as whom they judged the best of all their Princes He conversed freely and innocently with all men being desirous rather to be beloved than than either fear'd or honour'd by the people The glory of all which is exceedingly stain'd in the Records of the Church by his severe proceedings against the Christians He looked upon the Religion of the Empire as daily undermin'd by this new way of Worship that the numbers of Christians grew formidable and might possibly endanger the peace and tranquillity of the Roman State and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods especially in his Wars than to vindicate their cause against the Christians Accordingly therefore he issued out orders to proceed against them as illegal Societies crected and acting contrary to the Laws in which number all Colleges and Corporations were accounted that were not a L. 1. 3. ss de Colleg. corp Lib. 47. tit 22. settled either by the Emperors constitution or the Decree of the Senate and the persons b Ulplan de off procons l. 6. ib. l. 2. frequenting them adjudged guilty of High Treason Indeed the Emperors as we have elsewhere observed were infinitely suspicious of such meetings as which might easily conspire into Faction and Treason and therefore when Pliny c Lib. 10. Epist 42 43. interceded with Trajan in behalf of the City of Nicomedia that being so subject to fires he would constitute a corporation of Smiths though but a small number which might be easily kept in order and which he promised to keep a particular eye upon The Emperor answered By no means for we ought to remember says he that that Province and especially those Cities are greatly disturbed by such kind of Factions and whatever the title or the occasion be if they meet together they will be Heteriae though less numerous than the rest That they look'd upon the Christian Assemblies as in the number of these unlawful Corporations and that under this pretence Trajan endeavoured to suppress them will appear from Pliny's Letter to him In the mean time he commanded them either to offer sacrifice to the gods or to be punished as contemners of them The people also in several places by popular tumults falling foul upon them The chief of those who obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under him were S. Clemens Bishop of Rome S. Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem and S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch whom Trajan himself condemned and sent to Rome there to be thrown to wild Beasts XXI THE Persecution rag'd as in the other parts of the Empire so especially in the Provinces of Pontus and Bithynia where Pliny the younger who had some time since been Consul then governed as Pro-Praetor with Consular power and dignity Who seeing vast multitudes of Christians indicted by others and pressing on of themselves to execution and that to proceed severely against all that came would be in a manner to lay waste those Provinces he thought good to write to the Emperor about this matter to know his pleasure in the case His Letter because acquainting us so exactly with the state of the Christians and the manner of proceeding against them and giving so eminent a testimony to their innocency and integrity we shall here insert C. PLINIUS to the Emperor TRAJAN IT is my custom Sir in all affairs wherein I doubt to have recourse to you For who can better either sway my irresolution or instruct my ignorance I have never been heretofore present at the examination and trial of Christians and therefore know not what the crime is and how far it is wont to be punished or how to proceed in these enquiries Nor was I a little at a loss whether regard be to be had to difference of age whether the young and the weak be to be distinguished from the more strong and aged whether place may be allowed to repentance and it may be of any advantage to him who once was a Christian to cease to be so Whether the name alone without other offences or the offences that go along with the name ought to be punished In the mean time towards those who as Christians have been brought before me I have taken this course I asked them whether they were Christians if they confessed it I asked them once and again threatning punishment if they persisted I commanded them to be executed For I did not at all doubt but that whatever their confession was their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished Others there were guilty of the like madness whom because they were Roman Citizens I adjudged to be transmitted to Rome While things thus proceeded the error as is usual spreading farther more cases did ensue A nameless Libel was presented containing the names of many who denied themselves to to be or to have been Christians These when after my example they invocated the gods and offered Wine and Incense to your Statue which for that purpose I had commanded to be brought together with the images of the gods and had moreover blasphemed Christ which its said none that are true Christians can be compelled to do I dismiss'd others mentioned in the Libel confessed themselves Christians but presently denied it that they had indeed been such but had renounced it some by the space of three years others many years since and one five and twenty years ago All which paid their reverence and veneration to your Statue and the images of the gods and blasphemed Christ They affirmed that the whole sum of that Sect or error lay in this that they were wont upon a set solemn day to meet together before Sun-rise and to sing among themselves a Hymn to Christ as the God whom they worshipped and oblige themselves by an Oath not to commit any wickedness but to abstain from Theft Robbery Adultery to keep Faith and when required to restore any pledge intrusted with them Which done then to depart for that time and to meet again at a common meal to partake of a promiscuous and harmless food which yet they laid aside after I had published an Edict forbidding according to your order the Heteriae or unlawful Assemblies to be kept To satisfie my self in the truth hereof I commanded two Maidens called Deaconesses to be examined upon the Wrack But I perceived nothing but a lewd and immoderate Superstition and therefore surceasing any farther process I have sent to pray your advice For the case seemed to me very worthy to be consulted about especially considering the great numbers that are in danger for very many of all ages and ranks both men and women are and will be called in question the contagion of this Superstition having over-spreâ—d not only Cities but Towns and Country Villages which yet seems possible to be stopt and cur'd It 's very evident that the Temples which were almost quite forsaken begin to be frequented that the holy Rites and Solemnities of a long time neglected are set
Vit. Script Euseb and as Valesius conjectures some years after the Council of Nice though when not long before he expresly affirms that History to have been written before the Nicene Synod how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine 'T is true Eusebius takes no notice of that Council but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous Scene of things which Constantine restored to the Church as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his History which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod according to the humour of all Historians who delight to shut up their Histories with some happy and successful period and partly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that Council in his Book of the Life of Constantine the Great The Materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking which he complains were very small and inconsiderable were besides Hegesippus his Commentaries then extant Africanus his Chronology the Books and Writings of several Fathers the Records of particular Cities Ecclesiastical Epistles written by the Bishops of those Times and kept in the Archives of their several Churches especially that famous Library at Jerusalem erected by Alexander Bishop of that place but chiefly the Acts of the Martyrs which in those Times were taken at large with great care and accuracy These at least a great many of them Eusebius collected into one Volume under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Collection of the Ancient Martyrdoms which he refers to at every turn besides a particular Narrative which he wrote still extant as an Appendage to the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History concerning the Martyrs that suffered in Palestin A great part of these Acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times were interpolated and corrupted especially in the darker and more undiscerning Ages when Superstition had overspread the Church and when Ignorance and Interest conspired to fill the World with idle and improbable Stories and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own Brains insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman Communion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation that Laertius has written the Lives of Philosophers with more truth and chastness then many have done the Lives of the Saints Upon this account a great and general out-cry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes as the Father of incredible Legends and one that has notoriously imposed upon the World by the most fabulous reports Nay some to reflect the more disgrace upon him have represented him as a petty Schoolmaster A charge in my mind rash and inconsiderate and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes advanced to the highest Honours and Offices one of the Primier Ministers of State and as is probable Great Chancellor to the Emperour of Constantinople learned and eloquent above the common standard and who by the persuasions not onely of some great ones of that time he flourished under Leo the Wise about the Year DCCCC but principally wrote under the reign of his successor but of the Emperour himself was prevailed with to reduce the Lives of the Saints into order To which end by his own infinite labour and the no less expences of the Emperour he ransacked the Libraries of the Empire till he had amassed a vast heap of Volumes The more ancient Acts he passed without any considerable alteration more then the correcting them by a collation of several Copies and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easie as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day Where Lives were confused and immethodical or written in a stile rude and barbarous he digested the history into order and clothed it in more polite and elegant language Others that were defective in neither he left as they were and gave them place amongst his own So that I see no reason for so severe a censure unless it were evident that he took his accounts of things not from the Writings of those that had gone before him but forged them of his own head Not to say that things have been made much worse by Translations seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latine Church and that many Lives are laid at his door of which he never was the Father it being usual with some when they met with the Life of a Saint the Author whereof they knew not presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes But to return to Eusebius from whom we have digressed His Ecclesiastical History the almost onely remaining Records of the ancient Church deserves a just esteem and veneration without which those very fragments of Antiquity had been lost which by this means have escaped the common Shipwrack And indeed S. Hierom Nicephorus and the rest do not onely build upon his foundation but almost entirely derive their materials from him As for Socrates Sozomen Theodorit and the later Historians they relate to Times without the limits of my present business generally conveying down little more then the History of their own Times the Church History of those more early Ages being either quite neglected or very negligently managed The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation were the Centuriators of Magdeburg a combination of learned and industrious men the chief of whom were John Wigandus Matth. Judex Basilius Faber Andreas Corvinus but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus who was the very soul of the undertaking They set themselves to traverse the Writings of the Fathers and all the ancient Monuments of the Church collecting whatever made to their purpose which with indefatigable pains they digested into an Ecclesiastic History This they divided into Centuries and each Century into fifteen Chapters into each of which as into its proper Classis and Repository they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of Religion the Peace or Persecutions of the Christians the Doctrines of the Church and the Heresies that arose in it the Rites and Ceremonies the Government Schisms Councils Bishops and persons noted either for Religion or Learning Heretics Martyrs Miracles the state of the Jews the Religion of them that were without and the political revolutions of that Age. A method accurate and useful and which administers to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the Church The four first Centuries were finished in the City of Magdeburg the rest elsewhere A work of prodigious diligence and singular use True it is that it labours under some faults and imperfections and is chargeable with considerable errours and mistakes And no wonder for besides that the Persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betraid into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the heats and contentions of those Times it was the first attempt in this kind and
eyes I mean confused and uncertain in point of Chronology The greatest part of what we have is from Eusebius in whose account of Times some things are false more uncertain and the whole the worse for passing through other hands after his Indeed next to the recovering the lost portions of Antiquity I know nothing would be more acceptable then the setting right the disjointed Frame of those Times a Cure which which we hope for shortly from a very able hand In the mean time for my own part and so far as may be useful to the purposes of the following Papers I have by the best measures I could take in some hast drawn up a Chronology of these three Ages which though it pretends not to the utmost exactness and accuracy that is due to a matter of this nature yet it will serve however to give a quick and present prospect of things and to shew the connexure and concurrence of Ecclesiastical Affairs with the Times of the Roman Empire So far as I follow Eusebius I principally rely upon the accounts given in his History which being written after his Chronicon may be supposed the issue of his more exact researches and to have passed the judgment of his riper and more considering thoughts And perhaps the Reader will say and I confess I am somewhat of his mind had I observed the same rule towards these Papers he had never been troubled with them But that is too late now to be recalled and 't is folly to bewail what is impossible to be remedied ERRATA INTROD p. 5. l. 41. read Claudius p. 14. l. 45. r. ornaverint p. 17. l. 40. r. refers p. 29. l. 41. after assures add us BOOK p. 5. l. 41. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 101. l. 51. r. Emperour p. 149. l. 12. for to r. of p. 156. l. 6. after that r. is p. 164. l. 34. r. condemnation p. 228. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 240. l. 23. r. librum p. 262. l. 37. for spread r. spilt p. 273. l. 20. for them r. him THE CONTENTS The Introduction THE several periods of the three first Ages Our Lords coming and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the Gospel His entrance upon his Prophetic Office and the sum of his Ministry The success of his doctrine and the several places where he preached The Story of Agbarus not altogether improbable Our Lords Death What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by Heathen Writers The testimony of Tacitus Pilats relation sent to Tiberius The Acts of Pilat what Pilats Letter now extant Spurious The Apostles entering upon their Commission and first Acts after our Lords Ascension How long they continued in Judaea Their dispersion to preach in the Gentile Provinces and the success of it The state of the Church after the Apostolic Age. The mighty progress of Christianity The numbers and quality of its Converts It s speedy and incredible success in all Countries noted out of the Writers of those Times The early conversion of Britain to Christianity The general declension of Paganism The silence and ceasing of their Oracles This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian Religion appearing in the World A great argument of its truth and divinity The means contributing to the success of Christianity The miraculous Powers then resident in the Church This proved at large out of the Primitive Writers The great learning and abilities of many of the Churches Champions The most eminent of the Christian Apologists The principal of them that engaged against the Heresies of those Times Others renowned for other parts of Learning The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity Instructing and Catechizing new Converts Schools erected Travelling to preach in all parts of the World The admirable lives of the ancient Christians The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrin upon the minds of men A holy life the most acceptable sacrifice Their incomparable patience and constancy under sufferings A brief Survey of the Ten Persecutions The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagances and inhumane cruelties His burning Rome and the dreadfulness of that conflagration This charged upon the Christians and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus The chief of them that suffered The Persecution under Domitian The Vices of that Prince The cruel usage of S. John The third begun by Trajan His character His proceeding against the Christians as illegal Societies Plinies Letter to Trajan concerning the Christians with the Emperours answer Adrian Trajan's successor a mixture in him of Vice and Vertue His persecuting the Christians This the fourth Persecution The mitigation of it and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius The fifth Persecution raised by him It s fierceness in the East at Rome especially in France the most eminent that suffered there The Emperours Victory in his German Wars gained by the Christians Prayers Severus his temper his cruelty towards the Christians The chief of the Martyrs under the sixth Persecution Maximinus his immoderate ambition and barbarous cruelty The Author of the seventh Persecution This not universal The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians Decius the eighth Persecutor otherwise an excellent Prince The violence of this Persecution and the most noted sufferers The foundations of Monachism when laid The ninth Persecution and its rage under Valerian The most eminent Martyrs The severe punishment of Valerian his miserable usage by the Persian King The tenth Persecution begun under Dioclesian and when The fierceness and cruelty of that time The admirable carriage and resolution of the Christians under all these sufferings The proper influence of this argument to convince the World The whole concluded with Lactantius his excellent reasonings to this purpose Page i. The Life of S. STEPHEN the Protomartyr The violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles S. Stephens Kindred unknown One of the Seventy The great Charity of the Primitive Believers Dissension between the Hebrews and Grecians Hellenists who The Original of Deacons in the Christian Church The nature of their Office the number and qualification of the Persons Stephen's eminent accomplishments for the place The envy and opposition of the Jews against him The Synagogue of the Libertines what Of the Cyrenians Alexandrians c. Their disputation with S. Stephen and the success of it False Witnesses suborned to depose against him The several parts of their charge considered The mighty veneration of the Jews for their Temple and the Mosaic Institutions It s destruction by Titus and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle Stephen's Apology before the Sanhedrin The Jews rage against him He is encouraged by a vision Stoning to death what kind of punishment the manner of it among the Jews S. Stephen's Martyrdom His Character and excellent Vertues The time and place
INTRODUCTION The several periods of the three first Ages Our Lords coming and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the Gospel His entrance upon his Prophetic Office and the sum of his Ministry The success of his doctrine and the several places where he preached The Story of Agbarus not altogether improbable Our Lords Death What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by Heathen Writers The testimony of Tacitus Pilats relation sent to Tiberius The Acts of Pilat what Pilats Letter now extant Spurious The Apostles entering upon their Commission and first Acts after our Lords Ascension How long they continued in Judaea Their dispersion to preach in the Gentile Provinces and the success of it The state of the Church after the Apostolic Age. The mighty progress of Christianity The numbers and quality of its Converts It s speedy and incredible success in all Countries noted out of the Writers of those Times The early conversion of Britain to Christianity The general declension of Paganism The silence and ceasing of their Oracles This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian Religion appearing in the World A great argument of its truth and divinity The means contributing to the success of Christianity The miraculous Powers then resident in the Church This proved at large out of the Primitive Writers The great learning and abilities of many of the Churches Champions The most eminent of the Christian Apologists The principal of them that engaged against the Heresies of those Times Others renowned for other parts of Learning The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity Instructing and Catechizing new Converts Schools erected Travelling to preach in all parts of the World The admirable lives of the ancient Christians The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrin upon the minds of men A holy life the most acceptable sacrifice Their incomparable patience and constancy under sufferings A brief Survey of the Ten Persecutions The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagances and inhumane cruelties His burning Rome and the dreadfulness of that conflagration This charged upon the Christians and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus The chief of them that suffered The Persecution under Domitian The Vices of that Prince The cruel usage of S. John The third begun by Trajan His character His proceeding against the Christians as illegal Societies Plinies Letter to Trajan concerning the Christians with the Emperours answer Adrian Trajan 's successor a mixture in him of Vice and Vertue His persecuting the Christians This the fourth Persecution The mitigation of it and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius The fifth Persecution raised by him It s fierceness in the East at Rome especially in France the most eminent that suffered there The Emperours Victory in his German Wars gained by the Christians Prayers Severus his temper his cruelty towards the Christians The chief of the Martyrs under the sixth Persecution Maximinus his immoderate ambition and barbarous cruelty The Author of the seventh Persecution This not universal The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians Decius the eighth Persecutor otherwise an excellent Prince The violence of this Persecution and the most noted sufferers The foundations of Monachism when laid The ninth Persecution and its rage under Valerian The most eminent Martyrs The severe punishment of Valerian his miserable usage by the Persian King The tenth Persecution begun under Dioclesian and when The fierceness and cruelty of that time The admirable carriage and resolution of the Christians under all these sufferings The proper influence of this argument to convince the World The whole concluded with Lactantius his excellent reasonings to this purpose I. THE state of the Christian Church in the three first Ages of it may be considered under a threefold period as it was first planted and established by our Lord himself during his residence in the World as it was enlarged and propagated by the Apostles and first Missionaries of the Christian Faith and as it grew up and prospered from the Apostolic Age till the times of Constantine when the Empire submitted it self to Christianity God who in former times was pleased by various methods of Revelation to convey his will to mankind hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son For the great blessing of the promised Seed after a long succession of several Ages being come to its just maturity and perfection God was resolved to perform the mercy promised to the Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham Accordingly In the fulness of time God sent his Son It was in the declining part of Augustus his reign when this great Ambassador arrived from Heaven to publish to the World the glad tidings of salvation A period of time as a Contr. Cels lib. 2. p. 79. Origen observes wisely ordered by the divine Providence For the Roman Empire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur all its parts united under a Monarchical Government and an universal Peace spread over all the Provinces of the Empire that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted commerce with all Nations a smoother and speedier passage was hereby prepared for the publishing the doctrin of the Gospel which the Apostles and first Preachers of Religion might with the greater ease and security carry up and down to all quarters of the World As for the Jews their minds were awakened about this time with busie expectations of their Messiah's coming and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the Eastern Magi who came to pay homage to him but Jerusalem was filled with noise and tumult the Sanhedrin was convened and consulted by Herod who jealous of his late gotten Soveraignty was resolved to dispatch this new Competitor out of the way Deluded in his hopes of discovery by the Magi he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty commanding all Infants under two years old to be put to death and among them it seems his own Son which made b Macrob. Saturnal l. 2. c. 4. p. 279. Augustus pleasantly say alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from Swines-flesh It is better to be Herods Hog then his Son But the Providence of God secured the holy Infant by timely admonishing his Parents to retire into Aegypt where they remained till the death of Herod which happening not long after they returned II. NEAR thirty years our Lord remained obscure under the retirements of a private life applying himself as the Ancients tell us and the Evangelical History plainly intimates to Joseph's imployment the trade of a Carpenter So little Patronage did he give to an idle unaccountable course of Life But now he was called out of his Shades and Solitudes and publicly owned to be that person whom God had sent to be the great Prophet of his
Christ did all Nations believe Parthians Medes Elamites the inhabitants of Mesopotamia Armenia Phrygia and Cappadocia of Pontus Asia and Pamphylia those who dwell in Egypt Afric and beyond Cyrene strangers at Rome Jews at Jerusalem and other Nations as also now the Getuli and the Mauri the Spaniards and the Gauls yea and those places of Britain which were unapproachable by the Roman Armies are yet subdued to Christ the Sarmatae also and the Daci the Germans and the Scythians together with many undiscovered Countries many Islands and Provinces unknown to us which he professes himself unable to reckon up In all which places says he the name of Christ reigns as before whom the Gates of all Cities are set open and to whom none are shut before whom Gates of Brass fly open and bars of iron are snapt asunder To which g Lib. 2. p. 23. Arnobius adds the Indians the Persians the Serae and all the Islands and Provinces which are visited by the rising or setting Sun yea and Rome it self the Empress of all IX FROM Tertullians account we have a most authentic testimony how early Christianity stretched it self over this other World having before his time conquered the most rough and inaccessible parts of Britain to the banner of the Cross which may probably refer to the conversion of King Lucius the first Christian King that ever was a potent and considerable Prince in this Island who embraced the Christian Religion about the year CLXXXVI and sent a solemn Embassie to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome for some who might further instruct him and his people in the Faith who accordingly dispatched Faganus and Derwianus hither upon that errand Not that this was the first time that the Gospel made its way through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens a Epist ad Corinth p. 28. calls the British Ocean and so the Ancients constantly stile it the unpassable Ocean and those worlds which are beyond it that is the Britannic Islands it had been here many years before though probably stifled and overgrown with the ancient Paganism and Idolatry St. Clemens b Ibid. p. 8. tells us of St. Paul that he preached both in the East and West and having instructed the whole world in righteousness made his way to the utmost bounds of the West by which he must either mean Spain or more probably Britain and it may be both Accordingly Theodoret c Comment in Psal 116. speaking of his coming into Spain says that besides that he brought great advantage to the Isles of the Sea and he reckons d De curand Graecor affect Serm. IX p. 125. the Cimbri and the Britains among the Nations which the Apostles and he particularly mentions the Tent-maker converted to the Christian Faith If after all this it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular disquisition I might enquire not only in what Countries but in what Towns and Cities in those Countries Christianity fixed it self in what places Episcopal Sees were erected and what succession of Bishops are mentioned in the Records of the Church but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this Introduction and would be more perhaps than the Readers patience would allow X. THE shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the Sun than the darkness of Pagan Idolatry and Superstition fled before the Light of the Gospel which the more it prevailed the clearer it discovered the folly and impiety of their worship Their solemn Rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous their Sacrifices more barbarous and inhumane their Daemons were expelled by the meanest Christian their Oracles became mute and silent and their very Priests began to be ashamed of their Magic Charms and Conjurations and the more prudent and subtle heads among them who stood up for the Rites and Solemnities of their Religion were forced to turn them into mystical and allegorical meanings far enough either from the apprehension or intention of the vulgar The truth is the Devil who for so many ages had usurped an Empire and tyranny over the souls of men became more sensible every day that his Kingdom shaked and therefore sought though in vain by all ways to support and prop it up Indeed some time before our Saviours Incarnation the most celebrated Oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputation as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day whereof their best Writers universally complain that their gods had forsaken their Temples and Oracular Recesses and had left the world in darkness and obscurity and that their Votaries did in vain solicit their Counsels and answers Plutarch who lived under Trajan wrote a particular Tract still extant concerning the ceasing of Oracles which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural partly into moral partly into political causes though all his Philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it One cause he assigns of it is the death and departure of those Daemons that heretofore presided over these Oracles To which purpose he relates a memorable passage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 419. concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus an Egyptian Ship-master and his company as they sailed by the Echinadae Islands commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make Proclamation that the great Pan was dead which he did and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two but of many who received it with great mourning and consternation The circumstances of this story he there reports more at large and adds that the thing being published at Rome Thamus was sent for by Tiberius to whom he gave an account and satisfied him in the truth of it Which circumstance of time Eusebius a Praepar Evang. l. 5. c. 17. p. 207. observes corresponds with our Lords conversing in the world when he began openly to dispossess Daemons of that power and tyranny which they had gained over mankind And if the calculation which some make hit right it fell in about the time of our Saviours Passion who led captivity captive spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in his Cross and by his Death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the Devil XI HOWEVER that the silence of Oracles and the enervating the power of Daemons was the effect of the Christian Religion in the world we need no more then the plain confession of Porphyry himself truth will sometimes extort a confession out of the mouth of its greatest enemy who says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb ubi supr c. 1. p. 179. that now it s no wonder if the City for so many years has been overrun with sickness Aesculapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men For that since Jesus began to be worshipped no man hath received any public
which he assures they endured with the most admirable and undaunted patience they throng'd to the Tribunals of their Judges and freely told them what they were despis'd the threatnings and barbarity of their enemies and received the fatal and decretory Sentence with a smile when persuaded to be tender of their lives and to compassionate the case of their Wives and Children they bore up against the temptation with a manly and Philosophic mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he adds yea rather with a soul truly pious and devoted unto God so that neither fears nor charms could take hold upon them at once giving undeniable evidences both of their own courage and fortitude and of that Divine and unconceivable power of our Lord that went along with them The acutest torments did not shake the firmness and stability of their minds but they could with as much unconcernedness lay down their lives as Origen a Contr. Cels l. 7. p. 357. tells Celsus as the best Philosopher could put off his coat They valued their innocency above their case or life it self and sufficiently shewed they believed another state by an argument beyond what any institution of Philosophy could afford The great Philosophers of the Gentiles as Eusebius b Praepar Evan. l. 1. c. 4. p. 13. reasons in this matter as much as they talk of immortality and the happiness of the future state did yet shew that they look'd upon it only as a childish and a trifling report whereas amongst us even boys and girls and as to outward appearance the meanest and rudest persons being assisted by the power and aid of our Blessed Saviour do by their actions rather than their words demonstrate the truth of this great Principle the immortality of the Soul Ten years this Persecution lasted in its strength and vigor under Dioclesian in the East and Maximian in the West and they thought it seems they had done their work and accordingly tell the world in some ancient Inscriptions c Ap. Gruter pag. CCLXXX num 3. 4. that they had utterly defaced the name and superstition of the Christians and had restored and propagated the worship of the gods But were miserably mistaken in the case and as if weary of the work laid down their purple and retir'd to the solitudes of a private life And though Galerius Maximianus Jovius Maximinus Maxentius and Licinius did what they could to set the Persecution on foot again yet all in vain both they and it in a very few years expiring and dwindling into nothing XXIX THUS we have seen the hardships and miseries the torments and sufferings which the Christians were exposed to for several ages and with how invincible a patience they went through with them Let us now a little review the argument and see what force and influence it had to convince the world of the truth of their Religion and bring in Converts to the Faith Tertullian d Apolog. c. ult p. 40. tells the Gentiles That all their cruelty was to no purpose that it was but a stronger invitation to bring over others to the party that the oftner they mowed them down the faster they sprang up again and that the blood of Christians was a seed that grew up into a more plentiful harvest that several among the Gentiles had exhorted their auditors to patience under suffering but could never make so many Proselytes with all their fine discourses as the Christians did by their actions that that very obstinacy which was so much charged upon them was a tutor to instruct others For who when they beheld such things could not but be powerfully mov'd to enquire what really was within who when he had once found it would not embrace it and having once embraced it not be desirous to suffer for it that so he may obtain the full Grace of God and the pardon of his sins assured by the shedding of his blood Lactantius e De Justit l. 5. c. 13. p. 494. mannages this argument with incomparable eloquence and strength of reason his discourse is somewhat long but not unworthy the Readers consideration Since our number says he is always increased from amongst the Votaries of the Heathen deities and is never lessened no not in the hottest Persecution who is so blind and stupid as not to see in which party true Wisdom does reside But they alas are blinded with rage and malice and think all to be fools who when 't is in their power to escape punishment chuse rather to be tortured and to die when as they might perceive by this that that can be no such folly wherein so many thousands throughout the whole world do so unanimously conspire Suppose women through the weakness of their Sex may miscarry and they are pleased sometimes to style this Religion an effeminate and old-wives Superstition yet certainly men are wiser If children and young men may be rash yet at least those of a mature age and old men have a more stable judgment If one City might play the fool yet innumerable others cannot be supposed to be guilty of the same folly If one Province or one Nation should want care and providence yet all the rest cannot lack understanding to judge what is right But now when the Divine Law is entertain'd from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof and every Sex Age Nation and Country serves God with one heart and Soul when there is every where the same patience and contempt of death they ought to consider that there is some reason for it and that it is not without cause that it is maintained even unto death that there is some fixed foundation when a Religion is not only not shattered by injuries and persecutions but always increased and rendred more firm and stable When the very common people see men torn in pieces by various engins of torment and yet maintain a patience unconquerable in the midst of their tir'd tormentors they cannot but think what the truth is that the consent of so many and their perseverance unto death cannot be in vain nor that patience it self without the Divine assistance should be able to overcome such exquisit tortures High-way men and persons of the most robust constitutions are not able to bear such pulling asunder they roar and groan and sink under pain because not furnished with a Divine patience But our very children to say nothing of our men and our tender women do by silence conquer their tormentors nor can the flames extort one sigh from them Let the Romans go now and boast of their Mutius and their Regulus one of which delivered up himself to be put to death by his enemies because he was ashamed to live a prisoner the other thrust his hand into the fire when he saw he could not escape death Behold with us the weaker Sex and the more delicate age suffers the whole body to be torn and burnt not because they could not avoid
it if they would but voluntarily because they trust in God This is true virtue which Philosophers in vain only talk of when they tell us that nothing is so suitable to the gravity and constancy of a wise man as not by any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opinions but that it is vertuous and great indeed to be tortur'd and die rather than betray ones Faith or be wanting in his duty or do any thing that 's unjust or dishonest though for fear of death or the acutest torment unless they thought their own Poet rav'd when he said Horat. Carm. l. 3. Od. 3 p. 154. Justum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quaâ—it solida The Just man that resolved stands Not Tyrants frowns nor fierce commands Nor all the peoples rage combin'd Can shake the firmness of his mind Than which nothing can be more truly said if meant of those who refuse no tortures nor death it self that they may preserve fidelity and justice who regard not the command of Tyrants nor the Swords of the Governors that they may with a constant mind preserve real and solid liberty wherein true Wisdom alone is to be maintained Thus far that elegant Apologist And certainly the truth of his reasonings was abundantly verified by the experience of the World Christians getting ground and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy till they had subdued the Empire it self to the acknowledgment of the truth And when once the great Constantine had entertained Christianity it went along with wind and tide and bore down all before it And surely it might be no unpleasant survey to consider what was the true state of Paganism under the first Christian Emperors and how and by what degrees that Religion which for so many ages had governed the world slunk away into obscurity and silence But this is a business without the bounds of my present enquiry to search into The end of the INTRODUCTION THE LIFE OF S. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR Act. Vii LIX And they stoned STEPHEN calling vpon God and saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit M. Burghers sculpsit The violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles St. Stephens Kindred unknown One of the Seventy The great Charity of the Primitive Believers Dissention between the Hebrews and Grecians Hellenists who The Original of Deacons in the Christian Church The nature of their Office the number and qualification of the Persons Stephens eminent accomplishments for the place The envy and opposition of the Jews against him The Synagogue of the Libertines what Of the Cyrenians Alexandrians c. Their disputation with St. Stephen and the success of it False Witnesses suborned to depose against him The several parts of their charge considered The mighty veneration of the Jews for their Temple and the Mosaic Institutions It s destruction by Titus and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle Stephens Apology before the Sanhedrin The Jews rage against him He is encouraged by a vision Stoning to death what kind of punishment the manner of it among the Jews St. Stephens Martyrdom His Character and excellent vertues The time and place of his suffering The place and manner of his burial His body first discovered when and how The Story of its translation to Constantinople The miracles said to be done by his Reliques and at his Memoriae Several reported by St. Augustin What credit to be given to them Miracles how long and why continued in the Church The vain pretences of the Church of Rome I. THe Christian Religion being designed by God for the reformation of Mankind and the rooting out that Barbarism and Idolatry wherewith the World was so over-grown could not but meet with opposition all corrupt Interests conspiring to give it no very welcom entertainment Vice and Errour had too long usurped the Throne to part with it by a tame and easie resignation but would rather summon all their Forces against a Doctrin that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruine of their Empire Hence this Sect was every where spoken against equally opposed both by Jew and Gentile The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty as having no antiquity to recommend it nor could they endure that their Philosophy which then every where ruled the Chair should be controlled by a plain simple Doctrine that pretended to no elaborate Schemes no insinuative strains of Eloquence no nice and subtile arts of Reasoning no abstruse and sublime Speculations The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty Prince who should greatly exalt their State and redeem it from that oppression and slavery under which it groaned frustrated by the coming of a Messiah who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace and who was so far from rescuing them from the power of the Roman Yoke that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatned the final and irrevocable ruine of their Countrey and by the Doctrine he published plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaick Institutions for which they had such dear regards and so solemn a Veneration Accordingly when he came amongst them they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the People they vilified and reproached his person as but the son of a Carpenter a Glutton and a Drunkard a Traitor and an Enemy unto Caesar they sleighted his Doctrine as the talk onely of a rude and illiterate person traduced his Miracles as tricks of Imposture and the effects of a black Confederacy with the infernal Powers And when all this would not do they violently laid hands upon him and took away his life And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt On they resolve to go in these bloody methods and to let the World see that the Disciples and Followers must expect no better then their Master it was not many Moneths before they took occasion to refresh their rage in St. Stephens Martyrdom the History of whose Life and Death we now come to relate and to make some brief Remarks upon it II. THE sacred Story gives us no particular account either of the Countrey or Kindred of this Holy man That he was a Jew is unquestionable himself sufficiently owns the relation in his Apology to the People but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham or of Parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of Proselytism whether born at Jerusalem or among the dispersed in the Gentile Provinces is impossible to determine Ad Ann. XXXIV n. 275 298. Baronius grounding his conjecture upon an Epistle of Lucian of which more afterwards makes him to have been one of Gamaliels Disciples
parts and duties of their Office and that they did not judge it fit and reasonable to neglect the one that they might attend the other that therefore they should chuse out among themselves some that were duly qualified and present them to them that they might set them apart peculiarly to superintend this affair that so themselves being freed from these incumbrances might the more freely and uninterruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the Gospel Not that the Apostles thought the care of the Poor an Office too much below them but that this might be discharged by other hands and they as they were obliged the better attend upon things of higher importance Ministeries more immediately serviceable to the souls of men This was the first original of Deacons in the Christian Church they were to serve Tables that is to wait upon the necessities of the Poor to make daily provisions for their public Feasts to keep the Churches Treasure and to distribute to every one according to their need And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Foreign Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian Chronosol scu de Legg Saturnal Tom. 2. p. 823. where 't is used for that peculiar Servant who waited at Feasts whose Office it was to distribute the portions to every Guest either according to the command of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Orderer of the Feast or according to the rule of Equality to give every one alike But though 't is true this was a main part of the Deacons Office yet was it not the whole For had this been all the Apostles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons seeing men of an ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn nor have used such solemn Rites of Consecration to Ordain them to it No question therefore but their serving Tables implied also their attendance at the Table of the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h. e. non â—olum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Trall Append. Usser p. 17. For in those days their Agapae or common Love-Feasts whereat both Rich and Poor sate down together were at the same time with the Holy Eucharist and both administred every day so that their ministration respected both the one and the other And thus we find it was in the practice of the Church for so Justin Martyr tells us it was in his time Apol. II. p. 97. that when the President of the Assembly had consecrated the Eucharist the Deacons distributed the Bread and the Wine to all that were present and after carried them to those who were necessarily absent from the Congregation Nor were they restrained to this one particular Service but were in some cases allowed to Preach Baptize and Absolve Penitents especially where they had the peculiar warrant and authority of the Bishop to bear them out nor need we look far beyond the present Story to find St. Philip one of the Deacons here elected both preaching the Gospel and baptizing Converts with great success VI. THAT this excellent Office might be duly managed the Apostles directed and enjoined the Church to nominate such persons as were fitted for it pious and good men men of known honesty and integrity of approved and untainted reputations furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost wise and prudent men who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them The number of these persons was limited to seven probably for no other reason but because the Apostles thought these sufficient for the business unless we will also suppose the whole body of Believers to have been disposed into seven several Divisions for the more orderly and convenient managery of their common Feasts and distributions to the Poor and that to each of these a Deacon was appointed to superintend and direct them without further designing any peculiar Mystery which * Vid. Baron ad Ann. 112. n. 7. Tom. 2. some would fain pick out of it However the Church thought good for a long time to conform to this Primitive Institution insomuch that the Fathers of the †Conc. Neo-Caes can 15. Couc Tom. 1. Col. 1484. Neo-Caesarean Council ordained that in no City how great soever there should be more then seven Deacons a Canon which they found upon this place and ⸫ Hist Eccl. lib. 7. c. 19. p. 734. Sozomen tells us that in his time though many other Churches kept to no certain number yet that the Church of Rome in compliance with this Apostolical example admitted no more then seven Deacons in it The People were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the Apostles had made in this matter and accordingly made choice of seven whom they presented to the Apostles who as the solemnity of the thing required first made their address to Heaven by Prayer for the divine blessing upon the undertaking and then laid their hands upon them an ancient symbolic Rite of Investiture and Consecration to any extraordinary Office The issue of all was that the Christian Religion got ground and prospered Converts came flocking over to the Faith yea very many of the Priests themselves and of their Tribe and Family of all others the most zealous and pertinacious asserters of the Mosaic Constitutions the bitterest adversaries of the Christian Doctrine the subtlest defenders of their Religion laid aside their prejudices and embraced the Gospel So uncontroulable is the efficacy of divine truth as very often to lead its greatest enemies in triumph after it VII THE first and chief of the persons here elected who were all chosen out of the LXX Disciples as * Haeres XX. p. 27. Epipâ—anius informs us and whom the Ancients frequently stile Arch-deacon as having the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as †Homil. XV. in Act. p. 555. Chrysostom speaks the Primacy and Precedence among these new-elected Officers was our St. Stephen whom the Author of the Epistle to â‚ Epist ad Hâ—ron in Bibl. PP Gr. Lat. p. 37. Hero under the name of Ignatius as also the Interpolator of that to the Ep. ad Trall p. 6. Ibid. Trallians makes in a more peculiar manner to have been Deacon to St. James as Bishop of Jerusalem He is not onely placed first in the Catalogue but particularly recommended under this character a man full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost he was exquisitly skilled in all parts of the Christian Doctrine and fitted with great eloquence and elocution to declare and publish it enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent opposition He preached and pleaded the cause of Christianity with a firm and undaunted mind and that nothing might be wanting to render it effectual he confirmed his doctrine by many publick and unquestionable miracles plain evidences and demonstrations of the truth and
been embraced by some of the most early Writers of the Church But whoever considers that the one was an Apostle and one of the Twelve the other a Deacon onely and one of the Seven chosen out of the People and set apart by the Apostles that they themselves might attend the more immediate Ministeries of their Office that the one was dispersed up and down the Countrey while the other remained with the Apostolical Colledge at Jerusalem that the one though commissionated to Preach and to Baptize could not impart the Holy Ghost the peculiar prerogative of the Apostolical Office will see just reason to force him to acknowledge a vast difference between them Our S. Philip was one of the Seventy Disciples and S. Stephens next Colleague in the Deacons Office erected for the conveniency of the Poor and assisting the Apostles in some inferiour Services and Ministrations which shews him to have been a person of great esteem and reputation in the Church endowed with miraculous powers full of Wisdom and of the Holy Ghost which were the qualifications required by the Apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place In the discharge of this Ministery he continued at Jerusalem for some moneths after his election till the Church being scattered up and down he was forced to quit his station as what wonder if the Stewards be dismissed when the Houshold is broken up II. THE Protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his Enemies but the bloudy Cloud did not so blow over but increased into a blacker tempest Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough like the temper of the Devil whose malice is insatiable and eternal Stephens death would not suffice the whole Church is now shot at and they resolve if possible to extirpate the Religion it self The great Engineer in this Persecution was Saul whose active and fiery genius and passionate concern for the Traditions of the Fathers made him pursue the design with the Spirit of a Zealot and the rage of a Mad-man Having furnished himself with a Commission from the Sanhedrim he quickly put it in execution broke open Houses seized whoever he met with that looked but like a Disciple of the crucified Jesus and without any regard to Sex or Age beat and haled them unto prison plucking the Husband from the bosom of his Wife and the Mother from the embraces of her Children blaspheming God prosecuting and being injurious unto men breathing out nothing but slaughter and threatnings where-ever he came H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 39. whence Eusebius calls it the first and most grievous Persecution of the Church The Church by this means was forced to retire the Apostles onely remaining privately at Jerusalem that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the Church while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring Countries publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel and declaring the nature and design of it in all places where they came so that what their Enemies intended as the way to ruine them by breaking the knot of their Fellowship and Society proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity Thus excellent perfumes while kept close in a box few are the better for them whereas being once whether casually or maliciously spilt upon the ground the fragrant scent presently fills all corners of the house III. AMONG them that were thus dispersed was our Evangelist so stiled not from his Writing but preaching of the Gospel He directed his journey towards the Province of Samaria and came into a City of Samaria as those words may be read probably Gitton the birth-place of Simon Magus though it's safest to understand it of Samaria it self This was the Metropolis of the Province had been for some Ages the Royal Seat of the Kings of Israel but being utterly destroyed by Hyrcanus had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great and in honour of Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him stiled Sebaste The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles made up of the remains that were left of the Ten Tribes which were carried away captive and those Heathen Colonies which the King of Babylon brought into their room and their Religion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan Rites though so highly prized and valued by them that they made no scruple to dispute place and to vie with the Worship of the Temple at Jerusalem Upon this account there had been an ancient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other Joh. 4.9 Hence the Samaritan Woman wondred that our Lord being a Jew should ask drink of her who was a Woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans They despised them at the rate of Heathens devoted them under the most solemn execrations allowed them not to become Proselytes nor to have any Portion in the Resurrection of the Just suffered not an Israelite to eat with them no nor to say Amen to their Blessing nor did they think they could fasten upon our Saviour a greater Character of reproach then to say that he was a Samaritan and had a Devil But God regards not the prejudices of men nor always with-holds his kindness from them whom we are ready to banish the Lines of Love and Friendship 'T is true the Apostles at their first mission were charged not to go in the way of the Gentiles Matth. 1◠5 nor to enter into any City of the Samaritans But when Christ by his death had broken down the partition wall Eph. 2.14 15. seq and abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances then the Gospel came and preached peace as well to them that were afar off as to them that were nigh Philip therefore freely preached the Gospel to these Samaritans so odious so distastful to the Jews to which he effectually prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles which being arguments fitted to the capacities and accommodate to the senses of the meanest do easiliest convey the truth into the minds of men And the success here was accordingly the people generally embracing the Christian Doctrine while they beheld him curing all manner of diseases and powerfully dispossessing daemons who with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence to the equal joy and wonder of that place IV. IN this City was one Simon born at a Town not far off who by Sorcery and Magic Arts had strangely insinuated himself into the reverence and veneration of the People A man crafty and ambitious daring and insolent whose Diabolical sophistries and devices had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the Vulgar that they really thought him and for such no doubt he gave out himself to be the supreme Divinity probably magnifying himself as that divine Power that was to visit the Jews
in awe of the words which thou hearest Thou shalt not remember evil against thy brother Thou shalt not be of a double and instable mind doubting whether thus or thus Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt love thy neighbor above thy life Thou shalt not destroy a child by abortion nor make it away when it is born Thou shalt not with-hold thy hand from thy son or from thy daughter but from their youth shalt teach them the fear of the Lord. Be not desirous of thy neighbours goods nor covet much Neither shalt thou heartily join with the proud but shalt be numbred with the just and the humble Entertain trials and temptations when they happen to thee as instruments of good Thou shalt not be double minded nor of a deceitful tongue for a double tongue is the snare of death Thou shalt be subject to the Lord and to Masters as Gods representatives in reverence and fear Thou shalt not command thy Maid or Man-servant with bitterness and severity those especially that hope in God lest thou thy self prove one that fearest not him who is over both For he came not to call men according to outward appearance but those whom his Spirit did prepare Thou shalt communicate to thy neighbour in all things and shalt not call what thou hast thine own For if ye mutually partake in incorruptible things how much more in things that are corruptible Be not rash with thy tongue for the mouth is the snare of death Keep thy soul as chast as thou canst stretch not forth thy hands to take and shut them when thou shouldst give Love all those that speak to thee the word of the Lord as the apple of thine eye Remember the day of judgment night and day Seâ—k out daily the faces of holy men and searching by the Word go forth to exhort and by it study to save a soul And with thy hands shalt thou labour for the redemption of thy sins Delay not to give nor begrutch when thou art charitable Give to every one that asks thee and thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward Thou shalt keep the things which thou hast received neither adding to them nor taking from them Thou shalt ever hate a wicked person Judge righteously Make no Schism Make peace between those that are at difference reconciling them to each other Confess thy sins and come not to prayer with an evil conscience This is the way of Light XVI BUT now the way of darkness is crooked and full of curses For it is the way of eternal death attended with punishment wherein are things destructive to their souls idolatry audaciousness heighth of domination hypocrisie double-heartedness adultery murder rapine pride transgression deceit malice arrogance witchcraft magic covetousness want of the fear of God Persecuters of good men haters of the truth men who love but do not know the wages of righteousness Persons that adhere not to what is good nor who by righteous judgment regard the case of the Widow and the Orphan watchful not for the fear of God but for what is evil great strangers to meekness and patience Lovers of vanity greedy of revenge who compassionate not the poor nor endeavour to relieve the oppressed prone to detraction not knowing their Maker murderers of children defacers of Gods workmanship such as turn away themselves from the needy add affliction to the afflicted plead for the rich and unjustly judge the poor sinners altogether And having thus described these two different ways he concludes his discourse with a hearty and passionate exhortation that since the time of rewards and punishments was drawing on they would mind these things as those that were taught of God searching after what God required of them and setting themselves to the practice of it that they might be saved at the day of judgment I have no more to remark concerning this excellent person then to add the character given of him by a pen that could not err he was a good man full of faith Act. 11.24 and of the Holy Ghost The End of S. BARNABAS'S Life THE LIFE OF S. TIMOTHY THE APOSTLE and EVANGELIST S. TIMOTHEUS Michael Burghers sulpsit S. Timothies Countrey and Kindred His religious education The great advantages of an early piety Converted to Christianity by S. Paul and made choice of to be his companion Circumcised by S. Paul and why This no contradicting S. Pauls doctrine concerning Circumcision His travels with S. Paul for the propagation of the Faith His return from Thessalonica and S. Pauls two Epistles to that Church S. Timothy consecrated Bishop of Ephesus The consent of antiquity herein Ordination in those times usually done by prophetic designation and the reason of it Timothies age enquired into The importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no man despise thy youth the words shewed to be used by the best Writers for a considerable Age. S. Pauls first and second Epistle to him and the importance of them The manners of the Ephesians noted Their festival called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Timothies martyrdom The time of his death place of his burial and translation of his body His weak and infirm constitution His great abstinence and admirable zeal S. Pauls singular affection for him Different from Timotheus in S. Denys the Areopagite Another Timothy S. Pauls Disciple martyred under Antoninus I. S TIMOTHY was as we may probably conceive a Lycaonian born at Lystra a noted City of that Province He was a person in whom the Jew the Gentile and the Christian met altogether His Father was by birth a Greek by Religion a Gentile or if a Proselyte at most but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Proselyte of the Gate who did not oblige themselves to circumcision and the rites of Moses but onely to the observance of the seven precepts of the sons of Noah his Mother Eunice daughter to the devout and pious Lois 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Homil 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1627. was a Jewess who yet scrupled not to marry with this Greek An argument that the partition wall now tottered and was ready to fall when Jew and Gentile began thus to match together His Mother and Grandmother were Women very eminently vertuous and holy and seem to have been amongst the first that were converted to the Christian Faith Nor was it the least instance of their piety the care they took of his education instructing him in the knowledge of divine things and seasoning his tender years with vertuous and sober principles 2 Tim. 3.15 so that from a child he was acquainted with the holy Scriptures whereby he was admirably prepared for the reception of Christianity and furnished for the conduct of a strict pious life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de liber educ pag. 4. And indeed Religion never thrives more kindly then when 't is planted
that peculiarly derives its name from Sodom And such being the case what wonder if S. Paul bids Titus reprove them sharply seeing their corrupt and depraved manners would admit of the sharpest lancets and the most stinging corrosives he could apply to them VI. IN the Epistle it self the main body of it consists of rules and directions for the several ranks and relations of men and because Spiritual and Ecclesiastical affairs are of all others most considerable he first instructs him in the qualifications of those whom he should set apart to be Bishops and Guides of Souls that they be holy and harmless innocent and inoffensive such as had not divorced and put away their first Wife that they might marry a second whose children were sober and regular and trained up in the Christian Faith that they be easie and treatable meek and unpassionate free from the love of Wine and a desire after riches by sordid and covetous designs that they be kind and hospitable lovers of goodness and good men modest and prudent just and honest strict and temperate firm and constant in owning and asserting the Doctrines of Christianity that have been delivered to them that being thoroughly furnished with this pure Evangelical Doctrine they may be able both to persuade and comfort others and mightily to convince those that resist and oppose the truth And certainly it was not without great reason that the Apostle required that the Guides and Governours of the Church should be thus able to convince gainsayers For whatever Authors report of Crete that it bred no Serpents or venomous Creatures yet certain it is that the poison of Errour and Heresie had insinuated it self there together with the entertainment of Christianity Tit. 1.10 there being many unruly and vain talkers especially they of the Circumcision Verse 14. who endeavoured to corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel with Jewish Fables groundless and unwarrantable Traditions mystical and Cabalistic explications 3.9 and foolish questions and genealogies For the Jews borrowing their notions herein from the Schools of Plato were fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation first Binah or Understanding then Achmoth or Cochmah Wisdom and so till they came to Milcah the Kingdom and Schekinah or the Divine Presence Much after the same rate as the Poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods they had first their several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their conjunctions the coupling and mixing of things together and thence proceeded their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their genealogies or generations out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night the conjunction of whom begot Aether and the Day and thence a Hesiod Theogon p.m. 466. Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole Pagan Theology concerning the original of their gods VII IN imitation of all which and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians Basilidians and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the sensless and unintelligible Schemes of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and XXX Aeones divided into three Classes of Conjunction in the first were four couples Profundity and Silence Mind and Truth the Word and Life Man and the Church in the second five viz. Profound and Mixture Ageratus and Vnion c. in the third six the Paraclete and Faith Patricos and Hope c. Of all which if any desire to know more they may if they can understand it find enough in Irenaeus Tertullian and Epiphanius to this purpose The b Haeres XXXI pâ—g 76. vid. Tertull de Praescript Haeret. c. 7. p. 204. last of whom not onely affirms expresly that Valentinus and his Party introduced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fabulous and Poetic fancies of the Heathens but draws a particular parallel between Hesiods Theogonia and their thirty Aeones or Ages consisting of fifteen Couples or Conjugations Male and Female which he shews exactly to agree both in the number design and order of them For instance Valentinus his Tribe begins thus Ampsiu that is Profundity Auraan that is Silence Bucua that is Mind Tharthuu that is Truth Vbucua that is Word Thardeadie that is Life Merexa that is Man Atarbarba c. that is Church c. All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imitation of Hesiods Progeny and generation of the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this order Chaos Night Erebus Earth Aether Day c. There being as he observes no difference between the one Scheme and the other but onely the change and alteration of the names This may suffice for a Specimen to shew whence this idle Generation borrowed their extravagant conceits though there were that had set much what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus By such dark and wild notions and principles the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere sought to undermine the Christian Doctrin mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty that they might the easilier insinuate themselves into the affections of men whereby they brought over numerous Proselytes to their Party of whom they made merchandise Tit. 1.11 gaining sufficient advantage to themselves So that 't was absolutely necessary that these mens mouths should be stopped and that they should not be suffered to go on under a shew of such lofty and sublime speculations and a pretence of Christian liberty to pervert men from the Christian Religion and the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel Having done with Ecclesiastics he proceeds to give directions for persons of all Ages and Capacities whether old or young men or women children or servants and then of more public concernment Rulers and People and indeed how to deport our selves in the general carriage of our lives In the close of the Epistle he wishes him to furnish Zenas and Apollos the two Apostolical Messengers by whom this Letter was conveyed to him with all things necessary for their return commanding that he himself with all convenient speed should meet him at Nicopolis though where that was is not certain whether Nicopolis in Epirus so called from Augustus his Victory there over Antony and Cleopatra or rather Nicopolis in Thrace upon the River Nesus not far from the borders of Macedonia whither S. Paul was now going or some other City whereof many in those parts of that name where he had resolved to spend his Winter And that by withdrawing so useful and vigilant a Shepherd he might not seem to expose his Flock to the fury and the rage of the Wolves he promises to send Artemas or Tychicus to supply his place during his absence from them VIII S. PAVL departing from Ephesus was come to Troas where though he had a fair opportunity to preach the Gospel offered to him yet as himself tells us he had no rest in his spirit 2 Cor. 2.12 13. because he found not Titus his brother whom he impatiently expected to bring him an account of the state of the
farther then Jerusalem But to what degrees of truth or probability that opinion may approve it self I leave to others to enquire IV. DIONYSIVS having finished his Studies at Heliopolis returned to Athens incomparably fitted to serve his Countrey and accordingly was advanced to be one of the Judges of the Areopagus a place of great honour and renown The Areopagus was a famous Senate-house built upon a Hill in Athens wherein assembled their great Court of Justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as b Arislid Tom. 1. p. 331. one calls it the most sacred and venerable Tribunal in all Greece Under their cognizance came all the greater and more capital Causes and especially matters of Religion blasphemy against the gods and contempt of the holy mysteries and therefore S. Paul was arraigned before this Court as a setter forth of strange gods when he preached to them concerning Jesus and Anastasis or the Resurrection None might be of this Council but persons of birth and quality wise and prudent men and of very strict and severe manners and so great an awe and reverence did this solemn and grave Assembly strike into those that sate in it that c Loco supr landat Isocrates tells us that in his time when they were somewhat degenerated from their ancient Vertue however otherwise men were irregular and exorbitant yet once chosen into this Senate they presently ceased from their vicious inclinations and chose rather to conform to the Laws and Manners of that Court 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to continue in their wild and debauch'd course of life They were exactly upright and impartial in their proceedings and heard causes at night or in the dark that the person of the Plaintiff or the Pleader might have no undue influence upon them Their sentence was decretory and final and from their determination lay no appeal Their number was uncertain by some restrained to nine by others enlarged to thirty one by others to fifty one and to more by some Indeed the Novemviri who were the Basileus or King the Archon the Polemarchus and the six Thesmothetae were the constant Seminary and Nursery of this great Assembly who having discharged their several Offices annually passed into the Areopagus and therefore when Socrates was condemned by this d D. Laert. l. 2. in vit S. â—at p. 115. Court we find no less then two hundred fourscore and one giving their Votes against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caetera vid. apud R. Volaterran Comment Urban l. 8. tâ—l 318. besides those whose White Stones were for his absolution and in an ancient Inscription upon a Column in the Acropolis at Athens erected to the memory of Rufus Festus Proconsul of Greece and one of these Judges mention is made of the Areopagite Senate of three hundred V. IN this grave and venerable judicature sate our S. Denys when S. Paul about the year XLIX or L came to Athens where he resolutely asserted the cause of Christianity against the attempts of the Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers who mainly appeared against it The Athenians who were infinitely curious and superstitious in matters of Religion not knowing what to make of this new and strange Doctrin that he taught presently brought him before the Areopagite-Senate to whom the proper cognizance of such causes did belong Here in a neat and eloquent discourse delivered not with greater freedom of mind then strength of reason he plainly demonstrated the folly and absurdity of those many vain deities whom they blindly worshipped explained to them that infinite Being that made and governed the World and what indispensable obligations he had laid upon all Mankind to worship and adore him and how much he had enforced all former engagements to gratitude and obedience to repentance and reformation by this last and best dispensation by sending his Son to publish so excellent a Religion to the World His discourse however entertained by some with scorn and laughter and gravely put off by others yet wanted not a happy influence upon many whom it convinced of the reasonableness and divinity of the Christian Faith among whom was our Dionysius one of the Judges that sate upon him and Damaris his wife for so a Desacerdot l. 4. c. 7. p. 67. T. 4. Ambros Epist 82. p. 198. Tom. 3. S. Chrysostom and others make her and probably his whole house An b Hild. in passio S. Dionys n. 6 7 8. ap Sur. Octob. IX p. 122. Author I confess I know not by what Authority relates a particular dispute between Dionysius and S. Paul concerning the Vnknown God who as God-man was to appear in the latter Ages to reform the World this the Apostle shewed to be the Holy Jesus lately come down from Heaven and so satisfied S. Denys that he prayed him to intercede with Heaven that he might be fully confirmed in this belief The next day S. Paul having restored sight to one that was born blind charged him to go to Dionysius and by that token claim his promise to be his Convert who being amazed at this sight readily renounced his Idolatry and was with his house baptized into the Faith of Christ But I know the credit of my Author too well to lay any great stress upon this relation and the rather because I find that Baronius himself is not willing to venture his Faith upon it To which I might add c Loc. supr citat S. Chrysostoms observation that the Areopagite was converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely by S. Pauls discourse there being no miracle that we know of that might promote and further it VI. BEING baptized he was we are d S. Metaphr ap Sur. ibid. Maxim Syncel ubi supr Psendo-Dionys de divin nomin c. 2. p. 175. T. 1. told committed to the care and tutorage of S. Hierotheus to be by him further instructed in the Faith a person not so much as mentioned by any of the Ancients which creates with me a vehement suspicion that it is onely a feigned name and that no such person ever really was in the World Indeed the e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek Menaeon makes him to have been one of the Nine Senators of the Areopagus to have been converted by S. Paul and by him made Bishop of Athens and then appointed Tutor to S. Denys f Pseudo-Dext Chron. ad Ann. Chr. LXXI Others make him by birth a Spaniard first Bishop of Athens and then travelling into his own Countrey Bishop of Segovia in Spain And both I believe with equal truth Nor probably had such a person ever been thought of had there not been some intimations of such an instructor in Dionysius his Works confirmed by the Scholiasts that writ upon him and afterwards by others improved into a formal Story As for S. Dionysius he is made to travel with S. Paul for three years after his Conversion and then to have been constituted by him Bishop of Athens so that it was necessary
stifly upon their own way and justifying themselves by Apostolical practice and tradition That this fire might not break out into a greater flame S. Polycarp a Iren. apud Exseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 14. p. 127. undertakes a journey to Rome to interpose with those who were the main supports and champions of the opposite party and gave life and spirit to the controversie Though the exact time of his coming hither cannot precisely be defined yet will it in a great measure depend upon Anicetus his succession to that See in whose time he came thither Now evident it is that almost all the ancient Catalogues place him before Soter and next to Pius whom he succeded This succession b Chron. ad An. CLIV. Eusebius places Ann. Chr. CLIV. a computation certainly much truer then that of Baronius who places it in the year CLXVII and consonantly to this the Chronicle of Alexandria c Loc. infra cit places S. Polycarps coming to Rome Ann. Chr. CLVIII Anton. Imp. XXI 'T is true indeed that in two ancient Catalogues of the Bishops of Rome set down by d De Schism Donatist l. 2. p. 38. Optatus and e Epist CLXV ad Generos col 751. S. Augustine Anicetus is set before Pins and made immediately to succeed Hyginus by which account he must be removed fifteen years higher for so long Eusebius positively says Pius sate And methinks it seems to look a little this way that Eusebius having given an account of the Emperour Antoninus Pius his Rescript in behalf of the Christians granted by him in his third Consulship Ann. Chr. CXL or thereabouts immediately adds that about the time of the things f H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 14. p. 127. spoken of Anicetus governed the Church of Rome and Polycarp came thither upon this errand the late peace and indulgence granted to the Christians probably administring both opportunity and encouragement to his journey But seeing this Scheme of Times contradicts Eusebius his plain and positive account in other places and that most ancient Catalogues especially that of g Lib. 3. c. 3. ap Eus l. 4. c. 13. p. 126. Irenaeus and h Ap. Euseb ib. c. 22. p. 142. Hegesippus who both lived and were at Rome in the time of Anicetus himself constantly place Anticetus next to Pius I dare not disturb this ancient and almost uncontrolled account of things till I can meet with better evidence for this matter But when ever it was over he came to Anicetus to confer with him about this affair Which makes me the more wonder at the learned Monsieur i Anubt in Enseb p. 109. Valois who with so peremptory a confidence denies that Polycarp came to Rome upon this errand and that it was not the difference about the Paschal solemnity but some other controversies that brought him thither when as k Ap. Euseb loc cit vid. etiam Chron. Alex. ad An. 2. Olym. 224 Ind. X. p. 602. ubi habet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irenaeus his express words are if Eusebius rightly represent them that he came to Rome to confer and discourse with Anicetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of a certain controversie concerning the day whereon Easter was to be celebrated 'T is true he l Ib. â—â— 5. c. 24. pag. 193. says that they differed a little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about some other things but this hindred not but that the other was the main errand and inducement of his Voyage thither though even about that as he adds there was no great contention between them For those holy and blessed souls knowing the main and vital parts of Religion not to be concerned in Rituals and external observances mutually saluted and embraced each other They could not indeed so satisfie one another as that either would quit the customs which they had observed but were content still to retain their own sentiments without violating that charity which was the great and common Law of their Religion In token whereof they communicated together at the Holy Sacrament and Anicetus to put the greater honour upon S. Polycarp gave him leave to consecrate the Eucharist in his own Church after which they parted peaceably each side though retaining their ancient Rites yet maintaining the peace and communion of the Church The ancient a Synod à Papp edit gr l. p. 3. Concil Tom. 1. col 583. edit noviss Synodicon tells us that a Provincial Synod was held at Rome about this matter by Anicetus Polycarp and ten other Bishops where it was decreed that Easter should not be kept at the time nor after the Rites and manner of the Jews but be celebrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the eminent and great Lords day that followed after it But improbable it is that S. Polycarp should give his Vote to any such determination when we know that he could not agree with Anicetus in this controversie and that he left Rome with the same judgment and practice herein wherewith he came thither V. DURING his stay at b Iren. adv haeres l. 3. c. 3. p. 233. ap Eusib l. 4. c. 14. Rome he mainly set himself to convince gainsayers testifying the truth of those Doctrines which he had received from the Apostles whereby he reclaimed many to the Communion of the Church who had been infected and over-run with errours especially the pernicious heresies of Marcion and Valentinus And when Marcion meeting him one day accidentally in the street and ill resenting it that he did not salute him called out to him Polycap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men. Graecor ubi supr own us the good man replied in a just indignation I own thee to be the first-born of Satan So religiously cautious says Irenaeus were the Apostles and their followers not so much as by discourse to communicate with any that did adulterate and corrupt the truth observing S. Pauls rule Tit. 3.9 10. A man that is an Heretic after the first and second admonition reject knowing that he that is such is perverted and sinneth being condemned of himself Indeed S. Polycarps pious and devout mind was fermented with a mighty zeal and abhorrency of the poysonous and pestilent principles which in those times corrupted the simplicity of the Christian Faith in so much that when at any time he heard any thing of that nature he was wont c Iren. Epist ad Florin ap Euseb l. 5. c. 20. p. 188. presently to stop his ears and cry out Good God into what times hast thou reserved me that I should hear such things immediately avoiding the place where he had heard any such discourse And the same dislike he manifested in all the Epistles which he wrote either to neighbour-Churches or particular persons warning them of errours and exhorting them to continue stedfast in the truth This zeal against Heretics and especially his carriage towards Marcion we may suppose he learnt in a great
they wrought set the truth of what they said beyond all exception that they magnified God the great Creator of the World and published his Son Christ to the World Concluding his discourse with this advice But as for thy self above all things pray that the Gates of Light may set open to thee for these are not things discerned and understood by all unless God and Christ grant to a man the knowledge of them Which discourse being ended he immediately departed from him IV. Ibid. pag. 225. THE wise discourse of this venerable man made a deep impression upon the Martyrs mind kindled in his soul a divine flame and begot in him a sincere love of the Prophets and those excellent men that were friends to Christ And now he began seriously to enquire into and examine the Christian Religion which he confesses he found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the onely certain and profitable Philosophy and which he could not but commend as containing a certain majesty and dread in it and admirably adapted to terrifie and persuade those who were out of the right way and to beget the sweetest serenity and peace in the minds of those who are conversant in it Nor was it the least inducement to turn the scale with him when he beheld the innocency of the Christians lives and the constancy of their death with what fearless and undaunted resolutions they courted torments and encountred Death in its blackest Shape This very account he gives of it to the Roman Emperour For my own part says a Apol. I. p. 50. he being yet detained under the Platonic Institutions when I heard the Christians traduced and reproached and yet saw them fearlesly rushing upon Death and venturing upon all those things that are accounted most dreadful and amazing to humane nature I concluded with my self 't was impossible that those men should wallow in Vice and be carried away with the love of Lust and Pleasure For what man that is a Slave to Pleasure and Intemperance that looks upon the eating humane Flesh as a delicacy can chearfully bid Death welcom which he knows must put a period to all his pleasures and delights and would not rather by all means endeavour to prolong his life as much as is possible and to delude his adversaries and conceal himself from the notice of the Magistrate rather then voluntarily betray and offer himself to a present execution And certainly the Martyrs reasonings were unanswerable seeing there could not be a more effectual proof of their innocency then their laying down their lives to attest it Zeno was wont to say he had rather see one Indian burnt alive then hear a hundred arguments about enduring labour and suffering Whence b Stromat l. 2. p. 414. Clemens Alexandrinus infers the great advantages of Christianity wherein there were daily Fountains of Martyrs springing up who before their eyes were roasted tormented and beheaded every day whom regard to the Law of their Master had taught and obliged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to demonstrate the truth and excellency of their Religion by sealing it with their bloud V. WE cannot exactly fix the date of his conversion yet may we I think make a very near conjecture a H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 8. p. 122. Eusebius tells us that at the time when Hadrian consecrated Antinous Justin did yet adhere to the Studies and Religion of the Greeks Now for this we are to know that Hadrian coming into Egypt lost there his beloved Catamit Antinous whose death he so resented that he advanced him into the reputation of a Deity whence in an ancient inscription at b Ap. Casau not in Ael Spart vit Adr p. 66. Rome he is stiled ϹΥÎΘΡΟÎΟΣΤΩΠΕΠΑΙΓΥΠΤΩ ΘΕΩΠthe Assessor of the Gods in Egypt He built a City to him in the place where he died called Antinoe erected a Temple and appointed Priests and Prophets to attend it instituted annual solemnities and every five years Sacred Games called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 held not in Egypt onely but in other parts whence an c Marm. Oxon. CXLIII p. 277 Inscription not long after those times set up by the Senate of Smyrna mentions Lerenius Septimius Heliodorus ANTINOEA who overcame in the Sports at Smyrna But to return 'T is very evident that Hadrian had not been in Egypt till about the time of Servianus or Severianus his being Consul as appears from that Emperours Letters d Ext. ap Vopist in vâ—t Saturn p. 959. to him whose Consulship fell in with Ann. Chr. CXXXII Traj XVI So that this of Antinous must be done either that or at most the foregoing year and accordingly about this time as Eusebius intimates Justin deserted the Greeks and came over to the Christians Whence in his first Apology presented not many years after to Antoninus Pius Adrians Successor he speaks e Apol. II. revera I. p. 72. of Antinous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who very lately lived and was consecrated and of the Jewish War headed by Barchachab as but lately past which we know was concurrent with the death and apotheosis of Antinous For that Justin's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both passages cannot be precisely confined to the time of presenting that Apology is evident to all and therefore as the phrase is sometimes used must be extended to what was lately done VI. THE wiser and more considerate part of the Gentiles were not a little troubled at the loss of so useful and eminent a person and wondred what should cause so sudden a change For whose satisfaction and conversion as well as his own vindication he thought good particularly to write a Discourse to them in the very first words whereof he thus bespeaks them f Orat. ad Graec. p. 37. Think not O ye Greeks that I have rashly and without any judgment or deliberation departed from the Rites of your Religion For I could find nothing in it really sacred and worthy of the divine acceptance The matters among you as your Poets have ordered them are monuments of nothing but madness and intemperance and a man can no sooner apply himself even to the most learned among you for instruction but he shall be intangled in a thousand difficulties and become the most confused man in the World And then proceeds with a great deal of wit and eloquence to expose the folly and absurdness of the main foundations of the Pagan Creed concluding his address with these exhortations Come hither O ye Greeks Ibid. p. 40. and partake of a most incomparable wisdom and be instructed in a divine Religion and acquaint your selves with an immortal King Become as I am for I sometimes was as you are These are the Arguments that prevailed with me this the efficacy and divinity of the doctrine which like a skilful charm expels all corrupt and poisonous affections out of the soul and banishes that Lust that is the Fountain of all evil whence Enmities Strifes Envy Aemulations Anger
endure torments for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved For this is that which will promote our happiness and procure us confidence before that dreadful Tribunal of our Lord and Saviour before which by the divine appointment the whole World must appear To which the rest assented adding Dispatch quickly what thou hast a mind to for we are Christians and cannot sacrifice to Idols Whereupon the Governour pronounced this sentence They who refuse to do sacrifice to the gods and to obey the Imperial Edict let them be first scourged and then beheaded according to the Laws The holy Martyrs rejoiced and blessed God for the sentence passed upon them and being led back to prison were accordingly whipped and afterwards beheaded The a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks in their Rituals though very briefly give the same account onely they differ in the manner of the Martyrs death Men. Graecor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they tell us was by a draught of poyson while the rest of his companions lost their heads Though there are that by that fatal potion understand no more then the poysonous malice and envy of Crescens the Philosopher by which Justin's death was procured And indeed if literally taken the account of the Greeks in that place will not be very consistent with it self Their dead bodies the Christians took up and decently interred This was done as Baronius conjectures Ann. Chr. CLXV with whom seems to concur the b Ad ann 2. Olymp. 236. M. Aurel. L. Ver. Imp. 6. Indict 3. p 606. Alexandrine Chronicle which says that Justin having presented his second Apology to the Emperours was not long after crowned with Martyrdom This is all the certainty that can be recovered concerning the time of his death the date of it not being consigned by any other ancient Writer 'T is a vast mistake or rather errour of Transcribers of c Haeres XLVI p. 171. Epiphanius who makes him suffer under Adrian when yet he could not be ignorant that he dedicated his first Apology to Antoninus Pius his successor in the close whereof he makes mention of Adrian his illustrious Parent and predecessor and annexes the Letter which he had written to Minucius Fundanus in favour of the Christians and no less his mistake if it was not an errour in the number concerning his age making him but thirty years old at the time of his death a thing no ways consistent with the course of his life and for what he adds of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he died in a firm and consistent age it may be very well applied to many years after that period of his life XVII THUS have we traced the Martyr through the several stages of his life and brought him to his last fatal period And now let us view him a little nearer He was a man of a pious mind and a very vertuous life tenderly sensible of the honour of God and the great interests of Religion He was not elated nor valued himself upon the account of his great abilities but upon every occasion intirely resolved the glory of all into the divine grace and goodness He had a true love to all men and a mighty concern for the good of souls whose happiness he continually prayed for and promoted yea that of their fiercest Enemies From none did he and his Religion receive more bitter affronts and oppositions then from the Jews yet he tells a Dial. cum Tryph. p. 254. Tryphon that they heartily prayed for them and all other Persecutors that they might repent and ceasing to blaspheme Christ might believe in him and be saved from eternal vengeance at his glorious appearing b Ibid. pag. 323 that though they were wont solemnly to curse them in their Synagogues and to join with any that would persecute them to death yet they returned no other answer then that You are our Brethren we beseech you own and embrace the truth of God And in his c Apolog. I. p. 52 Apology to the Emperour and the Senate he thus concludes I have no more to say but that we shall endeavour what in us lies and heartily pray that all men in the World may be blessed with the knowledge and entertainment of the truth In the pursuit of this noble and generous design he feared no dangers but delivered himself with the greatest freedom and impartiality he acquaints the d Apol. II. p. 53. Emperours how much 't was their duty to honour and esteem the truth that he came not to smooth and flatter them but to desire them to pass sentence according to the exactest rules of Justice e Ibid. p. 54. that it was their place and infinitely reasonable when they had heard the cause to discharge the duty of righteous Judges which if they did not they would at length be found inexcusable before God f Ibid. p. 99. nay that if they went on to punish and persecute such innocent persons he tells them before hand 't was impossible they should escape the future judgment of God while they persisted in this evil and unrighteous course In this case he regarded not the persons of men nor was scared with the dangers that attended it and therefore in his conference with the Jew tells g Dial. cum Pyph p. 349. him that he regarded nothing but to speak the truth not caring whom in this matter he disobliged yea though they should presently tear him all in pieces neither fearing nor favouring his own Countrymen the Samaritans whom he had accused in his Apology to the Emperour for being so much bewitched and seduced with the impostures of Simon Magus whom they cried up as a supreme deity above all principality and power XVIII FOR his natural endowments he was a man of acute parts a smart and pleasant wit a judgment able to weigh the differences of things and to adapt and accommodate them to the most useful purposes all which were mightily improved and accomplished by the advantages of Foreign Studies being both in the Christian and Ethnic Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says h Col. CXXV c. l. 304. Photius arrived at the very heighth flowing with abundance of History and all sorts of Learning In one thing indeed he seems to have come short and wherein the first Fathers were generally defective skill in the Hebrew and other Eastern Languages as appears to omit others by one instance his derivation of the word Satanas Sata as he tells * Dialog cum Tryph. p. 331. us in the Hebrew and the Syriac signifying an Apostate and Nas the same with the Hebrew Sata out of the composition of both which arises this one word Satanas A trifling conceit and the less to be pardoned in one that was born and lived among the Samaritans and the Jews every one that has but conversed with those Languages at a distance knowing it to spring from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adversary
up under the tutorage and instructions of S. Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna and S. Johns Disciple from whom he received the seeds of the true Apostolic Doctrine and for whom he had so great a reverence and regard that he took a most exact and particular notice of whatever was memorable in him even to the minutest circumstances of his conversation the memory whereof he preserved fresh and lively to his dying day II. BY whose hands he was consecrated to the Ministeries of Religion as also when and upon what occasion he came into France is not known Probable it is that he accompanied S. Polycarp in his journey to Rome about the Paschal controversie where by his and Anicetus his persuasions he might be prevailed with to go for France in some parts whereof and especially about Marseilles great numbers of Greeks did reside then beginning to be over-run with those pernicious Heresies which at that time invaded and disturbed the Church that so he might be helpful and assisting to Pothinus the aged Bishop of Lyons in quelling and subduing of them Hist Franc. lib. 1â— 29. This Pothinus if we may believe Gregory Bishop of Tours who resided some time in this City with his Uncle Nicetius Bishop of it came out of the East and had been dispatched hither also by S. Polycarp to govern and superintend this Church If it seem strange to any how S. Polycarps care came to extend so far as to send a Bishop into so remote and distant parts of the World it seems not improbable to suppose that Lyons being a City famous for Commerce and Traffique some of its Merchants might trade to Smyrna where being converted by Polycarp they might desire of him to send some grave and able person along with them to plant and propagate the Christian Faith in their own Country which accordingly fell to Pothinus his share But then that this must needs be done by the Authority and ratified by the Decree of the Bishop of Rome P. de Marc. dissert de Primat n. 111. p. 227. a learned man will never be able to convince us though he offers at three Arguments to make it good weak I must needs say and inconcluding and which rather shew that he designed thereby to reconcile himself to the Court of Rome whose favour at the time of his writing that Tract he stood in need of in order to his admission to the Bishoprick of S. Leiger de Conserans to which he was nominated and wherein he was delayed by that Court offended with his late Book De Concordia Sacerdotii Imperii then argue the truth of what he asserts so unsuitable are they to the learning and judgment of that great man But I return to Irenaeus He came to Lyons the Metropolis of Gallia Celtica situate upon the confluence of the two famous Rivers the Roan and La Saona or the ancient Arar famous among other things for its Temple and Altars erected to the honour of Augustus at the common charge of all France where they held an annual solemnity from all parts of the Countrey upon the first of August and upon d Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 1 p. 162. this day it was that most of the Martyrs suffered in the following Persecution These Festival solemnities were usually celebrated not onely with great contentions for Learning and Eloquence but with Sports and Shews and especially with the bloody conflicts of Gladiators with barbarous usages and throwing Malefactors to wild Beasts in the Amphitheatre wherein the Martyrs mentioned by Eusebius bore a sad and miserable part Irenaeus being arrived at Lyons continued several years in the station of a Presbyter under the care and Government of Pothinus till a heavy storm arose upon them For in the reign of M. Aurelius Antoninus Ann. Chr. CLXXVII began a violent Persecution a Euseb l. 5. Praef. p. 153. against the Christians which broke out in all places but more peculiarly raged in France whereof the Churches of Lyons and Vien in a b Apud Euseb ibid. p. 154 155 c. Letter to them of Asia and Phrygia give them an account where they tell them 't was impossible for them exactly to describe the brutish fierceness and cruelty of their Enemies and the severity of those torments which the Martyrs suffered banished from their houses and forbid so much as to shew their heads reproached beaten hurried from place to place plundered stoned imprisoned and there treated with all the expressions of an ungovernable rage and fury as they particularly relate at large The occasion c Euseb ibid. c. 3. p. 168. of writing this account was a controversie lately raised in the Asian Churches by Montanus and his followers concerning the Prophetic Spirit to which they pretended for the composing whereof these Churches thought good to send their judgment and opinion in the case adjoyning the Epistles which several of the Martyrs while in Prison had written to those Churches about that very matter all which they annexed to their Commentary about the Martyrs sufferings penned no doubt by the hand of Irenaeus III. NOR did the Martyrs write onely to the Asian Churches but to Eleutherus Bishop of Rome about these controversies And just occasion there was for it if which is most probable this very Eleutherus was infected with the errours of Montanus for d Adv. Prax. c. 1. p. 501. Tertullian tells us that the Bishop of Rome did then own and embrace the Prophesies of Montanus and his two Prophetesses and upon that account had given Letters of Peace to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia though by the persuasions of one Praxeas he was afterwards prevailed with to revoke them Where by the way may be observed that the infallibility of the Pope was then from home or so fast asleep that the envious man could sowe Tares in the very Pontifical Chair it self This Bishop e Ad Ann. 173. n. IV. Baronius will have to be Anicetus but in all likelihood was our Eleutherius who in his after-commendation of the Montanists followed the example of his f Tertull. ibid. Predecessors no doubt Soter and Anicetus who had disowned and rejected Montanus his Prophesie nor can it well be otherwise conceived why the Martyrs should so particularly write to him about it And whereas g Ad. Ann. 201. n. IX Baronius would have Pope Eleutherius dead long before Tertullian became a Montanist because in his Book against Heresies he stiles h De Praescript Haeret. c. 30. p. 212. him the blessed Eleutherius as if it were tantamount with cujus memoria est in benedictione nothing was more common then to give that title to eminent persons while alive as Alexander of Jerusalem calls i Euseb l. 6. c. 11 p. 113. Clemens Alexandrinus who carried the Letter the blessed Clemens in his Epistle to the Church of Antioch and the Clergy of the Church of Rome stiles k Ad Cler. Carthag Epist II. p. 8.
had personally encountred and read the Books of others which gave him occasion what the desires of many had importuned him to undertake to set upon that elaborate Work against Heresies wherein he has fully displayed their wild and phantastic principles their brutish and abominable practises and with such infinite pains endeavoured to refute them though indeed so prodigiously extravagant so utterly irreconcileable were they to any principles of sober reason that as he himself d Lib. 1. c. ult p. 139. observes it was Victory enough over them onely to discover and detect them This Work he composed in the time of Eleutherus Bishop of Rome as is evident from his Catalogue e Lib. 3. c. 3. p. 233. ap Eus l. 5. c. 6. p. 171. of the Bishops of that See ending in Eleutherus the twelfth successive Bishop who did then possess the place VI. AND indeed it was but time for Irenaeus and the rest of the wise and holy Bishops of those days to bestir themselves grievous Wolves having entered in and made havock of the flock The field of the Church was miserably over-run with taâ—es which did not onely endanger the choaking of Religion within the Church but obstruct the planting and propagating the Faith among them that were without Nothing being more commonly objected against the truth and divinity of the Christian Religion then that they were rent and torn into so many Schisms and Heresies a Stromat l. p. 753. S. Clemens of Alexandria particularly encounters this exception some of whose excellent reasonings are to this effect The first thing says he they charge upon us and pretend why they cannot embrace the Faith is the diversity of Sects that are among us truth being delayed and neglected while some assert one thing and some another To which he answers that there were various Sects and Parties both among the Jews and the Philosophers of the Gentiles and yet no man thought this a sufficient reason why they should cease to study Philosophy or adhere to the Jewish Rites and Discipline that our Lord had foretold that Errours would spring up with Truth like Tares growing up with the Wheat and that therefore 't was no wonder if it accordingly came to pass and that we ought not to be wanting to our duty because others cast off theirs but rather stick closer to them who continue constant in the profession of the Truth that a mind diseased and distempered with Errour and Idolatry ought no more to be discouraged from complying with an Institution that will cure it by reason of some differences and divisions that are in it then a sick man would refuse to take any Medicines because of the different opinions that are among Physitians and that they do not all use the same Prescriptions that the Apostle hath told us that there must be heresies that they that are approved may be made manifest that they heartily entertain the Christian Doctrin improve and persevere in Faith and a holy Life that if Truth be difficult to be discerned yet the finding it out will abundantly recompence the trouble and the labour that a wise man would not refuse to eat of fruit because he must take a little pains to discover what is ripe and real from that which is only painted and counterfeit Shall the Traveller resolve not to go his journey because there are a great many ways that cross and thwart the common Road and not rather enquire which is the plain and Kings High-way or the Husbandman refuse to till his ground because Weeds grow up together with the Plants We ought rather to make these differences an argument and incentive the more accurately to examine Truth from Falshood and Realities from Pretences that escaping the snares that are plausibly laid we may attain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the knowledge of that which is really truth indeed and which is not hard to find of them that sincerely seek it But to return back to Irenaeus VII HAVING passed over the times of the Emperour Commodus the onely honour of whose Reign was that he created no great disturbance to the Christians being otherwise a most debauched and dissolute Prince in whom the Vices of all his Predecessors seemed to meet as in one Common-Sewer Eleutherus died and Victor succeeded in the See of Rome A man furious and intemperate impatient of contradiction and who let loose the Reins to an impotent and ungovernable Passion He revived the Controversie about the celebration of Easter and endeavoured imperiously to impose the Roman Custom of keeping it on the next Lords day after the Jewish Passover upon the Churches of the Lesser Asia and those who observed the contrary usage and because they would not yield rashly thundred out an Excommunication against them not onely endeavouring but as a Lib. 5. c. 24. p. 192. Eusebius explains it in the following words actually proscribing and pronouncing them cut off from the Communion of the Church The Asiatics little regarding the fierce threatnings from Rome under the conduct of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus stood their ground justifying their observing it upon the fourteenth day after the appearance of the Moon let it fall upon what day of the Week it would after the rule of the Jewish Passover and this by constant Tradition and uninterrupted usage derived from S. John and S. Philip the Apostles S. Polycarp and several others to that very day All which he told Pope Victor but prevailed nothing as what will satisfie a wilful and passionate mind to prevent his rending the Church in sunder For the composure of this unhappy Schism b Euseb ibid. c. 23. p. 190. Synods were called in several places as besides one at Rome one in Palestine under Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Palestina and Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem another in Pontus under Palmas and many more in other places who were willing to lend their hands toward the quenching of the common Flame c Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. who all wrote to Victor sharply reproving him and advising him rather to mind what concerned the Peace of the Church and the love and unity of Christians among one another And among the rest our Irenaeus who as Eusebius observes truly answered his name in his peaceable and peace-making temper convened a d Ibid. c. 23. p. 191. Synod of the Churches of France under his jurisdiction where with thirteen Bishops besides himself says the fore-mentioned e Ubi supr p. 7. Synodicon he considered and determined of this matter In whose name he wrote a Synodical Epistle to Pope f Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. Victor wherein he told him that they agreed with him in the main of the Controversie but withall duly and gravely advised him to take heed how he excommunicated whole Churches for observing the ancient Customs derived down to them from their Ancestors that there was as little agreement in the manner of the Preparatory Fast before Easter as in the
was the true standard and measure of truth he considered that no man knows every thing that some things are obvious to one that are overseen or neglected by another that there are wholsom herbs and flowers in every Field and that if the thing be well said 't is no matter who 't is that says it that reason is to be submitted to before authority and though a fair regard be due to the opinions and principles of our Friends yet that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as e Ethic. l. 1. c. 4. p. 3. Tom. 2. Aristotle himself confesses more pious and reasonable to honour and esteem the truth And thus he picked up a System of noble principles like so many Flowers out of several Gardens professing f Laert. loc â—it this to be the great end of all his disquisitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a life perfected according to all the rules of Vertue Of this incomparable Order was our divine Philosopher I espoused not says he g Strom. l. 2. p. 288. this or that Philosophy not the Stoic nor the Platonic not the Epicurean or that of Aristotle but whatever any of these Sects had said that was fit and just that taught righteousness with a divine and religious knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that being selected I call Philosophy Though it cannot be denied but that of any Sect he came nearest to the Stoics as appears from his discoursing by way of Paradoxes and his affected novelty of words two things peculiar to the men of that way as a very learned and ingenious person h H. Dodwel Prolâ—â—â—â— Apol. ad 〈…〉 de 〈…〉 115. has observed And I doubt not but he was more peculiarly disposed towards this Sect by the instructions of his Master Pantaenus so great and professed an admirer of the Stoical Philosophy IV. PANTAENVS being dead he succeeded him in the Schola 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catechetic School at Alexandria though questionless he taught in it long before that and probably during Pantaenus his absence in India supplying his place till his return and succeeding in it after his death for that he was Pantaenus his Successor the Ancients * Euseb l. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Hieron de Script in Clement Phot. Cod. CXVIII col 297. are all agreed Here he taught with great industry and fidelity and with no less success some of the most eminent men of those times Origen Alexander Bishop of Hicrusalem and others being bred under him And now as a Strom. l. 1. p. 278. himself confesses he found his Philosophy and Gentile-Learning very useful to him for as the Husbandman first waters the soil and then casts in the Seed so the notions he derived out of the Writings of the Gentiles served first to water and soften 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gross and terrestrial parts of the soul that the spiritual seed might be the better cast in and take vital root in the minds of men Besides the Office of a Catechist he was made Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria and that at least about the beginning of Severus his reign for under that capacity Eusebius takes notice of him Ann. CXCV. About which time prompted by his own zeal and obliged by the iniquity of the times he set himself to vindicate the cause of Christianity both against Heathens and Heretics which he has done at large with singular learning and dexterity in his Book called Stromata published about this time for drawing down a Chronological b Strom. l. 1. p. 336. account of things he ends his computation in the death of the Emperour Commodus Whence 't is evident as c Lib. 6. c. 6. p. 208. Eusebius observes that he compiled that Volume in the reign of Severus that succeeded him V. THE Persecution under Severus raged in all Provinces of the Empire and particularly at Alexandria which made many of the Christians for the present willing to retire and Clemens probably among the rest whom we therefore find particularly discoursing d Stromat l. 4. p. 504. the lawfulness of withdrawing in a time of Persecution that though we may not cowardly decline a danger or death when 't is necessary for the sake of Religion yet in other cases we are to follow the direction of our Saviour when they persecute you in one City flee ye into another and not to obey in such a case is to be bold and rash and unwarrantably to precipitate our selves into danger that if it be a great sin against God to destroy a man who is his image that man makes himself guilty of the crime who offers himself to the public tribunal and little better does he that when he may declines not the Persecution but rashly exposes himself to be apprehended thereby to his power conspiring with the wickedness of his Persecutors And if further he irritate and provoke them he is unquestionably the cause of his own ruine like a man that needlesly rouzes and enrages a wild Beast to fall upon him And this opportunity I doubt not he took to visit the Eastern parts where he had studied in his younger days We find him about this time at Jerusalem with Alexander shortly after Bishop of that place between whom there seems to have been a peculiar intimacy insomuch that S. Clemens dedicated e Euseb l. 6. c. 14. pag. 214. Hieron in Clement his Book to him called The Ecclesiastical Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or against them that Judaize During his stay here he preached constantly and declined no pains even in that evil time and with what success we may see by a piece of a Letter written by Alexander then in prison and sent by our S. Clemens to Antioch which we here insert * Apud Euseb ib. c. 11. p. 212. Alexander a Servant of God and a prisoner of Jesus Christ to the blessed Church at Antioch in the Lord greeting Our Lord has made my bonds in this time of my imprisonment light and easie to me while I understood that Asclepiades a person admirably qualified by his eminency in the faith was by the divine Providence become Bishop of your holy Church of Antioch Concluding these Letters worthy Brethren I have sent you by Clemens the blessed Presbyter a man virtuous and approved whom ye both do and shall yet further know who having been here with us according to the good will and providence of God has greatly established and encreased the Church of Christ By which Epistle we may by the way remarque the errour of ⸫ In Chron. ad Ann. CCXII. Eusebius who places Asclepiades his coming to the See of Antioch in the first year of Caracalla Ann. CCXII. whereas we see it was while Alexander was yet in prison under Severus which he himself makes to be Ann. CCV From Jerusalem then Clemens went to Antioch where we cannot question but he took the same pains and laboured with the same zeal and
an immoderate ambition betrayed the man into the snare and condemnation of the Devil At which breach Satan having entered took possession of the man who acted by the influence of an evil Spirit was wont on a suddain to fall into Enthusiastic fits and Ecstatic raptures and while he was in them in a furious and a frantic manner he poured out wild and unheard of things prophecying of what was to come in a way and strain that had not been used hitherto in the Church Proselytes he wanted not that came over to his Party At first onely some few of his Country-men the Phrygians whence his Sect derived the title of Cataphryges were drawn into the snare whom he instructed in the Arts of Evil speaking teaching them to reproach the whole Christian Church for refusing to entertain and honor his Pseudo-prophetic Spirit the same Spirit on the contrary pronouncing them blessed that joyned themselves to this new Prophet and swelling them with the mighty hopes and promises of what should happen to them sometimes also gently reproving and condemning them Among the rest of his Disciples two women were especially remarkable Prisca and Maximilla whom having first corrupted he imparted his Daemon to them whereby they were presently enabled to utter the most frantic incoherent and extravagant Discourses The truth is he seemed to lay his Scene with all imaginable craft and subtlety in the great and foundation-principles of Religion he agreed with the Catholics embraced entirely the holy Scriptures and pretended that he must receive the gifts of Divine Grace extrarordinarily conferred upon him which he gave out were more immediately the Holy Ghost he made a singular shew of some uncommon rigours and severities in Religion gave Laws for more strict and solemn Fasts and more frequently to be observed then were among the Orthodox taught Divorces to be lawful and forbad all second marriages called Pepuza and Tymium two little Towns of Phrygia Jerusalem that so he might the more plausibly invite simple and unwary Proselytes to flock thither And because he knew no surer way to oblige such persons as would be serviceable to him then by Proposals of gain and advantage he used all methods of extorting money from his deluded followers especially under the notion of Gifts and Offerings for which purpose he appointed Collectors to receive the Oblations that were brought in with which he maintained under-Officers and paid Salaries to those that propagated his Doctrines up and down the World Such were the Arts such the Principles of the Sect first strated by Montanus what additions were made by his followers in after-Ages I am not now concerned to enquire IX ALLURED with the smooth and specious pretences of this Sect Tertullian began to look that way though the particular occasion of his starting aside * Ubi supra vid. Niceph. l. 4. c. 12. p. 298. S. Hierom tells us was the envy and reproaches which he met with from the Clergy of the Church of Rome They that conceive him to have sued for the See of Carthage vacant by the death of Agrippinus and that he was opposed and repulsed in it by the Clergy of Rome and so highly resented the affront as thereupon to quit the Communion of the Catholic Church talk at random and little consider the mortified temper of the man and his known contempt of the World Probable it is that being generally noted for the excessive and over-rigorous strictness of his manners he had been charged by some of the Roman Clergy for compliance with Montanus and it may be admonished to recant or disown those Principles Which his stubborn and resolute temper not admitting he was together with Proclus and the rest of the Cataphrygian Party cut off by the Bishop of Rome from all Communion with that Church For there had been lately a disputation held at Rome between Caius an ancient Orthodox Divine and Proclus one of the Heads of the Montanist Party as a Lib. 6. c. 20. p. 222. l. 2. c. 25. p. 67. Hieron de Script in Caio Eusebius who read the account of it published by Caius informs us wherein Proclus being worsted was together with all the followers of that Sect excommunicated and Tertullian himself among the rest as he sufficiently b Dâ— jejun c. 1. p. 544. intimates This a man of a morose and unyielding disposition and who could brook no moderation that seemed to intrench upon the Discipline and Practice of Religion could not bear and therefore making light of the judgment and censures of that Church flew off and joined himself to Montanus his Party whose pretended austerities seemed of all others most agreeable to his humour and genius and most exactly to conspire with the course and method of his life But as it cannot be doubted that he looked no further then to the appearances and pretensions of that Sect not seeing the corrupt Springs by which the Engine was managed within so it is most reasonable and charitable to conceive that he never understood their principles in the utmost latitude and extent of them If he seems sometimes to acknowledge Montanus to be the Paraclete that was to come into the World probably he meant not something distinct from the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the Apostles but a mighty power and extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost shed upon Montanus whom God had sent into the World more fully and perfectly to explain the Doctrines of the Gospel and to urge the rules and institutions of the Christian life which our Lord had delivered when he was upon earth but did not with the greatest accuracy the things were capable of the minds of men not being then duly qualified to receive them That for this end he thought Montanus invested with miraculous powers and a spirit of Prophesie a thing not unusual even in those times and might believe his two Prophetesses to be acted with the same spirit All which might consist with an honest mind imposed upon by crafty and plausible pretences And plain it is that for some considerable time Montanus maintained the reputation of great piety zeal sanctity and extraordinary gifts before he was discovered to the World And Tertullian in all likelihood had his accounts concerning him not from himself but from Proclus or some others of the Party who might easily delude him especially in matters of fact with false informations However nothing can be more evident then that he looked a De Jejun loc citat upon these new Prophets as innovating nothing in the principles of Christianity that Montanus preached no other God nor asserted any thing to the prejudice of our blessed Saviour nor subverted any rule of Faith or Hope but onely introduced greater severities then other men that he was not the Author but the restorer of Discipline and onely reduced things to that ancient strictness from which he supposed they had degenerated especially in the cases of coelibacy single marriages and such like as he
full and solid answer in eight Books wherein as he had the better cause so he managed it with that strength of Reason clearness of Argument and convictive evidence of truth that were there nothing else to testifie the abilities of this great man this Book alone were enough to do it It was written probably about the beginning of the reign of Philip the Emperour with whom Origen seems to have had some acquaintance who a Id. ibid. p. 233 wrote one Letter to him and another to the Empress From whence and some other little probabilities Eusebius first and after him the generality of Ecclesiastic Writers have made that Emperour to have been a Christian and the first of the Imperial line that was so The vanity of which mistake and the original from whence it sprung we have shewed elsewhere Nor is the matter mended by those who say that Philip was privately baptized by Fabian Bishop of Rome and so his Christian Profession was known onely to the Christians but concealed from the Gentiles which being but a conjecture and a gratis dictum without any authority to confirm it may with the same ease and as much justice be rejected as it is obtruded and imposed upon us Nor has the late learned publisher b Rod. Wetsteinius Praefat. in Orig. Dial. contr Marc. c. Ã se Edit Basil 1674. 4 of some Tracts of Origen who in order to the securing the Dialogue against the Marcionites to belong to Origen has newly enforced this argument said any thing that may persuade a wise man to believe a Story so improbable in all its circumstances and which must have made a louder noise in the World and have had more and better witnesses to attest it then an obscure and uncertain report the onely authority which Eusebius who gave the first hint of it pretends in this matter XXI THE good success which Origen lately had in Arabia in the cause of Beryllus made him famous in all those parts and his help was now again c Ibid. c. 37. desired upon a like occasion For a sort of Hereties were start up who affirmed that at death both body and soul did expire together and were resolved into the same state of corruption and that at the resurrection they should revive and rise together to eternal life For this purpose a general Synod of those parts was called and Origen desired to be present at it who managed the cause with such weighty Arguments such unanswerable and clear convictions that the adverse party threw down their weapons and relinquished the sentiments which they maintained before Another heretical crew appeared at this time in the East the impious and abominable Sect of the Helcesaitae against whom also Origen seems to have been engaged concerning whom himself d Homil. in Psal 82. ap Euseb ibid. c. 38. p. 233. gives us this account They rejected a great part both of the Old and New Canon making use onely of some few parts of Scripture and such without question as they could make look most favourably upon their cause S. Paul they wholly rejected and held that it was lawful and indifferent to deny the faith and that he was the wise man that in his words would renounce Christianity in a time of danger and Persecution but maintain the truth in his heart They carried a Book about with them which they affirmed to have been immediately dropt down from Heaven which whoever received and gave credit to should receive remission of sins though different from that pardon which our Lord Jesus bestowed upon his followers But how far Origen was concerned against this absurd and sensless generation is to me unknown The best on 't is this Sect like a blazing Comet though its influence was malignant and pestilential suddenly arose and as suddenly disappeared XXII PHILIP the Emperour being slain by the Souldiers Decius made a shift by the help of the Army to step into the Throne a mortal enemy to the a Ibid. â— 3â— p. 234. Church in whose short reign more Martyrs especially men of note and eminency came to the Stake then in those who governed that Empire ten times his reign In Palaestin Alexander the aged and venerable Bishop of Jerusalem was thrown into prison where after long and hard usage and an illustrious confession of the Christian Faith before the public Tribunal he died This Alexander whom we have often mentioned had been first Bishop in Cappadocia b Ibid. c. 11. p. 212. where out of a religious curiosity he had resolved upon a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the holy and venerable Antiquities of that place whereto he was particularly excited by a divine revelation intimating to him that it was the will of God that he should be assistant to the Bishop of that place It happened at this time that Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem being some years since returned to his See which he had deserted many years before was become incapable through his great age and infirmity being CXVI years old duly to manage his charge Alexander approaching near Jerusalem they were warned by a Vision and a Voice from Heaven to go out of the City and there receive him whom Heaven had designed to be their Bishop They did so and finding Alexander entertained and introduced him with all possible kindness and respect where by the importunity of the People and the consent of all the neighbour-Bishops he was constrained to become Colleague with Narcissus in the government of that Church This I suppose is the first express instance that we meet with in Church-antiquity of two Bishops sitting at once and that by consent in one See But the case was warranted by an extraordinary authority besides that Narcissus seems rather to have resigned and quitted the place retaining nothing but the title nor intermedling any further then by joining in prayers and devotions for the good of the Church surviving not above three or four years at most Alexander succeeding in the sole Presidency governed his Church with singular prudence and fidelity and among other memorable acts erected a Library at Jerusalem c Ibid. c. 20. p. 222. which he especially stored with Ecclesiastical Epistles and Records from whence Eusebius confesses he furnished himself with many considerable Memoirs and materials for the composing of his History He sate Bishop XXXIX years and after several arraignments and various imprisonments and sufferings died now in prison at Caesarea to the unconceivable loss and resentment of the whole Church and especially of Origen who had been ordained by him and whom he had ever found a fast Friend and Patron Nor did Origen himself who was at this time at Tyre escape without his share Eusebius does but briefly intimate his sufferings having given a larger account of them in another Book long since lost he tells d Ubi supr p. 234. us that the Devil mustered up all his Forces against him and assaulted him with all
pleas represented with all the advantages with which Wit Reason and Eloquence could set them off XXVII NOR wanted there of old those who stood up to plead and defend his cause especially Pamphilus the Martyr and Eusebius who published an Apology in six Books in his behalf the first five whereof were written by Pamphilus with Eusebius his assistance while they were in prison the last finished and added by Eusebius after the others Martyrdom Besides which a Cod. CXVIII col 297. Photius tells us there were many other famous men in those times who wrote Apologies for him he gives us a particular account b Cod. CXVII col 293. of one though without a name where in five Books the Author endeavours to justifie Origen as sound and Orthodox and cites Dionysius Demetrius and Clemens all of Alexandria and several others to give in evidence for him The main of these Apologies are perished long ago otherwise probably Origen's cause might appear with a better face seeing we have now nothing but his notions dressed up and glossed by his professed enemies and many things ascribed to him which he never owned but were coined by his pretended followers For my own part I shall onely note from the Ancients some general remarques which may be pleaded in abatement of the rigour and severity of the sentence usually passed upon him And first many things were said and written by him not positively and dogmatically but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the c Ibid. col 296. Author of his Apology in Photius by way of exercitation and this he himself was wont to plead at every turn and to beg the Readers pardon and profess that he propounded these things not as Doctrins but as disputable Problems and with a design to search and find out the truth as a Apolog. ap Hieron Tom. 4. p. 172. Pamphilus assures us and S. Hierom himself b Ad Avit p. 151. Tom. 2. cannot but confess and if we had the testimony of neither there is enough to this purpose in his Books still extant to put it beyond all just exception Thus discoursing concerning the union of the two natures in the person of our blessed Saviour he affirms c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 6. p. 698. it to be a mystery which no created understanding can sufficiently explain concerning which says he not from any rashness of ours but onely as the order of Discourse requires we shall briefly speak rather what our Faith contains then what humane Reason is wont to assert producing rather our own conjectures then any plain and peremptory affirmations And to the same purpose he expresses himself at every turn Not to say that he wrote many things in the heat of disputation which it may be his cooler and more considering thoughts would have set right So the Apologist in Photius d Cod. CXVII col 296. pleads that whatever he said amiss in the doctrin of the Trinity proceeded meerly from a vehement opposition of Sabellius who confounded the number and difference of persons and whose Sect was one of the most prevailing Heresies of that time The confutation whereof made him attempt a greater difference and distinction in the persons then the rules of Faith did strictly allow Secondly those Books of his e Pamph. Apol. ubi supr p. 174 177. wherein he betrays the most unsound and unwarrantable notions were written privately and with no intention of being made public but as secrets communicable among friends and not as doctrines to disturb the Church And this he freely acknowledged in his Letter to Fabian f Ap. Hieron in Epist ad Pammach de err Orig. p. 193. 〈◊〉 Bishop of Rome and cast the blame upon his friend Ambrosius quod secretò edita in publicum protulerit that he had published those things which he meant should go no further then the brests or hands of his dearest friends And there is always allowed a greater freedom and latitude in debating things among friends the secrets whereof ought not to be divulged nor the Public made Judges of that innocent liberty which is taken within mens private walls Thirdly the disallowed opinions that he maintains are many of them such as were not the Catholic and determined Doctrins of the Church not defined by Synods nor disputed by Divines but either Philosophical or Speculations which had not been thought on before and which he himself at every turn cautiously distinguishes from those propositions which were entertained by the common and current consent and approbation of the Christian Church Sure I am he lays it down as a fundamental maxim in the very entrance upon that g Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 665. Book wherein his most dangerous assertions are contained that those Ecclesiastic Doctrins are to be preserved which had been successively delivered from the Apostles and were then received and that nothing was to be embraced for truth that any ways differed from the tradition of the Church XXVIII FOURTHLY Divers of Origen's works have been corrupted and interpolated by evil hands and Heretics to add a lustre and authority to their opinions by the veneration of so great a name have inserted their own assertions or altered his and made him speak their language An argument which however laughed at by S. Hierom a Ad â—ammath ubi supr is yet stifly maintained by Rufinus b Apol. pro Orig. apud Hier. Tom. 4. p. 194 195. c. Praef. ad lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. Tom. 2. p. 188. who shews this to have been an old and common art of Heretics and that they dealt thus with the writings of Clemens Romanus of Clemens and Dionysius of Alexandria of Athanasius Hilary Cyprian and many more Dionysius c Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 23. p. 145. the famous Bishop of Corinth who lived many years before Origen assures us he was served at this rate that at the request of the brethren he had written several Epistles but that the Apostles and Emissaries of the Devil had filled them with weeds and tares expunging some things and adding others The Apologist in Photius d Ubi supr tells us Origen himself complained of this in his life time and so indeed he does in his e Ap. Ruffin iâ— Tom. 4. p. 195. Letter to them of Alexandria where he smartly resents that charge of blasphemy had been ascribed to him and his doctrine of which he was never guilty and that it was less wonder if his doctrine was adulterated when the great S. Paul could not escape their hands he tells them of an eminent Heretic that having taken a Copy of a dispute which he had had with him did afterwards cut off and add what he pleas'd and change it into another thing carrying it about with him and glorying in it And when some friends in Palestin sent it to him then at Athens he returned them a true
excellency of those ascribed to him The great honours done to his memory I. THASCIVS Caecilius Cyprian was born at Carthage in the declining part of the foregoing Saeculum though the particular year cannot be ascertained Who or what his Parents were is unknown a Ad Ann. 250. n. V. vid. not ad Martyrol Rom. Sept. XXVI p. 600. Cardinal Baronius not to mention others makes him descended of a rich honourable Family and himself to have been one of the chief of the Senatorian Order and this upon the authority of Nazianzen b Orat. in laud. S. Cypr. p. 275. who indeed affirms it but then certainly forgot that in very few lines before he had exploded as a fabulous mistake the confounding our Cyprian with another of the same name of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian there was another born at Antioch a person of great learning and eminency who travelled through Greece Phrygia Egypt India Chaldaea and where not famous for the Study and the Arts of Magic by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina a noble Christian Virgin at Antioch by whose prayers and endeavours he was converted baptized made first Sexton then Deacon of that Church was indued with miraculous powers and afterwards consecrated Bishop of that Church though I confess I find not his name in the Catalogue of the Bishops of that See drawn up by Nicephorus of Constantinople and at last having been miserably tormented at Antioch was sent to Dioclesian himself then at Nicomedia by whose command together with Justina sent thither also at the same time from Damascus he was beheaded The History of all which was largely described in three Books in Verse written by the noble Empress Eudocia the excerpta whereof are still extant in a Cod. CLXXXIV col 416. Photius This account Simeon the Metaphrast Nicephorus and the later Greeks without any scruple attribute to S. Cyprian of Carthage nay some of them make him to suffer Martyrdom under the Decian Persecution Though in the whole mistake the more to be pardoned in that not onely Prudentius but Nazianzen had long before manifestly confounded these two eminent persons who finding several passages of the Antiochian Cyprian very near a kin to the other carried all the rest along with them as two persons very like are oft mistaken the one for the other To prove that our Cyprian was not him described by Nazianzen were a vain and needless attempt the accounts concerning them being so vastly different both as to their Countrey Education manner of Life Episcopal charge the time place and companions of their death that it is plainly impossible to reconcile them But of this enough II. S. CYPRIAN's education was ingenuous b Pont. Diac. in vit Cypr. non longe ab init polished by Study and the Liberal Arts though he principally addicted himself to the Study of Oratory and Eloquence wherein he made such vast improvements that publicly and with great applause he taught Rhetoric at e Hier. de script in Cypriano Carthage All which time he lived in great pomp and plenty in honour and power his garb splendid his retinue stately never going abroad as himself tells us d Ad Donat. Epist 1. p. 2. but he was thronged with a crowd of Clients and Followers The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errours of the Gentile Religion and was at least upon the borders of old Age when he was rescued from the Vassalage of inveterate Customs the darkness of Idolatry and the errours and vices of his past life as e Ubi supra himself intimates in his Epistle to Donatus He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Caecilius f Pont. ibid. p. 12. a Presbyter of Carthage a person whom ever after he loved as a friend and reverenced as a father And so mutual an endearment was there between them that Cyprian in honour to him assumed the title of Caecilius and the other at his death made him his Executor and committed his Wife and Children to his sole care and tutelage Being yet a Catechumen g Id. ibid. p. 11. he gave early instances of a great and generous piety professed a strict and severe temperance and sobriety accounting it one of the best preparations for the entertainment of the truth to subdue and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations His estate at least the greatest part of it he sold and distributed it among the necessities of the Poor at once triumphing over the love of the World and exercising that great duty of Mercy and Charity which God values above all the Ritual Devotions in the World So that by the speedy progress of his piety says Pontius his Friend and Deacon he became almost a perfect Christian before he had learnt the rules of Christianity III. BEING fully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian Faith he was baptized h Epist 1. p. 2 3 when the mighty assistances which he received from above perfectly dispelled all doubts enlightned all obscurities and enabled him with ease to do things which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged Not long after he was called to the inferiour Ecclesiastic Offices and then advanced to the degree of Presbyter wherein he so admirably behaved himself that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the Church Donatus his immediate predecessor in the See of Carthage as his own words a Epist 55. p. 82 seem to imply being dead the general vogue both of Clergy and People Felicissimus the Presbyter and some very few of his party onely dissenting b Epist 40. p. 53. was for Cyprian to succeed him But the great modesty and humility of the man made him flie c P. Diac. p. 12. from the first approaches of the news he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an imployment and therefore desired that a more worthy person and some of his Seniors in the Faith might possess the place His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the People his doors were immediately crowded and all passages of escape blocked up he would indeed have fled out at the window but finding it in vain he unwillingly yielded the People in the mean while impatiently waiting divided between hope and fear till seeing him come forth they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction This charge he entered upon Ann. CCXLVIII as himself d Epist 55. p. 80 plainly intimates when in his Letter to Cornelius he tells him he had been four years Bishop of Carthage which Epistle was written not long after the beginning of Cornelius his Pontificat Ann. CCLI It was the third Consulship of Philip the Emperour a memorable time it being the thousandth year ab Vrbe Condita when the Ludi Saeculares were celebrated at Rome with all imaginable magnificence
the merits of the cause and what the Laws of Kindness and Charity do allow I note no more concerning this then that Cyprian and his Party a Ad Quint. Epist 71. p. 119. expresly disowned Anabaptism or rebaptization they freely confessed that there was but one Baptism and that those who came over from Heretical Churches where they had had their baptism were not rebatpized but baptized their former baptism being ipso facto null and invalid and they did then receive what lawfully they had not before XII IT was now the Year CCLVII when Aspasius Paternus the Proconsul of Asric sent b Act. Pass S. Cypriani ap Cypr. p. 16 17 24. for Cyprian to appear before him telling him that he had lately received orders from the Emperours Valerian and Gallienus commanding that all that were of a Foreign Religion should worship the gods according to the Roman Rites desiring to know what was his resolution Cyprian answered I am a Christian and a Bishop I acknowledge no other gods but one onely true God who made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is This is he whom we Christians serve to whom we pray day and night for our selves and for all men and for the happiness and prosperity of the Emperours And is this then thy resolution said the Proconsul That resolution replied the Martyr which is founded in God cannot be altered Then he told him that he was to search out the Presbyters as well as Bishops requiring him to discover them To which Cyprian gave no other answer then that according to their own Laws they were not bound to be Informers The Proconsul then acquainted him that he was commanded to prohibit all private Assemblies and to proceed with capital severity against them that frequented them Whereat the good man told him that his best way was to do as he was commanded The Proconsul finding 't was in vain to treat with him commanded him to be banished and accordingly he was transported to Curubis a little City standing in a Peninsula within the Lybian Sea not far from Pentapolis a c P Diac. in vit Cypr. p. 14. place pleasant and delightful enough and where he met with a kind and a courteous usage was frequently visited by the brethren and furnished with all conveniences necessary for him XIII BUT the greatest entertainment in this retirement were those divine and heavenly Visions with which God was pleased to honour him by one whereof the very first day of his coming thither he was particularly forewarned of his approaching Martyrdom Locaeitat whereof Pontius the Deacon who accompanied him in his banishment gives us this account from the Martyrs own mouth There appeared to him as he was going to rest a young man of a prodigious stature who seemed to lead him to the Praetorium and to present him to the Proconsul then sitting upon the Bench who looking upon him began to write something in a Book which the young man who looked over his shoulder read but not daring to speak intimated by signs what it was for extending one of his hands at length he made a cross stroke over it with the other by which Cyprian presently guessed the manner of his death Whereupon he importunately begged of the Proconsul but one days respit to dispose his affairs and partly by the pleasingness of the Judges countenance partly by the signs which the young man made of what the Proconsul was noting in his Book he immediately gathered that his request was granted And just so it accordingly came to pass both as to the time and manner of his Martyrdom that very day twelve-moneth whereon he had this vision proving the period of his life XIV HOW active and diligent he was to improve his opportunities to the best advantage appears from the several Letters he wrote during his confinement especially to the Martyrs in prison whose spirit he refreshed by proper consolations and pressed them to persevere unto the Crown While he was here he had news brought a Ad Success Epist 82. p. 100. him of the daily increase of the Persecution the Emperor Valerian having sent a Rescript to the Senate that Bishops Presbyters and Deacons should be put to death without delay that Senators and persons of rank and quality should lose their honours and preferments forfeit their estates and if still they continued Christians lose their heads and that Matrons having had their goods confiscated should be banished that Xystus and Quartus had already suffered in the Coemetery where their solemn assemblies were held and that the Governours of the City carried on the Persecution with might and main spoiling and putting to death all that they could meet with This sad and uncomfortable news b P. 〈…〉 supr p. 15. gave the good man just reason to expect and provide for his own fate which he waited and wished for every day Indeed some persons of the highest rank and quality his ancient friends came to him and persuaded him for the present to withdraw offering to provide a secure place for his retreat But the desire of that Crown which he had in his eye had set him above the World and made him deaf to their kind offers and intreaties True it is that when news was brought that the Officers were coming for him to carry him to Vtica to suffer there by the advice of his friends he stept aside being unwilling to suffer any where but at Carthage in the eye of the people where he had so long and so successfully preached the Christian Faith the truth whereof he was desirous to seal with his bloud it being very fit and congruous that a Bishop should suffer for our Lord in that place where he had governed his Church and by that eminent confession edifie and encourage the Flock committed to him as he tells c Epist 82. p. 161. the People of his charge in the last Letter that ever he wrote As for themselves he advised them to peace and unity not to create trouble to one another not to offer themselves to the Gentiles but if any was apprehended to stand to it and freely confess as God should enable him to declare himself XV. GALERIVS Maximus the new Proconsul being returned to Carthage d Pont. ib. p. 15. Act. Passion ib. p. 16 18 19 24. Cyprian who resolved but till then to conceal himfelf came home and took up his residence in his own Gardens Where Officers were presently sent to apprehend him who putting him into a Chariot carried him to the place where the Proconsul was retired for his health who commanded him to be kept till the next day which was done in the house of one of the Officers that secured him the People alarm'd with the news of his return and apprehension flocking to the doors and watching there all night The next morning being Septemb. XIV Ann. Chr. CCLVIII. he was led to the Proconsuls Palace who not being yet come forth
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey
industry After which he returned to Alexandria and the discharge of his Office where how long he continued or by what death he died Antiquity is silent Certain it is that for some considerable time he out-lived Pantaenus who died in the time of Caracalla and when he wrote his Stromata he tells us that he did it that he might lay up things in store against old Age a plain intimation that he was then pretty far from it I add no more but what Alexander of Hierusalem a Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 14. p. 216. says in a Letter to Origen where having told him that their friendship which had commenced under their Predecessors should continue sacred and inviolable yea grow more firm and fervent he adds For we acknowledge for our Fathers those blessed Saints who are gone before us and to whom we shall go after a little time Pantaenus I mean the truly happy and my Master and the holy Clemens my Master and one that was greatly useful and helpful to me VI. TO commend this excellent man after the great things spoken of him by the Ancients were to hold a Candle to the Sun Let us hear the character which some of them give of him The holy and the blessed Clemens a man very virtuous and approved as we have seen Alexander Bishop of Jerusalem who knew him best testifying of him Indeed his zeal and piety modesty and humility could not but endear him unto all For his learning he was in b Epist ad Magn. Orat. p. 327. S. Hieroms judgment the most learned of all the Ancients A man admirably learned and skilful and that searched to the very bottom of all the learning of the Greeks with that exactness that perhaps few before him ever attained to says c Contr. Julian l. 7. p. 221. Tom. 6. vid. l. 6. p 205 S. Cyril of Alexandria An holy man says d Haeret. Fabul l. 1. c. 6. p. 197. Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and one that for his vast and diffusive learning incomparably surpassed all other men Nor was he less accurate in matters of Theology then humane learning an incomparable Master in the Christian Philosophy as Eusebius stiles him Witness his many Books crowded as e H. Eccl. l 6. c. 13. p. 215. Eusebius tells us with variety and plenty of useful knowledge derived as f De Script in Clem. ad Magn. Or. loc cit S. Hierom adds both from the holy Scriptures and secular learning wherein there is nothing unlearned nothing that it is not fetched out of the very center and bowels of Philosophy The titles of them those two Authors have preserved the far greatest part of the Books themselves having perished among which the most memorable was the Hypotyposes or Books of Institution so often cited by Eusebius which contained short and strict explications of many passages of holy Scriptures wherein a Cod. CIX col 285. Photius tells us there were many wild and impious opinions as That Matter was eternal and that Idaeas were introduced by certain Decrees that there is a transmigration of Souls and were many Worlds before Adam that the Son is among the number of created Beings and that the Word was not really made flesh but onely appeared so and many more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 monstrous blasphemies But withall insinuates that probably these things were inserted by another hand as b Apol. pro Orig. inter Oper. Hier. Tom. 4. p. 195. Rufinus expresly assures us that Heretics had corrupted Clemens his Writings Certainly had these Books been infected with these prophane and poysonous dogmata in Eusebius his time we can hardly think but that he would have given us at least some obscure intimations of it And considerable it is what Photius observes that these things are not countenanced by his other Books nay many of them plainly contradicted by them VII THE Books yet extant besides the little Tract entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately published are chiefly three which seem to have been written in a very wise and excellent order the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Exhortation to the Gentiles the Paedagogus or Christian Instructor and the Stromata or Various Discourses in the first he very rationally refutes the follies and impieties of the Gentile Religion and strongly persuades men to embrace Christianity in the second he tutors and instructs new Converts and by the most admirable rules and pathetical insinuations prepares and forms them to an holy and truly Christian life in the third he administers strong meat to them that are of a more full age a clearer explication of the Christian Doctrine and a more particular confutation both of Gentile and Heretical opinions admitting the Disciple after his first purgation and initiation into a more immediate acquaintance with the sacred Mysteries of Religion His Stromata c Vid. Euseb l. 6. c. 13. p. 214. are nothing but Miscellaneous Discourses composed out of the holy Writings and the Books of the Gentiles explaining and as occasion is confuting the opinions of the Greeks and Barbarians the Sentiments of Philosophers the notions of Heretics inserting variety of Stories and Treasures out of all sorts of Learning which as himself tells us d Strom. l. 1. p. 278. l. 4. p. 476. he therefore stiled Stromata that is a variegated contexture of Discourses and which e Lib. 7. p. 766. he compares not to a curious Garden wherein the Trees and Plants are disposed according to the exactest rules of Method and Order but to a thick shady Mountain whereon trees of all sorts the Cypress and the Plantane the Laurel and the Ivy the Apple the Olive and the Figtree promiscuously grow together In the two former of his Books as f Loc. supr cit col 288. Photius observes his stile is florid but set off with a well proportioned gravity and a becoming variety of Learning In the latter he neither designed the ornaments of Eloquence nor would the nature of his design well admit it as he truly g Ubi supr p. 767. apologizes for himself his main care h Ib. l. 1. p. 293. was so to express things that he might be understood and further eloquence then this he neither studied nor desired If in these Books of his there be what i Ubi supr Photius affirms some few things here and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not soundly or warily expressed yet not as he adds like those of the Hypotyposes but capable of a candid and benign interpretation not considerably prejudicial either to the doctrine and practice of Religion and such as are generally to be met with in the Writers of those early Ages And it is no wonder if the good and pious men of those times who were continually engaged in fierce disputes with Heathens on the one side and Jews and Heretics on the other did not always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divide the truth aright in some nicer lines
and strokes of it The best is their great piety and serviceableness in their generations while they lived and the singular usefulness of their Writings to posterity since they are dead are abundantly enough to weigh down any little failures or mistakes that dropt from them His Writings Extant Protrepticon ad Gentes Paedagogi Libri III. Stromatewv Libri VIII Orat. Quisnam dives ille sit qui salvetur Epitome doctrinae Orientalis Theodoti c. Not Extant Hypotyposcwv seu Institutionum Libri VIII Canon Ecclesiasticus seu Adversus Judaizantes De Paschate De obtrectatione Disputationes de jejunio Exhortatio ad Patientiam ad Neophytos Supposititious Commentariola in Prim. Canonicam S. Petri in Epistolam Judae tres Epistolas S. Joannis Apostoli The End of S. CLEMENS Alexandrinus his Life THE LIFE OF TERTULLIAN PRESBYTER OF CARTHAGE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Michael Burghers Delineavit et sculpsit TERTULLIANUS His names whence His Father who His education in all kinds of Learning His skill in the Roman Laws Different from Tertylian the Lawyer His way of life before his conversion enquired into His married condition His Conversion to Christianity when The great cruelty used towards the Christians Severus his kindness to them Tertullians excellent Apology in their behalf His address to Scapula and the tendency of that discourse Severus his violent persecuting the Christians His prohibition of the Heteriae Tertullians Book to the Martyrs and concerning Patience His zeal against Heresies and Writings that way His Book De Pallio when written and upon what occasion His becoming Presbyter when His Book De Corona and what the occasion of it His declining from the Catholic Party Montanus who and whence His principles and practices Tertullians owning them and upon what occasion His morose and stubborn temper How far he complied with the Montanists and acknowledged the Paraclete How he was imposed upon His writings against the Catholics The severity of the ancient Discipline Episcopus Episcoporum in what sense meant by Tertullian concerning the Bishop of Rome His separate meetings at Carthage His death His Character His singular parts and learning His Books His phrase and stile What contributed to its perplexedness and obscurity His un-orthodox opinions A brief plea for him I. QVINTVS Septimius Florens Tertullianus was as the Ancients a Hieron de script in Tertul. Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 34. p 334. affirm and himself b De Pall. c. 1. p. 112. Apolog c. 9. p. 9. implies when he calls it his Countrey born at Carthage the Metropolis of Afric famous above all others for Antiquity Soveraignty and Power insomuch that for some Ages it contended for glory and superiority even with Rome it self He was called Septimius because descended of the Gens Septimia a Tribe of great account among the Romans being first Regal afterwards Plebeian and last of all Consular and Patrician Florens from some particular Family of that House so called and Quintus a title common among the Romans probably because the fifth child which his Parents had and Tertullian a derivative from Tertullus it is like from his immediate Parent His Father was a Souldier a Centurion under the Proconsul of Afric called therefore by S. Hierom and others Centurio Proconsularis not a man of Proconsular dignity as some make him he was a Gentile in which Religion Tertullian also was brought up as himself c Apol. c. 18. p. 17. confesses He was educated in all the accomplishments which the learning either of the Greeks or Romans could add to him he seems to have left no paths untraced to have intimately conversed with Poets Historians Orators not to have looked onely but to have entered into the secrets of Philosophy and the Mathematics not unseen in Physic and the curiosities of nature and as Eusebius d H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 2. p. 41. notes a man famous for other things but especially admirably skilled in the Roman Laws though they who would hence infer him to have been a professed Lawyer and the same with him whose Excerpta are yet extant in the Pandects are guilty of a notorious mistake the name of that Lawyer being Tertylianus besides that dissonancy that is in their stile and language Or suppose with others that this Tertylian was one of Papinians Scholars in the reign of Alexander Severus he must by this account be at least thirty years after the others Conversion to Christianity The original of the Errour doubtless arose from the nearness and similitude of the names and the character of his skill in the Roman Laws given by Eusebius which indeed is evident from his Works and especially his Apology for the Christians II. WHAT was his particular course of life before he came over to the Christian Religion is uncertain They that conceive him to have been an Advocate and publicly to have pleaded Causes because after his Conversion he * De Pall. c. 9 p. 118. says of himself that he owed nothing to the Forum took up no place among the Rostra made no noise among the Benches did not toss about the Laws nor clamour out Causes as if he had done all this before mighty by the same reason conclude him to have been a Souldier because he adds in the same place that he owed nothing to the Camp with some other Offices there mentioned by him That he was married is evident though whether before or after his embracing the Christian Faith I cannot positively determine probably before However according to the severity of his principles he lived with his wife a great partof his life in a state of Continency conversing with her as his sister exhorting her to perpetual coelibacy and the utmost strictnesses of a single life as appears by his two Books written to her upon that Subject III. HIS conversion to Christianity we may conceive to have hapned not long after the beginning of Severus his reign and a little before the conclusion of the second Century Being a man of an inquisitive and sagacious mind he had observed the powerful and triumphant efficacy of the Christian Faith over the minds and lives of men its great Antiquity the admirable consent and truth of the Predictions recorded in the Books of the Christians the frequent Testimonies which the Heathen deities themselves gave to its truth and divinity the ordinary confessions of their Daemons when forced to abandon the persons they had possessed at the command of a Christian all which he shews a Vid. Apol. c. 19 20. p. 18. c. 23. p. 22 23. alibi passion at large at least as we may probably guess to have been the main inducements of his Conversion In the very entrance of the following Seculum Severus being gone to make War upon the Parthians the Magistrates at Rome and proportionably the Governours of Provinces began to bear hard upon the Christians beholding them as infamous persons and especially Traitors to the Empire Among whom the most