onely said that they sailed under it and passed by it and that Titus was then in the company whereof no footsteps or intimations appear in the Story Sailing therefore from some Port in Cilicia they arrived at Crete where S. Paul industriously set himself to preach and propagate the Christian Faith delighting as much as might be to be the first messenger of the glad tidings of the Gospel to all places where he came not planting in another mans line or building of things made ready to his hand But because the care of other Churches called upon him and would not permit him to stay long enough here to see Christianity brought to a due maturity and perfection he constituted Titus Bishop of that Island that he might nourish that infant-Church superintend its growth and prosperity and manage the Government and Administration of it This the Ancients with one mouth declare He was the first Bishop says d H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 73. Eusebius of the Churches in Crete the Apostle consecrated him Bishop of it so e Praef. in Tit. p. 419. T. 5. S. Ambrose so f Doroth. Synops p. 148. Dorotheus and g Ap. Hier. de Script in Tit. Sophronius he was says h Homil. 1. in Tit. p. 1692. Chrysostom an approved person to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Island was intirely committed that he might exercise power and jurisdiction over so many Bishops he was by S. Paul ordained Bishop of Crete though a very large Island that he might ordain Bishops under him says i Argum. Epist ad Tit. Tom. 3. Theodoret expresly To which might be added the testimonies of Theophylact Oecumenius and others and the subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus which though not dictated by the same hand is ancient however where he is said to have been ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians And k Argum. in 1 ad Tim. p. 1519. S. Chrysostom gives this as the reason why of all his Disciples and Followers S. Paul wrote Epistles to Titus and Timothy and not to Silas or Luke because he had committed to them the care and government of Churches while he reserved the others as attendants and ministers to go along with himself IV. NOR is this meerly the arbitrary sense of Antiquity in the case but seems evidently founded in S. Pauls own intimation Tit. 1.5 where he tells Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee that is I constituted thee Governour of that Church that thou mightst dispose and order the affairs of it according to the rules and directions which I then gave thee Ordain Elders he means Bishops says l Homil. 2. in Tit. p. 1700. vid. etiam Theoph. Occumen in loc Chrysostom as elsewhere I have oft explained it Elders in every City he was not willing as he adds that the whole administration of so great an Island should be managed by one but that every City might have its proper Governour to inspect and take care of it that so the burden might be lighter by being laid upon many shoulders and the people attended with the greater diligence Indeed Crete was famous for number of Cities above any other Island in the World thence stiled of old Hecatompolis the Island of an hundred Cities In short plain it is that Titus had power of Jurisdiction Ordination and Ecclesiastical Censures above any other Pastors or Ministers in that Church conferred and derived upon him V. SEVERAL years S. Titus continued at his charge in Crete when he received a summons from S. Paul then ready to depart from Ephesus The Apostle had desired Apollos to accompany Timothy and some others whom he had sent to Corinth but he chusing rather to go for Crete by him and Zenas he wrote an Epistle to Titus to stir him up to be active and vigilant and to teach him how to behave himself in that station wherein he had set him And indeed he had need of all the counsels which S. Paul could give him who had so loose and untoward a generation of men to deal with For the Countrey it self was not more fruitful and plenteous then the manners of the people were debauched and vicious Tit. 1 3â— S. Paul puts Titus in mind what a bad character one of their own Poets who certainly knew them best had given of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are always Liars Evil Beasts Slow-bellies This Verse a Homil. III. in Tit. pag. 1707. S. Chrysostom supposes the Apostle took from Callimachus who makes use indeed of the first part of it charging the Cretians to be like themselves notorious Liars in pretending that Jupiter was not onely born but died among them and that they had his Tomb with this Inscription ΕÎΤΑΥΘΑ ΖΑΠΚΕΙΤΑΙ Here lies Jupiter when as the deity is immortal whereupon the good Father perplexes himself with many needless difficulties in reconciling it Whereas in truth S. Paul borrowed it not from Callimachus but Epimenides a native of Crete famous among the Ancients for his Raptures and Enthusiastic divinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as b In vit Solon pag. 84. Plutarch says of him From him Callimachus cites part of the Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Callim Hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vet. Schol. ibi and applies it to his particular purpose while S. Paul quotes it intire from the Author himself This witness says he is true And indeed that herein he did not bely them we have the concurrent testimonies of most Heathen Writers who charge the same things upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eadem Mich. Apostol in eod verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psell de operat Damon p. 37. So famous for lying that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became proverbial to lie like a Cretian and to cousen a cheat and nothing more obvious then mendax Creta c Histor l. 6. p. 681. l. 4. p. 386. Edit L Bataâ—â— Polybius tells us of them that no where could be found more subtle and deceitful Wits and generally more wicked and pernicious Counsels that their Manners were so very sordid and covetous that of all men in the World the Cretians were the only persons who accounted nothing base or dishonest that was but gainful and advantagious Besides they were idle and impatient of labour gluttonous and intemperate unwilling to take any pains farther then to make provision for the flesh as the natural effect of ease idleness and plenty they were wanton and lascivious and prone to the vilest and basest sort of lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d Deipnosoph l. 13. pag. 601. Athenaeus informs us outragiously mad upon that sin
as the Messia or the Son of God among the Samaritans giving out himself to be the Father as a Lib. 1. c. 20. p. 115. Irenaeus assures us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Countryman b Apol. II. p. 69. vid. Tert. de praeser Haeret. c. 46. p. 219. Justin Martyr tells us the People worshipped him as the first and chiefest Deity as afterwards among the Gentiles he stiled himself the Holy Ghost And what wonder if by this train of Artifices the People were tempted and seduced to admire and adore him And in this case things stood at S. Philips arrival whose greater and more unquestionable miracles quickly turned the Scale Imposture cannot bear the too near approach of Truth but flies before it as darkness vanishes at the presence of the Sun The People sensible of their errour universally flocked to S. Philips Sermons and convinced by the efficacy of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles gave up themselves his Converts and were by Baptism initiated into the Christian Faith Yea the Magician himself astonished at those mighty things which he saw done by Philip professed himself his Proselyte and Disciple and was baptized by him being either really persuaded by the convictive evidence of Truth or else for some sinister designs craftily dissembling his Belief and Profession of Christianity A piece of Artifice which c H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 1. p. 39. Eusebius tells us his Disciples and Followers still observed in his time who in imitation of their Father like a Pest or a Leprosie were wont to creep in among the Christian Societies that so they might with the more advantage poison and infect the rest many of whom having been discovered had with shame been ejected and cast out of the Church V. THE fame of S. Philips success at Samaria quickly flew to Jerusalem where the Apostles immediately took care to dispatch some of their own number to confirm these new Converts in the Faith Peter and John were sent upon this errand who being come prayed for them and laid their hands upon them ordaining probably some to be Governors of the Church and Ministers of Religion which was no sooner done but the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost fell upon them A plain evidence of the Apostolic Power Philip had converted and baptised them but being onely a Deacon as d Eplph. Haeres XXI p. 29. Epiphanius and e Christ Horâ—â— 18. in 〈◊〉 p. â—â— Chrysostom truely observe could not conser the Holy Ghost this being a faculty bestowed onely upon the Apostles Simon the Magician observing this that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of the Apostles hands hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and reputation with the people to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself to corrupt the Apostles by a sum of money to confer this power upon him Peter resented the motion with that sharpness and severity that became him told the Wretch of the iniquity of his offer and the evil state and condition he was in advised him by repentance to make his Peace with Heaven that if possible he might prevent the miserable fate that otherwise did attend him But what passed between Peter and this Magician both here and in their memorable encounter at Rome so much spoken of by the Ancients we have related more at large in another place a Antiquit. App. Life of S. Pâ—t Sect. 8. v. 1 Sect. 9. 〈◊〉 4. VI. WHETHER S. Philip returned with the Apostles to Jerusalem or as b Hâ—â—il 19. in Act. App p. 585. Chrysostom thinks staid at Samaria and the parts thereabouts we have no intimations left upon Record 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ibid. p. 586. But where-ever he was an Angel was sent to him with a message from God to go and instruct a Stranger in the Faith The Angel one would have thought had been most likely himself to have managed this business with success But the wise God keeps Method and Order and will not suffer an Angel to take that Work which he has put into the hands of his Ministers The sum of his Commission was to go toward the South unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza which is desart A circumstance which whether it relate to the way or the City is not easie to decide it being probably true of both Gaza was a City anciently famous for the strange efforts of Sampsons strength for his captivity his death and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same Ruine It was afterwards sacked and laid wast by Alexander the Great and as c Geograph l. 16. p. 759. Zach. 2.4 Jer. 47.5 Strabo notes remained wast and desart in his time the Prophetical curse being truly accomplished in it Gaza shall be forsaken a Fate which the Prophet Jeremy had foretold to be as certain as if he had seen it already done baldness is come upon Gaza So certainly do the divine threatnings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent People so easily do they set open the Gates for ruine to enter into the strongest and best fortified Cities where Sin has once undermined and stript them naked of the divine protection VII NO sooner had S. Philip received his Orders though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey but he addressed himself to it he arose and went he did not reason with himself whether he might not be mistaken and that be a false and deluding Vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand and into a Desart and a Wilderness where he was more likely to meet with Trees and Rocks and wild Beasts then Men to preach to but went however well knowing God never sends any upon a vain or a foolish errand An excellent instance of obedience as 't is also recorded to Abrahams eternal honour and commendation that when God sent his Warrant he obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went As he was on his journey he espied coming towards him a man of Aethiopia an Eunuch of great authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship though in what part of the World the Countrey here spoken of was situate the word being variously used in Scripture has been some dispute a Doroâ—h Synops p. 148. Dorotheus and b Sopiâ— ap Hier. de Strip Eccl. in Crescent Sophronius of old and some later Writers place it in Arabia the Happy not far from the Persian Gulf but it 's most generally conceived to be meant of the African Aethiopia lying under or near the torrid Zone the People whereof are described by Homer to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remotest part of mankind and accordingly a Hier. ad Paul Tom. 3. p. 7. S. Hierom says of this Eunuch that he came from Aethiopia that is ab extremis mundi
a life of true Philosophy and Vertue Ap. Dioâ— Hali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—5 Tem. 2. History says Thucydides being nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy drawn from Examples the one is a more gross and popular Philosophy the other a more subtle and refined History These considerations together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great Actions gave birth to History and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and foregoing Times to the notice of Posterity The first in this kind was Moses the great Prince and Legislator of the Jewish Nation who from the Creation of the World conveyed down the Records of above MMDL years the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish State Among the Babylonians they had their public Archives which were transcribed by Berosus the Priest of Belus who composed the Chaldean History The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable Acts upon Pillars in Hieroglyphic notes and sacred Characters first begun as they pretend by Thouth or the first of their Mercuries out of which Manethos their Chief Priest collected his three Books of Egyptian Dynasties which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus second of that line The Phoenician History was first attempted by Sanchoniathon digested partly out of the Annals of Cities partly out of the Books kept in the Temple and communicated to him by Jerombaal Priest of the God Jao this he dedicated to Abibalus King of Berytus which Philo Byblius about the time of the Emperour Adrian translated into Greek The Greeks boast of the Antiquity of Cadmus Archilochus and many others though the most ancient of their Historians now extant are Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon Among the Romans the foundations of History were laid in Annals the public Acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus who kept them at his own house that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction These were the Annales Maximi and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the History of that great and powerful Commonwealth But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard both as it more immediately concerns the present enquiry and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests is the History of the Church For herein as in a Glass we have the true face of the Church in its several Ages represented to us Here we find with what infinite care those Divine Records which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us with what a mighty success Religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions and spread its Banners in the remotest corners of the World With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with what a bitter and implacable fury the Enemies of Religion have set upon it and how signally the Divine Providence has appeared in its preservation and returned the mischief upon their own heads Here we see the constant succession of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion in their several stations the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs who with the most chearful and composed minds have gone to Heaven through the acutest torments In short we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious Life of a real and unfeigned Piety a sincere and universal Charity a strict Temperance and Sobriety an unconquerable Patience and Submission clearly represented to us And the higher we go the more illustrious are the instances of Piety and Vertue For however later Ages may have improved in knowledge Experience daily making new additions to Arts and Sciences yet former Times were most eminent for the practice and vertues of a holy life The Divine Laws while newly published had a stronger influence upon the minds of men and the spirit of Religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and prophaneness that in these last Times has over-run the World It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what Records there are of the state of the Church before our Saviours Incarnation it is sufficient to my purpose to enquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian Church have been transmitted to us As for the Life and Death the Actions and Miracles of our Saviour and some of the first acts of his Apostles they are fully represented by the Evangelical Historians Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature H. Eâ—cl l. 3. c. 24. p. 94. the Apostles and their immediate Successors as Eusebius observes not being at leisure to write many Books as being imployed in Ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the World The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus an ancient and Apostolic man as he in Photius stiles him an Hebrew by descent Cod. 232. col 893. and born as is probable in Palestin He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius and came to Rome in the time of Ancietus where he resided till the time of Eleutherius He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he stiled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein in a plain and familiar stile he described the Apostles Travels and Preachings the remarkable passages of the Church the several Schisms Heresies and Persecutions that infested it from our Lords death till his own time But these alas are long since lost The next that succeeded in this Province though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection was Eusebius He was born in Palestin about the later times of the Emperour Gallienus ordained Presbyter by Agapius Bishop of Caesarea who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian Persecution Eusebius succeeded in his See A man of incomparable parts and learning and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the Records and Antiquities of the Church After several other Volumes in defence of the Christian Cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles he set himself to write an Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3. wherein he designed as himself tells us to recount from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable Transactions of the Church the Apostolical successions the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel the Bishops that presided in the most eminent Sees the most noted Errours and Heresies the calamities that befel the Jewish State the attempts and Persecutions made against the Christians by the Powers of the World the torments and sufferings of the Martyrs and the blessed and happy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantine the Great All this accordingly he digested in Ten Book which he composed in the declining part of his life Praefat. de
which never passed the emendations of a second review an undertaking vast and diffusive and engaged in while Books were yet more scarce and less correct Accordingly they modestly enough confess Praefat. in Hist Eccles praefix Cent. I. that they rather attempted a delineation of Church-History then one that was compleat and absolute desiring onely to minister opportunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more intire and perfect And yet take it with all the faults and disadvantages that can be charged upon it and they bear no proportion to the usefulness and excellency of the thing it self No sooner did this work come abroad but it made a loud noise and bustle at Rome as wherein the corruptions and innovations of that Church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the World Accordingly it was necessary that an Antidote should be provided against it For which purpose Philip Nereus who had lately founded the Oratorian Order at Rome commands Baronius then a very young man and newly entered into the Congregation to undertake it and in order thereunto daily to read nothing but Ecclesiastical Lectures in the Oratory This course he held for thirty years together seven several times going over the History of the Church Thus trained up and abundantly furnished with fit materials he sets upon the Work it self which he disposed by way of Annals comprising the affairs of whole Christian World in the orderly series and succession of every year A method much more Natural and Historical then that of the Centuries A noble design and which it were injustice to defraud of its due praise and commendation as wherein besides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the Church reduced as far as his skill in Chronology could enable him under their proper periods he has brought to light many passages of the Ancients not known before peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble Libraries that are at Rome A Monument of incredible pains and labour as which besides the difficulties of the thing it self was entirely carried on by his single endeavours and written all with his own hand and that too in the midst of infinite avocations the distractions of a Parish-Cure the private affairs of his own Oratory Preaching hearing Confessions writing other Books not to mention the many troublesom though honourable Offices and Imployments which in the course of the Work were heaped upon him In short a Work it was by which he had infinitely more obliged the World then can be well expressed had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and industry But alas too evident it is that he designed not so much the advancement of Truth as the honour and interest of a Cause and therefore drew the face of the ancient Church not as Antiquity truly represents it but according to the present form and complexion of the Church of Rome forcing everything to look that way to justifie the traditions and practises and to exalt the super-eminent power and grandeur of that Church making both the Scepter and the Crosier stoop to the Triple Crown This is that that runs almost through every page and indeed both he * Epist Ded. ad Sixt. V. Tom. 1. Annal. praefix himself and the †Hier. Barnab de vit Baron l. 1. c. 18. p. 40. c. 19. p. 43. Writer of his Life more then once expresly affirms that his design was to defend the Traditions and to preserve the Dignity of that Church against the late Innovators and the labours of the Magdeburgensian Centuriators and that the opposing of them was the occasion of that Work So fatally does partiality and the interest of a Cause spoil the most brave and generous Undertakings What has been hitherto Prefaced the Reader I hope will not censure as an unprofitable digression nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present Work whereof 't is like he will expect some short account Being some time since engaged I know not how in searching after the Antiquities of the Apostolic Age I was then strongly importuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding Ages This I then wholly laid aside without any further thoughts of re-assuming it For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of the thing and I well foresaw how almost impossible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfaction so small and inconsiderable so broken and imperfect are the accounts that are left us of those early times Notwithstanding which I have once more suffered my self to be engaged in it and have endeavoured to hunt out and gather together those Ruines of Primitive Story that yet remain that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the World to seal it with their blood and to oblige Posterity by those excellent Monuments of Learning and Piety which they left behind them I have bounded my account within the first three hundred years notwithstanding the barrenness and obscurity of those Ages of the Church Had I consulted my own ease or credit I should have commenced my design from that time which is the period of my present Undertaking viz. the following Saeculum when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the Records of the Church furnish us with large and plentiful materials for such a Work But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best Ages of Religion the Memoires whereof I have picked up and thereby enabled my self to draw the lineaments of as many of those Apostolical persons as concerning whom I could retrive any considerable notices and accounts of things With what success the Reader must judge with whom what entertainment it will find I know not nor am I much sollicitous I have done what I could and am not conscious to my self that I have been wanting in any point either of Fidelity or Care If there be fewer persons here described then the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise and less said concerning some of them then the Reader does expect he will I presume be more just and charitable then to charge it upon me but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient Records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times As far as my mean abilities do reach and the nature of the thing will admit I have endeavoured the Readers satisfaction and though I pretend not to present him an exact Church-History of those Times yet I think I may without vanity assure him that there is scarce any material passage of Church-Antiquity of which in some of these Lives he will not find a competent and reasonable account Nor is the History of those Ages maimed and lame onely in its main limbs and parts but what is greatly to be bewailed purblind and defective in its
Gospel The Schism in the Church of Corinth and Clemens his Epistle to that Church An enquiry into the time when that Epistle was written The Persecution under Trajan His proceeding against the Heteriae A short relation of S. Clemens his troubles out of Simeon Metaphrastes His banishment to Cherson Damnatio ad Metalla what The great success of his Ministry in the place of his exile S. Clemens his Martyrdom and the kind of it The anniversary miracle reported on the day of his solemnity The time of his Martyrdom His genuine Writings His Epistle to the Corinthians the commendations given of it by the Ancients It s Stile and Character The great modesty and humility that appears in it The fragment of his second Epistle Supposititious Writings The Recognitions their several titles and different editions Their Antiquity what A conjecture concerning the Author of them The censures of the Ancients concerning the corrupting of them considered The Epistle to S. James Pag. 77. The Life of S. SIMEON Bishop of Jerusalem The heedless confounding him with others of the like name His Parents and near Relation to our Saviour The time of his Birth His strict Education and way of Life The Order and Institution of the Rechabites what His conversion to Christianity The great care about a Successor to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem Simeon chosen to that place when and why The causes of the destruction of the Jewish state The original and progress of those Wars briefly related The miserable state of Jerusalem by Siege Pestilence and Famine Jerusalem stormed The burning of the Temple and the rage of the Fire The number of the Slain and Captives The just accomplishment of our Lords predictions The many Prodigies portending this destruction The Christians forewarned to depart before Jerusalem was shut up Their withdrawment to Pella The admirable care of the Divine Providence over them Their return back to Jerusalem when The flourishing condition of the Christian Church there The occasion of S. Simeons Martyrdom The infinite jealousie of the Roman Emperours concerning the line of David Simeons apprehension and crucifixion His singular torments and patience His great age and the time of his death Pag. 89. The Life of S. IGNATIUS Bishop of Antioch His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of Martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them Pag. 99. The Life of S. POLYCARP Bishop of Smyrna The place of his Nativity The honour and eminency of Smyrna His education under S. John By him constituted Bishop of Smyrna Whether the same with the Bishop to whom S. John committed the young man S. Polycarp the Angel of the Church of Smyrna mentioned in the Apocalyps Ignatius his arrival at Smyrna His Letters to that Church and to S. Polycarp His Journey to Rome about the Quartodeciman Controversie The time of it enquired into Anicetus his succession to the See of Rome His reception there by Anicetus Their mutual kindness notwithstanding the difference His stout opposing Heretics at Rome His sharp treatment of Marcion and mighty zeal against those early corrupters of the Christian Doctrine Irenaeus his particular remarques of S. Polycarps actions The Persecution under M. Antoninus The time of Polycarps Martyrdom noted The acts of it written by the Church of Smyrna their great esteem and value S. Polycarp sought for His Martyrdom foretold by a dream His apprehension and being conducted to Smyrna Irenarchae who Polycarps rude treatment by Herodes His being brought before the Proconsul Christians refused to swear by the Emperours genius and why His pious and resolute answers His slighting the Proconsuls threatnings His sentence proclaimed Asiarchae who Preparation for his burning His Prayer before his death Miraculously preserved in the fire Dispatched with a Sword The care of the Christians about his Remains this far from a superstitious veneration Their annual meeting at the place of his Martyrdom His great Age at his death The day of his Passion His Tomb how honoured at this day The judgments happening to Smyrna after his death The Faith and Patience of the Primitive Christians noted out of the Preface to the Acts of his Martyrdom His Epistle to the Philippians It s usefulness Highly valued and publicly read in the ancient Church The Epistle it self Pag. 111. The Life of S. QUADRATUS Bishop of Athens His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of Miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Aadrian Aadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Aadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial Pag. 131. The Life of S. JUSTIN the Martyr His vicinity to the Apostolic times His Birth-place and Kindred His Studies His Travels into Egypt To what Sect of Philosophy he applied himself The occasion and manner of his strange conversion to Christianity related by himself Christianity the onely safe and
Church This was done at his Baptism when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him and God by an audible voice testified of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Accordingly he set himself to declare the Counsels of God Going about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom He particularly explained the Moral Law and restored it to its just authority and dominion over the minds of men redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which the Masters of the Jewish Church had put upon it He next insinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic Oeconomy to which he was sent to put a period to enlarge the bounds of salvation and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy that he came as a Mediator between God and Man to reconcile the World to the favour of Heaven by his death and sufferings and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to all that by an hearty belief a sincere repentance and an holy life were willing to embrace and entertain it This was the sum of the doctrin which he preached every where as opportunity and occasion led him and which he did not impose upon the World meerly upon the account of his own authority and power or beg a precarious entertainment of it he did not tell men they must believe him because he said he came from God and had his Warrant and Commission to instruct and reform the World but gave them the most satisfactory and convictive evidence by doing such miracles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of Art or Nature whereby he unanswerably demonstrated that he was a Teacher come from God in that no man could do those miracles which he did except God were with him And because he himself was in a little time to return back to Heaven he ordained twelve whom he called Apostles as his immediate Delegates and Vicegerents to whom he deputed his authority and power furnished them with miraculous gifts and left them to carry on that excellent Religion which he himself had begun to whose assistance he joined LXX Disciples as ordinary coadjutors and companions to them Their Commission for the present was limited to Palestin and they sent out onely to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel III. HOW great the success of our Saviours Ministry was may be guessed from that complaint of the Pharisees John 12.19 Behold the World is gone after him people from all parts in such vast multitudes flocking after him that they gave him not time for necessary solitude and retirement Indeed he went about doing good preaching the word throughout all Judaea and healing all that were possessed of the Devil The seat of his ordinary abode was Galilee residing for the most part says one of the Ancients a â—â—seb Demonstrat Evang. l. 9. p. 439. in Galilee of the Gentiles that he might there sow and reap the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles We usually find him preaching at Nazareth at Cana at Corazin and Bethsaida and the Cities about the Sea of Tiberias but especially at Capernaum the Metropolis of the Province a place of great commerce and traffique He often visited Judaea and the parts about Jerusalem whither he was wont to go up at the Paschal solemnities and some of the greater festivals that so the general concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net and to communicate and impart his doctrine to them Nor did he who was to be a common Saviour and came to break down the Partition-wall disdain to converse with the Samaritans so contemptible and hateful to the Jews In Sychar not far from Samaria he freely preached and gained most of the inhabitants of that City to be Proselytes to his doctrine He travelled up and down the Towns and Villages of Caesarea Philippi and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis and where he could not come the renown of him spread it self bringing him Disciples and Followers from all quarters Indeed his fame went throughout all Syria and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee Judaea Decapolis Idumaea from beyond Jordan and from Tyre and Sidon Nay might we believe the story so solemnly reported by Eusebius a H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 13. p. 31. and the Ancients and excepting the silence of the Evangelical Historians who recorded onely some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour I know no wise argument against it Acbarus Prince of Edessa beyond Euphrates having heard of the fame of our Saviours miracles by Letters humbly besought him to come over to him whose Letter together with our Lords answer are extant in Eusebius there being nothing in the Letters themselves that may justly shake their credit and authority with much more to this purpose transcribed as he tells us out of the Records of that City and by him translated out of Syriac into Greek which may give us some account why none of the Ancients before him make any mention of this affair being generally strangers to the Language the Customs and Antiquities of those Eastern Countries IV. OUR Lord having spent somewhat more then three years in the public exercise of his Ministry kept his last Passover with his Apostles which done he instituted the Sacramental Supper consigning it to his Church as the standing memorial of his death and the Seal of the Evangelical Covenant as he appointed Baptism to be the Foederal Rite of Initiation and the public Tessera or Badge of those that should profess his Religion And now the fatal hour was at hand being betrayed by the treachery of one of his own Apostles he was apprehended by the Officers and brought before the public Tribunals Heavy were the crimes charged upon him but as false as spightful the two main Articles of the Charge were Blasphemy against God and Treason against the Emperour and though they were not able to make them good by any tolerable pretence of proof yet did they condemn and execute him upon the Cross several of themselves vindicating his innocency that he was a righteous man and the Son of God The third day after his interment he rose again appeared to and conversed with his Disciples and Followers and having taken care of the affairs of his Church given a larger Commission and fuller instructions to his Apostles he took his leave of them and visibly ascended into Heaven and sate down on the right hand of God as head over all things to the Church Angels Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him V. THE faith of these passages concerning our Saviour are not onely secured to us by the report of the Evangelical Historians and that justified by eye-witnesses the evidence of miracles and the successive and uncontrolled consent of all Ages of the Church but as to the substance
of them by the plain confession of Heathen Writers and the enemies of Christianity a Annal. l. 15. c. 44. p. 319. Tacitus tells us That the Author of this Religion was Christ who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilat the Procurator of Judaea whereby though this detestable Superstition was suppressed for the present yet did it break out again spreading it self not onely through Judaea the fountain of the mischief but in the very City of Rome it self where whatever is wicked and shameful meets together and is greedily advanced into reputation b H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 2. p. 40. vid. Oros adv Pag. l. 7. c. 4. fol. 293. Eusebius assures us that after our Lords Ascension Pilat according to custom sent an account of him to the Emperour which Tiberius brought before the Senate but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them it being a fundamental Law of the Roman State that no new god could be taken in without the Decree of the Senate but that however Tiberius continued his good thoughts of Christ and kindness to the Christians For this he cites the testimony of Tertullian who in his c Apolog. c. 5. p. 6. c. 21. p. 20. Apology presented to the Roman Powers affirms that Tiberius in whose time the Christian Religion entered into the World having received an account from Pilat out of Palestin in Syria concerning the truth of that Divinity that was there brought it to the Senate with the Prerogative of his own vote but that the Senate because they had not before approved of it would not admit it however the Emperour continued of the same mind and threatned punishment to them that accused the Christians And before Tertullian Justin Martyr d Apolog. II. p. 76. speaking concerning the death and sufferings of our Saviour tells the Emperours that they might satisfie themselves in the truth of these things from the Acts written under Pontius Pilat It being customary not only at Rome to keep the Acts of the Senate and the People but for the Governors of Provinces to keep account of what memorable things happened in their Government the Acts whereof they transmitted to the Emperour And thus did Pilat during the Procuratorship of his Province How long these Acts remained in being I know not but in the controversie about Easter we find the Quartodecimans e Ap. Epiph. Haeres L. p. 182. justifying the day on which they observed it from the Acts of Pilat wherein they gloried that they had found the truth Whether these were the Acts of Pilat to which Justin appealed or rather those Acts of Pilat drawn up and published by the command of f Eâ—seb H. Eccl. l. 9. c. 5. p. 350. Maximinus Dioclesians successor in disparagement of our Lord and his Religion is uncertain but the latter of the two far more probable However Pilats Letter to Tiberius or as he is there called Claudis at this day extant in the Anacephalaeosis g Ad calcem â— de Excid uâ—b Hicros p. 683. of the younger Egesippus is of no great credit though that Author challenges greater antiquity then some allow him being probably contemporary with S. Ambrose and by many from the great conformity of stile and phrase thought to be S. Ambrose himself who with some few additions compiled it out of Josephus But then it is to be considered whether that Anacephalaeosis be done by the same or which is most probable by a much later hand Some other particular passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by Gentile Writers the appearance of the Star by Calcidius the murder of the Infants by Macrobius the Eclips at our Saviours Passion by Phlegon Trallianus not to speak of his miracles frequently acknowledged by Celsus Julian and Porphyry which I shall not insist upon VI. IMMEDIATELY after our Lords Ascension from whence we date the next period of the Church the Apostles began to execute the Powers intrusted with them They presently filled up Judas his vacancy by the election of a new Apostle the lot falling upon Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles Being next endued with power from on high as our Lord had promised them furnished with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse and to the faces of their greatest enemies They who but a while before fled at the first approach of danger now boldly plead the cause of their crucified Master with the immediate hazard of their lives And that nothing might interrupt them in this imployment they instituted the Office of Deacons who might attend the inferiour Services of the Church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessary to the good of souls By which prudent course Religion got ground apace and innumerable Converts were daily added to the Faith till a Persecution arising upon S. Stephen's Martyrdom banished the Church out of Jerusalem though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the neighbour Countries The Apostles notwithstanding the rage of the Persecution remained still at Jerusalem onely now and then dispatching some few of their number to confirm and setle the Plantations and to propagate the Faith as the necessities of the Church required And thus they continued for near twelve years together our Lord himself having commanded them not to depart Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts till twelve years after his Ascension as the ancient Tradition mentioned both by a Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. p. 186. Apollonius and b Stromat l. 6. p. 636. vid. Life of S. Peter Sect. 11. num 5. Clemens Alexandrinus informs us And now they thought it high time to apply themselves to the full execution of that Commission which Christ had given them to go teach and baptize all Nations Accordingly having setled the general affairs and concernments of the Church they betook themselves to the several Provinces of the Gentile World preaching the Gospel to every Nation under Heaven so that even in a literal sense their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World Infinite multitudes of people in all Cities and Countries says c Lib. 2. c. 3. p. 4â— Eusebius like Corn into a well-filled Granary being brought in by that grace of God that brings salvation And they whose minds were heretofore distempered and over-run with the errour and idolatry of their Ancestors were cured by the Sermons and Miracles of our Lords Disciples and shaking off those chains of Darkness and Slavery which the merciless Daemons had put upon them freely embraced and entertained the knowledge and service of the onely true God the great Creator of the World whom they worshiped according to the holy Rites and Rules of that divine and wisely contrived
and fellow-Pupil with St. Paul who proved afterwards his mortal enemy but I must confess I find not in all that Epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance that conjecture Antiquity * Epiph. Haerâ—â— XX. p. 27. Doroth Synops de Vit. App. in Bibl. PP Tom. 3. p. makes him probably enough to have been one of the LXX Disciples chosen by our Lord as Co-adjutors to the Apostles in the Ministry of the Gospel and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Christian Doctrine his singular ability to defend the cause of Christs Messiaship against its most acute opposers plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviours immediate institutions Certain it is that he was a man of great zeal and piety endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spirit that was lately shed upon the Church and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the Church whereto he was advanced upon this occasion III. THE Primitive Church among the many instances of Religion for which it was famous and venerable was for none more remarkable then their Charity they lived and loved as Brethren were of one heart and one soul and continued together with one accord Love and Charity were the common soul that animated the whole body of Believers and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part They prayed and worshipped God in the same place and fed together at the same table None could want for they had all in common The rich sold their estates to minister to the necessiâ—ies of the poor and deposited the money into one common Treasury the care whereof was committed to the Apostles to see distribution made as every ones case and exigency did require But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord heaven onely is free from quarrels and the occasions of offence The Church increasing every day by vast numbers of Converts to the Faith the Apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the Churches stock and the making provision for every part and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others sometimes more and sometimes less to assist in this affair By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed but either through favour and partiality or the oversight of those that managed the matter some had larger portions others less relief then their just necessities called for This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest Church that ever was Act. 6.1 the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews because their Widows were neglected in the daily ministration IV. WHO these Grecians or Hellenists were opposed here to the Hebrews however a matter of some difficulty and dispute it may not be unuseful to enquire The opinion that has most generally obtained is that they were originally Jews born and bred in Grecian or Heathen Countries Joh. 7.35 of the dispersed among the Gentiles the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the stile of the New Testament as also in the Writings of the Fathers being commonly used for the Gentile World who accommodated themselves to their manner of living spake the Greek Language but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech and this called Lingua Hellenistica and used no other Bible but the Greek Translation of the Septuagint Comment de Hellenist Qu. 1 2 3 4 5. praecipue pag. 232. c. vid. etiam inter alios Bez. Camer in loc A notion which Salmasius has taken a great deal of pains to confute by shewing that never any People went under that notion and character that the Jews in what parts of the World soever they were were not a distinct Nation from those that lived in Palestine that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic Dialect nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient Writer that the Phrase is very improper to express such a mixt Language yea rather that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinary as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek Probable therefore it is that they were not of the Hebrew race but Greek or Gentile Proselytes who had either themselves or in their Ancestors deserted the Pagan Superstitions and imbodied themselves into the Jewish Church taking upon them Circumcision and the observation of the Rites of the Mosaic Laws which kind the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of Justice and were now converted to Christianity That there were at this time great numbers of these Proselytes at Jerusalem is evident and strange it were if when at other times they were desirous to have the Gospel preached to them none of them should have been brought over to the Faith Even among the seven made choice of to be Deacons most if not all of whom we may reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians we find one expresly said to have been a Proselyte of Antioch as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be Proselytes of Jerusalem And thus where ever we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Grecians in the History of the Apostolic Acts as 't is to be met with in two places more we may Act. 9.29.11.20 and in reason are to understand it So that these Hellenists who spake Greek and used the Translation of the LXX were Jews by Religion and Gentiles by descent with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentiles they had the same common Original with the Jews the same common Profession and therefore are not here opposed to Jews which all those might be stiled who embrace Judaism and the Rites of Moses though they were not born of Jewish Ancestors but to the Hebrews who were Jews both by their Religion and their Nation And this may give us some probable account why the Widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews the persons with whom the Apostles in a great measure intrusted the ministration being kinder to those of their own Nation their Neighbours and it may be Kindred then to those who onely agreed with them in the profession of the same Religion and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the Churches Stock as the native Jews who had Lands and Possessions which they sold and laid at the Apostles feet V. THE peace and quiet of the Church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed the Apostles who well understood how much Order and Unity conduced to the ends of Religion presently called the Church together and told them that the disposing of the Common Stock and the daily providing for the necessities of the Poor however convenient and necessary was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other
whereof Possidius who wrote S. Augustins Life was Bishop was by the same means cured of the Stone which he had a long time been afflicted with and afterwards recovered of another distemper when he had been given over for dead Martialis an ancient Gentleman in that place of great note and rank but a Pagan and highly prejudiced against the Christian Faith had been often in vain sollicited by his Daughter and her Husband both Christians to turn Christian especially in his sickness but still resented the motion with indignation His Son-in-law went to the place dedicated to S. Stephens Martyrdom and there with prayers and tears passionately begged of God his Conversion Departing he took some Flowers thence with him which at night he put under his Fathers head who slept well and in the morning called for the Bishop in whose absence for he was at that time with S. Augustin at Hippo the Presbyters were sent for at whose coming he acknowledged himself a Christian and to the joy and and admiration of all was immediately baptized As long as he lived he often had these words in his mouth and they were the last words that he spake for he died not long after O Christ receive my spirit though utterly ignorant that it was the Protomartyrs dying speech XXIX MANY passages of like nature he relates done at his own See at Hippo and this among the rest Ten children of eminency at Caesarea in Cappadocia all the children of one man had for some notorious misdemeanour after their Fathers death been cursed by their Mother whereupon they were all seized with a continual trembling and shaking in all parts of their body Two of these Paulus and Palladia came over into Afric and dwelt at Hippo notoriously known to the whole City They arrived fifteen days before Easter where they frequented the Church especially the place dedicated to the Martyrdom of S. Stephen every day praying that God would forgive them and restore them to their health Upon Easter-day the Young man praying as he was wont at the accustomed place suddenly dropt down and lay like one asleep but without any trembling and awaking found himself perfectly restored to health who was thereupon with the joyful acclamations of the People brought to S. Augustin who kindly received him and after the public devotions were over treated him at Dinner where he had the whole account of the misery that befel him The day after when the narrative of his Cure was to be recited to the People his sister also was healed in the same manner and at the same place the particular circumstances of both which S. Augustin relates more at large XXX WHAT the judicious and unprejudiced Reader will think of these and more the like instances there reported by this good Father I know not or whether he will not think it reasonable to believe that God might suffer these strange and miraculous cures to be wrought in a place where multitudes yet persisted in their Gentilism and infidelity Vid. Aug. loc cit initio cap. and who made this one great objection against the Christian Faith that whatever miracles might be heretofore pretended for the confirmation of Christian Religion yet that now they were ceased when yet they were still necessary to induce the World to the belief of Christianity Certain it is that nothing was done herein but what did very well consist with the wisdom and the goodness of God who as he is never wont to be prodigal in multiplying the effects of his omnipotent power beyond a just necessity so is never wanting to afford all necessary evidences and methods of conviction That therefore the unbelieving World who made this the great refuge of their infidelity might see that his arm was not grown effoete and weak that he had not left the Christian Religion wholly destitute of immediate and miraculous attestations he was pleased to exert these extraordinary powers that he might baffle their unbelief and silence their objections against the divinity of the Christian Faith And for this reason God never totally withdrew the power of working Miracles from the Church till the World was in a manner wholly subdued to the faith of Christ And then he left it to be conducted by more humane and regular ways and to preserve its Authority over the minds of men by those standing and innate characters of Divinity which he has impressed upon it 'T is true that the Church of Rome still pretends to this power which it endeavours to justifie by appealing to these and such like instances But in vain and to no purpose the pretended miracles of that Church being generally trifling and ludicrous far beneath that gravity and seriousness that should work upon a wise and considering mind the manner of their operation obscure and ambiguous their numbers excessive and immoderate the occasions of them light and frivolous and after all the things themselves for the most part false and the reports very often so monstrous and extravagant as would choke any sober and rational belief so that a man must himself become the greatest miracle that believes them I shall observe no more then that in all these cases related by S. Augustin we never find that they invocated or prayed to the Martyr nor begged to be healed by his merits or intercession but immediately directed their addresses to God himself THE LIFE OF S. PHILIP THE DEACON and EVANGELIST Mic. Burghers sulpsit Sect. 8.38 He comanded the Charet to stand still and they went downe both into the water both PHILLIP and the EVNVCH and he baptized him His Birth-place The confounding him with S. Philip the Apostle His election to the Office of a Deacon The dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem Philips preaching at Samaria Inveterate prejudices between the Samaritans and the Jews The great success of S. Philips Ministry The Impostures of Simon Magus and his embracing Christianity The Christians at Samaria confirmed by Peter and John Philip sent to Gaza His meeting with the Aethiopian Eunuch What Aethiopia here meant Candace who The Custom of retaining Eunuchs in the Courts of the Eastern Princes This Eunuch who His Office His Religion and great piety His Conversion and Baptism by S. Philip. The place where he was baptized The Eunuchs return and propagating Christianity in his own Country Philips journey to Caesarea and fixing his abode there His four daughters Virgin-Prophetesses His death I. Epist l. 1. Ep. 449. ad Annoch p. 95. S PHILLIP was born as Isidore the Peleusiot plainly intimates at Caesarea a famous Port-Town between Joppa and Ptolemais in the Province of Samaria but whether he had any other warraâ—◠〈◊〉 it then his own conjecture I know 〈…〉 being some circumstances however that 〈…〉 probable He has been by some both 〈◊〉 and of later times for want of a due regard to things and persons carelesly confounded with S. Philip the Aposile A mistake of very ancient date and which seems to have
been embraced by some of the most early Writers of the Church But whoever considers that the one was an Apostle and one of the Twelve the other a Deacon onely and one of the Seven chosen out of the People and set apart by the Apostles that they themselves might attend the more immediate Ministeries of their Office that the one was dispersed up and down the Countrey while the other remained with the Apostolical Colledge at Jerusalem that the one though commissionated to Preach and to Baptize could not impart the Holy Ghost the peculiar prerogative of the Apostolical Office will see just reason to force him to acknowledge a vast difference between them Our S. Philip was one of the Seventy Disciples and S. Stephens next Colleague in the Deacons Office erected for the conveniency of the Poor and assisting the Apostles in some inferiour Services and Ministrations which shews him to have been a person of great esteem and reputation in the Church endowed with miraculous powers full of Wisdom and of the Holy Ghost which were the qualifications required by the Apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place In the discharge of this Ministery he continued at Jerusalem for some moneths after his election till the Church being scattered up and down he was forced to quit his station as what wonder if the Stewards be dismissed when the Houshold is broken up II. THE Protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his Enemies but the bloudy Cloud did not so blow over but increased into a blacker tempest Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough like the temper of the Devil whose malice is insatiable and eternal Stephens death would not suffice the whole Church is now shot at and they resolve if possible to extirpate the Religion it self The great Engineer in this Persecution was Saul whose active and fiery genius and passionate concern for the Traditions of the Fathers made him pursue the design with the Spirit of a Zealot and the rage of a Mad-man Having furnished himself with a Commission from the Sanhedrim he quickly put it in execution broke open Houses seized whoever he met with that looked but like a Disciple of the crucified Jesus and without any regard to Sex or Age beat and haled them unto prison plucking the Husband from the bosom of his Wife and the Mother from the embraces of her Children blaspheming God prosecuting and being injurious unto men breathing out nothing but slaughter and threatnings where-ever he came H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 39. whence Eusebius calls it the first and most grievous Persecution of the Church The Church by this means was forced to retire the Apostles onely remaining privately at Jerusalem that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the Church while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring Countries publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel and declaring the nature and design of it in all places where they came so that what their Enemies intended as the way to ruine them by breaking the knot of their Fellowship and Society proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity Thus excellent perfumes while kept close in a box few are the better for them whereas being once whether casually or maliciously spilt upon the ground the fragrant scent presently fills all corners of the house III. AMONG them that were thus dispersed was our Evangelist so stiled not from his Writing but preaching of the Gospel He directed his journey towards the Province of Samaria and came into a City of Samaria as those words may be read probably Gitton the birth-place of Simon Magus though it's safest to understand it of Samaria it self This was the Metropolis of the Province had been for some Ages the Royal Seat of the Kings of Israel but being utterly destroyed by Hyrcanus had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great and in honour of Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him stiled Sebaste The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles made up of the remains that were left of the Ten Tribes which were carried away captive and those Heathen Colonies which the King of Babylon brought into their room and their Religion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan Rites though so highly prized and valued by them that they made no scruple to dispute place and to vie with the Worship of the Temple at Jerusalem Upon this account there had been an ancient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other Joh. 4.9 Hence the Samaritan Woman wondred that our Lord being a Jew should ask drink of her who was a Woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans They despised them at the rate of Heathens devoted them under the most solemn execrations allowed them not to become Proselytes nor to have any Portion in the Resurrection of the Just suffered not an Israelite to eat with them no nor to say Amen to their Blessing nor did they think they could fasten upon our Saviour a greater Character of reproach then to say that he was a Samaritan and had a Devil But God regards not the prejudices of men nor always with-holds his kindness from them whom we are ready to banish the Lines of Love and Friendship 'T is true the Apostles at their first mission were charged not to go in the way of the Gentiles Matth. 1◠5 nor to enter into any City of the Samaritans But when Christ by his death had broken down the partition wall Eph. 2.14 15. seq and abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances then the Gospel came and preached peace as well to them that were afar off as to them that were nigh Philip therefore freely preached the Gospel to these Samaritans so odious so distastful to the Jews to which he effectually prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles which being arguments fitted to the capacities and accommodate to the senses of the meanest do easiliest convey the truth into the minds of men And the success here was accordingly the people generally embracing the Christian Doctrine while they beheld him curing all manner of diseases and powerfully dispossessing daemons who with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence to the equal joy and wonder of that place IV. IN this City was one Simon born at a Town not far off who by Sorcery and Magic Arts had strangely insinuated himself into the reverence and veneration of the People A man crafty and ambitious daring and insolent whose Diabolical sophistries and devices had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the Vulgar that they really thought him and for such no doubt he gave out himself to be the supreme Divinity probably magnifying himself as that divine Power that was to visit the Jews
finibus from the farthest corners of the World The Countrey is sometimes stiled Cusch probably from a mixture of the Arabians who inhabiting on the other side of the Red Sea might send over Colonies hither who setling in these parts communicated the names of Cush and Sabaea to them The manners of the People were very rude and barbarous and the People themselves especially to the Jews contemptible even to a Proverb Amos 9.7 Are ye not as the children of the Aethiopians unto me O children of Israel saith the Lord nay the very meeting an Aethiopian was accounted an ill omen and an unlucky prognostication But no Country is a Bar to Heaven the grace of God that brings salvation plucks up the enclosures and appears to all so that in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him VIII BUT we cannot reasonably suppose that it should be meant of Aethiopia at large especially as parallel at this day with the Abyssine Empire but rather of that part of the Countrey whose Metropolis was called Meroe and Saba as 't is called both by b Antiq. Jud. l. 2. c. 5. p. 58. Josephus and the Abyssines themselves at this day situate in a large Island encompassed by the Nile and the Rivers of Astapus and Astoborra as Josephus informs us for about these parts it was as c Hist Nat. l. 6. c. 29. p. 105. Pliny tells us that Queens had a long time governed under the title of Candace a custom as we find in Strabo first commencing in the time of Augustus when a Queen of that name having for her incomparable Vertues been dear to the People her successors in honour of her took the title of Candace in the same sense that Ptolomy was the common name of the Kings of Egypt Artaxerxes of the Kings of Persia and Caesar of the Roman Emperours Indeed Oecumenius was of opinion that Candace was onely the common name of the Queen-mothers of Aethiopia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumen Comment in Act. VIII p. 82. that Nation not giving the name of Fathers to their Kings as acknowledging the Sun onely for their Common Father and their Princes the Sons of that common Parent But in this I think he stands alone and contradicts the general Vote and Suffrage of the Ancients which affirms this Nation to have been subject to Women sure I am d H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 40. Eusebius expresly says 't was the custom of this Countrey to be governed by Queens even in his time The name of the present Queen they say was Lacasa daughter of King Baazena and that she outlived the death of our Saviour four Years IX Among the great Officers of her Court she had one if not more Eunuch probably to avoid suspicion it being the fashion of those Eastern Countries as it still is at this day to imploy Eunuchs in places of great trust and honour and especially of near access to and attendance upon Queens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod lib. 8. Auctor Sinnaces insigni familia ac perinde opibus proxime hale Abdus ademptae virilitatis non despectum id apud barbaros ultroque potentiam habet Tacit. Ann. l. 6. c. 31. p. 182. For however among us the very name sounds vile and contemptible yet in those Countries 't is otherwise among the Barbarians says Herodotus that is the Eastern People Eunuchs are persons of the greatest esteem and value Our Eunuchs name as we find it in the Confession made by e Extat ad Bzov. Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. 1524. â— XXXII p. 543. Zaga Zabo Embassador from the Aethiopian Emperour was Indich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a potent Courtier an Officer of State of prime Note and Quality being no less then High-Treasurer to the Queen nor do we find that Philip either at his Conversion or Baptism found fault with him for his place or greatness Certainly Magistracy is no ways inconsistent with Christianity the Church and the State may well agree and Moses and Aaron go hand in hand Peter baptized Cornelius and S. Paul Sergius the Proconsul of Cyprus into the Christian Faith and yet neither of them found any more fault with them for their places of Authority and Power then Philip did here with the Lord Treasurer of the Aethiopian Queen For his Religion he was if not a Proselyte of Justice as some think circumcised and under an obligation to observe the Rites and Precepts of the Law of Moses at least a Proselyte of the Gate in which respect it is that one of the Ancients calls him a Jew a Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. p. 11. entered already into the knowledge of the true God and was now come to Jerusalem probably at the solemnity of the Passover or the Feast of Pentecost to give publick and solemn evidences of his devotion Though an Aethiopian and many thousand miles distant from it though a great Statesman and necessarily swallowed up in a croud of business yet he came to Jerusalem for to worship No way so long so rugged and difficult no charge or interest so dear and great as to hinder a good man from minding the concernments of Religion No slender and trifling pretences no little and ordinary occasions should excuse our attendance upon places of public Worship behold here a man that thought not much to take a journey of above four thousand miles that he might appear before God in the solemn place of divine adoration the place which God had chosen above all other parts of the World to place his name there X. HAVING performed his homage and worship at the Temple he was now upon his return for his own Countrey nor had he left his Religion at Church behind him or thought it enough that he had been there but improved himself while travelling by the way even while he sate in his Chariot as b Homil. 19. in Act. p. 585. Tantus amator Legis divinaeque scientiae fuit at etiam in vâ—hiculo sacras literas legeret Hier. Epist ad Paulin. T. 3. p. 7 Chrysostom observes he read the Scriptures a good man is not willing to lose even common minutes but to redeem what time is possible for holy uses whether sitting or walking or journying our thoughts should be at work and our affections travelling towards Heaven While the Eunuch was thus imployed a Messenger is sent to him from God the best way to meet with divine communications is to be conversant in our duty By a voice from Heaven or some immediate inspiration Philip is commanded to go near the Chariot and address himself to him He did so and found him reading a Section or Paragraph of the Prophet Isaiah concerning the death and sufferings of the Messia his meek and innocent carriage under the bloody and barbarous violences of his enemies who dealt with him with all cruelty and injustice This the Eunuch not well understanding nor knowing certainly whether
betimes and the foundations of it laid in an early piety For the mind being then soft and tender is easily capable of the best impressions which by degrees insinuate themselves into it and insensibly reconcile it to the difficulties of an holy life so that what must necessarily be harsh and severe to a man that endeavours to rescue himself from an habitual course of sin the other is unacquainted with and goes on smoothly in a way that 's become pleasant and delightful None start with greater advantages nor usually persevere with a more vigorous constancy then they who remember their Creator in the days of their youth and sacrifice the first fruits of their time to God and to Religion before corrupt affections have clapt a bias upon their inclinations and a train of vices depraved and in great measure laid asleep the natural notions of good and evil II. PREPARED by so excellent a culture in the Jewish Religion God was pleased to transplant him into a better soil S. Paul in pursuance of his Commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles had come as far as Antioch in Pisidia thence to Iconium and so to Lystra where the miraculous cure of an impotent Cripple made way for the entertainment of the Christian Doctrin Among others there converted we are a S. Mâ—tâ—â—â—â— de S. Timoth. â—p Sur. ad Jan 24. n. â— 1. p 4â—1 told were S. Timothies Parents who courteously treated and entertained the Apostle at their house wholly resigning up their Son to his care and conduct About two years after in his review of these late Plantations he came again to Lystra where he made choice of Timothy Act. 16.1 2 3. recommended to him by the universal testimony of the Christians thereabouts as an Evangelist to be his assistant and the companion of his travels that he might have somebody always with him with whom he could intrust matters of importance and whom he might dispatch upon any extraordinary affair and exigence of the Church Indeed Timothy was not circumcised for this being a branch of the Paternal Authority did not lie in his mothers power this was notoriously known to all the Jews and this S. Paul knew would be a mighty prejudice to his Ministry where ever he came For the Jews being infinitely zealous for Circumcision would not with any tolerable patience endure any man to preach to them or so much as to converse with them who was himself uncircumcised That this obstacle therefore might be removed he caused him to be circumcised becoming in lawful matters all things to all men that he might gain the more Admirable says b Homil. XXXIV in Act. App p. 〈◊〉 Chrysostom the wisdom and prudence of S. Paul who had this design in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he circumcised him that he might take away Circumcision that is be the more acceptable to the Jews and by that means the more capable to undeceive them in their opinion of the necessity of those legal Rites At other times we find him smartly contending against Circumcision as a justification of the Mosaic Institutions and a virtual undermining the great ends of Christianity Nor did he in this instance contradict his own Doctrin or unwarrantably symbolize with the Jews it being onely as c Strâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 7. pag. 〈◊〉 Clemens of Alexandria observes concerning this passage a prudent condescension to the present humour of the Jews whom he was unwilling to disoblige and make them wholly fly off by a too sudden and violent rending them from the circumcision in the flesh to bring them over to the circumcision of the heart So that he who thus accommodates himself for the salvation of another can no ways be charged with dissimulation and hypocrisie seeing he does that purely for the advantage of others which he would not do for any other reason or upon account of the things themselves this being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the part of a wise and kind Instructer who is a true lover of God and the souls of men III. S. PAVL thus fitted with a meet companion forwards they set in their Evangelical Progress and having passed through Phrygia and Galatia came down to Troas thence they set sail for Samothracia and so to Neapolis whence they passed to Philippi the Metropolis of that part of Macedonia where being evil intreated by the Magistrates and People they departed to Thessalonica whence the sury and malice of the Jews made them fly to Beraea Here they met with people of a more generous and manly temper ready to embrace the Christian Doctrin but yet not till they had first compared it with the predictions which the Prophets had made concerning the Messiah But even here they could not escape the implacable spirit of the Jews so that the Christians were forced privately to conduct S. Paul to Athens while Silas and Timothy not so much the immediate objects of their spight and cruelty staid behind to instruct and confirm the Converts of that place Whether they came to him during his stay at Athens is uncertain S. Luke takes no farther notice of them till their coming to him at Corinth his next remove 1 Thess 3.1 2 3. Where at their first arrival if it was not at Athens S. Paul dispatched away Timothy to Thessalonica to enquire into the state of Christianity in that City and to confirm them in the belief and profession of the Gospel 2. v. 17 18 19. for he seems to have had a more peculiar kindness for that Church having since his last being there more then once resolved himself to go back to them but that the great Enemy of Souls had still thrown some rub in the way to hinder him IV. 1 Thess 3.6 7 seqq FROM Thessalonica Timothy returned with the welcom news of their firmness and constancy notwithstanding the persecutions they endured their mutual charity to each other and particular affection to S. Paul news wherewith the good man was infinitely pleased As certainly nothing can minister greater joy and satisfaction to a faithful Guide of Souls then to behold the welfare and prosperity of his People Nor did his care of them end here but he presently writes his first Epistle to them to animate them under their sufferings and not to desert the Christian Religion because the Cross did attend it but rather to adorn their Christian Profession by a life answerable to the holy designs and precepts of it In the front of this Epistle he inserted not onely his own name but also those of Silas and Timothy partly to reflect the greater honour upon his fellow-workers partly that their united authority and consent might have the stronger influence and force upon them The like he did in a second Epistle which not long after he sent to them to supply the want of his personal presence whereof in his former he had given them some hopes and which he himself seemed so passionately to desire Eighteen months
and their false doctrines let us return to that doctrine that from the beginning was delivered to us let us be watchful in Prayers persevering in Fasting and Supplications beseeching the All-seeing God that he would not lead us into temptation Matt. 26.41 as the Lord has said the Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Let us unweariedly and constantly adhere to Jesus Christ who is our hope and the pledge of our righteousness 1 Pet. 2.22 24. who bare our sins in his own body on the Tree who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth but endured all things for our sakes that we might live through him Let us then imitate his patience and if we suffer for his Name we glorifie him for such a pattern he set us in himself and this we have believed and entertained VI. I exhort you therefore all that ye be obedient to the word of righteousness and that you exercise all manner of patience as you have seen it set forth before your eyes not onely in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus but in others also among you and in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles being assured that all these have not run in vain but in faith and righteousness and are arrived at the place due and promised to them by the Lord of whose sufferings they were made partakers For they loved not this present world but him who both died and was raised up again by God for us Stand fast therefore in these things and follow the example of the Lord being firm and immutable in the faith lovers of the brethren and kindly affectionate one towards another united in the truth carrying your selves meekly to each other despising no man When it is in your power to do good defer it not for Alms delivereth from death Be all of you subject one to another having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that both you your selves may receive praise by your good works and that God be not blasphemed through you For wo unto him by whom the Name of the Lord is blasphemed Wherefore teach all men sobriety and be your selves conversant in it VII I am exceedingly troubled for Valens who was sometimes ordained a Presbyter among you that he so little understands the place wherein he was set I therefore warn you that you abstain from covetousness and that ye be chast and true Keep your selves from every evil work But he that in these things cannot govern himself how shall he preach it to another If a man refrain not from covetousness he will be defiled with Idolatry and shall be judged among the Heathen 1 Cor. 6.2 Who is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World as Paul teaches But I have neither found any such thing in you nor heard any such thing of you among whom the blessed Paul laboured and who are in the beginning of his Epistle For of you he boasts in all those Churches which onely knew God at that time whom as yet we had not known I am therefore Brethren greatly troubled for him and for his Wife the Lord give them true repentance Be ye also sober as to this matter and account not such as enemies but restore them as weak and erring members that the whole body of you may be saved for in so doing ye build up your selves VIII I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures and that nothing is hid from you a thing as yet not granted to me As it is said in these places be angry and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Blessed is he that is mindful of these things which I believe you are The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus the eternal High-priest and Son of God build you up in faith and truth and in all meekness that you may be without anger in patience forbearance long-suffering and chastity and give you a portion and inheritance amongst his Saints and to us together with you and to all under Heaven who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead Pray for all Saints Pray also for Kings Magistrates and Princes and even for them that hate and persecute you and for the Enemies of the Cross that your fruit may be manifest in all that you may be compleat in him IX YE wrote unto me both ye and Ignatius that if any one go into Syria he might carry your Letters along with him which I will do so soon as I shall have a convenient opportunity either my self or by some other whom I will send upon your errand According to your request we have sent you those Epistles of Ignatius which he wrote to us and as many others of his as we had by us which are annexed to this Epistle by which ye may be greatly profited For they contain in them faith and patience and whatever else is necessary to build you up in our Lord. Send us word what you certainly know both concerning Ignatius himself and his companions These things have I written unto you by Crescens whom I have hitherto commended to you and do still recommend For he has unblamably conversed among us as also I believe amongst you His sister also ye shall have recommended when she shall come unto you Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with you all Amen The End of S. POLYCARP'S Life THE LIFE OF S. QUADRATUS BISHOP of ATHENS Michael Burghers Dilineavit et sculpsit S. QUADRATUS His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Hadrian Hadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Hadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial I. WHETHER S. Quadratus was born at Athens no notices of Church-Antiquity enable us to determine though the thing it self be not improbable his Education and Residence there and the Government of that Church seeming to give some colour to it And as Nature had furnished him with incomparable parts
excellens ingenium as a De Script in Qâ—aâ—rat S. Hierom says of him so the place gave him mighty advantages in his education to be thoroughly trained up in the choicest parts of Learning and most excellent institutions of Philosophy upon which account the b Men. Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks truly stile him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of great Learning and Knowledge He became acquainted with the Doctrines and Principles of Christianity by being brought up under Apostolical instruction for so c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Ann. PKZâ— p. 211. Eusebius and d Hier. de Scrip. in Quadr. Epist ad Magn. Orat. Tom. 2. p. 327. S. Hierom more then once tells us that he was an Auditor and a Disciple of the Apostles which must be understood of the longer lived Apostles and particularly of S. John whose Scholar in all probability he was as were also Ignatius Polycarp Papias and others and therefore e H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. Eusebius places him among those that had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that were of the very first rank and order among the Apostles Successors There are that make him and that too constituted by S. John though I confess I know not by what Authority the Ancients being wholly silent in this matter Bishop of Philadelphia one of the seven famous Churches of Asia and at that time when S. John sent his Epistle to that Church which I pass by as a groundless and precarious assertion seeing they might with equal warrant have made him Bishop of any other place II. UNDER the Reign of Trajan as is probable though Baronius places it under Hadrian Ann. Imp. VI. f Euseb l. 4. c. 23. p. â—43 Publius Bishop of Athens suffered Martyrdom who is thought by some to have been that very Publius whom S. Paul converted in the Island Melita in his voyage to Rome and who afterwards succeeded Dionysius the Areopagite in the See of Athens To him succeeded our Quadratus as g Epist ad Aâ—â—â—â— apud Eaâ—â— loc citat Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived not long after that time informs us who found the state of that Church in a bad condition at his coming to it For upon Publius his Martyrdom and the-Persecution that attended it the people were generally dispersed and fled as what wonder if when the Shepherd is smitten the Sheep be scattered and go astray their public and solemn Assemblies were deserted their Zeal grown cold and languid their lives and manners corrupted and there wanted but little of a total apostasie from the Christian Faith This good man therefore set himself with a mighty zeal to retrive the ancient spirit of Religion he re-setled Order and Discipline brought back the People to the public Assemblies kindled and blew up their faith into an holy flame Nor did he content himself with a bare Reformation of what was amiss but with infinite diligence preached the Faith and by daily Converts enlarged the bounds of his Church so that as the a Men. Graec. ubi supr Greek Rituals express it the Sages and Wise men of Greece being convinced by his Doctrines and wise discourses embraced the Gospel and acknowledged Christ to be the Creator of the World and the great Wisdom and Power of God And in a short time reduced it to such an excellent temper that b Contr. Cels l. 3. p. 128. Origen who lived some years after demonstrating the admirable efficacy of the Christian Faith over the minds of men and its triumph over all other Religions in the World instances in this very Church of Athens for its good Order and Constitution its meekness quietness and constancy and its care to approve it self to God infinitely beyond the common Assembly at Athens which was factious and tumultuary and no way to be compared with the Christian Church in that City that the Churches of Christ when examined by the Heathen Convocations shone like Lights in the World and that every one must confess that the worst parts of the Christian Church were better then the best of their popular Assemblies that the Senators of the Church as he calls them were fit to govern in any part of the Church of God while the Vulgar Senate had nothing worthy of that honourable dignity nor were raised above the manners of the common people III. THUS excellently constituted was the Athenian Church for which it was chiefly beholden to the indefatigable industry and the prudent care and conduct of its present Bishop whose success herein was not a little advantaged by those extraordinary supernatural Powers which God had conferred upon him That he was endued with a Spirit of Prophesie of speaking suddenly upon great and emergent occasions in interpreting obscure and difficult Scriptures but especially of fore-telling future events we have the express testimonies of c H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. Eusebius affirming him to have lived at the same time with Philips Virgin-Daughters and to have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift of Prophecy and of another d Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 17. p. 183. Author much ancienter then he who confuting the errour of the Cataphryges reckons him among the Prophets who flourished under the Oeconomy of the Gospel I know a learned e Vales Annot. ad Euseb l. 4. c. 23. p. 81. man would fain persuade us that the Quadratus who had the Prophetic gifts was a person distinct from our Athenian Bishop But the grounds he proceeds upon seem to me very weak and inconcluding For whereas he says that that Quadratus is not by Eusebius stiled a Bishop who knows not that persons are not in every place mentioned under all their capacities and less need was there for it here Quadratus when first spoken of by Eusebius not being then Bishop of Athens and so not proper to be taken notice of in that capacity Nor is his other exception of greater weight that the prophetic Quadratus did not survive the times of Adrian whereas ours was in the same time with Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived under M. Antoninus and speaks of him as his contemporary and lately ordained Bishop of Athens But whoever looks into that passage of * Ap. Eâ—seb l. 4. c. 23. p. 143. Dionysius will find no foundation for such an assertion but rather the quite contrary that he speaks of him as if dead before his time as I believe any one that impartially considers the place must needs confess Not to say that S. Hierom and all after him without any scruple make them to be the same So that we may still leave him his gift of prophecy which procured him so much reverence while he lived and so much honour to his memory since his death To which may he added what the Greeks in their Menaeon not improbably say of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men. Graec. loc supr cit that he was furnished with
these more predominant then in those Times and parts of the World wherein this good man lived II. ANN. Chr. CCXXXIX Gordian Imper. I. died a Fâ—seb H. Eccl. lâ— 16. c. 29. p. 229. Zebinus Bishop of Antioch in whose room Babylas succeeded He was a stout and prudent Pilot who as S. Chrysostom b Homil. de S. Bâ—byl p. 641. Tem. 1. says of him guided the holy Vessel of that Church in the midst of Storms and Tempests and the many Waves that beat upon it Indeed in the beginning of his Presidency over that Church he met not with much trouble from the Roman Powers the old Enemies of Christianity but a fierce storm blew from another quarter For Sapor King of c Capitol in Gâ—â—â—diâ—a III. 〈◊〉 26. p. 〈◊〉 Persia had lately invaded the Roman Empire and having over-run all Syria had besieged and taken Antioch and so great a dread did his Conquests strike into all parts that the terrour of them flew into Italy and startled them even at Rome it self He grievously oppressed the People of Antioch and what treatment the Christians there must needs find under so merciless and insolent an Enemy at no time favourable to Christians is no hard matter to imagine But it was not long before God broke this yoke from off their necks For Gordian the Emperour raising a mighty Army marched into the East and having cleared the Countries as he went along came into Syria and went directly for Antioch where he totally routed the Persian Army recovered Antioch and the conquered Cities and gained some considerable places belonging to Sapor whom he forced to retire back into his own Countrey of all which he gives an account in a * Ibid. c. 27. p. 670. Letter to the Senate who joyfully received the news and decreed him a triumph at his return to Rome III. THE Church of Antioch being thus restored to its former tranquillity Babylas attended his charge with all diligence and fidelity instructing feeding and governing his Flock preparing both young and old to undergo the hardest things which their Religion might expose them to as if he had particularly foreseen that black and dismal Persecution that was shortly to overtake them Having quietly passed through the reign of Philip who was so far from creating any disturbance to the Christians that he is generally though groundlesly supposed to have been a Christian himself he fell into the troublesome and stormy times of Decius who was unexpectedly advanced and in a manner forced upon the Empire One whose character might have passed among none of the worst of Princes if he had not so indelebly stained his memory with his outragious violence against the Christians The main cause whereof the generality of Writers taking the hint from Eusebius a H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 39. p. 234. make to have been hatred to his Predecessor Philip a Christian as they account him and whom he resolved to punish in his spleen and malice against them But methinks much more probable is the account which Gregory Nyssen b De vit Greg. Thaum p. 999. Tom. 2. gives of this matter viz. the large spread and triumphant prevalency of the Christian Faith which had diffused it self over all parts and planted every corner and filled not Cities onely but Countrey Villages the Temples were forsaken and Churches frequented Altars overthrown and Sacrifices turned out of doors This vast increase of Christianity and great declension of Paganism awakened Decius to look about him he was vexed to see the Religion of the Empire trodden under foot and the worship of the gods every where slighted and neglected opposed and undermined by a novel and upstart Sect of Christians which daily multiplied into greater numbers This made him resolve with all possible force to check and control this growing Sect and to try by methods of cruelty to weary Christians out of their Profession and to reduce the People to the Religion of their Ancestors Whereupon he issued out Edicts to the Governours of Provinces strictly commanding them to proceed with all severity against Christians and to spare no manner of torments unless they returned to the obedience and worship of the gods Though I doubt not but this was the main Spring that set the rage and malice of their enemies on work yet Cyprian c Epist VII p. 16. like a man of great piety and modesty seeks a cause nearer home ingenuously confessing that their own sins had set open the Flood-gates for the divine displeasure to break in upon them while Pride and Self-seeking Schism and Faction reigned so much among them the very Martyrs themselves who should have been a good example unto others casting off the order and discipline of the Church and being swelled with so vain and immoderate a tumor it was time God should send them a thorn in the flesh to cure it IV. THE Provincial Governours forward enough to run of themselves upon such an errand made much more haste when they were not onely encouraged but threatned into it by the Imperial Edicts so that the Persecution was carried on in all parts with a quick and a high hand concerning the severity whereof we shall speak more elsewhere At present it may suffice to remarque that it swept away many of the most eminent Bishops of the Church Fabian Bishop of Rome Alexander Bishop of Hierusalem and several others Nor was it long before it came to S. Babylas his door For Decius probably about the middle of his reign or some time before his Thracian expedition wherein he lost his life came into Syria and so to Antioch to take order about his affairs that concerned the Persian War I confess his coming into these parts is not mentioned in the Roman Histories and no wonder the accounts of his life either not having been written by the Historiae Augustae Scriptores or if they were having long since perished and few of his Acts are taken notice of in those Historians that yet remain However the thing is plainly enough owned by Ecclesiastical Writers While * Chrysost lib. de S. Babyl Tom. 6. pag. 658. passim Philost H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 8. p. 94. Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 10. c. 28. p. 63. he continued here either out of curiosity or a design to take some more plausible advantage to fall upon them he would needs go into the Christian Congregation when the public Assembly was met together This Babylas would by no means give way to but standing in the Church Porch with an undanted courage and resolution opposed him telling him that as much as lay in his power he would never endure that a Wolf should break in upon Christs Sheepfold The Emperour urged it no further at present either being unwilling to exasperate the rage and fury of the People or designing to effect it some other way This passage there are and Nicephorus among the rest with whom
excellency of those ascribed to him The great honours done to his memory I. THASCIVS Caecilius Cyprian was born at Carthage in the declining part of the foregoing Saeculum though the particular year cannot be ascertained Who or what his Parents were is unknown a Ad Ann. 250. n. V. vid. not ad Martyrol Rom. Sept. XXVI p. 600. Cardinal Baronius not to mention others makes him descended of a rich honourable Family and himself to have been one of the chief of the Senatorian Order and this upon the authority of Nazianzen b Orat. in laud. S. Cypr. p. 275. who indeed affirms it but then certainly forgot that in very few lines before he had exploded as a fabulous mistake the confounding our Cyprian with another of the same name of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian there was another born at Antioch a person of great learning and eminency who travelled through Greece Phrygia Egypt India Chaldaea and where not famous for the Study and the Arts of Magic by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina a noble Christian Virgin at Antioch by whose prayers and endeavours he was converted baptized made first Sexton then Deacon of that Church was indued with miraculous powers and afterwards consecrated Bishop of that Church though I confess I find not his name in the Catalogue of the Bishops of that See drawn up by Nicephorus of Constantinople and at last having been miserably tormented at Antioch was sent to Dioclesian himself then at Nicomedia by whose command together with Justina sent thither also at the same time from Damascus he was beheaded The History of all which was largely described in three Books in Verse written by the noble Empress Eudocia the excerpta whereof are still extant in a Cod. CLXXXIV col 416. Photius This account Simeon the Metaphrast Nicephorus and the later Greeks without any scruple attribute to S. Cyprian of Carthage nay some of them make him to suffer Martyrdom under the Decian Persecution Though in the whole mistake the more to be pardoned in that not onely Prudentius but Nazianzen had long before manifestly confounded these two eminent persons who finding several passages of the Antiochian Cyprian very near a kin to the other carried all the rest along with them as two persons very like are oft mistaken the one for the other To prove that our Cyprian was not him described by Nazianzen were a vain and needless attempt the accounts concerning them being so vastly different both as to their Countrey Education manner of Life Episcopal charge the time place and companions of their death that it is plainly impossible to reconcile them But of this enough II. S. CYPRIAN's education was ingenuous b Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. non longe ab init polished by Study and the Liberal Arts though he principally addicted himself to the Study of Oratory and Eloquence wherein he made such vast improvements that publicly and with great applause he taught Rhetoric at e Hier. de script in Cypriano Carthage All which time he lived in great pomp and plenty in honour and power his garb splendid his retinue stately never going abroad as himself tells us d Ad Donat. Epist 1. p. 2. but he was thronged with a crowd of Clients and Followers The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errours of the Gentile Religion and was at least upon the borders of old Age when he was rescued from the Vassalage of inveterate Customs the darkness of Idolatry and the errours and vices of his past life as e Ubi supra himself intimates in his Epistle to Donatus He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Caecilius f Pont. ibid. p. 12. a Presbyter of Carthage a person whom ever after he loved as a friend and reverenced as a father And so mutual an endearment was there between them that Cyprian in honour to him assumed the title of Caecilius and the other at his death made him his Executor and committed his Wife and Children to his sole care and tutelage Being yet a Catechumen g Id. ibid. p. 11. he gave early instances of a great and generous piety professed a strict and severe temperance and sobriety accounting it one of the best preparations for the entertainment of the truth to subdue and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations His estate at least the greatest part of it he sold and distributed it among the necessities of the Poor at once triumphing over the love of the World and exercising that great duty of Mercy and Charity which God values above all the Ritual Devotions in the World So that by the speedy progress of his piety says Pontius his Friend and Deacon he became almost a perfect Christian before he had learnt the rules of Christianity III. BEING fully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian Faith he was baptized h Epist 1. p. 2 3 when the mighty assistances which he received from above perfectly dispelled all doubts enlightned all obscurities and enabled him with ease to do things which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged Not long after he was called to the inferiour Ecclesiastic Offices and then advanced to the degree of Presbyter wherein he so admirably behaved himself that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the Church Donatus his immediate predecessor in the See of Carthage as his own words a Epist 55. p. 82 seem to imply being dead the general vogue both of Clergy and People Felicissimus the Presbyter and some very few of his party onely dissenting b Epist 40. p. 53. was for Cyprian to succeed him But the great modesty and humility of the man made him flie c P. Diac. p. 12. from the first approaches of the news he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an imployment and therefore desired that a more worthy person and some of his Seniors in the Faith might possess the place His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the People his doors were immediately crowded and all passages of escape blocked up he would indeed have fled out at the window but finding it in vain he unwillingly yielded the People in the mean while impatiently waiting divided between hope and fear till seeing him come forth they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction This charge he entered upon Ann. CCXLVIII as himself d Epist 55. p. 80 plainly intimates when in his Letter to Cornelius he tells him he had been four years Bishop of Carthage which Epistle was written not long after the beginning of Cornelius his Pontificat Ann. CCLI It was the third Consulship of Philip the Emperour a memorable time it being the thousandth year ab Vrbe Condita when the Ludi Saeculares were celebrated at Rome with all imaginable magnificence
and solemnity Though indeed it was then but the declining part of the Annus Millesimus which began with the Palilia about April XXI of the foregoing year and ended with the Palilia of this whence in the ancient coins of this Emperour these Secular Sports are sometimes ascribed to his second sometimes to his third Consulship as commencing in the one and being compleated in the other IV. THE entrance upon his Care and Government was calm and peaceable but he had not been long in it before a storm overtook him and upon what occasion I know not he was publicly e Epist 69. p. 117. Ep. 55. p. 80. vid. Pont. de vit Cypr. p. 12. proscribed by the name of Caecilius Cyprian Bishop of the Christians and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods And not satisfied with this they frequently called out that he might be thrown to the Lions So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God as he pleads for himself f Epist 9. p. 22. and least by his resolute defiance of the public sentence he should provoke his adversaries g Epist 14. p. 27 to fall more severely upon the whole Church he thought good at present to withdraw himself hoping that malice would cool and die and the fire go out when the fewel that kindled it was taken away Loc. citat During this recess though absent in body yet was he present in spirit supplying the want of his presence by Letters whereof he wrote no less then XXXVIII by pious counsels grave admonitions frequent reproofs earnest exhortations and especially by hearty prayers to Heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the Church That which created him the greatest trouble was the case of the lapsed whom some Presbyters without the knowledge and consent of the Bishop rashly admitted to the communion of the Church upon very easie terms Cyprian a stiff asserter of Ecclesiastic Discipline and the rights of his place would not brook this but by several Letters not onely complained of it but endeavoured to reform it not sparing the Martyrs themselves who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of Religion took upon them to give Libels of Peace to the lapsed whereby they were again taken into communion sooner then the Rules of the Church did allow V. THIS remissness of Disciplin and easie admission of Penitents gave occasion to Novatus one of the Presbyters of Carthage to start aside and draw a Faction after him denying any place to the lapsed though penitent in the peace and communion of the Church not that they absolutely excluded them the mercy and pardon of God for they left them to the sentence of the divine Tribunal but maintained that the Church had no power to absolve them that once lapsed after Baptism and to receive them again into communion Having sufficiently imbroiled the Church at home where he was in danger to be excommunicated by Cyprian for his scandalous irregular and unpeaceable practices over he goes with some of his party to Rome where by a pretence of uncommon sanctity and severity besides some Consessors lately delivered out of Prison he seduced Novatianus who by the Greek Fathers is almost perpetually confounded with Novatus a Presbyter of the Roman Church a man of an insolent and ambitious temper and who had attempted to thrust himself into that Chair Him the Party procures by clancular Arts and uncanonical means to be consecrated Bishop and then set him up against Cornelius lately ordained Bishop of that See whom they peculiarly charged a Vid. Epist 55. ad Antonian p. 66. with holding a communion with Trophimus and some others of the Thurificati who had done sacrifice in the late Persecution Which though plausibly pretended was yet a false allegation Trophimus and his Party not being taken in till by great humility b Ibid. p. 69. and a public penance they had given satisfaction to the Church nor he then suffered to communicate any otherwise then in a Lay-capacity Being disappointed in their designs they now openly shew themselves in their own colours separate from the Church which they charge with loosness and licentiousness in admitting scandalous offenders and by way of distinction stiling themselves Cathari the pure undefiled Party those who kept themselves from all society with the lapsed or them that communicated with them Hereupon they were on all hands opposed by private persons and condemned by public Synods and cried down by the common Vote of the Church probably not so much upon the account of their different sentiments and opinions in point of pardon of sin and Ecclesiastical penance wherein they stood not at so wide a distance from the doctrin and practice of the early Ages of the Church as for their insolent and domineering temper their proud and surly carriage their rigorous and imperious imposing their way upon other Churches their taking upon them by their own private authority to judge censure and condemn those that joined not with them or opposed them their bold devesting the Governours of the Church of that great power lodged in them of remitting crimes upon repentance which seem to have been the very soul and spirit of the Novatian Sect. VI. IN the mean while the Persecution under Decius raged with an uncontrolled fury over the African Provinces and especially at Carthage concerning which Cyprian every where c Epist 53. p. 75 Epist 7. p. 16. Epist 8. p. 19. lib. ad Demetr p. 200. gives large and sad accounts whereof this the sum They were scourged and beaten and racked and roasted and their flesh pulled off with burning pincers beheaded with swords and run through with spears more instruments of torment being many times imployed about the man at once then there were limbs and members of his body they were spoiled and plundred chained and imprisoned thrown to wild Beasts and burnt at the stake And when they had run over all their old methods of execution they studied for more excogitat novas poenas ingeniosa crudelitas as he complains Nor did they onely vary but repeat the torments and where one ended another began they tortured them without hopes of dying and added this cruelty to all the rest to stop them in their journey to heaven many who were importunately desirous of death were so tortured that they might not die they were purposely kept upon the Rack that they might die by piece-meals that their pains might be lingring and their sense of them without intermission they gave them no intervals or times of respite unless any of them chanced to give them the slip and expire in the midst of torments All which did but render their faith and patience more illustrious and make them more earnestly long for Heaven They tired out their tormentors and overcame the sharpest engins of execution and smiled at the busie Officers that were raking in their wounds and when their flesh was wearied their faith was unconquerable
Father the Invisible of the Invisible the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible the Immortal of the Immortal and the Eternal of Him that is Eternal There is one Holy Ghost having its subsistence of God which appeared through the Son to mankind the perfect Image of the perfect Son the Life-giving Life the holy Fountain the Sanctity and the Author of Sanctification by whom God the Father is made manifest who is over all and in all and God the Son who is through all A perfect Trinity which neither in Glory Eternity or Dominion is divided or separated from it self To this Creed he always kept himself the Original whereof written with his own hand my Author assures us was preserved in that Church in his time VIII THUS incomparably furnished he began to apply himself more directly to the charge committed to him in the happy success whereof he was infinitely advantaged by a power of working miracles so much talked of among the Ancients bestowed upon him As he was a Ibid. p. 980. returning home from the Wilderness being benighted and overtaken with a storm he together with his company turned aside to shelter themselves in a Gentile Temple famous for Oracles and Divinations where they spent the night in prayers and hymns to God Early in the morning came the Gentile Priest to pay the accustomed devotions to the Daemons of the place who had told them it seems that they must henceforth relinquish it by reason of him that lodged there he made his lustrations and offered his Sacrifices but all in vain the Daemons being deaf to all importunities and invocations Whereupon he burst out into a rage and passion exclaiming against the holy man and threatning to complain of him to the Magistrates and the Emperour But when he saw him generously despising all his threatnings and invested with a power of commanding Daemons in and out at pleasure he turned his fury into admiration and intreated the Bishop as a further evidence of that divine authority that attended him to bring the Daemons once more back again into the Temple For whose satisfaction he is said to have torn off a piece of Paper and therein to have written these words Gregory to Satan enter Which Schedule was no sooner laid upon the Altar and the usual incense and oblations made but the Daemons appeared again as they were wont to do Whereby he was plainly convinced that it was an Authority superiour to all infernal powers and accordingly resolved to accompany him but being unsatisfied in some parts of the Christian Doctrin was fully brought over after he had seen S. Gregory confirm his discourses by another evident miracle whereupon he freely forsook house and home friends and relations and resigned up himself to the instructions of his divine Wisdom and Philosophy IX THE fame of his strange and miraculous actions had prepared b Id. ibid. p. 983. the People of Neocaesarea to entertain him with a prodigious reverence and regard the people generally flocking out of the City to meet him every one being ambitious to see the person of whom such great things were spoken He unconcerned in the applause and expectations of all the Spectators that were about him without so much as casting his eye on the one side or the other passed directly through the midst of the crowds into the City Whither being come his friends that had accompanied him out of his solitudes were very solicitous where and by whom he should be entertained But he reproving their anxiety asked them whether they thought themselves banished the divine Protection whether Gods providence was not the best and safest refuge and habitation that whatever became of their bodies it was of infinitely more importance to look after their minds as the onely fit and proper habitations which were by the Vertues of a good life to be trimmed and prepared furnished and built up for Heaven But there wanted not many who were ready enough to set open their doors to so welcom a guest among which especially was Musonius a person of greatest honour estate and power in the City who intreated him to honour his house with his presence and to take up his lodging there whose kindness as being first offered he accepted dismissing the rest with a grateful acknowledgment of that civility and respect which they had offered to him X. IT was no little abatement to the good mans joy to think in what a prophane and idolatrous place his lot was fallen and that therefore it concerned him to lose no time Accordingly that very day a Ubi supr p. 985. he fell to preaching and with so good success that before night he had converted a little Church Early the next morning the doors were crowded persons of all ranks ages infirmities and distempers flocking to him upon whom he wrought two cures at once healing both soul and body instructing their minds convincing their errours reclaiming and reforming their manners and that with ease because at the same time strengthening the infirm curing the sick healing the diseased banishing Daemons out of the possessed men greedily embracing the Religion he taught while they beheld such sensible demonstrations of its power and divinity before their eyes and heard nothing reported but what was verified by the testimony of their own senses Having thus prepared a numerous Congregation his next care was to erect a Church where they might assemble for the public solemnities of Religion which by the chearful contributions of some and the industrious labour of others was in a little time both begun and finished And the foundations of it seem to have been laid upon a firmer basis then other buildings seeing it out-stood not onely Earthquakes frequent in those parts but the violent storm of Dioclesian's reign who commanded the Churches of the Christians in all places to be demolished and was still standing in Gregory Nyssen's time who further tells us that when a terrible Earthquake lately happened in that place wherewith almost all the buildings both public and private were destroyed and ruined this Church onely remained entire and not the least stone was shaken to the ground XI S. Gregory Nyssen b Ibid. p. 1007. reports one more memorable passage then the rest which at his first coming to the place made his conversion of the people much more quick and easie There was a public festival held in honour of one of the gods of that Country whereto not onely the Neocaesareans but all the inhabitants of the neighbour-Countrey came in and that in such infinite numbers that the Theater was quickly full and the crowd so great and the noise so confused and loud that the Shews could not begin nor the solemn rites be performed The People hereupon universally cried out to the Daemon Jupiter we beseech thee make us room S. Gregory being told of this sent them this message that their prayer would be granted and that greater room would be quickly made them then they desired
making such grimaces such mimic and antique gestures that all mens eyes were upon them When behold on a sudden before any one laid hand upon them they came into open Court and unanimously professed themselves to be Christians An accident wherewith the Governors and the Assessors upon the Bench were strangely surprized and troubled The condemned were chearful and couragious and most ready to undergo their torments while the Judges themselves were amazed and trembled Sentence being passed upon them they went out of Court in a kind of pomp and state rejoicing in the testimony they were to give to the Faith and that God would so gloriously triumph in their execution IV. S. DIONYSIVS bore a part in the common Tragoedy though God was pleased to preserve him from the last and severest act as a person eminently useful to his Church No sooner had c Epist Dion ad German ibid. c. 40 p. 235. Sabinus the Praefect received the Imperial Orders but he immediately dispatched a Frumentarius or military Officer whose place it was to seize Delinquents and enquire out seditious reports and practices against the State and therefore particularly belonged to Judges and Governours of Provinces to apprehend him The Serjeant went all about and narrowly ransacked every corner searching all ways and places where he thought he might hide himself but in the mean time never searched his own house concluding he would not dare to abide at home and yet there he staid four days together expecting the Officers coming thither At length being warned of God he left his house with his servants and some of the Brethren that attended him but not long after fell into the hands of the Souldiers and having received his sentence was conducted by a Guard under the command and conduct of a Centurion and some other Officers to Taposiris a little Town between Alexandria and Canopus there probably to be beheaded with less noise and clamour It happened in the mean while that Timotheus one of his friends knowing nothing of his apprehension came to the house where he had been and finding it empty and a Guard at the door fled after him in a great amazement and distraction whom a Country man meeting upon the Road enquired of him the cause why he made so much hast He probably supposing to have heard some news of them gave him a broken and imperfect relation of the matter The man was going to a Wedding feast which there they were wont to keep all night and entering the house told his company what he had heard They heated with Wine and elevated with mirth rose all up and ran out of doors and with a mighty clamour came towards the place where he was The Guard hearing such a noise and confusion at that time of night left their Prisoner and ran away whom the rabble coming in found in bed The good man supposing them to be Thieves was reaching his cloaths that lay by him to give them but they commanded him to rise presently and go along with them whereat he besought them understanding now the errand upon which they came to dismiss him and depart at least to be so kind to him as to take the Souldiers Office upon them and themselves behead him While he was thus passionately importuning them they forced him to rise and when he had thrown himself upon the ground they began to drag him out by the hands and feet but quitted him not long after and returned it's like to their drunken sports This Trage-comic Scene thus over Caius and Faustus Peter and Paul Presbyters and his fellow-prisoners took him up and leaving the Town set him upon an Ass and conveyed him away a Vid. Epist ejus ad Domit. ib. l. 7. c. 11. p. 260. into a desolate and uncomfortable part of the Desarts of Lybia where he together with Peter and Caius lay concealed till the storm was over-past V. THE Persecution being in a great measure blown over by the death of Decius Dionysius came out of his Solitudes and returned to Alexandria where he found the affairs of his Church infinitely entangled and out of order especially by reason of those great numbers that had denied the Faith and lapsed into Idolatry in the late Persecution among which were many of the wealthy and the honourable and who had places of authority and power some freely renouncing others so far degenerating from the Gallantry of a Christian spirit that when cited to appear and sacrifice to the gods as he tells us b Ib. l. 6. c. 4â— p. 238. they trembled and looked as pale and gastly as if they had come not to offer but to be made a sacrifice insomuch that the very Gentiles derided and despised them Most of these after his return sued to be readmitted to the Communion of the Church which the Ecclesiastic Discipline of those Times did not easily allow of especially after the Novatian principles began to prevail which denied all communion to the lapsed though expressing their sorrow by never so long and great a penance Upon what occasion Novatus and his partner Novatian first started this rigorous and severe opinion how eagerly Cyprian and the African Bishops stickled against it how far it was condemned both there and at Rome in what cases and by what measures of Penance the lapsed Penitents were to be taken in we have already noted in Cyprian's Life S. Dionysius was of the moderate Party wherein he had the concurrence of most of the Eastern Bishops and as he * Epist ad Fab. ibid. c. 42. p. 241 pleads the general judgment and practice of the holy Martyrs many of whom had before their death received the lapsed upon their repentance again into the Church and had themselves freely communicated with them Whose judgment he thought it not reasonable should be despised nor their practice controlled nor the accustomed order overturned Indeed he himself had ever observed this course and therefore at the beginning of the Persecution had given a Ibid. c. 44. p. 246. order to the Presbyters of the Church to restore peace and give the Eucharist to Penitents especially in danger of death and where they had before earnestly desired it Which was done accordingly as appears from the memorable instance of Serapion an aged person mentioned by him who having lapsed in the time of Persecution had often desired reconciliation but in that confused time could not obtain it but being suddenly surprized by a summons of death and having laid three days speechless on the fourth had onely so much use of his tongue restored him as to bid his Nephew a Boy that attended him go for one of the Presbyters to give him absolution without which he could not die The Presbyter was at that time sick but pitying the mans case gave the Boy a little part of the consecrated Eucharist which he kept by him bidding him moisten it and put it into his mouth Which was no sooner done but he breathed
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey