IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passeover 14. SECT V. Of S. Peter from the last Passeover till the Death of Christ. 20. SECT VI. Of S. Peter from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension 25. SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the dispersion of the Church 29. SECT VIII Of S. Peter's Acts from the dispersion of the Church at Jerusalem till his contest with S. Paul at Antioch 37. SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred story till his Martyrdom 43. SECT X. The Character of his Person and Temper and an account of his Writings 49. SECT XI An Enquiry into S. Peter's going to Rome 54. The Life of S. Paul SECT I. Of S. Paul from his Birth till his Conversion Page 61. SECT II. Of S. Paul from his Conversion till the Council at Jerusalem 67. SECT III. Of S. Paul from the time of the Synod at Jerusalem till his departure from Athens 73. SECT IV. Of S. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus 82. SECT V. S. Paul's Acts from his departure from Ephesus till his Arraignment before Felix 88. SECT VI. Of S. Paul from his first Trial before Felix till his coming to Rome 95. SECT VII S. Paul's Acts from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom 101. SECT VIII The description of his Person and Temper together with an account of his Writings 108. SECT IX The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his time 116. The Life of S. Andrew Page 131. The Life of S. James the Great 139. The Life of S. John 149. The Life of S. Philip. 163. The Life of S. Bartholomew 169. The Life of S. Matthew Page 175. The Life of S. Thomas Page 183. The Life of S. James the Less 189. The Life of S. Simon the Zealot 197. The Life of S. Jude 201. The Life of S. Matthias 207. The Life of S. Mark the Evangelist 213. The Life of S. Luke the Evangelist 221. Diptycha Apostolica Or an Enumeration of the Apostles and their Successors for the first three hundred years in the five great Churches said to have been founded by them pag. 227. The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick Catholick EPISCOPACY compared with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives Place 〈◊〉 Figure at Page ◠THE INTRODUCTION Christs faithfulness in appointing Officers in his Church The dignity of the Apostles above the rest The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The nature of the Apostolick Office considered Respect had in founding it to the custom among the Jews Their Apostoli who The number of the Apostles limited Why twelve the several conjectures of the Ancients Their immediate election Their work wherein it consisted The Universality of their Commission Apostolical Churches what How soon the Apostles propagated Christianity through the World An argument for the Divinity of the Christian Religion inferr'd thence The power conveyed to the Apostles equally given to all Peter 's superiority over the rest disprov'd both from Scripture and Antiquity The Apostles how qualified for their Mission Immediately taught the Doctrine they delivered Infallibly secur'd from Error in delivering it Their constant and familiar converse with their Master Furnished with a power of working Miracles The great evidence of it to prove a Divine Doctrine Miraculous powers conferr'd upon the Apostles particularly considered Prophecy what and when it ceas'd The gift of discerning Spirits The gift of Tongues The gift of Interpretation The unreasonable practice of the Church of Rome in keeping the Scripture and Divine Worship in an Unknown Tongue The gift of Healing Greatly advantageous to Christianity How long it lasted Power of Immediately inflicting corporal punishments and the great benefit of it in those times The Apostles enabled to confer miraculous powers upon others The Duration of the Apostolical Office What in it extraordinary what ordinary Bishops in what sence styled Apostles 1. JESUS CHRIST the great Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession being appointed by God to be the Supreme Ruler and Governor of his Church was like Moses faithful in all his house but with this honourable advantage that Moses was faithful as a servant Christ as a Son over his own house which he erected established and governed with all possible care and diligence Nor could he give a greater instance either of his fidelity towards God or his love and kindness to the Souls of men than that after he had purchas'd a Family to himself and could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own person he would not return back to Heaven till he had constituted several Orders of Officers in his Church who might superintend and conduct its affairs and according to the various circumstances of its state administer to the needs and exigencies of his Family Accordingly therefore he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The first and prime Class of Officers is that of Apostles God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. First Apostles as far in office as honour before the rest their election more immediate their commission more large and comprehensive the powers and priviledges wherewith they were furnished greater and more honourable Prophecy the gift of Miracles and expelling Daemons the order of Pastors and Teachers were all spiritual powers and ensigns of great authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Chrysostom but the Apostolick eminency is far greater than all these which therefore he calls a spiritual Consulship an Apostle having as great preheminence above all other officers in the Church as the Consul had above all other Magistrates in Rome These Apostles were a few select persons whom our Lord chose out of the rest to devolve part of the Government upon their shoulders and to depute for the first planting and setling Christianity in the World He chose twelve whom he named Apostles of whose Lives and Acts being to give an Historical account in the following work it may not possibly be unuseful to premise some general remarks concerning them not respecting this or that particular person but of a general relation to the whole wherein we shall especially take notice of the importance of the word the nature of the imployment the fitness and qualification of the persons and the duration and continuance of the Office II. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sent is among ancient Writers applied either to things actions or persons To things thus those Dimissory letters that were granted to such who appeal'd from an Inferiour to a Superiour
Judicature were in the language of the Roman Laws usually called Apostoli thus a Packet-boat was styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because sent up and down for advice and dispatch of business thus though in somewhat a different sence the lesson taken out of the Epistles is in the Ancient Greek Liturgies called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because usually taken out of the Apostles Writings Sometimes it is applied to actions and so imports no more than mission or the very act of sending thus the setting out a Fleet or a Naval expedition was wont to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Suidas tells us that as the persons designed for the care and management of the Fleet were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the very sending forth of the Ships themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly what principally falls under our present consideration it is applied to persons and so imports no more than a messenger a person sent upon some special errand for the discharge of some peculiar affair in his name that sent him Thus Epaphroditus is called the Apostle or Messenger of the Philippians when sent by them to S. Paul at Rome thus Titus and his Companions are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messengers of the Churches So our Lord he that is sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostle or Messenger is not greater than him that sent him This then being the common notion of the word our Lord fixes it to a particular use applying it to those select persons whom he had made choice of to act by that peculiar authority and commission which he had deriv'd upon them Twelve whom he also named Apostles that is Commissioners those who were to be Embassadors for Christ to be sent up and down the World in his name to plant the Faith to govern and superintend the Church at present and by their wise and prudent settlement of affairs to provide for the future exigencies of the Church III. The next thing then to be considered is the nature of their Office and under this enquiry we shall make these following remarks First it is not to be doubted but that our Lord in founding this Office had some respect to the state of things in the Jewish Church I mean not only in general that there should be superiour and subordinate Officers as there were superiour and inferiour Orders under the Mosaic dispensation but that herein he had an eye to some usage and custom common among them Now among the Jews as all Messengers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apostles so were they wont to dispatch some with peculiar letters of authority Commission whereby they acted as Proxies and Deputies of those that sent them thence their Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man's Apostle is as himself that is whatever he does is look'd upon to be as firm and valid as if the person himself had done it Thus when Saul was sent by the Sanhedrim to Damascus to apprehend the Jewish converts he was furnished with letters from the High-Priest enabling him to act as his Commissary in that matter Indeed Epiphanius tells us of a sort of persons called Apostles who were Assessors and Counsellors to the Jewish Patriarch constantly attending upon him to advise him in matters pertaining to the Law and sent by him as he intimates sometimes to inspect and reform the manners of the Priests and Jewish Clergy and the irregularities of Country-Synagogues with commission to gather the Tenths and First-fruits due in all the Provinces under his jurisdiction Such Apostles we find mention'd both by Julian the Emperor in an Epistle to the Jews and in a Law of the Emperor Honorius imploy'd by the Patriarch to gather once a year the Aurum Coronarium or Crown-Gold a Tribute annually paid by them to the Roman Emperors But these Apostles could not under that notion be extant in our Saviour's time though sure we are there was then something like it Philo the Jew more than once mentioning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sacred messengers annually sent to collect the holy treasure paid by way of First-fruits and to carry it to the Temple at Jerusalem However our Lord in conformity to the general custom of those times of appointing Apostles or Messengers as their Proxies and Deputies to act in their names call'd and denominated those Apostles whom he peculiarly chose to represent his person to communicate his mind and will to the World and to act as Embassadors or Commissioners in his room and stead IV. Secondly We observe that the persons thus deputed by our Saviour were not left uncertain but reduced to a fixed definite number confin'd to the just number of Twelve he ordained twelve that they should be with him A number that seems to carry something of mystery and peculiar design in it as appears in that the Apostles were so careful upon the fall of Judas immediately to supply it The Fathers are very wide and different in their conjectures about the reason of it S. Augustine thinks our Lord herein had respect to the four quarters of the World which were to be called by the preaching of the Gospel which being multiplied by three to denote the Trinity in whose name they were to be called make Twelve Tertullian will have them typified by the twelve fountains in Elim the Apostles being sent out to water and refresh the dry thirsty World with the knowledge of the truth by the twelve precious stones in Aaron's breast-plate to illuminate the Church the garment which Christ our great High-Priest has put on by the twelve stones which Joshua chose out of Jordan to lay up within the Ark of the Testament respecting the firmness and solidity of the Apostles Faith their being chosen by the true Jesus or Joshua at their Baptism in Jordan and their being admitted in the inner Sanctuary of his Covenant By others we are told that it was shadowed out by the twelve Spies taken out of every Tribe and sent to discover the Land of Promise or by the twelve gates of the City in Ezekiel's vision or by the twelve Bells appendant to Aaron's garment their sound going out into all the World and their words unto the ends of the Earth But it were endless and to very little purpose to reckon up all the conjectures of this nature there being scarce any one number of Twelve mentioned in the Scripture which is not by some of the Ancients adapted and applied to this of the Twelve Apostles wherein an ordinary fancy might easily enough pick out a mystery That which seems to put in the most rational plea is that our Lord pitched upon this number in conformity either to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of the twelve Tribes of Israel or to the twelve 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief heads as standing Rulers of those Tribes among the Jews as we
in the paths of Piety and Vertue In the Infancy of the World he taught men by the Dictates of Nature and the common Notices of Good and Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calls them the most Ancient Law by lively Oracles and great Examples of Piety He set forth the Holy Patriarchs as Chrysostom observes as Tutors to the rest of Mankind who by their Religious lives might train up others to the practice of Vertue and as Physicians be able to cure the minds of those who were infected and overrun with Vice Afterwards says he having sufficiently testified his care of their welfare and happiness by many instances of a wise and benign Providence towards them both in the land of Canaan and in Egypt he gave them Prophets and by them wrought Signs and Wonders together with innumerable other expressions of his bounty At last finding that none of these Methods did succeed not Patriarchs not Prophets not Miracles not daily Warnings and Chastisements brought upon the World he gave the last and highest instance of his love and goodness to Mankind he sent his only begotten Son out of his own bosom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Physician both of Soul and Body who taking upon him the form of a Servant and being born of a Virgin conversed in the World and bore our sorrows and infirmities that by rescuing Humane Nature from under the weight and burden of Sin he might exalt it to Eternal Life A brief account of these things is the main intent of the following Discourse wherein the Reader will easily see that I considered not what might but what was fit to be said with respect to the end I designed it for It was drawn up under some more disadvantageous circumstances than a matter of this nature did require which were it worth the while to represent to the Reader might possibly plead for a softer Censure However such as it is it is submitted to the Readers Ingenuity and Candor W. C. IMPRIMATUR THO. TOMKYNS Ex Aed Lambeth Feb. 25. 1674. AN APPARATUS OR DISCOURSE INTRODUCTORY TO THE Whole WORK concerning the Three Great Dispensations OF THE CHURCH PATRIARCHAL MOSAICAL and EVANGELICAL SECT I. Of the PATRIARCHAL Dispensation The Tradition of Elias The three great Periods of the Church The Patriarchal Age. The Laws then in force natural or positive Natural Laws what evinced from the testimony of natural conscience The Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah Their respect to the Law of Nature Positive Laws under that dispensation Eating Bloud why prohibited The mystery and signification of it Circumcision when commanded and why The Laws concerning Religion Their publick Worship what Sacrifices in what sence natural and how far instituted The manner of God's testifying his acceptance What the place of their publick Worship Altars and Groves whence Abraham's Oak its long continuance and destruction by Constantine The Original of the Druids The times of their religious Assemblies In process of time Genes 4. what meant by it The Seventh Day whether kept from the beginning The Ministers of Religion who The Priesthood of the first-born In what cases exercised by younger Sons The state of Religion successively under the several Patriarchs The condition of it in Adam 's Family The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel and their different success whence Seth his great Learning and Piety The face of the Church in the time of Enosh What meant by Then began Men to call upon the Name of the Lord. No Idolatry before the Floud The Sons of God who The great corruption of Religion in the time of Jared Enoch 's Piety and walking with God His translation what The incomparable sanctity of Noah and his strictness in an evil Age. The character of the men of that time His preservation from the Deluge God's Covenant with him Sem or Japhet whether the Elder Brother The confusion of Languages when and why Abraham 's Idolatry and conversion His eminency for Religion noted in the several instances of it God's Covenant with him concerning the Messiah The Piety of Isaac and Jacob. Jacob 's blessing the twelve Tribes and foretelling the Messiah Patriarchs extraordinary under this dispensation Melchisedeck who wherein a type of Christ. Job his Name Country Kindred Quality Religion Sufferings when he lived A reflection upon the religion of the old World and its agreement with Christianity GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son For having created Man for the noblest purposes to love serve and enjoy his Maker he was careful in all Ages by various Revelations of his Will to acquaint him with the notices of his duty and to shew him what was good and what the Lord did require of him till all other Methods proving weak and ineffectual for the recovery and the happiness of humane nature God was pleased to crown all the former dispensations with the Revelation of his Son There is among the Jews an ancient Tradition of the House of Elias that the World should last Six Thousand Years which they thus compute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two Thousand Years empty little being recorded of those first Ages of the World Two Thousand Years the Law and Two Thousand the Days of the Messiah A Tradition which if it minister to no other purposes does yet afford us a very convenient division of the several Ages and Periods of the Church which may be considered under a three-fold Oeconomy the Patriarchal Mosaical and Evangelical dispensation A short view of the two former will give us great advantage to survey the later that new and better dispensation which God has made to the World 2. THE Patriarchal Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews call it the days of emptiness commenced from the beginning of the World and lasted till the delivery of the Law upon Mount Sinai And under this state the Laws which God gave for the exercise of Religion and the Government of his Church were either Natural or Positive Natural Laws are those innate Notions and Principles whether speculative or practical with which every Man is born into the World those common sentiments of Vertue and Religion those Principia justi decori Principles of fit and right that naturally are upon the minds of Men and are obvious to their reason at first sight commanding what is just and honest and forbidding what is evil and uncomely and that not only in the general that what is good is to be embraced and what is evil to be avoided but in the particular instances of duty according to their conformity or repugnancy to natural light being conversant about those things that do not derive their value and authority from any arbitrary constitutions but from the moral and intrinsick nature of the things themselves These Laws as being the results and dictates of right reason are especially as
too far distant to make use of the ordinary Priesthood did themselves take the office upon them and exercise it over all those that were under them and sprung from them though the main honour and dignity was reserved for the Priesthood of the first-born Thus Abraham though but a second Son yet when become the head of a great Family and removed into another Country became a Priest and that not only during the life of his Father but of Sem himself the grand surviving Patriarch of that time I observe no more concerning this than that this right of the first-born was a prime honour and priviledge and therefore the reason say the Jews why Jacob was so greatly desirous of the birth-right was because in those days the Priesthood was entail'd upon it And for this chiefly no doubt it was that Esau is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prophane person for selling his birth-right for a mess of Pottage because thereby he made so light of the sacred honour of the Priesthood the Venerable office of ministring before God 11. HAVING thus seen what were the Laws what the Worship of those times it remains briefly to consider what was the face of the Church and the state of Religion under the several Patriarchs of this Oeconomy Not to meddle with the story either of the Creation or Apostasie of Adam no sooner was he fallen from that innocent and happy state wherein God had placed him but Conscience began to stir and he was sensible that God was angry and saw it necessary to propitiate the offended Deity by Prayer and Invocation by Sorrow and Repentance and probably by offering Sacrifice a conjecture that hath at least some countenance from those Coats of Skins wherewith God clothed our first Parents which seem likely to have been the Skins of Beasts slain for Sacrifice for that they were not killed for food is evident because flesh was not the ordinary diet if it was at all of those first Ages of the World And God might purposely make choice of this sort of covering to put our first Parents in mind of their great degeneracy how deep they were sunk into the animal life and by gratifying brutish and sensual appetites at so dear a rate how like they were become to the Beasts that perish And if this were so it possibly might give birth to that Law of Moses that every Priest that offered any man's burnt-offering should have to himself the skin of the burnt-offering which he had offered But however this was 't is certain that Adam was careful to instruct his Children in the knowledge of Divine things and to maintain Religion and the worship of God in his Family For we find Cain and Abel bringing their oblations and that at a certain time though they had a different success I omit the Traditions of the East that the cause of the difference between Cain and Abel was about a Wife and that they sought to decide the case by Sacrifice and that when Abel's sacrifice was accepted Cain out of envy and indignation fell upon his brother struck his head with a stone and slew him The present they brought was according to their different ways and institutions of life Cain as an Husbandman brought of the fruit of the ground Abel as a Shepherd brought of the firstlings of his Flock and of the fat thereof But the one was accepted and the other rejected The cause whereof certainly was not that the one was little and inconsiderable the other large and noble the one only a dry oblation the other a burnt-offering or that Cain had entertained a conceived prejudice against his Brother the true cause lay in the different temper and disposition of their minds Abel had great and honourable thoughts of God and therefore brought of the best that he had Cain mean and unworthy apprehensions and accordingly took what came first to hand Abel came with a grateful sense of the goodness of Heaven with a mind piously and heartily devoted to the Divine Majesty and an humble reliance upon the Divine acceptance Cain brought his oblation indeed but looked no further was not careful to offer up himself a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God as being the most reasonable service too confidently bearing up himself as we may suppose upon the prerogative of his primogeniture By which means Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts For he had respect unto Abel and to his offering But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect And if in that fire by which God testified his respect by consuming one oblation and not the other there was as the Jews say seen the face of a Lion it doubtless prefigured the late promised Messiah The Lion of the Tribe of Judah our great expiatory sacrifice of whom all other sacrifices were but types and shadows and in whom all our oblations are rendred grateful unto God The odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God 12. ABEL being taken away by his envious and enraged Brother God was pleased to repair the loss by giving his Parents another Son whom they called Seth and he accordingly proved a very Vertuous and Religious man He was if we may believe the Ancients a great Scholar the first inventor of Letters and Writing an accurate Astronomer and taught his Children the knowledge of the Stars who having heard from their Grandfather Adam that the World was to be twice destroyed once by Fire and again by Water if the story be true which Josephus without any great warrant reports wrote their Experiments and the principles of their Art upon two Pillars one of Brick the other of Stone that if the one perished the other might remain and convey their notions to posterity one of which Pillars Josephus adds was said to be standing in Syria in his time But that which rendred Seth most renowned was his piety and devotion a good man he was one who asserted and propagated Religion and the true worship of God as he had received it from his Father Adam notwithstanding the declensions and degeneracy and possibly oppositions of his Brother Cain and his party The Eastern Writers both Jews and Arabians confidently assure us that Seth and his retinue withdrew from Cain who dwelt in the Valley where he had killed his brother Abel into a very high mountain on the top whereof their Father Adam was buried so high if we could believe them that they could hear the Angels singing Anthems and did daily joyn in with that Heavenly Quire Here they wholly devoted themselves to the daily worship of God and obtained a mighty name and veneration for the holiness and purity of their lives When Seth came to lie upon his death-bed he summoned his Children their Wives and Families together blessed them and as his last
Will commanded them to worship God adjuring them by the bloud of Abel their usual and solemn oath that they should not descend from the holy Mount to hold any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction And then breathed his last A command say my Authors which they observed for seven generations and then came in the promiscuous mixtures 13. TO Seth succeeded his Son Enos who kept up the glory and purity of Religion and the honour of the holy Line Of his time it is particularly recorded then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. The ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying sometimes to prophane sometimes to begin hath begotten various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place and led them not only into different but quite contrary sences The words are by some rendred thus Then men prophaned in calling upon the name of the Lord which they thus explain that at that time when Enos was born the true worship and service of God began to sink and fail corruption and idolatry mightily prevailing by reason of Cains wicked and apostate Family and that as a sad memorial of this corrupt and degenerate Age holy Seth called his son's name Enosh which not only simply signifies a man but a poor calamitous miserable man And this way go many of the Jews and some Christian writers of great name and note Nay Maimonides one of the wisest and soberest of all the Jewish writers begins his Tract about Idolatry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the times of Enosh referring to this very passage he tells us that men did then grievously erre and that the minds of the wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid yea that Enos himself was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among those that erred and that their Idolatry consisted in this That they worshipped the Stars and the Host of Heaven Others there are who expresly assert that Enosh was the first that invented Images to excite the Spirit of the Creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by their mediation men might invocate and call upon God But how infirm a foundation this Text is to build all this upon is evident For besides what some have observed that the Hebrew phrase is not tolerably reconcileable with such a sence if it were yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one of the Rabbins has well noted that there wants a foundation for any such exposition no mention being made in Moses his story of any such false Gods as were then worshipped no footsteps of Idolatry appearing in the World till after the Floud Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose that the Creation of the World being yet fresh in memory and Divine Traditions so lately received from Adam and God frequently communicating himself to men that the case being thus men could in so short a time be fallen under so great an apostasie as wholly to forget and renounce the true God and give Divine honours to senseless and inanimate creatures I can hardly think that the Cainites themselves should be guilty of this much less Enosh and his Children The meaning of the words then is plainly this That in Enosh his time the holy Line being greatly multiplied they applied themselves to the worship of God in a more publick and remarkable manner either by framing themselves into more distinct societies for the exercise of publick worship or by meeting at more fixed and stated times or by invocating God under more solemn and peculiar rites than they had done before And this probably they did the rather to obviate that torrent of prophaneness and impiety which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing in upon the World This will be further confirmed if we take the words as by some they are rendred then men began to be called by the name of the Lord that is the difference and separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every day ripening into a wider distance the posterity of Seth began to take to themselves a distinctive title that the World might the better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God and those who threw off Religion and let loose the reins to disorder and impiety And hereof we meet with clear intimation in the story of those times when we read of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of God who doubtless were the pious and devout posterity of Seth calling themselves after the name of the Lord whom they constantly and sincerely worshipped notwithstanding the fancy of Josephus and the Fathers that they were Angels or that of the Jewish Paraphrasts that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of great men and Princes in opposition to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sons of men the impure and debauched posterity of Cain who made light of Religion and were wholly governed by earthly and sensual inclinations And the matching of these sons of God with the daughters of men that is those of the Family of Cain and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages was that which provoked God to destroy the World I have no more to add concerning Enosh than that we are told that dying he gave the same commands to his Children which he had received of his Father that they should make Religion their great care and business and keep themselves pure from society and converse with the Line of Cain 14. AFTER Enosh was his son Kenan who as the Arabian Historian informs us ruled the people committed to him by a wise and excellent government and gave the same charge at his death that had been given to him Next Kenan comes Mahaleleel who carries devotion and piety in his very name signifying one that praises God of whom they say that he trained up the people in ways of justice and piety blessed his Children at his death and having charged them to separate from the Cainites appointed his son Jared to be his successor whose name denotes a descent probably either because of the notable decrease and declension of piety in his time or because in his days some of the Sethites descended from the holy Mountain to mix with the posterity of Cain For so the Oriental writers inform us that a great noise and shout coming up from the Valley an hundred of the holy Mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and perswasion But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course down they went and being ravished with the beauty of the Cainité-women promiscuously committed folly and lewdness with them from whence sprang a race of Giants men of vast and robust bodies but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers who made their Will their Law and Might the standard and rule of Equity Attempting to return back to the holy Mount Heaven had shut up their way the stones of the
Mountain burning like fire when they came upon them which whether the Reader will have faith enough to believe I know not Jared being near his death advised his Children to be wise by the folly of their Brethren and to have nothing to do with that prophane generation His son Enoch followed in his steps a man of admirable strictness and piety and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and holy conversation it being particularly noted of him that he walked with God He set the Divine Majesty before him as the guide and pattern the spectator and rewarder of his actions in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his All-seeing eye by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to him he was the great instance of vertue and goodness in an evil Age and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and a religious life shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state and his hearty dependence upon the Divine goodness for the rewards of a better life And God who is never behind-hand with his servants crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon reward By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God And what that faith was is plain by what follows after a belief of God's Being and his Bounty Without faith it is impossible to please him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him What this translation was and whither it was made whether into that Terrestrial Paradise out of which Adam was expelled and banished and whereunto Enoch had desired of God he might be translated as some fancy or whether placed among the Stars as others or carried into the highest Heavens as others will have it were nice and useless speculations 'T is certain he was taken out of these mutable Regions and set beyond the reach of those miseries and misfortunes to which a present state of sin and mortality does betray us translated probably both Soul and Body that he might be a type and specimen of a future Resurrection and a sensible demonstration to the World that there is a reward for the righteous and another state after this wherein good Men shall be happy for ever I pass by the fancy of the Jews as vain and frivolous that though Enoch was a good Man yet was he very mutable and inconstant and apt to be led aside and that this was the reason why God translated him so soon lest he should have been debauched by the charms and allurements of a wicked World He was an eminent Prophet and a fragment of his Prophecy is yet extant in S. Jude's Epistle by which it appears that wickedness was then grown rampant and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious and that he as plainly told them of their faults and that Divine vengeance that would certainly overtake them Of Methuselah his Son nothing considerable is upon Record but his great Age living full DCCCCLXIX Years the longest proportion which any of the Patriarchs arrived to and died in that very Year wherein the Floud came upon the World 15. FROM his Son Lamech concerning whom we find nothing memorable we proceed to his Grandchild Noah by the very imposition of whose Name his Parents presaged that he would be a refreshment and comfort to the World and highly instrumental to remove that curse which God by an Universal Deluge was bringing upon the Earth He called his Name Noah saying This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed he was one in whom his Parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied that he would be eminently useful and serviceable to the World Indeed he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and integrity a Preacher of righteousness to others and who as carefully practised it himself He was a just man and perfect in his generation and he walked with God He did not warp and decline with the humour of the Age he lived in but maintained his station and kept his Line He was upright in his Generation 'T is no thanks to be religious when it is the humour and fashion of the Times the great trial is when we live in the midst of a corrupt generation It is the crown of vertue to be good when there are all manner of temptations to the contrary when the greatest part of Men go the other way when vertue and honesty are laughed and drolled on and censured as an over-wise and affected singularity when lust and debauchery are accounted the modes of Gallantry and pride and oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without controll Thus it was with Noah he contended with the Vices of the Age and dared to own God and Religion when almost all Mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen Forehead and violence had covered the face of the Earth the promiscuous mixtures of the Children of Seth and Cain had produced Giants and mighty Men men strong to do evil and who had as much will as power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus describes them a race of men insolent and ungovernable scornful and injurious and who bearing up themselves in the confidence of their own strength despised all justice and equity and made every thing truckle under their extravagant lusts and appetites The very same character does Lucian give of the Men of this Age speaking of the times of Deucalion their Noah and the Floud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Men exceedingly scornful and contumelious and guilty of the most unrighteous and enormous actions violating all Oaths and Covenants throwing off kindness and hospitality and rejecting all addresses and supplications made to them For which cause great miseries overtook them for Heaven and Earth Seas and Rivers conspired together to pour out mighty Flouds upon the World which swept all away but Deucalion only who for his prudence and piety was left to repair Mankind And so he goes on with the relation consonant to the accounts of the Sacred story This infection had spread it self over all parts and was become so general and Epidemical that all Flesh had corrupted their ways and scarce any besides Noah lest to keep up the face of a Church and the profession of Religion Things being come to this pass quickly alarm'd the Divine Justice and made the World ripe for vengeance the patience of God was now tired out and he resolved to make Mankind feel the just effects of his incensed severity But yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy he tells them that though he would not suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton humours of wicked men
yet that he would bear with them CXX Years longer in order to their reformation So loth is God to take advantage of the sins of men not willing that any should perish but that all should come unto Repentance In the mean time righteous Noah found favour with Heaven a good man hath a peculiar guardianship and protection in the worst of times and God orders him to prepare an Ark for the saving of his House An Hundred Years was this Ark in building not but that it might have been finished in a far less time but that God was willing to give them so long a space for wise and sober considerations Noah preaching all the while both by his doctrine and his practice that they would break off their sins by repentance and prevent their ruine But they that are filthy will be filthy still the hardned World persisted in their impieties till the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost and destroyed the World of the ungodly God shut up Noah his Wife his three Sons and their Wives into the Ark together with provisions and so many Creatures of every sort as were sufficient not only for food but for reparation of the kind Miracles must not be expected where ordinary means may be had and then opened the Windows of Heaven and broke up the Fountains of the Deep and brought in the Floud that swept all away Twelve months Noah and his Family continued in this floating habitation when the Waters being gone and the Earth dried he came forth and the first thing he did was to erect an Altar and offer up an Eucharistical Sacrifice to God for so remarkable a deliverance some of the Jews tell us that coming out of the Ark he was bitten by a Lion and rendred unfit for Sacrifice and that therefore Sem did it in his room he did not concern himself for food or a present habitation but immediately betook himself to his devotion God was infinitely pleased with the pious and grateful sense of the good man and openly declared that his displeasure was over and that he would no more bring upon the World such effects of his severity as he had lately done and that the Ordinances of Nature should duly perform their constant motions and regularly observe their periodical revolutions And because Man was the principal Creature in this lower World he restored to him his Charter of Dominion and Soveraignty over the Creatures and by enacting some Laws against Murder and Cruelty secured the peace and happiness of his life and then established a Covenant with Noah and all Mankind that he would no more drown the World for the ratification and ensurance whereof he placed the Rain-bow in the Clouds as a perpetual sign and memorial of his Promise Noah after this betook himself to Husbandry and planting Vineyards and being unwarily overtaken with the fruit of the Vine became a scorn to C ham one of his own Sons while the two others piously covered their Fathers shame Awaking out of his sleep and knowing what had been done he prophetically cursed Cham and his Posterity blessed Sem and in Japhet foretold the calling of the Gentiles to the worship of God and the knowledge of the Messiah that God should enlarge Japhet and that he should dwell in the Tents of Shem. He died in the DCCCCL Year of his Age having seen both Worlds that before the Floud and that which came after it 16. SEM and Japhet were the two good Sons of Noah in the assigning whose primogeniture though the Scripture be not positive and decretory yet do the most probable reasons appear for Japhet especially if we compute their Age. Sem was an Hundred Years old two Years after the Floud for then he begat Arphaxad now the Floud happened just in the DC Year of Noah's Age whence it follows that Sem was born when his Father was Five Hundred and Two Years old But Noah being expresly said to have begotten Sons in the Five Hundreth Year of his Age plain it is that there must be one Son at least two Years Elder than Sem which could be no other than Japhet Cham being acknowledged by all the Younger Brother And hence it is that Sem is called the Brother 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Japhet the Greater or as we render it the Elder They were both pious and devout Men having been brought up under the religious Institutions not only of their Father Noah but their Grand-father Lamech and their Great-grand-father Methuselah who had for some Hundreds of Years conversed with Adam The holy story records nothing concerning the state of Religion in their days and little heed is to be given to the Eastern Writers when they tell us of Sem that according to the command of his Father he took the Body of Adam which Noah had secretly hidden in the Ark and joyning himself to Melchisedeck they went and buried it in the heart of the Earth an Angel going before and conducting them to the place with a great deal more with little truth and to as little purpose As for the Patriarchs born after the Floud little notice is taken of them besides the bare mention of their names Arphaxad Salah Eber. Of this last they say that he was a great Prophet that he instituted Schools and Seminaries for the advancement and propagation of Religion and there was great reason for him to bestir himself if it be true what the Arabian Historians tell us that now Idolatry began mightily to prevail and men generally carved to themselves the Images of their Ancestors to which upon all occasions they addressed themselves with the most solemn veneration the Daemons giving answers through the Images which they worshipped Heber was the Father of the Jewish Nation who from him are said to have derived the title of Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Josephus tells us though there want not those who assign other reasons of the name and that the Hebrew Language was preserved in his family which till his time had been the mother-tongue and the common Language of the World To Eber succeeded his son Peleg a name given him out of a Prophetical foresight of that memorable division that hapned in his time For now it was that a company of bold daring persons combining themselves under the conduct and command of Nimrod resolved to erect a vast and stupendous Fabrick partly to raise themselves a mighty reputation in the World partly to secure themselves from the Invasion of an after-deluge and probably as a place of retreat and defence the better to enable them to put in practice that oppression and tyranny which they designed to exercise over the World But whatever it was God was displeased with the attempt and to shew how easily he can baffle the subtillest Councils and in a moment subvert the firmest projects on a sudden he confounded the Language of these foolish Builders so that they were forced to
a mere pretender to Divine revelation but that he really had an immediate commission from Heaven God was pleased to furnish him with extraordinary Credentials and to seal his Commission with a power of working Miracles beyond all the Arts of Magick and those tricks for which the Egyptian Sorcerers were so famous in the World But Pharaoh unwilling to part with such useful Vassals and having oppressed them beyond possibility of reconcilement would not hearken to the proposal but sometimes downright rejected it otherwhiles sought by subtil and plausible pretences to evade and shift it off till by many astonishing Miracles and severe Judgments God extorted at length a grant from him Under the conduct of Moses they set forwards after at least two hundred years servitude under the Egyptian yoke and though Pharaoh sensible of his error with a great Army pursued them either to cut them off or bring them back God made way for them through the midst of the Sea the waters becoming like a wall of Brass on each side of them till being all passed to the other shore those invisible cords which had hitherto tied up that liquid Element bursting in sunder the waters returned and overwhelmed their enemies that pursued them Thus God by the same stroke can protect his friends and punish his enemies Nor did the Divine Providence here take its leave of them but became their constant guard and defence in all their journeys waiting upon them through their several stations in the wilderness the most memorable whereof was that at Mount Sinai in Arabia The place where God delivered them the pattern in the Mount according to which the form both of their Church and State was to be framed and modelled In order hereunto Moses is called up into the Mount where by Fasting and Prayer he conversed with Heaven and received the body of their Laws Three days the people were by a pious and devout care to sanctifie and prepare themselves for the promulgation of the Law they might not come near their Wives were commanded to wash their clothes as an embleme and representation of that cleansing of the heart and that inward purity of mind wherewith they were to entertain the Divine will On the third day in the morning God descended from Heaven with great appearances of Majesty and terror with thunders and lightnings with black clouds and tempests with shouts and the loud noise of a trumpet which trumpet say the Jews was made of the horn of that Ram that was offered in the room of Isaac with fire and smoke on the top of the Mount ascending up like the smoke of a Furnace the Mountain it self greatly quaking the people trembling nay so terrible was the sight that Moses who had so frequently so familiarly conversed with God said I exceedingly fear and quake All which pompous trains of terror and magnificence God made use of at this time to excite the more solemn attention to his Laws and to beget a greater reverence and veneration for them in the minds of the people and to let them see how able he was to call them to account and by the severest penalties to vindicate the violation of his Law 4. THE Code and Digest of those Laws which God now gave to the Jews as the terms of that National Covenant that he made with them consisted of three sorts of Precepts Moral Ecclesiastical and Political which the Jews will have intimated by those three words that so frequently occur in the writings of Moses Laws Statutes and Judgments By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws they understand the Moral Law the notices of good and evil naturally implanted in mens minds By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Statutes Ceremonial Precepts instituted by God with peculiar reference to his Church By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judgments Political Laws concerning Justice and Equity the order of humane society and the prudent and peaceable managery of the Commonwealth The Moral Laws inserted into this Code are those contained in the Decalogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called the ten words that were written upon two Tables of Stone These were nothing else but a summary Comprehension of the great Laws of Nature engraven at first upon the minds of all men in the World the most material part whereof was now consigned to writing and incorporated into the body of the Jewish Law I know the Decalogue is generally taken to be a complete System of all natural Laws But whoever impartially considers the matter will find that there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded in it that they are not reducible to any part of it unless hook'd in by subtilties of wit and drawn thither by forc'd and unnatural inferences What provision except in one case or two do any of those Commandments make against neglects of duty Where do they oblige us to do good to others to love assist relieve our enemies Gratitude and thankfulness to benefactors is one of the prime and essential Laws of Nature and yet no where that I know of unless we will have it implied in the Preface to the Law commanded or intimated in the Decalogue With many other cases which 'tis naturally evident are our duty whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this Compendium unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings and made out by a long train of consequences never originally intended in the Commandment and which not one in a thousand are capable of deducing from it It is probable therefore that God reduc'd only so many of the Laws of Nature into writing as were proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom they were given super-adding some and explaining others by the Preaching and Ministery of the Prophets who in their several Ages endeavoured to bring men out of the Shades and Thickets into clear light and Noon-day by clearing up mens obligations to those natural and essential duties in the practice whereof humane nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment and perfection Hence it was that our Lord who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil and perfect it has explained the obligations of the natural Law more fully and clearly more plainly and intelligibly rendred our duty more fixed and certain and extended many instances of obedience to higher measures to a greater exactness and perfection than ever they were understood to have before Thus he commands a free and universal charity not only that we love our friends and relations but that we love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us He hath forbidden malice and revenge with more plainness and smartness obliged us not only to live according to the measures of sobriety but extended it to self-denial and taking up the Cross and laying down our lives whenever the honour of God and the interest of Religion calls for
are those Jewish Chronologists who say that the Sect of the Pharisees arose in the times of Tiberius Caesar and Ptolomy the Aegyptian under whom the Septuagint translation was accomplished as if Ptolomy Philadelphus and Tiberius Caesar had been Contemporaries between whom there is the distance of no less than CCLX years But when ever it began a bold and daring Sect it was not fearing to affront Princes and persons of the greatest quality crafty and insinuative and who by a shew of great zeal and infinite strictness in Religion beyond the rate of other men had procured themselves a mighty reverence from the people so strict that as a Learned man observes Pharisee is used in the Talmudick writings to denote a pious and holy man and Benjamin the Jew speaking of R. Ascher says he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a truly devout man separate from the affairs of this world And yet under all this seeming severity they were but Religious villains spiteful and malicious griping and covetous great oppressors merciless dealers heady and seditious proud and scornful indeed guilty of most kinds of immorality of whose temper and manners I say the less in this place having elsewhere given an account of them They held that the Oral Law was of infinitely greater moment and value than the written Word that the Traditions of their fore-Fathers were above all things to be embraced and followed the strict observance whereof would entitle a man to Eternal Life that the Souls of men are Immortal and had their dooms awarded in the Subterraneous Regions that there is a Metempsuchosis or Transmigration of pious Souls out of one Body into another that things come to pass by fate and an inevitable necessity and yet that Man's will is free that by this means men might be rewarded and punished according to their works I add no more concerning them than that some great men of the Church of Rome say with some kind of boasting that such as were the Pharisees among the Jews such are the Religious they mean the Monastical Orders of their Church among Christians Much good may it do them with the comparison I confess my self so far of their mind that there is too great a conformity between them 23. NEXT the Pharisees come the Sadducees as opposite to them in their temper as their principles so called as Epiphanius and some others will have it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice as pretending themselves to be very just and righteous men but this agrees not with the account given of their lives They are generally thought to have been denominated from Sadock the Scholar of Antigonus Sochaeus who flourished about the year of the World MMMDCCXX CCLXXXIV years before the Nativity of our Saviour They pass under a very ill character even among the writers of their own Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious men and of very loose and debauched manners which is no more than what might be expected as the natural consequence of their principles this being one of their main dogmata or opinions that the Soul is not Immortal and that there is no future state after this life The occasion of which desperate principle is said to have been a mistake of the doctrine of their Master Antigonus who was wont to press his Scholars not to be like mercenary Servants who serve their Masters merely for what they can get by them but to serve God for himself without expectation of rewards This Sadock and Baithos two of his disciples misunderstanding thought their Master had peremptorily denied any state of future rewards and having laid this dangerous foundation these unhappy superstructures were built upon it that there is no Resurrection for if there be no reward what need that the Body should rise again that the Soul is not Immortal nor exists in the separate state for if it did it must be either rewarded or punished and if not the Soul then by the same proportion of reason no spiritual substance neither Angel nor Spirit that there is no Divine Providence but that God is perfectly placed as beyond the commission so beyond the inspection and regard of what sins or evils are done or happen in the World as indeed what great reason to believe a wise and righteous Providence if there be no reward or punishment for vertue and vice in another life These pernicious and Atheistical opinions justly exposed them to the reproach and hatred of the people who were wont eminently to stile them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hereticks Infidels Epicureans no words being thought had enough to bestow upon them They rejected the Traditions so vehemently asserted by the Pharisees and taught that men were to keep to the Letter of the Law and that nothing was to be imposed either upon their belief or practice but what was expresly owned and contained in it Josephus observes that they were the fewest of all the Sects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but usually men of the better rank and quality as what wonder if rich and great men who tumble in the pleasures and advantages of a prosperous fortune be willing to take sanctuary at those opinions that afford the greatest patronage to looseness and debauchery and care not to hear of being called to account in another World for what they have done in this For this reason the Sadducees ever appeared the greatest sticklers to preserve the peace and were the most severe and implacable Justicers against the Authors or fomenters of tumults and seditions lest they should disturb and interrupt their soft and easie course of life the only happiness their principles allowed them to expect 24. THE Essenes succeed a Sect probably distinct from either of the former Passing by the various conjectures concerning the derivation of their name which when dressed up with all advantages are still but bare conjectures they began about the times of the Macchabees when the violent persecutions of Antiochus forced the Jews for their own safety to retire to the Woods and Mountains And though in time the storm blew over yet many of them were too well pleased with these undisturbed solitudes to return and therefore combined themselves into Religious societies leading a solitary and contemplative course of life and that in very great numbers there being usually above four thousand of them as both Philo and Josephus tell us Pliny takes notice of them and describes them to be a solitary generation remarkable above all others in this that they live without Women without any embraces without money conversing with nothing but Woods and Palm-trees that their number encreased every day as fast as any died persons flocking to them from all quarters to seek repose here after they had been wearied with the inquietudes of an improsperous fortune They paid a due reverence to the Temple by sending gifts and presents thither but yet worshipped God at home and used their own Rites and Ceremonies Every seventh day they
shall afterwards possibly more particularly remark Thirdly these Apostles were immediately called and sent by Christ himself elected out of the body of his Disciples and followers and receiv'd their Commission from his own mouth Indeed Matthias was not one of the first election being taken in upon Judas his Apostasie after our Lord's Ascension into Heaven But besides that he had been one of the seventy Disciples called and sent out by our Saviour that extraordinary declaration of the Divine will and pleasure that appeared in determining his election was in a manner equivalent to the first election As for S. Paul he was not one of the Twelve taken in as a supernumerary Apostle but yet an Apostle as well as they and that not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ as he pleads his own cause against the insinuations of those Impostors who traduced him as an Apostle only at the second hand whereas he was immediately call'd by Christ as well as they and in a more extraordinary manner they were called by him while he was yet in his state of meanness and humiliation he when Christ was now advanced upon the Throne and appeared to him encircled with those glorious emanations of brightness and majesty which he was not able to endure V. Fourthly The main work and imployment of these Apostles was to preach the Gospel to establish Christianity and to govern the Church that was to be founded as Christ's immediate Deputies and Vicegerents they were to instruct men in the doctrines of the Gospel to disciple the World and to baptize and initiate men into the Faith of Christ to constitute and ordain Guides and Ministers of Religion persons peculiarly set a-part for holy ministrations to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious offenders to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions to command or countermand as occasion was being vested with an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for the edification of the Church This Office the Apostles never exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence upon Earth for though upon their election he sent them forth to Preach and to Baptize yet this was only a narrow and temporary imployment and they quickly returned to their private stations the main power being still executed and administred by Christ himself the complete exercise whereof was not actually devolved upon them till he was ready to leave the World for then it was that he told them as my father hath sent me even so send I you receive ye the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Whereby he conferr'd in some proportion the same authority upon them which he himself had derived from his Father Fifthly This Commission given to the Apostles was unlimited and universal not only in respect of power as enabling them to discharge all acts of Religion relating either to Ministry or Government but in respect of place not confining them to this or that particular Province but leaving them the whole World as their Diocese to Preach in they being destinati Nationibus Magistri in Tertullian's phrase designed to be the Masters and Instructors of all Nations so runs their Commission Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every creature that is to all men the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Evangelist answering to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst the Jews to all creatures whereby they used to denote all men in general but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews Indeed while our Saviour lived the Apostolical ministry extended no further than Judaea but he being gone to Heaven the partition-wall was broken down and their way was open into all places and Countries And herein how admirably did the Christian Oeconomy transcend the Jewish dispensation The preaching of the Prophets like the light that comes in at the window was confin'd only to the house of Israel while the doctrine of the Gospel preached by the Apostles was like the light of the Sun in the Firmament that diffused its beams and propagated its heat and influence into all quarters of the World their sound going out into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World It 's true for the more prudent and orderly management of things they are generally said by the Ancients to have divided the World into so many quarters and portions to which they were severally to betake themselves Peter to Pontus Galatia Cappadocia c. S. John to Asia S. Andrew to Scythia c. But they did not strictly tye themselves to those particular Provinces that were assigned to them but as occasion was made excursions into other parts though for the main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that were allotted to them usually residing at some principal City of the Province as S. John at Ephesus S. Philip at Hierapolis c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of affairs round about them and hence it was that these places more peculiarly got the title of Apostolical Churches because first planted or eminently watered and cultivated by some Apostle Matrices Originales Fidei as Tertullian calls them Mother-Churches and the Originals of the Faith because here the Christian doctrine was first sown and hence planted and propagated to the Countries round about Ecclesias apud unamquamque civitatem condiderunt à quibus traducem fidei semina doctrinae caeterae exinde Ecclesiae mutuatae sunt as his own words are VI. In pursuance of this general Commission we find the Apostles not long after our Lord's Ascension traversing almost all parts of the then known World S. Andrew in Scythia and those Northern Countries S. Thomas and Bartholomew in India S. Simon and S. Mark in Afric Egypt and the parts of Libya and Mauritania S. Paul and probably Peter and some others in the farthest Regions of the West And all this done in the space of less than forty years viz. before the destruction of the Jewish State by Titus and the Roman Army For so our Lord had expresly foretold that the Gospel of the Kingdom should be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations before the end came that is the end of the Jewish State which the Apostles a little before had called the end of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shutting up or consummation of the Age the putting a final period to that present State and dispensation that the Jews were under And indeed strange it is to consider that in so few years these Evangelical Messengers should over-run all Countries with what an incredible swiftness did the Christian Faith like lightning pierce from East to West and diffuse it self over all quarters of the World and that not only unassisted by any secular advantages but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition
against all pretence of reason would understand of his entring into eternal life Besides S. Hierom Cassian Bede and others are for S. Peter being elder Brother expresly ascribing it to his Age that he rather than any other was President of the Colledge of Apostles However it was it sounds not a little to the honour of their Father as of Zebedee also in the like case that of but twelve Apostles two of his Sons were taken into the number In his Youth he was brought up to Fishing which we may guess to have been the staple-trade of Bethsaida which hence probably borrowed its name signifying an house or habitation of Fishing though others render it by Hunting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally bearing either much advantaged herein by the Neighbourhood of the Lake of Gennesareth on whose banks it stood called also the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias according to the mode of the Hebrew Language wherein all greater confluences of Waters are called Seas Of this Lake the Jews have a saying that of all the seven Seas which God created he made choice of none but the Sea of Gennesareth which however intended by them is true only in this respect that our blessed Saviour made choice of it to honour it with the frequency of his presence and the power of his miraculous operations In length it was an hundred furlongs and about XL. over the Water of it pure and clear sweet and most fit to drink stored it was with several sorts of Fish and those different both in kind and taste from those in other places Here it was that Peter closely followed the exercise of his calling from whence it seems he afterwards removed to Capernaum probably upon his marriage at least frequently resided there for there we meet with his House and there we find him paying Tribute an House over which Nicephorus tells us that Helen the Mother of Constantine erected a beautiful Church to the honour of S. Peter This place was equally advantageous for the managery of his Trade standing upon the Influx of Jordan into the Sea of Galilee and where he might as well reap the fruits of an honest and industrious diligence A mean I confess it was and a more servile course of life as which besides the great pains and labour it required exposed him to all the injuries of wind and weather to the storms of the Sea the darkness and tempestuousness of the Night and all to make a very small return An employment whose restless troubles constant hardships frequent dangers and amazing horrors are for the satisfaction of the learned Reader thus elegantly described by one whose Poems may be justly stiled Golden Verses receiving from the Emperor Antoninus a piece of Gold for every Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But meanness is no bar in God's way the poor if virtuous are as dear to Heaven as the wealthy and the honourable equally alike to him with whom there is no respect of persons Nay our Lord seemed to cast a peculiar honour upon this profession when afterwards calling him and some others of the same Trade from catching of Fish to be as he told them Fishers of men 5. AND here we may justly reflect upon the wise and admirable methods of the Divine Providence which in planting and propagating the Christian Religion in the World made choice of such mean and unlikely instruments that he should hide these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto babes men that had not been educated in the Academy and the Schools of Learning but brought up to a Trade to catch Fish and mend Nets most of the Apostles being taken from the meanest Trades and all of them S. Paul excepted unfurnished of all arts of learning and the advantages of liberal and ingenuous education and yet these were the men that were designed to run down the World and to overturn the learning of the prudent Certainly had humane wisdom been to manage the business it would have taken quite other measures and chosen out the profoundest Rabbins the acutest Philosophers the smoothest Orators such as would have been most likely by strength of Reason and arts of Rhetorick to have triumph'd over the minds of men to grapple with the stubbornness of the Jews and baffle the finer notions and speculations of the Greeks We find that those Sects of Philosophy that gain'd most credit in the Heathen-world did it this way by their eminency in some Arts and Sciences whereby they recommended themselves to the acceptance of the wiser and more ingenious part of mankind Julian the Apostate thinks it a reasonable exception against the Jewish Prophets that they were incompetent messengers and interpreters of the Divine will because they had not their minds cleared and purged by passing through the Circle of polite arts and learning Why now this is the wonder of it that the first Preachers of the Gospel should be such rude unlearned men and yet so suddenly so powerfully prevail over the learned World and conquer so many who had the greatest parts and abilities and the strongest prejudices against it to the simplicity of the Gospel When Celsus objected that the Apostles were but a company of mean and illiterate persons sorry Mariners and Fishermen Origen quickly returns upon him with this answer That hence 't was plainly evident that they taught Christianity by a Divine power when such persons were able with such an uncontrouled success to subdue men to the obedience of the Word for that they had no eloquent tongues no subtil and discursive heads none of the refin'd and rhetorical Arts of Greece to conquer the minds of men For my part says he in another place I verily believe that the Holy Jesus purposely made use of such Preachers of his Doctrine that there might be no suspicion that they came instructed with Arts of Sophistry but that it might be clearly manifest to all the World that there was no crafty design in it and that they had a Divine power going along with them which was more efficacious than the greatest volubility of expression or ornaments of speech or the artifices which were used in the Graecian compositions Had it not been for this Divine power that upheld it as he elsewhere argues the Christian Religion must needs have sunk under those weighty pressures that lay upon it having not only to contend with the potent opposition of the Senate Emperors People and the whole power of the Roman Empire but to conflict with those home-bred wants and necessities wherewith its own professors were oppressed and burdened 6. IT could not but greatly
vindicate the Apostles from all suspicion of forgery and imposture in the thoughts of sober and unbyassed persons to see their Doctrine readily entertained by men of the most discerning and inquisitive minds Had they dealt only with the rude and the simple the idiot and the unlearned there might have been some pretence to suspect that they lay in wait to deceive and designed to impose upon the World by crafty and insinuative arts and methods But alas they had other persons to deal with men of the acutest wits and most profound abilities the wisest Philosophers and most subtil disputants able to weigh an argument with the greatest accuracy and to decline the force of the strongest reasonings and who had their parts edg'd with the keenest prejudices of education and a mighty veneration for the Religion of their Country a Religion that for so many Ages had governed the World and taken firm possession of the minds of men And yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages these plain men conquered the wise and the learned and brought them over to that Doctrine that was despised and scorned opposed and persecuted and that had nothing but its own native excellency to recommend it A clear evidence that there was something in it beyond the craft and power of men Is not this says an elegant Apologist making his address to the Heathens enough to make you believe and entertain it to consider that in so short a time it has diffused it self over the whole World civilized the most barbarous Nations softned the roughest and most intractable tempers that the greatest Wits and Scholars Orators Grammarians Rhetoricians Lawyers Physicians and Philosophers have quitted their formerly dear and beloved sentiments and heartily embraced the Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel Upon this account Theodoret does with no less truth than elegancy insult and triumph over the Heathens He tells them that whoever would be at the pains to compare the best Law-makers either amongst the Greeks or Romans with our Fishermen and Publicans would soon perceive what a Divine vertue and efficacy there was in them above all others whereby they did not only conquer their neighbours not only the Greeks and Romans but brought over the most barbarous Nations to a compliance with the Laws of the Gospel and that not by force of Arms not by numerous bands of Souldiers not by methods of torture and cruelty but by meek perswasives and a convincing the World of the excellency and usefulness of those Laws which they propounded to them A thing which the wisest and best men of the Heathen-world could never do to make their dogmata and institutions universally obtain nay that Plato himself could never by all his plausible and insinuative arts make his Laws to be entertained by his own dear Athenians He farther shews them that the Laws published by our Fishermen and Tent-makers could never be abolished like those made by the best amongst them by the policies of Caius the power of Claudius the cruelties of Nero or any of the succeeding Emperors but still they went on conquering and to conquer and made Millions both of Men and Women willing to embrace flames and to encounter Death in its most horrid shapes rather than disown and forsake them whereof he calls to witness those many Churches and Monuments every where erected to the memory of Christian Martyrs no less to the honour than advantage of those Cities and Countries and in some sence to all Mankind 7. THE summ of the Discourse is in the Apostles words that God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise the weak to confound those that are mighty the base things of the world things most vilified and despised yea and things which are not to bring to nought things that are These were the things these the Persons whom God sent upon this errand to silence the Wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World and to make foolish the wisdom of this World For though the Jews required a sign and the Greeks sought after wisdom though the preaching a crucified Saviour was a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the learned Graecians yet by this foolishness of preaching God was pleased to save them that believed and in the event made it appear that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men That so the honour of all might intirely redound to himself so the Apostle concludes that no Flesh should glory in his presence but that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord. SECT II. Of S. Peter from his first coming to Christ till his being call'd to be a Disciple Peter before his coming to Christ a Disciple probably of John the Baptist His first approaches to Christ. Our Lord's communication with him His return to his Trade Christ ' s entring into Peter ' s Ship and preaching to the people at the Sea of Galilee The miraculous draught of Fishes Peter ' s great astonishment at this evidence of our Lord's Divinity His call to be a Disciple Christ 's return to Capernaum and healing Peter 's Mother-in-Law THOUGH we find not whether Peter before his coming to Christ was engag'd in any of the particular Sects at this time in the Jewish Church yet is it greatly probable that he was one of the Disciples of John the Baptist. For first 't is certain that his brother Andrew was so and we can hardly think these two brothers should draw contrary ways or that he who was so ready to bring his brother the early tidings of the Messiah that the Sun of righteousness was already risen in those parts should not be as solicitous to bring him under the discipline and influences of John the Baptist the Day-star that went before him Secondly Peter's forwardness and curiosity at the first news of Christ's appearing to come to him and converse with him shew that his expectations had been awakened and some light in this matter conveyed to him by the preaching and ministry of John who was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight shewing them who it was that was coming after him 2. HIS first acquaintance with Christ commenced in this manner The Blessed Jesus having for thirty years passed through the solitudes of a private life had lately been baptized in Jordan and there publickly owned to be the Son of God by the most solemn attestations that Heaven could give him whereupon he was immediately hurried into the wilderness to a personal contest with the Devil for forty days together So natural is it to the enemy of mankind to malign our happiness and to seek to blast our joys when we are under the highest instances of the Divine grace and favour His enemy being conquered in three set battels and fled he returned hence and came down to Bethabar a beyond Jordan where John was baptizing his
command Indeed he seemed to have been furnished out on purpose to be the Doctor of the Gentiles to contend with and confute the grave and the wise the acute and the subtil the sage and the learned of the Heathen World and to wound them as Julian's word was with arrows drawn out of their own Quiver Though we do not find that in his disputes with the Gentiles he made much use of Learning and Philosophy it being more agreeable to the designs of the Gospel to confound the wisdom and learning of the World by the plain doctrine of the Gross 3. THESE were great accomplishments and yet but a shadow to that Divine temper of mind that was in him which discovered it self through the whole course and method of his life He was humble to the lowest step of abasure and condescension none ever thinking better of others or more meanly of himself And though when he had to deal with envious and malicious adversaries who by vilifying his person sought to obstruct his Ministry he knew how to magnifie his office and to let them know that the was no whit inferiour to the very chiefest Apostles yet out of this case he constantly declared to all the World that he looked upon himself as an Abortive and an untimely Birth as the least of the Apostles not meet to be called an Apostle and as if this were not enough he makes a word on purpose to express his humility stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 less than the least of all Saints yea the very chief of sinners How freely and that at every turn does he confess what he was before his conversion a Blasphemer a Persecutor and Injurious both to God and Men Though honoured with peculiar Acts of the highest grace and favour taken up to an immediate converse with God in Heaven yet did not this swell him with a supercilious loftiness over the rest of his brethren Intrusted he was with great power and authority in the Church but never affected dominion over men's Faith nor any other place than to be an helper of their joy nor ever made use of his power but to the edification not destruction of any How studiously did he decline all honours and commendations that were heaped upon him When some in the church of Corinth cried him up beyond all measures and under the patronage of his name began to set up for a party he severely rebuked them told them that it was Christ not he that was crucified for them that they had not been baptized into his name which he was so far from that he did not remember that he had baptized above three or four of them and was heartily glad he had baptized no more left a foundation might have been laid for that suspicion that this Paul whom they so much extolled was no more than a minister of Christ whom our Lord had appointed to plant and build up his Church 4. GREAT was his temperance and sobriety so far from going beyond the bounds of regularity that he abridged himself of the conveniences of lawful and necessary accommodations frequent his hungrings and thirstings not constrained only but voluntary it 's probably thought that he very rarely drank any Wine certain that by abstinence and mortification he kept under and subdued his body reducing the extravagancy of the sensual appetites to a perfect subjection to the laws of Reason By this means he easily got above the World and its charms and frowns had his mind continually conversant in Heaven his thoughts were fixed there his desires always ascending thither what he taught others he practised himself his conversation was in Heaven and his desires were to depart and to be with Christ this World did neither arrest his affections nor disturb his fears he was not taken with its applause nor frighted with its threatnings he studied not to please men nor valued the censures and judgments which they passed upon him he was not greedy of a great estate or titles of honour or rich presents from men not seeking theirs but them food and raiment was his bill of fare and more than this he never cared for accounting that the less he was clogged with these things the lighter he should march to Heaven especially travelling through a World over-run with troubles and persecutions Upon this account it 's probable he kept himself always within a single life though there want not some of the Ancients who expresly reckon him in the number of the married Apostles as Clemens Alexandrinus Ignatius and some others 'T is true that passage is not to be found in the genuine Epistle of Ignatius but yet is extant in all those that are owned and published by the Church of Rome though they have not been wanting to banish it out of the World having expunged S. Paul's name out of some ancient Manuscripts as the learned Bishop Usher has to their shame sufficiently discovered to the World But for the main of the question we can readily grant it the Scripture seeming most to favour it that though he asserted his power and liberty to marry as well as the rest yet that he lived always a single life 5. HIS kindness and charity was truly admirable he had a compassionate tenderness for the poor and a quick sense of the wants of others To what Church soever he came it was one of his first cares to make provision for the poor and to stir up the bounty of the rich and the wealthy nay himself worked often with his own hands not only to maintain himself but to help and relieve them But infinitely greater was his charity to the Souls of men fearing no dangers refusing no labours going through good and evil report that he might gain men over to the knowledge of the truth reduce them out of the crooked paths of vice and idolatry and set them in the right way to eternal life Nay so insatiable his thirst after the good of Souls that he affirms that rather than his Country-men the Jews should miscarry by not believing and entertaining the Gospel he could be content nay wished that himself might be accursed from Christ for their sake i. e. that he might be anathematized and cut off from the Church of Christ and not only lose the honour of the Apostolate but be reckoned in the number of the abject and execrable persons such as those are who are separated from the communion of the Church An instance of so large and passionate a charity that lest it might not find room in mens belief he ushered it in with this solemn appeal and attestation that he said the truth in Christ and lied not his conscience bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost And as he was infinitely solicitous to gain men over to the best Religion in the World so was he not less careful to keep them from being seduced from it ready to suspect every thing that might corrupt their minds from the simplicity
considerable that they left their aged Father in the Ship behind them For elsewhere we find others excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ upon pretence that they must go bury their Father or take their leave of their kindred at home No such slight and trivial pretences could stop the resolution of our Apostles who broke through these considerations and quitted their present interests and relations Say not it was unnaturally done of them to desert their Father an aged person and in some measure unable to help himself For besides that they left servants with him to attend him it is not cruelty to our Earthly but obedience to our Heavenly Father to leave the one that we may comply with the call and summons of the other It was the triumph of Abraham's Faith when God called him to leave his kindred and his Father's house to go out and sojourn in a foreign Country not knowing whither he went Nor can we doubt but that Zebedee himself would have gone along with them had not his Age given him a Supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory course of life But though they left him at this time it 's very reasonable to suppose that they took care to instruct him in the doctrine of the Messiah and to acquaint him with the glad tidings of Salvation especially since we find their Mother Salome so hearty a friend to so constant a follower of our Saviour But this if we may believe the account which one gives of it was after her Husbands decease who probably lived not long after dying before the time of our Saviour's Passion 3. IT was not long after this that he was called from the station of an ordinary Disciple to the Apostolical Office and not only so but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond most of the Apostles being one of the three whom our Lord usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate transactions of his life from which the others were excluded Thus with Peter and his Brother John he was taken to the miraculous raising of Jairus his Daughter admitted to Christ's glorious transfiguration upon the Mount and the discourses that there passed between him and the two great Ministers of Heaven taken along with him into the Garden to be a Spectator of those bitter Agonies which the Holy Jesus was to undergo as the preparatory sufferings to his Passion What were the reasons of our Lord 's admitting these three Apostles to these more special acts of favour than the rest is not easie to determine though surely our Lord who governed all his actions by Principles of the highest prudence and reason did it for wise and proper ends whether it was that he designed these three to be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages of his life than the other Apostles or that they would be more eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the Apostolick Office or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage them against suffering as intending them for some more eminent kinds of Martyrdom or suffering than the rest were to undergo 4. NOR was it the least instance of that particular honour which our Lord conferr'd upon these three Apostles that at his calling them to the Apostolate he gave them the addition of a new Name and Title A thing not unusual of old for God to impose a new Name upon Persons when designing them for some great and peculiar services and employments thus he did to Abraham and Jacob. Nay the thing was customary among the Gentiles as had we no other instances might appear from those which the Scripture gives us of Pharaoh's giving a new name to Joseph when advancing him to be Vice-Roy of Egypt Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel c. Thus did our Lord in the Election of these three Apostles Simon he sirnamed Peter James the Son of Zebedee and John his Brother he sirnamed Boanerges which is the Sons of Thunder What our Lord particularly intended in this Title is easier to conjecture than certainly to determine some think it was given them upon the account of their being present in the Mount when a voice came out of the Cloud and said This is my beloved Son c. The like whereto when the People heard at another time they cried out that it Thundred But besides that this account is in it self very slender and inconsiderable if so then the title must equally have belonged to Peter who was then present with them Others think it was upon the account of their loud bold and resolute preaching Christianity to the World fearing no threatnings daunted with no oppositions but going on to thunder in the Ears of the secure sleepy World rouzing and awakening the consciences of Men with the earnestness and vehemency of their Preaching as Thunder which is called God's Voice powerfully shakes the natural World and breaks in pieces the Cedars of Lebanon Or if it relate to the Doctrines they delivered it may signifie their teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophylact notes which how true it might be of our S. James the Scripture is wholly silent but was certainly verified of his Brother John whose Gospel is so full of the more sublime notions and mysteries of the Gospel concerning Christ's Deity eternal pre-existence c. that he is generally affirmed by the Ancients not so much to speak as thunder Probably the expression may denote no more than that in general they were to be prime and eminent Ministers in this new scene and state of things the introducing of the Gospel or Evangelical dispensation being called a Voice shaking the Heavens and the Earth and so is exactly correspondent to the native importance of the Word signifying an Earth-quake or a vehement commotion that makes a noise like to Thunder 5. HOWEVER it was our Lord I doubt not herein had respect to the furious and resolute disposition of those two Brothers who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than the rest of the Apostles whereof we have this memorable instance Our Lord being resolved upon his Journy to Jerusalem sent some of his Disciples as Harbingers to prepare his way who coming to a Village of Samaria were uncivilly rejected and refused entertainment probably because of that old and inveterate quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews and more especially at this time because that our Saviour seemed to slight Mount Gerizim where was their staple and solemn place of worship by passing it by to go worship at Jerusalem the reason in all likelihood why they denied him those common courtesies and conveniences due to all Travellers This piece of rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by S. James and his Brother that they came to their Master to know whether as Elias did of
back to their Gallaecian Matron whom by many miracles and especially the destroying a Dragon that miserably infested those parts they at last made Convert to the Faith who thereupon commanded her Images to be broken the Altars to be demolished and her own Idol-Temple being cleansed and purged to be dedicated to the honour of S. James by which means Christianity mightily prevailed and triumphed over Idolatry in all those Countries This is the summ of the Account call it Romance or History which I do not desire to impose any further upon the Readers faith than he shall find himself disposed to believe it I add no more than that his Body was afterwards translated from Iria Flavia the place of its first repose to Compostella Though a Learned person will have it to have been but one and the same place and that after the story of S. James had gotten some footing in the belief of men it began to be called ad Jacobum Apostolum thence in after-times Giacomo Postolo which was at last jumbled into Compostella where it were to tire both the Reader and my self to tell him with what solemn veneration and incredible miracles reported to be done here this Apostle's reliques are worshipped at this day Whence Baronius calls it the great store-house of Miracles lying open to the whole World and wisely confesses it one of the best arguments to prove that his Body was translated thither And I should not scruple to be of his mind could I be assured that such Miracles were truly done there The End of the Life of S. James the Great THE LIFE OF S. JOHN S. IOHN Evangelist Having lived to a great age he died at Ephesus 68 years after our Lords Passion and was Buried neere that City Baron St. John put into a Cauldron of boyling oyl Joh. 21.21 22. Peter saith Lord what shall this man do Jesus saith unto him if I will that he carry till I come what is that to thee 1 Pet. 4.12 Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing hapned to you His kindred and relations whether eminent for Nobility The peculiar favours conferred upon him by our Saviour His lying in our Lord's Bosom His attending at the crucifixion Our Lord 's committing the Blessed Virgin to his care The great intimacy between Him and Peter How long he resided at Jerusalem Asia theEast His being sent prisoner to Rome and being put into a Caldron of boiling Oil by the command of Domitian His banishment into Patmos Transportation what kind of punishment Capitis Diminutio what His writing the Apocalypse there The tradition of his hand wherewith he wrote it being still kept there His return to Ephesus and governing the affairs of that Province His great Age and Death The fancy of his being still alive whence derived by the Ancients The Tradition of his going alive into his Grave and sleeping there Several counterfeits pretending themselves to be S. John His Celibacy whether he was ever married His humility His admirable love and charity and hearty recommending it to the last His charity to mens Souls His endangering himself to reclaim a debauched young man His singular vigilancy against Hereticks and Seducers His publick disowning Cerinthus his company Cerinthus who and what his principles The Heresie of Ebion what Nicolaitans who whence their Original An account of Nicolas the Deacon's separating from his Wife The vile principles and practices of his pretended followers S. John 's writings His Revelation Dionysius Alexandrinus his judgment concerning it and its Author Asserted and proved to be S. John ' s. The ground of doubting what His Gospel when and where written The solemn preparation and causes moving him to undertake it The subject of it sublime and mysterious Admired and cited by Heathen Philosophers It s Translation into Hebrew His first Epistle and the design of it His two other Epistles to whom written and why not admitted of old His stile and way of writing considered The great Encomium given of his writings by the ancient Fathers 1. SAINT John was a Galilean the son of Zebedee and Salome younger Brother to S. James together with whom he was brought up in the Trade of Fishing S. Hierom makes him remarkable upon the account of his Nobility whereby he became acquainted with the High-Priest and resolutely ventured himself amongst the Jews at our Saviour's Trial prevailed to introduce Peter into the Hall was the only Apostle that attended our Lord at his Crucifixion and afterwards durst own his Mother and keep her at his own house But the nobility of his Family and especially that it should be such as to procure him so much respect from persons of the highest rank and quality seems not reconcileable with the meanness of his Father's Trade and the privacy of his fortunes And for his acquaintance with the High-Priest I should rather put it upon some other account especially if it be true what Nicephorus relates That he had lately sold his Estate left by his Father in Galilee to Annas the High-Priest and had therewith purchased a fair house at Jerusalem about Mount Sion whence he became acquainted with him Before his coming to Christ he seems for some time to have been Disciple to John the Baptist being probably that other disciple that was with Andrew when they left the Baptist to follow our Saviour so particularly does he relate all circumstances of that transaction though modestly as in other parts of his Gospel concealing his own name He was at the same time with his Brother called by our Lord both to the Discipleship and Apostolate by far the youngest of all the Apostles as the Ancients generally affirm and his great Age seems to evince living near LXX years after our Saviour's suffering 2. THERE is not much said concerning him in the Sacred story more than what is recorded of him in conjunction with his Brother James which we have already remarked in his life He was peculiarly dear to his Lord and Master being the Disciple whom Jesus loved that is treated with more freedom and familiarity than the rest And indeed he was not only one of the Three whom our Saviour made partakers of the private passages of his life but had some instances of a more particular kindness and favour conferred upon him Witness his lying in our Saviour's bosom at the Paschal Supper it being the custom of those times to lie along at meals upon Couches so that the second lay with his head in the bosom of him that was before him this honourable place was not given to any of the Aged but reserved for our Apostle Nay when Peter was desirous to know which of them our Saviour meant when he told them that one of them should betray him and durst not himself propound the question he made use of S. John whose familiarity with him might best warrant such an enquiry to ask our Lord who
Stoicks but much more for his hearty affection to Christianity in a devout and zealous imitation of the Apostles was inflamed with a desire to propagate the Christian Religion unto the Eastern Countries he came as far as India it self Here amongst some that yet retained the knowledge of Christ he found S. Matthew's Gospel written in Hebrew left here as the tradition was by S. Bartholomew one of the twelve Apostles when he preached the Gospel to these Nations 5. AFTER his labours in these parts of the World he returned to the more Western and Northern parts of Asia At Hieropolis in Phrygia we find him in company with S. Philip instructing that place in the principles of Christianity and convincing them of the folly of their blind Idolatries Here by the enraged Magistrates he was at the same time with Philip designed for Martyrdom in order whereunto he was fastned upon the Cross with an intent to dispatch him but upon a sudden conviction that the Divine Justice would revenge their death he was taken down again and dismissed Hence probably he went into Lycaonia the people whereof Chrysostom assures us he instructed and trained up in the Christian discipline His last remove was to Albanople in Armenia the Great the same no doubt which Nicephorus calls Urbanople a City of Cilicia a place miserably overgrown with Idolatry from which while he sought to reclaim the people he was by the Governour of the place commanded to be crucified which he chearfully underwent comforting and confirming the Convert Gentiles to the last minute of his life Some add that he was crucified with his head downwards others that he was flead and his skin first taken off which might consist well enough with his Crucifixion excoriation being a punishment in use not only in Egypt but amongst the Persians next neighbours to these Armenians as Ammianus Marcellinus assures us and Plutarch records a particular instance of Mesabates the Persian Eunuch first flead alive and then crucified from whom they might easily borrow this piece of barbarous and inhumane cruelty As for the several stages to which his Body removed after his death first to Daras a City in the borders of Persia then to Liparis one of the Aeolian Islands thence to Beneventum in Italy and last of all to Rome they that are fond of those things and have better leisure may enquire Hereticks persecuted his memory after his death no less than Heathens did his person while alive by forging and fathering a fabulous Gospel upon his name which together with others of like stamp Gelasius Bishop of Rome justly branded as Apocryphal altogether unworthy the name and patronage of an Apostle The End of S. Bartholomew 's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHEW S. MATHEW S. Mathew the Apostle and Evangelist preached the Gospel in Aethiopia and was there slayn with an Halbert Bed et Borea Sept 21 St. Mathew his Martyrdom 1 Pet. 3.14 If ye suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are ye be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled His Birth-place and Kindred His Trade the Office of a Publican The great dignity of this Office among the Romans The honours done to Vespasian 's Father for the faithful discharge of it This Office infamous among the Greeks but especially the Jews What things concurr'd to render it odious and grievous to them Their bitter abhorrency of this sort of men S. Matthew 's employment wherein it particularly consisted The Publican's Ticket what S. Matthew 's call and his ready obedience His inviting our Lord to Dinner The Pharisees cavil and our Saviour's answer His Preaching in Judaea His travels into Parthia Aethiopia c. to propagate Christianity The success of his Ministry His Death His singular contempt of the World Censured herein by Julian and Porphyry His exemplary temperance and sobriety His humility and modesty Unreasonable to reproach Penitents with the vices of their former Life His Gospel when and why written Composed by him in Hebrew The general consent of Antiquity herein It s translation into Greek when and by whom The Hebrew Copy by whom owned and interpolated Those now extant not the same with those mentioned in Antiquity 1. SAINT Matthew called also Levi was though a Roman Officer an Hebrew of the Hebrews both his Names speaking him purely of Jewish extract and Original and probably a Galilean and whom I should have concluded born at or near Capernaum but that the Arabick Writer of his life tells us he was born at Nazareth a City in the Tribe of Zebulun famous for the habitation of Joseph and Mary but especially the education and residence of our Blessed Saviour who though born at Bethlehem was both conceiv'd and bred up here where he lived the whole time of his private life whence he derived the Title of Jesus of Nazareth S. Matthew was the Son of Alpheus and Mary Sister or Kinswoman to the Blessed Virgin in the same Arabick Author his Father is called Ducu and his Mother Karutias both originally descended of the Tribe of Issachar nothing being more common among the Jews than for the same Person to have several names these latter probably express'd in Arabick according to their Jewish signification His Trade or way of life was that of a Publican or Toll-gatherer to the Romans which probably had been his Father's Trade his Name denoting a Broker or Money-changer an Office of bad report amongst the Jews Indeed among the Romans it was accounted a place of power and credit and honourable reputation not ordinarily conferred upon any but Roman Knights insomuch that T. Fl. Sabinus Father to the Emperor Vespasian was the Publican of the Asian Provinces an Office which he discharged so much to the content and satisfaction of the People that they erected Statues to him with his Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that has well managed the Publican-Office These Officers being sent into the Provinces to gather the Tributes were wont to employ the Natives under them as Persons best skilled in the affairs and customs of their own Country Two things especially concurred to render this Office odious to the Jews First that the Persons that managed it were usually covetous and great Exactors for having themselves farmed the Customs of the Romans they must gripe and scrape by all methods of Extortion that they might be able both to pay their Rent and to raise gain and advantage to themselves which doubtless Zachaeus the Chief of these Farmers was sensible of when after his Conversion he offered four-fold restitution to any Man from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and evil arts And upon this account they became infamous even among the Gentiles themselves who commonly speak of them as Cheats and Thieves and publick Robbers and worse members of a community more voracious and destructive in a City than wild Beasts in the Forest. The other thing that made the Jews so
great degeneracy and declension of manners coming on and that the purity of the Christian Faith began to be undermined by the loose doctrines and practices of the Gnosticks who under a pretence of zeal for the legal rites generally mixed themselves with the Jewes he beheld Libertinism marching on a-pace and the way to Heaven made soft and easie Men declaiming against good works as useless and unnecessary and asserting a naked belief of the Christian doctrine to be sufficient to salvation Against these the Apostle opposes himself presses Purity Patience and Charity and all the Vertues of a good Life and by undeniable Arguments evinces that that faith only that carries along with it obedience and an holy life can justifie us before God and intitle us to eternal Life Besides this Epistle there is a kind of preparatory Gospel ascribed to him published under the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still extant at this Day containing the descent birth and first Originals of Christ and the Virgin Mary at the end whereof the Author pretends to have written it at a time when Herod having raised a great tumult in Jerusalem he was forced to retire into the Wilderness But though in many things consistent enough with the History of the Gospels yet has it ever been rejected as spurious and Apochryphal forged in that licentious Age when Men took the boldness to stamp any Writing with the Name of an Apostle The End of the Life of S. James the Less THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot S. SIMON S. Simon Zelotes preached in Aegypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified Niceph. l. 2. c. 40. Baron Oct. 28. St. Simon 's Martyrdom Matth. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves 1. Cor. 4.9 God hath set forth US the Apostles last as it were men appointed to death For we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men His Kindred Whence stiled the Cananite and the Zealot An enquiry into the nature and temper and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews An account of their wild and licentious practices This no reflection upon our Apostle In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel His planting Christianity in Africk His removal into the West and Preaching in Britain His Martyrdom there By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem 1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was as some think one of the four Brothers of our Saviour Sons of Joseph by his former marriage though no other evidence appear for it but that there was a Simon one of the number too infirm a foundation to build any thing more upon than a mere conjecture In the Catalogue of the Apostles he is stiled Simon the Cananite whence some led by no other reason that I know of than the bare sound of the name have concluded him born at Cana in Galilee as for the same reason others have made him the Bridegroom at whose marriage our Lord was there present when he honoured the solemnity with his first Miracle turning Water into Wine But this word has no relation to his Country or the place from whence he borrowed his Original as plainly descending from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Zeal and denote a hot and sprightly temper Therefore what some of the Evangelists call Cananite others rendring the Hebrew by the Greek word stile Simon Zelotes or the Zealot So called not as Nicephorus thinks from his burning zeal and ardent affection to his Master and his eager desire to advance his Religion in the World but from his warm active temper and zealous forwardness in some particular way and profession of Religion before his coming to our Saviour 2. FOR the better understanding of this we are to know that as there were several Sects and Parties among the Jews so was there one either a distinct Sect or at least a branch of the Pharisees called the Sect of the Zealots They were mighty assertors of the honour of the Law and the strictness and purity of Religion assuming a liberty to themselves to question notorious offenders without staying for the ordinary formalities of Law nay when they thought good and as the case required executing capital vengeance upon them Thus when a blasphemer cursed God by the name of any Idol says Maimonides the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Zealots that next met him might immediately kill him without ever bringing him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sanhedrim They looked upon themselves as the successors of Phineas who in a mighty passion for the honour of God did immediate execution upon Zimri and Cosbi An act which was counted unto him for righteousness unto all posterities for evermore and God so well pleased with it that he made with him and his seed after him the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for Israel In imitation whereof these Men took upon them to execute judgment in extraordinary cases and that not only by the connivance but with the leave both of the Rulers and the People till in after-times under a pretence of this their zeal degenerated into all manner of licentiousness and wild extravagance and they not only became the Pests of the Commonwealth at home but opened the door for the Romans to break in upon them to their final and irrecoverable ruine they were continually prompting the People to throw off the Roman yoke and vindicate themselves into their native liberty and when they had turned all things into hurry and confusion themselves in the mean while fished in these troubled Waters Josephus gives a large account of them and every where bewails them as the great plague of the Nation He tells us of them that they scrupled not to rob any to kill many of the prime Nobility under pretence of holding correspondence with the Romans and betraying the liberty of their Countrey openly glorifying that herein they were the benefactors and Saviours of the people They abrogated the succession of ancient Families thrusting obscure and ignoble persons into the High-Priests office that so they might oblige the most infamous villains to their party and as if not content to injure men they affronted Heaven and proclaimed defiance to the Divinity it self breaking into and prophaning the most holy place Stiling themselves Zealots says he as if their undertakings were good and honourable while they were greedy and emulous of the greatest wickednesses and out-did the worst of men Many attempts were made especially by Annas the High-Priest to reduce them to order and sobriety But neither force of arms nor fair and gentle methods could do any good upon them they held out and went on in their violent proceedings and joyning with the Idumeans committed all manner of out-rage slaying the
was the success of his Ministry that he converted Multitudes both of Men and Women not only to the embracing of the Christian Religion but to a more than ordinarily strict profession of it insomuch that Philo wrote a Book of their peculiar Rites and way of Life the only reason why S. Hierom reckons him among the Writers of the Church Indeed Philo the Jew wrote a Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extant at this day wherein he speaks of a sort of Persons called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who in many parts of the World but especially in a pleasant place near the Meraeotick Lake in Egypt had formed themselves into Religious Societies and gives a large account of their Rites and Customs their strict philosophical and contemplative course of life He tells us of them that when they first enter upon this way they renounce all secular interests and employments and leaving their Estates to their Relations retire into Groves and Gardens and Places devoted to solitude and contemplation that they had their Houses or Colleges not contiguous that so being free from noise and tumult they might the better minister to the designs of a contemplative life nor yet removed at too great a distance that they might maintain mutual society and be conveniently capable of helping and assisting one another In each of these Houses there was an Oratory call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein they discharged the more secret and solemn Rites of their Religion divided in the middle with a Partition-wall three or four Cubits high the one apartment being for the Men and the other for the Women Here they publickly met every Seventh day where being set according to their seniority and having composed themselves with great decency and reverence the most aged Person among them and best skilled in the Dogmata and Principles of their Institution came forth into the midst gravely and soberly discoursing what might make the deepest impression upon their minds the rest attending with a profound silence and only testifying their assent with the motion of their Eyes or Head Their discourses were usually mystical and allegorical seeking hidden sences under plain words and of such an allegorical Philosophy consisted the Books of their Religion left them by their Ancestors The Law they compared to an Animal the Letter of it resembling the Body while the Soul of it lay in those abstruse and recondite notions which the external veil and surface of the words concealed from vulgar understandings He tells us also that they took very little care of the Body perfecting their minds by Precepts of Wisdom and Religion the day they intirely spent in Pious and Divine Meditations in reading and expounding the Law and the Prophets and the Holy Volumes of the ancient Founders of their Sect and in singing Hymns to the honour of their Maker absolutely temperate and abstemious neither eating nor drinking till Night the only time they thought fit to refresh and regard the Body some of them out of an insatiable desire of growing in knowledge and vertue fasting many days together What Diet they had was very plain and simple sufficient only to provide against hunger and thirst a little Bread Salt and Water being their constant bill of fare their clothes were as mean as their food designed only as a present security against cold and nakedness And this not only the case of men but of pious and devout Women that lived though separately among them that they religiously observed every Seventh Day and especially the preparatory Week to the great solemnity which they kept with all expressions of a more severe abstinence and devotion This and much more he has in that Tract concerning them 3. THESE excellent Persons Eusebius peremptorily affirms to have been Christians converted and brought under these admirable Rules and Institutions of Life by S. Mark at his coming hither accommodating all passages to the Manners and Discipline of Christians followed herein by Epiphanius Hierom and others of old as by Baronius and some others of later time and this so far taken for granted that many have hence fetched the rise of Monasteries and Religious Orders among Christians But whoever seriously and impartially considers Philo's account will plainly find that he intends it of Jews and Professors of the Mosaick Religion though whether Essenes or of some other particular Sect among them I stand not to determine That they were not Christians is evident besides that Philo gives not the least intimation of it partly because it is improbable that Philo being a Jew should give so great a character and commendation of Christians so hateful to the Jews at that time in all places of the World partly in that Philo speaks of them as an Institution of some considerable standing whereas Christians had but lately appeared in the World and were later come into Egypt partly because many parts of Philo's account does no way suit with the state and manners of Christians at that time as that they withdrew themselves from publick converse and all affairs of civil life which Christians never did but when forced by violent Persecutions for ordinarily as Justin Martyr and Tertullian tell us they promiscuously dwelt in Towns and Cities plowed their Lands and followed their Trades ate and drank and were clothed and habited like other men So when he says that besides the Books of Moses and the Prophets they had the Writings of the Ancient Authors of their Sect and Institution this cannot be meant of Christians for though Eusebius would understand it of the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles yet besides that there were few of them published when Philo wrote this discourse they were however of too late an Edition to come under the character of ancient Authors Not to say that some of their Rites and Customs were such as the Christians of those days were mere strangers to not taken up by the Christian Church till many Years and some of them not till some Ages after Nay some of them never used by any of the Primitive Christians such were their religious dances which they had at their Festival Solemnities especially that great one which they held at the end of every Seven Weeks when their entertainment being ended they all rose up the Men in one Company and the Women in another dancing with various measures and motions each Company singing Divine Hymns and Songs and having a Precentor going before them now one singing and anon another till in the conclusion they joyned in one common Chorus in imitation of the triumphant Song sung by Moses and the Israelites after their deliverance at the Red Sea To all which let me add what a Learned Man has observed that the Essenes if Philo means them were great Physicians thence probably called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Healers though Philo who is apt to turn all things into Allegory refers it only to their