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A31408 Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ... Cave, William, 1637-1713.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Dissuasive from popery. 1676 (1676) Wing C1587; ESTC R12963 411,541 341

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that is in Christ. I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie as he told the Church of Corinth An affection of all others the most active and vigilant and which is wont to inspire men with the most passionate care and concernment for the good of those for whom we have the highest measures of love and kindness Nor was his charity to men greater than his zeal for God endeavouring with all his might to promote the honour of his Master Indeed zeal seems to have had a deep foundation in the natural forwardness of his temper How exceedingly zealous was he while in the Jews Religion of the Traditions of his Fathers how earnest to vindicate and assert the Divinity of the Mosaick dispensation and to persecute all of a contrary way even to rage and madness And when afterwards turned into a right chanel it ran with as swift a current carrying him out against all opposition to ruine the kingdom and the powers of darkness to beat down idolatry and to plant the World with right apprehensions of God and the true notions of Religion When at Athens he saw them so much over-grown with the grossest superstition and idolatry giving the honour that was alone due to God to Statues and Images his zeal began to ferment and to boil up into Paroxysms of indignation and he could not but let them know the resentments of his mind and how much herein they dishonoured God the great Parent and Maker of the World 6. THIS zeal must needs put him upon a mighty diligence and industry in the execution of his office warning reproving entreating perswading preaching in season and out of season by night and by day by Sea and Land no pains too much to be taken no dangers too great to be overcome For five and thirty years after his Conversion he seldom staid long in one place from Jerusalem through Arabia Asia Greece round about to Illyricum to Rome and even to the utmost bounds of the Western-world fully preaching the Gospel of Christ Running says S. Hierom from Ocean to Ocean like the Sun in the Heavens of which 't is said His going forth is from the end of the Heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it sooner wanting ground to tread on than a desire to propagate the Faith of Christ. Nicephorus compares him to a Bird in the Air that in a few years flew round the World Isidore the Pelusiot to a winged husbandman that flew from place to place to cultivate the World with the most excellent rules and institutions of life And while the other Apostles did as 't were chuse this or that particular Province as the main sphere of their ministry S. Paul over ran the whole World to its utmost bounds and corners planting all places where he came with the Divine doctrines of the Gospel Nor in this course was he tired out with the dangers and difficulties that he met with the troubles and oppositions that were raised against him All which did but reflect the greater lustre upon his patience whereof indeed as Clement observes he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most eminent pattern and exemplar enduring the biggest troubles and persecutions with a patience triumphant and unconquerable As will easily appear if we take but a survey of what trials and sufferings he underwent some part whereof are briefly summed up by himself In labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft thrice beaten with rods once stoned thrice suffered shipwrack a night and a day in the deep In journeyings often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by his own Country-men in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Sea in perils among false Brethren in weariness in painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and nakedness And besides these things that were without that which daily came upon him the care of all the Churches An account though very great yet far short of what he endured and wherein as Chrysostom observes he does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modestly keep himself within his measures for had he taken the liberty fully to have enlarged himself he might have filled hundreds of Martyrologies with his sufferings A thousand times was his life at stake in every suffering he was a Martyr and what fell but in parcels upon others came all upon him while they skirmished only with single parties he had the whole Army of sufferings to contend with All which he generously underwent with a Soul as calm and serene as the morning-Sun no spite or rage no fury or storms could ruffle and discompose his spirit Nay those sufferings which would have broken the back of an ordinary patience did but make him rise up with the greater eagerness and resolution for the doing of his duty 7. HIS patience will yet further appear from the consideration of another the last of those virtues we shall take notice of in him his constancy and fidelity in the discharge of his place and in the profession of Religion Could the powers and policies of Men and Devils spite and oppositions torments and threatnings have been able to baffle him out of that Religion wherein he had engaged himself he must have sunk under them and left his station But his Soul was steel'd with a courage and resolution that was impenetrable and which no temptation either from hopes or fears could make any more impression upon than an arrow can that 's shot against a wall of marble He wanted not solicitation on either hand both from Jews and Gentiles and questionless might in some degree have made his own terms would he have been false to his trust and have quitted that way that was then every-where spoken against But alas these things weighed little with our Apostle who counted not his life to be dear unto him so that he might finish his course with joy and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus And therefore when under the sentence of death in his own apprehension could triumphingly say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith and so indeed he did kept it inviolably undauntedly to the last minute of his life The summ is He was a man in whom the Divine life did eminently manifest and display it self he lived piously and devoutly soberly and temperately justly and righteously carefull alway to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and Man This he tells us was his support under suffering this the foundation of his confidence towards God and his firm hopes of happiness in another World This is our rejoycing the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World 8. IT is not the least instance of his care and fidelity in his office that he did not
that he tarry till I come Which doubtless our Lord meant of his coming so often mentioned in the New Testament in Judgment upon the Jews at the final overthrow of Jerusalem which S. John out-lived many years and which our Lord particularly intended when elsewhere he told them Verily I say unto you there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his Kingdom 9. FROM the same Original sprang the report that he only lay sleeping in his Grave The story was currant in S. Augustines days from whom we receive this account though possibly the Reader will smile at the conceit He tells us 't was commonly reported and believed that S. John was not dead but that he rested like a Man asleep in his Grave at Ephesus as plainly appeared from the Dust sensibly boiling and bubling up which they accounted to be nothing else but the continual motion of his breath This report S. Augustine seems inclinable to believe having received it as he tells us from very credible hands He further adds out of some Apocryphal Writings what was generally known and reported that when S. John then in health had caused his Grave to be dug and prepared he laid himself down in it as in a Bed and as they thought only fell asleep Nicephorus relates the story more at large from whom if it may be any pleasure to entertain the Reader with these things we shall give this account S. John foreseeing his Translation into Heaven took the Presbyters and Ministers of the Church of Ephesus and several of the Faithful along with him out of the City carried them unto a Cemetery near at hand whither he himself was wont to retire to Prayer and very earnestly recommended the state of the Churches to God in Prayer Which being done he commanded a Grave to be immediately dug and having instructed them in the more recondite mysteries of Theologie the most excellent Precepts of a good Life concerning Faith Hope and especially Charity confirmed them in the practice of Religion commended them to the care and blessing of our Saviour and solemnly taking his leave of them he signed himself with the sign of the Cross and before them all went down into the Grave strictly charging them to put on the Grave-stone and to make it fast and the next day to come and open it and take a view of it They did so and having opened the Sepulchre found nothing there but the Grave-clothes which he had left behind him To all which let me add while my hand is in these things what Ephrem relates that from this Grave wherein he rested so short a time a kind of Sacred Oil or Unguent was wont to be gathered Gregory of Tours says 't was Manna which even in his time like flour was cast up from the Sepulchre and was carried up and down the World for the curing of diseases This report of our Apostles being yet alive some men made use of to wild and phantastick purposes Beza tells us of an Impostor in his time whom Postellus who vainly boasted that he had the Soul of Adam was wont to call his Brother who publickly professed himself to be our S. John and was afterwards burnt at Tholose in France Nor was this any more than what was done in the more early Ages of Christianity For Sulpitius Severus giving us an account of a young Spaniard that first professed himself to be Elias and then Christ himself adds That there was one at the same time in the East who gave out himself to be S. John So fast will Error like circles in the water multiply it self and one mistaken place of Scripture give countenance to an hundred stories that shall be built upon it I have no more to add but what we meet with in the Arabick writer of his life though it little agrees with the preceding passages who reports that there were none present at his burial but his disciple Phogsir probably Proghor or Prochorus one of the seven Deacons and generally said to have been John's companion and assistent whom he strictly charged never to discover his Sepulchre to any it may be for the same reason for which it is thought God concealed the Body of Moses to prevent the Idolatrous worshipping of his Reliques And accordingly the Turks who conceit him to be buried in the confines of Lydia pay great honour and veneration to his Tomb. 10. S. JOHN seems always to have led a single life and so the Ancients tell us nay S. Ambrose positively affirms that all the Apostles were married except S. John and S. Paul There want not indeed some and especially the middle Writers of the Church who will have our Apostle to have been married and that it was his marriage which our Lord was at in Cana of Galilee invited thither upon the account of his consanguinity and alliance But that being convinced by the Miracle of the Water turned into Wine he immediately quitted his conjugal relation and became one of our Lord's Disciples But this as Baronius himself confesses is trifling and the issue of fabulous invention a thing wholly unknown to the Fathers and best Writers of the Church and which not only has no just authority to support it but arguments enough to beat it down As for his natural temper he seems as we have observed in his Brother's Life to have been of a more eager and resolute disposition easily apt to be inflamed and provoked which his reduced Age brought to a more staid and a calmer temper He was polished by no study or arts of Learning but what was wanting in that was abundantly made up in the excellent temper and constitution of his mind and that furniture of Divine graces which he was adorned withall His humility was admirable studiously concealing his own worth and honour in all his Epistles as Eusebius long since observed he never puts down the honourable Titles of Apostle or Evangelist but only stiles himself and that too but sometimes Presbyter or Elder alluding probably to his Age as much as Office in his Gospel when he speaks of the Disciple whom Jesus loved he constantly conceals his own name leaving the Reader to conjecture who was meant Love and Charity he practised himself and affectionately pressed upon others our Lord 's great love to him seems to have inspired his Soul with a bigger and more generous charity than the rest 'T is the great vein that runs through his Writings and especially his Epistles where he urges it as the great and peculiar Law of Christianity and without which all other pretenses to Christian Religion are vain and frivolous useless and insignificant And this was his constant practice to his dying day When Age and Weakness grew upon him at Ephesus that he was no longer able to Preach to them he used at every publick Meeting to be led to the
was intent at prayer they first load him with darts and stones till one of them coming nearer ran him through with a Lance. His Body was taken up by his Disciples and buried in the Church which he had lately built and which was afterwards improved into a fabrick of great stateliness and magnificence Gregory of Tours relates many miracles done upon the annual solemnities of his Martyrdom and one standing miracle an account whereof he tells us he received from one Theodorus who had himself been in that place viz. that in the Temple where the Apostle was buried there hung a Lamp before his Tomb which burnt perpetually without Oil or any Fewel to feed and nourish it the light whereof was never diminished nor by wind or any other accident could be extinguished But whether Travellers might not herein be imposed upon by the crafty artifices of the Priests or those who did attend the Church or if true whether it might not be performed by art I leave to others to enquire Some will have his Body to have been afterwards translated to Edessa a City in Mesopotamia but the Christians in the East constantly affirm it to have remained in the place of his Martyrdom where if we may believe relations it was after dug up with great cost and care at the command of Don Emmanuel Frea Governor of the Coast of Cormandel and together with it was found the Bones of the Sagamo whom he had converted to the Faith 5. WHILE Don Alfonso Sousa one of the first Vice Roys in India under John the Third King of Portugal resided in these Parts certain Brass Tables were brought to him whose ancient Inscriptions could scarce be read till at last by the help of a Jew an excellent Antiquary they were found to contain nothing but a donation made to S. Thomas whereby the King who then reign'd granted to him a piece of ground for the building of a Church They tell us also of a famous Cross found in S. Thomas his Chappel at Malipur wherein was an unintelligible Inscription which by a Learned Bramin whom they compelled to read and expound it gave an account to this effect That Thomas a Divine person was sent into those Countries by the Son of God in the time of King Sagamo to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God that he built a Church and performed admirable Miracles but at last while upon his Knees at Prayer was by a Brachman thrust through with a Spear and that that Cross stained with his bloud had been left as a memorial of these matters An interpretation that was afterwards confirmed by another grave and learned Bramin who expounded the Inscription to the very same effect The judicious Reader will measure his belief of these things by the credit of the Reporters and the rational probability of the things themselves which for my part as I cannot certainly affirm to be true so I will not utterly conclude them to be false 6. FROM these first plantations of Christianity in the Eastern India's by our Apostle there is said to have been a continued series and succession of Christians hence called S. Thomas-Christians in those Parts unto this day The Portugals at their first arrival here found them in great numbers in several places no less as some tell us than fifteen or sixteen thousand Families They are very poor and their Churches generally mean and sordid wherein they had no Images of Saints nor any representations but that of the Cross they are governed in Spirituals by an High-Priest whom some make an Armenian Patriarch of the Sect of Nestorius but in truth is no other than the Patriarch of Muzal the remainder as is probable of the ancient Selencia and by some though erroneously stiled Babylon residing North-ward in the Mountains who together with twelve Cardinals two Patriarchs and several Bishops disposes of all affairs referring to Religion and to him all the Christians of the East yield subjection They promiscuously admit all to the Holy Communion which they receive under both kinds of Bread and Wine though instead of Wine which their Country affords not making use of the juice of Raisons steep'd one Night in Water and then pressed forth Children unless in case of sickness are not baptized till the Fortieth day At the death of Friends their kindred and relations keep an Eight-days feast in memory of the departed Every Lord's day they have their publick Assemblies for Prayer and Preaching their devotions being managed with great reverence and solemnity Their Bible at least the New Testament is in the Syriack Language to the study whereof the Preachers earnestly exhort the People They observe the times of Advent and Lent the Festivals of our Lord and many of the Saints those especially that relate to S. Thomas the Dominica in Albis or Sunday after Easter in memory of the famous confession which S. Thomas on that day made of Christ after he had been sensibly cured of his unbelief another on the first of July celebrated not only by Christians but by Moors and Pagans the People who come to his Sepulchre on Pilgrimage carrying away a little of the red Earth of the place where he was interred which they keep as an inestimable treasure and conceit it soveraign against Diseases They have a kind of Monasteries of the Religious who live in great abstinence and chastity Their Priests are shaven in fashion of a Cross have leave to marry once but denied a second time No marriages to be dissolved but by Death These rites and customs they solemnly pretend to have derived from the very time of S. Thomas and with the greatest care and diligence do observe them at this Day The End of S. Thomas 's Life THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Less S. JAMES Minor This Apostle being a Kinsman of our Lord and having Sate first Bishop of Hierusalem was cost down from the top of the Temple and after killed with a Fullers club Barou May 1 0 The Martyrdom of St. James the lesse Matth. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets stonest them which are sent unto thee S. James the Less proved to be the same with him that was Bishop of Jerusalem His Kindred and Relations The Son of Joseph by a former Wife The Brethren of our Lord who His Country what Our Lord's appearance to him after his Resurrection Invested in the See of Jerusalem by whom and why His authority in the Synod at Jerusalem His great diligence and fidelity in his Ministry The conspiracy of his Enemies to take away his Life His Discourse with the Scribes and Pharisees about the Messiah His Martyrdom and the manner of it His Burial where His Death resented by the Jews His strictness in Religion His Priesthood whence His singular delight in Prayer and efficacy in it His great love and charity to Men. His admirable Humility His Temperance according to the rules of the Nazarite-Order The Love