destroy himself but live and enjoy with him the pleasures of this life The Apostle told him that he should have with him eternal joys if renouncing his execrable idolatries he would heartily entertain Christianity which he had hitherto so successfully preached amongst them That answered the Proconsul is the very reason why I am so earnest with you to sacrifice to the Gods that those whom you have every where seduced may by your example be brought to return back to that ancient Religion which they have forsaken Otherwise I 'le cause you with exquisites tortures to be crucified The Apostle replied That now he saw it was in vain any longer to deal with him a person incapable of sober counsels and hardned in his own blindness and folly that as for himself he might do his worst and if he had one torment greater than another he might heap that upon him The greater constancy he shewed in his sufferings for Christ the more acceptable he should be to his Lord and Master AEgeas could now hold no longer but passed the sentence of death upon him and Nicephorus gives us some more particular account of the Proconsul's displeasure and rage against him which was that amongst others he had converted his wife Maximilla and his brother Stratocles to the Christian Faith having cured them of desperate distempers that had seised upon them 7. THE Proconsul first commanded him to be scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked body and seeing his invincible patience and constancy commanded him to be crucified but not to be fastned to the Cross with Nails but Cords that so his death might be more lingring and tedious As he was led to execution to which he went with a chearful and composed mind the people cried out that he was an innocent and good man and unjustly condemned to die Being come within sight of the Cross he saluted it with this kind of address That he had long desired and expected this happy hour that the Cross had been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it and adorned with his members as with so many inestimable Jewels that he came joyfull and triumphing to it that it might receive him as a disciple and follower of him who once hung upon it and be the means to carry him safe unto his Master having been the instrument upon which his Master had redeemed him Having prayed and exhorted the people to constancy and perseverance in that Religion which he had delivered to them he was fastned to the Cross whereon he hung two days teaching and instructing the people all the time and when great importunities in the mean while were used to the Proconsul to spare his life he earnestly begged of our Lord that he might at this time depart and seal the truth of his Religion with his bloud God heard his prayer and he immediately expired on the last of November though in what year no certain account can be recovered 8. THERE seems to have been something peculiar in that Cross that was the instrument of his martyrdom commonly affirmed to have been a Cross decussate two pieces of Timber crossing each other in the middle in the form of the letter X hence usually known by the name of S. Andrew's Cross though there want not those who affirm him to have been crucified upon an Olive Tree His body being taken down and embalmed was decently and honourably interred by Maximilla a Lady of great quality and estate and whom Nicephorus I know not upon what ground makes wise to the Proconsul As for that report of Gregory Bishop of Tours that on the Anniversary day of his Martyrdom there was wont to flow from S. Andrew's Tomb a most fragrant and precious oyl which according to its quantity denoted the scarceness or plenty of the following year and that the sick being anointed with this oyl were restored to their former health I leave to the Readers discretion to believe what he please of it For my part if any ground of truth in the story I believe it no more than that it was an exhalation and sweating sorth at some times of those rich costly perfumes and ointments wherewith his Body was embalmed after his crucisixion Though I must confess this conjecture to be impossible if it be true what my Author adds that some years the oyl burst out in such plenty that the stream arose to the middle of the Church His Body was afterwards by Constantine the Great solemnly removed to Constantinople and buried in the great Church which he had built to the honour of the Apostles Which being taken down some hundred years after by Justinian the Emperor in order to its reparation the Body was found in a wooden-Coffin and again reposed in its proper place 9. I SHALL conclude the History of this Apostle with that Encomiastick Character which one of the Ancients gives of him S. Andrew was the first-born of the Apostolick Quire the main and prime pillar of the Church a rock before the rock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of that foundation the first-fruits of the beginning a caller of others before he was called himself he preached that Gospel that was not yet believed or entertained revealed and made known that life to his brother which he had not yet perfectly learn'd himself So great treasures did that one question bring him Master where dwellest thou which he soon perceived by the answer given him and which he deeply pondered in his mind come and see How art thou become a Prophet whence thus Divinely skilful what is it that thou thus soundest in Peter's ears We have found him c. why dost thou attempt to compass him whom thou canst not comprehend how can he be found who is Omnipresent But he knew well what he said We have found him whom Adam lost whom Eve injured whom the clouds of sin have hidden from us and whom our transgressions had hitherto made a stranger to us c. So that of all our Lord's Apostles S. Andrew had thus far the honour to be the first Preacher of the Gospel The End of S. Andrew's Life THE LIFE OF S. JAMES the Great St. Iames Major He being the Son of Zebedee was at the Command of Herod beheaded at Hierusalem Ad. 122 St. James the Great his Martyrdom Act. 12. 1 2. About that time Herod the King streched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church And he killed James the brother of John with y e sword S. James why surnamed the Great His Country and kindred His alliance to Christ. His Trade and way of Life Our Lord brought up to a Manual Trade The quick reparteé of a Christian Schoolmaster to Libanius His being called to be a Disciple and great readiness to follow Christ. His election to the Apostolick Office and peculiar favours from Christ. Why our Lord chose some few of the Apostles to be witnesses of the more private passages of his
to natural light being conversant about those things that do not derive their value and authority from any arbitrary constitutions but from the moral and intrinsick nature of the things themselves These Laws as being the results and dictates of right reason are especially as to their first and more immediate emanations the same in all Men in the World and in all Times and Places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' as the Jewes call them Precepts that are evident among all Nations indeed they are interwoven into Mens nature inserted into the texture and constitution of their minds and do discover themselves as soon as ever they arrive to the free use and exercise of their reason That there are such Laws and Principles naturally planted in Mens breasts is evident from the consent of Mankind and the common experience of the World Whence else comes it to pass that all wicked Men even among the Heathens themselves after the commission of gross sins such as do more sensibly rouze and awaken conscience are filled with horrours and fears of punishment but because they are conscious to themselves of having violated some Law and Rule of Duty Now what Law can this be not the written and revealed Law for this the Heathens never had it must be therefore the inbred Law of Nature that 's born with them and fixed in their minds antecedently to any external revelation For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature by the light and evidence by the force and tendency of their natural notions and dictates the things contained in the Law these having not a Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reasonings of their minds in the mean while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by turns accusing or else excusing one another that is although they had not a written Law as the Jewes had of old and we Christians have at this day yet by the help of their natural Principles they performed the same actions and discharged the same Duties that are contained in and commanded by the written and external Law shewing by their practices that they had a Law some common notions of good and evil written in their hearts And to this their very Consciences bear witness for according as they either observe or break these natural Laws their Consciences do either acquit or condemn them Hence we find God in the very infancy of the World appealing to Gain for the truth of this as a thing sufficiently plain and obvious Why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be lift up able to walk with a pleased and a chearful countenance the great indication of a mind satisfied in the conscience of its duty but if thou doest not well sin lies at the door the punishments of sin will be ready to follow thee and conscience as a Minister of vengeance will perpetually pursue and haunt thee By these Laws Mankind was principally governed in the first Ages of the World there being for near Two Thousand Years no other fixed and standing Rule of Duty than the dictates of this Law of Nature those Principles of Vice and Vertue of Justice and Honesty that are written in the heart of every Man 3. THE Jewes very frequently tell us of some particular commands to the number of Seven which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Precepts of the Sons of Noah Six whereof were given to Adam and his Children and the Seventh given to Noah which they thus reckon up The first was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning strange worship that they should not give Divine honour to Idols or the Gods of the Heathens answerable to the two first commands of the Decalogue Thou shalt have no other Gods but me thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them or serve them for c. From the violation of this Law it was that Job one of the Patriarchs that lived under this dispensation solemnly purges himself when speaking concerning the worship of the Celestial Lights the great if not only Idolatry of those early Ages says he if I beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon walking in her brightness and my heart hath been secretly inticed or my mouth hath kissed my hand this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge for I should have denied the God that is above The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning blessing or worshipping that they should not blaspheme the Name of God This Law Job also had respect to when he was careful to sanctifie his Children and to propitiate the Divine Majesty for them every Morning for it may be said he that my Sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts The third was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the shedding of blood forbidding Man-slaughter a Law expresly renewed to Noah after the Flood and which possibly Job aimed at when he vindicates himself that he had not rejoyced at the destruction of him that hated him or lift up himself when evil found him Nor was all effusion of humane blood forbidden by this Law capital punishments being in some cases necessary for the preservation of humane Society but only that no Man should shed the blood of an innocent Person or pursue a private revenge without the warrant of publick Authority The fourth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the disclosing of uncleanness against filthiness and adultery unlawful marriages and incestuous mixtures If mine heart says Job in his Apology hath been deceived by a Woman or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door then let my Wife grind c. for this is an heinous crime yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges The fifth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning theft and rapine the invading another Man's right and property the violation of bargains and compacts the falsifying a Man's word or promise the deceiving of another by fraud lying or any evil arts From all which Job justifies himself that he had not walked with vanity nor had his foot hasted to deceit that his step had not turned out of the way nor his heart walked after his eyes nor any blot cleaved to his hands And elsewhere he bewails it as the great iniquity of the Times that there were some that removed the Land-marks that violently took away the Flocks and fed thereof that drove away the Asse of the Fatherless and took the Widows Oxe for a pledge that turned the needy out of the way and made the poor of the Earth hide themselves together c. The sixth was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
powers to reject any proposition and to believe well is an effect of a singular predestination and is a Gift in order to a Grace as that Grace is in order to Salvation But the insufficiency of an argument or disability to prove our Religion is so far from disabling the goodness of an ignorant man's Faith that as it may be as strong as the Faith of the greatest Scholar so it hath full as much excellency not of nature but in order to Divine acceptance For as he who believes upon the only stock of Education made no election of his Faith so he who believes what is demonstrably proved is forced by the demonstration to his choice Neither of them did 〈◊〉 and both of them may equally love the Article 3. So that since a 〈◊〉 Argument in a weak understanding does the same work that a strong Argument in a more 〈◊〉 and learned that is it convinces and makes Faith and yet neither of them is matter of choice if the thing believed be good and matter of 〈◊〉 or necessity the Faith is not rejected by God upon the weakness of the first nor accepted upon the strength of the latter principles when we are once in it will not be enquired by what entrance we passed thither whether God leads us or drives us in whether we come by Discourse or by Inspiration by the guide of an Angel or the conduct of Moses whether we be born or made Christians it is indifferent so we be there where we should be for this is but the gate of Duty and the entrance to Felicity For thus far Faith is but an act of the Understanding which is a natural Faculty serving indeed as an instrument to Godliness but of it self no part of it and it is just like fire producing its act inevitably and burning as long as it can without power to interrupt or suspend its action and therefore we cannot be more pleasing to God for understanding rightly than the fire is for burning clearly which puts us evidently upon this consideration that Christian Faith that glorious Duty which gives to Christians a great degree of approximation to God by Jesus Christ must have a great proportion of that ingredient which makes actions good or bad that is of choice and effect 4. For the Faith of a Christian hath more in it of the Will than of the Understanding Faith is that great mark of distinction which separates and gives formality to the Covenant of the Gospel which is a Law of Faith The Faith of a Christian is his Religion that is it is that whole conformity to the Institution or Discipline of Jesus Christ which distinguishes him from the believers of false Religions And to be one of the faithful signifies the same with being a Disciple and that contains Obedience as well as believing For to the same sense are all those appellatives in Scripture the Faithful Brethren Believers the Saints Disciples all representing the duty of a Christian A Believer and a Saint or a holy person is the same thing Brethren signifies Charity and Believers Faith in the intellectual sence the Faithful and Disciples signifie both for besides the consent to the Proposition the first of them is also used for Perseverance and Sanctity and the greatest of Charity mixt with a confident Faith up to the height of Martyrdom Be faithful unto the death said the Holy Spirit and I will give thee the Crown of life And when the Apostles by way of abbreviation express all the body of Christian Religion they call it Faith working by Love which also S. Paul in a parallel place calls a New Creature it is a keeping of the Commandments of God that is the Faith of a Christian into whose desinition Charity is ingredient whose sence is the same with keeping of God's Commandments so that if we desine Faith we must first distinguish it The faith of a natural person or the saith of Devils is a 〈◊〉 believing a certain number of Propositions upon conviction of the Understanding But the Faith of a Christian the Faith that justifies and saves him is Faith working by Charity or Faith keeping the Commandments of God They are distinct Faiths in order to different ends and therefore of different constitution and the instrument of distinction is Charity or Obedience 5. And this great Truth is clear in the perpetual testimony of Holy Scripture For Abraham is called the Father of the Faithful and yet our Blessed Saviour told the Jews that if they had been the sons of Abraham they would have done the works of Abraham and therefore Good works are by the Apostle called the sootsteps of the Faith of our Father Abraham For Faith in every of its stages at its first beginning at its increment at its greatest perfection is a Duty made up of the concurrence of the Will and the Understanding when it pretends to the Divine acceptance Faith and Repentance begin the Christian course Repent and believe the Gospel was the summ of the Apostles Sermons and all the way after it is Faith working by Love Repentance puts the first spirit and life into Faith and Charity preserves it and gives it nourishment and increase it self also growing by a mutual supply of spirits and nutriment from Faith Whoever does heartily believe a Resurrection and Life eternal upon certain Conditions will certainly endeavour to acquire the Promises by the Purchase of Obedience and observation of the Conditions For it is not in the nature or power of man directly to despise and reject so 〈◊〉 a good So that Faith supplies Charity with argument and maintenance and Charity supplies Faith with life and motion Faith makes Charity reasonable and Charity makes Faith living and effectual And therefore the old Greeks called Faith and Charity a miraculous Chariot or Yoke they bear the burthen of the Lord with an equal consederation these are like 〈◊〉 twins they live and die together Indeed Faith is the first-born of the twins but they must come both at a birth or else they die being strangled at the gates of the womb But if Charity like Jacob lays hold upon his elder brother's heel it makes a timely and a prosperous birth and gives certain title to the eternal Promises For let us give the right of primogeniture to Faith yet the Blessing yea and the Inheritance too will at last fall to Charity Not that Faith is disinherited but that Charity only enters into the possession The nature of Faith passes into the excellency of Charity before they can be rewarded and that both may have their estimate that which justifies and saves us keeps the name of Faith but doth not do the deed till it hath the nature of Charity For to think well or to have a good opinion or an excellent or a fortunate understanding entitles us not to the love of God and the consequent inheritance but to chuse the ways of the Spirit and
God as holy Places of Religion must rise highest in this account I mean higher than any other places And this is besides the honour which God hath put upon them by his presence his title to them w ch in all Religions he hath signified to us 4. Indeed among the Jews as God had confined his Church and the rites of Religion to be used only in communion and participation with the Nation so also he had limited his Presence and was more sparing of it than in the time of the Gospel his Son declared he would be It was said of old that at Jerusalem men ought to worship that is by a solemn publick and great address in the capital expresses of Religion in the distinguishing rites of Liturgy for else it had been no new thing For in ordinary Prayers God was then and long before pleased to hear Jeremy in the dungeon Manasses in prison Daniel in the Lion's den Jonas in the belly of the deep and in the offices yet more solemn in the Proseuchae in the houses of prayer which the Jews had not only in their dispersion but even in Palestine for their diurnal and nocturnal offices But when the Holy Jesus had broken down the partition-wall then the most solemn Offices of Religion were as unlimited as their private Devotions were before for where-ever a Temple should be built thither God would come if he were worshipped spirituallly and in truth that is according to the rites of Christ who is Grace and Truth and the dictate of the Spirit and analogy of the Gospel All places were now alike to build Churches in or Memorials for God God's houses And that our Blessed Saviour discourses of places of publick Worship to the woman of Samaria is notorious because the whole question was concerning the great addresses of Moses's rites whether at Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim which were the places of the right and the 〈◊〉 Temple the 〈◊〉 of the whole Religion and in antithesis Jesus said Nor here nor there shall be the solemnities of address to God but in all places you may build a Temple and God will dwell in it 5. And this hath descended from the first beginnings of Religion down to the consummation of it in the perfections of the Gospel For the Apostles of our Lord carried the Offices of the Gospel into the Temple of Jerusalem there they preached and prayed and payed Vows but never that we read of offered Sacrifice which 〈◊〉 that the Offices purely Evangelical were proper to be done in any of God's proper places and that thither they went not in compliance with Moses's Rites but merely for Gospel-duties or for such Offices which were common to Moses and Christ such as were Prayers and Vows While the Temple was yet standing they had peculiar places for the Assemblies of the faithful where either by accident or observation or Religion or choice they met regularly And I instance in the house of John surnamed Mark which as Alexander reports in the life of S. Barnabas was consecrated by many actions of Religion by our Blessed Saviour's eating the 〈◊〉 his Institution of the holy Eucharist his Farewell-Sermon and the Apostles met there in the Octaves of Easter whither Christ came again and hallowed it with his presence and there to make up the relative Sanctification complete the Holy Ghost descended upon their heads in the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and this was erected into a fair 〈◊〉 and is mentioned as a famous Church by S. Jerome and V. Bede in which as 〈◊〉 adds S. Peter preached that 〈◊〉 which was miraculoasly prosperous in the Conversion of three thousand there S. James Brother of our Lord was 〈◊〉 first Bishop of Jerusalem S. Stephen and the other six were there ordained Deacons there the Apostles kept their first Council and 〈◊〉 their Creed by these actions and their frequent conventions shewing the same reason order and prudence of Religion in 〈◊〉 of special places of Divine service which were ever observed by all the Nations and Religions and wise men of the world And it were a strange imagination to 〈◊〉 that in Christian Religion there is any principle contrary to that wisdom or God and all the world which for order for necessity for convenience for the solemnity of Worship hath set apart Places for God and for Religion Private Prayer had always an unlimited residence and relation even under Moses's Law but the publick solemn Prayer of 〈◊〉 in the Law of Moses was restrained to one Temple In the Law of Nature it was not confined to one but yet determined to publick and solemn places and when the Holy Jesus disparked the inclosures of Moses we all returned to the permissions and liberty of the Natural Law in which although the publick and solemn Prayers were confined to a Temple yet the Temple was not consined to a place but they might be any-where so they were at all instruments of order conveniences of assembling residences of Religion and God who always loved order and was apt to hear all holy and prudent Prayers and therefore also the Prayers of Consecration hath often declared that he loves such Places that he will dwell in them not that they are advantages to him but that he is pleased to make them so to us And therefore all Nations of the world built publick Houses for Religion and since all Ages of the Church did so too it had need be a strong and a convincing argument that must shew they were deceived And if any man list to be 〈◊〉 he must be answered with S. Paul's reproof We have no such custom nor the Churches of God 6. Thus S. Paul reproved the Corinthians for despising the Church of God by such uses which were therefore unsit for God's because they were proper for their own that is for common houses And although they were at first and in the descending Ages so afflicted by the tyranny of enemies that they could not build many Churches yet some they did and the Churches themselves suffered part of the persecution For so 〈◊〉 reports that when under Severus and Gordianus 〈◊〉 and Galienus the Christian affairs were in a tolerable condition they built Churches in great number and expence But when the Persecution waxed hot under Diocletian down went the Churches upon a design to extinguish or disadvantage the Religion Maximinus gave leave to re-build them Upon which Rescript saith the story the Christians were overjoyed and raised them up to an incredible height and incomparable beauty This was Christian Religion then and so it hath continued-ever since and unless we should have new reason and new revelation it must continue so till our Churches are exchanged for Thrones and our Chappels for seats placed before the Lamb in the eternal Temple of celestial Jerusalem 7. And to this purpose it is observed that the Holy Jesus first ejected the Beasts of Sacrifice out of the Temple and then proclaimed the Place
no-where punctually described he that is most severe in his determination does best secure himself and by exacting the strictest account of himself shall obtain the easier scrutiny at the hands of God The use I make of this consideration is to the same purpose with the former For if every day of sin and every criminal act is a degree of recess from the possibilities of Heaven it would be considered at how great distance a death-bed Penitent after a vicious life may apprehend himself to stand for mercy and pardon and since the terms of restitution must in labour and in extension of time or intension of degrees be of value great enough to restore him to some proportion or equivalence with that state of Grace from whence he is fallen and upon which the Covenant was made with him how impossible or how near to impossible it will appear to him to go so far and do so much in that state and in those circumstances of disability 32. Concerning the third particular I consider that Repentance as it is described in Scripture is a system of holy Duties not of one kind not properly consisting of parts as if it were a single Grace but it is the reparation of that estate into which Christ first put us a renewing us in the spirit of our mind so the Apostle calls it and the Holy Ghost hath taught this truth to us by the implication of many appellatives and also by express discourses For there is in Scripture a Repentance to be repented of and a Repentance never to be repented of The first is mere Sorrow for what is past an ineffective trouble producing nothing good such as was the Repentance of Judas he repented and hanged himself and such was that of Esau when it was too late and so was the Repentance of the five foolish Virgins which examples tell us also when ours is an impertinent and ineffectual Repentance To this Repentance Pardon is nowhere promised in Scripture But there is a Repentance which is called Conversion or Amendment of life a Repentance productive of holy fruits such as the Baptist and our Blessed Saviour preached such as himself also propounded in the example of the Ninivites they repented at the preaching of Jonah that is they fasted they covered them in sackcloth they cried mightily unto God yea they turned every one from his evil way and from the violence that was in their hands And this was it that appeased God in that instance God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil and did it not 33. The same Character of Repentance we find in the Prophet Ezekiel When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he had robbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die And in the Gospel Repentance is described with as full and intire comprehensions as in the old Prophets For Faith and Repentance are the whole duty of the Gospel Faith when it is in conjunction with a practical grace signifies an intellectual Faith signifies the submission of the understanding to the Institution and Repentance includes all that whole practice which is the intire duty of a Christian after he hath been overtaken in a fault And therefore Repentance first includes a renunciation and abolition of all evil and then also enjoyns a pursuit of every vertue and that till they arrive at an habitual confirmation 34. Of the first sence are all those expressions of Scripture which imply Repentance to be the deletery of sins Repentance from dead works S. Paul affirms to be the prime Fundamental of the Religion that is conversion or returning from dead works for unless Repentance be so construed it is not good sence And this is therefore highly verified because Repentance is intended to set us into the condition of our first undertaking and articles covenanted with God And therefore it is a redemption of the time that is a recovering what we lost and making it up by our doubled industry Remember whence thou art fallen repent that is return and do thy first works said the Spirit to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus or else I will remove the Candlestick except thou repent It is a restitution If a man be overtaken in a fault restore such a one that is put him where he was And then that Repentance also implies a doing all good is certain by the Sermon of the Baptist Bring forth fruits meet for Repentance Do thy first works was the Sermon of the Spirit Laying aside every weight and the sin that easily encircles us let us run with patience the race that is set before us So S. Paul taught And S. Peter gives charge that when we have escaped the corruptions of the world and of lusts besides this we give all diligence to acquire the rosary and conjugation of Christian vertues And they are proper effects or rather constituent parts of a holy Repentance For godly sorrow worketh Repentance saith S. Paul not to be repented of and that ye may know what is signified by Repentance behold the product was carefulness clearing of themselves indignation fear vehement desires zeal and revenge to which if we add the Epithet of holy for these were the results of a godly sorrow and the members of a Repentance not to be repented of we are taught that Repentance besides the purging out the malice of iniquity is also a sanctification of the whole man a turning Nature into Grace Passions into Reason and the flesh into spirit 35. To this purpose I reckon those Phrases of Scripture calling it a renewing of our minds a renewing of the Holy Ghost a cleansing of our hands and purifying our hearts that is a becoming holy in our affections and righteous in our actions a a transformation or utter change a crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts a mortified state a purging out the old leven and becoming a new conspersion a waking out of sleep and walking honestly as in the day a being born again and being born from above a new life And I consider that these preparative actions of Repentance such as are Sorrow and Confession of sins and Fasting and exteriour Mortifications and severities are but fore-runners of Repentance some of the retinue and they are of the family but they no more complete the duty of Repentance than the harbingers are the whole Court or than the Fingers are all the body There is more joy in Heaven said our Blessed Saviour over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety nine just persons who need no repentance There is no man but needs a tear and a sorrow even for
it be demanded How long time must our Repentance and holy living take up what is the last period of commencement of our Piety after which it will be unaccepted or ineffectual will a month or a year or three years or seven suffice For since every man fails of his first condition and makes violent recessions from the state of his Redemption and his Baptismal grace how long may he lie in that state of recession with hopes of Salvation To this I answer He cannot lie in sin a moment without hazarding his Eternity every instant is a danger and all the parts of its duration do increase it and there is no answer to be given antecedently and by way of rule but all the hopes of our restitution depends upon the event It is just as if we should ask How long will it be before an Infant comes to the perfect use of Reason or before a fool will become wise or an ignorant person become excellently learned The answer to such questions must be given according to the capacity of the man to the industry of his person to his opportunities or hinderances to his life and health and to God's blessing upon him Only this every day of deferring it lessens our hopes and increases the difficulty and when this increasing divisible difficulty comes to the last period of impossibility God only knows because he measures the thoughts of man and comprehends his powers in a span and himself only can tell how he will correspond in those assistences without which we can never be restored Agree with thy adversary quickly while thou art in the way Quickly And therefore the Scripture sets down no other time than to day while it is yet called to day But because it will every day be called to day we must remember that our duty is such as requires a time a duration it is a course a race that is set before us a duty requiring patience and longanimity and perseverance and great care and diligence that we faint not And supposing we could gather probably by circumstances when the last period of our hopes begins yet he that stands out as long as he can gives probation that he came not in of good will or choice that he loves not the present service that his body is present but his heart is estranged from the yoak of his present imployment and then all that he can do is odious to God being a sacrifice without a heart an offertory of shells and husks while the Devil and the Man's Lusts have devoured the Kernels 49. So that this question is not to be asked beforehand but after a man hath done much of the work and in some sence lived holily then he may enquire into his condition whether if he persevere in that he may hope for the mercies of Jesus But he that enquires beforehand as commonly he means ill so he can be answered by none but God because the satisfaction of such a vain question depends upon future contingencies and accidents depending upon God's secret pleasure and predestination He that repents but to day repents late enough that he put it off from yesterday It may be that some may begin to day and find mercy and to another person it may be too late but no man is safe or wise that puts it off till to morrow And that it may appear how necessary it is to begin early and that the work is of difficulty and continuance and that time still encreases the objections it is certain that all the time that is lost must be redeemed by something in the sequel equivalent or sit to make up the breach and to cure the wounds long since made and long festering and this must be done by doing the first works by something that God hath declared he will accept in stead of them the intension of the following actions and the frequent repetition must make up the defect in the extension and coexistence with a longer time It was an act of an heroical Repentance and great detestation of the crime which Thomas Cantipratanus relates of a young Gentleman condemned to die for robberies who endeavouring to testifie his Repentance and as far as was then permitted him to expiate the crime begged of the Judge that tormentors might be appointed him that he might be long a dying and be cut in small pieces that the severity of the execution might be proportionable to the immensity of his sorrow and greatness of the iniquity Such great acts do facilitate our Pardon and hasten the Restitution and in a few days comprise the elapsed duty of many moneth 's but to relie upon such acts is the last remedy and like unlikely Physick to a despairing person if it does well it is well if it happen otherwise he must thank himself it is but what in reason he could expect The Romans sacrificed a Dog to Mana Geneta and prayed Ne quis domi natorum bonus fiat that none of their Domesticks might be good that is that they might not die saith Plutarch because dead people are called good But if they be so only when they die they will hardly find the reward of goodness in the reckonings of Eternity when to kill and to make good is all one as Aristole observed it to be in the Spartan Covenant with the Tegeatae and as it is in the case of Penitents never mending their lives till their lives be done that goodness is fatal and the prologue of an eternal death 50. I conclude this point with the words of S. Paul God will render to every man according to his deeds To them 〈◊〉 by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them 〈◊〉 life But to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness to them indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil 51. Having now discoursed of Repentance upon distinct principles I shall not need to consider upon those particulars which are usually reckoned parts or instances of Repentance such as are Contrition Confession and Satisfaction Repentance is the fulfilling all righteousness and includes in it whatsoever is matter of Christian duty and expresly commanded such as is Contrition or godly Sorrow and Confession to God both which are declared in Scripture to be in order to Pardon and purgation of our sins A contrite and a broken heart O God thou wilt not despise and If we consess our sins God is just and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity To which add concerning Satisfaction that it is a judging and punishing of our selves that it also is an instrument of Repentance and a fruit of godly sorrow and of good advantage for obtaining mercy of God For indignation and revenge are reckoned by S. Paul effects of a godly sorrow and the blessing which encourages its practice is instanced by
a sesterce was the loss of a moral 〈◊〉 and every gaining of a talent was an action glorious and heroical But Poverty of spirit accounts Riches to be the servants of God first and then of our selves being sent by God and to return when he pleases and all the while they are with us to do his business It is a looking upon riches and things of the earth as they do who look upon it from Heaven to whom it appears little and unprofitable And because the residence of this blessed Poverty is in the mind it follows that it be here understood that all that exinanition and renunciation abjection and humility of mind which depauperates the spirit making it less worldly and more spiritual is the duty here enjoyned For if a man throws away his gold as did Crates the Theban or the proud Philosopher Diogenes and yet leaves a spirit high aiery phantastical and vain pleasing himself and with complacency reflecting upon his own act his Poverty is but a circumstance of Pride and the opportunity of an imaginary and a secular greatness Ananias and Sapphira renounced the world by selling their possessions but because they were not poor in spirit but still retained the affections to the world therefore they kept back part of the price and lost their hopes The Church of Laodicea was possessed with a spirit of Pride and flattered themselves in imaginary riches they were not poor in spirit but they were poor in possession and condition These wanted Humility the other wanted a generous contempt of worldly things and both were destitute of this Grace 5. The acts of this Grace are 1. To cast off all inordinate affection to Riches 2. In heart and spirit that is preparation of mind to quit the possession of all Riches and actually so to do when God requires it that is when the retaining Riches loses a Vertue 3. To be well pleased with the whole oeconomy of God his providence and dispensation of all things being contented in all estates 4. To imploy that wealth God hath given us in actions of Justice and Religion 5. To be thankful to God in all temporal losses 6. Not to distrust God or to be solicitous and fearful of want in the future 7. To put off the spirit of vanity pride and phantastick complacency in our selves thinking lowly or meanly of whatsoever we are or do 8. To prefer others before our selves doing honour and prelation to them and either contentedly receiving affronts done to us or modestly undervaluing our selves 9. Not to praise our selves but when God's glory and the edification of our neighbour is concerned in it nor willingly to hear others praise us 10. To despoil our selves of all interiour propriety denying our own will in all instances of subordination to our Superiours and our own judgment in matters of difficulty and question permitting our selves and our affairs to the advice of wiser men and the decision of those who are trusted with the cure of our Souls 11. Emptying our selves of our selves and throwing our selves wholly upon God relying upon his Providence trusting his Promises craving his Grace and depending upon his strength for all our actions and deliverances and duties 6. The reward promised is the Kingdome of Heaven Fear not little Flock it is your Father's pleasure to give you a Kingdom To be little in our own eyes is to be great in God's the Poverty of the spirit shall be rewarded with the Riches of the Kingdoms of both Kingdoms that of Heaven is expressed Poverty is the high-way of Eternity But therefore the Kingdom of Grace is taken in the way the way to our Countrey and it being the forerunner of glory and nothing else but an antedated Eternity is part of the reward as well as of our duty And therefore whatsoever is signified by Kingdome in the appropriate Evangelical sense is there intended as a recompence For the Kingdom of the Gospel is a congregation and society of Christ's poor of his little ones they are the Communion of Saints and their present entertainment is knowledge of the truth remission of sins the gift of the Holy Ghost and what else in Scripture is signified to be a part or grace or condition of the Kingdom For to the poor the Gospel is preached that is to the poor the Kingdome is promised and ministred 7. Secondly Blessed are they that Mourn for they shall be comforted This duty of Christian mourning is commanded not for it self but in order to many good ends It is in order to Patience Tribulation worketh Patience and therefore we glory in them saith S. Paul and S. James My brethren count it all joy when ye enter into divers temptations Knowing that the trial of your faith viz. by afflictions worketh Patience 2. It is in order to Repentance Godly sorrow worketh Repentance By consequence it is in order to Pardon for a contrite heart God will not reject And after all this it leads to Joy And therefore S. James preached a Homily of Sorrow Be afflicted and mourn and weep that is in penitential mourning for he adds Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up The acts of this duty are 1. To bewail our own sins 2. To lament our infirmities as they are principles of sin and recessions from our first state 3. To weep for our own evils and sad accidents as they are issues of the Divine anger 4. To be sad for the miseries and calamities of the Church or of any member of it and indeed to weep with every one that weeps that is not to rejoyce in his evil but to be compassionate and pitiful and apt to bear another's burthen 5. To avoid all loose and immoderate laughter all dissolution of spirit and manners uncomely jestings free revellings carnivals and balls which are the perdition of precious hours allowed us for Repentance and possibilities of Heaven which are the instruments of infinite vanity idle talking impertinency and lust and very much below the severity and retiredness of a Christian spirit Of this Christ became to us the great example for S. Basil reports a tradition of him that he never laughed but wept often And if we mourn with him we also shall rejoyce in the joys of eternity 8. Thirdly Blessed are the Meek for they shall possess the earth That is the gentle and softer spirits persons not turbulent or unquiet not clamorous or impatient not over-bold or impudent not querulous or discontented not brawlers or contentious not nice or curious but men who submit to God and know no choice of fortune or imployment or success but what God chuses for them having peace at home because nothing from without does discompose their spirit In summe Meekness is an indifferency to any exteriour accident a being reconciled to all conditions and instances of Providence a reducing our selves to such an evenness and interiour satisfaction
upon whom no such visible signatures have been imprinted The purpose of such chances is that we should repent lest we perish in the like judgment 28. About this time a certain Ruler of a Synagogue renewed the old Question about the observation of the Sabbath repining at Jesus that he cured a woman that was crooked loosing her from her infirmity with which she had been afflicted eighteen years But Jesus made the man ashamed by an argument from their own practice who themselves loose an oxe from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him to watering And by the same argument he also stopt the mouths of the Scribes and Pharisees which were open upon him for curing an Hydropick person upon the Sabbath For Jesus that he might draw off and separate Christianity from the yoke of Ceremonies by abolishing and taking off the strictest Mosaical Rites chose to do very many of his Miracles upon the Sabbath that he might do the work of abrogation and institution both at once not much unlike the Sabbatical Pool in Judaea which was dry six days but gushed out in a full stream upon the Sabbath For though upon all days Christ was operative and miraculous yet many reasons did concur and determine him to a more frequent working upon those days of publick ceremony and convention But going forth from thence he went up and down the Cities of Galilee re-enforcing the same Doctrine he had formerly taught them and daily adding new Precepts and cautions and prudent insinuations advertising of the multitudes of them that perish and the paucity of them that shall be saved and that we should strive to enter in at the strait gate that the way to destruction is broad and plausible the way to Heaven nice and austere and few there be that find it teaches them modesty at Feasts and entertainments of the poor discourses of the many excuses and unwillingnesses of persons who were invited to the feast of the Kingdom the refreshments of the Gospel and tacitly insinuates the rejection of the Jews who were the first invited and the calling of the Gentiles who were the persons called in from the high ways and hedges He reprehends Herod for his subtilty and design to kill him prophesies that he should die at Jerusalem and intimates great sadnesses future to them for neglecting this their day of visitation and for killing the Prophets and the Messengers sent from God 29. It now grew towards Winter and the Jews feast of Dedication was at hand therefore Jesus went up to Jerusalem to the Feast where he preached in Solomon's Porch which part of the Temple stood intire from the first ruines and the end of his Sermon was that the Jews had like to have stoned him But retiring from thence he went beyond Jordan where he taught the people in a most elegant and perswasive Parable concerning the mercy of God in accepting Penitents in the Parable of the Prodigal son returning discourses of the design of the Messias coming into the world to recover erring persons from their sin and danger in the Apologues of the Lost sheep and Goat and under the representment of an Unjust but prudent Steward he taught us so to employ our present opportunities and estates by laying them out in acts of Mercy and Religion that when our Souls shall be dismissed from the stewardship and custody of our body we may be entertained in everlasting habitations He instructeth the Pharisees in the question of Divorces limiting the permissions of Separations to the only cause of Fornication preferreth holy Coelibate before the estate of Marriage in them to whom the gift of Continency is given in order to the Kingdom of Heaven He telleth a Story or a Parable for which is uncertain of a Rich man whom Euthymius out of the tradition of the Hebrews nameth Nymensis and Lazarus the first a voluptuous person and uncharitable the other pious afflicted sick and a begger the first died and went to Hell the second to Abraham's bosome God so ordering the dispensation of good things that we cannot easily enjoy two Heavens nor shall the infelicities of our lives if we be pious end otherwise than in a beatified condition The Epilogue of which story discovered this truth also That the ordinary means of Salvation are the express revelations of Scripture and the ministeries of God's appointment and whosoever neglects these shall not be supplied with means extraordinary or if he were they would be totally ineffectual 30. And still the people drew water from the fountains of our Saviour which streamed out in a full and continual emanation For adding wave to wave line to line precept upon precept he reproved the Fastidiousness of the Pharisee that came with Eucharist to God and contempt to his brother and commended the Humility of the Publican's address who came deploring his sins and with modesty and penance and importunity begged and obtained a mercy Then he laid hands upon certain young children and gave them benediction charging his Apostles to admit infants to him because to them in person and to such in embleme and signification the Kingdom of Heaven does appertain He instructs a young man in the ways and counsels of perfection besides the observation of Precepts by heroical Renunciations and acts of munificent Charity Which discourse because it alighted upon an indisposed and an unfortunate subject for the young man was very rich Jesus discourses how hard it is for a rich man to be saved but he expounds himself to mean they that trust in riches and however it is a matter of so great temptation that it is almost impossible to escape yet with God nothing is impossible But when the Apostles heard the Master bidding the young man sell all and give to the poor and follow him and for his reward promised him a heavenly treasure Peter in the name of the rest began to think that this was their case and the promise also might concern them but they asked the Question What shall we have who have forsaken all and followed thee Jesus answered that they should sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel 31. And Jesus extended this mercy to every Disciple that should forsake either house or wife or children or any thing for his sake and the Gospel's and that they should receive a hundred fold in this life by way of comfort and equivalency and in the world to come thousands of glories and possessions in fruition and redundancy For they that are last shall be first and the first shall be last and the despised people of this world shall reign like Kings and contempt it self shall swell up into glory and poverty into an eternal satisfaction And these rewards shall not be accounted according to the priviledges of Nations or priority of vocation but readiness of mind and obedience and sedulity of operation after calling which Jesus taught his Disciples in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard to whom the
not absolutely priviledg'd from failures and miscarriages in their lives these being of more personal and private consideration yet were they infallible in their Doctrine this being a matter whereupon the salvation and eternal interests of men did depend And for this end they had the spirit of truth promised to them who should guide them into all truth Under the conduct of this unerring Guide they all steer'd the same course taught and spake the same things though at different times and in distant places and for what was consign'd to writing all Scripture was given by inspiration of God and the holy men spake not but as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Hence that exact and admirable harmony that is in all their writings and relations as being all equally dictated by the same spirit of truth Thirdly They had been eye-witnesses of all the material passages of our Saviour's life continually conversant with him from the commencing of his publick ministery till his ascension into heaven they had survey'd all his actions seen all his miracles observ'd the whole method of his conversation and some of them attended him in his most private solitudes and retirements And this could not but be a very rational satisfaction to the minds of men when the publishers of the Gospel solemnly declared to the world that they reported nothing concerning our Saviour but what they had seen with their own eyes and of the truth whereof they were as competent Judges as the acutest Philosopher in the world Nor could there be any just 〈◊〉 to suspect that they impos'd upon men in what they delivered for besides their naked plainness and simplicity in all other passages of their lives they chearfully submitted to the most exquisire hardships tortures and sufferings meerly to attest the truth of what they published to the World Next to the evidence of our own senses no testimony is more valid and forcible than his who relates what himself has seen Upon this account our Lord told his Apostles that they should be witnesses to him both in Judaea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth And so necessary a qualification of an Apostle was this thought to be that it was almost the only condition propounded in the choice of a new Apostle after the fall of Judas Wherefore says Peter of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went 〈◊〉 and out among us beginning from the Baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his 〈◊〉 Accordingly we find the Apostles constantly making use of this argument as the most rational evidence to convince those whom they had to deal with We are witnesses of all things which Jesus did both in the Land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen 〈◊〉 of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he that is ordained of God to be Judge of the quick and dead Thus S. John after the same way of arguing appeals to sensible demonstration That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have look'd upon and our hands have handled of the word of life For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew unto you that cternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us This to name no more S. Peter thought a sufficient vindication of the Apostolical doctrine from the suspicion of forgery and imposture We have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his majesty God had frequently given testimony to the divinity of our blessed Saviour by visible manifestations and appearances from Heaven and particularly by an audible voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now this Voice which came from Heaven says he we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount IX Fourthly The Apostles were invested with a power of working Miracles as the readiest means to procure their Religion a firm belief and entertainment in the minds of men For Miracles are the great confirmation of the truth of any doctrine and the most rational evidence of a divine commission For seeing God only can create and controll the Laws of nature produce something out of nothing and call things that are not as if they were give eyes to them that were born blind raise the dead c. things plainly beyond all possible powers of nature no man that believes the wisdom and goodness of an infinite being can suppose that this God of truth should affix his seal to a lye or communicate this power to any that would abuse it to confirm and countenance delusions and impostures Nicodemus his reasoning was very plain and convictive when he concludes that Christ must needs be a teacher come from God for that no man could do those Miracles that he did except God were with him The force of which argument lies here that nothing but a Divine power can work Miracles and that Almighty God cannot be supposed miraculously to assist any but those whom he himself sends upon his own errand The stupid and barbarous Lycaonians when they beheld the Man who had been a Cripple from his Mothers womb cured by S. Paul in an instant only with the speaking of a word saw that there was something in it more than humane and therefore concluded that the Gods were come down to them in the likeness of men Upon this account S. Paul reckons Miracles among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the signs and evidences of an Apostle whom therefore Chrysostom brings in elegantly pleading for himself that though he could not shew as the signs of his Priesthood and Ministry long Robes and gaudy Vestments with Bells sounding at their borders as the Aaronical Priests did of old though he had no golden Crowns or holy Mitres yet could he produce what was infinitely more venerable and regardable than all these unquestionable Signs and Miracles he came not with Altars and Oblations with a number of strange and symbolick Rites but what was greater raised the dead cast out Devils cured the blind healed the lame making the Gentiles obedient by word and deed thorough many signs and wonders wrought by the power of the spirit of God These were the things that clearly shewed that their mission and ministry was not from men nor taken up of their own heads but that they
Divine Commission nor probably so much as heard any tidings of his appearance and especially being a Galilean and so of a more rustick and unyielding temper But it cannot be doubted but that he was admirably versed in the writings of Moses and the Prophets Metaphrastes assures us though how he came to know it otherwise than by conjecture I cannot imagine that from his childhood he had excellent education that he frequently read over Moses his Books and considered the Prophecies that related to our Saviour And was no question awakened with the general expectations that were then on foot among the Jews the date of the Prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of Christ's coming being now run out that the 〈◊〉 would immediately appear Add to this that the Divine grace did more immediately accompany the command of Christ to incline and dispose him to believe that this person was that very 〈◊〉 that was to come 3. NO sooner had Religion taken possession of his mind but like an active principle it began to 〈◊〉 and diffuse it self A way he goes and 〈◊〉 Nathanael a person of note and eminency acquaints him with the tidings of the new-found Messiah and conducts him to him So forward is a good man to draw and direct others in the same way to happiness with himself After his call to the Apostleship much is not recorded of him in the Holy story 'T was to him that our Saviour propounded the question What they should do for so much bread in the wilderness as would feed so vast a multitude to which he answered That so much was not easily to be had not considering that to feed two or twenty thousand are equally 〈◊〉 to Almighty Power when pleased to exert it self 'T was to him that the Gentile Proselytes that came up to the Passeover addressed themselves when desirous to see our Saviour a person of whom they had heard so loud a fame 'T was with him that our Lord had that discourse concerning himself a little before the last Paschal Supper The holy and compassionate Jesus had been fortifying their minds with fit considerations against his departure from them had told them that he was going to prepare room for them in the Mansions of the Blessed that he himself was the way the truth and the life and that no man could come to the Father but by him and that knowing him they both knew and had seen the Father Philip not duly understanding the force of our Saviour's reasonings begged of him that he would shew them the Father and then this would abundantly convince and satisfie them We can hardly suppose he should have such gross conceptions of the Deity as to imagine the Father vested with a corporeal and visible nature but Christ having told them that they had seen him and he knowing that God of old was wont frequently to appear in a visible shape he only desired that he would 〈◊〉 himself to them by some such appearance Our Lord gently reproved his ignorance that aster so long attendance upon his instructions he should not know that he was the Image of his Father the express characters of his infinite wisdom power and goodness appearing in him that he said and did nothing but by his Father's appointment which if they did not believe his miracles were a sufficient evidence That therefore such demands were unnecessary and impertinent and that it argued great weakness after more than three years education under his discipline and Institution to be so unskilful in those matters God expects improvement according to mens opportunities to be old 〈◊〉 ignorant in the School of Christ deserves both reproach and punishment 't is the character of very bad persons that they are ever learning but never come to the knowledge of the truth 4. IN the distribution of the several Regions of the World made by the Apostles though no mention be made by Origen or 〈◊〉 what part fell to our Apostle yet we are told by others that the Upper Asia was his Province the reason doubtless why he is said by many to have preached and planted Christianity in 〈◊〉 where he applied himself with an indefatigable diligence and industry to recover men out of the snare of the Devil to the embracing and acknowledgment of the truth By the constancy of his preaching and the efficacy of his Miracles he gained numerous Converts whom he baptized into the Christian Faith at once curing both Souls and Bodies their Souls of Error and Idolatry their Bodies of infirmities and distempers healing diseases dispossessing Daemons setling Churches and appointing them Guides and Ministers of Religion 5. HAVING for many years successfully managed his Apostolical Office in all those parts he came in the last periods of his life to Hierapolis in Phrygia a City rich and populous but answering its name in its Idolatrous Devotions Amongst the many vain and trifling Deities to whom they payed religious adoration was a Serpent or Dragon in memory no doubt of that infamous Act of Jupiter who in the shape of a Dragon insinuated himself into the embraces of Proserpina his own Daughter begot of Ceres and whom these phrygians chiefly worshipped as Clemens Alexandrinus tells us so little reason had Baronius to say that they worshipped no such God of a more prodigious bigness than the rest which they worshipped with great and solemn veneration S. Philip was troubled to see the people so wretchedly enslaved to error and therefore continually solicited Heaven till by prayer and calling upon the name of Christ he had procured the death or at least vanishing of this famed and beloved Serpent Which done he told them how unbecoming it was to give Divine honours to such odious creatures that God alone was to be worshipped as the great Parent of the World who had made man at first after his own glorious Image and when fallen from that innocent and happy state had sent his own Son into the World to redeem him who died and rose from the dead and shall come again at the last day to raise men out of their Graves and to sentence and reward them according to their works The success was that the people were ashamed of their fond Idolatry and many broke loose from their chains of darkness and ran over to Christianity Whereupon the great enemy of mankind betook himself to his old methods cruelty and persecution The Magistrates of the City seise the Apostle and having put him into prison caused him to be severely whip'd and scourg'd This preparatory cruelty passed he was led to execution and being bound was hanged up by the neck against a pillar though others tell us that he was crucified We are further told that at his execution the Earth began suddenly to quake and the ground whereon the people stood to sink under them which when they apprehended and bewailed as an evident act of Divine vengeance pursuing them for their sins it as