Church and say no more to them than Little children love one another And when his Auditors wearied with the constant repetition of the same thing asked him why he always spoke the same he answered Because it was the command of our Lord and that if they did nothing else this alone was enough 11. BUT the largest measures of his Charity he expressed in the mighty care that he shewed to the Souls of men unweariedly spending himself in the service of the Gospel travelling from East to West to leaven the World with the Principles of that holy Religion which he was sent to propagate patiently enduring all torments breaking through all difficulties and discouragements shunning no dangers that he might do good to Souls redeem Mens minds from error and idolatry and reduce them from the snares of a debauched and a vicious life Witness one famous instance In his visitation of the Churches near to Ephesus he made choice of a young man whom with a special charge for his instruction and education he committed to the Bishop of that place The spiritual man undertook the charge instructed his Pupil and baptized him And then thinking he might a little remit the reins of discipline the youth made an ill use of his liberty and was quickly debauched by bad companions making himself Captain to a company of High-way men the most loose cruel and profligate wretches of the Country S. John at his return understanding this and sharply reproving the negligence and unfaithfulness of his Tutor resolved to find him out And without any consideration of what danger he entred upon in venturing himself upon Persons of desperate fortunes and forfeited consciences he went to the Mountains where their usual haunt was and being here taken by the Sentinel he desired to be brought before their Commander who no sooner espied him coming towards him but immediately fled The aged Apostle followed after but not able to overtake him passionately entreated him to stay promising him to undertake with God for his peace and pardon He did so and both melted into tears and the Apostle having prayed with and for him returned him a true Penitent and Convert to the Church This story we have elsewhere related more at large out of Eusebius as he does from Clemens Alexandrinus since which that Tract it self of Clemens is made publick to the World 12. NOR was it the least instance of his care of the Church and charity to the Souls of men that he was so infinitely vigilant against Hereticks and Seducers countermining their artifices antidoting against the poison of their errors and shunning all communion and conversation with their persons Going along with some of his friends at Ephesus to the Bath whither he used frequently to resort and the ruines whereof of Porphyry not far from the place where stood the famous Temple of Diana as a late eye-witness informs us are still shewed at this day he enquired of the servant that waited there who was within the servant told him Cerinthus Epiphanius says it was Ebion and 't is not improbable that they might be both there which the Apostle no sooner understood but in great abhorrency he turned back Let 's be gone my brethren said he and make haste from this place lest the Bath wherein there is such an Heretick as Cerinthus the great enemy of the truth fall upon our heads This account Irenaeus delivers from John's own Scholar and Disciple This Cerinthus was a Man of loose and pernicious principles endeavouring to corrupt Christianity with many damnable Errors To make himself more considerable he struck in with the Jewish Converts and made a bustle in that great controversie at Jerusalem about Circumcision and the observation of the Law of Moses But his usual haunt was Asia where amongst other things he openly denied Christ's Resurrection affirmed the World to have been made by Angels broaching unheard of Dogmata and pretending them to have been communicated to him by Angels venting Revelations composed by himself as a great Apostle affirming that after the Resurrection the Reign of Christ would commence here upon Earth and that Men living again at Jerusalem should for the space of a Thousand Years enjoy all manner of sensual pleasures and delights hoping by this fools Paradise that he should tempt Men of loose and brutish minds over to his party Much of the same stamp was Ebion though in some principles differing from him as error agrees with it self as little as with truth who held that the Holy Jesus was a mere and a mean man begotten by Joseph of Mary his Wife and that the observance of the Mosaick Rites and Laws was necessary to Salvation And because they saw S. Paul stand so full in their way they reproached him as an Apostate from his Religion and rejected his Epistles owning none but Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew having little or no value for the rest the Sabbath and Jewish Rites they observed with the Jews and on the Lord's day celebrated the memory of our Lord's Resurrection according to the custom and practice of the Christians 13. BESIDES these there was another sort of Hereticks that infested the Church in John's time the Nicolaitans mentioned by him in his Revelation and whose doctrine our Lord is with a particular Emphasis there said to hate indeed a most wretched and brutish Sect generally supposed to derive their original from Nicolas one of the seven Deacons whom we read of in the Acts whereof Clemens of Alexandria gives this probable account This Nicolas having a beautiful Wife and being reproved by the Apostles for being jealous of her to shew how far he was from it brought her forth and gave any that would leave to marry her affirming this to be suitable to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to abuse the flesh This speech he tells us was ascribed to S. Matthias who taught That we must fight with the flesh and abuse it and not allowing it any thing for pleasure encrease the Soul by faith and knowledge These words and actions of his his disciples and followers misunderstanding and perverting things to the worst sence imaginable began to let loose the reins and henceforwards to give themselves over to the greatest filthiness the most shameless and impudent uncleanness throwing down all inclosures making the most promiscuous mixtures lawful and pleasure the ultimate end and happiness of Man Such were their principles such their practices whereas Nicolas their pretended Patron and Founder was says Clemens a sober and a temperate Man never making use of any but his own Wife by whom he had one Son and several Daughters who all liv'd in perpetual Virginity 14. THE last instance that we shall remark of our Apostles care for the good of the Church is the Writings which he left to Posterity Whereof the first in time though plac'd last is his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations written while confined in
it he not only commands us to do no wrong but when we have done it to make restitution not only to retrench our irregular appetites but to cut off our right hand and pluck out our right eye and cast them from us that is mortifie and offer violence to those vicious inclinations which are as dear to us as the most useful and necessary parts and members of our body Besides all this had God intended the Decalogue for a perfect summary of the Laws of Nature we cannot suppose that he would have taken any but such into the collection whereas the Fourth Commandment concerning the Seventh day is unquestionably Typical and Ceremonial and has nothing more of a Natural and Eternal obligation in it than that God should be served and honoured both with publick and private worship which cannot be done without some portions of time set apart for it but that this should be done just at such a time and by such proportions upon the Seventh rather than the Sixth or the Eighth day is no part of natural Religion And indeed the reasons and arguments that are annexed to it to enforce the observance of it clearly shew that it is of a later date and of another nature than the rest of those Precepts in whose company we find it though it seems at first sight to pass without any peculiar note of discrimination from the rest As for the rest they are Laws of Eternal righteousness and did not derive their value and authority from the Divine sanction which God here gave them at Mount Sinai but from their own moral and internal goodness and equity being founded in the nature of things and the essential and unchangeable differences of good and evil By which means they always were always will be obligatory and indispensable being as Eternal and Immutable as the nature of God himself 5. THE second sort of Laws were Ceremonial Divine Constitutions concerning Ritual observances and matters of Ecclesiastical cognizance and relation and were instituted for a double end partly for the more orderly government of the Church and the more decent administration of the worship of God partly that they might be types and figures of the Evangelical state shadows of good things to come visible and symbolical representments of the Messiah and those great blessings and priviledges which he was to introduce into the World which doubtless was the reason why God was so infinitely punctual and particular in his directions about these matters giving orders about the minutest circumstances of the Temple-ministration because every part of it had a glance at a future and better state of things The number of them was great and the observation burdensom the whole Nation groaning under the servility of that yoke They were such as principally related to God's worship and may be reduced either to such as concerned the worship it self or the circumstances of time place and persons that did attend it Their worship consisted chiefly in three things Prayers Sacrifices and Sacraments Prayers were daily put up together with their Offerings and though we have very few Constitutions concerning them yet the constant practice of that Church and the particular forms of Prayer yet extant in their writings are a sufficient evidence Sacrifices were the constant and most solemn part of their publick worship yea they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their continual burnt-offering a Lamb offered Morning and Evening with a Measure of Flower Oil and Wine the charge whereof was defrayed out of the Treasury of the Temple The rest of their Sacrifices may be considered either as they were Expiatory or Eucharistical Expiatory were those that were offered as an atonement for the sins of the people to pacifie the Divine displeasure and to procure his pardon which they did by vertue of their Typical relation to that great Sacrifice which the Son of God was in the fulness of time to offer up for the sins of the World They were either of a more general relation for the expiation of sin in general whole burnt-offerings which were intirely the skin and the entrails only excepted burnt to ashes or of a more private and particular concernment designed for the redemption of particular offences whereof there were two sorts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the sin-offering for involuntary offences committed through error or ignorance which according to the condition and capacity of the Person were either for the Priest or the Prince or the whole Body of the People or a private Person The other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the trespass-offering for sins done wittingly studied and premeditated transgressions and which the Man could not pretend to be the effects of surprize or chance Eucharistical Sacrifices were testimonies of gratitude to God for mercies received whereof three sorts especially 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the meat-offering made up of things without life oil fine flower incense c. which the worshipper offered as a thankful return for the daily preservation and provisions of life and therefore it consisted only of the fruits of the ground 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the peace-offering this was done either out of a grateful sense of some blessing conferred or as a voluntary offering to which the Person had obliged himself by vow in expectation of some safety or deliverance which he had prayed for In this Sacrifice God had his part the fat which was the only part of it burnt by fire the Priest his as the instrument of the ministration the Offerer his that he might have wherewith to rejoyce before the Lord. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thanksgiving-offering or a Sacrifice of praise it was a mixt kind of Sacrifice consisting of living Creatures and the fruits of the Earth which they might offer at their own will but it must be eaten the same day and none of it left until the morrow What other provisions we meet with concerning ceremonial uncleannesses first-fruits the first-born tenths c. are conveniently reducible to some of these heads which we have already mentioned The last part of their worship concerned their Sacraments which were two Circumcision and the Paschal Supper Circumcision was the federal Rite annexed by God as a Seal to the Covenant which he made with Abraham and his Posterity and accordingly renewed and taken into the Body of the Mosaical constitutions It was to be administred the eighth day which the Jews understand not of so many days complete but the current time six full days and part of the other In the room of this Baptism succeeds in the Christian Church The Passover which was the eating of the Paschal Lamb was instituted as an Annual memorial of their signal and miraculous deliverance out of Egypt and as a typical representation of our spiritual Redemption by Christ from the bondage of sin and that Hell that follows it It was to be celebrated with a Male-lamb without blemish taken out of the Flock to note
Revelation is almost intirely made up of Prophecies concerning the future state and condition of the Church Sometimes by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of present concernment to the exigences of the Church as when he signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas for the conversion of the Gentiles and many times immediately designed particular persons to be Pastors and Governours of the Church Thus we read of the gift that was given to Timothy by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery that is his Ordination to which he was particularly pointed out by some prophetick designation But the main use of this prophetick gift in those times was to explain some of the more difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine especially to expound and apply the ancient Prophecies concerning the Messiah and his Kingdom in their publick Assemblies whence the gift of prophecy is explained by understanding all mysteries and all knowledge that is the most dark and difficult places of Scripture the types and figures the ceremonies and prophecies of the Old Testament And thus we are commonly to understand those words Prophets and prophesying that so familiarly occur in the New Testament Having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesie according to the proportion of faith that is expound Scripture according to the generally-received principles of Faith and Life So the Apostle elsewhere prescribing Rules for the decent and orderly managing of Divine worship in their publick Assemblies let the Prophets says he speak two or three that is at the same Assembly and let the other judge and if while any is thus expounding another has a Divine afflatus whereby he is more particularly enabled to explain some difficult and emergent passage let the first hold his peace for ye may all all that have this gift prophesie one by one that so thus orderly proceeding all may learn and all may be comforted Nor can the first pretend that this interruption is an unseasonable check to his revelation seeing he may command himself for though among the Gentiles the prophetick and ecstatick impulse did so violently press upon the inspired Person that he could not govern himself yet in the Church of God the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets may be so ruled and restrained by them as to make way for others This order of Christian Prophets considered as a distinct Ministery by it self is constantly placed next to the Apostolical Office and is frequently by S. Paul preferred before any other spiritual Gifts then bestowed upon the Church When this spirit of Prophecy ceased in the Christian Church we cannot certainly finde It continued some competent time beyond the Apostolick Age. Justin Martyr expresly tells Trypho the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifts of Prophecy are even yet extant among us an argument as he there tells him that those things which had of old been the great Priviledges of their Church were now translated into the Christian Church And Eusebius speaking of a Revelation made to one Alcibiades who lived about the time of Irenaeus adds that the Divine Grace had not withdrawn its Presence from the Church but that they still had the Holy Ghost as their Counsellor to direct them XI Secondly They had the gift of discerning spirits whereby they were enabled to discover the truth or falshood of mens pretences whether their gifts were real or counterfeit and their persons truly inspired or not For many men acted only by diabolical impulses might entitle themselves to Divine inspirations and others might be imposed upon by their delusions and mistake their dreams and fancies for the Spirits dictates and revelations or might so subtilly and artificially counterfeit revelations that they might with most pass for currant especially in those times when these supernatural gifts were so common and ordinary and our Lord himself had frequently told them that false Prophets would arise and that many would confidently plead for themselves before him that they had prophesied in his name That therefore the Church might not be imposed upon God was pleased to endue the Apostles and it may be some others with an immediate faculty of discerning the Caffe from the Wheat true from false Prophets nay to know when the true Prophets delivered the revelations of the Spirit and when they expressed only their own conceptions This was a mighty priviledge but yet seems to me to have extended farther to judge of the sincerity or hypocrisie of mens hearts in the profession of Religion that so bad men being discovered suitable censures and punishments might be passed upon them and others cautioned to avoid them Thus Peter at first sight discovered Ananias and Saphira and the rotten hypocrisie of their intentions before there was any external evidence in the case and told Simon Magus though baptized before upon his embracing Christianity that his heart was not right in the sight of God for I perceive says he that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Thirdly the Apostles had the gift of Tongues furnished with variety of utterance able to speak on a sudden several Languages which they had never learnt as occasion was administred and the exigences of persons and Nations with whom they conversed did require For the Apostles being principally designed to convert the World and to plant Christianity in all Countries and Nations it was absolutely necessary that they should be able readily to express their minds in the Languages of those Countries to which they addressed themselves seeing otherwise it would have been a work of time and difficulty and not consistent with the term of the Apostles lives had they been first to learn the different Languages of those Nations before they could have preached the Gospel to them Hence this gift was diffused upon the Apostles in larger measures and proportions than upon other men I speak with Tongues more than you all says S. Paul that is than all the gifted persons in the Church of Corinth Our Lord had told the Apostles before his departure from them that they should be endued with power from on high which upon the day of Pentecost was particularly made good in this instance when in a moment they were enabled to speak almost all the Languages of the then known World and this as a specimen and first-fruits of the rest of those miraculous powers that were conferr'd upon them XII A fourth gift was that of Interpretation or unfolding to others what had been delivered in an unknown tongue For the Christian Assemblies in those days were frequently made up of men of different Nations and who could not understand what the Apostles or others had spoken to the Congregation this God supplied by this gift of interpretation enabling some to interpret what others did not understand and to speak it to
being more usual in those times than for persons excommunicate and cut off from the body of the Church to be presently arrested by Satan as the common Serjeant and Executioner and by him either actually possessed or tormented in their bodies by some diseases which he brought upon them And indeed this severe discipline was no more than necessary in those times when Christianity was wholly destitute of any civil or coercive power to beget and keep up a due reverence and regard to the sentence and determinations of the Church and to secure the Laws of Religion and the holy censures from being sleighted by every bold and contumacious offender And this effect we find it had after the dreadful instance of Ananias and Saphira Great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things To what has been said concerning these Apostolical gifts let me further observe That they had not only these gifts residing in themselves but a power to bestow them upon others so that by imposition of hands or upon hearing and embracing the Apostle's doctrine and being baptized into the Christian Faith they could confer these miraculous powers upon persons thus qualified to receive them whereby they were in a moment enabled to speak divers Languages to Prophesie to Interpret and do other miracles to the admiration and astonishment of all that heard and saw them A priviledge peculiar to the Apostles for we do not find that any inferiour Order of gifted persons were intrusted with it And therefore as Chrysostom well observes though Philip the Deacon wrought great miracles at Samaria to the conversion of many yea to the conviction of Simon Magus himself yet the Holy Ghost fell upon none of them only they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus till Peter and John came down to them who having prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost they laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost Which when the Magician beheld he offered the Apostles money to enable him that on whom soever he laid his hands he might derive these miraculous powers upon them XIV Having seen how fitly furnished the Apostles were for the execution of their Office let us in the last place enquire into its duration and continuance And here it must be considered that in the Apostolical Office there was something extraordinary and something ordinary What was extraordinary was their immediate Commission derived from the mouth of Christ himself their unlimited charge to preach the Gospel up and down the World without being tied to any particular places the supernatural and miraculous powers conferr'd upon them as Apostles their infallible guidance in delivering the doctrines of the Gospel and these all expired and determined with their persons The standing and perpetual part of it was to teach and instruct the People in the duties and principles of Religion to administer the Sacraments to constitute Guides and Officers and to exercise the discipline and government of the Church and in these they are succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides who were to superintend and discharge the affairs and offices of the Church to the end of the World Whence it is that Bishops and Governours came to be styled Apostles as being their successors in ordinary for so they frequently are in the writings of the Church Thus Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus is called an Apostle Clemens of Rome Clemens the Apostle S. Mark Bishop of Alexandria by Eusebius styled both an Apostle and Evangelist Ignatius a Bishop and Apostle A title that continued in after Ages especially given to those that were the first planters or restorers of Christianity in any Country In the Coptick Kalendar published by Mr. Selden the VIIth day of the month Baschnes answering to our Second of May is dedicated to the memory of S. Athanasius the Apostle Acacius and Paulus in their Letter to Epiphanius style him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Apostle and Preacher and Sidonius Apollinaris writing to Lupus Bishop of Troyes in France speaks of the honour due to his eminent Apostleship An observation which it were easie enough to confirm by abundant instances were it either doubtful in it self or necessary to my purpose but being neither I forbear Joan. Euchait Metropolitae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE LIFE OF S. PETER St. PETER He was crucified at Rome with his head down-wards and Buried in the Vatican there S. Hierom. after he had planted a Christian Church first at Antioch and afterwards at Rome S. Peter 's Martyrdom Ioh. 21.18.19 Verily verily I say unto thee when thou most young thou girdedst thy self walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands another shall gird thee carry thee whither thou wouldst not This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God SECT I. Of S. Peter from his Birth till his First coming to Christ. Bethsaida S. Peter 's Birth-place Its dignity of old and fate at this day The time of his Birth enquired into Some Errors noted concerning it His names Cephas the imposing of it notes on Superiority over the rest of the Apostles The custom of Popes assuming a new Name at their Election to the Papacy whence His kindred and relations whether He or Andrew the elder Brother His Trade and way of life what before his coming to Christ. The Sea of Galilee and the conveniency of it The meanness and obscurity of his Trade The remarkable appearances of the Divine Providence in propagating Christianity in the World by mean and unlikely Instruments THE Land of Palestine was at and before the coming of our Blessed Saviour distinguished into three several Provinces Judaea Samaria and Galilee This last was divided into the Upper and the Lower In the Upper called also Galilee of the Gentiles within the division anciently belonging to the Tribe of Nephthali stood Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village till lately reedified and enlarged by Philip the Tetrarch by him advanced to the place and title of a City replenished with inhabitants and fortified with power and strength and in honour of Julia the daughter of Augustus Caesar by him stiled Julias Situate it was upon the banks of the Sea of Galilee and had a Wilderness on the other side thence called the Desart of Bethsaida whither our Saviour used often to retire the privacies and solitudes of the place advantageously ministring to Divine contemplations But Bethsaida was not so remarkable for this adjoyning Wilderness as it self was memorable for a worse sort of
enriched the Church with Gifts and Ornaments which in every Age encreased in Splendor and Riches till it is become one of the wonders of the World at this day Of whose glories stateliness and beauty and those many venerable Monuments of antiquity that are in it they who desire to know more may be plentifully satisfied by Onuphrius Only one amongst the rest must not be forgotten there being kept that very wooden Chair wherein S. Peter sate when he was at Rome by the only touching whereof many Miracles are said to be performed But surely Baronius his wisdom and gravity were from home when speaking of this Chair and fearing that Hereticks would imagine that it might be rotten in so long a time he tells us that it 's no wonder that this Chair should be preserved so long when Eusebius affirms that the wooden Chair of S. James Bishop of Jerusalem was extant in the time of Constantine But the Cardinal it seems forgot to consider that there is some difference between three and sixteen hundred Years But of this enough S. Peter was crucified according to the common computation in the Year of Christ sixty nine and the thirteenth or as Eusebius the fourteenth of Nero how truly may be enquired afterwards SECT X. The Character of his Person and Temper and an Account of his Writings The description of S. Peter ' s person An account of his Temper A natural fervor and eagerness predominant in him Fierceness and animosity peculiarly remarkable in the Galileans The abatements of his zeal and courage His humility and lowliness of mind His great love to and Zeal for Christ. His constancy and resolution in confessing Christ. His faithfulness and diligence in his Office His Writings genuine and supposititious His first Epistle what the design of it What meant by Babylon whence it was dated His second Epistle a long time questioned and why Difference in the style no considerable objection Grotius his conceit of its being written by Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem exploded A concurrence of circumstances to entitle S. Peter to it Some things in it referred to which he had preached at Rome particularly the destruction of Jerusalem Written but a little before his death The spurious Writings attributed to him mentioned by the Ancients His Acts. Gospel Petri Praedicatio His Apocalypse Judicium Petri. Peter ' s married relation His Wife the companion of his Travels Her Martyrdom His Daughter Petronilla 1. HAVING run through the current History of S. Peter's Life it may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his Person and Temper His Body if we may believe the description given of him by Nicephorus was somewhat slender of a middle size but rather inclining to tallness his complexion very pale and almost white The hair of his Head and Beard curl'd and thick but withall short though S. Hierom tells us out of Clemens his Periods that he was Bald which probably might be in his declining age his Eyes black but speckt with red which Baronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping his Eye-brows thin or none at all his Nose long but rather broad and flat than sharp such was the Case and out-side Let us next look inwards and view the Jewel that was within Take him as a Man and there seems to have been a natural eagerness predominant in his Temper which as a Whetstone sharpned his Soul for all bold and generous undertakings It was this in a great measure that made him so forward to speak and to return answers sometimes before he had well considered them It was this made him expose his person to the most eminent dangers promise those great things in behalf of his Master and resolutely draw his Sword in his quarrel against a whole Band of Souldiers and wound the High-Priests Servant and possibly he had attempted greater matters had not our Lord restrained and taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him 2. THIS Temper he owed in a great measure to the Genius and nature of his Country of which Josephus gives this true character That it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness and animosity whereby they were fearlesly carried out upon any action and in all things shew'd a great strength and courage both of mind and body The Galileans says he being fighters from their childhood the men being as seldom overtaken with cowardize as their Country with want of men And yet notwithstanding this his fervor and fierceness had its intervals there being some times when the Paroxysms of his heat and courage did intermit and the man was surprised and betrayed by his own fears Witness his passionate crying out when he was upon the Sea in danger of his life and his fearful deserting his Master in the Garden but especially his carriage in the High-Priests Hall when the confident charge of a sorry Maid made him sink so far beneath himself and notwithstanding his great and resolute promises so shamefully deny his Master and that with curses and imprecations But he was in danger and passion prevailed over his understanding and fear betrayed the succours which reason offered and being intent upon nothing but the present safety of his life he heeded not what he did when he disown'd his Master to save himself so dangerous is it to be left to our selves and to have our natural passions let ' loose upon us 3. CONSIDER him as a Disciple and a Christian and we shall find him exemplary in the great instances of Religion Singular his Humility and lowliness of mind With what a passionate earnestness upon the conviction of a Miracle did he beg of our Saviour to depart from him accounting himself not worthy that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner When our Lord by that wonderful condescension stoopt to wash his Apostles feet he could by no means be perswaded to admit it not thinking it fit that so great a person should submit himself to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself nor could he be induced to accept it till our Lord was in a manner forced to threaten him into obedience When Cornelius heightned in his apprehensions of him by an immediate command from God concerning him would have entertained him with expressions of more than ordinary honour and veneration so far was he from complying with it that he plainly told him he was no other than such a man as himself With how much candor and modesty does he treat the inferiour Rulers and Ministers of the Church He upon whom Antiquity heaps so many honourable titles stiling himself no other than their fellow-Presbyter Admirable his love to and zeal for his Master which he thought he could never express at too high a rate for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers and exposing himself to the most imminent hazards of life 'T was in his quarrel that he drew his Sword against a Band
and had preached the Gospol to them ever since his first coming into those parts That he had not failed to acquaint them both publickly and privately with whatever might be useful and profitable to them urging both upon Jews and Gentiles repentance and reformation of life and an hearty entertainment of the Faith of Christ That now he was resolved to go to Jerusalem where he did not know what particular sufferings would befall him more than this That it had been foretold him in every place by those who were endued with the Prophetical gifts of the Holy Ghost that afflictions and imprisonment would attend him there But that he was not troubled at this no nor unwilling to lay down his life so he might but successfully preach the Gospel and faithfully serve his Lord in that place and station wherein he had set him That he knew that henceforth they should see his face no more but that this was his encouragement and satisfaction that they themselves could bear him witness that he had not by concealing from them any parts of the Christian Doctrine betray'd their Souls That as for themselves whom God had made Bishops and Pastors of his Church they should be careful to feed guide and direct those Christians under their inspection and be infinitely tender of the good of Souls for whose redemption Christ laid down his own life That all the care they could use was no more than necessary it being certain that after his departure Heretical Teachers would break in among them and endanger the ruine of mens Souls nay that even among themselves there would some arise who by subtil and crafty methods by corrupt and pernicious Doctrines would gain Proselytes to their party and thereby make Rents and Schisms in the Church That therefore they should watch remembring with what tears and sorrow he had for three years together warned them of these things That now he recommended them to the Divine care and goodness and to the rules and instructions of the Gospel which if adhered to would certainly dispose and perfect them for that state of happiness which God had prepared for good men in Heaven In short that he had all a-long dealt faithfully and uprightly with them they might know from hence that in all his preaching he had no crafty or covetous designs upon any man's Estate or Riches having as themselves could witness industriously laboured with his own hands and by his own work maintained both himself and his company Herein leaving them an example what pains they ought to take to support the weak and relieve the poor rather than to be themselves chargeable unto others according to that incomparable saying of our Saviour which surely S. Paul had received from some of those that had conversed with him in the days of his flesh It is more blessed to give than to receive This Concio ad Clerum or Visitation-Sermon being ended the Apostle kneeled down and concluded all with Prayer Which done they all melted into tears and with the greatest expressions of sorrow attended him to the Ship though that which made the deepest impression upon their minds was that he had told them That they should see his face no more 4. DEPARTING from Myletus they arrived at Coos thence came to Rhodes thence to Patara thence to Tyre where meeting with some Christians he was advised by those among them who had the gift of Prophecy that he should not go up to Jerusalem with them he staid a week and then going all together to the shore he kneeled down and prayed with them and having mutually embraced one another he went on board and came to Ptolemais where only saluting the Brethren they came next day unto Caesarea Here they lodged in the house of Philip the Evangelist one of the seven Deacons that were at first set apart by the Apostles who had four Virgin-daughters all endued with the gift of prophecy During their stay in this place Agabus a Christian Prophet came down hither from Judaea who taking Paul's girdle bound with it his own hands and feet telling them that by this external Symbol the Holy Ghost did signifie and declare that S. Paul should be thus serv'd by the Jews at Jerusalem and be by them delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles Whereupon they all passionately besought him that he would divert his course to some other place The Apostle ask'd them what they meant by these compassionate disswasives to add more affliction to his sorrow that he was willing and resolved not only to be imprisoned but if need were to die at Jerusalem for the sake of Christ and his Religion Finding his resolution fixed and immoveable they importuned him no further but left the event to the Divine will and pleasure All things being in readiness they set forwards on their journey and being come to Jerusalem were kindly and joyfully entertained by the Christians there 5. THE next day after their arrival S. Paul and his company went to the house of S. James the Apostle where the rest of the Bishops and Governours of the Church were met together after mutual salutations he gave them a particular account with what success God had blessed him in propagating Christianity among the Gentiles for which they all heartily blessed God but withall told him that he was now come to a place where there were many thousands of Jewish converts who all retained a mighty zeal and veneration for the Law of Moses and who had been informed of him that he taught the Jews whom he had converted in every place to renounce Circumcision and the Ceremonies of the Law That as soon as the multitude heard of his arrival they would come together to see how he behaved himself in this matter and therefore to prevent so much disturbance it was advisable that there being four men there at that time who were to accomplish a Vow probably not the Nazarite-vow but some other which they had made for deliverance from sickness or some other eminent danger and distress for so Josephus tells us they were wont to do in such cases and before they came to offer the accustomed Sacrifices to abstain for some time from Wine and to shave their heads he would joyn himself to them perform the usual Rites and Ceremonies with them and provide such Sacrifices for them as the Law required in that case and that in discharge of their Vow they might shave their heads Whereby it would appear that the reports which were spread concerning him were false and groundless and that he himself did still observe the Rites and Orders of the Mosaical Institution That as for the Gentile converts they required no such observances at their hands nor expected any thing more from them in these indifferent matters than what had been before determined by the Apostolical Synod in that place S. Paul who in such things was willing to become all things to all men that he might gain the
more consented to the counsel which they gave him and taking the persons along with him to the Temple told the Priests that the time of a Vow which they had made being now run out and having purified themselves as the nature of the case required they were come to make their offerings according to the Law 6. THE seven days wherein those Sacrifices were to be offered being now almost ended some Jews that were come from Asia where probably they had opposed S. Paul now finding him in the Temple began to raise a tumult and uproar and laying hold of him called out to the rest of the Jews for their assistance Telling them that this was the fellow that every where vented Doctrines derogatory to the prerogative of the Jewish Nation destructive to the Institutions of the Law and to the purity of that place which he had prophaned by bringing in uncircumcised Greeks into it Positively concluding that because they had seen Trophimus a Gentile convert of Ephesus with him in the City therefore he had brought him also into the Temple So apt is malice to make any premises from whence it may infer its own conclusion Hereupon the whole City was presently in an uproar and seizing upon him they dragged him out of the Temple the doors being presently shut against him Nor had they failed there to put a period to all his troubles had not Claudius Lysias Commander of the Roman Garrison in the Tower of Antonia come in with some Souldiers to his rescue and deliverance and supposing him to be a more than an ordinary Malefactor commanded a double chain to be put upon him though as yet altogether ignorant either who he or what his crime was and wherein he could receive little satisfaction from the clamorous multitude who called for nothing but his death following the cry with such crouds and numbers that the Souldiers were forced to take him into their arms to secure him from the present rage and violence of the people As they were going up into the Castle S. Paul asked the Governour whether he might have the liberty to speak to him who finding him to speak Greek enquired of him whether he was not that Egyptian which a few Years before had raised a Sedition in Judaea and headed a party of Four Thousand debauched and profligate wretches The Apostle replied that he was a Jew of Tarsus a Free-man of a rich and honourable City and therefore begg'd of him that he might have leave to speak to the People Which the Captain readily granted and standing near the Door of the Castle and making signs that they would hold their peace he began to address himself to them in the Hebrew Language which when they heard they became a little more calm and quiet while he discoursed to them to this effect 7. HE gave them an account of himself from his Birth of his education in his youth of the mighty zeal which he had for the Rites and Customs of their Religion and with what a passionate earnestness he persecuted and put to death all the Christians that he met with whereof the High-Priest and the Sanhedrim could be sufficient witnesses He next gave them an entire and punctual relation of the way and manner of his conversion and how that he had received an immediate command from God himself to depart Jerusalem and preach unto the Gentiles At this word the patience of the Jews could hold no longer but they unanimously cried out to have him put to death it not being fit that such a Villain should live upon the Earth And the more to express their fury they threw off their Clothes and cast dust into the Air as if they immediately designed to stone him To avoid which the Captain of the Guard commanded him to be brought within the Castle and that he should be examined by whipping till he confessed the reason of so much rage against him While the Lictor was binding him in order to it he asked the Centurion that stood by whether they could justifie the scourging a Citizen of Rome and that before any sentence legally passed upon him This the Centurion presently intimated to the Governour of the Castle bidding him have a care what he did for the Prisoner was a Roman Whereat the Governour himself came and asked him whether he was a free Denizon of Rome and being told that he was he replied that it was a great priviledge a priviledge which he himself had purchased at a considerable rate To whom S. Paul answered that it was his Birth-right and the priviledge of the place where he was born and bred Hereupon they gave over their design of whipping him the Commander himself being a little startled that he had bound and chained a Denizon of Rome 8. THE next Day the Governour commanded his Chains to be knock'd off and that he might throughly satisfie himself in the matter commanded the Sanhedrim to meet and brought down Paul before them where being set before the Council he told them that in all passages of his life he had been careful to act according to the severest rules and conscience of his duty Men and Brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day Behold here the great security of a good man and what invisible supports innocency affords under greatest danger With how generous a confidence does virtue and honesty guard the breast of a good man as indeed nothing else can lay a firm basis and foundation for satisfaction and tranquillity when any misery or calamity does overtake us Religion and a good conscience beget peace and a Heaven in the Man's bosom beyond the power of the little accidents of this World to ruffle and discompose Whence Seneca compares the mind of a wise and a good man to the state of the upper Region which is always serene and calm The High-Priest Ananias being offended at the holy and ingenuous freedom of our Apostle as if by asserting his own innocency he had reproached the justice of their Tribunal commanded those that stood next him to strike him in the Face whereto the Apostle tartly replied That GOD would smite him Hypocrite as he was who under a pretence of doing Justice had illegally commanded him to be punished before the Law condemned him for a Malefactor Whereupon they that stood by asked him how he durst thus affront so sacred and venerable a Person as Gods High-Priest He calmly returned That he did not know or own Ananias to be an High-Priest of God's appointment However being a Person in Authority it was not lawful to revile him God himself having commanded that no man should speak evil of the Ruler of the People The Apostle who as he never laid aside the innocency of the Dove so knew how when occasion was to make use of the wisdom of the Serpent perceiving the Council to consist partly of Sadducees and partly of Pharisees openly told them that
former and indeed was greatly abominable to the Jews being so expresly forbidden in their Law But it was not more offensive to the Jews than acceptable to the Gentiles who were wont with great art and care to strangle living Creatures that they might stew or dress them with their bloud in them as a point of curious and exquisite delicacy This and the foregoing prohibition abstinence from bloud died not with the Apostles nor were buried with other Jewish rites but were inviolably observed for several Ages in the Christian Church as we have elsewhere observed from the Writers of those times Lastly From Fornication This was a thing commonly practised in the Heathen World who generally beheld simple Fornication as no sin and that it was lawful for persons not engaged in wedlock to make use of women that exposed themselves A custom justly offensive to the Jews and therefore to cure two evils at once the Apostles here solemnly declare against it Not that they thought it a thing indifferent as the rest of the prohibited rites were for it is forbidded by the natural Law as contrary to that chastness and modesty that order and comeliness which God has planted in the minds of men but they joyned it in the same Class with them because the Gentiles looked upon it as a thing lawful and indifferent It had been expresly forbidden by the Mosaick Law There shall be no Whore of the daughters of Israel and because the Heathens had generally thrown down this fence and bar set by the Law of nature it was here again repaired by the first planters of Christianity as by S. Paul elsewhere Ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus for this is the will of God even your Sanctification that you should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God Though after all I must confess my self inclinable to embrace Heinsius his ingenious conjecture that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fornication we are here to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the harlots hire or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offering which those persons were wont to make For among the Gentiles nothing was more usual than for the common women that prostituted themselves to lewd embraces those especially that attended at the Temples of Venus to dedicate some part of their gain and present it to the Gods Athanasius has a passage very express to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The women of old were wont to fit in the Idol-Temples of Phoenicia and to dedicate the gain which they got by the prostitution of their bodies as a kind of first-fruits to the Deities of the place supposing that by fornication they should pacifie their Goddess and by this means render her favourable and propitious to them Where 't is plain he uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fornication in this very sence for that gain or reward of it which they consecrated to their Gods Some such thing Solomon had in his eye when he brings in the Harlot thus courting the young man I have peace-offerings with me this day have I paid my Vows These presents were either made in specie the very money thus unrighteously gotten or in Sacrifices bought with it and offered at the Temple the remainders whereof were taken and sold among the ordinary sacrificial portions This as it holds the nearest correspondence with the rest of the rites here forbidden so could it not chuse but be a mighty scandal to the Jews it being so particularly prohibited in their Law Thou shalt not bring the hire of an Whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any Vow for it is an abomination to the Lord. 6. THESE prohibitions here laid upon the Gentiles were by the Apostles intended only for a temporary compliance with the Jewish Converts till they could by degrees be brought off from their stiffness and obstinacy and then the reason of the thing ceasing the obligation to it must needs cease and fail Nay we may observe that even while the Apostolical decree lasted in its greatest force and power in those places where there were few or no Jewish Converts the Apostle did not stick to give leave that except in case of scandal any kind of meats even the portions of the Idol-sacrifices might be indifferently bought and taken by Christians as well as Heathens These were all which in order to the satisfaction of the Jews and for the present peace of the Church the Apostles thought necessary to require of the Converted Gentiles but that for all the rest they were perfectly free from legal observances obliged only to the commands of Christianity So that the Apostolical decision that was made of this matter was this That besides the temporary observation of those few indifferent rites before mentioned the belief and practice of the Christian Religion was perfectly sufficient to Salvation without Circumcision and the observation of the Mosaick Law This Synodical determination allayed the controversie for a while being joyfully received by the Gentile-Christians But alas the Jewish zeal began again to ferment and spread it self they could not with any patience endure to see their beloved Moses deserted and those venerable Institutions trodden down and therefore laboured to keep up their credit and still to assert them as necessary to Salvation Than which nothing created S. Paul greater trouble at every turn being forced to contend against these Judaizing teachers almost in every Church where he came as appears by that great part that they bear in all his Epistles especially that to the Romans and Galatians where this leaven had most diffused it self whom the better to undeceive he discourses at large of the nature and institution the end and design the antiquating and abolishing of that Mosaick Covenant which these men laid so much stress and weight upon 7. HENCE then we pass to the third thing considerable for the clearing of this matter which is to shew that the main passages in Paul's Epistles concerning Justification and Salvation have an immediate reference to this controversie But before we enter upon that something must necessarily be premised for the explicating some terms and phrases frequently used by our Apostle in this question these two especially what he means by Law and what by Faith By Law then 't is plain he usually understands the Jewish Law which was a complex body of Laws containing Moral Ceremonial and Judicial precepts each of which had its use and office as a great instrument of duty The Judicial Laws being peculiar Statutes accommodated to the state of the Jew's Commonwealth as all civil constitutions restrained men from the external acts of sin The Ceremonial Laws came somewhat nearer and besides their Typical relation to the Evangelical state by external and symbolical representments signified
Macedonia where the Gentiles to make an experiment of his Faith and Integrity gave him a poisonous and intoxicating potion which he chearfully drunk off in the name of Christ without the least prejudice to himself and that when the same potion had deprived above two hundred and fifty of their sight he laying his hands upon them restored them to their sight with a great deal more of the same stamp which I have neither faith enough to believe nor leisure enough to relate The Greeks with more probability report him to have travelled Eastward he came says Nicephorus into the first says Sophronius into the second Aethiopia and in both I believe it is a mistake either of the Authors or Transcribers for Cappadocia his residence being principally near the irruption of the River Apsarus and the Haven Hyssus both places in Cappadocia Nor is there any Aethiopia nearer those places than that conterminous to Chaldaea whereof before And as for those that tell us that he might well enough preach both in the Asian and African Aethiopia and that both might be comprehended under that general name as the Eastern and Western parts of the World were heretofore contained under the general title of the India's it's a fancy without any other ground to stand on than their own bare conjecture The place whither he came was very barbarous and his usage was accordingly For here meeting with a people of a fierce and intractable temper he was treated by them with great rudeness and inhumanity from whom after all his labours and sufferings and a numerous conversion of men to Christianity he obtained at last the crown of Martyrdom Ann. Chr. LXI or as others LXIV Little certainty can be retrieved concerning the manner of his death Dorotheus will have him to die at Sebastople and to be buried there near the Temple of the Sun An ancient Martyrologie reports him to have been seized by the Jews and as a blasphemer to have been first stoned and then beheaded But the Greek Offices seconded herein by several ancient Breviaries tell us that he was crucified and that as Judas was hanged upon a Tree so Matthias suffered upon a Cross. His Body is said to have been kept a long time at Jerusalem thence thought by Helen the Mother of the Great Constantine to have been translated to Rome where some parts of it are shewed with great veneration at this day Though others with as great eagerness and probably as much truth contend that his Reliques were brought to and are still preserved at Triers in Germany a controversie wherein I shall not concern my self His memory is celebrated in the Greek Church August the IX as appears not only from their Menologies but from a Novel constitution of Manuel Comnenus appointing what holy days should be kept in the Church while the Western Churches keep February XXIV sacred to his memory Among many other Apocryphal writings attributed to the Apostles there was a Gospel published under his name mentioned by Eusebius and the Ancients and condemned with the rest by Gelasius Bishop of Rome as it had been rejected by others before him Under his name also there were extant Traditions cited by Clemens of Alexandria from whence no question it was that the Nicolaitans borrowed that saying of his which they abused to so vile and beastly purposes as under the pretended patronage of his name and doctrines the Marcionites and Valentinians defended some of their most absurd and impious opinions The End of S. Matthias 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MARK the Evangelist The Evangelist St. Mark He having been the Coadiutor of St. Paul St. Peter severally at Alexandria planted governd a Church and there by the violence of the Pagan multitude suffered Martyrdom AD. 64. Baron Centur St. Mark 's Martyrdom Hebr. 11.35 Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection Of whom the world was not worthy His Kindred and distinction from others of the same Name Whether one of the Seventy His Conversion His attendance upon Peter and Preaching the Gospel in Italy and at Rome His planting Christianity at Alexandria and great success there An account of the Therapeutae mentioned by Philo and their excellent manners rules and way of Life These proved not to have been Christians by several arguments The Original of the mistake whence S. Mark 's Preaching in the Parts of Africk His return to Alexandria and diligence in his Ministry The manner of his Martyrdom The time of it enquired into The description of his Person His Gospel when and where written and why said to be Peter ' s. His great impartiality in his Relations In what Language written The Original whether extant at this Day 1. SAINT Mark though carrying something of Roman in his Name probably assumed by him upon some great change or accident of his Life or which was not unusual among the Jews when going into the European Provinces of the Roman Empire taken up at his going for Italy and Rome was doubtless born of Jewish Parents originally descended of the Tribe of Levi and the Line of the Priesthood and if Nicephorus say true Sister 's Son to Peter though by others against all reason confounded with John sirnamed Mark the Son of Mary and Mark Sisters Son to Barnabas By the Ancients he is generally thought to have been one of the Seventy Disciples and Epiphanius expresly tell us that he was one of those who taking exception at our Lord's discourse of eating his Flesh and drinking his Bloud went back and walked no more with him but was seasonably reduced and reclaimed by Peter But no foundation appears either for the one or for the other nay Papias Bishop of Hierapolis who lived near those times positively affirms that he was no hearer nor follower of our Saviour He was converted by some of the Apostles and probably by S. Peter who is said to have been his undertaker at his Baptism if I understand Isidore aright for no other reason I suppose than because he calls him his Son Indeed he was his constant attendant in his Travels supplying the place of an Amanuensis and Interpreter for though the Apostles were Divinely inspired and among other miraculous powers had the gift of Languages conferred upon them yet was the interpretation of Tongues a gift more peculiar to some than others This might probably be S. Mark 's Talent in expounding S. Peter's Discourses whether by word or writing to those who understood not the Language wherein they were delivered He accompanied him in his Apostolical progress Preached the Gospel in Italy and at Rome where at the request of the Christians of those Parts he composed and wrote his Gospel 2. BY Peter he was sent into Egypt to plant Christianity in those Parts fixing his main residence at Alexandria and the places thereabouts where so great says Eusebius
are those Jewish Chronologists who say that the Sect of the Pharisees arose in the times of Tiberius Caesar and Ptolomy the Aegyptian under whom the Septuagint translation was accomplished as if Ptolomy Philadelphus and Tiberius Caesar had been Contemporaries between whom there is the distance of no less than CCLX years But when ever it began a bold and daring Sect it was not fearing to affront Princes and persons of the greatest quality crafty and insinuative and who by a shew of great zeal and infinite strictness in Religion beyond the rate of other men had procured themselves a mighty reverence from the people so strict that as a Learned man observes Pharisee is used in the Talmudick writings to denote a pious and holy man and Benjamin the Jew speaking of R. Ascher says he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a truly devout man separate from the affairs of this world And yet under all this seeming severity they were but Religious villains spiteful and malicious griping and covetous great oppressors merciless dealers heady and seditious proud and scornful indeed guilty of most kinds of immorality of whose temper and manners I say the less in this place having elsewhere given an account of them They held that the Oral Law was of infinitely greater moment and value than the written Word that the Traditions of their fore-Fathers were above all things to be embraced and followed the strict observance whereof would entitle a man to Eternal Life that the Souls of men are Immortal and had their dooms awarded in the Subterraneous Regions that there is a Metempsuchosis or Transmigration of pious Souls out of one Body into another that things come to pass by fate and an inevitable necessity and yet that Man's will is free that by this means men might be rewarded and punished according to their works I add no more concerning them than that some great men of the Church of Rome say with some kind of boasting that such as were the Pharisees among the Jews such are the Religious they mean the Monastical Orders of their Church among Christians Much good may it do them with the comparison I confess my self so far of their mind that there is too great a conformity between them 23. NEXT the Pharisees come the Sadducees as opposite to them in their temper as their principles so called as Epiphanius and some others will have it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice as pretending themselves to be very just and righteous men but this agrees not with the account given of their lives They are generally thought to have been denominated from Sadock the Scholar of Antigonus Sochaeus who flourished about the year of the World MMMDCCXX CCLXXXIV years before the Nativity of our Saviour They pass under a very ill character even among the writers of their own Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious men and of very loose and debauched manners which is no more than what might be expected as the natural consequence of their principles this being one of their main dogmata or opinions that the Soul is not Immortal and that there is no future state after this life The occasion of which desperate principle is said to have been a mistake of the doctrine of their Master Antigonus who was wont to press his Scholars not to be like mercenary Servants who serve their Masters merely for what they can get by them but to serve God for himself without expectation of rewards This Sadock and Baithos two of his disciples misunderstanding thought their Master had peremptorily denied any state of future rewards and having laid this dangerous foundation these unhappy superstructures were built upon it that there is no Resurrection for if there be no reward what need that the Body should rise again that the Soul is not Immortal nor exists in the separate state for if it did it must be either rewarded or punished and if not the Soul then by the same proportion of reason no spiritual substance neither Angel nor Spirit that there is no Divine Providence but that God is perfectly placed as beyond the commission so beyond the inspection and regard of what sins or evils are done or happen in the World as indeed what great reason to believe a wise and righteous Providence if there be no reward or punishment for vertue and vice in another life These pernicious and Atheistical opinions justly exposed them to the reproach and hatred of the people who were wont eminently to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hereticks Infidels Epicureans no words being thought had enough to bestow upon them They rejected the Traditions so vehemently asserted by the Pharisees and taught that men were to keep to the Letter of the Law and that nothing was to be imposed either upon their belief or practice but what was expresly owned and contained in it Josephus observes that they were the fewest of all the Sects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but usually men of the better rank and quality as what wonder if rich and great men who tumble in the pleasures and advantages of a prosperous fortune be willing to take sanctuary at those opinions that afford the greatest patronage to looseness and debauchery and care not to hear of being called to account in another World for what they have done in this For this reason the Sadducees ever appeared the greatest sticklers to preserve the peace and were the most severe and implacable Justicers against the Authors or fomenters of tumults and seditions lest they should disturb and interrupt their soft and easie course of life the only happiness their principles allowed them to expect 24. THE Essenes succeed a Sect probably distinct from either of the former Passing by the various conjectures concerning the derivation of their name which when dressed up with all advantages are still but bare conjectures they began about the times of the Macchabees when the violent persecutions of Antiochus forced the Jews for their own safety to retire to the Woods and Mountains And though in time the storm blew over yet many of them were too well pleased with these undisturbed solitudes to return and therefore combined themselves into Religious societies leading a solitary and contemplative course of life and that in very great numbers there being usually above four thousand of them as both Philo and Josephus tell us Pliny takes notice of them and describes them to be a solitary generation remarkable above all others in this that they live without Women without any embraces without money conversing with nothing but Woods and Palm-trees that their number encreased every day as fast as any died persons flocking to them from all quarters to seek repose here after they had been wearied with the inquietudes of an improsperous fortune They paid a due reverence to the Temple by sending gifts and presents thither but yet worshipped God at home and used their own Rites and Ceremonies Every seventh day they
publickly met in their Synagogues where the younger seating themselves at the feet of the elder one reads some portions out of a Book which another eminently skilled in the principles of their Sect expounds to the rest their dogmata like the Philosophy of the Ancients being obscurely and enigmatically delivered to them instructing them in the rules of piety and righteousness and all the duties that concerned God others or themselves They industriously tilled and cultivated the ground and lived upon the fruits of their own labours had all their revenues in common there being neither rich nor poor among them Their manners were very harmless and innocent exact observers of the rules of Justice somewhat beyond the practice of other men As for that branch of them that lived in Egypt whose excellent Manners and Institutions are so particularly described and commended by Philo and whom Eusebius and others will needs have to have been Christians converted by S. Mark we have taken notice of elsewhere in S. Mark 's Life We find no mention of them in the History of the Gospel probably because living remote from Cities and all places of publick concourse they never concerned themselves in the actions of Christ or his Apostles What their principles were in matters of speculation is not much material to enquire their Institutions mainly referring to practice Out of a great regard to wisdom and vertue they neglected all care of the body renounced all conjugal embraces abstained very much from Meats and Drinks some of them not eating or drinking for three others for five or six days together accounting it unbecoming men of such a Philosophical temper and genius to spend any part of the day upon the necessities of the body Their way they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship and their rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doctrines of wisdom their contemplations were sublime and speculative and of things beyond the ordinary notions of other Sects they traded in the names and mysteries of Angels and in all their carriages bore a great shew of modesty and humility And therefore these in all likelihood were the very persons whom S. Paul primarily designed though not excluding others who espoused the same principles when he charges the Colossians to let no man beguile them of their reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind that being dead to the rudiments of the World they should no longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be subject to these dogmata or ordinances such as Touch not taste not handle not the main principles of the Essenian Institution being the commandments and doctrines of men which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Besides these three greater there were several other lesser Sects in the Jewish Church such as the Herodians supposed to have been either part of Herod's guard or a combination of men who to ingratiate themselves with the Prince maintained Herod to be the Messiah and at their own charge celebrated his Coronation-days as also the Sabbath when they used to set lighted Candles crowned with Violets in their windows an opinion which S. Hierom justly laughs at as trifling and ridiculous Probably they were a party that had espoused Herod's interest and endeavoured to support his new-gotten Soveraignty For Herod being a stranger and having by the Roman power usurped the Kingdom was generally hateful and burdensom to the people and therefore beside the assistance of a foreign power needed some to stand by him at home They were peculiarly active in pressing people to pay Tribute to Caesar Herod being obliged as S. Hierom observes by the Charter of his Soveraignty to look after the Tribute due to Caesar and they could not do him a more acceptable service by this means endearing him to his great Patrons at Rome In matters of opinion they seem to have sided with the Sadducees what S. Matthew calls the leaven of the Sadducees S. Mark stiles the leaven of Herod Probable it is that they had drawn Herod to be of their principles that as they asserted his right to the Kingdom he might favour and maintain their impious opinions And 't is likely enough that a man of so debauched manners might be easily tempted to take shelter under principles that so directly served the purposes of a bad life Another Sect in that Church were the Samaritans the posterity of those who succeeded in the room of the ten captivated Tribes a mixture of Jews and Gentiles they held that nothing but the Pentateuch was the Word of God that Mount Gerizim was the true place of publick and solemn worship that they were the descendents of Joseph and heirs of the Aaronical Priesthood and that no dealing or correspondence was to be maintained with strangers nor any unclean thing to be touched The Karraeans were a branch of the Sadducees but rejected afterwards their abominable and unsound opinions they are the true Textualists adhering only to the writings of Moses and the Prophets and expounding the Scripture by it self peremptorily disowning the absurd glosses of the Talmud and the idle Traditions of the Rabbins insomuch that they admit not so much as the Hebrew points into their Bibles accounting them part of the Oral and Traditionary Law for which reason they are greatly hated by the rest of the Jews They are in great numbers about Constantinople and in other places at this day There was also the Sect of the Zealots frequently mentioned by Josephus a Generation of men insolent and ungovernable fierce and savage who under a pretence of extraordinary zeal for God and the honour of his Law committed the most enormous outrages against God and Man but of them we have given an account in the Life of S. Simon the Zealot And yet as if all this had not been enough to render their Church miserable within it self their sins and intestine divisions had brought in the Roman power upon them who set Magistrates and Taskmasters over them depressed their great Sanhedrim put in and out Senators at pleasure made the Temple pay tribute and placed a Garrison at hand to command it abrogated a great part of their Laws and stript them so naked both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Order and Authority that they had not power left so much as to put a man to death All evident demonstrations that Shiloh was come and the Scepter departed that the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease the Messiah being cut off who came to finish transgression to make an end of sins to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness SECT III. Of the EVANGELICAL Dispensation The gradual revelations concerning the Messiah John the Baptist Christ 's forerunner His extraordinary Birth His austere Education and way of Life His Preaching what His