. John wherewith he wrote the Revelations and probably both true alike 6. DOMITIAN whose prodigious wickednesses had rendred him infamous and burdensome to the World being taken out of the way Cocceius Nerva succeeded in the Empire a prudent Man and of a milder and more sober temper He rescinded the odious Acts of his Predecessor and by publick Edict recalled those from banishment whom the fury of Domitian had sent thither S. John taking the advantage of this general Indulgence left Patmos and returned into Asia his ancient charge but chiefly fixed his Seat at Ephesus the care and presidency whereof Timothy their Bishop having been lately martyr'd by the People for perswading them against their Heathen-Feasts and Sports especially one called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein was a mixture of debauchery and idolatry he took upon him and by the assistance of seven Bishops governed that large spacious Diocese Nicephorus adds that he not only managed the affairs of the Church ordered and disposed the Clergy but erected Churches which surely must be meant of Oratories and little places for their solemn conventions building Churches in the modern notion not being consistent with the poverty and persecution of Christians in those early times Here at the request of the Bishops of Asia he wrote his Gospel they are Authors of no credit and value that make it written during his confinement in the Isle of Patmos with very solemn preparation whereof more when we come to consider the Writings which he left behind him 7. HE lived till the time of Trajan about the beginning of whose Reign he departed this Life very Aged about the Ninety-eighth or Ninety-ninth Year of his Life as is generally thought Chrysostome is very positive that he was an Hundred years old when he wrote his Gospel and that he liv'd full Twenty years after The same is affirmed by Dorotheus that he lived CXX Years which to me seems altogether improbable seeing by this account he must be Fifty Years of Age when called to be an Apostle a thing directly contrary to the whole consent and testimony of Antiquity which makes him very young at the time of his calling to the Apostolick Office He died says the Arabian in the expectation of his blessedness by which he means his quiet and peaceable departure in opposition to a violent and bloody death Indeed Theophylact and others before him conceive him to have died a Martyr upon no other ground than what our Saviour told him and his Brother that they should drink of the Cup and be baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized which Chrysostom strictly understands of Martyrdom and a bloudy death It was indeed literally verified of his Brother James and for him though as S. Hierom observes he was not put to death yet may he be truly stiled a Martyr his being put into a Vessel of boiling Oil his many Years banishment and other sufferings in the cause of Christ justly challenging that honourable title though he did not actually lay down his life for the testimony of the Gospel it being not want of good will either in him or his enemies but the Divine Providence immediately over-ruling the powers of Nature that kept the malice of his enemies from its full execution 8. OTHERS on the contrary are so far from admitting him to die a Martyr that they question nay peremptorily deny that he ever died at all The first Assertor and that but obliquely that I find of this opinion was Hippolytus Bishop of Porto and Scholar to Clemens of Alexandria who ranks him in the same capacity with Enoch and Elias for speaking of the twofold coming of Christ he tells us that his first coming in the flesh had John the Baptist for its forerunner and his second to Judgment shall have Enoch Elias and S. John Ephrem Patriarch of Antioch is more express he tells us there are three Persons answerable to the three dispensations of the word yet in the body Enoch Elias and S. John Enoch before the Law Elias under the Law and S. John under the Gospel concerning which last that he never died he confirms both from Scripture and Tradition and quotes S. Cyrill I suppose he means him of Alexandria as of the same opinion The whole foundation upon which this Error is built was that discourse that passed between our Lord and Peter concerning this Apostle For Christ having told Peter what was to be his own fate Peter enquires what should become of S. John knowing him to be the Disciple whom Jesus loved Our Lord rebukes his curiosity by asking him what that concerned him If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee This the Apostles misunderstood and a report presently went out amongst them That that Disciple should not die Though S. John who himself records the passage inserts a caution That Jesus did not say he should not die but only what if I will
that of Galilean Can any good thing come out of Nazareth a City in this Province said Nathanael concerning Christ. Search and look say the Pharisees for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet as if nothing but briars and thorns could grow in that soil But there needs no more to confute this ill-natured opinion than that our Lord not only made choice of it as the seat of his ordinary residence and retreat but that hence he chose those excellent persons whom he made his Apostles the great instruments to convert the World Some of these we have already given an account of and more are yet behind 2. OF this number was S. Philip born at Bethsaida a Town near the Sea of Tiberias the City of Andrew and Peter Of his Parents and way of life the History of the Gospel takes no notice though probably he was a Fisherman the Trade general of that place He had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the honour of being first called to the Discipleship which thus came to pass Our Lord soon after his return from the wilderness having met with Andrew and his brother Peter after some short discourse parted from them And the very next day as he was passing through Galilee he found Philip whom he presently commanded to follow him the constant form which he used in making choice of his Disciples and those that did inseparably attend upon him So that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prerogative of being first called evidently belongs to Philip he being the first-fruits of our Lord's Disciples For though Andrew and Peter were the first that came to and conversed with Christ yet did they immediately return to their Trade again and were not called to the Discipleship till above a whole year after when John was cast into prison Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that it was Philip to whom our Lord said when he would have excused himself at present that he must go bury his Father Let the dead bury their dead but follow thou me But besides that he gives no account whence he derived this intelligence it is plainly inconsistent with the time of our Apostle's call who was called to be a Disciple a long time before that speech and passage of our Saviour It may seem justly strange that Philip should at first sight so readily comply with our Lord's command and turn himself over into his service having not yet seen any miracle that might evince his Messiah-ship and Divine Commission nor probably so much as heard any tidings of his appearance and especially being a Galilean and so of a more rustick and unyielding temper But it cannot be doubted but that he was admirably versed in the writings of Moses and the Prophets Metaphrastes assures us though how he came to know it otherwise than by conjecture I cannot imagine that from his childhood he had excellent education that he frequently read over Moses his Books and considered the Prophecies that related to our Saviour And was no question awakened with the general expectations that were then on foot among the Jews the date of the Prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of Christ's coming being now run out that the Messiah would immediately appear Add to this that the Divine grace did more immediately accompany the command of Christ to incline and dispose him to believe that this person was that very Messiah that was to come 3. NO sooner had Religion taken possession of his mind but like an active principle it began to ferment and diffuse it self Away he goes and finds Nathanael a person of note and eminency acquaints him with the tidings of the new-found Messiah and conducts him to him So forward is a good man to draw and direct others in the same way to happiness with himself After his call to the Apostleship much is not recorded of him in the Holy story 'T was to him that our Saviour propounded the question What they should do for so much bread in the wilderness as would feed so vast a multitude to which he answered That so much was not easily to be had not considering that to feed two or twenty thousand are equally easie to Almighty Power when pleased to exert it self 'T was to him that the Gentile Proselytes that came up to the Passeover addressed themselves when desirous to see our Saviour a person of whom they had heard so loud a fame 'T was with him that our Lord had that discourse concerning himself a little before the last Paschal Supper The holy and compassionate Jesus had been fortifying their minds with fit considerations against his departure from them had told them that he was going to prepare room for them in the Mansions of the Blessed that he himself was the way the truth and the life and that no man could come to the Father but by him and that knowing him they both knew and had seen the Father Philip not duly understanding the force of our Saviour's reasonings begged of him that he would shew them the Father and then this would abundantly convince and satisfie them We can hardly suppose he should have such gross conceptions of the Deity as to imagine the Father vested with a corporeal and visible nature but Christ having told them that they had seen him and he knowing that God of old was wont frequently to appear in a visible shape he only desired that he would manifest himself to them by some such appearance Our Lord gently reproved his ignorance that after so long attendance upon his instructions he should not know that he was the Image of his Father the express characters of his infinite wisdom power and goodness appearing in him that he said and did nothing but by his Father's appointment which if they did not believe his miracles were a sufficient evidence That therefore such demands were unnecessary and impertinent and that it argued great weakness after more than three years education under his discipline and Institution to be so unskilful in those matters God expects improvement according to mens opportunities to be old and ignorant in the School of Christ deserves both reproach and punishment 't is the character of very bad persons that they are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth 4. IN the distribution of the several Regions of the World made by the Apostles though no mention be made by Origen or Eusebius what part fell to our Apostle yet we are told by others that the Upper Asia was his Province the reason doubtless why he is said by many to have preached and planted Christianity in Scythia where he applied himself with an indefatigable diligence and industry to recover men out of the snare of the Devil to the embracing and acknowledgment of the truth By the constancy of his preaching and the efficacy of his Miracles he gained numerous Converts whom he baptized into the Christian Faith at once curing both Souls and Bodies their
Athanasius more expresly attributes the Translation to S. James the less The best is it matters not much whether it was translated by an Apostle or some Disciple so long as the Apostles approved the Version and that the Church has ever received the Greek Copy for Authentick and reposed it in the Sacred Canon 8. AFTER the Greek Translation was entertained the Hebrew Copy was chiefly owned and used by the Nazaraei a middle Sect of Men between Jews and Christians with the Christians they believed in Christ and embraced his Religion with the Jews they adhered to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law and hence this Gospel came to be stiled the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Nazarenes By them it was by degrees interpolated several Passages of the Evangelical History which they had heard either from the Apostles or those who had familiarly conversed with them being inserted which the ancient Fathers frequently refer to in their Writings as by the Ebionites it was mutilated and many things cut off for the same reason for which the followers of Cerinthus though making use of the greatest part of it rejected the rest because it made so much against them This Hebrew Copy though whether exactly the same as it was written by S. Matthew I will not say was found among other Books in the Treasury of the Jews at Tiberias by Joseph a Jew and after his Conversion a Man of great honour and esteem in the time of Constantine and another S. Hierom assures us was kept in the Library at Caesarea in his time and another by the Nazarenes at Beraea from whom he had the liberty to transcribe it and which he afterwards translated both into Greek and Latin with this particular observation than in quoting the Texts of the Old Testament the Evangelist immediately follows the Hebrew without taking notice of the Translation of the Septuagint A Copy also of this Gospel was Ann. CCCCLXXXV dug up and found in the Grave of Barnabas in Cyprus transcribed wih his own hand But these Copies are long since perished and for those that have been since published to the World both by Tile and Munster were there no other argument they too openly betray themselves by their barbarous and improper stile not to be the genuine issue of that less corrupt and better Age. THE LIFE OF S. THOMAS St. Thomas By the command of an Indian King he was thrust through with lanees Baron Martyrolog Dec. 21 St. Thomas his Martyrdom Joh. 11.16 Thomas which is called Didimus said unto his fellow-desciples Let us also goe that we may die with him The custom of the Jews to have both an Hebrew and a Roman name S. Thomas his name the same in Syriack and Greek His Country and Trade His call to the Apostleship His great affection to our Saviour Christ's discourse with him concerning the way to Eternal life His obstinate refusal to believe our Lord's Resurrection and the unreasonableness of his Infidelity Our Lord's convincing him by sensible demonstrations S. Thomas his deputing Thaddaeus to Abgarus of Edessa His Travels into Parthia Media Persia c. Aethiopia what and where situate His coming into India and the success of his Preaching there An account of his Acts in India from the relation of the Portugals at their first coming thither His converting the King of Malipur The manner of his Martyrdom by the Brachmans The Miracles said to be done at his Tomb. His Bones dug up by the Portugals A Cross and several Brass Tables with Inscriptions found there An account of the Indian or S. Thomas-Christians their Number State Rites and way of life 1. IT was customary with the Jews when travelling into foreign Countries or familiarly conversing with the Greeks and Romans to assume to themselves a Greek or a Latin name of great affinity and sometimes of the very same signification with that of their own Country Thus our Lord was called Christ answering to his Hebrew title Mashiach or the Anointed Simon stiled Peter according to that of Cephas which our Lord put upon him Tabitha called Dorcas both signifying a Goat Thus our S. Thomas according to the Syriack importance of his name had the title of Didymus which signifies a Twin Thomas which is called Didymus Accordingly the Syriack Version renders it Thauma which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thamae that is a Twin The not understanding whereof imposed upon Nonnus the Greek Paraphrast who makes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have had two distinct names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being but the same name expressed in different Languages The History of the Gospel takes no particular notice either of the Country or Kindred of this Apostle That he was a Jew is certain and in all probability a Galilean He was born if we may believe Symeon Metaphrastes of very mean Parents who brought him up to the trade of Fishing but withall took care to give him a more useful education instructing him in the knowledge of the Scriptures whereby he learnt wisely to govern his life and manners He was together with the rest called to the Apostleship and not long after gave an eminent instance of his hearty willingness to undergo the saddest fate that might attend them For when the rest of the Apostles disswaded our Saviour from going into Judaea whither he was now resolved for the raising his dear Lazarus lately dead lest the Jews should stone him as but a little before they had attempted it S. Thomas desires them not to hinder Christ's journey thither though it might cost their lives Let us also go that we may die with him probably concluding that instead of raising Lazarus from the dead they themselves should be sent with him to their own Graves So that he made up in pious affections what he seemed to want in the quickness and acumen of his understanding not readily apprehending some of our Lord's discourses nor over-forward to believe more than himself had seen When the holy Jesus a little before his fatal sufferings had been speaking to them of the joys of Heaven and had told them that he was going to prepare that they might follow him that they knew both the place whither he was going and the way thither Our Apostle replied that they knew not whither he went and much less the way that led to it To which our Lord returns this short but satisfactory answer That he was the true living way the person whom the Father had sent into the World to shew men the paths of Eternal life and that they could not miss of Heaven if they did but keep to that way which he had prescribed and chalked out before them 2. OUR Lord being dead 't is evident how much the Apostles were distracted between hopes and fears concerning his Resurrection not yet fully satisfied about it Which engaged him the sooner to hasten
honourably celebrated through the World infinitely beyond the glories of Alexander and the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar. But then how this should be done out of those few imperfect Memoires that have escaped the general shipwrack of Church-Antiquities and much more by so rude and unskilful a hand as mine appear'd I confess a very difficult task and next door to impossible These with some other considerations made me a long time obstinately resolve against it till being overcome by importunity I yielded to do it as I was able and as the nature of the thing would bear THAT which I primarily designed to my self was to draw down the History of the New Testament especially from our Lord's death to enquire into the first Originals and Plantations of the Christian Church by the Ministry of the Apostles the success of their Doctrine the power and conviction of their Miracles their infinite Labours and hardships and the dreadful Sufferings which they underwent to consider in what instances of Piety and Virtue they ministred to our imitation and served the purposes of Religion and an Holy Life Indeed the accounts that are left us of these things are very short and inconsiderable sufficient possibly to excite the appetite not to allay the hunger of an importunate Enquirer into these matters A consideration that might give us just occasion to lament the irreparable loss of those Primitive Records which the injury of time hath deprived us of the substance being gone and little left us but the shell and carcass Had we the Writings of Papias Bishop of Hierapolis and Scholar says Irenaeus to S. John wherein as himself tells us he set down what he had learnt from those who had familiarly conversed with the Apostles the sayings and discourses of Andrew and Peter of Philip and Thomas c. Had we the Ancient Commentaries of Hegesippus Clemens Alexandrinus his Institutions Africanus his Chronography and some others the Reader might expect more intire and particular relations But alas these are long since perish'd and little besides the names of them transmitted to us Nor should we have had most of that little that is left us had not the commendable care and industry of Eusebius preserv'd it to us And if he complain'd in his time when those Writings were extant that towards the composing of his History he had only some few particular accounts here and there left by the Ancients of their times what cause have we to complain when even those little portions have been ravish'd from us So that he that would build a work of this nature must look upon himself as condemn'd to a kind of Egyptian Task to make Brick without Straw at least to pick it up where he can find it though after all it amounts to a very slender parcel Which as it greatly hinders the beauty and completeness of the structure so does it exceedingly multiply the labour and difficulty For by this means I have been forc'd to gather up those little fragments of Antiquity that lie dispers'd in the Writings of the Ancients thrown some into this corner and others into that which I have at length put together like the pieces of a broken Statue that it might have at least some kind of resemblance of the person whom it designs to represent HAD I thought good to have traded in idle and frivolous Authors Abdias Babylonius the Passions of Peter and Paul Joachim Perionius Peter de Natalibus and such like I might have presented the Reader with a larger not a better account But besides the averseness of my nature to falshoods and trifles especially in matters wherein the honour of the Christian Religion is concern'd I knew the World to be wiser at this time of day than to be imposed upon by Pious frauds and cheated with Ecclesiastical Romances and Legendary Reports For this reason I have more fully and particularly insisted upon the Lives of the two first Apostles so great a part of them being secur'd by an unquestionable Authority and have presented the larger portions of the Sacred History many times to very minute circumstances of action And I presume the wise and judicious Reader will not blame me for chusing rather to enlarge upon a story which I knew to be infallibly true than to treat him with those which there was cause enough to conclude to be certainly false THE Reader will easily discern that the Authors I make use of are not all of the same rank and size Some of them are Divinely inspir'd whose Authority is Sacred and their reports rendred not only credible but unquestionable by that infallible and unerring Spirit that presided over them Others such of whose faith and testimony especially in matters of fact there is no just cause to doubt I mean the genuine Writings of the Ancient Fathers or those which though unduly assign'd to this or that particular Father are yet generally allowed to be Ancient and their credit not to be despis'd because their proper Parent is not certainly known Next these come the Writers of the middle and later Ages of the Church who though below the former in point of credit have yet some particular advantages that recommend them to us Such I account Symeon Metaphrastes Nicephorus Callistus the Menaea and Menologies of the Greek Church c. wherein though we meet with many vain and improbable stories yet may we also rationally expect some real and substantial accounts of things especially seeing they had the advantage of many Ancient and Ecclesiastick Writings extant in their times which to us are utterly lost Though even these too I have never called in but in the want of more Ancient and Authentick Writers As for others if any passages occur either in themselves of doubtful and suspected credit or borrowed from spurious and uncertain Authors they are always introduced or dismissed with some kind of censure or remark that the most easie and credulous Reader may know what to trust to and not fear being secretly surpriz'd into a belief of doubtful and fabulous reports And now after all I am sufficiently sensible how lank and thin this Account is nor can the Reader be less satisfied with it than I am my self and I have only this piece of justice and charity to beg of him that he would suspend his censure till he has taken a little pains to enquire into the state of the Times and Things I Write of And then however he may challenge my prudence in undertaking it he will not I hope see reason to charge me with want of care and faithfulness in the pursuance of it THE CONTENTS THE Introduction The Life of S. Peter SECT I. Of S. Peter from his Birth till his first coming to Christ. Page 1. SECT II. Of S. Peter from his first coming to Christ till his being call'd to be a Disciple 7. SECT III. Of S. Peter from his Election to the Apostolate till the confession which he made of Christ. 10. SECT
the time of writing or the care that is used in doing it Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy and in his Book of Lamentations between S. John's in his Gospel his Epistles and Apocalypse How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles in some more lofty and elegant in others more rough and harsh Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers too obvious to need insisting on in this place The learned Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and that the word Peter was inserted into the Title by another hand But as a Judicious person of our own observes these were but his Posthume Annotations published by others and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription as it is in our Books And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it It bears his name in the Front and Title yea somewhat more expresly than the former which has only one this both his Names There 's a passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him When he tells us that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount When he received from God the Father honour and glory Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven from the excellent glory This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This evidently refers to Christs Transfiguration where none were present but Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle Besides that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles as it were easie to show in particular instances Add to this that S. Jude speaking of the Scoffers who should come in the last time walking after their own ungodly lusts cites this as that which had been before spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein he plainly quotes the words of this Second Epistle of Peter affirming That there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts And that this does agree to Peter will further appear by this that he tells us of these Scoffers that should come in the last days that is before the destruction of Jerusalem as that phrase is often used in the New Testament that they should say Where is the promise of his coming Which clearly respects their making light of those threatnings of our Lord whereby he had foretold that he would shortly come in Judgment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation This he now puts them in mind of as what probably he had before told them of Vivâ voce when he was amongst them For so we find he did elsewhere Lactantiusassuring us That amongst many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul preached at Rome and left upon Record this was one That within a short time God would send a Prince who should destroy the Jews and lay their Cities level with the ground straitly besiege them destroy them with Famine so that they should feed upon one another That their Wives and Daughters should be ravished and their Childrens brains dasht out before their faces that all things should be laid waste by Fire and Sword and themselves perpetually banished from their own Country and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent and dear Son of God All which as he observes came to pass soon after their death when Vespasian came upon the Jews and extinguished both their Name and Nation And what Peter here foretold at Rome we need not question but he had done before to those Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle Wherein he especially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous principles wherewith many and especially the followers of Simon Magus began to infect the Church of Christ. And this but a little time before his death as appears from that passage in it where he tells them That he knew he must shortly put off his earthly Tabernacle 7. BESIDES these Divine Epistles there were other supposititious writings which in the first Ages were fathered upon S. Peter Such was the Book called his Acts mentioned by Origen Eusebius and others but rejected by them Such was his Gospel which probably at first was nothing else but the Gospel written by S. Mark dictated to him as is generally thought by S. Peter and therefore as S. Hierom tells us said to be his Though in the next Age there appeared a Book under that Title mentioned by Serapion Bishop of Antioch and by him at first suffered to be read in the Church but afterwards upon a more careful perusal of it he rejected it as Apocryphal as it was by others after him Another was the Book stiled His Preaching mentioned and quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Origen but not acknowledged by them to be Genuine Nay expresly said to have been forged by Hereticks by an ancient Author contemporary with S. Cyprian The next was his Apocalypse or Revelation rejected as Sozomen tells us by the Ancients as Spurious but yet read in some Churches in Palestine in his time The last was the Book called His Judgment which probably was the same with that called Hermes or Pastor a Book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity and which as Eusebius tells us was not only frequently cited by the Ancients but also publickly read in Churches 8. WE shall conclude this Section by considering Peter with respect to his several Relations That he was married is unquestionable the Sacred History mentioning his Wifes Mother his Wife might we believe Metaphrastes being the Daughter of Aristobulus Brother to Barnabas the Apostle And though S. Hierom would perswade us that he left her behind him together with his Nets when he forsook all to follow Christ yet we know that Father too well to be over-confident upon his word in a case of Marriage or Single life wherein he is not over-scrupulous sometimes to strain a point to make his opinion more fair and plausible The best is we have an infallible Authority which plainly intimates the contrary the testimony of S. Paul who tells us of Cephas that he led about a Wife a Sister along with him who for the most part mutually cohabited and lived together for ought that can be proved to the contrary Clemens Alexandrinus gives us this account though he tells us not the time or place That Peter seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour and that she was now returning home encouraging and