OF THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. Case, y*^*-^-^'— ^ ^ Division 87te//^y, W.r...;^l.Secticn :.,^. Book, ^'...Jl) j'o.... A DO N,A T I O N V £^jf/Ji^^^ \ Beceiued / Q'tZ n .V ^ I A COMPLETE HISTORY / OF THE LIVES, ACTS, AND MARTYRDOMS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, AND THE TWO EVANGELISTS, ST. MARK AND LUKE. TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE THREE GREAT DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH, PATRIARCHAL, MOSAICAL, AND EVANGELICAL. BEING A CONTINUATION OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES. AND A BRIEF ENUMERATION AND ACCOUNT OF THE APOSTLES AND THEIR SUCCESSORS, FOR THE FIRST THREE HUXllRED YEARS, IN THE FIVE GREAT APOSTOLICAL CHURCHES. ALSO, A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE LIVES, ACTS, DEATHS, AND MARTYRDOMS OF THOSE WHO WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH, OR IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDED THE APOSTLES. LIKEWISE, OF THE MOST EMINENT OF THE PRIMITIVE FATHERS, FOR THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARi^. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CHRONOLOGY OF THE THREE FIRST AGES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. BY WILLIAM *CAVE, D. D. VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA : PlBLISHED BY SOLOMON WIATT, NO. 104, NORTH SECOND 5TREE l, 1810. :v>>.H APOSTOLICI; OR, THE HISTORY OF THE LIVES, ACTS, DEATH, AND MARTYRDOMS OF THOSE WHO WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH, OR IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDED THE APOSTLES; AS ALSO THE MOST EMINENT OF THE PRIMITIVE FATHERS, FOR THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A CHRONOLOGY OF THE THREE FIRST AGES OF THE CHURCH. BY WILLIAM CAVE, D. D. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY SOLOMON WIATT, NO. 104, NORTH SECOND-STREET. Sweeny & M'Kenziej Printeis. 1810. 1 TO THE READER. IT is not the least argument for the spiritual and incorporeal nature of human souls, and that they are acted by a higher principle than meer matter and motion^ their boundless and inquisitive researches after know- ledge. Our minds naturally grasp at a kind of omnis- ciency, and not content with the speculations of this or that particular science, hunt over the whole course of nature ; nor are they satisfied with the present state of things, but pursue the notices of former ages and are desirous to comprehend whatever transactions have been since time itself had a being. We endeavour to make up the shortness of our lives by the extent of our know- ledge ; and because we cannot see forwards and spy what lies concealed in the womb of futurity, we look back, and eagerly trace the footsteps of those times that went before us Indeed to be ignorant of what hap- pened before we ourselves came into the world is, (as Cicero * truly observes) to be always children, and to de- piive ourselves of what would at once entertain our mil ids with the highest pleasure, and add the greatest authority and advantage to us. The knowledge of an- tiquity, besides that it gratifies one of our noblest curiosi- ties, improves our minds by the wisdom of preceding ages, acquaints us with the most remarkable occurrences of the Divine Providence, and presents us with the most apt and proper rules and instances that may form us to a life of true philosophy and virtue ; History (says Thucydides'') being nothing else but ^^Koo-o^/a u, -nrtfpaj'oj^*'- tav, philosophy drawn from examples ; the one is a more a In Oratore, page 268. b Ap. Dion Halic. Usgi hiymvi^i], p. 65. Tom. 2. ^ TO THE READER. gross and popular philosophy, the other a more subtle and refintd history rhese considerations, together with a desire to per- petuate the memory of brave and great actions, gave birth to history, and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and forego- ing times to the notice of posterity The first in this kind was Moses, the great prince and legislator of the Jewish nation, ^ho from the creation of the world con- veyed down the records of above 2550 years ; the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish state. Among the Babylonians they had their public archives, which were transcribed by Berosus the priest of Belus, who composed the Chal- de m history. The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable acts upon pillars in hieroglyphic notes and sacred char-acters, first begun 'as they pretend,) by Thouth, or the first of their Mercuries ; out of which Manethos, their chief priest, collected his three books of Egyptian dynasties, which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philddelphus, second of that line. The Phoenician his- tory was first attempted by Sanchoniathon, digested part- ly out of the annals of cities, partly out of the books kept in the tem.ple, and communicated to him by Je- rombaal, priest of the god Jao ; this he dedicated to Abi- balus king of Berytus, which Philo Byblius, about the time if the emperor Adrian, translated into Greek. The Gr'-eks boast of the antiquity of Cadmus, Archilochus, and many others, though the most ancient of their his- torians now e.tmt are Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. Among the Romans the foundations of history were laid in annals, the public acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus, who kept them at his own house, that the people upon any emer- gency mio;ht resort to them for satisfaction. These were the annales maximi and aiforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the history of that great and powcful commonwealth. 13 ut that whicli of all others challenges the greatest re- ^ard both as it more immediately concerns the present TO THE READER. * inquiry, and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biarsrest interests, is the historv of the church. For herein, as in a glass, we have the true face of the church in its several ages represented to us. Here we find with what infinite care those divine records, which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness, have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us ; with what a mighty success religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions, and spread its banners in the re- motest corners of the world. With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that faith wliich was once delivered to the saints ; with what a bitter and implacable fury the enemies of religion have set up- on it, and how signally the Divine Providence has ap- peared in its preservation, and returned the mischief upon their own heads. Here we see the constant suc- cession of bishops and the ministers of religion in their several stations, the glorious company of the apostles, the ■goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of mar- tyrs, who with the most cheerful and composed minds have gone to heaven through the acutest torments. In short, we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious life, of a real and unfeigned piety, a sincere and universal charity, a strict temperance and sobriety, an unconquerable patience and submission clearly represented to us. And the higher we go, the more illustrious are the instances of piety and virtue. For however later ages may have improved in know- ledge, experience daily making new additions to arts and sciences, yet former times were most eminent for the practice and virtues of a holy life. The divine laws while newly published, had a stronger influence upon the minds of men, and the spirit of religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be de- bauched into that impiety and prophaneness, that in these last times has over-run the world. It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what records there are of the state of the church before our Saviour's incarnation : it is sufficient to my purpose to inquire by what hands the first aflliirs of the ^ TO THE READER. Christian church have been transmitted to us. As for the life and death, the actions and miracles of our Sa- viour, and some of the first acts of his apostles they are fully represented by the evangtlical historians. Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this na- ture, the apostles and their immediate successors, as Eusebius observes") not being at leisure to write many books, as being employed in ministries greater and more immediately serviceable to the world. The first that engaged in this way, was Hegesippus, an ancient and apostolic man (as he in Phocius styles him) an Hebrew by descent, and born (as is probable) in Palestine.*^ He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius, and came to Rome in the time of Aiiicetus, where he resi- ded till the time of Eleutherius. He wrote five books of ecclesiastical history, which he styled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church, wherein in a plain and familiar style he described the apostles' travels and preachings, the remarkable passages of the cTiurch, the several schisms, heresies, and persecutions that infested it from our Lord's death rill his own time„ But these, alas, are long since lost. Tne next that succeeded in this province, though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection, was Eusebius. He was born in Palestine, about the later times of the emperor Gallienus, ordained presbyter by Agapius bishop of Cgesarea, who suffer- ing about the end of the Dioclesian persecution, Euse- bius succeeded in his see. A man of incomparable parts and learning, and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the records and antiquities of the church. After several other volumes in defence of the Christian cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles, he set himself to write an ecclesiastical his- tory, wherein he designed (is himself tells us "■ ) to re- count from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable transactions of the church, the apostolical successions, the first preachers and planters of the gos- pel, the bibhops that presided in the most eminent sees, ccl, 1. o. e. 34. D. 94. d Cod. 232. col. 893. e Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3- TO THE READER. f the most noted errors and heresies, the calamities that befel the Jewish state, the attempts and persecutions made against the Christians bv the powers of the world, the torments and sufterings of the martyrs, and the bles- sed and happy period that was put to them by the con- version of Constantine ihe Great. All this, accordingly, he digested in ten books, which he composed in the dechning part of his life, and (as Vaiesius conjectures,*") some years after the council of Nice, though when not long before he expresly affirms that history to have been written before the Nicene Synod. How he can here- in be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine. It is true Eusebius takes no notice of that council, but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous scene of things which Constantine restored to the church (as he himself plain- ly intimates in the beginning of his history) which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod, according to the humour of all historians., who delight to shut up their histories with some happy and successful period ; and partly be- cause he intended to give some account of the affairs of that council in his book of the life of Constantine the Great. The materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking (which he complains were very sm.all and inconsiderable) were besides Hegesippus his com- mentariesthen extant, Africanus his chronology, the books and writings of several fathers, the records of particu- lar cities, ecclesiastical epistles written by the bishops oi those times, and kept in the archives of their several churches, especially that famous library at Jerusalem, erected by Alexander, bishop of that place, but chiefly the acts of the martyrs, which in those times were taken at large with great care and accuracy. These, at least a great many of them, Eusebius collected into one volume under the title of 'A5;t«iv i,u^vij.oiM 2t;v=<>a)^». A collection of the ancient martyrdoms ; which he refers f Praefat. de Vit. & Script. Euseb. « TO THE READER. to at every turn ; besides a particular narrative which ht wrote (still extant as an appendage to the eighth book of his ecclesiastical history) concerning the martyrs that suf- fered in Palestine. A great part of these acts b} the nei-ligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding times, were interpolated and corrupted, especially in the darker and more undisceming ages, when superstition had over- spread the church, and when ignorance and interest con- spired to fill the world with idie and improbable stories, and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own brains, insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate, even of the Roman commu- nion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation, that Laertius has written the lives of philo- sophers with more truth and chasteness, thiin many h&ve done the lives of the saints. Upon this account a great and general outcry has been made against Simeon Me- taphrastes, as the father of incredible legends, and one that has notoriously imposed upon the world by the most fabulous reports. Nay, some to reflect the more disgrace upon him, have represented him as a petty schoolmaster. A charge, in my mind, rash and inconsiderate, and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable. He was a person of very considerable birth and fortune, advanced to the highest honours and oflices, one of the primier ministers of state, and as is probable, great chancellor to the emperor of Constantinople ; learned and eloquent above the common standard, and who, by the persuasions not only of some great ones of th-'t time (he flourished under Leo the wise about the year 900, but principally wrote under the reign of his successor) but of the empe- ror himself, was prevailed with lo reeUice the lives of the saints into order. To which end by his ov^n infinite labour, and the no less expenses of the emperor, he ran- sacked the libraries of the empire, till he had amassed a vast heap of volumes. The more ancient acts he passed without any considerable alteration, more than the cor- recting them by a collation of several copits, and the en- larging some circmnstances to render them more plain and easy, as appears by comparing some that are extant TO THE READER. 9 at tills dav. Where lives were confused and immetho- dical, or written in a style rude and barbarous, he digest- ed the history into order, end clothed it in more polite and elegant language. Others that were defective in neither, he left as they were, and gave tliem place amongst his own. So that I see no reason for so severe a censure, unless it were evident, that he took his account of things not from the writings of those that had gone be- fore him, but forged them of his own head. Not to say that things have been made much worse by translations, seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latin church, and that many lives are laid at his door of which he ne- ver was the father, it being usual with some, when they met with the life of a saint, the author whereof they knew not, presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastcs. But to return to Eusebius, from whom we have digressed. His ecclesiastical history, the almost only remaining records of the ancient church, deserves a just esteem and veneration, without which those very fragments of antiquity had been lost, which by this means have es- caped the common shipwreck. And indeed S. Hierom, Nicephorus, and the rest do not only build upon his foundation, but almost entirely derive their materials from him. As for Socrates, Sozomen, Theodorit, and the later historians, they relate to times without the limits of my present business, generally conveying down little more than the history of their own times, the church history of those more early ages being either quite ne- glected, or very negligentl}' managed. The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the reformation, were the centuriators of Magdeburg, a combination of learned and industrious men, the chief of whom were John Wigan- dus, Matth. Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus, who was the very soul of the undertaking. They set themselves to traverse the writings of the fathers, and all the ancient monuments of the church, collecting whatever made to their purpose, which v.ith indefatigable pains they digest- ed into an ecclesiastic history. This they divided into centuries, and each century into fifteen chapters, into each 2 10 TO THE READER. of which, as into its proper classes and repository, they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of reUgion, the peace or persecutions of the Christians, the doctrines of the church, the heresies that arose in it, the rites and ceremonies, the government, schisms, councils, bishops, and persons noted either for religion or learning, heretics, martyrs, miracles, the state of the Jews, the religion of tliem that were xvithout^ and the political revolutions of that age. A method accurate and useful, and w^hich admi- nisters to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the church. The four first centuries were finished in the city of Magdeburg, the rest elsewhere. A work of prodigious diligence and singular use. True it is, that it labours under some faults and imperfections, and is chargeable with considerable errors and mistakes. And no wonder: for besides that the persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betrayed into an *^£T|ict -f civb-=>.Kic by the heats and contentions of those times, it \vas the first attempt in this kind, and which never passed the emendations of a second review ; an un- dertaking vast and diffusive, and engaged in while books were yet more scarce and less correct. Accordingly they modestly enough confess, that they rather attempt- ed a delineation of church-history,^ than one that was complete and absolute, desiring only to minister oppor- tunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more entire and perfect. And yet, take it with all the faults and disadvantages that can be charged upon it^ and they bear no proportion to the usefulness and excel- lency of the thing itself. No sooner did this work come abroad but it made a loud nose and bustle at Rome, as wherein the corruptions and innovations of that church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the world. Accordingly it was necessa- ry that an antidote should be provided against it. For which purpose Philip Nereus (who had lately founded the oratorian order at Rome) commands Baronius, then a very young man, and newly entered into the congrega- g PrxKit. in Hist.Eccles. prscnx. Cent. I. TO THE READER. u tion to undertake it, and in order thereunto, duily to read nothing bat ecclesiastical lectures in the oratory. This course he held for thirty years together, several times going over the history of the church. Thus trained up, and abundantly furnished with with fit materials, he sets upon the work itself, which he disposed by way of annals comprising the affairs of the whole Christian world in the orderly seric'a and succession of every year. A method much more natural and historical than that of the centu- ries. A noble design, and which it were injustice to de- fraud of its due praise and commendation, as wherein be- sides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the church, reduced (as far as his skill in chronology could enable him) under their proper periods, he has brought to light many passages of the ancients not known befi^re, peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble libraries that are at Rome. A monument of incredible pains and labour, as which besides the difliculties of the thing it- self was entirely caiTied on by his single endeavours, and written all with his own hand, and that too in the midst of infinite avocations, the distractions of a parish cure, the private affairs of his own oratoiy, preaching, heai'ing confessions, writing other books, not to men- tion the many troublesome though honourable offices and employments, which in the course of the work were heaped upon him. In short, a work it was, by Vvhich he had infinitely more obliged the world, than can be well expressed, had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with leai'ning and indus- try. But alas, too evident it is, that he designed not so much the ad\ancement of truth, as the honour and in- terest of a cause, and therefore drew the face of the an- cient church, not as antiquity truly represents it, but ac- cording to the present form and complexion of the church of Rome, forcing every thing to look that way, to justify the traditions and practices, and to exalt the superemi- nent power and grandeur of that church, making both the sceptre and tb.e crosier stoop to the triple crown. This is that that runs almost through every page, and in- U TO THE READER. deed both he ''himself, and the writer' of his life, more than once, expressly affirms, that his desi,^i was to defend the traditions, and to preserve the dignity of that church against the late innovators, and the labours of the Mag- deburgensian centuriators, and that the opposing of them was the occasion of that work. So fatally does partiality and the interest of a cause spoil the most brave and ge- nerous undertakings. Wliat has been hitherto prefaced, the reader, I hope, will not censure as an unprofitable digression, nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present work, whereof 'tis like he will expect some short account. Being some time since engaged, I know not how, in searching after the antiquities of the apostolic age, I was then strongly importuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding ages. This I then wholly laid aside, without any further thoughts of resuming it. For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the diffi- culty of the thing, and I well foresav.' how almost im- possible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfac- tion ; so small and inconsiderable, so broken and imper- fect are the accounts that ai-e left us of those early times. Not^\ithstanding which, I have once more suffered my- self to be engageo in it, and have endeavoured to hunt out, and gather together those ruins of primiti^ e storj^ that yet remain, that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men, who ^vere so instrumental to plant Christianity in the .\\orld, to seal it with their blood, and to oblige posterity by those ex- cellent monuments of learning and piety which they left behind them, I have bounded my account within the first three hundred yeai's, notwithstanding the barrenness and obscurity of those ages of the church. Had I con- sulted my own ease or credit, I should have commenced my design from that time, which is the period of my present undertaking, viz. the following saeculum, when Christianity became th.e religion of the empire, and the record;^ of the church furnish us with lai'ge and plentiful h E;)ist. Decl. ml Sixt. V. Tom. 1. Aiinal. Prsefix. i Hier. Raj-nab. de vit. Barcn. 1 1. c. 18. p 40. c. 19 p. 43. TO THE READER. 13 materials for such a work. But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best ages of reli- gion, the memoirs wheieot 1 have picked up, and thereby enabled myself to draw the lineaments of as many of those apostolical persons, as concerning whom I could retrieve any considerable notices and accounts of things. With what success, the reader must judge : with whom what entertainment it will find, I know not, nor am I much solicitous. I have done what I could, and am not conscious to myself, that I have been wanting in any point either of fidelity or care. If there be fewer persons here described than the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise and less said concerning some of them than the reader does expect, he w ill I pre- sume be more just aud charitable than to charge it up- on me, but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfulness of succeeding times. As far as my mean abilities do reach, and the nature of the thing will admit, I have endeaA^oured the reader's satis- faction ; and though I pretend not to present him an ex- act church history of those times ; yet I think I may without vanity assure him, that there is scarce any ma- terial passage of church antiquity, of which in some of these lives he will not find a competent and reasonable account. Nor is the history of those ages maimed and lame only in its main limbs and parts, but (what is great- ly to be bewailed) purblind and defective in its eyes, I mean, confused and uncertain in point of chronology. The greatest part of what we have is from Eusebius, in whose account of times some things are false, more un- certain, and the whole the worse for passing through other hands after his. Indeed next to the recovering the lost portions of antiquity, I know nothing would be more acceptable, than the setting right the disjointed frame of those times : a cure A\'hich we hope for shortly from a very able hand. In the mean time for mv own part, and so far as may be useful to the purposes of the following papers, I have, by the best measures I could take in. some haste, dravni up a chronology of these three H TO THE READER. ages, which thcoigh it pretends not to the utmost exact- ness and accuracy that is due to a matter of this nature, yet it will serve, however, to give a quick and present prospect of things, and to show the connexion and con- currence of ecclesiastical affairs with the times of the Ro- man empire. So far as I follow Eusebius, I principally rely upon the accounts given in history which being written after his Chronicon, may be supposed the issue of his more exact researches, and to have passed the judgment of his riper and more considering thoughts. And perhaps the reader will say (and I confess 1 am somewhat of his mind) had I observed the same rule to- wards these papers, he had never been troubled with them. But that is too late now to be recalled ; and it is folly to bewail what is impossible to be r-emedied. INTRODUCTION. The several periods of the three first ages. Our Lord's coming, anS. the seasonublcness of it for the propagation of the gospel. His entrance upon his prophetic office, and the sum of his ministry. The success of liis doctrine, and the several places where he preached. The story of Agbarus not altogether improbable. Our Lord's death. What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by heathen writers. The testimony of Tacitus. Pilate's relation sent to Tiberius, The acts of Pilate what. Pilate's letter now extant spurious. The apostles entering upon their commission, and first acts after our Lord's ascension. How long they continued in Judea. Their disper- sion to preach in the Gentile provinces, and the success of it. The state of the Church after the apostolic age. The mighty progress of Christianity. The numbers and quality of its converts. Its speedy and incredible success in all countries, noted out of the writers oi those times. The early conversion of Britain to Christianity. The general declension of Paganism. The silence and ceasing of their oracles. This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian religion appearing in the world. A great argument of its truth and divinity. The means contributing to the success of Chris- tianity. The miraculous powers then resident in the church. This proved at large out of the pi-imitive writers. The great learning and abilities of many of tlie church's champions. The most eminent of the Christian apologists. The principal of them that engaged r.gainst the heresies of those times. Others renowned for other parts of learn- ing. The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity. Instructing and catechising new converts. Schools ei-ected. Travelling to preach in all parts of the world. The admi- rable lives of the ancient Christians. The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrine upon the minds of men. A holy life the most accepy- table sacrifice. Their incomparable patience and constancy under sufferings. A brief survey of the ten persecutions. The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagancies, and inhuman cruelties. His burning Rome, and the dreadfulness of that conflagration. This charged upon the Christians, and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus. The chief of them that suffered. The perse- cution under Domitian. The vices of that prince. The cruel usage of St. John. The third begun by Trajan. His character. His pro- ceeding against the Christians as illegal societies, Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians, with the emperor's answer. Adrian, Trajan's successor ; a mixture in him of vice and virtue. His persecuting the Christians. This the fourth persecution. The mitigation of it, and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius. The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius. The fifth perse- ciition raised by him. Its fierceness in the East, at Rome, especially 16 INTRODUCTION. in France ; the most eminent that suffered there. The emperor « victory in his German wars gained b)^ the Christians' prayers. Se- verus's temper : his cruelty towards the Christians. The chief ol" the martyrs under the sixth persecution. IVIaximinus his immode- rate ambition and barbarous cruelty. The author of the seventh per- secution. This not universal. The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians. Decius the eighth persecutor ; other- wise an excellent prince. The violence of this persecution, and the most noted sufferers. The foundations of monachim when laid. The ninth persecution, and its rage under Valerian. The most emi- nent martyrs. The severe punishment ofValerien: his miserable usage by the Persian king. The tenth persecution begun under Dio- clesian, and when. The fierceness and cruelty of that time. The admirable carriage and resolution of the Christians under all these sufferings. The proper influence of this argument to convince the world. The whole concluded with Lactantius's excellent reason- ings to this purpose. THE state of the Christian church in the three first ages of it may be considered under a three fold pe- riod : as it was first planted and established by our Lord himself during his residence in the world ; as it was en- larged and propagated by the apostles, and first mission- aries of the Christian faith ; and as it grew up and pros- pered from the apostolic age till the times of Constantine, when the empire submitted itself to Christianity. God, who in former times was pleased by various methods of revelation to convey his will to mankind, hath in these hist days spoken to us by his Son. For the great blessing of the promised seed after a long succession of several ages being come to its just maturity and perfection, God was resolved to perforin the mercy promised to the father s^ and to remember his holy covenant., the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, Accordingly, in the fuhiess of time God sent his Son. It was in the declining part of Augustus's reign, when this great ambassador arrived from heaven, to publish to the world the glad tidings of salvation. A period of time (as'^Origen observes) wisely ordered by the divine Providence. For the Roman em- pire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur, all its parts united under a monarchical government, and an universal peace spread over all the provinces of the em- pire, that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted, a Contr Ccls. lib. 2. p. 79. INTRODUCTION. 1? commerce with all nations, a smoother and speedier pas- sage was hereby prepared for the publishing the doctrine of the gospel, which the apostles and first preachers of re- ligion might with the greater ease and security carry up and down to all quarters of the world. As for the Jews, their minds were awakened about this time with busy expectations of their Messiah's coming : and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the eastern magi, who came to pay homage to him, but Jerusalem was filled with noise and tumult, the San- hedrin was convened, and consulted by Herod, who jea- lous of his late gotten sovereignty, was resolved to dis- patch this new competitor out of the way. Deluded in his hopes of discovery by the magi, he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty, commanding all infants under two years old to be put to death, and among them it seems his own son, which made ^ Augustus pleasantly say (alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from swine's flesh) It is better to be HerocPs hug than his son. But the providence of God secured the holy infant, by timely admonishing his parents to retire into Egypt, where they remained till the death of Herod, which hap- pening not long after, they returned. 2. Near thirty years our Lord remained obscure un- der the retirements of a private life, applying himself, (as the ancients tell us, and the evangelical history plainly intimates) to Joseph's employment, the trade of a carpen- ter. So little patronage did he give to an idle unaccoun- table course of life. But now he was called out of his shades and solitudes, and publicly owned to be that per- son whom God had sent to be the great prophet of his church. This was done at his baptism, when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him, and God, by an audible voice testified of him This is my beloved Son, in whom I am we /I pleased. Accordingly, he set himself to declare the counsels of God, going about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. He particularly explained the moral law, and restored it to its just authority and do- h Macrob. Saturnal.l. 2. c. 4. p. 279. C 18 INTRODUCTION^ minion over tlie minds of men, redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which the masters of the Jewish church had put upon it. He next in- sinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic economy, to which he was sent to put a period, to enlarge the bounds of salvation, and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy : that he came as a mediator between God and man, to reconcile the world to the favour of Heaven by his death and sufferings, and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to ail that by an hearty belief, a sincere repentance, and an holy life, were willirig to embrace and entertain it. This was the sum of the doctrine which he preached every where, as opportunity and occasion led him, and which he did not impose upon the world merely upon the account of his own authority and pow- er, or beg a precarious entertainment of it ; he did not tell men they must believe him, because he said he came from God, and had his warrant and commission to in- struct and reform the world, but gave them the most sa- tisfactory and convictive evidence, by doing such mira- cles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of art or nature, whereby he unanswerably demonstrated, that he was a Teacher come from. God, in that no man could do tliose miracles tvhich he did except God were xvitli him. And because he himself was in a little time to return back to heaven, he ordained twelve, whom he called apostles as his immediate delegates and vicege- rents, to whom he deputed his authority and power, furnished them with miraculous gifts, and left them to carry on that excellent religion which he himself had begun, to whose assistance he joined seventy disciples, as ordinary coadjutors and companions to them Their commission for the present was limited to Palestine, and they sent out only to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 3. How great the success of our Saviour's ministry was, may be guessed from that complaint of the phari- sees, Behold the ivorld is gone after him, " people from all parts in such vast multiti des flocking after him, that C John X2. 19. INTRODUCTION. 19 they gave him not time for necessary solitude and re- tirement. Indeed he went about doing good, preaching the xvord throughout all Judea, and healing all that were possessed of the devil. 'I'he seat of his ordinary abode was Galilee, residing for the most part (^ays one of the ancients" ) hi Galilee of the Gentiles, that he might there sow and reap the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles. Weusuallv find him preaching at Nazareth, at Cana, at Corazin and Bethsaida, and the cities about the sea of Tiberias, but especially at Capernaum, the metropolis of the province, a place of great commerce and traffic. He often visited Judca, and the parts about Jerusalem, whither he was wont to go up at the paschal solemnities, and some of the greater festivals, that so the general concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net, and to communi- cate and impart his doctrine to them. Nor did he who ■was to be a common Saviour, and came to break down the partition wall, disdain to converse with the Samari- tans, so contemptible and hateful to the Jews. In Sy- char, not far from Samaria, he freely preached, and gained most of the inhabitants of that city to be prose- lytes to his doctrine. He travelled up and down the towns and villages of Caesarea Philippi, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and where he could not come, the renown of him spread itself, bringing him disciples and followers from all quarters. Indeed his fame went throughout all Syria, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Jiidea, Deca- polis, Idumia, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. Nay might we believe the story, so solemnly reported by Eusebius " and the ancients (and excep- ting the silence of the evangelical historians, who record- ed only some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour, I know no wise argument against it) Acbarus prince of Edessa beyond Euphrates, having heard of the fame of our Saviour's miracles, by letters humbly besought him to come over to him, whose let- ter, together ^v•ith our Lord's answer, are extant in Eu- d Euseb. Demonstrat. Evang. 1. 9. p. 439. c H.Eccl. 1. 1. c. 13. p, 31. iiO INTRODUCTION. sebius, there being nothing in the letters themselves that may justly shake their credit and authority, with much more to this purpose, transcribed (as he tells us) out of the records of that city, and by him translated out of Syriac into Greek, which may give us some ac- count why none of the ancients before him make any mention of this affair, being generally strangers to the language, the customs, and antiquities of those eastern countries. 4. Our Lord having spent somewhat more than three years in the public exercise of his ministry, kept his last passover with his apostles ; which done, he instituted the sacramental supper, consigning it to his church as the standing memorial of his death, and the seal of the evangelical covenant, as he appointed bap- tism to be the federal rite of initiation, and the public Tessera or badge of those that should profess his reli- gion. And now the fatal hour was at hand. Being be- trayed by the treachery of one of his own apostles, he was apprehended by the officers and brought before the public tribunals. Heavy were the crimes charged upon him, but as false as spiteful. The two main articles of the charge were blasphemy against God, and treason against the emperor : and though they were not able to m^ake them good by an}- tolerable pretence of proof, yet did they condemn and execute him upon the cross, several of themselves vindicating his innocency, that he was a righteous man, and the Son of God. The third day af- ter his interment he rose again, appeared to and con- versed with his disciples and followers, and having taken care of the affairs of his church, given a larger commis- sion, and fuller instructions to his apostles, he took his leave of them, and visibly ascended into Heaven, and sat doxvn on the right hand of God, as head over all things to tlie church, angels^ authorities and powers being made subject unto him. 5. The faith of these passages concerning our Sa- viour, are not only secured to us by the report of the evangelical historians, and that justified by eye-wit- nesses, the evidence of miracles, and the successive and INTRODUCTION. 21 uncontrolled consent of all aj^es of the church, but (as to the substance of them) by the plain confession of Heathen writers, and the enemies of Christianity. '^ Ta- citus tells us, that the author of this religion was Christ, who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Judea : whereby, though this detestable superstition was suppressed for the present, yet did it break out again, spreading itself not only through Judea, the fountain ol the mischief, but in the very city of Rome itself, where whatever is wicked and shameful meet together, and is greedily advanced into reputation. ^ Eusebius assures us, that after our Lord's ascension, Pilate according to custom, sent an account of him to the emperor, wliich Tiberius brought before the senate, but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them ; it being a fundamental Law of the Roman state, that no new god could be taken in without the de- cree of the senate ; but that however Tiberius conti- nued his good thoughts of Christ and kindness to the Christians. For this he cites the testimony of Ter- tuUian, who in his '' apology presented to the Roman powers affirms, that Tiberius, in whose time the Chris- tian religion entered into the world, having received an account from Pilate out of Palestine in Syria concerning the truth of that divinity that was there, brought it to the senate with the prerogative of his own vote : but that the senate, because they had not before approved of it, would not admit it ; however the emperor conti- nued of the same mind, and threatened punishment to them that accused the Christians. And before Tertul- lian, Justin Martyr ' speaking concerning the death and sufferings of our Saviour, tells the emperors, that they might satisfy themselves in the truth of these things from the acts written under Pontius Pilate. It being customary not only at Rome to keep the acts of the se- nate and the people, but for he governors of provin- f Annal. I. 15- c. 44. p. 319. ? H Eccl. 1. 2 c. 2. p. 40. vid. Oros. adv. pag. 1. 7. c. 4. fol. 292. b Apol..g. c. 5. p. 6. Sc c. 21. p. 20, i ApoK'-. II. p. 76. 22 INTRODUCTION. ces to keep account of what memorable things hap- pened in their government, the acts whereof they trans- mitted to the emperor. And thus did Pihite during the procuratorship of his province. How long these acts remained in being, I know not : but in the contro- versy about Easter, we find the Quartodecimans *" jus- tifying the day on which they observed it from the acts of Pilate, wherein they gloried that they had found the truth. Whether these were the acts of Pilate, to which Justin appealed, or rather those acts of Pilate drawn up and published by the command of ' Maximinus, Dio- clesian's successor, in disparagement of our Lord and his religion, is uncertain, but the latter of the two far more probable. However, Pilate's letter to Tiberius (or, as he is there called Claudius) at this day extant in the Anacephal':«osis ™ of the younger Egesippus, is of no great credit, though that author challenges greater an- tiquity than some allow him, being probably contempo- rary* with St. Ambrose, and by many, from the great conformity of style and phrase, thought to be St. Am- brose himself, who with some few additions compiled it out of Josephus. But then it is to be considered, whether that Anacephaleeosis be done by the same, or (which is most probable) by a much later hand. Some other particLdar passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by Gentile writers, the a])pearance of the star by Calcidius, the murder of the infants by Macro- bius, the eclipse at our Saviour's passion by Phlegon Trallianus (not to speak of his miracles frequently ac- knowledged by Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry) which I shall not insist upon. 6. Immediately after our Lord's ascension (from whence we date the next period of the church) the apos- tles began to execute the powers intrusted with them. They presently filled up Juclas's vacancy by the election of a new apostle, the lot falling upon Matthias, and he was 7iumbered with the eleven apostles. Being next endued Avith power fiom on high (as our Lord had promised k Ap. Epiph. Hxres. L. p. 182. 1 EuBcb. H. Eccl. I. 9. c. 5, p. o50.. m A:fin 1. de Excid. urb. Hieros. p. 633. INTRODUCTION. 23 them) furnished with the miraculous t^ifts of the Holy Ghost, they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse, and to the faces of their greatest ene- mies. They who but a while before fled at the approach of danger, now boldly plead the cause of their crucified master, with the immediate hazard of their lives. And that nothing might interrupt them in this employment, they instituted the office of deacons, who might attend the inferior str\ ices of the church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessaiy to the good of souis. By which prudent course religion got ground apace, and innumerable converts were daily added to the faith : till a persecution arising upon St. Stephen's martyrdom, banished the church out of Jeru- salem, though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue, Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the neighbour countries. The apos- tles notwithstanding the rage of the persecution, remained still at Jerusalem, only now and then despatching some few of their number to confirm and settle the plantations, and to propagate the faith, as the necessities of the church required. And thus they continued for near twelve years together, our Lord himself having commanded them not to depart Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts, till twelve years after his ascension, as the ancient tradi- tion mentioned both by "Apollcnius, and "Clemens Alex- anchinus informs us. And now they thought it high time to apply themselves to the full execution of that commission which Christ had given them, to go teach cmd baptize all nations. Accordingly having settled the general affairs and concernments of the church, they be- took themselves to the several provinces of the Gentile world, preaching the gospel to e^'ery nation under heaven, so that CA^en in a literal sense, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. " Infinite multitudes of people in all cities and countries ^* (says ^Eusebius) like corn into a well filled granary, n Ap. Euseb. H. Ecd. 1. 5. c. 18. p. 186. o Stromat. I. 6. p. 636. vid. Life of St. Peter, Sect. 11. num. 5. p Lib. 2. c. .3. p. 41. 24 INTRODUCTION. *' being brought in by that grace of God that brings sal- " vation. And the\' whose minds were heretofore dis- " tempered and overrun with the error and idolatry of " their ancestors, were cured by the sermons and mira- ^' cles of our Lord's disciples, and shaking off those chains " of darkness and slavery which the merciless daemons " had put upon them, freely embraced and entertained *' the knowledge and service of the only true God, the *' great Creator of the world, whom they worshipped ac- " cording to the holy rites and rules of that divine and " wisely contrived religion which our Saviour had intro- *' duced into the world." But concerning the apostles' travels, the success of their ministry, the places and countries to which they went, the churches they planted, their acts and martyrdoms for the faith, we ha^^e given an account in a work peculiar to that subject, so far as the records of those times have conveyed any material no- tices of things to us. It may suffice to observe, that God was pleased to continue St. John to a very great age, beyond any of the rest, that he might superintend and cultivate, confirm and establish what they had planted, and be as a standing and lively oracle, to which they might from all parts have recourse in any considerable doubts and exigencies of the church, and that he might seal and attest the truth of those things which men of corru])t and perverse minds, even then began to call in question. 7. Hence then we pass on to survey the state of the church from the apostolic age till the times of Constan- tine, for the space of at least two hundred years. And under this period we shall principally remark t^^'0 things. What progress the christian religion made in the world. Secondly, What it was that contributed to so vast a growth and increase of it. That Christianity from the nature of its precepts, the sublimeness of its principles, its contrariety to the established rites and religions of the world, was likely to find bad entertainment, and the fiercest opposition, could not but be obvious to every . impartial considertr of things ; which accordingly came to pass. For it met with all the discouragement, the INTRODUCTION. 5tp secret undermining, and open assaults which malice and prejudice, wit and parts, learning and power, were able to make upon it. Notwithstanding all which, it lift up its head, and prospered under the greatest oppositions, i^nd the triumph of the christian faith will appear the more considerable, whether we regard the number and quality of its converts, or the vast circumference to which it did extend and diffuse itself. Though it appeared un- der all manner of disadvantages to recommend itself, yet no sooner did it set up its standard, but persons from all parts, and of all kind of principles and educations, began to flock to it, so admirably affecting very many both of the Greeks and Barbarians (as Origen'' tells Celsus) and they both wise and unwise, that they contended for the truth of their religion even to the laying down their lives, a thing not known in any other profession in the world. And ''elsewhere he challenges him to show such an un- speakable multitude of Greeks and Barbarians reposing such a confidence in iEsculapius, as he could of those that had embraced the faith of the holy Jesus. And when *Celsus objected that Christianity was a clandestine religion, that skulked and crept up and down in corners ; Oi igen answers. That the religion of the Christians was better known throughout the whole world, than the dic- tates of their best philosophers. Nor were they only- mean and ignorant persons that thus came over, but (as *Arnobius observes) men of the acutest parts and learning; orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, philosophers, despising their formerly beloved senti- ments, sat down here. "Tertullian addressing himself to the Roman governors in behalf of the Christians, assuies them, that although they were of no long standing, yet that they had filled all places of their dominions, their cities, islands, castles, corporations, councils, armies, tribes, companies, the palace, senate, and courts ot judi- cature : that if they had a mind to revenge themselves, they need not betake themselves to clancular and sculk- q Contr. Gels. 1. 1. p. 21. 22. r Ibid. 1 3. p 124. s lb. 1. 1. p 7. t Adv. Gent. 1. 2. p. 21. n Apol. c. ."7. p. ."0. 26 INTRODUCTION. ing arts. Their numbers were great enough to appear in open arms, having a party not in this or that province, but in all quarters of the world : nay, that naked as they were, they could be sufficiently revenged upon them ; for should they but all agree to retire out of the Roman empire, the world would stand amazed at that solitude and desolation that would ensue upon it, and they would have more enemies than friends or citizens left among them. And he *bids the president Scapula consider, that if he went on with the persecution, what he would do with those many thousands both of men and women, of all ranks and ages, that would readily offer themselves, what fires and swords he must have to despatch them. Nor is this any more than what '"Pliny himself confesses to the emperor, that the case of the Christians was a mat- ter worthy of deliberation, especially by reason of the multitudes that were concerned, for that many of each sex, of every age and quality were and must be called in question, this superstition having infected and overrun not the city only, but towns and countries, the temples and sacrifices being generally desolate and forsaken. 8. Nor was it thus only in some parts and provinces of the Roman empire, but in most nations and countries. "Justin Martyr tells the Jew, that whatever they might boast of the universality of their religion, there were ma- ny places of the world whither neither they nor it ever came: whereas there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or by what name soe\'er they were called, even the most rude and unpolished nations, v^ here prayers and thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the world through the name of the crucified Jesus. The same Bardesanes^ the Syrian, Justin's con- temporary, affirms, that the followers of the Christian in- stitution, though living in different parts of the world, and being very numerous in every climate and country, were yet all called by the name of Christians. So ^Lac- V Ad. Scapul. c. 4 p. 71. w Ad. Trnj. lib. 10. Epist. 97. X Dial, cum Tryjih. p. 345. y Lib. de Fat. ap- Eust h Praep Evang. 1. 6. c. 10. p. 279. z De Justit. 1. 5. c. 13. p. 494. INTRODUCTION. 2f tantius, the christian law (says he) is entertained from the rising of tlie sun to the going down thereof, where every sex, and age, and nation, and country does with one heart and soul worship God. If from generals we descend to particular places and countries, "Ireuceus, who entered upon the see of Lyons Ann. Chr. 179. af- firms, that though there were different languages in the world, yet that the force of tradition, (or that doctrine that had been delivered to the church) was but one and the same ; that there were churches settled in Germany, Spain, France, in the east, in Kgypt and Lybia, as well as in the middle of the world. ''Tertullian, who probably wrote not above twenty years after Irenasus, gives us in a larger account. " T. heir sound (says he) ivent through *' all the earthy and their words to the ends of the T.uo?'ld. *' For in whom but Christ did all nations believe ? Par- *' thians, Medes, Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopota- •' mia, Armenia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, of Pontus, *' Asia, and Pamphylia, those who dwell in Egypt, Af- " ric, and beyond Gyrene, strangers at Rome, Jews at *' Jerusalem, and other nations ; as also now the Getuli, *' and the Mauri, the Spaniards, and the Gauls, yea and " those places of Britain, which were unapproachable by " the Roman armies, are yet subdued to Christ ; the *' Sarmata; also and the Daci, the Germans and the Scy- " thians, together with many undiscovered countries, " many islands and provinces unknown to us, which he " professes himself unable to reckon up. In all which " places (says he) the name of Christ reigns, as before " whom the gates of all cities are set open, and to whom *' none are shut ; before whom gates of brass fly open, " and bars of iron are snapt asunder." To which 'Amo- bius adds the Indians, the Persians, the Ser^e, and all the islands and provinces, which are visited by the rising or setting sun, yea, and Rome itself, the empress of all. 9. From Tertullian's account we have a most authen- tic testimony how early Christianity stretched itself over this other world, having before his time conquered the a Adv. Hseres 1. 1. c. 3. p. 52. b .^dv.Judxos c 7, p. 189. c Lib. 2. p. S:"!. 28 INTRODUCTION. most rough and inaccessible parts of Britain to the ban- ner of the cross, which may probably refer to the con- version of king Lucius, (the first Christian king that ever was) a potent and considerable prince in this island, who embraced the Christian religion about the year 186, and sent a solemn embassy to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for some who might further instruct him and his people in the faith ; who accordingly despatched Faganus and Derwianus hither upon that errand. Not that this was the first time that the gospel made its way through the d>KiXiC( dTi^dv-rdr (as Clemens'^ calls the British ocean, and so the ancients constantly style it) the unpassable ocean^ and those xvoi'lds which are beyond it ; that is, the Britannic islands. It had been here many years before, though probably stifled and overgrown with the ancient pagan- ism and idolatry. St. Clemens'" tells us of St. Paul, that he preached both in the east and west ; and having in- ' structed the whole world in righteousness, made his way to the utmost bounds of the west : by which he must either mean Spain, or more probably Britain, and it may be both. Accordingly Theodoret*" speaking of his com- ing into Spain, says, that besides that, he brought great advantage to the isles of the sea ; and he reckons ^the Cimbri and the Britains among the nations which the apostles (and he particularly mentions the tent-maker) converted to the Christian faith. If after all this, it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular dis- quisition, I might inquire not only in what countries, but m what towns and cities in those countries Christianity fixed itself, in what places episcopal sees were erected, and what succession of bishops are mentioned in the re- cords of the church; but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this introduction, and would be more perhaps than the reader's patience would allow. 10. The shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the Sun, than the darkness of d Epist. ad Corinth, p. 28. e IbicJ. p. 8. f Comiiitnt. ill Psiil. 116, g De curanil. Grsecor. aft'ect. Serm. 9. p. lt?5 INTRODUCTION. 29 Pagan Idolatry and superstition fled before the light of the Gospel ; which the more it prevailed, the clearer it discoxered the folly and impiety of their worship: their solemn rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous, their sacrifices more barbarous and inhuman, their daemons were expelled by the meanest Christain, their oracles be- came mute and silent, and their very priests began to be ash imed of their magic charms and conjurations; and the more prudent and subtle heads among them, who stood up for the rites and solemnities of their religion, were forced to turn them into mystical and allegorical meanings, far enough either from the apprehension or in- tention of the vulgar. The truth is, the devil, who for so many ages had usurped an empire and tyranny over the souls of men, became more sensible every day, that his kingdom shaked ; and therefore sought, though in vain, by all ways to support and prop it up. Indeed some time before our Saviour's incarnation the most ce- lebrated oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputa- tion, as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day ; whereof their best writers univer- sally complain, that their gods had forsaken their temples, and oracular recesses, and had left the world in darkness and obscurity ; and that their votaries did in vain solicit their counsels and answers. Plutarch, who lived under Trajan, wrote a particular tract (still extant) concerning the ceasing of oracles, which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural, partly into moral, partly into political causes, though all his philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it. One cause he assigns of it is, the death and departure of those daemons, that heretofore presided over these oracles. To which pur- pose he relates a memorable passage, concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus an Egyptian ship-master and his company, as they sailed by the Echinad^ islands, commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make proclamation, that the great Pan was dead, which he did ; and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two, but of manv, whore- 30 INTRODUCTION. ceived it with great mourning and consternation.'' The circumstances of this stor}' he there reports more at large, and adds, that the thing being published at Rome, Tha- mus was sent for by Tiberius, to whom he gave an ac- count, and satisfied him in the truth of it. Which circum- stance of time Eusebius' observes corresponds with our Lord's conversing in the world, when he began openly to disposses dsemon^ of that power and tyraiiny which they had gained over mankind. And (if the calculation which some make, hit right) it fell in about the time of our Sa- viour's passion, who led captivity captive, spoiled princi- palities, and powers, and made a show of them openly, tri- U7nphing over them in his cross, and by his death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. 11. However that the silence of oracles, and the ener- vating the power of daemons was the effect of the chris- tian religion in the world, we need no more than the plain confession of Porphyry himself (truth will sometimes ex- tort a confession out of the mouth of its greatest enemy) who says, that 770W it is no wonder if the city for so many years has been overrun with sickness, -t'Escuiapius and the rest of the gods having withdrawn their converse with men: for that since Jesus began to be xvorshipped no man had received any public help or benefit by the gods.^ A great argument, as Eustbiiis well urges, of our Sa- viour's divine authoritj^ and the truth of his doctrine. For when (says he a little before) huch numbers of ficti- tious deities fled at our Lord's appearance, who would not with admiration behold it as an uncontrolable demon- stration of his truly saving and excellent religion, where- by so many churches and oratories through all the world both in cities and villages, and even in the deserts and solitudes of the most barbarous nations have been erected Ij ITs("( ru.y iKhikaiTr. K^nc»fi. p. 419. i Prrtpar. Evang. 1.3. c. 17. p 207- ai§f ii/ui.S)V SIC dv^i>dris( TTtpoiS'cv, ij aiiTOC o Kufi' )i/xic toiv ^iuy.ov»v mi-poiy'.p®', ev t« m.b" iljUteV QuTKiV^ tSTCV TTS AiyCVV /U-lgTUI^H . 215. c. 57. p. 218. INTRODUCTION. C3 world. Tertullian ^ challenges the Roman governors to 1 et any possessed person be brought before their own tribunals, and they should see, that the spirit being com- manded to speak, by any Christian, should as truly con- fess himself to be a devil, as at other times he falsely boasted himself to be a god. And he tells Scapula,'' that they rejected, disgraced, and expelled daemons every day, as most could bear them witness. Origen *■ bids Celsus take notice, that whatever he might think of the reports which the gospel makes concerning our Saviour, yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus, by his name to heal even to this day, whom God pleased ; that he ' himself had seen many, who by having the name of God and Christ called over them, had been delivered from the srreatest evils, frenzv and madness, and infi- nitc other distempers, which neither men nor devils had been able to cure. What influence these miraculous effects had upon the world, he lets us know elsewhere. *' The Apostles of our Lord (says * he) without these " miraculous powers, would never have been able to have " moved their auditors, nor persuaded them to desert the " institutions of their country ; and to embrace their *' new doctrine ; and having once embraced it, to de- ** fend it even to death, in defiance of the greatest dan- • gers. Yea, even to this day the footsteps of that Holy Spirit, which appeared in the shape of a dove, are *' preserved among the Christians ; they exorcise gk- *' mons, perform many cures, and, according to the will " of God, foresee and foretell things to come. At which, " though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh, yet *' I affirm further, that many, even against their inclina. " tions, have been brought over to the Christian religion, *' their former opposition of it being suddenly changed •' into a resolute maintaining of it unto death, after they *' have had visions communicated to them ; several of *' which nature we ourselves have seen. And should *' we only reckon up those at which we ourselves have p Apol. c. 23. p. 22. q Ad Scap. c. 2. p. 6. r Contr. Cels. 1, 2. p. 80. s 11). I. 3 p. 124. t Lib. l.p. 34. E a4. INTRODUCTION. " been present and beheld, it may be it would only make '* the infidels merry ; supposing that Me like themselves " did forge and feign them. But God bears witness with *' my conscience, that I do not endeavour by falsely- " contrived stories, but by various powerful instances, *' to recommend the divine religion of the holy Jesus." More testimonies of this kind I could easily produce from Minucius Faelix, Cyprian, Arnobius, and Lac- tantius ; but that these are enough to my purpose. 13. Another advantage that exceedingly contributed to the triumph of Christianity, was the singular learning of many, who became champions to defend it : For it could not but be a mighty satisfaction, especially to men of ordinary capacities, and mean employments (which are the far greatest part of mankind) to see persons of the most smart and subtle reasonings, of the most acute and refined understandings, and consequently not easily capable of being imposed upon by arts of sophistry and plausible stories, trampling upon their former sentiments and opinions, and not only entertaining the Christian faidi, but defending it against its most virulent oppo- sers. It is true indeed the gospel at its first setting out was left to its own naked strength, and men of the most unpolished breeding made choice of to convey it to the world, that it might not seem to be an human artifice, or die success of it be ascribed to the parts and powers of man. But after that for an hundred years together it had approved itself to the world, and a sharper edge was set upon the malice and keenness of its adversaries, it was but proper to take in external helps to assist it. And herein the care of the Divine Providence was very remarkable, that as miracles became less common and frequent in the Church, God was pleased to raise up even from among the Gentiles themselves, men of pro- found abilities, and excellent learning, who might t^c cui7oi;7riipohCxKK(n; (as JuHau " sald of the Christians of his time) beat them at their own weapons, and wound them, with arrows diawn out of their own quiver ; and it was 11 Theoil. II. Eccl. I 3. c. 8, p. 131. INTRODUCTION. 35 high time to do so : for the Gentiles did not only attack the Christians and their religion by methods of cruel- ty, and by arts of insinuation, not only object what wit and subtlety could invent, to bear any shadow and pre- tence of reason, but load them with the blackest crimes, which nothing but the utmost malice and prejudice could ever suspect to be true. This gave occasion to the Christian Apologists, and the first writers against the Gentiles, who by their learned and rational dis- courses assoiled the Christians from the things charged against them; justified the reasonableness, excellenc}^ and divinity of their religion ; and exposed the folly and falsehood, the brutishness and impiety, the absurd and trifling rites of the Pagan worship ; by which means prejudices were removed, and thousands brought o^er to the faith. In this way they that rendered themselves most renowned, and did greatest service to the Chris- tian cause, were especially these : Quadratus bishop of Athens, and Aristides, formerly a famous philosopher of that city, a man wise and eloquent, dedicated each an apologetic to the emperor Adrian : Justin the mar- tyr, besides several tracts against the Gentiles, v\Tote two apologies ; the first presented to Antoninus Pius, the second to M. Aurelius, and the senate : about which time also Athenagoras presented his apology to M. Au- relius, and Aurelius Commodus : not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the resurrection. To the same M. Aurelius, Melito bishop of Sardis exhibi- ted his apologetic oration for the Christians. Under this emperor also flourished Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapo- lis in Asia, and dedicated to him an incomparable dis- course in defence of the Christian faith ; besides five books which he WTOte against the Gentiles, and two concerning the truth. Not long after Theophilus bi- shop of Antioch composed his three excellent books for the conviction of Autolycus : and Miltiades presented an apology (probably) to the emperor Commodus. Ta- tian, the Syrian, scholar to Justin martyr, a man learned and eloquent, among other things wrote a book against the Gentiles, which sufficiently evidences his great abili- 36 INTRODUCTION. ties. TertiilHan, a man of admirable learning, and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause, under the reign of Severus, published his apologetic, directed to the magistrates of the Roman empire ; besides his books, Ad Nationes, De Idololatria, Ad Scapulam, and many more. After him succeeded Origen, whose eight books against Celus did not greater service to the Chris- tian cause, than they did honour to himself. Minucius Faelix, an eminent advocate at Rome, wrote a short, but most elegant dialogue between Octavius and Caecil- ius, which (as Lactantius'' long since observed) shows, how fit and able an advocate he would have been to as- sert the truth, had he wholly applied himself to it. About the time of Gallus and Volusian, Cyprian ad- dressed himself in a discourse to Demetrian, the Procon- sul of Africa, in behalf of the Christians and their religion, and published his tract De Idolorum Vanitate, which is nothing but an epitome of Minucius's dialogue. To\vards the close of that age under Diociesian, Arno- bius taught rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Africa ; and being convinced of the truth of Christianity, could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real. In evidence, therefore, of his sincerity, he wrote seven books against the Gentiles, w^herein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause : as not long after his scholar Lactantius, who under Diociesian professed rhetoric at Nicomedia, set himself to the com- posing several discourses in defence of the Christian, and subversion of the Gentile religion. A man witty and eloquent, but more happy in attacking his adversa- ries, than in establishing the principles of his own religion, many whereof he seems not very distinctly to have under- stood. To all these I may add Apollonius, a man ver- sed in all kind of leaining and philosophy ; and (if St. Hierom say right) a senator of Rome, who in a set ora- tion, with so brave and generous a confidence, eloquent- ly pleaded his own, and the cause of Christianity before X De Instit. 1. 5. c. l.p. 459. INTRODUCTION. 37 the senate itself; for which he suffered as a martyr in the reign of Commodus. 14. And as they thus defended Christianity on the one hand from the open assaults and calumnies of the Gentiles, so were they no less cai'cful on the other to clear it from the errors and heresies, wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poison it. And the chief of those that engaged in this way were these : Agrippa Castor, a man of great learning, in the time of Adrian, wrote an accurate refutation of Basilides and his principles in twenty-four books. Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Marcion ; Apollinaris, Philip, Bishop of Gortyna in Crete, Musanus, Modes- tus, Rhodon, Tatian's scholar, Miltiades, Apollonius, Serapion, Bishop of Antioch, and hundreds more, who engaged against the Marcionites, Montanists, and other heretics of those times. But the principal of all was Irenasus, who took to task the most noted heresies of those ages, and with incomparable industry and quick- ness of reasoning unravelled their principles, exposed their practices, refuted their errors, whereby (as he fre- quently intimates) many were reduced and recovered to the church. I might also mention several others, who, though not known to have particularly adventured in either of these ways, are yet renowned for their ex- cellent skill in all arts and sciences, whereby they be- came eminently useful to the church. Such (besides those whereof an account is given in the following work) were Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, Bardesanes, the Sy- rian, whose learning and eloquence were above the com- mon standard, though he also wrote against almost all the heresies of the age he lived in. Ammonius the cele- brated philosopher of Alexandria, Julius Africanus, a man peculiarly eminent for history and chronology ; Dorotheus, Presbyter of Antioch, famous for his skill in Hebrew, as well as other parts of learning , Anatolius the Alexandrian, whom Eusebius magnifies so much as the most learned man, and acute philosopher of his age, exquisitely skilled in arithemetic, geometry, astronomy, logic, physic, rhetoric, and indeed what not ? Pierius, 38 INTRODUCTION. prcsb}'ter of Alexandria, an eloquent preacher, and so great a scholar, that he was commonly styled Origen ju- nior. But this is a field too large to proceed any further in, and therefore I stop here. By all which it is evident, what St. Hierom-' remarks, how little reason Celsus, Por- phyry, and Julian had to clamour against the Christians, as a rude and illiterate generation, \\'ho had no learning, no eloquence, or philosophy to recommend them. 15. A third ad-vantage that helped on the progress of Christianity, was the indefatigable Zealand industry used in the propagation of it. No stone was left unturned, no method unattemptedjwhereby they might reclaim men from error, and bring them over to the acknowledgment of the truth. Hence in an ancient inscription'' said to be set up in Spain, to the honour of Nero, they are described un- der this character, Qui Nov am Generi Hum. Superstition. Inculcab. Those ^^ho inculcated and obtruded a new superstition upon mankind. Indeed they ■^^•ere infinitely zealous to gain proselytes to the best religion in the world. They preached it boldly, and prajed heartily for the conversion and reformation of mankind, solicited their neighbours that were yet strangers to the faith, instructed and informed new converts, and built them up on the most holy faith. Those that were of greater parts and eminency erected and instituted schools, where they publicly tajrght those that resorted to them, grounding them in the rudi- ments of the faith, and antidoting them both against heathens on the one side, and heretics on the other. Among us (says Taiian'')not only the rich and the wealthy learn our philosophy, but the poor are freely disciplined and instructed : we admit all that are willing to learn, whether they be old or young. And \\\vd.\. the success was, he tells '^ us a little after, that all their virgins were y Discant erpo Cehiis, Porphyrins, Julianas, rabidi arlversus Cliristum canes, discant coram stctatores, qui putaiit Ecclesiam, nuUus Phiiosophos & eloquentes, nuilos habuisse Ductores, quanti & quales viri earn fuuflaverint, ex- truxcrint. &. (irnaverint. & de-iinaut ficlcni nostrum rusticx tantiini simplicit:itis a'-guerc, si!.in:ique potius iinperitiam agnoscunt, St. Hitron. praf. ad Catalog, de script. Eccia;. 7 Ap Gruter- Inscript. p. 233 N. IX. a Orat. contr. Grxc. p. 167. b i#id p ica. INTRODUCTION. 39 sober and modest, and were wont to discourse concern- ing divine things, even while they were sitting at their distafts. Nor did they content themselves only to do thus at home, many of them freely exposing themselves to all manner of hazards and hardships. No pains were thought great, no dangers considerable, no difficulties insuperable, that they might enlarge the bounds of the gospel, travelling into the most barbarous nations, and to the remotest corners of the world. " The divine and " admirable disciples of the Apostles (says '' Eusebius) *' built up the superstructures of those churches, thefoun- " dations whereof, the Apostles had laid in all places " where they came : they every where promoted the " publication of the gospel, sowing the seeds of that ^^ heavenly doctrine throughout the whole world. For " their minds being inflamed with the love of a more '* divine philosophy, according to our Lord's counsel, " they distributed their estates to the poor; and leaving " their own countries, took upon them the office of eva7i- " geiists, preaching Christ, and delivering the evange- *' Heal writings to those who had not yet so much as " heard of the Christian faith. And no sooner had they ' founded the faith in any foreign countries, and or- *' dained guides and pastors, to whom they committed *' the care of those new plantations, but they presently *' betook themselves to other nations, ratifying their doc- " trine with the miraculous powers of that divine Spirit " that attended them ; so that as soon as ever they began " to preach, the people universally flocked to them, and *' cheerfully and heartily embraced the worship of the "true God, the great Creator of the world." In the number of these evangelical missionaries, that were of the first apostolical succesion, were Silas, Sylvanus, Crescens, Andronieus, Trophimus, Marcus, Aristar- chus, &c. as afterwards Pantcenus, who went into In- dia, Pothinus and Irenasus, from Smyrna into France, each successively becoming bishop of Lvons, and in- finite others mentioned in the histories and rnartyrologies c H. Eccles. I. 3. c. ^17. p. lOP. 40 INTRODUCTION. of the church, who counted not their lives to he dear unto them^ so that they might finish their course rvith joy, and make known the mystery of the gospel to the ends of the eaith." 16. Fourthly, Christianity recommended itself to the world by the admirable lives of its professors, which were so truly consonant to all the laws of virtue and goodness, as could not but reconcile the wiser and more unprejudiced part of the Gentile world to a better opi- nion of it, and vindicate it from those absurd and sense- less cavils that were made against it. For when they saw Christians every where so seriously devout and pi- ous, so incomparably chaste and sober, of such humble and mortified tempers, so strictly just and righteous, so kind and charitable, not to themselves only, but to all mankind, they concluded there must be something more than human in it : as, indeed, no argument is so con- victive, as a demonstration from experience. Their sin- gular piety, and the discipline of their manners weighed down all the distidvantages they were under. The di- vine and most admirable Apostles of Christ (says Fuse- bins'^ ) how rude soever they were in speech, were yet •rov yS/ov ttKfmt x.iKd2ra.giJ.hoi, 5 a'gST" Tricif t-m ■ifV)(jt^ x.iKCff-fXK/uiyol, OI tllC mOSt pure and holy lives, and had their minds adorned with all sorts of virtue. And such generally were the Chris- tians of the succeeding ages : they did not entert'ain the world with a parcel of good words and a plausible story, but showed their faith by their works, and proved the di- vinity of their religion by the heavenliness of their lives. We (says the Christian in Minucius Faslix*") despise the pride and superciliousness of philosophers, whom we know to be debauched persons and always eloquent a- gainst those vices of which themselves are most guilty. For we measure not wisdom by men's garbs and habits, but by their mind and manners ; nor do we speak great things so much as live them, glorying that we have attained what they earnestly sought, but could never find. Chris- tians were then the only persons that really were what d ubi. supr. c. 24. p. 94. e M. Fal, Dial. non. longe a fin. p. 31. INTRODUCTION. 41 they pretended to, men heartily reformed from vice to virtue : " Being persuaded (as Justin Martyr tells ^ the " emperors) by the word, we have renounced the das- " mons, and through the Son, worhip the only and un- " begotten Deity : and we, who heretofore took plea- " sure in adulteries, do now embrace the strictest chas- ** tity ; and who were addicted to magic arts, have de- " voted ourselves to the benign and immortal God : we *' who valued estate and riches before all things in the " world, do now cast what we have in common, distri- *' buting to every one according to his need : we who by " hatred and slaughters mutually raged against each ** other, and refused to sit at the same fire with those " who w^ere not of our own tribe, since Christ's appear- " ing in the world, familiarly converse together, pray *' for our enemies, and for the conversion of those that " unjustlv hate us, endeavouring to persuade them to " live according to the excellent precepts of Christ, that " so they may have just ground to hope for the same re- *' wards with us from the great Judge of the world." In- deed, strange was the efficacy of the Christian doc- trine over the minds of men, which the Christian apo- logists at every turn plead as an uncontrollable evidence of their religion'', that it made all sorts of persons that complied with it, chaste and temperate, quiet and peaee- able, meek and modest, and afraid of the least appear- ance and colour of what was evil**. When the Heathens derided them for the mean and unpompous solemnities of their religion, they universally declared, that God respected no man for any external excellencies or ad- vantages, it was the pure and the holy soul he delighted f Apol. II. p. 61. g Tertul. AdoI. c. 3. p. 4. ad Nation, c. 1. p. 41. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. 1. p. 9. 15, 21,36, 50,53 lib. 2. p. 61. 85, 88, 110. lib. 3. p. 128, 147, 152. 157- lib. 4. p. 167. lib. 6. p. 306. lib. 7. p. 364. lib. 8. p. 409. St alibi pas=im. Lactam, lib. 3. c. 26. p. 328. lib. 4. c. 3. p. 351. h J. Mart. Orat ad Graec.p. 40. Athenag-. Leg-at. p.l3. Clem. Alex. Strom .1.7. p. 706, 709, 714, 719, 728. Minuc. "F. 540. c. 24. p. 636. Epiioni. c. 2. p, 7.16. F 42 INTRODUCTION. in ; that he stood in no need of blood or smoke, perfumes and incense ; that the greatest and best sacrifice was to ofier up a mind truly devoted to him : that meekness and kindness, an humble heart, and an innocent life, was the sacrifice with which God was well pleased, and infinitely beyond all holocausts and oblations ; that a pious and devout mind was the fittest temple for God to dwell in, and that to do one's duty, to abstain from sin, to be intent upon the oflices and ministrations of prayer and praise, is the truest festival ; yea, that the whole life of a good man is nothing else but a holy and festival so- lemnity. This was the religion of Christians then, and it rendered their profession amiable and venerable to the world ; and forced many times its most violent opposers to fall down, and say that God was in them of a truth. But the less of this argument is said here, a full account having been given of it in a work peculiar to this subject. 17. Fifthly, the disciples of this holy and excellent religion gained innumerable proselytes to their party, by their patience and constancy under sufterings. They were immutably resolved to maintain their station, not- withstanding all the attempts made to beat them from it. They entertained the fiercest threatenings with an unshaken mind, and fearlessly beheld the racks and en- gines prepared for them ; they laughed at torments, and courted flames, and went out to meet death in its blackest dress : they died rejoicing, and triumphed in the midst of the greatest tortures ; which happening for some ages almost every day, could not but convince their enemies that they were in good earnest, that they heartily believed their religion to be true, and that there must be a divine and supernatural power going along with it, that could support them under it; which Justin Martyr confesses was one main inducement of his conversion to Chris- tianity. \\'hat particular methods of cruelty were used towards the primitive Christians, and with how brave dnd generous a patience, with what evenness and tran- quillity of mind they bore up under the heaviest and acutest torments, we have sufiiciently declared in another place : and therefore shall here only take a short survey INTRODUCTION. 43 of those ten famous persecutions,' that so eminently ex- ercised the faith and patience of the primitive saints, and then collect the force of the argument resulting from it. And this the rather, because it will present us with the best prospect of the state of the church in those early ages of it. As to the particular dates and periods of some of these persecutions, different accounts are as- signed by Sulpitius Severus, Eusebius, Orosius, Hierom, and others ; we shall follow that which shall appear to be most likely and probable. 18. The first that raised a general persecution against the Christians, was Nero, as Tertullian*' tells the Gen- tiles ; and for the truth of it, refers them to their own public archieves and records. A prince of that wild and ungovernable temper, of such brutish and extravagant manners, that their own writers scruple not to style him, a beast in human shape, and the very monster of man- kind. He was guilty of the most unbounded pride and ambition, drunkenness, luxury, and all manner of debau- chery, sodomy and incest, which he attempted to com- mit with his own mother. But cruelty seemed to predo- minate among his other vices; besides infinite others he despatched the greatest part of the senate, put to death his tutor Seneca and his wife, Lucan the poet ; nay, vio- lated all the laws of nature, in falling upon his own near relations : he was privy to, if not guilty of the death of his father Claudius ; killed his two wives, Octavia and Poppgea, and murdered Antonia, because refusing to suc- ceed in their bed ; he poisoned his brother Britannicus : and to complete all his villanies, fell next upon his own mother Agrippina, whom he hated for her free re- proving his looseness and extravagancy ; and having first spoiled her of all public honours, and caused her to be openly disgraced and derided, then thrice attempted her life by poison, he at last sent an assassin to stab her. And the tradition then went, that not content to do this, he himself came and beheld her naked corps, contemplating and handling its several parts ; commending some and i Prim. Christ, part 2. ch. T. k Apol. c. 5. p. 6. 44 INTRODUCTION. dispraising others. And if thus barbarous and inhuman towards his own kindred and subjects, we cannot think he was over favourable to Christians ; wanting this title (says Eusebius') to be added to all the rest, to be styled the first epiperor that became an enemy to the Christian religion, publishing laws and edicts for the suppressing of it ; and prosecuting those that professed it, with the utmost rigour in everyplace ; and that upon this occasion. Among infinite other instances of this madness and folly, he took up a resolution to burn Rome, either as being of- fended with the narrowness of the streets, and the defor- mity of the buildings, or ambitious to become the author of a more stately and magnificent city, and to call it after his own name. But however it was, he caused it to be set on fire, about the 19th of July, ann. Christ. 64. The conquering flames quickly prevailed over that city, that had so often triumphed over the rest of the world, in six or seven days spoiling and reducing the far greatest part of it (ten regions of fourteen) into ashes ; laying waste houses and temples, and all the venerable antiquities and monuments of that place, which had been preserved with so much care and reverence for many ages ; himself in the mean while from Mecccnas's tower beholding the sad spectacle with pleasure and delight, and in the habit of a player, singing the destruction of Troy. And when the people would but have seaixhed the ruins of their own houses, he forbade them, not suffering them to reap what the mercy of the flames had spared. This act (as well it might) expos'd him to all the hatred and detestation, wherewith an injured and abused people could resent it, which he endeavoured to remove by large promises, and ^reat rewards, by consulting the Sibylline books, and by public supplications and sacrifices to the gods. Notwith- standing all which, Tacitus"' tells us, the people still be- lieved him to be the author of the mischief. This not succeeding, he sought to clear himself by deriving the odium upon the Christians, whom he knew to be suffi= ciently hateful to the people, charging them to have been I H. Eccles. 1. 2. c. 25, p 67. m Annal 1. 15. c. 44. p. 319. INTRODUCTION. 45i the incendiaries, and proceeding against them with the most exquisite torments. Having apprehended some, whom they either forced or persuaded to confess them- selves guilty, by their means great numbers of others were betrayed ; whom Tacitus confesses, that not the burning of the city, but the common hatred made crimi- nal. They were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty ; some of them were wrapt up in the skins of wild beasts, and worried by dogs ; others crucified ; others burnt alive, being clad in paper coats, dipt in pitch, wax, and such combustible matter; that when day light failed, they might serve for torches in the night. These spectacles Nero exhibited in his ow^n gardens, which yet the people entertained with more pity than pleasure : knowing they were done, not for the public be- nefit, but merely to gratify his own private rage and ma- lice. Little better usage did the Christians meet with in other parts of the empire, as appears from the inscription" found at Clunie in Spain, dedicated to Nero in memory of his having cleared the province of those that had intro- duced a new superstition amongst mankind. Under this persecution suffered Tecla, Torques, Torquatus, Marcellus, and several others mentioned in the ancient Martyrologies, especially the apostles Peter and Paul ; the one upon the cross, the other by the sword. 19. The troublesome vicissitudes and revolutions of aifairs that happened under the succeeding emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, and the mild and merciful disposition of Vespasian and Titus, gave some rest to the Christians, till Domitian succeeding, began a se- cond Persecution. A man of a temper vastly different from that of his father, and his brother ; for though at first he put on a plausible carriage, yet he soon left off the vizor, and appeared like himself ; lazy and inactive, ill-natured and suspicious, griping and covetous, proud and insolent ; yea, so vainly ambitious as to affect di< vinity, in all public edicts assuming to himself, and in all petitions and addresses requiring from others, the titles n Ap, Gruter. loc. siipr, chat, 45 INTRODUCTION. of Lord and God. He never truly loved any man ; and when he most pretended it, it was a sure sign of that man's ruin. His cruelty he exercised first upon flies, thousands whereof he despatched every day ; next upon men, and those of all ranks and states : putting to death the most illustrious senators, and persons of the greatest honour and nobility upon the most trifling pretences ; and many times for no cause at all. In the fierceness and brutality of his temper he equalled Nero, Portio Neronis de crudelitate, as Tertullian" styles him ; nay, in this exceeded him, that Nero was content to com- mand execution to be done at a distance, while i omi- tian took pleasure in beholding his cruelties exercised before his eyes : an argument of a temper deeper died in blood. But the Christians, alas, bore the heaviest load of rage and malice, whom he every where persecuted cither by death or banishment. Under him St. John the evangelist was sent for to Rome, and by his command thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil : in the midst where- of, when the divine Providence had miraculously preserv- ed him, he immediately banished him into Patmos. He put to death his cousin-german Fl. Clemens (at that time con- sul) for being a Christian, and banished his wife Fl. Do- mitilla (his own kinswoman also) upon the same account into the island Pandataria. At length his brutish and bloody practices rendered him intolerable to his own friends and servants, who conspired against him (his own wife Domitia being of the confedeiacy) and slew him. His successor Nerva abrogated his acts, and re- called those whom he had proscribed and banished ; among whom St. John taking the benefit of that act of revocation, quitted P;itmos and returned to Ephesus. 20 The third Persecution commenced under Trajan, whom Nerva had adopted to be his successor. A prince he was of excellent and incomparable virtues, whose justice and impartiality, gentleness and modesty, muni- ficence and liberality, kindness and aflfability rendered him infinitely dear and acceptable to the people ; the o Loc super, citat. INTRODUCTION. 47 extravagancies of his predecessors not a little contribu- ting to sweeten his government to them. He was mild and dispassionate, familiar and courteous; he showed a great reverence to the senate, by whose advice he usually acted ; and they to requite him, gave him the title of Optimus, as whom they judged the best of all their princes. He conversed freely and innocently with all men, being desirous rather to be beloved, than either feared or honoured by the people. The glory of all which is exceedingly stained in the records of the church by his severe proceedings against the Christians. He looked upon the religion of the empire as daily under- mined by this new way of worship, that the numbers of Christians grew formidable, and might possibly endan- ger the peace and tranquillity of the Roman state ; and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods, especially in his wars, than to vindicate their cause against the Christians. Accordingly, therefore, he issued out orders to proceed against them, as i/legol so- cieties, erected and acting contrary to the laws ; in which number all colleges and corporations were accounted, that were not^ settled either by the emperor's constitu- tion, or the decree of the senate ; and the persons'^ fre- quenting them adjudged guilty of high treason. Indeed the emperors (as we have elsewhere observed) were in- finitely suspicious of such meetings, as which might easily conspire into faction and treason : and therefore when Pliny' interceded with Trajan in behalf of the cit}-^ of Nicomedia, that being so subject to fires, he would constitute a corporation of smiths, though but a small number, which might be easily kept in order, and which he promised to keep a particular eye upon : the empe- ror answered, by no means : for we ought to remember (says he) that that province and especially those cities are greatly disturbed by such kinds of factions ; and whatever the title or occasion be, if they meet together, they will be HetericC, though less numerous than the rest. That p L. 1. if 3. fi". de CoUeg'. ilf corp. Lib. 47. lit. 22. <[ Ulp.i'm (!e off. procons. 1. 6, ib. I, 2. r Lib. 10. Epist. 42, isf 43. 48 INTRODUCTION. they looked upon the Christian assemblies as in the number of these unlawful corporations ; and that under this pretence Trajan endeavoured to suppress them, will appear from Pliny's letter to him. In the mean time he commanded them either to offer sacrifice to the gods, or to be punished as contemners of them. The people also in several places by popular tumults falling foul upon them. The chief of those who obtained the crown of Martyrdom under him, were St. Clemens bishop of Rome, St. Simeon bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Ignatius bishop of Antioch, whom Trajan himself condemned, and sent to Rome, there to be thrown to wild beasts. 21. The persecution raged, as in the other parts of the empire, so especially in the provinces of Pontus and Bithynia, where Pliny the younger (wIkd had some time since been consul) then governed as Pro. Preetor, with consular power and dignity. Who seeing vast multi- tudes of Christians indicted by others, and pressing on of themselves to execution, and that to proceed severely against all that came would be in a manner to lay waste those provinces, he thought good to wi'ite to the empe- ror about this matter ; to know his pleasure in the case. His letter, because acquainting us so exactly with the state of the Christians, and the manner of proceeding against them, and giving so eminent a testimony to their innocency and integrity we shall here insert. C. Plinius to the Emperor Trajan. IT is my custom, Sir, in all affairs wherein I doubt, to have recourse to you. For who can better either sway my irresolution, or instruct my ignorance ? I have never been heretofore present at the examination and trial of Christians ; and therefore know not what the crime is, and how far it is wont to be punished, or how to proceed in these inquiries. Nor was I a little at a loss, whether regard be to be had to difference of age, whether the young and the weak be to be distinguished from the more strong and aged ? whether place may be allowed to repentance, and it may be of any advantage INTRODUCTION. 49^ to him, who once was a Christian, to cease to be so ? Whether the name alone, without other offences or the offences that g'o aloni^ with the name, ought to be punish- ed "? In the mean time towards those who as Christians have been brought before me, I have taken this course ; I asked them whether they were Christians ? if they confessed it, I asked them once and again, threatening punishment ; if they persisted, I commanded them to be executed. For, I did not at all doubt but that, what- ever their confession was, their stubbornness and in- flexible obstinacy ought to be punished. Others there were guilty of the like madness, whom, because they were Roman citizens, I adjudged to be transmitted to Rome. While things thus proceeded, the error, as is usual, spreading further, more cases did ensue. A name- less libel was presented, containing the names of many who denied themselves to be, or to have been Chris- tians. These, when after my example they invocated the gods and offered wine and incense to your statue (which for that purpose I had commanded to be brought together with the images of the gods) and had more- over blasphemed Christ (which it is said none that are true Christians can be compelled to do) I dismissed ; others mentioned in the libel confessed themselves Christians, but presently denied it, that they had indeed been such, but had renounced it ; some by the space of three years, others many years since, and one five and twenty years ago. All which paid their reverence and veneration to your statue, and the images of the gods, and blasphemed Christ. They affirmed that the whole sum of that sect or error lay in this, that they were wont upon a set solemn day to meet together before sun-rise, and to sing among themselves a hymn to Christ, as the God Vv^hom they worshipped, and oblige themselves by an oath, not to commit any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, to keep faith, and when required, to restore any pledge instrusted with them. Which done, then to depart for that time, and to meet again at a common meal, to partake of a promiscuous and harmless food ; which yet they laid aside, after I had G 5 0 INTRODLXTIOX. published an edict, forbidding, according to your order, the Heterire (or unlawful assemblies) to be kept. To satisfy myself in the truth hereof, I commanded two maidens called deaconesses, to be examined upon the rack. But 1 perceived nothing but a lewd and im- moderate superstition, and therefore surceasing any further process, I have sent to pray your advice : For the case seemed to me very worthy to be consulted about ; especially considering the great numbers that are in danger : for very many of all ages and ranks, both men and women are, and ^vill be called in question : the contagion of this superstition having overspread not only cities, but towns and country villages, which yet seems possible to be stopped and cured. It is very evi- dent that the temples, w-hich were almost quite forsaken, begin to be frequented, that the holy rites and solemni- ties of a long time neglected are set on foot again, and that sacrifices are from all parts brought to be sold, which hitherto foimd very few to buy them. Whence it is easy to conjecture, what multitudes of persons might be reclaimed, if place be given to repentance. This letter w-as written, as is probable, about the year of our Lord 107. Traj. 9 Trajan lying then at Anti- och, in order to his wars in the east, and where the per- secution v\'as very hot. By which it is evident, what unreasonable and inveterate prejudices e^cn the more moderate and ingenuous part of the Gentile world had entertained against the Christian religion ; that though so innocent and unblameable, as to extort an honourable cliaracter from its greatest enemies, and most malicious apostates, though racks and tortures could force out nothing to its disadvantage ; yet rather than not express their resentments (what was unbecoming men of parts and breeding) they loaded it with ill names and hard words. Pliny we see here scruples not to style it not only an error, but madness, and a wicked and immode- rate superstition, charging the constant profession of it, for stubbornness, and an incurable obstinacy, what in itself was the eltect of the most brave and generous re- solution. And the verv sanie ci\ ilitv it found from his INTRODUCTION. 51. two intimate friends, Tacitus and Suteonius, the one whereof calls it a ' detestable, the other a * novel and mischievous superstition. By this account also we sec, that though the severity of the persecution might tempt some to turn renegades, yet that so vast was the spread which Christianity had made in those parts, that this great man knew not how to deal with them. To direct him, therefore, in this affair, the^ emperor returned this following rescript. TRAJAN TO PLINY, GREETING. AS to the manner of your procedure, my Secun- dus, in examining the causes cjf those who have been brought before you for being Christians, you have taken the course which you ought to take : for no certain and general law can be so framed, as shall provide for all particular cases. Let them not be sought for; but if they be accused and convicted, let them be punished : yet so, that if any denies himself to be a Christian, and shall give evidence of it by doing sacrifice to our gods, although heretofore he has been suspected, let him be pardoned upon his repentance. But as for libels, pub- lished without the name of the authors, let them not be valid as to the crimes they charge ; for that were an ill precedent, and is not the usage of our reign. TertuUian" speaking of this imperial edict, calls it " a sentence confounded by a strange necessity : it al- " lows them not to be sought for, as if they were inno- " cent, and yet commands them to be punished, as if " they were guilty : it spares and rages, dissembles, *' and yet punishes. Why does he entangle himself in '' his own censure ? If he condemns them, why does he " not hunt them out? if he thinks them not to be " searched out, why does he not acquit them ?" Here Tertullian seems to argue more like an orator than lo- gician. For Trajan might be unwilling the Christians s Tacit. Annal. 1. 15. c. 44. p. 319. t Sueton. in Nffron. c. 16. p. 571. 11 Apol. c. 2. c. 3. 52 INTRODUCTION. should be nicely hunted out,' and yet not think them in- nocent : he could not find them guilty of any enormous crime, but only of a strange and novel superstition : and therefore while the}' concealed themselves, did not think it reasonable that they should be left to the malice and rapine of busy under officers, who acted under the pre- sidents and governors of provinces, mere sycophants and calumniators, iy^c/sic ^^ ^ *..Ao7g,a!v 'sg*s-*< as'' Melito styles theni inhis apology to M. Antonnius, impudent accusers, and ravenous devourers of other men's estates, of whom he complains, that, under a pretence of the imperial edicts they day and night openly spoil and plunder the harm- less and ihe innocent. These Trajan might tliink fit to restrain ; but where there was notoriety of fact, where Christians were duly cited before the public -tri- bunals, and the charge substantially made good, there they v\'ere to be left to the sentence of the law. But however it was, by this means the edge of their enemies' fury was taken off; and though the popular rage might in some particular places still continue, yet the general force and rigour of the persecution did abate and cease. 22. Trajan dying at Selinus in Cilicia, Adrian (whom he had adopted) succeeded in the empire. A prince of excellent parts, and no inconsiderable learning, u>i'!Ku:r^'<^ ;S«t5-A4i/<, as ^' Athenasus calls him. a prince greatly devoted to the muses, and yet one in whom it is hard to say, whe- ther vice or virtue had the upper hand ; and which is more, who seemed to reconcile most vices Avith their contrary virtues. He highly honoured the senate, with- out whose authority he would never transact any affairs of moment ; and upon solemn days would condescend to wait upon the consuls to their own houses ; and yet was proud and vain glorious, and ambitious of honour, which he greedily caught at upon every little occasion. He was magnificent in his works, and liberal in his gifts ; but withiil, envious, detracting from the glory of his pre- decessor, censuring and discommending the most emi- nent artists in all kind of faculties. He familiarly con- X Ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 25, p. 147- y Deinnos. 1 8. c 16. p. 561. INTRODUCTION. 53 versed with his friends, visited them in their sickness many times twice or thrice a day, treated them with the freedom and kindness of companions ; and yet he was fierce and cruel : as is evident by the many persons of nobility and renown whom he put to death. But we have noted enough of his character elsewhere, in the hfe of St. Quadratus. He was addicted to magic, and a great zealot for religion ; especially the rites of Greece : but despised and hated all other religions, upon which account he was no good friend to Christians. In his time, a fourth Persecution was raised against them, and so Sulpitius Severus^ positively calls it. I know Eu- sebius, followed by Orosius and some others, assigns the fourth persecution to the reign of M. Aurelius ; but whoever impartially considers the state of things, will see that it ought to be fixed here. It is true, we do not find any new laws which this emperor made against the Christians, but the laws of his predecessors were still in force, and the people in most places were ready enough to run upon this errand of their own accord, and to sa- crifice the poor innocent Christians to their own spite and malice. Whence Eusebius, speaking of the Apolo- gies presented to this emperor, says, * it was because wicked and ill-minded men began to vex and disturb the Christians. And S. Hierom^ more particularly tells us, that the zeal which the emperor showed in being initia- ted into the holy mysteries and the rites of Greece, gave opportunity and encouragement to the people (though without any particular warrant) to fall upon them : and this he elsewhere*" calls a most grievous persecution. And so indeed it was, as is evident, not only from the Apolo- gies which both Quadratus and Aristides presented to the emperor in behalf of the Christians, but that when Arrius Antoninus "^ (whom most suppose to have been the same with him that succeeded Adrian) was procon- sul of Asia, and severely prosecuted the Christians there, all the Christians of the city where he resided as z H. Sacr. 1. 2. p. 142. a H. Eccles. 1. 4. c. 3 p. 116. b De script in Qiuidrat. c Epist. ad Magn. Oral. p. 32r. Tom. 2- d TerluU. lib. ad. Scapul, c. 4. p. 71. ^4 INTRODUCTION. one man beset his tribunal, openly confessing themselves to be Christians. He, amazed at the multitude, caused some few of them to be executed, telling the rest, that if they had a mind to end their lives, they had precipices and halters enough at home, and need not crowd thither for an execution. Nay so high did it arise, that Serenius Granianus, one of the following proconsuls was forced to write to Adrian for its mitigation : wliich the emper- or accordingly commanded by a rescript, directed to Minucius Fundanus, Granianus's successor in that Province, as he did also to several others ; as Melito pai-ticularly tells us in his apology. But though the fire seemed to be pretty well quenched at present, yet did it break out again in the succeeding reign of Antoninus Pius, devouring many, whose sufferings are recorded in the martyrologies of the church, and for the stop- ping whereof, Justin Martyr exhibited an apology to this emperor, which produced that excellent letter of his to the common council of Asia, in favour of the Christians, which we have exemplified in the life of Jus- tin Martyr. 23. ToAntonniusPius succeeded M. Aurelius Anto- ninus, and his brother L. Verus. M. Aurelius was a per- son of whom the writers of his life deservedly speak great things. He was a good man, and a great philoso- pher, and whom the historian " says, it is easier to ad- mire, than to commend.. But he was infinitely super- stitious in his religion, and therefore easily blown up by the priests and philosophers that were about him into a prejudice against Christianity, and persuaded to set on foot the fifth Persecution against the Christians, whom he endeavoured to curb and suppress by new laws and edicts, exposing them to all the malice and fierceness of their enemies. The persecution began in the eastern parts about the seventh year of his reign, where it con- tinued almost all his time ; and not content to stay there, spread itself into the west, especially France, wliere it raged with great severity. That the conflict v/as very e Eutrop. H. Rom. lib. 8. p. 1919. Introduction. 55 sharp and fierce, may be guessed at by the crowd of apologies that were presented to him by Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, and Apollinaris. In Asia St. Poly- carp bishop of Smyrna was first condemned to the fire, and then run through with a sword, with twelve more from Philadelphia, who suffered with him, and Germani- cus who a little before was devoured by wild beasts. At Rome, besides Ptolomy and Lucius, Justin the mar- tyr with his six companions, Charito, Charitina, Euel- pistus, Hierax, Peon, and Valerianus were beheaded. In the French persecution suffered Vettius Epagathus, a young man of incomparable piety and magnanimity ; Blandina a lady of singular virtue, who after infinite and inexpressible torments was tied to a beam in fashion of a cross, and thrown to wild beasts ; Biblis, who though at first through frailty she denied the faith, 3xt recovered her courage, and expired in the midst of the acutest tortures. Pothinus, bishop of Lyons above 90 years old beaten and stoned to death. Sanctus a deacon of Vien, together with Maturus, exposed in the amphitheatre, tormented, and imprisoned several days together, pre- sented to wild beasts, placed in an iron chair red hot, and at last run through with a spear. Attalus a Roman citizen disgracefully led up and down in triumph, roast- ed in an iron chair, and then beheaded ; as was also Alexander, the physician, a Phrygian, who readily pro- fessed himself a Christian : and Ponticus a youth of fifteen years of age, who through all the methods of cruelty and torment, which might have shaken a matu- rer age, entered into the kingdom of heaven. A larger and more particular account of all whose matrydoms is recorded in the letter written by the churches of Lyons and Vien, in France, to those of Asia and Phrygia, yet extant in Eusebius. At length tlie emperor seems to have relaxed the persecution, inclined to it, as is thought, by the remarkable victory which he gained in his Ger- man wars, by the prayers of the Christian legion, when the fortunes of the Roman empire lay at stake, and the Christians so signally, so immediately engaged heaves in its rescue and deli\erancc, by supplying" them 56 INTRODUCTION. with rain, and fi^^hting against the enemy \\ ith lightning- and thunder. Whereupon the emperor is said to have written to the senate, acknowledging the greatness of the blessing, and commandmg all just favour and indulgence to be showed to the Christians. The substance of the story is universally owned by the Gentile writers, though out of spite to the Christians, they either ascribe it to the power of magic, or the prevalency of the emperor's ovv^n prayers. That there were such letters WTitten, is plain, in that Tertulian ^ who lived but a little after, cites them, and appeals to them ; though I confess little stress can be laid upon the epistle that is extant at this day^ There is still extant ^ a law of M. Aurelius, and his bro- ther Verus, permitting those who follow the Jewish su- perstition to obtain honours, and granting them guards to defend them from wrong and injury. By this very learned men ^ understand Christians, at least equally with the Jews ; these two being commonly confounded by the writers of those times, and superstition the word by which they usually denote Christianity. But however it was, this law was made before that German victory, M. Aure- lius not being engaged in that war, till after the death of his brother Verus. 24. The christian affairs were tolerably quiet and peaceable during the reigns of Commodus, ^^1. Pertinax, and Julian, till Se verus got into the throne ; a prince witty and learned, prudent and politic, hardy and valiant, but withal crafty and subtle, treacherous and unfaithful, bloody and passionate, and as the historian' observes, of a nature truly answering to his name. Fere Pert'max, vere Severus. Under him began the sixth Persecution : for though at first he showed iiimsclf favourable to the Christians, yet afterwards he changed his mind, and gave ear to those who traduced them as an impious and infa- mous generation ; a people that designed nothing but f Apol. c. 5. p. fj. vido lib. ail 5c:ip. c.4.p. 71. g Ap. Ulpiun. 1. .3. ff. :5. S. lib. 50. l it. 2. h Alolrd. dispimct. 1. 3. c d. A. Aui^ii.-t. rul Mnd'^st. p 336. Peti^. de jur. Princip. c. (5. vide Seidell de Syneilf. 1. 1. c. £. p. 233. Re;naud. Indic. S5 Lugd. jiroleg. 3. p. 52. i Spartiaa. in vit. Sever, c- 14 p. 3'i9. INTRODUCTION. 5t treason and rebellion against the state. Whereupon he not only suftcred his ministers and governors of provin- ces to treat tlicm with all imaginable cruelty, but lie himself gave out edicts forbidding any under the most terrible penalties to profess either the Jewish or Chris- tian religion ; which were executed with that rigour and inhumanity, that the Christians of those days verily be- lieved that the times of Antichrist did then take place. INIartyrs of note, whom this Persecution sent to heaven, were Victor bishop of Rome, Leonidas Origcn's father beheaded at Alexandria, Serenus, Heraclides, Heron, another Serenus, and Herais a Catechumen, all Origen's scholars, Potamiasna, an illustrious virgin, and her mother Marcella, after various torments, committed to the flames, and Basilides one of the officers that had led them to execution ; Ftelicitas and Perpetua two noble ladies, at Tuburbis in JMauritania, the one brought to bed but the day before, the other at that time a nurse ; Speratus and his companions beheaded at Carthage, by the command of Saturninus the proconsul ; Irenasus bishop of Lyons, and many thousands of his people mar- tyred with him, whose names and sufferings though un- known to us, are honourably written in tJie Book of life. 25. The next that created any disturbance to the Christians was Maximinus, by birth a Thracian, a man of base and obscure original, of a mean and sordid educa- cation. He had been first a shepherd, then a highway- man, and last of all a soldier : he was of strength and stature beyond the ordinary size and standard ; and his manners were as robust and boisterous as his constitution, and savoured wholly of the rudeness of his education. Never did a more cruel beast (says the historian ^) tread upon the earth, relying altogether upon his strength, and upon that account reckoning himself almost immortal. k 'O Si Ma£iw/v^ /tpapaxiodit; Tiiv aVp^^iiv, rr'.'/jxi Tf/ /L'.na^'.y.y^v'tirsni^a.Ti, t£2^ i/- »//'T?iT!; T»v i-rX*''' iii^*t-i. 'i. INTRODUCTION. 59 people, but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm, that these things came for the sake of the Christians. Hereupon he wrote his book De Mar- tyrio, for the comfort and support of those that suftered in this evil time. 26. After Maximinus reigned Puplenus and Balbi- nus, to them succeeded Gordian, and to him Philip : all which time, for at least ten years together, the church enjoyed a competent calmness, and tranquillity ; when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the empire upon him. A man of great activity and resolution, a stout commander, a wise and prudent governor, so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage, that by the sentence of the senate he was voted not inferior to Trajan, and had the title of Optimus adjudged to him. But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians, against whom he raised the eighth Persecution, which proved, though the short- est, the hottest of all the persecutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the church. The ecclesiastic " historians generally put it upon the account of Decius's hatred to his predecessor Philip, for being a Chris- tian ; whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining paganism, which he saw fa- tally undermined by Christianity, and that therefore there was no way to support the one, but by the ruin of the other. We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following lives, and therefore shall say the less here. Decius reigned somewhat above two years, during which time the storm was very black and violent, and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it. They were every where driven from their houses, spoiled in their estates, tormented in their bodies. Whips and prisons, fires and wild beasts, scalding pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning pincers were but some of the methods of their treatment ; and when the old ones were run over, new were daily invented and o Etiseb. W. Eccl. 1. 6 c. 39. p. 234. Chrcn. ad .\nii. ?52. Oros. 1. 7 c 21 fol. 310. Nictph. 1. 5. c. 27- p. 377. 60 INTRODUCTION. contrived. The laws of nature and humanity were bro- ken down ; friend betrayed his friend, and the nearest relative his own father or brother. Every one was am- bitious to promote the imperial edicts, and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake. This per- secution swept away at Alexandria, Julian, Chronion, Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Ptolomy, Am- monaria, Mcrcuria, Isidore, and many others mentioned by Dionysius bishop of that church ; at Carthage, jNIappa- licus, Bassus, Fortunio, Paulus, Donatus, Martialis, &c. it crowned Babylas bishop of Antioch, Alexander of Jerusalem, Fabian bishop of Rome, Victoria, Anatolia, Parthenius, Marcellianus, and thousands more : Nice- phorus^ affirming it to be easier to count the sands of the shore, than to reckon up all the martyrs that suffered under this persecution. Not to say any thing of those incredible numbers of confessors that Avere beaten, im- prisoned, tormented ; nor of the far greater number of those who betook themselves to a voluntary exile ; choosing rather to commit themselves to the barrenness of rocks and mountains, and the mercy of wild beasts, than to those that had put off all reason and humanity. Among whom was Paul of Thebais, a youth of fifteen years of age, who withdrew himself into the Egyptian deserts, where finding a large and convenient cavern in a rock (which heretofore had been a private mint house in the time of Antony and Cleopatra) he took up his abode and residence, led a solitary and anchoretic course of life, and became the father of hermits, and those who afterwards were desirous to retire from the world, and to resign up themselves to solitude, and a more strict mortified life. In this pious and devout retire- ment he continued till he was 113 years of age, and in the last period of his life was visited by Antonius, who had spent the greatest part of 90 years in those desert places, and wjio now performed the last offices to him in committing his dead body to the earth. p Lib. 5, c. 29, p. 370. INTRODUCTION. Gl 27. Gallus succeeded Decius as in his government, so in his enmity to Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the cloud soon blew over ; for he being cut off, was succeeded by Valerian, who enter- ed upon the empire with an universal applause and ex- pectation. In the beginning of his reign he was a great patron of Christians, whom hfe treated with all offices of kindness and humanity, entertaining them in his own family ; so that his court seemed to be a little church for piety, and a sanctuary for refuge to good men. But, alas, this pleasant scene was quickly over ; seduced by a chief magician of Egv^pt, who persuaded him that the only way to prosper his affairs, was to restore the Gen- tile rites, and to suppress Christianity, so hateful to the gods, he commenced a ninth Persecution, wherein he prosecuted the Christians with all imaginable fury in all parts of the empire. With what fierceness it raged in Egypt, is largely related by Dionysius of Alexandria, and we have in a great part noted in his life. It is need- less (says he '^) particularly to reckon up the Christians that suffered in this persecution : only this you may ob- serve, that both men and women, young and old, sol- diers and country people, persons of all ranks and ages, were some of them scourged and whipped, others be- headed, others overcoming the violence of flames, re- ceived the crown of martyrdom. Cyprian elegantly and passionately bewails the miseries and sufferings which the martyrs underwent, in his letter to Nemesian, and the rest that were condemned to the mines. Nor did he himself escape, being beheaded at Carthage, as Xistus and Quartus had been before him, and the three hun- dred martyrs De Massa Candida, who rather than do sacrifice, chearfully leapt into a mighty pit of burning lime, kindled for that purpose, and were immediately stifled in the smoke and flames. In Spain suffered Fruc- tuosus, bishop of Tarragon, together with his two dea- cons, x\ugurius and Eulogius ; at Rome, Xistus the bishop, and St. Laurence his deacon and treasurer of q Epiit. ad Dtm'u. & DIJ. ap, Euseb. I. 7. <:. 11. p. 260. 62 INTRODUCriOX. that church ; at Caesarea, Priscus, Malchus, and Alex- ander, who ashamed, to think that they lay idle and se- cure, while so many others were contending for the crown, unanimously went to the judge, confessed they were Christians, received their sentence, and under- went their martyrdom. But the Divine Providence, which sometimes in this world pleads the cause of oppressed innocence, was resolved to punish the em- peror for his causeless cruelty towards those whose in- terest with heaven (while he continued favourable to them) had secured his happiness : and therefore did not only suffer the northern nations to break in upon him, but he himself was taken prisoner by Sapor king of Per- sia, who treated him below the rate of the meanest slave, used him as his footstool to get on horseback, and after several years captivity caused him to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt, and so put a period to his miserable life. A fair w^arnhig to his son Gallienus, who growing wiser by the mischiefs and miscarriages of his father, stopped the persecution, and restored peace and security to Christians. '' 28. A long peace and prosperity (for except a little disturbance in the time of Aureiian, they met with no op^wsition through the reigns of Gallienus, Claudius, Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Cams, and Numerian) had somewhat corrupted the manners of Christians, and therefore God was pleased to permit a tenth Persecution to come upon them to purge and winnow the rubbish and the chaff: the ulcer began to putrify, and it was time to call for the knife and the caustic. It began un- under Dioclesian and his colleague Maximian. Diocle- sian was a prince active and diligent, crafty and subtle, fierce in his nature, but which he knew how cunningly to dissemble. His zeal for the Pagan religion engaged him with all possible earnestness to oppose Christianity, fiifrtxsxii Kiii ^-xs-a.ia^ i.'J'^t-iiyu Ktf.is-iriii /I Tagi-^ v»tO^=ic, Tpiinrcttov "f ffivri J'j^u^jn; sf/nTitc xjai'.'iv. Constant. JNI. Orat. ad SS C»je- kun, cap. 24. pag. 600. INTRODUCTION. 63 which he carried on with a high hand, it being* as the last, so the fiercest Persecution, like the last efforts of a dvinj^ enemy, that summons all his strength to give the parting blow. Dioclesian then residing at Nicomedia published his edicts about the very solemnity of our Sa- viour's passion, commanding the Christian churches to be pulled down, their bibles to be burnt, the better sort of them to be branded with infamy, the vulgar to be made slaves ; as by subsequent orders he commanded the bishops to be every where imprisoned, and forced to sa- crifice. But these were but a prasludium to M'hat follow- ed after, other proclamations being put forth, command- ing those that refused to offer sacrifice to be exposed to all manner of torments. It were endless to reckon up particular persons that suflered in this evil time. Euse- bius who lived under this very persecution, has recorded a vast number of them, with the acts of their martyr- dom ; too many to account for in this place. It may suffice to note from him, that they were scourged to death, had their flesh torn off with pincers, or raked off with pieces of broken pots; were cast to lions and tygers, to wild boars and bears, provoked and enraged w^ith fire to set upon them, burnt, beheaded, crucified, thrown in- to the sea, torn in pieces by the distorted boughs of trees, or their legs miserably distended in the stocks, roasted at a gentle fire, or by holes made on purpose had melted lead poured into their bowels. But impossible it is to conceive, much more to express the cruelties of that time. Eusebius himself, who saw them, tells' us, that they were innumerable, and exceeded all relation. All which he assures us they endured with the most ad- mirable and undaunted patience ; they thronged to the tribunals of their judges, and freely told them what they were ; despised the threatenings and barbarity of their enemies, and received the fatal and decretory sentence with a smile ; wdien persuaded to be tender of their lives, and to compassionate the case of their wives and chil- dren, they bore up against the temptation with a manly agd philosophic mind, ^Ma/.^o/ j'j k9-sC«7 .5 ^fxAseea. ^^^^ as he adds, s-Lil). 8. c. 12. p, 307. 64 INTRODUCTION. yea rather with a soul truly pious and devoted unto God; bo that neither fears nor charms could take hold upon them, at once giving undeniable evidences both of their own courage and fortitude, and of that Divine and un- conceivable power of our Lord that went along with them. The acutest torments did not shake the firmness and stability of their minds, but they could with as much unconcernedness lay down their lives (as Oiigen* tells Celsus) as the best philosopher could put oiT his coat. They valued their innocency above their ease, or life it- self, and sufficiently showed they believed another state, by an argument beyond what any institution of philoso- phy could afford. " The great philosophers of the Gen- " tiles (as Euscbius*" reasons in this matter) as much as ** they talk of immortalit}', and the happiness of the fu- " ture state, did yet show that they looked upon it only *' as a childish and a trifling report : whereas amongst us *' even boys and girls, and as to outward appearance, the *' meanest and rudest persons, being assisted by the *' power and aid of our blessed Savour, do by their ac- *' tions rather than their words, demonstrate the truth of " this great principle, the immortality of the soul." Ten years this persecution lasted in its strength and vigour, under Dioclesian in the east, and Maximian in the west : and they thought, it seems, they had done their work, and accordingly tell the world, in some ancient inscrip- tions, * that they had utterly defaced the name and super- stition of the Christians, and had restored and propaga- ted the worship of the gods ; but were miserably mis- taken in the case ; and as if weary of the work, laid down their purple, and retired to the solitudes of a private life. And though Galerius, Maximianus, Jovius Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius did what they could to set the persecution on foot again, yet all in vain ; both they and it in a very few years expiring and dwindlinginto nothing. 29. Thus we have seen the hardships and miseries, the torments and sufferings which the Christians were expo- t Contr. Ccls. 1. 7. p. 357. u Prxpav. Evan. 1. 1. c. 4. p. lo. X Ap. Gruter. p:ig'. 280. num. 3 &. 4. INTRODUCTION. 65 seel to for several ages, and with how invincible a patience they went through with them. Let us now a little re- view the argument, and see what force and influence it had to convince the world of the truth of their religion, and bring in converts to the faith. TertuUian ^' tells the Gentiles, " That all their cruelty was to no purpose, that " it was but a stronger invitation to bring over others to " the party ; that the oftener they mowed them down, *' the faster they sprang up again ; and that the blood of " Christians was a seed that grew up into a more plenti- *' ful harvest ; that several among the Gentiles had ex- ** horted their auditors to patience under suffering, but " could never make so many proselytes with all their fine *' discourses, as the Christians did by their actions : that " that very obstinacy which was so much charged upon " them was a tutor to instruct others. For who when *' they beheld such things, could not but be powerfully " moved to inquire what really was within? who when " he had once found it, would not embrace it ? and having " once embraced it, not be desirous to suffer for it ; that *' so he may obtain the full grace of God, and the pardon " of his sins assured by the shedding of his blood." Lactantius "" manages this ai'gument with incomparable eloquence and strength of reason : his discourse is some- what long, but not unworthy the reader's consideration. " Since our number (says he) is always increased from " amongst the votaries of the heathen deities, and is " never lessened, no not in the hottest persecution, who *' is so blind and stupid, as not to see in which party true " Vv'isdom docs reside ? But they, alas, are blinded " with rage and malice, and think all to be fools, who •' when it is in their power to escape punishment, " choose rather to be tortured and to die ; when as " they might perceive by this, that that can be no " such folly, wherein so many thousands throughout '' the whole world do so unanimously conspire. Suppose " that women, through the weakness of their sex, may '* miscarry (and they are pleased sometimes to style y Apolog-. c. uU. p. 40. z De Justlt. I 5. c. IS. p. 494 I G6 INTRODUCTION* *' this religion an effeminate and oldwives' superstition) " yet certainly men are wiser. If children and young " men may be rasli, yet at least those of a mature age and " old men have a more stable judgment. If one city " might play the fool, yet innumerable others cannot be *' supposed to be guilty of the same folly. If one pro- *' vince, or one nation should want care and providence, " yet all the rest cannot lack understanding to judge " what is right. But now when the Divine law is enter- *' tained from the rising of the sun to the going down *' thereof, and every sex, age, nation, and country serves " God with one heart and soul ; \\ hen there is every '• where the same patience and contempt of death, they " ought to consider that there is some reason for it, and " that it is not without cause, that it is maintained even " unto death : that there is some fi;scd foundation Mhen *' a religion is not only not shattered by injuries and " persecutions, but always increased and rendered more " iirm and stable. When the very common people see " men torn in pieces by various engines of torment, and " yet miiintain a patience unconquerable in the midst of " their tired tormentors ; they cannot but think what " the truth is, that the consent of so many, and their per- " severance unto death, cannot be in vain, nor that pa- " tience itself, without the Divine assistance, should be " able to overcome such exquisite tortures. Highway- *' men and persons of the most robust constitutions are " not able to bear such pulling asunder ; they roar, and " groan, and sink under pain, because not furnished with " a Divine patience. But our very children (to say no- " thing of our men) and our tender women, do by silence " conquer their tormentors ; nor can the flames extort " one sigh from them. Let the Romans go now, and " boast of their Mutius and their Regulus, one of which •' delivered up himself to be put to death by his enemies, *' because he was ashamed to live a prisoner , the other " thrust his hand into the fire when he saw he could not " escape death. Behold, with us the weaker sex, and " the more delicate age sutler the whole body to be torn ^' and burnt ; not because they could not avoid it if they INTRODUCTION. 6r " would, but vohintaiily, because they trust in God. ' ' This is true virtue, which philosophers in vain only '* talk of, when they tell us, that nothing is so suitable " to the gravity and constancy of a wise man, as not by *' any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opi- " nions ; but that it is virtuous, and great indeed, to be " tortured and die, rather than betray one's faith, or be " wanting in his duty, or do any thing that is unjust or *' dishonest, though for fear of death, or the acutest tor- *' ment, unless they thought their own poet raved, when '' he said, ynstwn <3' tenacem propositi vinnn^ Non chiuin ardor prava jubentiuw^ Non vultus instantis ti/rcnni Jlente qiialit solida.^ The just man that resolved stands. Not tvrants' frowns, nor fierce commands, Nor all the peoples' rage combln'd, Can shake the firmness of his mind. " Than which nothing can be more truly said, if meant of '* those who refuse no tortures, nor death itself, that they " may preserve fidelity and justice ; who regard not the " command of tvrants, nor the swords of the governors, " that they may with a constant mind preserve real and " solid liberty, wherein true wisdom alone is to be main- " tained." Thus far that elegant apologist. And cer- tainly the truth of his reasoning was abundantly verified by the experience of the world. Christians getting ground, and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy, till they had subdued the empire itself to the acknowledgment of the truth. And when once the great Constantine had entertained Chris- tianity, it went along with wind and tide, and bore down all before it. And surely it might be no unpleasant sur- vey, to consider what was the true state of Paganism under the first Christian emperors, and how and by what degrees that religion, which for so many years had govern- ed the world, slunk away into obscurity and silence. But this is a business without the bounds of my present in- quiry to search into. a Horat. Carm. 1. 3. Ocl. 3. p. 154. #1 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN, THE PROTOMARTYR. THE violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met'.vith both from Jews and Gentiles. St. Stephen's kindred unknown. One of the seventy. The great charicy of the primitive believers. Dissen- tion between the Hebrews and Grecians. Hellenists who. The ori- ginal of deacons in the Christian church. The nature of their office : the number and qualification of the persons. Stephen's eminent ac- complishments for the place. The envy and opposition of the Jews against him. The Synagogue of the Libertines, what. OftlieCyre- nians, Alexandrians, &c. Their disputation with St. Stephen, and the success of it. False witnesses suborned to depose against him. The several parts of their charge considered. The mighty veneration of the Jews for their temple and the Mosaic institutions. Its destruction by Titus ; and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle. Stephen's apology before the Sanhedrim. The Jews;rage against him. He is encouraged by a vision. Stoning to death, what kind of punishment ; the manner of it among the Jews. St. Stephen's martyrdom. His character, and excellent virtues. The time and place of his suffering. The place and manner of his burial. His body first discovered, when and how. The story of its translation to Constantinople. The miracles said to be done by his reliques, and at his Memorix. Several reported by St. Augustin. \Miat credit to be g:iven to them. Miracles how long, and why continued in the church. The vain pretences of the church of Rome. 1. THE Christian religion being designed by God for the reformation of mankind, and the rooting out that Barbarism and idolatry wherewith the world was so over- grown, could not but meet with opposition, all corrupt in- terests conspiring to give it no very welcome entertain- ment. Vice and error liad too long usurped the throne, 70 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. to part with it by a tame and easy resignation, but would rather summon all their forces against a doctrine, that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruin of their empire. Hence this sect was every -where spoken against, equally opposed both by Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty, as having no antiquity to re- commend it, nor could they endure that their philosophy, which then every where ruled the chair, should be con- trolled by a plain simple doctrine, that pretended to no ela- borate schemes, no insinuative strains of eloquence, no nice and subtle arts of reasoning, no abstruse and sub- lime speculations. The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty prince who should greatly exalt their state, and redeem it from that oppression and sla- very under which it groaned, frustrated by the coming of a Messiah, who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace ; and who was so far from res- cuing them from the power of the Roman yoke, that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatened the final and irrevocable ruin of their country, and, by the doctrine he published, plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaic institutions, for which they had such dear regards, and so solemn a veneration. Accordingly when he came amongst them, they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt, and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the people ; they vilified and reproached his person, as but the son of a carpenter, a glutton and a drunkard, a traitor and an enemy ujito Ccesar ; they slighted his doctrine as the talk only of a rude and illiterate person, traduced his mi- racles as tricks of imposture, and the effects of a black confederacy with the infernal powers. And when all this would not do, they violently laid hands upon him and took away his life. And now one v^'ould have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died: but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt. On they are resolved to go in these bloody methods, and to let the world see that the disci- ples and followers must expect no better than their mas- ter. It was not many months before they took occasion to THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 71 refresh their rage in St. Stephen's martyrdom : the his- tory of whose life and death we now come to relate, and to make some brief remarks upon it. 2. The sacred story gives us no particular account either of the country or kindred of this holy man. That he was a Jew is unc^ucstionabie, himself sufficiently owns the relation in his apology to the people, but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham, or of parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of proselytism, whether born at Jerusalem, or among the dispersed in the Gentile provinces is impossible to de- termine. Baronius" (grounding his conjecture upon an epistle of Lucian, of which more afterwards) makes him to have been one of Gamaliel's disciples, and fellow pupil with St. Paul, who proved afterwards his mortal enemy : but I must confess, I find not in all that epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance that con- jecture. Antiquity ^ makes him, probably enough, to have been one of the 70 disciples, chosen by our Lord as co-adjutors to the apostles in the ministry of the gos- pel : and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Chris- tian doctrine, his singular ability to defend the cause of Christ's Messiaship against its most acute opposers, plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviour's immediate institutions. Certain it is, that he was a man of great zeal and piety ^ endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spi- rit that was lately shed upon the church, and incompara- bly furnished with miraculous powers, which peculiarlv qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the church, whereto he was advanced upon this occasion. 3. The primitive church among the many instances of religion for which it was famous and venerable, was for none more remarkable than their charity. They lived and loved as brethren ; rvere of one heart and one souf^ and continued togcthei- -ivith one accord. Love and chari- ty were the common soul that animated the whole body a Ad Ann. 34. n. 275, 298. b Epiph. Hk.cs. 20. p. 27. D^njth Syn-ps- 'e Viv .App. in B.bL P. P. Tom. 3. [) 7t^ THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. of believers, and conveyed heat and vital spirits to tvtw part. The}' prayed and worshipped God in the same place, and fed together at the same table. None could want, for thei/ had all in com?no?i. The rich sold their estates to minister to the necessities of the poor, and deposited the money into one common treasury, the care whereof was committed to the apostles, to see distribution made as every one's case and exigency did require. But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord, heaven only is free from quarrels, and the occasions of offence. The church increasing every day by vast numbers of converts to the faith, the apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the church's stock, and the making provision for CAery part, and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others, sometimes more and sometimes less, to assist in this affiiir. By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed, but either through favour and partiality, or the oversight of those that managed the matter, some had larger portions, others less relief then their just necessities called for. This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest church that ever W"as, the Gi'eciwis murmwing against the llehrexvs^ because their widows xvere ?jeglected i?i the daily ministratio}!. " 4. Who these Grecians or Hellenists were, opposed here to the Hebrews, however a matter of some difficul- ty and dispute, it may not be unuseful to inquire. The opinion that has most generally obtained is, that they w-ere originally Jews born and bred in Grecian or Hea- then countries, of the dispersed among the Gentiles'^ (the #^^-^T^:^* Ta'v 'F./A>jviv, tlic word i£-\\>i5f iu thc stylc of the Neu' Testament, as also in thc writings of the fathers being cornraonlv used for the Gentile world) who accommo- dated themselves to their manner of living, spoke the Greek language, but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech, (and this called Lingua Hellenistiea) and used no other bible but the Greek c Ai^l *>. i. il Joh. 7. 35. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. n translation of the Scptnagint. A notion which Sulma- sius'" has taken a great deal of pains to confute, by showing that never any people went under that notion and character, that the Jews, in what parts of the world soever they were, were not a distinct nation from those that lived in Palestine ; that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic dialect, nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient writer ; that the phrase is very improper to express such a mixt language, yea ra- thar that ' f.,;^. «>•/?-;, c implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinary, as ■at7«/s-''c denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek. Probable therefore it is, that they were not of the Hebrew race, but Greek or Gentile pioselytes, who had either themselves, or in their ancestors deserted the Pagan superstitions, and im- bodied themselves into the Jewish church, taking upon them circumcision and the observation of the rites of the Mosaic laws (which kind the Jews call SIJ p''iT} proselytes of justice) and were now converted to Chris- titiuity. That there were at this time great numbers of these proselytes at Jerusalem, is evident ; and strange it were, if xvhen at other times they were deirous to have the gospel preached to them, none of them should have been brought over to the faith. Even among the se\ en made choice of to be Deacons (most, if not all, of whom we may reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians) we find one expressly said to have been a proselyte of Antioch, as in all likelihood some, if not all the other, might be proselytes of Jerusalem. And thus wherever we meet with the word "R».iv/r«/, or Gre- cians, in the history of the apostolic acts * (as it is to be met with in two places more) we may, and in reason are to understand it. So that these Hellenists (who spake Greek, and used the translation of the Seventy) were Jews by religion, and Gentiles by descent ; with the 'K ;•>..£-, or Gentiles, they had the same common original, with the Jews the same common profession ; and therefore e Comment, de Hrllciist. Q.u. 1, 2, .1, 4, 5. prseclpue pa^. 232. Sec. vid. etiam, intei- ::li js, Bc-z. Si Gamer, in loc. f Act. ix. 29. xi. 20. 74 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. are not here opposed to Jews, (which all those might be styled, who embrace Judaism and the rites of Moses, thoui^h they were not born of Jewish ancestors) but to the Hebrews, who were Jews both by their religion and their nation. And this may give us some probable account, why the widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews, the persons with whom the apostles in a great mea- sure intrusted the ministration, being kinder to those of their own nation, their neighbours, and it may be kin- dred, than to those who only agreed with them in the profession of the same religion, and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the church's stock as the native Jews, who had lands and possessions, which they sold and laid at the apostles feet. 5. The peace and quiet of the church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed, the apostles, who M'ell understood how much order and unity conduced to the ends of religion, presently called the church toge- ther, and told them, that the disposing of the common stock, and the daily providing for the necessities of the poor, ho\\ever convenient and necessary, was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other parts and duties of their office, and that they did not judge it fit and rea- sonable to neglect the one, that they might attend the other ; that therefore they should choose out among themselves some that were duly qualified, and present them to them, that they might set them apart peculiarly to superintend this aft'air, that so themselves being freed from these incumbrances, might the more freely and un- interruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the gospel. Not that the apostles thought the care of the poor an office too much below them, but that this might be discharged by other hands, and they, as they were obliged, the better attend upon things of high- er importance, ministeries more immediately serviceable to the souls of men. This was the first original of dea- cons in the Christian church, they were to serve tables, that is, to wait upon the necessities of the poor, to make THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 75 daily provisions for their public feasts, to keep the church's treasure, and to distribute to every one accor- ding to their need. And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word ^hKovOr in foreign writers, where it is used for that peculiar servant who w^aited at feasts, whose office it was to distribute the portions to every guest, either according to the command of the 'Acxir^uKif®-, the orderer of the feast, or according to the rule of equality, to give every one alike. ^ But though it is true this was a main part of the deacon's office, yet was it not the whole. For had this been all, the apos- tles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons, seeing men of an ^ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn, nor have used such solemn rites of consecration to ordain them to it. No question, therefore, but their serving tables implied also their attendance at the table of the Lord's supper. For in those days their Agapae or common love feasts, (whereat both rich and poor sat down together) were at the same time with the holy Eucharist, and both administered every day, so that their ministration respected both the one and the other.'' And thus we find it was in the practice of the church, for so Justin Martyr ' tells us it was in his time, that when the president of the assembly had consecrated the Eucharist, the deacons distributed the bread and the wine to all that were present, and afterwards carried them to those who were necessarilv absent from the con"Te- gation. Nor were they restrained to this one particular service, but were in some cases allowed to preach, baptize, and absolve penitents, especially where they had the peculiar warrant and authority of the bishop to bear them out : nor need we look far beyond the pre- g MiTgat KjeSv, i le-zy litdLdtr ct ^uxnivoi TTpi; xi.m fjLYihit fjiySiv. lAr, ttv fjitv fjrya.- >.a, TOJ /« xc,u(i /itiKpi Tr^gdLTi^'io'b'oii, tlyt! tcriTHf 'st< iuth. Lucian. CLronosoi. aeu de Lef;-g. Satumal. Tom. 2. p. 823. h Sii Si ij Tx; AistxovKc ivla.; yurngKi'v IkitS X^/rs latlu, "rdyrn Tpi-rof ttSs'IV dfirma' « >*C ^^ftudray X, TrsTeey (h. e. non solum.) fis-iy A(ax:w<, a/X' ly.icMtria.s 0j« C-rp-i-.ei- rtr oV^,- ii aliTui (^vrJ^TTiibn Tsi iyAhyf^itCiX »; Tri^. Ignat. Epist. ad. Trail. Append. Usser. />. 1". i Apul. ii. p. y7. 78 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. sent story to find St, Philip, one of the deacons here elected, both preaching the gospel, and baptizing con- verts with great success. 6. That this excellent office might be duly managed, the apostles directed and enjoined the church to nomi- nate such persons as were fitted for it, pious and good men, men of known honesty and integrity, of approved and untainted reputations, furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, wise and pru- dent men, who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them. The number of these persons was limited to seven, probably for no other reason but be- cause the apostles thought these sufficient for the busi- ness ; unless we will also suppose the whole body of be- lievers to have been disposed into seven several divisi- ons, for the more orderly and convenient managery of their common feasts, and distributions to the poor, and that to each of these a deacon was appointed to su- perintend and direct them ; Avithout further designing any peculiar myster}^ which'' some Vv^oidd fain pick out of it. However the church thought good for a long time to conform to this primitive institution, insomuch that the fa.th;-rs of the' Neo-Ctvsarean council ordained, that in no city, how s*reat soever, there should be more then seven deacons, a canon which they found upon this place : and Sozomen'" tells us that in his time, thoiigh many other churches kept to no certain number, yet that the church of Rome, in compliance with this apostolical example, admitted no more then seven deacons in it. The people were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the apostles had made in this mat- ter and accordingly made choice of seven, whom they presented to the apostles, who (as the solemnity of the thing required) first made their address to heaven by prayer for the divine bless;;ig upon the undertaking, and then laid iheir hands upon them, an ancient symbolic rite of investiture and consecration to any extraordina- k Vid. Baron acl Ann. 112. n. 7. Tom. 2. 1 Coiic. Neo-Cies. can. 15. Cone. Tom. 1. Col. 1484. m Hist. £cci. lib. 7. c. 19. p. 734. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 1^ ry office. The issue of all was, that the Christian reli- gion got ground and pro.spered, converts came flocking o\ cr to the faith, yea ^•ery many of the priests themselves, and of their tribe and family, of all others the most zea- lous and pertinacious assertors of the Mosaic constitu- tions, the bitterest adversaries of the Christian doctrine, the subtlest defenders of their religion, laid aside their prejudices, and embraced the gospel. So uncontrolla- ble is the eflicacy of divine truth, as very often to lead its greatest enemies in triumph after it. 7. The first and cliief of the persons here elected, (who were all chosen out of the seventy disciples, as " Epiphanius informs us,) and v.hom the ancients fre- quently style arch deacon, as having the t* ^ga7=Tct (as " Chrysostom speaks) the primacy and precedence among these new elected officers, was our St. Stephen, whom the author of the epistle to ^' Hero under the name of Ignatius, as also the Interpolator of that to the '^ Trallians, makes in a more peculiar manner to have been deacon to St, James, as bishop of Jerusalem. He is not only placed first in the catalogue, but particularly recom- mended under this character, a man full of faiths and of the Holy Ghost. He was exquisitely skilled in all parts of the Christian doctrine, and fitted with great elo- quence and elocution to declare and publish it, enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers, and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent op- position. He preached and pleaded the cause of Chris- tianity with a firm and undaunted mind, and that nothing might be wanting to render it effi[?ctual, he confirmed his doctrine by many public and unquestionable miracles, plain evidences and dem.onstrations of the truth and di- vinity of that religion that he taught. But truth and innocency, and a better cause, is the usual object of bad men's spite and hatred. The zeal and diligence of his ministry, and the extraordinary success that did attend it, quickly awakened the malice of the Jews, and there n Hxres. XX. p. 27. o Homil. XV. in Act. p. 555. p. Epist. ad Heron, in Bibl. PP. Gr. Lut. p. 37. q Ep. ud Tiall. p, 6. ibid. rs THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. wanted not those that were ready to oppose and contra- dict him. So natural is it for error to rise up against the truth, as light and darkness mutually resist and ex- pel each other. 8. There were at Jerusalem besides the temple, where sacrifices and the more solemn parts of their religion were performed, vast numbers of synagogues for prayer and expounding of the laM', whereof the Jews themselves tell us there were not less than 480 in that city. In these, or at least some apartments adjoining to them, there were schools or colleges for the instruction and edu- cation of scholars in their laws ; many whereof were erected at the charges of the Jews who lived in foreign countries, and thence denominated after their names : and hither they were wont to send their youth to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and the myste- rious rites of their religion. Of these, five combined to- gether to send some of their societies to encounter and oppose St. Stephen. An unequal match ! avj;:a.v «r.^sr*Tar nsvTa'TJAK (as St. Chrysostom calls if) a whole army of wick- ed adversaries, the chief of five several synagogues, are brought ou* against one, and him but a strippiing too, as if they intcnfied to oppress him rather with the number of assailants, than to overcome him by strength of argu- ment. 9. The first of them were those of the Synagogue of the Libertines ; but who these Libertines were, is variously ronjectured. Passing by Junius's conceit of Labra\ sig- nifying in the Egyptiim language the whole precinct that was under one synagogue, whence Lahratenu^ or cor- ruptly (says he) Libertini, must denote them that belong- ed to the Synagogue of the Egyptians, omitting this as altogether absurd and fimtastical, besides that the Syna- gogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned afterwards ; Sui- das tells us it was the name of a nation,' but in what part of the world this people or country were, he leaves us v\ holly in the dark. Most probably, therefore, it relates » Orat.in St. Steph.Tr.m. 6. p. 2r6. s Jun. in loc. iiTin Gen. 8. 4. t Suit! in voc. Ai^^-r'n'Sr . THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 79 to the Jews that were emancipated and set at liberty. For the understanding whereof we must know, that when Pompey had subdued Judea, and reduced it under the Roman government, he carried great numbers of Jews captive to Rome, as also did those generals that succeed- ed him, and that in such multitudes, that when the Jew- ish state sent an embassy to Augustus, Josephus" tells us, that there were about eight thousand of the Jews who then lived at Rome, that joined themselves to the ambas- sadors at their arrival thither. Here they continued in the condition of slaves, till by degrees they were manu- mitted and set at liberty, which was generally done in the time of Tiberius, who (as Philo informs ') suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberine region : most whereof were Libertines, such who having been made captives by the fortune of war, had been set free by their masters, and permitted to live after the manner of their ancestors. They had their Froscuchas, or oratories, where they as- sembled, and performed their devotions according to the religion of their country : every year they sent a contri- bution instead of first-fruits to Jerusalem, and deputed certain persons to offer sacrifices for them at the temple. Indeed afterwards (as we find in Tacitus'* and Seutonius'') by an order of senate he caused four thousand JLiberthn generis^ of those libertine Jews, so many as W'Cre young and lust}-, to be transported into Sardinia, to clear that island of robbers, (the occasion whereof is related by Jo- sephus*) and the rest, both Jews and proselytes, to be banished the city, Tacitus adds, Italy itself. This oc- casion, I doubt not, many of these Libertine-Jews took to return home into their own country, and at Jerusalem to erect this synagogue for themselves and the use of their countrymen who from Rome resorted thither, styling it from themselves, the Syiiagi-^ue of the Libei tines ; and such, questionless, St. Luke means, \vhen among the se- veral nations that were at Jerusalem at the day of Pente- u Antiquit. Jiul. lib. 17. c. 12. p. 610. v Piiil. de lefrat act Gai.p 7^5. \v Tac. Aiiirii. lib. 2. c- ^o. p. 83. x Sneloa. in vlt. Tib. c. oo p'. 3.14. \ Aiiti^i. 1. Id. c. 3. p. 62.'>. so THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. cost, he mentions strangers of Rome, and they both Jews and proselytes. 10. The next antagonists were cf the Sy?iagogue of the Cyren'ians, that is, Je^vs who inhabited Cyrene, a no- ted city of Libya, where (as appears from a rescript of Augustus^) great numbers of them did reside, and who were annually wont to send their holy treasure or accus- tomed offerings to Jerusalem, where also (as we see) they had their peculiar synagogue. Accordingly we find among the several nations at Jerusalem, those who dwelt in the parts of Libya about Cyrene.^ Thus we read of Si- mon of Cyrene., whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's cross : of Lucius of Cyrene^ a famous doctor in the church of Antioch ; of men of Cyrene., who upon the persecution that followed St. Stephen's death, were scattered abroad from Jerusalem, and preached as far as Phoenwe, Cyprus, and Ant'iocli. The third were those of the Synagogue of the Alexandrians, there being a mighty intercourse between the Jews at Jerusalem and Alexan- dria, where what vast multitudes of them dwelt, and what great privileges they enjoyed, is too well known to need insisting on. The fourth were them of Cilicia, a known province of the lesser Asia, the metropolis whereof was Tarsus, well stored with Jevv's ; it was St. Paul's birth- phice, whom we cannot doubt to have born a principal part among these assailants, finding him afterwurds so active and busy in St. Stephen's death. The last were those of the Synagogue of Asia : where by Asivl we are probably to undervStand no more than part of Asia proper- ly so called (as that was but part of Asia minor) viz. that part that lay near to Ephesus, in which sense it is plain Asia is to be taken in the New Testament. And what infinite numbers of Jews were in these parts, and especially at Ephesus, the history of the Apostles' acts does sufficiently inform us. 1 J . These were the several parties that were to take the field, persons of very diilerLnt countries, men skilled z Ap. Joseph. Antiq.Jud Lib. 16 c 10. p, 5("1. a .Act.ii. 10. b Act. xiii. 1. xi. 15,20. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 81 m the subtleties of their religion, who all at once rose up to dispute with Stephen. What the particular subject of the disputation was, we find not, but may with St. Chry- sostom conceive them" to have accosted him after this manner. " Tell us, young man, what comes into thy *' mind thus rashly to reproach the Deity ? Why dost " thou study with such cunningly contrived discourses " to inveigle and persuade the people ? and with deceit- *• ful miracles to undo the nation'? Here lies the crisis " of the controversy. Is it likely that he should be " God who was born of Mary '? that the Maker of the " world should be the son of a carpenter ? Was not " Bethlehem the place of his nativity, and Nazareth of *' his education ? Canst thou imagine him to be God, " that was born upon earth ? who was so poor that he " was wrapt lip in swaddling clothes and thrown into a " manger '? who was forced to fly from the rage of Herod, *' and to wash away his pollution by being baptized in *' Jordim ? who was subject to hunger and thirst, to " sleep and weariness "? who being bound was not *' able to escape, nor, being buffeted, to rescue or re- *' venge himself? who when he was hanged, could *' not come down from the cross, but underwent a " cursed and a shameful death ? Wilt thou make us be- *' lieve that he is in heaven, whom we know to have been *' buried in his grave ? that he should be the life of the *' dead, who is so near a kin to mortality himself"? Is it " likely that God should suffer such things as these '? *' would he not rather with an angry breath have struck " his adversaries dead at the first approach, and set them *' beyond the reach of making attempts upon his own " person ? Either cease, therefore, to delude the people " with these impostures, or prepare thyself to undergo " the same fate. 12. In answer to which we may imagine St. Stephen thus to have replied upon them. " And why, Sirs, *■' should these things seem so incredible ? have you not *' by you the writings of the prophets ? do you not read c Loc. supra citat. L 8^ THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. *' the books of Moses, and profess yourselves to be his " disciples? did not Moses say, a prophet shall the Lord " your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto *' jne, him shall ye hear ? Have not the prophets long " since foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem, and " conceived in the womb of a virgin ? that he should fly " into Egypt, that he should hear our griejs and carry " our sorroxvs F that they should pierce his hafids and his ''''feet, and hang him on a tree ? that he should be buri- *' ed, rise again, and ascend up to heaven with a shout ? " Either now show me some other in whom all these " prophecies were accomplished, or learn with me to " adore as God our crucified Saviour. BHnd and igno- " rant that you are of the predictions of Moses, you *' thought you crucified a mere man, but had you known " him, you Vv'ould not have crucified the Lord of Glory : " you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a *' murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the " Prince of Life. 13. This is the sum of what that ingenious and elo- quent father conceives St. Stephen did, or might ha\ c returned to their inquiries. Which, whatever it was, was delivered with that life and zeal, that evidence and strength of reason, that freedom and majesty of elocution, that his antagonists had not one word to say against it ; they were not able to resist the zvisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So particularly did our Lord make good what he had promised to his disciples,*^ settle it in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall ansrver, for I will give you a mouth and tvisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Here- upon the men presently began to retreat, and departed the lists, equally divided between shame and grief. Ashamed they were to be so openly baffled by one single adversarj-, vexed and troubled that they had not carried the day, and that the religion which they opposed had hereby received such signal credit and confirmation. And now being no longer able *!'7-tSj ,m:;i T^aAxSj/a (as the d Luke xx\. 14, Ij. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 83 addition in some very ancient manuscript copies does elegantly express it) xvith open face to resist the trutli^ they betake themselves to clancular arts, to sly and sinis- ter designs, hoping to accomplish by craft and subtlety what they could not carry by fairness and force of reason. 14. To this purpose they tamper with men of debauch- ed profligate consciences, to undermine him by false accusations, that so he might fall as a sacrifice to their spite and malice, and that by the hand of public justice. St. Chrysostom' brings them in with smooth and plausi- l:)le insinuations, encouraging the men to this mischiev- ous attempt. " Come on, worthy and honourable friends, " lend your assistance to our declining cause, and let " vour touQ-ues minister to our counsels and contrivan- " ces. Behold a new patron and advocate of the Gali- " LEAN is started up : one that worships a God that was " buried, and preaches a Creator shut up in a tomb ; *' who thinks that he whom the soldiers despised and ''■ mocked upon earth, is now conversing with the host *' of angels in heaven, and promises that he shall come *' to judge the world, who was not able to vindicate and " right himself : His disciples denied liim, as if they " thought him an impostor, and yet this man affirms that " ever}- tongue shall confess and do homage to him : " himself was not able to come down from the cross, and '' yet he talks of his second coming from heaven : the " vilest miscreants reproached him at his death, that he " could not save either himself or them, and yet this man " peremptorily proclaims him to be the Saviour of the *■' world. Did you ever behold such boldness and im- " pudence ? or have you ever heard words of so much " madness and blasphemy '? Do you, therefore, under- " take the cause, and find out some specious colour and " pretence, and thereby purchase to yourselves glory '' and renown from the present generation. 15. The wretches were easily persuaded to the under- taking, and to swear \\hatever their tutors should direct them. And now the cause is ripe for action, the case is e Cod. BezK. MS. is" 2 Codd. H. Sieph, f Ubi. supra, pag. 2r8. 84 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. divulged, the elders and the scribes are dealt with (and a little rhetoric would serve to persuade them) the peo- ple possessed with the horror of the fact, the Sanhedrim is summoned, the malefactor haled to the bar, the witnesses produced, and the charge given in. They suborned men which said, ive have heard him speak blas- phemous words against Moses and against God ; the false witnesses said, this man ceaseth ?70t to speak blas- phemous words against this holy place o7ul the law ; Jo we have heard him say^ that this Jesus of Naza- reth shall destroy this place, and shall change the cus- toms which Moses delivered us : that is (that we may still proceed with that excellent man in opening the se- veral parts of the charge) " he has dared to speak *' against our wise and great lawgiver, and blasphemed " that Moses for whom our whole nation has so just a *' veneration ; that Moses who had the whole creation at *' his beck, who freed our ancestors from the house of *' bondage, and with his rod turned the waters into *' walls, and bv his prayer drowned the Egyptian army *' in the bottom of the sea ; who kindled a fiery pillar for ** a light by night, and without plowing or sowing, fed *' them with manna and bread from heaven, and with his " rod pierced the rock and gave them drink. But what *' do we speak of Moses, when he has whetted his tongue ** and stretched it out against God himself, and set up ** one that is dead as an Anti-God to the great Creator of " of the world ? He has not blushed to reproach the tem- " pie, that holy place, where the Divine oracles arc " read, and the writings of the prophets set forth, the " repository of the shew-brcad and the heavenly manna, ** of the ark of the covenant, and the rod of Aaron ; where ** the hoary and venerable heads of the high-priests, the *' dignity of the elders, and the honour of the scribes is ** seen : this is the place which he has reviled and set '* at naught ; and not this only, but the law itself, which " he boldly declares to be but a shadow, and the ancient *' rites but types and figures. He affirms the Galilean " to be greater than Moses, and the son of Mary strong- ** er than our law giver : he has not honoured the digni- THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 85 " tv of the elders, nor had any reverence to the society *' of the scribes. He threatens us with a dead master ; *' the young man dreams sure, when he talks of Jesus of *' Nazareth rising again, and destroying this holy place : *' he little considers with how much wisdom it was *' contrived, with what infinite charges it was erected, " and how long before it was brought to its perfection. *' And yet, forsooth, this Jesus of Nazareth must destroy *' it and change the customs which Moses delivered to us : *' our most holy Sabbath must be turned out of doors, *' circumcision abolished, the new-moons rejected, and *' the feast of tabernacles laid aside ; our sacrifices must " no longer be accepted with God ; our sprinklings and ** solemn purgations must be done away : as if we knew *' not this Nazarene's end, and as if one that is dead could *' revenge himself upon them that are living. Howma- " ny of the ancient prophets and holy men have been cru- *' elly murdered, whose death none ever yet undertook ** to revenge ? and yet this man must needs appear in the *' cause of this crucified Nazarene, and tell us of a dead *' man that shall judge us. Silly impostor! to fright us *' with a Judge who is himself imprisoned in his own *' grave. 16. This, then, is the sum of the charge, that he should threaten the ruin of the temple, and the abolition of the Mosaic rites, and blaspemously aifirm that Jesus of Nazareth should take away that religion which had been established by Moses, and by God himself. In- deed, the Jews had an unmeasurable reverence and ve- neration for the Mosaic institutions, and could not with any patience endure to hear of their being laid aside, but accounted it a kind of blasphemy so much as to men- tion their dissolution ; little thinking in how short a time these things which they now so highly valued should be taken away, and their temple itself laid level with the ground ; which a few years after' came to pass, by the Roman army under the conduct of Titus Vespasian, the Roman general, when the city was sack- ed, and the temple burnt to the ground. And so final and irrevocable was the sentence bv which it was doom- 86 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. ed to ruin, that it could never afterwards be repaired, heaven itself immediately declaring against it. Inso- much diat when Julian, the emperor, out of spite and op- position to the Christians, was resolved to give all-pos- sible encouragement to the Jews, and not only permit- ted but commanded them to rebuild the temple, furnish- ing them with all charges and materials necesary for the work (hoping that hereby he should prove our Saviour a false prophet) no sooner had they begun to clear the rubbish, and lay the foundation, but a terrible earthquake shattered the foundation, killed the undertakers, and shaked down all the buildings that were round about it. And when they again attempted it the next day, great balls of fire suddenly breaking out from under the foun- dations, consumed the workmen and those that were near it and forced them to give over the attempt. A strange instance of the displeasure of heaven towards a place which God had Fatally devoted to destruction. And this related not only by Christian writers ^, but as to the sub- stance of it, by the ^ Heathen historian himself. And the same curse has ever since pursued and followed them, they having been destitute of temple and sacrifice for sixteen hundred years together. " Were that bloo- -' dy Sanhedrim now in being, and here present, (says *' one of the ' ancients, speaking of this accusation) I *' would ask them about those things for which they " were here so much concerned ; what is now become of " your once famous and renowned temple ? where are ^^ those vast stones, and incredible piles of building ? " where is that gold that once equalled all the other *' materials of the temple ? what are become of your -* legal sacrifices "? your rams and calves, your lambs -' and heifers, pigeons, turtles, .and scape-goats ? If *' they, therefore, condemned Stephen to die, that none " of these miseries might befall them, let them show *' which of them they avoided by putting him to death ; g Socrat. H. Ecc. 1. 3. c. 20. p. 193. Sozom. H. E. 1. 5. c. 22. p. 631. h A. Marcell. 1. 23. non Uiiige ab init. i Grc^. Nysicn, Oral, in S. Stcph. To:n, 2. p. 791. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 87 " but if they escaped none of them, why then did they *' imbrue their hands in his innocent blood '?" 17. The court being thus set, and the charge brought in and opened, that nothing might be wanting to carry on their mock scene of justice, they give him liberty to defend himself. In order whereunto while the judges of the Sanhedrim earnestly looked upon him, they disco- vered the appearances of an extraordinary splendour and brightness upon his face, the innocency of his cause, and the clearness of his conscience manifesting them- selves in the brightness and chearfulness of his coun- tenance. The high-priest having asked him whether guilty or not, he in a large discourse pleaded his own cause to this effect : " That what apprehensions soever " they might have of the stateliness and magnificence of " their temple, of the glory and grandeur of its services *' and ministrations, of those venerable customs and " usages that were amongst them, as if they looked upon " them as indispensably necessary, and that it was blas- *' phemy to think God might be acceptably served with- " out them; yet that if they looked back to the first ori- *' ginals of their nation, they would find, that God chose *' Abraham to be the father and founder of it, not when " he lived in a Jerusalem, and worshipped God with " the pompous services of a temple, but when he dwelt " among the idolatrous nations : that then it was that " God called him from the impieties of his fether's house, " and admitted him to a familiar acquaintance and in- " tercourse with himself; wherein he continued for " many years without any of those external and visible " rites which they laid so much stress upon ; and that *' when at last God entered into covenant with him, to " give his posterity the land of Canaan, -and that in his *' seed aJl the nations of the earth should be blessed^ he " bound it upon him with no other ceremony, but only " that of circumcision, as the badge and seal of that " federal compact that was between them : that without " any other fixed rite but this, the succeeding patriarchs " worshipped God for several ages, till the times of ''• jNIoses, a wise, leanied, and prudent person, to v.jiom 88 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. " God particularly revealed himself, and appointed him " ruler over his people, to conduct them out of the " house of bondage, a great and famous prophet, and " who was continually inculcating this lesson to their *' ancestors, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up *' imto you of your brethren like unto me^ him shall ye *' hear ; that is, that God in the latter days would send *' amongst them a mighty prophet, who should do as " Moses had done, introduce new rites, and set up more " excellent institutions and ways of worship, to w^hom " they should yield all diligent attention, and ready " obedience : that when their fore-fathers had frequent- " ly lapsed into idolatry, God commanded Moses to set ** up a tabernacle, as a place of public and solemn wor- ** ship, where he would manifest himself, and receive the *' addresses and adorations of his people ; w^hich yet *' however was but a transient and temporary ministra- " tion, and though erected by the immediate order of " God himself, was yet after some years to give place *' to a standing temple designed by David, but built by ^' Solomon ; stately indeed and majestic, but not abso- *' lutely necessary, seeing that infinite Being that made the *' world, who had the heaven for his throne^ and the earth ^'' for his footstool, could not be confined Avithin a mate- *' rial temple, nor tied to any particular way of worship ; " and that therefore there could be no such absolute and *' indispensable necessity for those Mosaical rites and *' ceremonies, as they pretended; especially when God " was resolved to introduce a new and better scene and *' state of things. But it was the humour of this loose " and unruly, this refractory and undisciplinable gcne- *' ration (as it ever had been of their ancestors) to resist " the Holy Ghost, and oppose him in all those methods, *' whereby he sought to reform and reclaim them ; that *' there were few of the prophets whom their fore-fathers '* had not persecuted, and slain them that had foretold *' the Messiah's coming, the Just and the holy Jesus, as " they their unhappy posterity had actualh' betrayed and " murdered him, without any due reverence and regard *' to that hnv which had been solemnly delivered to them THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 89 ** by the ministry of angels, and which he came to fulfil " and perfect. 18. The holy man was going on in the application, when the patience of his auditors, which had hitherto holden out, at this began to fail ; that fire which gently warms at a distance, scorches when it comes too neai' ; their consciences being sensibly stung by the too near approach of the truths he delivered, they began to fume and fret, and express all the signs of rage and fury. But he, regardless of what was done below, had his eyes and thoughts directed to a higher and a nobler object, and looking up, saw the heavens opened, and some bright and sensible appearances of the Divine Majesty, and the holy Jesus clothed in the robes of our glorified nature, not sit- ting (in which sense he is usually described in scripture) but standing (as ready to protect and help, to crown and reward his suffering servant) at the right hand of God. So easily can Hea^ven delight and entertain us in the want of all earthly comforts, and divine consolations are then nearest to us, when human assistances are furthest from us. The good man was infinitely ravished with the vi- sion, and it inspired his soul with a fresh zeal and courage, and made him long to arrive at that happy place, and lit- tle concerned what use they would make of it, he could not but communicate and impart his happiness ; the cup was full, and it easily overflowed ; he tells his adversaries \vhat himself beheld. Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 19. The heavenly vision had very different effects : it encouraged Stephen, but enraged the Jews, who now- taking It pro confesso that he was a blasphemer, resolved upon his death, without any further process. How furi- ous and impatient is misguided zeal ! they did not stand to procure a warrant from the Roman governor (without whose leave they had not power to put any man to death) nay, they had not the patience to stay for the judicial sen- tence of the Sanhedrim, but acted the part of zealots, (who were wont to execute vengeance upon capital of- fenders, without staying for the ordinary formalities of justice) and raising a great noise and clamour, and stop- M 90 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. ping their ears^ that they might hear no further blasphe- mies, and be deaf to all cries lor mercy, they unanimous- ly rushed upon him. But zeal is superstitious in its maddest fm-y : they would not execute him within the Avails, lest they should pollute the holy city with his blood, but hurried him without the city, and there fell upon him with a shower of stones. Stoning was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, inflicted upon greater and more enormous crimes, especially blasphem}", idolatry, and strange worship : and the Jews'* tell us of many particular circumstances used in this sort of punish- ment. The malefactor Avas to be led out of the consisto- ry, at the door whereof a person was to stand with a nap- kin in his hand, and a man on horse back at some dis- tance from him, that if any one came and said, he had something to offer for the deliverance of the malefactor, upon the moving of the napkin the horseman might give notice, and bring the offender back. He had two grave persons to go along with him, to exhort him to confes- sion by the way ; a crier went before him, proclaiming who he v.'as, what his crime, and who the witnesses : be- ing come near the place of execution (Avhich was two cu- bits from the ground) he was first stripped, and then stoned, and afterwards hanged, where he was to continue till sun-set, and then being taken down, he and his gib- bet were both buried together. 20. Such were their customs in ordinary cases, but, alas, their greediness of St. Stephen's blood would not admit tliese tedious proceedings ; only one formality we find them using, which the law required, Avhich was, that the hauils of the ivitnesses should be first upon him, to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people^ : a law surely contrived with great wisdom and prudence, that so the -witness, if forsworn, might derive the guilt of the blood upon himself, and the rest be free ; so thou shalt put the evil aivay from among you. According! v here iht w'ltn^'^siis putting off their upper garments (which rendered them less nimble and expedite, being loose and k Vid. P. Fag. in Exod. xxi. 16. I Deut, xvii. 7. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 91 lonj^, according to the mode of those eastern countries) laid them down at Saul's feet, a zealous youth, at that time student under Gamaliel, the fiery zeal and activity of whose temper made him busy no doubt in this, as we find he was in the following persecution. An action which afterwards cost him tears and penitent reflections, himself preferring the indictment against himself ; when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed^ I also rvas stall- ing by, and consenting unto his deaths and kept the rai- ment of them that slew him.°^ Thus prepared they began the tragedy, whose example was soon followed by the multitude. All which time the innocent and holy man M'as upon his knees, sending up his prayers faster to hea- ven than thev could rain down stones upon him, piously recommending his own soul to God, and charitably in- terceding for his murderers, that God would not charge this guilt upon them, nor severely reckon with them for it ; and then gave up the ghost, or as the sacred histori- an elegantlv expresses \X, fell asleep. So soft a pillow is death to a good man ; so willingly, so quietly does he leave the world, as a weary labourer goes to bed at night. What storms or tempests soever may follow him while he lives, his sun, in spite of all the malice and cruelty of his enemies, sets serene and calm. Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. 21. Thus died St. Stephen, the protomartyr of the Christian faith, obtaining tcv I'jtv zig^irju^i stsosi/:-, (says E,u- sebius") a reward truly answering to his name, a ckowx. He was a man in whom the virtues of a divine life were verv eminent and illustrious ; a man full of faith and of the holy ghost. Admirable his zeal for God and for re- ligion, for the propagating whereof he refused no pains, declined no troubles or difficulties : his courage was not baffled either with the angry fronns, or the fierce threat- enings of his enemies, nor did his spirit sink, though he stood alone, and had neither friend nor kinsman to assist and comfort him ; his constancy firm and luishaken, not- withstanding temptations on the one hand, and the dan- gers that assaulted him on the other : in all the opposi- m Acts xxii. 20. n H . Eccl. 1. 2. c. 1. p. 33. 92 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. tions that he met with, under all the torments and suffer- ings that he underwent, he discovered nothing but the meek and innocent temper of a lamb, never betraying one passionate and revengeful word, but calmly resigned up his soul to God. He had a charity large enough to cover the highest affronts, and the greatest wrongs and injuries that were put upon him; and accordingly after the example of his master, he prayed for the pardon of his murderers, even while they were raking in his blood''. And the effectual fervent prayer of the ?'ighteoits man availed much; Heaven was not deaf to his petition, as appeared in the speedy conversion of St. Paul, whose admirable change we may reasonably suppose to have been the birth of the good man's dying groans, the fruit of his prayer and interest in Heaven. And what set off all these excellencies, he was not elated with lofty and arrogant conceits, nor thought more highly of himself than he ought to thinks esteeming meanly of, and prefer- ring others before himself. And therefore the author of the Apostolic^ Constitutions brings in the apostles commending St. Stephen for his humility, that though he was so great a person, and honoured with such sin- gular and extraordinary visions and revelations, yet never attempted any thing above his place, did not con- secrate the Eucharist, nor confer orders upon any ; but (as became a martyr of Christ t«v \v']iii'vi drtocru^nv, to preserve order and decency) he contented himself with the station of a deacon, wherein he persevered to the last minute of his life. :22. His martyrdom happened (say some) three years after our Saviour's passion, which Euodius, bishop of An- tioch (if that epistle were his cited by ''Nicephorus, which o Epfo sum Jesus N.izarenus, quern tu persequeris. Qiiid mihi & tibi ? Qviare te erig-is contra me, .id tauta mala cjuze commisisti in me ? Olim quidem dtbui pevilere tc.sed Stephanas mens oravit pro te. O Saule luperapax, comedisti ; expects paululuni, &. digc^res. D'cam plane, e!isus est filius pcrditionis. Nam si Sanctus Slephanus sic non orasset, Ecclesia Pauhim non liaberet. Sed ideo erectus est PauUis. (piia in terra inclinatus exauditus est Stephanus. Qiiod fe- cit persecutor, patitur prxdicator. August. Seniu X. dc S. Stepb. Tom. 10. col. 1168. l^ Lib. 8. cap. 46. Coticil. Tom. 1. Col. 509, q H, Eccl. 1. 2.c. 3. p. 134. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 93 it is probable enough was not) extends to no less than seven years. Doubtless a very wide mistake. Sure I am 'Eusebius affirms, that it was not long after his ordi- nation to his deacon's office, and the author of the Ex- cerpta Chroiiologica published by 'Scaliger more particu- larly, that it was some few days less than eight months after our Lord's ascension. He is generally supposed to have been young at the time of his martyrdom ; and 'Chrysos- tom makes no scruple of styling him young 7nan at every turn, though for what reason, I confesss I am yet to learu. He was martyred without the walls, near the gate on the north side, that leads to Cedar (as "Lucian tells us) and which was afterwards called S. Stephen's Gate; ancient- ly (say some) styled the Gate of Ephraim, or as others the Valley Gate, or the Fish Gate which stood on the east side of the city, where the place we are told is still show- ed, where S. Paul sat when he kept the clothes of them , that slew him. Over this place (wherever it was) the empress "Eudocia wifeof Theodosius, when she repaired the walls of Jerusalem, erected a beautiful and stately- church to the honour of St. Stephen, wherein she herself was buried afterwards. The great stone upon which he stood while he suffered martyrdom, is *said to have been afterwards removed into the church built to the honour of the apostles upon Mount Sion, and there kept with great care and reverence: yea, one of the stones wherewith he was killed, being preserved by some Christian, was afterwards (as we are ''told) carried into Italy, and laid up as a choice treasure at Ancona, and a church there built to the memory of the martyr. 23. The church received a great wound by the death of this pious and good man, and could not but express a very deep resentment of it : Devout men (probably pro- selytes) carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation for him. They carried^ or as the word r I.oc. Supr. laudat. s Ad. c:dc. Chro. Euseb. p. 82. t Orat. in S. Steph.ubi supr. u Ep. dc Invent. S. Stcph.ap. Jiir. ad Aug". 3. Bed. de loc S. c. 1. p. 36.?. T. 3, Broc. dc'sciipt. Terr. s. p. m. 328. Convic. Il in. I. 2. c. 11. p. 259. v Euag". H. Eccl. 1. I. c. 22. ]). 280. w Bed. ib. cap. 3. p. 364. x "Q-i.^. not in Martyr. Rom. ad. Aug-. 3- p. 475. ex Mar'arol. 5. Cynac. 94 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. Cwv^'-t^iTi- properly signifies, they dressed him up, and pre- pared the dead body for the burial. For we cannot rea- sonably suppose, that the Jews being at this time so mightily enraged against him, the apostles would think it prudent further to provoke the exasperated humour by making a solemn and pompous funeral. His burial (if we might believe '^one of the ancients, who pretends it was revealed to him in a vision by Gamaliel, whom mimy of the ancients make to have been a Christian con- vert) was on this manner. The Jewish Sanhedrim, hav- ing given order that his carcass should remain in the place of its martyrdom to be consumed by wild beasts; here it lay for some time night and day, untouched either by beast or bird of prey. Till Gamaliel, compassionat- ing the case of the holy martyr, persuaded some religious Christian proselytes, who dwelt at Jerusalem, and fur- nished them with all things necessary for it, to go with all possible secrecy and fetch off his body. They brought it away in his ov/n carriage, and conveyed it to a place called Caphargamala (corruptly, as is pro- bable, for Caphargamaliel, otherwise n.^sD:! 13:? proper- ly signifies the Town of Camels) that is, the Village of Gamaliel, twenty miles distant from Jerusalem; where a solemn mourning v/as kept for him seventy days at Gamaliel's charge, who also caused him to be buried in the east side of his own monument, where afterwards he was interred himself. The Greek Me7iceo?f2id.ds, that his body was put into a coffin made of the wood of the tree called persea (this was a large beautiful Egyptian tree, as ''Theophrastus tells us, of which they were wont to make statues, beds, tables, 8cc.) though how they came by such very particular intelligence (there being nothing of it in Gamaliel's Revelation) I am not able to imagine. •"Johannes Phocas, a Greek writer of the middle age of y Lucian. Ep. de invent. S. Strph. \\h\. snpr. & apud. Bar. ad. Ann. 415. p 371. vid. Niceph. i. U. c 9. Tom. 2. p. 454. i'i T?TC «r. t5 ft' 6ub. ht. g. 11. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 97 an extraordinary odour, and some miraculous effects ; the fame whereof flying before to Constantinople, had prepared the people to conduct it with great joy and so- lemnity into the imperial palace. Which yet could not be effected ; for the sturdy mules that carried the trea- sure, being come as far as Constantine's Baths, would not advance one step further. And when unreasonably whipped and pricked, they spake aloud, and told those that conducted them, that the martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place. Which was accordingly done, and a beautiful church built there. But certainly they that first added this passage to the story had been at a great loss for invention, had not the story of Balaam's ass been upon record in scripture. I confess Baronius' seems not over forward to believe this relation, not for the tri- fling and ridiculous improbabilities of it, but only because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian. Indeed my authors tell us, that this was done in the time of Constantine, Metro- phanes being then bishop of Constantinople, and that it was only some part of his remains buried again by some devout Christians, that was discovered in a vision to Lii- cian, and that the empress Pulcheria, by the help of her brother Theodosius, procured from the bishop of Jeru- salem the martyr's right hand, which being aiTived at Constantinople, was with singular reverence and rejoicing brought into the palace and there laid up, and a stately and magnificent church erected for it, set off with all rich and costly ornaments Ind advantages. :26. Authors'" mention another remove Ann. 439 (and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters recon- cile the different accounts) of his remains to Constanti- nople, by the empress Eudocia, wife to Theodosius," who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charita- ble designs, carried back with her to the imperial city tlie remains of St. Stephen, which she carefully laid \ip in the church of St. Laurence. The Roman" martyrolo- 1 Bar. acl Arm. 439 Tom. 5. ]i. 681. m Marccll. chro. Indict. VII. p. 24 n Th-Qdnr. LeC. lib. 2 p. 568. o Ad. VII, Maii. p. 284 98 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. gy says, that in the time of Pope Pelagius, they were re- moved frDm Constantinople to Rome, and lodged in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the martyr in agro Verano, Avhere they are honoured with great piety and devotion. But I find not any author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these western parts, except the little parcel which OrosiusP brought from Jerusalem (whither he had been sent by St. Augustin, to know St. Hierom's sense in the question about the original of the soul) which he received from Avitus, who had procured it of Lucian, and brought it along with him into the west, that is, into Africa, for whether it went any further, I find not, 27. As for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this martyr, Gregory ,*i bishop of Tours, and the writers of the following ages have furnished the world ^^"ith abundant instances, which I insist not upon, superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle ages of the church, and the Christian world miserably over run with an excessive and immo- derate veneration of the reliques of departed saints. However, I can venture the reader's displeasure forrela- t ing one, and the rather because it is so solemnly averred by Baronius'" himself. S. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, flying from the Vandalic persecution, brought with him a glass vial of St. Stephen's blood to Naples in Italy, ^V^here it was famous, especially for one miraculous effect, that being set upon the altar, at the time of mass, it was annually wont upon the third of August (the day where- on St. Stephen's body was first discovered) to melt and bubble, as if it were but newly shed. But the miracle of the miracle lay in this, that when pope Gregory the XIII. reformed the Roman kalendar, and made no less than ten davs difference from the former, the blood in the vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August, ac- cording to the old computation, and bubbled upon that p Vid. Avir. "^p. Prxf. Ep. Li'cian. Gemiad. de script. Eccl. in Oros. c. 39 p. 53. IVI ,ro"11. Cliron. \). 17. q De glor. Marnr. lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42. iSfu. r AiW.ot. in Martyr. Rom. ad Augj. 111. p. 4*4. THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. 99 thiit fell according to the new reformation. A great jus- tification, 1 confess (as Biironiiis well observes) of the Divine authority of the Gregorian kalendar, and the pope's constitutions : but yet it was ill done to set the Calendars at variance, when both had been equally justi- fied by the miracle. But how easy it was to abuse the world with such tricks, especially in these latter ages, wherein the artifice of the priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs, is no difficult matter to imagine. 28. Let us then look to the more early ages, when covetousness and secular interests had not so generally put men upon arts of craft and subtlety. And we are told, both by Lucian and Photius,' that at the first dis- covery of the mart)-r's body, man}- strange miraculous cures were effected, seventy-three healed only by smell- ing the odour and fragrancy of the body ; in some dce- mons were cast out, others cured of issues of blood, tu- mours, agues, fevers, and infinite other distempers that were upon them. But that wliich most sways with me, is what St. Augustin reports of these matters ; Avho seems to have been inquisitive about matters of fact, as the argument he managed did require.^ For being to demonstrate against the Gentiks that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian church, among several others he produces many instances of cures miraculously done at the remains of St. Stephen, brought thither (as before we noted) by Orosius from Jerusalem, all done thereabouts, and some of them in the place where him- self lived, and of which (as he tells us) they made books, which were solemnly published, and read to the people, whereof (at the time of his writing) there were no less than seventy written of the cures done at Hippo (the place where he lived) though it was not full two years since the memorial of St. Stephen's martyrdom had be- gun to be celebrated in that place, besides many where- of no account had been given in writing. To set down s Loc. ante citat. J De Civ. Dei. lib. 22. cap. 8. col. 1;146. &c. Tom 5. 100 THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. all were to tire the reader's patience beyond all recovery^ a few only for a specimen shall suffice. At the Aqucs ^ Tihilitance Projecfus, the bishop bringing the remains of the martyr, in a vast multitude of people, a blind woman desiring to be brought to the bishop, and some flowers which she brought being laid upon them, and after ap- plied to her eyes, to the wonder of all she instantly re- ceived her sight. Lucillus, bishop of Synica, near Hip- po, carrying the same remains, accompanied with all the people, was suddenly freed from a desperate disease un- der which he had a long time laboured, and for which he even then expected the surgeon's knife. Eucharius, a Spanish presbyter, then dwelling at Calama (whereof Possidius, who wrote St. Augustin's life, was bishop) was by the same means cured of the stone, which he had a long time been afilicted with, and afterwards recovered of another distemper, when he had been given over for dead. Martialis, an ancient gentleman in that place, of great note and rank, but a pagan, and highly prejudiced against the Christian faith, had been often in vain solici- ted by his daughter and her husband (both Christians) to turn Christian, especially in his sickness, but still re- sented the motion with indignation. His son-in-law went to the place dedicated to St. Stephen's martyrdom, and there with prayers and tears passionately begged of God his conversion. Departing, he took some flowers thence with him, which at night he put under his father's head, who sle^jt well, and in the morning called for the bishop, in whose absence (for he was at that time with St. Augus- tin at Hippo) the presbyters were sent for, at whose coming he acknowledged himself a Christian, and to the joy and admiration of all, was immediately baptized. As long as he lived he often had these words in his mouth, and they were the last words that he spake (for he died not long after) 0 Christ j receive my spirit, though utterly ignorant that it was the protomartyr's dying speech. 29. Many passages of like nature he relates, done at his own see at Hippo, and this among the rest. Ten children of eminence at C^sarea in Cappadocia (all the THE LIFE OF ST. STEPHEN. lOl children of one man) had for some notorious misdemean- our after their father's death, been cursed by their mo- ther, whereupon they were all seized with a continual trembling and shaking in all parts of their body. Two of these, Paulus and Palladia, came over into Africa, and dwelt at Hippo, notoriously known to the whole city. They arrived fifteen days before Easter, where they fre- quented the church, especially the place dedicated to the martyrdom of St. Stephen, every day, praying that God would forgive them, and restore them to their health. Upon Easter-day the young man, praying as he was AV'ont at the accustomed place, suddenly dropt down, and la}- like one asleep, but without any trembling, a}id awaking found himself perfectly restored to health, who was thereupon, with the joyful acclamations of the people, brought to St. Augustin, who kindly received him, and after the public devotions were over, treated him at din- ner, where he had the whole account of the misery that befel him. The day after, when the narrative of his cure was to be recited to the people, his sister also was healed in the same manner, and at the same place, the particu^ lar circumstances of both which St. Augustin relates more at large. 30. What the judicious and unprejudiced reader will think of these and more the like instances there reported b}^ this good father, I know not, or whether he v/ill not think it reasonable to believe, that God might suffer these strange and miraculous cures to be wrought in a place where multitudes yet persisted in their gentilism and in- fidelity," and who made this one great objection against the Christian faith, that whatever miracles might be here- tofore pretended for the confirmation of Christian reli- gion, yet that now they were ceased, when yet they were still necessary to induce the world to the belief of Chris- tianity. Certain it is, that nothing w^as done herein, but what did very well consist with the wisdom and the good- ness of God, "who as he is never wont to be prodigal in multiplying the effects of his omnipotent power beyond u Viiace. 4, In this city was one Simon, born at a town not far off, who by sorcery and magic arts had strangely insinu- ated himself into the reverence and veneration of the peo- ple. A man crafty and ambitious, daring and insolent, whose diabolical sophistries and devices, had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the vulgar, that they really b Joh. 4. 9. c Mallh. 10. 5. d Eph. ii. 14, 15. & scq. THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. 107 thought him (and for such no doubt he gave out himself) to be the supreme divinity, probably magnifying him- self as that divine power, that was to visit the Jews as the Messiah, or the Son of God ; among the Samaritans, giving out himself to be the Father (as ^Irenaeus assures us) TO, TTpmrov Oiiy, as his countryman ^Justin Martyr tells us the people worshipped him, as the first and chicfest Deity ; as afterwards among the Gentiles he styled him- self the Holy Ghost. And what wonder if by this train of artifices the people were tempted and seduced to ad- mire and adore him. And in this case things stood at St. Philip's arrival, whose greater and more unquestion- able miracles quickly turned the scale. Imposture can- not bear the too near approach of truth, but flies before it, as darkness vanishes at the presence of the sun. The people, sensible of their error, universally flocked to St. Philip's sermons, and convinced by the efl[icacy of his doctrine, and the power of his miracles, gave up them- selves his converts, and were by baptism initiated into the Christian faith : Yea the magician himself, astonish- ed at those mighty things which he saw done by Philip, professed himself his proselyte and disciple, and was baptized by him ; being either really persuaded by the convictive evidence of truth, or else for some sinister de- signs craftily dissembling his belief and profession of Christianity. A piece of artifice which ^Eusebius tells us his disciples and followers still observed in his time, who, in imitation of their father, like a pest or a lepro- sy, were wont to creep in among the Christian societies, that so they might with the more advantage poison and infect the rest, many of whom having been discovered, had with shame been ejected and cast out of the church. 5. The fame of St. Philip's success at Samaria quickly flew to Jerusalem, where the apostles immediately took care to despatch some of their own number to confirm these new converts in the faith. Peter and John were sent upon this errand, who being come, prayed for them. e Lib. 1 c. 20. p. 115. f Apol, ii. p. 69. vid Tert, de pvxscr. Hirst, c. 46. p. 219. g H. Eccl. lib, 2. c. 1. p. 39. 108 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. and laid their hands upon them, ordaining, probably ,'somc to be governors of the church, and ministers of religion; which was no sooner done, but the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost fell upon them. A plain evidence of the apostolic power : Philip had converted and baptized them, but being only a deacon (as ''Epiphanius and 'jChrysostom truly observe) could not confer the Holy Ghost, this being a faculty bestowed only upon the apos- tles. Simon, the magician, observing this, that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of the apostles' hands, hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and reputation with the people ; to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself, to corrupt the apostles by a sum of money, to confer this power upon him. Peter resented the mo- tion with that sharpness and severity that became him, told the wretch of the iniquity of his offer, and the evij^ state and condition he was in, advised him by repen- tance to make his peace with Heaven, that if possible, he might prevent the miserable fate that otherwise did attend him. But what passed between Peter and this magician both here, and in their memorable encounter at Rome (so much spoken of by the ancients) we have related more at large in another place.'' 6. Whether St. Philip returned with the apostles to Jerusalem, or (as ' Chr}'SOstom thinks) staid at Samaria, and the parts thereabouts, we have no intimations left upon record. But wherever he was, an angel was sent to him with a message from God, to go and instruct a stranger in the faith."' The angel one would have thought had been most likely himself to have managed this busi- ness with success. But the wise God keeps method and order, and will not suffer an angel to take that work which he has put into the hands of his ministers. The bum of his commission was to go toward the Souths h Epipli. Hrcrcs. XXI. p. 29. i Chrvs. Homil. 18. 5n Act. p. 580. k Antiqiiit. Ai)p. Life of St. Pet. Sect. 8. n. 1. Sect. 9. n. 4. i Homil. 19. in Act. App. p. 53.5. cTtct oi K:i\iP*r^ n-o ii ^uvuy.vfj i(i'ri-J5iv iiiAvwvm. Chrysost. ibid. p. 586, THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. lOQ unto the "way that goes down from Jerusalem to GazOy Tvfiich is desert : A circumstance, which whether it re- late to the way, or the city is not easy to decide, it being probably true of both. Gaza, was a city, anciently famous for the strange efforts of Sampson's strength, for his cap- tivity, his death, and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same ruin. It was afterwards sacked and laid waste by Alexander the Great, and as " Strabo notes, remain- ed waste and desert in his time ; the prophetical curse being truly accomplished in it, Gaza shall be forsaken ; a fate which the prophet Jeremiah had foretold to be as certain, as if he had seen it already done, baldness is come upon Gaza. " So certainly do the divine threat- enings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent people ; so easily do they set open the gates for ruin to enter into the strongest and best fortified cities, where sin has once undermined, and stripped them naked of the divine protection. 7. No sooner had St. Philip received his orders, though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey, but he addressed himself to it, he arose and went : he did not reason with himself whether he might not be mista- ken, and that be a false and deluding vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand, and into a desert and a wilderness, where he was more likely to meet with trees and rocks, and wild beasts, then men to preach to : but went however, well knowing God never sends any upon a \ ain or a foolish errand. An excellent instance of obedience ; as it is also recorded to Abra- ham's eternal honour and commendation, that when God sent his warrant, he obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went. As he was on his journey, he espied coming towards him a man of Ethiopia : an Eunuch of great authority wider Candace queen of the Ethiopi- ans ; who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship; though in what part of the world the country liere spoken of was situate r. Geograph.l. lo p. 759'.. o Zarh. %A. Jer. iT- 5. 110 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. (the word being variously used in scripture) has been some dispute. ^ Dorotheus and "^ Sophronius of old, imd some later writers, place it in Arabia the happy, not far from the Persian Gulf; but it is most generally con- ceived to be meant of the African Ethiopia, lying under or near the torrid zone, the people whereof are describ- ed by Homer, to be i. ineig-x it tuv /u.y,r'fpx xaAts-i KdyixiDiv. Oecumen. Comment, in Act. viii. p. 82. w H. Eccl. 1. 2. c. l.p. 40. ^iay. Herod, lib. 8. Auctor Sinnaces, insignifamilia ac perinde opibus, & proxime huic Abdus, alomptse virilitatis, non despectum idapudbarbaros,ultroqiie poterttiam habet. "Jacit. Ann. i. 6. c. 31. p. 182. y Ettat, ad Bzov. Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. 1i24 n. ZXZII. p. 543. 112 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. lity, being no less than high treasurer to the queen ; nor do we find that Philip, either at his conversion or bap- tism, found fault with him for his place or greatness. Certainly magistracy is no ways inconsistent with Chris- tianity ; the church and the state may well agree, and Moses and Aaron go hand in hand. Peter baptized Cor- nelius, and St. Paul Sergius, the proconsul of Cyprus, into the Christian faith, and yet neither of them found any more fault with them for their places of authority and power than Philip did here with the lord treasurer of the Ethiopian queen. For his religion, he was, if not 2i pro- selyte of justice^ (as some think) circumcised, and under an obligation to observe the rites and precepts of the law of Moses, at least a proselyte of the gate (in which respect it is that one of the ancients calls him a Jew) ''entered al- ready into the knowledge of the true God, and was now come to Jerusalem (probably at the solemnity of the pass- over, or the feast of Pentecost) to give public and solemn evidences of his devotion. Though an Ethiopian, and many thousand miles distant from it, though a great statesman, and necessarily swallowed up in a crowd of business, yet he came to Jerusalem for to 'vorship. No way so long, so rugged and difficult, no charge or inter- est so dear and great, as to hinder a good man from minding the concernments of religion. No slender and trifling pretences, no little ajid ordinary occasions, should excuse our attendance upon places of public worship : behold here a man that thought not much to take a jour- ney of above four thousand miles, that he might appear before God, in the solemn place of Divine adoration, the place which God had chosen above all other parts of the world, to place his name there. 10. Having performed his homage and worship at the temple, he was now upon his return for his own country ; nor had he left his religion at church behind him, or thought it enough that he had been there, but improved himself while tra\elling by the way : even while he sat in his chariot (as Chrysostom observes") he read the r Pont. D'lac. in vlt. Cvpr. p 11, a Hcmil, 19. In Act, p. S'^S', THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. U3 scriptures. A good man is not willing to lose even common minutes, but to redeem what time is possible for holy- uses : whether sitting, or walking, or journeying, our thoughts should be at work, and our affections travelling towards heaven. '^ While the eunuch was thus employ- ed, a messenger is sent to him from God : the best way to meet with Divine communications is to be conversant in our duty. By a voice from Heaven, or some imme- diate inspiration, Philip is commanded to go near the chariot^ and address himself to him. He did so, and found him reading a section or paragraph of the prophet Isaiah, concerning the death and sufferings of the Mes- siah, his meek and innocent carj'iage, under the bloody and barbarous violences of his enemies, who dealt with him with all cruelty and injustice. This the eunuch not well understanding, nor knowing certainly whether the prophet meant it of himself or another, desired St. Phi- lip to explain it, who being courteously taken up into his chariot, showed him that all this was meant of, and had been accomplished in the Holy Jesus, taking occasion thence to discourse to him of his nativity, his actions and miracles, his sufferings and resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, declaring to him the v/hole system of the Christian faith. His discourse wanted not its desired effect ; the eunuch was fully satisfied in the Messiahship and Divine authority of our Saviour, and wanted nothing but the solemn rite of initiation to rnake him a Christian proselyte. Being come to a place where there was conveniency of water, he desired that he might be baptized, and having professed his faith in the Son of God, and his hearty embracing the Christian religion, theij both went down into the water, where Philip baptiz^ ed him, and washed this Ethiopian white, 1 1. The place where this eunuch was baptized, Beza,^ by a very wide mistake makes to be the river Kleutherus, which ran near the foot of Mount Lebanon, in the moat northern borders of Palestine, quite at the other end of b Tantus amator Legis dlvin?eq; scicmis fuit, ut etii^m in vchiculo saevas lit?. r4« leg-eret. Bitr. E- tit. ad Paidin. T. 3. p. 7- v- Atmot. in Act Vlil. 'Z6. f 114 THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. the cour.trv ; Brocard'' places it near Nehel Escol, or the Torrent of the Grape^ the place whence the spies fetched the bunch of grapes ; on the left side of which valley, about half a league, runs a brook not far from Sicelech, in which this eunuch was baptized. But Eusebius*" and St. Hi- eroni' (followed herein by Ado,^ the martyrologist) more probably place it near Bethsoron (where we are told** it is still to be seen at this 'day) a village twenty miles distant from Jerusiilem in the way between it and Hebron, near to which there was a spring bubbling up at the foot of a hill. S*. Hierom adds, that it was again swallowed up in the same ground that produced it, imdthat here it was that Philip baptized the Ethiopian ; which was no soon- er done, but Heaven set an extraordinary seal to his con- version and admission into the Christian faith, especial- ly if it be true what some very ancient manuscripts add to the passage, that being baptized, the Holy Ghost fell upcii him,' furnishing him with miraculous gifts and pow- ers, and that Philip was immediately snatched away from him. 12. Though the eunuch had lost his tutor, yet he re- joiced that he had found so great a treasure, the know- ledp;e of Christ, and of the true way to Heaven, and he ^vent on his journey with infiriite peace and tranquillity of mind, satisfied with the hiippines that had befallen him. Beinrr returned into his country, he preached and propa- gated the Christian faith, and spread abroad the glad ti- dings of a Saviour : in Vv-hich respect St. Hierom"^ styles him the apostle of the Ktlnopians^ and the ancients' gene- ral'y make that prediction of David fulfilled in him, Ethi- opia shall stretch out her hands unto God^ and hence the Ethi(^pians are wont to glory (as appears by the confes- sion™ made l>v the Abvsiiiiian ambassador) that bv means d Desrr nt Terr. Sanct. p. m 330. e Eiiseb. . io. Cvnl. Catocli. XVII. p. 457. Psal. Ixviii. 31. ra Apud Bzov. ubi supr. vid. GoUi^n. de rebus Abvssin. I. 1. c. 18. p. 113. I THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. 115 uf this eunuch they received baptism almost the first of any Christians in the world. Indeed they have a con- stant tradition that tor many ai^es they had the knowledge of the true God of Israel, from the time of the queen of Sheba (and Seba bein^^ the name of this country, as we noted before, makes it probable she might govern here) her name (they tell us) was Maqueda, who having learnt from Solomon the knowledge of the Jewish law, and re- ceived the books of their religion, taught them her sub- jects, and sent her son Meilech to Solomon, to be in- structed and educated by him : the storj- whereof may be read in that confession more at large. I add no more concerning the eunuch, than what Dorotheus" and others relate, that he is reported to have suffered martyrdom, and to have been honourably buried, and that diseases were cured, and other miracles done at his tomb, even in his lime." The traditions of the country more parti- cularly tell us, that the eunuch being returned home, first converted his mistress, Candace, to the Christian faith, and afterwards by her leave propagated it throughout Ethiopia, till meeting with St. Alatthew, the apostle, by their joint endeavours they expelled idolatry- out of ail those parts. Which done, he crossed the Red Sea, and preached the Christian religion in Arabia, Persia, India, and many other of those eastern nations, till at length in the island Taprobana, since called Ceylon, he sealed his doctrine with his blood. 13. God, who always affords what is sufliicient, is not wont to multiply means further than is necessary. Phi- lip having done the errand upon which he was sent, was immediately caught and carried away, no doubt by the ministry of an angel, and landed at Azotus, anciently Ash- dod, a Philistine city in the borders of the tribe of Dan, famous of old for the temple and residence in it of the idol Dagon, and the captivity of the ark kept for some time in this place, and now enlightened with St. Philip's preaching, who went np and down publishing the gospel in all the parts hereabouts till he arrived at Cesarea. 'J his n SjTiops. uhi supr. v'ul. etiam Sopl.r. ap. Kier. in Cresc. o Ap. Godi^n. loc. cit;*t. p. 117. 116 THE LIF£ of ST. PHILIP. city Was heretofore called Turris Stratonis^ and after. wards rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus Caesar, to whom he was greatly obliged, by him called Cesarea ; for whose sake also he erected in it a stately palace of marble, called Herod' i Judgment Ilall^ wherein his nephew, ambitious of greater honours and acclamations than became him, had that fa- tal execution served upon him* It was a place remark- able for many devout and pious men. Here dwelt Cor-^ iielius, who together with his family being baptized by Peter, was in that respect the first fruits of the Gentile World \ hither came Agabus the prophet, who foretold St. Paul his imprisonment and martyrdom : here St. Paul himself was kept prisoner, and made those brave and generous apologies for himself, first before Felix, as afterwards before Festus and Agrippa. Here also our St. Philip had his house and family, to which probably he now retired, and where he spent the remainder of his life ; for here many years after we find St. Paul and his company, coming from Ptolemais in their journey to Je- rusalem, entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, nvhich ivas one of the seven, and abiding with him ; and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did pro - phesy.P These virgin prophetesses were endowed with the gift of foretelling future events ; for though prophecy in these times implied also a faculty of explaining the more abstruse and difficult parts of the Christian doctrine, and a peculiar ability to demonstrate Christ's Messiah- ship from the predictions of Moses and the prophets, and to express themselves on a sudden upon any difficult and emergetit occasion, yet can we not suppose these virgins to have had this part of the prophetic faculty, or at least that they did not publicly exercise it in the congrega- tion. This, therefore, unquestionably respected things to come, and was an instance of God's accomplishing an ancient promise, that in the times of the Messiah, he would pour out of his spirit upon all flesh, on their so?is, and daughters, servants and handmaidens, and they should prophesy^ The names of tv/o of these daughters the pAct XXI. 8,9. q Act. II. 17, 18. v: ..^tW THE LIFE OF ST. PHILIP. 117 Greek Menaeon tells us were Hermione and Eutychis, who came into Asia after St. John's death, and the first of them died and was buried at Ephesus. 14. How long St. Philip lived after his return to Ce- sarea, and whether he made any more excursions for the propagation of the faith, is not certainly known. "^Do- rotheus, I know not upon what ground, will have him to have been bishop of Trazellis, a city in Asia : "^others confounding him with St. Philip, the apostle, make him resident at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where he suffered martyrdom, and was buried (say they) together with his daughters.' Most probable it is that he died a peaceable death at Cesarea, where his daughters were also buried, as some ancient* Marty ologies inform us ; where his house and the apartments of his virgin daughters were yet to be seen in "S. Hierom's time, visited and admired by the noble and religious Roman lady Paula, in her journey to the Holy Land. r Synops. de Vit. App. loc. citat. Polycrat. ap. Euseb. 1. 3. c. 31. p. 102. s Pro'cul. ib.p. 103. t Marlvr. Rom. ad VI. Jun.p. 349 Martyr. Adon. VIII. M. Jun. u Hier. Epitaph. Paul, ad Eustoch. T. 1. p. 1^2. THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS, THE APOSTLE. His surname loses. The title of Barnabas whence added to him. His country and parents. His education and conversion to Christianity. His generous charity. St. Paul's address to iiim, after his conversion. His coniiiiission to confirm the church of Anticch. His taking St. Paul into his assistance. Their being sent with contributions to the church at Jerusalem. Their peculiar separation for the ministry of the Gen- tiles. Imposition of hands the usual rite of ordination. Their travels through several countries. Their success in Cyprus. Barnabas at Lystra. taken for Jupiter, and why. Their return to Antioch. Their embassy to Jerusalem about the controversy concerning the legal rites. Barnabas seduced by Peter's dissimulation at Antioch. The dissentioa between him and St. Paul. Barnabas's journey to Cyprus. His voy- age to Rome, and preaching the Christian faith there. His martyr- dom by the Jews in Cyprus. His burial. His body when first disco- vered. St. Matthew's Hebrew gospel found with it. The great pri- vileges hereupon conferred upon the See of Salamis. A description of his pers'.n and temper. The epistle anciently pubhshed under his name. Tue tlciign of it. The practical part of it exccUenily managed under the two ways of light and darkness. 1. THE proper, and (if I may so term it) original name of this apostle (for with that title St. Luke, and af- ter him the ancients constantly honour him) was Joses, by a softer termination familiar with the Greeks for Jo- seph, and so the king's, and several other manuscript co- pies read it. It was the name giAcn him at his circum- sion, in honour no doubt of Joseph, one of the great pa- triarchs of their nation, to which after his embracing Christianity, the apostles added that of Barnabas ; Josesy who by the apostles ivas sirnamed Barnabas, either im- plying him a son of prophecy, eminent for his prophetic gifts and endowments, or denoting him (what was a pe- 120 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. culiar part of the prophet's office) a son of consolation^* for his admirable dexterity in erecting troubled minds, and leading them on by the most mild and gentle me- thods of persuasion: though I rather conceive him so styled for his generous charity in refreshing the bowels of the saints ; especially since the name seems to have been imposed upon him upon that occasion.** He was born in Cyprus, a noted island in the Mediterranean sea, lying between Cilicia, Syria, and Egypt; a large and fer- tile country, the theatre, anciently, of no less than nine several kingdoms, so fruitful and richly furnished with all things that can minister either to the necessity or pleasure of man's life, that it was of old called Macaria, or The Happy ; and the historian reports, that Fortius Cato ha^'ing conquered this island, brought hence, greater treasures into the exchequer at Rome, than had been done in any other triumph. "= But in nothing was it more happy, or upon any account more memorable in the re- cords of the church, than that it was the birthplace of our apostle, whose ancestors in the troublesome times of Antiochus Epiphanes, or in the conquest of Judea by Pompey and the Roman army, had fled over hither (as a place best secured from violence and invasion) and set- tled here. 2. He was descended of the tribe ofLevi^ and the line of the priesthood, which rendered his conversion to Christianity the more remarkable, all interests concur- ring to leaven him with mighty prejudices against the Christian faith. But the grace of God delights many times to exert itself against the strongest opposition, and loves to conquer where there is least probability to overcoTiie. His parents were rich and pious, and finding him a beautiful and hopeful youth (says my ''author, de- riving his intelligence concerning him, as he tells us, from Clemens of Alexandria, and other ancient writers) a. K*/ cToKsT (.txi ciTo t tlcnii; tlAn^ivat to cvo^st, a; iirfli tSto »>cavo; oii', ^ 'iVir^Su®' . Clirsi-ist Hoiiiil. XI. in Act. App. p. 5C9. b Vid. Notker. M;.rtyr. ad. 111. Id. Jiin. np. Canis. Antiq. I.ect. Tom. 6. c L. Flor. lib. o. c. ^.[^.(iT. d AIi^.x. Mnmcli. Enroni. S. iJrirnab. inter vitat S.Mctaph. ext;it. ap. kuv. ad. Jur.. XT. p. I'U. vid. it). ii.4, J, U- THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 121 they sent, or brought him to Jerusalem, to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and to that end committed him to the tutorage of Gamaliel, the great doctor of the law, and most famous master at that time in Israel, at whose foot he was brought up together Avith St. Paul ; which if so, might lay an early foundation of that inti- mate familiarity that was afterw^ards between them. Here he improved in learning and piety, frequenting the temple, and devoutly exercising himself in fasting and prayer.*^ We are further told, that being a fre- quent spectator of our Saviour's miracles, and among the rest, of his curing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, he was soon convinced of his divinity, and persuaded to deliver up himself to his discipline and institutions : and as the nature of the true goodness is ever communicative, he presently went and acquaint- ed his sister Mary with the notice of the Messiah, who hastened to come to him, and importuned him to come home to her house, where our Lord afterwards (as the church continued to do after his decease) was wont to assemble with his disciples, and that her son Mark was that young man^^ who bore the pitcher of water, whom our Lord commanded the two disciples to follow home, and there prepare for the celebration of the passover. 3. But however that was, he doubdess continued with our Lord to the last, and after his ascension stood fair to be chosen one of the twelve, if it be true (what is generally taken for gi-anted, though I think without any reason, ^Chrysostom I am sure enters his dissent) that he is the same with Joseph called Barsabas, who was put candidate with Matthias for the apostolate in the room of Judas. However that he was one of the Seventy 'Clemens Alexandrinus expressly affirms, as others do after him. And when the necessities of the church daily increasing, required more than ordinaiy sup- plies, he according to the free and noble spirit of those f Ibid. n. VII. gMarkxiv. 13. h Loc. supr. citat. i Strom. 1. 2. p. 410. Euseb. H . Eccl. 1. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ex Clem. Hj-pot. 1.7. Chro. Alex. pag. 530, 122 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. times, having; lands of good value, sold them and laid the money at the apostles'' feet. If it be inquired how a Le- vite came by lands and possessions, when the Mosaic law allowed them no particular portions but what were made by public provision, it needs no other answer than to suppose that this estate was his patrimonial inheritance in Cyprus, where the Jewish constitutions did not take place : and surely an estate it was of very considerable value, and the parting with it a greater charity than or- dinary, othenvise the sacred historian would not have made such a particular remark concerning it. 4. The church being dispersed up and down after St. Stephen's martyrdom, we have no certain account what became of him, in all probability he staid with the apos- tles at Jerusalem, where we find him not long after St. Paul's conversion. For that fierce and active zealot be- ing miraculously taken off in the height of his rage and fury, and putting on now the innocent and inoffensive temper of a lamb, came after some little time to Jerusa- lem, and addressed himself to the church. But they not satisfied in the reality of his change, and feaiing it might be nothing but a subtle artifice to betray them, universally shunned his company ; and what wonder if the harmless sheep fled at the sight of the wolf that had made such havock of the flock: till Barnabas presuming probably upon his former acquaintance, entered into a more fa- miliar converse with him, introduced him to the apostles, and declared to them the manner of his conversion, and what signal evidences he had given of it at Damascus in his bold and resolute disputations with the Jews. 5. There is that scattereth^ and yet increaseth : the dis- persion of the church by Saul's persecution proved the mieans of a more plentiful harvest, the Christian religion being hereby on all hands conveyed both to Jews and Gentiles. Among the rest some Cyprian and Cyrenean converts went to Antiochj^'where they preached the gospel with mighty success ; great numbers both of Jews and proselytes (wherewith that city did abound) heartily em- k Acts 11. 20. THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 123 bracing the Christian faith. The news whereof coming to the apostles at Jerusalem, they sent down Barnabas to take an account of it, and to settle this new plantation. Being come he rejoiced to see that Christianty had made so fair a progress in that great city, earnestly pressing them cordially and constantly to persevere in that excel- lent religion which they had entertained ; himself like a pious and a good man undergoing any labours and diffi- culties ; which God was pleased to crown with answer- able success, the addition of multitudes of new converts to the faith. But the work was too great to be managed by a single hand : to furnish himself therefore with suit- able assistance, he went to Tarsus, to inquire for St. Paul lately come thither. Him he brings back with him to Antioch, where both of them continued industriously ministering to the increase and establishment of the church for a whole year together ; and then and there it was that the disciples of the holy Jesus had the honour- able name of Christians first solemnly fixed upon them, 6. It happened about this time, or not long after, that a severe famine (foretold by Agabus, a Christian prophet, that came down to Antioch) pressed upon the provinces of the Roman empire, and especially Judea, whereby the Christians, whose estates were exhausted by their con- tinual contributions for the maintenance of the poor, were reduced to great extremities. The church of An- tioch compassionating their miserable case, agreed upon a liberal and charitable supply for their relief, w^hich they mtrusted with Barnabas and Paul, whom they sent along with it to the governors of the churches, that they might dispose it as necessity did require. This charitable em- bassy the Greek rituals no doubt respect, when in the office at the promotion of the MagnusjOeconomus, or high steward of the church' (whose place it was to ma- nage and dispose of the church's revenues) they make particular mention of the holy and most famous Barnabas the apostle^ and generous martyr. Having discharged their trust, they returned back from Jerusalem to An- l Ritual. Grjccor.ln promot. Oeconom. p. 281. 124 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. tioch," bringing along with them John sirnamed Mark, the son of Mary, sister to Barnabas whose house was the sanctuary, where the church found both shelter for their persons, and conveniency for the solemnities of their worship. 7. The church of Antioch being now sufficiently pro- vided of spiritual guides, our two apostles might be the better spared for the conversion of the Gentile world. As they were therefore engaged in the duties of fasting and prayer, and other public exercises of their religion, the spirit of God by some prophetic afflatus or revelation made to some of the prophets there present, commanded that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart to that pecu- liar ministry, to which God had designed them. Ac- cordingly having fasted and prayed, hands were solemnly laid upon them, to denote their particular designation to that service. Imposition of hands had been a cere- mony of ancient date. Even among the Gentiles they were wont to design persons to public functions and of- fices by lifting up, or stretching out the hand, whereby they gave their votes and suffrages for those employ- ments. But herein though they did ;t"S''T«>'"''' stretch forth^ they did not lay on their hands ; which was the proper ce- remony in use, and of far greater standing in the Jewish church. When Moses made choice of the seventy elders to be his coadjutors in the government, it was (say the Jews) by laying hands upon them : and when he consti- tuted Joshua to be his successor, he laid his hands o?i him, and gave him the charge before all the congregation. This custom they constantly kept in appointing both ci- vil and ecclesiastical officers, and that not only while their temple and polity stood, but long after the fall of their church and state. For so "Benjamin, the Jew, tells us, that in his time all the Israelites of the east, when they wanted a rabbin or teacher in their synagogues, were wont to bring him to the rh'\T\ U.*iV"i as they called him the K\ici^rtKu'T:uLex'"'' or head of the captivity^ residing at Baby- lon (at that time R, Daniel, the son of Hasdai) that he m Act. :ul. 25. n Itincrar. p. 7Z- THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 12J might receive n*\tn"i nriCDH power by imposition of hands to become preacher to them. From the Jews it was, together with some other rites, transferred into the Christian church, in ordaining guides and ministers of religion, and has been so used through all ages and pe- riods to this day. Though the xf^-S-i!"* and tlie ;yf;gi7oy/« re not of equal extent in the writings and practice of the church; the one implying the bare rite of laying on of hands, while the other denotes ordination itself, and the entire solemnity of the action. \\"hence the "apostolical constitutor, speaking of the presbyter's interest in this affair, says ;ts-'c'S^«« K/:"g''7=>"^> he lai/s on his hands, but he does not ordain; meaning it of the custom then, and ever since, of presbyters laying on their hands together with the bishop in that solemn action. 8. Barnabas and Paul having thus received a divine commission for the apostleship of the Gentiles, and taking IMark along with them as their minister and attendant, immediately entered upon the province. And hrst they betook themselves to Seleucia, a neighbouring city seat- ed upon the influx of the river Orontes into the Mediter- ranean sea : hence they set sail for Cyprus, Barnabas's native country, and arrived at Salamis, a city heretofore of great account, the ruins whereof are two miles distant from the present Famiagusta, where they undauntedly preached in the Jewish synagogues. From Salamis they travelled up the island to Paphos, a city remarkable of old for the worship of Venus, Diva potens Cypri, the tu- telar goddess of the island, who was here worshipped v;ith the most wanion and immodest rites, and had a famous temple dedicated to her for that purpose, concerning which the inhabitants have a ^tradition that at St. Barna- bas's prayers it fell flat to the ground ; and the ruins of an ancient church are still showed to travellers, and under it an arch, where Paul and Barnabas were shut up in pri- son. At this place was the court or residence of the praetor, or president of the island (not properly 'A>3^xTaTa- 0 Lib- 8. c 23. co). 494. p Cotovlc. It:n. 1. 1. c 15 p. 100. 126 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS, 1®', the proconsul, for Cyprus was not a proconsular but a praetorian province) who being altogether guided by the counsels and sorceries of Bar-Jesus, an eminent magi- cian, stood off from the proposals of Christianity, till the magician being struck by St. Paul with immediate blind- ness for his malicious opposition of the gospel, this quickly determined the governor's belief, and brought him over a convert to that religion, which, as it made the best offers, so he could not but see had the strongest evidences to attend it. 9. Leaving Cyprus, they sailed over to Perga in Pam- phylia, famous for a templeof Diana ;** here Mark, weary it seems of this itinerant course of life, and the unavoid- able dangers that attended it, took his leave and returned to Jerusalem, which laid the foundation of an unhappy difference, that broke out between these two apostles af- terwards. The next place they came to was Antioch in Pisidia, where in the Jewish synagogue St. Paul, by an elegant oration converted great numbers both of Jews and proselytes, but a persecution being raised by others, they were forced to desert the place. Thence they pas- sed to Iconium, a noted city of Lycaonia, where in the synagogues they preached a long time with good success, till a conspiracy being made against them, they withdrew to Lystra, the inhabitants whereof upon a miraculous cure done by St. Paul, treated them as gods come down from heaven in human shape ; St. Paul, as being princi- pal speaker, they termed Mercury the interpreter of the gods ; Barnabas they looked upon as Jupiter, their sove- reign deity, either because of his age, or (as'^Chrysostom thinks) because he was aTs T^'oisacoi^K^gsTk, for the gravity andcomelinessof hisperson, being (as antiquity represents him) a very goodly man, and of a venerable aspect, where- in he had infinitely the advantage of St. Paul, who was of a verymean and contemptible presence. But the malice of the Jews pursued them hither, and prevailed with the people to stone St. Paul, who presently recovering, he and Barnabas went to Derbe, where, when they had con- q Act. xiij. 13. r Hoinil. XZX. in Act, App. p. 361. THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 127 verted many to the faith, they returned back to Lystrs, Iconiiim and Antioch, and so through PisidiatoPamphy- lia, thence from Perga to Attalia, confirming as they came back the churches which they had planted at theii first going out. At Attaha they took ship, and sailed to Antioch in Syria, the place whence they had first set out, where they gave the church an account of the whole suc- cess of their tra\'els, and what way w^as made for the propagation of Christianity in the Gentile world. 10. The restless enemy of all goodness was vexed to see so fair and smooth a progress of the gospel, and therefore resolved to attempt it by the old subtle arts of intestine divisions and animosities : what the envious man could not stifle by open violence, he sought to choke by sowing tares.^ Some zealous converts coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch, started this notion, which they asserted with all possible zeal and stiffness, that un- less together with the Christian religion they joined the observance of the Mosaic rites, there could be no hopes of salvation for them. Paul and Barnabas opposed them- selves against this heterodox opinion with all vigour and smartness, but not able to beat it down, were despatched by the church to advise with the apostles and brethren at Jerusalem about this matter. Whither they were no sooner come, but they were kindly and courteously en- tertained, and the right hand of fellowship given them by the three great apostles, Peter, James, and John, and an agreement made between them, that wherever they came, they should betake themselves to the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas applied themselves unto the Gentiles. And here probably it was that Mark reconciled himself to his uncle Barnabas, which *one tells us he did with tears and great importunity, earnestly begging him to forgive his weakness and cowardice, and promising for the future a firmer constancy and more undaunted resolution. But they were especially careful to mind the great affair they were sent about, and accordingly opened the case in a public council convened for that purpose. And Peter a Act. XV. 1. t Alexand. Monacb. ubi supr. n. XV. 128 THE LIEE OF ST. BARNABAS. having first given his sentence, that the Gentile converts were under no such obligation, Paul and Barnabas ac- quainted the synod what great things God by their mi- nistry had wrought for the conversion of the Gentiles, a plain evidence that they were accepted by God without the Mosaic rites and ceremonies. The matter being de- cided by the council, the determination was drawn up into the form of a synodical epistle, which was delivered to Barnabas and Paul, to whom the council gave this elo- gium and character, that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christy with wdiom the}' joined two of their own, that they might car- ry it to the churches. Being come to Antioch they de- livered the decrees of the council, wherewith the church was abundantly satisfied ; and the controversy for the present laid asleep. 11. It was not long after this, that St. Peter came down to Antioch, " who loth to exasperate the zealous Jews, withdrevv all converse with the Gentile converts, contrary to his former practice, and his late vote and suffrage in the Synod at Jerusalem. The minds of the Gentiles were Q-reatlv disturbed at this, and the convert Jews tempted by his example, abstain from all communion with the Gentiles ; nay, so strong was the temptation, that St. Barnabas himself was carried down the stream, and be- gan now to scruple, whether it was lawful to hold com- numion u'ith the Gentiles, with whom before he had so familiarly conversed, and been so eminently instrumental in their conversion to Christianity. So prevalent an in- fluence has the example of a great or a good man to de- termine others to what is good or bad. How careful should we be w4iat course we take, lest we seduce and compel others to walk in our crooked paths, and load our- selves with the guilt of those that follow after us? St. Paul shortly after propounded to Barnabas that they might again visit the churches wherein they had lately planted the Christian faith : he liked the motion, but desired his uousin Mark might again go along with them, which St. u Gal 3. II. THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 129 Paul would by no means consent to, having found by his cowardly deserting them at Pamphylia, how unfit he was for such a troublesome and dangerous service. This be- gat a sharp contest, and ripened into almost an irrecon- cilable difference between these two holy men. Which as at once it shows, that the best are men of like passions and infirmities with others, subject to be transported with partiality, and carried off with the heats of an irregular passion, so it lets us see hoiv great a matter a little jire kindles, and how inconsiderable an occasion may minister to strife and division, and hazard the breach of the firmest charity and friendship. The issue was that the ts i;-^.-^®- Ti Uer,y (as " Theodoret styles these two apostles) this sacred pair, that had hitherto equally and unanimously drawn the yoke of the gospel, now drew several ways, and in some discontent parted from each other ; St. Paul taking Silas went to the churches of Syria and Cilicia, while Bar- nabas, accompanied with his cousin Mark, set sail for Cyprus, his own countrj'. 12. Thus fiir the sacred historian has for the main gone before us, who here breaks off his accounts concerning him. What became of him afterwards we are left under great uncertainty. ^ Dorotheus and the '' author of the Recognitions, and some other writings attributed to St. Clemens, make him to have been at Rome, and one of the first that preached the Christian faith in that city ; for which • Baronius falls foul upon them^ not being willing that any should be thought to have been there before St. Peter, though after him (and it is but good manners to let him go first) he is not unwilling to grant his being there. Leaving therefore the difference in point of time, let us see what we find there concerning him. At his first arrival there about autumn he is said thus publicly to have addressed himself to the people, -Av/^s^paY/aTs/ dK-Ua.rt. *' O ye Romans give ear. The Son of God has appear- V Comment, in Esa. 11. p. 55. Tom. 2. \v Doroth. Synops. Bibl. PP. Tom. 3. p. 148. col. 2. X Recogn. lib. 1. c. 7. p. 400. edit. Paris. 1672. Clementin. Homil. 1. c. 7. p. 549. ib. Epit. de Gest. B. Petr. c. 7. ib. p. 752. y Baron, ad Ann. 51. u. 52. 54. not. ad Martyr. Rom. p. 359. 130 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. '' ed in the country of Judea, promising eternal life to *' all that are willing to embrace it, and to lead their lives " according to the will of the father that sent him. *' Wherefore change your course of life, and turn from a *' worse to a better state, from things temporal to those *' that are eternal, rjxknowledge that there is one only God, ** who is in heaven, and whose world you unjustly possess " before his righteous face. But if you reform, and " live according to his laws, you shall be translated into *' another world, where you shall become immortal, and *' enjoy the ineffable glories and happiness of that state. *' Whereas if you persist in your infidelity, your souls *• after the dissolution of these bodies, shall be cast into *' a place of flames, where they shall be eternally torment- *' ed under the anguioh of an unprofitable and too late *' repentance. For the present life is to every one the " only space and season of repentance." This was spoken with great plainness and simplicity, and without any artificial schemes of speech, and accordingly took with the attentive populacy : while the philosophers and more inquisitive heads entertained the discourse with scorn and laughter, (this indeed the ''author of the Td Kx>j/>t*v7w and the ''Epitome ngi|sa.v, somewhat differently from the Recognitions, refers to his being at Alexandria) setting upon him with captious questions and syllogisms, and sophistical arts of reasoning. But he taking no no- tice of their impertinent questions, went on in his plain discourse, concluding that he had nakedly laid these things before them, and that it lay at their door whether they would reject or entertain them ; that for his part he could not without prejudice to himself not declare them, nor they without infinite danger disbelieve them. } 3. Departing from Rome, he is by different writers made to steer different courses. The ^ Greeks tell us he went for Alexandria, and thence for Judea : the '^writers of the Roman church (with whom agrees '^Dorotheus in z Clement, ib. c. 8, 9, 10. a Epitom. c. 8. fc seq. b Clem. &, Epitom. ibid. Alexand. Monach. loc. cit. n. 1", 14. c Baron, ad An. 51. n. 54. Sanct. de pred. S. Jac. Tr. 3. c. 1'. n. 9'. d Synops. in Elbl. PP. p. 148. T. 3. i THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. 131 this matter) that he preached the gospel in Ligiiria, and founded a church at Milain, whereof he became the first bishop, propagating Christianity in all those parts. But however that was, probable it is that in the last periods of his life he returned unto Cyprus, where my * author tells us, he converted many, till some Jews from Syria coming to Salamis, where he then was, enraged with fury set up- on him as he was disputing in the synagogue, in a corner whereof they shut him up till night, when they brought him forth, and after infinite tortures, stoned him to death. He adds (and the faith of it must rest upon the credit of the relater, who ^Baronius tells us, lived at the same time "when his corpse was first found out) that they threw his body into the fire with an intent to consume it, but that the flames had not the least power upon it, and that Mark his kinsman privately buried it in a cave not far distant from the city, his friends resenting the loss with solemn lamentation. I omit the miracles reported to have been done at his tomb : the remains of his body were disco- vered in the reign of ^ Zeno the emperor ('' Nicephorus by a mistake makes it the 12th year of Anastasius) ami. 485, dug up under a bean or carob tree, and upon his breast was found St. Matthew's gospel written with Barnabas's own hand, which Anthemius the bishop took along with him to Constantinople, where it was received by the emperor with a mighty reverence, and laid up with great care and diligence. The emperor as a testimony of his joy, honouring the epispocal see of Salamis with this pre- rogative, that it should be sedes ^thTOKk^dLX®-, independent upon any foreign jurisdiction, a privilege ratified by Jus- tinian the emperor, whose wife Theodora was a Cypriot : the emperor also greatly enriched the bishop at his re- turn, commanding him to build a church to St. Barna- bas over the place of his interment, which was accord- ingly erected with more than ordinary stateliness and magnificence. It is added in the ' story, that these re- e Alexand. ib. n. XVIII. {jTseq. f Ad. Ann. 485. n.4.p. 428. g Theod. Lect. H. Eccl.l. 2. p. 557. Aiex. Mon. loc. cit. n. XZZI. h Niceph. H. Ecr., \. 16. c. 37. p. 716. Tom. 2, i Alex, ut supr. n. XZ5X, XXZ. 132 THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS. mains were discovered by the notice of St. Barnabas himself, who three several times appeared to Anthemius ; which I behold as a meer addition to the story, designed only to serve a present turn. For Peter sirnamed the Fuller, then patriarch of Antioch, challenged at this time a jurisdiction over the Cyprian churches as subject to his see ; this Anthemius would not agree to, but stiffly as- serted his own rights, and how easy was it to take this occasion of finding St. Barnabas's body, to add that of the appearances to him, to gain credit to the cause, and advance it with the emperor ? And accordingly it had its designed effect ; and whoever reads the whole story, and the circumstances of the apparitions as related by my au- thor, will see that they seem plainly calculated for such a purpose. 14. For his outward form and shape, he is thus re- presented by the ''ancients. He was a man of a comely countenance, a grave and venerable aspect, his eye-brows short, his eye chearful and pleasant, darting something of majesty, but nothing of sourness and austerity, his speech sweet and obliging ; his garb was mean, and such as be- came a man of a mortified life, his gate composed and unaffected, grave and decent. This elegant structure was but the lodging of a more noble tenant, a soul rich- ly furnished with divine graces and virtues, a profound humility, diffusive charity, firm faith, an immoveable constancy, and an unconquerable patience, a mighty zeal, and an unwearied diligence in the propagating of Chris- tianity, and for the good of souls. So entirely did he de- vote himself to an ambulatory course of life, so con- tinually was he employed in running up and do\m from place to place, that he could find little or no time to leave any writings behind him for the benefit of the church ; at least none that have certainly arrived to us. Indeed anciently there were some, and ' TertuUian parti- cularly, who supposed him to be the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, an opinion generally rejected and thrown out of doors : there is also an epistle still extant under k Id.ibid. n.ZVIII. 1 Uc piKlicit. c. 20. p. 582. vid. rhilaslr.de II»res. c, 60. THE LIFE OF ST. BARNABAS 133 his name of great antiquity frequently cited by Clemens Alexanclrinus, and his scholar Origen (to pass by others) the latter of whom styles it the Catholic Epistle of Bar- nabas,"" but placed by Eusebius" among the t*^ vs^*, the wri- tings that were not genuine. The frame and contexture of it is intricate and obscure, made up of uncouth allegories, forced and improbable interpretations of scripture, though the main design of it is to show, that the Christian reli- gion has superseded the rites and usages of the Mosaic law. The latter part of it contains an useful and excel- lent exhortation managed under the notion of t\vo ways, the one of light, the other of darkness, the one under the conduct of the angels of God, £ct«; (let no man despibe thy youth,) the wurds showed to be used by the best writers for a considerable age. St. Paul's first and second epistle to him, and the importance of them. The manners of the Ephesians noted. Their festival called KaLlaytiyiov. St. Timothy's martyi'dom. The time of his death, place of iiis burial, and translalicn of his body. His weak and infirm constitution. His great abstinence, and admirable zeal. St. Paul's singular affection for him. Different from Timotheus in St. Denys the Areopagite. Another Timothy, St. Paul's disciple, martyred under Antonmus. 1. ST. TIMOTHY was, as we may probably conceive, a Lycaonian, born at Lystra, a noted city of that province. He was a person in whom the Jew, the Gentile, and the Christian met altogether. His father was by birth a Greek, by religion a Gentile, or if a proselyte, at most but «ii*in ^j a proselyte of the gate, who did not oblige themselves to circumcision, and the rites of Moses, but only to the observance of the seveji precepts of the sovs of A'oah .•'' his mother Eunice, daughter to the devout and pious Lois, was a Jewess, who yet scrupled not to marry with this Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p 162?:. 138 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. Greek. An argument that the partition wall noAV totter- ed, and was ready to fall, when Jew and Gentile began thus to match together. His mother and grandmother were women very eminently virtuous and holy, and seem to have been amongst the first that were converted to the Christian faith. Nor was it the least instance of their piety, the care they took of his education, instructing him in the knowledge of divine things, and seasoning his tender years with virtuous and sober principles, so that from a child he was acquainted with the holy scriptures^ whereby he was admirably prepared for the reception of Christianity, and furnished for the conduct of a strict pious life "^ And indeed religion never thrives more kindly, than when it is planted betimes, and the foundations of it laid in an early piety. For the mind being then soft and tender, is easily capable of the best impressions, which by degrees insinuate themselves into it, and insensibly re- concile it to the difficulties of an holy life, so that what must necessarily be harsh and severe to a man that endea- vours to rescue himself from an habitual course of sin, the other is unacquainted with, and goes on smoothly in a way that is become pleasant and delightful. None start with greater advantages, nor usually persevere with a more vigorous constancy, than they who remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and sacrifice the first fruits of their time to God and to religion, before corrupt affections have clapt a bias upon their inclinations, and a train of vices depraved, and in great measure laid asleep the natural notions of good and evil, 2. Prepared by so excellent a culture in the Jewish re- ligion, God was pleased to transplant him into a better soil. St. Paul in pursuance of his commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles had come as far as Antioch in Pisidia, thence to Iconium, and so to Lystra, where the miraculous cure of an impotent cripple made way for the entertainment of the Christian doctrine. Among others there converted, we are** told were St. Timothy's b 2 Tim. lii. 15. c. n^j-w 5 fii^A KOMntLyabiit^t toy fc,iti,u« rv^^w VAiiti^i. Plut. dc liber, cduc. p»g. 4. THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 139 parents, who courteously treated and entertained the apostle at their house, wholly resigning up their son to his care and conduct.** About two years after in his review of these late plantations he came again to Lystra, where he made choice of Timothy ,*" recommended to him by the universal testimony of the Christians thereabouts, as an evangelist, to be his assistant and the companion of his travels, that he might have somebody always with him, with whom he could intrust matters of importance, and whom he might despatch upon any extraordinary affair and exigence of the church. Indeed Timothy was not circumcised, for this being a branch of the paternal au- thority, did not lie in his mother's power : this was no- toriously known to all the Jews, and this St. Paul knew would be a mighty prejudice to his ministry wherever he came. For the Jews being infinitely zealous for cir- cumcision, would not with any tolerable patience endure any man to preach to them, or so much as to converse with them, who was himself uncircumcised. That this obstacle therefore might be removed, he caused him to be circumcised, becoming in lawful matters all things to all meriy that he might gain the mo7'e. Admirable (says *^Chrysostom) the wisdom and prudence of St. Paul, who had this design in it, ui^KTi/xiv, hx «3rfg/7o^iy KaSsx?, he circumci- sed him, that he might take away circumcision, that is, be the more acceptable to the Jews, and by that means the more capable to undeceive them in their opinion of the necessity of those legal rites. At other times we find him smartly contending against circumcision as a justifi- cation of the Mosaic institutions, and a virtual undermin- ing the great ends of Christianity. IS or did he in this instance contradict his own doctrine, or unwarrantably symbolize with the Jews ; it being only (as ^ Clemens of Alexandria observes concerning this passage) a prudent condescension to the present humour of the Jews, whom he was unwilling to disoblige, and make them wholly fly d S. Metiphr. de S. Timoth- ap. Snr. ad Jan. 2t. n. 11. p. 411. e Act. ZVI. 1, 2, 3. f Homil. XXZIV. in Act. App. p. 684. g Stromal, lib. 7. pag. ToO. 140 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. off, by a too sudden and violent rending them from the circumcision in the flesh, to bring them over to the cir- cumcision of the heart. So that he who thus accommo- dates himself for the salvation of another, can no ways be charged with dissimulation and hypocrisy ; seeing he does that purely for the advantage of others, which he would not do for any other reason, or upon account of the things themselves : this being tS !ii!'M, 'according to some preceding predictions concer'ning him, and that he received it not only by the laying on of hands, but by prophecy, that is, as "Chrysos- tom truly explains it, by the Holy Ghost; it being part of the prophetic office (as he adds, and especially it was so at that time) not only to foretell future events, but to declare things present, God extraordinarily manifesting whom he would have set apart for that weighty office. Thus Paul and Barnabas wer^e separated by the special m H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 4, p. 7o. n Martvr. Tim. ap. Phot. Cod. CCLIV. col. 3401. o Cone Chalced. Act. XL Cone. Tom. 4. eol. 609. pLib. 7. c. 47. col. 451. q Homil. XV. in 1 Tim. p. 1606. r Argum. in 1 ail Tim. p. 463. s Com. in 1 Tim. 3. p. 475. T. 3. 1 1 Tim. i. IS. I Tim. iv..l4. u Homil. V. inl Tim. p. 1545. THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 143 dictate of the Holy Ghost, and of the governors of the Ephesine churches that met at Miletus, it is said, that the Holy Ghost had made them bishops, or overseers of the church. And this way of election by way of prophetic revelation continued in use at least during the apostolic age . ""Clemens in his epistle to the Corinthians, tells us that the apostles, preaching up and down cities and coun- tries, constituted their first fruits to be the bishops and deacons of those who should believe, SMud.7a.{]K-n^ mrju'r,t, making trial of them by the spirit: and another ""Clemens re- ports of St. John, that visiting the neighbouring churches about Ephesus, he ordained bishops and such as were signifed, or pointed out to him, by the spirit. 6. This extraordinary and miraculous way of choosing bishops and ecclesiastic officers, besides other advantages, begat a mighty reverence and veneration for the gover- nors of the church, who were looked upon as God's choice, and as having the more immediate character of heaven upon them. And especially this way seemed more necessary for St. Timothy than others, to secure him from that contempt which his youth might otherwise have exposed him to. For that he was but young at that time, is evident from St. Paul's counsel to him, so to de- mean himself, that no man might despise his youth /^ the governors of the church in those days were n^ic-jiuTf^u, in respect of their age as well as office, and indeed there- fore styled elders, because they usually w-ere persons of a considerable age that were admitted into the orders of the church. This Timothy had not attained to. And yet the word vtiryit, youth, admits a greater latitude than we in ordinary speech confine it to. 'Cicero tells us of himself, that he was adolescentuhis, but a very youth when he pleaded Roscius's cause ; and yet ''A, Geliius proves him to have been at that time no less than twentv- scven years old. Alexander the son of Aristobuhis 'is called n^tn^KOr, a youth, at the time of his death, w^hen yj.^ he was above thirty. Hiero in ^Polybius is styled v/g upon all persons that they met, they beat out their bniins, glorying in it as a brave atchievement, and a great honour to their gods. This cursed and execrable custom gave just offence to all pious and good men, es- pecially St. Timothy, whose spirit was grieved to see God so openly dishonoured, human nature sunk into such a deep degeneracy, and so arbitrarily transported to the most savage barbarities by the great murderer of souls. The good man oft endeavoured to reclaim them by lenitive and mild entreaties ; but alas gentle physic works little upon a stubborn constitution. When that would not do, out he comes to them into the midst of the street upon one of these fatal solemnities, and reproves them with some necessary sharpness and severity. But cruelty and licentiousness are too headstrong to brook opposition : impatient of being controlled in their wild extravagancies, they fall upon him with their clubs, beat and drug him up and down, and then leave him for dead, whom some Christians finding yet to breathe, took up, and lodged him without the gate of the city, where the third day after he expired. He suffered martyrdom on the thirtieth day of the fourth month, according to the Asian computation, or in the Roman account on the twenty-second of January, as the Greek church celebrates his memory, or the twenty-fourth, according to the Latin. It happened (as some will have it) in the time of Nerva, while others more probably refer it to the reign of Do- mitian, it being done before St. John's return from his banishment in Patmos, which was about the beginning I Martyr. Timoth. Apost. ap. Pliot. Cod. 254. col. 1401, 1404. Com. de S. Timotl). S. Metaplir.aiiiid Sur. ad Jan. x.xiv. n. 9, 10. Fragment, vit. S. Timoth. Grxte ap. P. Halloix in vit. Pohcarp. p. 558. forsan er Act. S Timoth. a Po- Ivrrat. (uti aiunt) sciiptis, qujt eadem hubent, ap. Bollaiid. ad Januar. xxiv. p. 56§. THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. 147 of Nerva's reign. Being dead, the Christians of Ephe- sus took his body, and decently intered it in a place called Pion, Piron (says™ Isidore, who adds that it was a mountain) where it securely rested for some ages, till" Constantine the great, or as others, his son Constantius caused it to be translated to Constantinople, and laid up together with those of St. ndrew and St. Luke, in the great church erected by Constantine to the holy apostles. 9. He was a man of no very firm and healthful con- stitution, frequent distempers assaulting him, besides the constant infirmities that hung upon him. Which St. Chrysostom conceives were in a great measure owing to his extraordinary temperance, and too frequent fastings." An effectual course to subdue those youthful lusts which St. Paul cautioned him to shun, there being no such way to extinguish the fire, as to withdraw the fuel : he al- lowed himself no delicious meats, no generous wines ; bread and water was his usual bill of fare, till by exces- sive abstinence, and the meanness and coarseness of his diet he had weakened his appetite, and rendered his sto- mach unfit to serve the ends of nature. Insomuch that St. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him, that he should no longer drink ruater, but use a lit- tle wine for his stomach's sake, and his often ijifirinities.^ And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind, a soul acted by a mighty zeal, and inspired with a true love to God : he thought no difficulties great, no dangers formidable, that he might be serviceable to the purposes of religion, and the interest of souls ; he flew from place to place with a quicker speed, and a more unwearied resolution, than could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person, now to Ephesus, then to Corinth, oft into Mace- m De Vit. & 01)U. SS. c. 86. p. 542. n Hieron. adv. Vigil, p. 122. Tom. 2. Niceph. Eccl. H. 1. 2. c. 43. p. 210. Me- ta|i!ir. ubi supr. n. X. Tri^x: »c Xj n: i^^rmity 'ifj.'nrv.v wi ■/ -Jiytv r/.,\ii^n-^ce-^i-Ji,x. srriTs/stwsrac yxg-iicii 0T< j.«p Clirbsost. Homil. I. ad Pup. Antiach. lorn. 1. p. 5. p 1 Tim. iv. 23. 148 THE LIFE OF ST. TIMOTHY. donia, then to Italy, crossing sea and land, and surmount- ing a thousand hazards and oppositions : in all which (as "iChrysostom's words are) the weakness of his body did not prejudice the" divine philosophy of his mind ; so strangely active and powerful is zeal for God, so nimbly does it wing the soul with the swiftest flight. And cer- tainly (as he adds) as a great and robust body is little better for its health, which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it ; so bodily weakness is no great impediment, where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it. 10. These excellent virtues infinitely endeared him to St. Paul, who seems* to have had a very passionate kindness for him, never mentioning him without great tenderness, and titles of reverence and respect : some- times styling him hhson, his hrother, \\v& fellow -labourer^ Timothetis our brother^ anrj minister of God, and our fel- low-labourer in the gospel of Christ ;"" sometimes Avith ad- ditions of a particular aft'ection and honourable regard, Timothy, my dearly beloved son ; Timotheus, who is my beloved so7i,^ and faithful in the Lord: and to the church at Philippi more expressly," / trust to send Timotheus shortly to you, for I have no man like-minded {^icvict< of the Heathen jjoets. This shown by particular instances. Titus commanded to attend S. Paul at Nico- polis. His coming to him into Macedonia. His following St. Paul to Rome, and departure into Dalmatia. The story of Pliny the younger's being converted by him in Crete, censured. His age and death. The church erected to his memory. 1. THE ancient writers of the church make little mention of this holy man ; who, and whence he was, is not known, but by uncertain probabilities. ''S. Chry- sostom conjectures him to have been born at Coiinth, for no other reason, but because in some anci^.^nl copies (as still is in several manuscripts at this day) mention is made of St. Paul's going at Corinth into the house of one [Titus] named Justus, one that -ivorsli'ippedJ" The wri- ters of later ages generally make him to be born in Crete, better known by the modern name of Candia, a noble a Homil. 1. in Til. pag^. 1693. b Act. xviii. 7- 152 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. island (as the " historian calls it, who adds that the only cause of the Romans making war there, was a desire to conquer so brave a country) in the iEgean sea, not more famous of old for being the birth-place of Jupiter, the sovereign of the Heathen gods, and the Dsedalean La- byrinth said to be in it, than of late for its having been so long the seat of war between the Turkish emperor and the state of Venice. Antiquity has not certainly conveyed down to us any particular notice of his parents, though, might we believe the account which some give, he was of no common extract, but of the blood royal'*, his pedigree being derived from no less than Minos king of Crete, whom the poets make the son of Jupiter, and for the equity of his laws, and the impartial justice of his government, prefer him to be one of the three great judges in the infernal regions, whose place it is to deter- mine men's future and eternal state ; while historians more truly affirm him to have been the son of Xanthus king of that island, and that he succeeded his father in the kingdom. But I pass by that. 2.. But whatever his parentage was, we are sure that he was a Greek, probably both by nation and religion''. The Greek church in their public offices*^, give us this account of his younger years, and conversion to Christi- anity : that being sprung from noble parents, his youth was consecrated to learnin.": and a 2:enerous education. At twenty years old he heard a voice which told him, he must depart thence, that he might save his soul, for that all his learning else would be of little advantage to him. Not satisfied with the \^rning, he desired again to hear the voice. A year after he was again commanded in a vision to peruse the volume of the Jewish law. He opened the book, and cast his eye upon that of the pro- phet, keep silence before me^ 0 islands, a?id let the people c Flor. H. Rom. 1. 3. c. 7. p. 65. d TTt©' 0 uAK-ifi®^ iit Mt/ge«. [Legend, sine clubio M/'v*©'-] tk 0ATtKiu; KfMTxi irofoh®' tlavK®'. Menson Crcec. Auy>i^. t-a -A. tiub lit. ^u 111. e ubi supr. f Tcc. W hereup- on his uncle at that time proconsul of Crete, having heard the fame of our Lord's miracles in Judca, sent him to Jerusalem, where he continued till Christ's ascension, when he was converted by that famous sermon of St. Peter's, whereby he gained at once three thousand souls. I cannot secure the truth of this story, though pretended to be derived out of the Acts, said to be written by Ze- nas the lawyer, mentioned by St. Paul : an authority, I confess, which without better evidence, I dare not encou- rage the reader to lay too much stress upon. Let us therefore come to somewhat more certain and unquesti- onable. 3. Being arrived in Judea, or the parts thereabouts, and convinced of the truth and divinity of the Christian faith, he became St. Pauls convert and disciple, though when or where converted we find not. Likely it is, either that he followed St. Paul in the nature of a companion and attendant, or that he incorporated himself into the ehurch of Antioch : where when the famous controversy arose concerning circumcision and the Mosaic instituti- ons, as equally necessary to be observed with the belief and practice of Christianity, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this questioi^; nay, a very ancient ' MS. adds, that when Paul earnestly persuaded them to continue in the doctrine which they had been taught, those very Jewish zealots who came down to Antioch, and had first started the scruple, did themselves desire Paul and Barnabas and some others to go end consult with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem^ and stand to their sentence and determination of the case. In the number of those who were sent upon this evangelical embassy was our St. Titus, whom St. Paul (encouraged to his journey by a particular revelation •") was willing to take along with him. No sooner were they come to Je- ^ Isa. xli. 1. h Act. XV. 1, 2. i Cod. Bezac MS. ad Act. xv. 2. k Gal. i. 2, Sec. 154 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. rusalem, but spies were at hand, some zealous Jews pre- tend!: .g tliem.-.clves to be Christian converts, insinuated themh^elvts into St. Paul's company and acquaintance, narrowly observing what liberty he took in point of legal rites, that thtnce they might pick an accusation against him. rhey charged him that he preached to, and con- versed with the Gentiles, and that at this very time Titus an uncircumcised Greek was his intimate familiar ; a scandal which there was no way to avoid, but by circum- cising him, that so it might appear that he had no design to undermine the rites and customs of the law. This St. Paul (who knew when to give ground, and when to maintain his station) would by no means consent to : he who at another time was content to circumcise Timothy, a Jew by the mother's side, that he might please the Jews to their edification, and have the fairer advantage to win upon them, refused here to circumcise Titus a Gentile, that he might not seem to betray the liberties of the Gospel, harden the Jews in their unreasonable and in- veterate prejudices against the Heathens, and give just ground of scandal and discouragement to the Gentiles, and make them fly off to a greater distance from Christi- anity. Accordingly he resisted their importunity with an invincible resolution, and his practice was herein im- mediately justified by the decretory sentence of the council, summoned to determine this matter. 4. The affair about which they were sent being des- patched in the Synod, he returned no doubt with St. Paul to Antioch, and thence accompanied him in his travels, till having gone over the churches of Syria and Cilicia, they set sail for Crete. For that period of time I con- ceive with ' Cypellus most probable for their going over to that island, rather then with ™ Baronius and others to place it at St. Paul's coming out of Macedonia into Greece, which he supposes to have been by a sea-voyage, passing by the Cyclud:^ islands through the iEgean sea, or with " Grotius to refer it till his vo3-age to Rome. 1 Histor. Apost ad ann. Christ. 46. m Ad. ann. 57. n. 212. n I« Argiim. Epist. ad Tit. Act. 27. 7- THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 155 founding his conjecture upon a double mistake, that St. Paul and his company put in and staid at Crete, when it is only said that they sailed under it, and passed by it, and that Titus was then in the company, wheieof no foot- steps or intimations appear in the story. Sailing there- fore from some port in Cilicia, they arrived at Crete, where St. Paul industriously set himself to preach and propagate the Christian faith, delighting (as much as might be) to be the first messenger of the glad tidings of the gospel to all places where he came, not planting in another mmi's line, or building of things made ready to his hand. But because the care oi other churches called up- on him, and would not permit him to stay long enough here to see Christianity brought to a due maturity and perfection, he constituted Titus bishop of that island, that he might nourish that infant church, superintend its growth and prosperity, and manage the government and administration of it. This the ancients with one mouth declare, he xvas the first bishop (says °Eusebius) of the churches in Crete: the apostle consecrated him bishop of it, so P St. Ambrose ; so '* Dorotheus, and"" Sophronms; he was (says ' Chrysostom) an approved person to whom » yiftf-®- iAox/Jig®-, the whole islandwas entirely con.mtted. that he might exercise power and jurisdiction over so many bishops : he was by St. Paul ordained bishop of Crete, though a very large island, that he might ordain bishops under him, says* Theodoret expressly. To which might be added the testimonies of Theophylact, Oecumenius, and others, and the subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus, (which though not dictated by the same hand, is ancient however) where he is said to have been ordained the first bishop of the church of the Cretians. Ai;d" St. Chrysostom gives this as the reason, why of all his disci- ples and followers St. Paul wrote epistles to Titus and Timothy, and not to Silas or Luke, because he had com- mitted to them the care and government of churches, o H. Ecd. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 73. p Prxf. in Tit. p. 419. T. 5. q Doroih. Syuops. p 148. r Ap. Hier. de Script, in Tit. s HoiT.il. 1. 'in Tit. p 1692. t Argura. Epist. ad Tit. Tom. 3. u Argum. in I ad. Tim. p. 1519, 156 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. while he reserved the others as attendants and ministers to go along with himself. 5. Nor is this merely the arbitrary sense of antiqnity in the case, but seems evidently founded in St. Paul's own intimation, where he tells l'itus,yor this cause left 1 thee in Crete ^ that thou shouldst set in order the things that are ivanting, and ordain elders i?i every city^ as I had ap- pointed thee^ ^ that is, I constituted thee governour of that church, that thou mightst dispose and order the affairs of it according to the rules and directions which I then gave thee. Ordain elders'] he means bishops (says "^ Chryso- stom) as elsewhere I have oft explained it. Elders i?i every city] he was not willing (as he adds) that the whole administration of so great an island should be managed by one, but that every city might have its proper gover- nor to inspect and take care of it, that so the burthen might be lighter by being laid upon many shoulders, and the people attended w^ith the greater diligence. Indeed Crete was famous for number of cities above any other island in the world, thence styled of old Hecatompolis, the island of an hundred cities. In short, plain it is, that Titus had power of jurisdiction, ordination, and ecclesi- astical censures, above any other pastors or ministers in that church conferred and derived upon him. 6. Several years St. Titus continued at his charge in Crete, when he received a summons from St. Paul, then ready to depart from Ephesus The apostle had desir- ed Apollos to accompany Timothy and some others whom he had sent to Corinth, but he choosing rather to go for Crete, by him and Zenas he wrote an epistle to Titus, to stir him up to be active and vigilant, and to teach him how to behave himself in that station wherein he had set him. And indeed he had need of all the counsels which St. Paul could give him, who had so loose and untoward a generation of men to deal with. For the country it- self was not more fruitful and plenteous than the man- ners of the people were debauched and vicious. St. Paul puts Titus" in mind what a bad character one of V Tit. i. 5. w Homil. 2. in Tit. p. 1700. vid. etiam Thcoph. & &$■ cumen. in Ice. x Tit. i. 12. THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 157 their own poets (who certainly knew them best) had given of them : The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow-bellies. This verse ^ St. Chrysostom supposes the apostle took from Callimachus, who makes use indeed of the first part of it, charging the Cretians to be hke themselves, notorious liars, in pretending that Jupiter was not only born, but died among them, and that they had his tomb with this inscription, ENTAxeA zan heitai, here lies Jupiter, when as the deity is immortal : whereupon the good father perplexes himself with many needless difficulties in recon- ciling it. Whereas in truth St. Paul borrowed it not from Callimachus, but Epimenides, a native of Crete, famous among the ancients for his raptures and enthusiastic di- vinations, ©6o

2}o\Q \.o convince gainsay ers. For whatever authors report of Crete, thut it bred no serpents or venomous creatures, yet certain it is that the poison of erronr and heresy had insinuated itself there together with the enter- tainment of Christianity, there being many unruly and d Dclpnosoph. I. 13. pag. 601. THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. 159 vain talkers, especially they of the circumcision,^ who en- deavoured to corrupt the doctrine of the gospel with Jcwisiriabies/ groundless and unwarrantable traditions, mystical and cabalistic explications, ixndjbo/ish questions and genealogies.^ For the Jews borrowing their notions herein irom the schools of Plato, were fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation, first Binah or understanding, then Achmoth or Cochmah wis- dom, and so till they came to Milcah the kingdom, and Schekinah or the divine presence. Much after the same rate as the poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods, they had first their several Cuo-i;^/*/ their conjunctions^ the coupling and mixing of things together, and thence proceeded their 7«vsa;.o>icti their genealogies or generations ; out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night, the con- junction of whom begot i^ther and the Day, and thence •■Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole pagan theology concerning the original of their gods. 7, In imitation of all which, and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians, Basilidians, and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the senseless and unintelliirible schemes of their nxxVa^* and thirty iEones, divided into three classes of conjunction ; in the first were four couples, Profundity and Silence, Mind and Truth, the Word and Life, Man and the Church : in the second five, viz. Profound and Mixture, Ageratus and Union, &cc. in the third six, the Pai'aclete ar.d Faith, Patricos and Hope, &c. Of all which if any desire to ki^.ow more, they may (if they can understand it) find enough in Irenasus, Tertul- lian, and Epiplianius, to this purpose. 'I'he ' last of whom not only affirms expressly that Valentinus and his party introduced ^evo^yS^ev-rt/^cr/v, the fabulous and poetic fancies of the heathens, but draws a particular pyrallel between Hesiod'sTheogonia, and their thirty iE.ones or ages, con- sisting of fifteen couples or corijugations, male and fe- male, which he shows exactly to agree both in the num- ber, design, and order of them. For instance, Valenti- nus's tribe begins thus ; e Tit. i. 10. f Verse U. g Verse 3 9. h Hesiod. Tlieopon. p. m. 466. \ Hxre."5, XZXl.pag-. 76. vid. Tcr- tull.de Prxsciipt. Hxret. c. ". p. 204. 160 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. Ampsiu ') ^^^^ .^ C Profundity Auraan 3 ' c Silence. Bucua 'I C Mind Tharthun 5 \ Truth. Ubuciia 7 C Word Thardeadie 3 \ Life. Merexa "> C Man Atarbarba 3 c Church. fe^6-. &c. All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imi- tation of Hesiod's progeny and generation of the gods, which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this or- der ; Chaos, Night ; Erebus, Earth ; ^ther, Day, &c. There being (as he observes) no difference between the one scheme and the other, but only the change and alter- ation of the names. This may suffice for a specimen to show whence this idle generation borrowed their extrava- gant conceits, though there were that had set much what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus. By such dark and wild notions and principles the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere, sought to undermine the Christian doctrine, mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty, that they might the easilier insinu- ate themselves into the affections of men, whereby they brought over numerous proselytes to their party, of whom they made merchandise^ gaining sufficient advan- tage to themselves. So that it was absolutely necessary that these men's mouths should be stopped, and that they should not be suffered to go on under a show of such lofty iTHT-i^ogo) X. if/o'««V/sv i iMi:>j;ov, true and uncontrollable. J 0 St. Titus lived, as the ancients tell us, to a great age, dying about the ninety-fourth year of his life. He died in peace (says 'Sophronius and Tsidore) and lies bu- ried in Crete : the "Roman Martyrology adds, that he was buried in that very church, wherein S. Paul ordained him bishop of that island I understand him where a church was afterwards built, it not being likely there should be any at that time. At Candia, the metropolis of the island, there is, or lately was, an ancient and beau- tiful 'church dedicated to St. Titus, wherein under the high altar his remains are said to be honourably laid up, and are both by the Greeks and Latins held in great ve- neration. Though what is become of them since that famous city lately fell into the hands of the Turk, that great scourge of Christendom, is to me unknown His festival is celebrated in the western church on the fourth r Damascen. Serm. Tspl rin iv tit. Kmoifj.. s Ap. Hieron. de Script, in Tito, t De vu. & ob. SS c. 87. p.542. a Additni. iv. Jan. p. 16. v Cotovic. Ilin. lib. 1. c. 12. p. 60. 164 THE LIFE OF ST. TITUS. day of January, in the Greek church August the twenty- fifth, and among the Christians in Egypt (as appears by the Arabic calendar published by "^Mr. Selden) the twen- ty-second of the month Barmahath, answering to our March the eighteenth, is consecrated to his memory. w De Synedr. Tom. 3. c. 15. p. 396, ti THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE. Dionysius born at Athens. The quality of his parents. His domestic studies. His foreif^n travels. F,gypt frequented as the stai)le place of all recondite learning. His residence at Keliopolis. The strange and miraculous eclipse at our Saviour's passion. Di-iuysius's remarks upon it. His return to Athens, and bemg made one of the Judges of the Areopagus. The nature of this court : the number and quality of its Judges. St. Paul arraigned before it : his discourse, and its success. Dionysius's conversion. His further instruction by Hierotheus. Hie- rotheus, who. Dionysius constituted bishop of Athens. A brief ac- count of his story according to those that confound him with Dionysius bishop of Paris. These shown to be distinct. The origirial and pj-cce- dure of the mistake niquired into. A probable account given of it. Di- onysius's martyrdom at Athens, and the time of it. A fabulous miracle reported of his scull. The desc- iption of his person, and tiie hyperbo- lical commendations whicli the Greeks give of him. The bocks as- scribed to him. These none of his. Apollinaris (probably) showed to be the author of them. Several passages of the ancients noted to that purpose. Books why oft published under other men's names. T.'iese books the fountain of enthusiasm and mystical theology. A passage in them instanced in to that purpose. 1. ST. DYONYSIUS was born at Athens, the eye of Greece, and fountain of learnmg and humanity, the only place that without competition had for so many ages maintained an uncontrolled reputation for arts and sci- ences, and to which there was an universal confluence of persons from all parts of the world to accomplish them- selves in the more polite and useful studies. Though we find nothing particularly concerning his parents, yet we may safely conclude them to have been persons of a no- ble quality, at least of a better rank than ordinary, seeing 166 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. none were admitted to be Areopagite Judges (as * one who knew very well informs us) haiv "' xax^c ^£>sviTt?, 4 7roA>.i>v ^.^ititv ^^ Cu^fOT-j\-,^h 'zx^ ^loihSiht-ifj.ini, unless they were nobly born, and eminently exemplary for a virtuous and a sober life. Be- ing born in the very midst of arts and civility, his educa- tion could not but be learned and ingenuous, especially considering ihe advantages of his birth and fortunes. Accordingly he was ^ instructed in all the learned sciences of Greece, wherein he made such vast improvements^ that he easily outstript any of his time : scarce any sect or institution in philosophy then in vogue, which he had not considered and made trial of : it does not indeed ap- pear to which of them he particularly devoted and applied himself; and they who suppose him to have addicted himself to the school of Plato, do it, I conceive it for no other reason, than because the doctrine contained in the books that bear his name, seems so near of kin to the principles of that noble sect. 2. But it was not an homebred institution, or all the advantages which Athens could aiford, that could fill the vast capacities of his mind, which he therefore resolved to polish and improve by foreign travels. Being in the prime and vigour of his youth, about the age of twenty- five years, ' he took with him one ApoUophanes a rheto- rician, his fellow-student, and (if ^ Syncellus say true) his kinsman, who was afterwards at Smyrna, master to Pole- mon the Laodicean, as he was to Aristides the famous philosopher and apologist for the Christians. Thus fur- nished with a suitable companion, he is said to have gone for Egypt, to converse with their philosophers and vrise men, that he might perfect himself in the study of the mathematics, and the more mysterious and recondite parts of learning. Egypt had in all ages been looked upon as the prime school not only of astrology, but of the more abstruse and uncommon speculations of theology, and tfhe great masters of wisdom and divinity among the Gen- a If'ici-. Or:i^ Areopag. p. 147. v-d. Maxim. Prolog-. Oper. S. Dionys. Pref. png. 34. b Sii'ul. in vcc amC@'. p. "44. c Siiid. ubi siinr Maxim. Pachyin. S)Micel. aliique p'ures, fi-Encom. S. Dionj5. p. 349. Tom. 1. I THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS 167 tiles never though they had gained enough, till they had crowned their studies by conversing with the Eg} ptian sages. Hence it was frequented by Orpheus, Ho- mer, Solon, Thales, by Pythagoras and Plato, and whom not? nay, of Pythagoras ''Clemens of Alex- andria reports that he suffered himself to be circum- cised, that so he might be admitted m 'ri ihTo., to the concealed rites and notions of their religion, and be ac- quainted with their secret and mystical philosophy. The place he fixed at was Heliopolis, a city between Coptus and Alexandria, where the Egyptian priests for the most resided, as a place admirably advantageous for the con- templation of the heavenly bodies, and the study of phi- losophy and astronomy ; and where 'Strabo (who lived much about this time) tells us he was showed the habita- tions of the priests, and the apartments of Plato and Eu- doxus, who lived here thirteen years ; nay, a very an- cient ^historian assures us, that Abraham himself lived here, and taught the Egyptian priests astronomy, and other parts of learning. 3. Dionysius no doubt plied his studies in this place, during whose stay there, one memorable accident is re- ported. The Son of God about this time was delivered up at Jerusalem to an acute and shameful death by the hands of violence and injustice ; when the sun, as if ashamed to behold so great a wickedness, hid his head, •and put on mourning to wait upon the funerals of its maker. This eclipse was contrary to all the known rules and laws of nature, it happening in a full moon, when the moon is in its greatest distance from the .sun, and consequently not liable to a conjunction with him, the moon moving itself under the sun from its oriental to its occidental point, and thence back bv a retrograde motion, causing a strange defection of light for three hours together. That there was such a wondcrfni and preter- natural darkness over all the earth for three hours at the e Slromat.lib. 1. p. 302. f Geograjih. lib. l". p. 80fi. ^ Alexami. Polyhlst. llisl. .:e Judais ap. Euseb. p, a^p. Evang'. 1. ?. c. IT p. 41P. 168 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. time of our Saviour's suffering, whereby the sun was darkened, is unanimously attested by the evangelical his- torians ; and not by them only, but'^Phlegon Trallianus sometimes servant to the emperor Trajan, speaks of an eclipse of the sun that happened about that time, ms>/?-* Tttv \yvu,fi<7uivuy TTgoTi^ov, tlic grcatcst of auy that had been ever known, whereby the day was turned into night, and the stars appeared at noon-day, an earthquake also accom- panying it, whereby many houses at Nice in Bithynia were overturned. Apollophancs beholding this strange eclipse, cried out to Dionysius that these were changes and revo- lutions of some great affairs, to whom the other replied, that either God suffered^ or at least sympathized and bore part with him. that did. I confess these passages are not to be found in the most ancient writers of the church ; but that ought to be no just exception, when we consider what little care was then taken to consign things to writing, and how great a part of those few ancient records that were written were quickly lost, whereof Eusebius sufficiently complains; not to say, that a great many writings might, and did escape his notice ; and 'Maximus, I remember, answering the objection, that the books ascribed to St. Denys are not mentioned by Eusebius, tells us, that him- self had met with several pieces of the ancients, of which not the least footstep in Eusebius. But however that be, it concludes not against the matter of fact, many things though never entered upon record, being as to the sub- stance of them, preserved by constant tradition and re- port. I deny not but that the several authors who report this passage, might immediately derive it out of the epistles said to be written to St. Polycarp and Apollo- phancs. But then cannot suppose that the author of these epistles did purely feign the matter of fact of his own head, but rather delivered what tradition had conveyed down to his time. Indeed that which would more shrewd- ly shake the foundation of the story, if it be true, is what ''Origcn supposes, that this darkness that was over all the h Chionic.lib. 13. apivl Enseb. Chron. ad Ann. Chr. Kwii. vid. Grxca "ET AT. [). 202. vid. Orig. c mtr. Cfls.l. 2.]). 80 & Cliff. Alt-xandr. :id Ann. Tibet- xviii. Indict. 4. OlympKid. ccii. 4 p. 520. i Prolog, ante oper. S. Dlo- Hys. p. 36. k Tract, xxxv, in Mattb. fol. m.89. col. 1. THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 1G9 earthy and the earthquake that attended our Lord's pas- sion, extended no further than Judea, as some of the prodigies no further tlian Jerusalem. But to what de- grees of truth or probability that opinion may approve itself, I leave to others to inquire. 4. Dionysius having finished his studies at Heliopolis, returned to Athens, incomparably fitted to serve his country, and accordingly was advanced to be one of the judges of the Areopagus, a place of great honour and renown. The Areopagus was a famous senate house built upon a hill in Athens, wherein assembled their great court of justice, Ta>vii'TiTc"E^x«5-;(i'w3i?-iigia)v T>f^i,-},^U( juivitf, only by St. Paul's discourse, there being no miracle that we know of, that might promote and fur- ther it. 6. Being baptized, he was, we are '^ told, committed to the care and tutorage of St. Hierotheus, to be by him further instructed in the faith, a person not so nmch as mentioned by any of the ancients, which creates with me a vehement suspicion, that it is only a feigned name, and that no such person ever really was in the world. In- deed the ' Greek Meuccon makes him to have been one of the nine Senators of the x\reopagus, to have been con- verted by St. Paul, and by him made bishop of Athens, and then appointed tutor to St. Denys. ' Others make o Dn sacerdot. 1. 4. c. 7. p. 67. T. 4. Ambros. Epist. 82. p. 198. Tom. 3. J) Hild. in passio. S. Dionys. n. 6, 7, 8. ap. Sur. Octob. IX. p. 122. q Loc. supr. citat. r S. Metaphr. ap. Sur. ibid. Maxim. Syncel. ubi supr. Pseudo Dionys. de di- vin. nnmiii. c, 2- p. 175. T. 1. t Pseudo-Dext. Chron. ad Ann. Cbr. LXZI. 172 THE LIFE OF DIONYSIUS. him by birtli a Spaniard, first bishop of Athens, and then traveUing into his own country, Bishop of Segovia in Spain. And both I believe with equal truth. Nor pro- bably had such a person ever been thought of, had there not been some intimations of such an instructor in Dio- nysius's works, confirmed by the ScoUasts that writ upon him, and afterwards by others improved into a for- mal story : As for St. Dionysius, he is made to travel with St. Paul for three years after his conversion, and then to have been constituted by him bishop of Athens ; so that it was necessary it seems to pack Hierotheus into Spain, that room might be made for him. Indeed that Dionysius was, and that without any affront to St. Hiero- theus, the first bishop of Athens, we are assured by an au- thori y that cannot be doubted, " Dionysius the famous bishop of Corinth (who lived not long after him) expressly affirming it ; and "" Nicephorus adds, what is probable enough, that it was done with St. Paul's own hands. I shall but mention his journey to Jerusalem to meet the apostles, who are said to have come from all parts of the world to be present at the last hours of the Blessed Virgm^ and his several visitations of the churches in Phrygia and Achaia, to plant or confirm the fiiith. 7. All wjilch, supposing they were true, yet here we must take our leave. For now the writers of his life ge- nerally make him prepare for a much longer journey. Having settled his affairs at Athens, and substituted a suc- cessor in his see, he is said to go to Rome (a brief ac- count of things shall suffice, where no truth lies at the bottom :) at Rome he was despatched by St. Clemens into France, where he planted the faith, and founded an Episcopal see at Paris, whence after many years, about the ninetieth year of his age, he returned into the east, to converse with St. John at Ephesus thence back again to Paris, where he suffered martyrdom, and among infinite other miracles reported of him, he is said to have taken up his head, after it had been cut off by the executioners, and to have carried it in his hands (an angel going be- u Apud Eiiseb. H. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 4. p. 74. and 1. 4. c. 23. p. 144'. V Niceph. H. Ecc. 1. 2. c. 20. p. 167. THE LIFE OF ST. DIOXYSIUS. 173 fore, and an heavenly chorus attending him all the way) for two miles together, till he came to the place of his in- terment, where he gently laid it and himself down, and was there honourably entombed. This is the sum of a ve- ry tedious story. A story so improbable in itself, so di- rectly contrary to what '" Severn s Sulpitius afiirms, that none were martyred for the faith in France, till the fifth persecution under the reign of M. x\urelius Antoninus ; that I shall not spend much time in its confutation. Es- pecially when the thing has been unanswerably done by so many learned and ingenious men in the church of Rome, and by none more eifectually than Sirmond and Launoy, who have cleared it beyond all possibilities of just exception. 8. Indeed we find in several very ancient ^ Marty r- ologies, as also in ^' Gregory bishop of Tours, who re- ports it out of the Acts of Saturninus the Martyr, that one Dionysius with some others was sent by the bishop of Rome into France in the time of Decius the emperor, Ann. Chr. CCL. where he preached the Christian faith, and became bishop of Paris, and after great torments and sufferings, was beheaded for his resolute and constant profession of religion, and accordingly his martyrdom is recorded in the most ancient Martyrologies, upon a day distinct from that of the Athenian Dionysius, and the same miracles ascribed to him, that are reported of the other. And that this was the first and true foundation of the story, I suppose no wise man will doubt. Nor in- deed is the least mention made of any such thing, I am sure not any in writer of name and note, till the times of Charles the great : when "^ Ludo\ icus emperor, and king of France wrote to Hilduin abbot of St. Denys, to pick up whatever memoirs he could find concerning him, either in the books of the Greeks or Latins, or such re- cords as they had at home, and to digest and compile w Sacr Hist. lib. 2. pag. It*?. X Usiiard. Martyr. Calend. Octob. et VII. Id. Octob. MartvP. Eedae VII. Id. Oct.b. y Cre.^, Tnron. Hist. Franc. li!>. 1. c. 28. p. 265. Edit. Du. Chesn. 2 Vid. Episl. ejus, et Hilduin. Rescript, apod Soi". loc.cit at. 174 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. them into orderly tracts. He did so, and furnished out a very large and particular relation, which was quickly improved and defended by Hincmar, bishop of Rhemes, scholar to Hilduin, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius of Rome, to whom the Greek writers of that and the fol- lowing ages readily gave their vote and suffrage. Nor has a late \iuthor m.iich mended the matter in point of antiquity, who tells lus that in a convention of bishops in France, held ami. 825. ten years before Hilduin wrote his Areopagitics, mention is made of St. Dionysius's being sent into France by Clemens St. Peter's successor. For we can easily allow that there might about that time be some blind and obscure tradition, though the fragment of the Synod, which he there produces, speaks not one svllable of this Dionysius's being the Arcopagite, or having any relation to Athens. In short the case seems plainly tliis : 9. Hilduin set on by his potent patron, partly that he might exalt the honour of France, partly to advance the reputation of his particular convent, finding an obscure Dionysius to have been bishop of Paris, removes him an age or two higher, and makes him the same with him of Athens, a person of greater honour and veneration, and partly from the records, ]:iartly from the traditions current among themselves, draws up a formul account of him from first to last ; adding, it is like, what he thought good of his own, to make up the story. These commentaries of liis, we may suppose, were quickly conveyed to Rome, where being met with by the Greeks, who came upon frequent embassies to that see about that time, they were carried over to Constantinople, out of which Methodius (who had himself been aprocrisiarius or embassador from Nicephorus the Greek patriarch to pope Pascal at Rome, and after infinite troubles was advanced to the patriarchate of Constantinople) furnishes himself with materials to write the life of Dion} sius ; for that he had them not out of the records of his own church is plain, in that when a J. Mabillon. not. a>l Epist. Ilirvcmar. inter Analect. Veter. p. 63. THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 175 Hilduin set upon composing his Areopagitics, he ex- pressly savs,^ that the Greeks had written nothing con- cerning the martyrdom of St. Den}s, the particulars whereof, by reason of the vast distance, they could not attain. Out of Hilduin, there-fore, or at least some re- ports of that time, Methodius must needs derive his in- telligence i but most probably from Hilduin, between whose relation and that of Methodius, there is so exact an agreement, not only in particular passages, but oft- times in the very same words, as "^Monsieur Launoy has demonstrated by a particular collation. Methodius's tract was by the Greek embassadors quickly brought from Constantinople to Rome, where ""Anastasius con- fesses he met with it, translated it into Latin, and thence transmitted it into France, where it was read, owned, and published by 'Hincmar, as appears by his epistle to Charles the emperor. Where he plainly tells us, that no sooner had he read this life written by Methodius, but he found it admirably to agree v.ith what he had read in his youth (he means I doubt not, the writings of Hilduin) by whom and how the acts of St. Denys and his companions came to the knowledge of the Romans, and thence to the notice of the Greeks. This is the most likely pedigree and procedure of the story that I can think of; and from hence how easy was it for the after writers both of the Vvcs- tern and the eastern church to swallow down a story, thus plausibly fitted to their taste '? Nor had the Greeks any reason over nicely to examine, or reject what made so much for the honour of their church and nation, and seemed to lay not France onlv, but the whole western church under an obligation to them, for furnishing them with so great and excellent a person. But to return to our Dionysius. 10. Though we cannot doubt but that he behaved him- self with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge of his office ; yet because the ancients have conveyed down no b Rescript, ad. Ludov. Imper. n. 10. ibid. c Rcspon.s. di.'^cass. cap. 9. n. 120; d Epist. ad Carol. Calv. Imp. apud. Sur. ibid. p. 1.33. e£vfjt apud. Sur. ubi siipr. k Mabillon.loc. chat 176 THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. particulars to our hands, we shall not venture upon re- ports of false, or at best doubtful credit. Nothing of cer- tainty can be recovered of him, more than what Aristides the Christian philosopher (who himself lived, and was probably born at Athens, not long after Dionysius; relates in the ^Apology which he published for the Christian religion, that after a most resolute and eminent confession of the faith, after having undergone several of the seve- rest kinds of torment, he gave the last and great testimony to it by laying down his life. This was done, as is most probable, under the reign of Domitian, as is confessed (betrayed into it by a secret instinct of truth) by abbot Hilduin, Methodius, and their followers: while others ex- tend it to the times of Trajan, others to the reign of Adrian, who entered upon the empire ann. 117, partly that they might leave room enough for the account which they give of him, partly to preserve the authority of his writings, wherein a passage is cited out of Ignatius's epistles, writ- ten just before his martyrdom, ann. 107. The reader I hope will not expect from me an account of the miracles said to be done by him either before or since his death, or of the fierce contests that are between several places in the Roman church concerning his reliques. One pas- sage however I shall not omit. In a village in Luxem- burg, not far from Treves, is a church dedicated to St. Denys, wherein is kept his scull, at least a piece of it, on the crown whereof there is a white cross while the other parts of the scull are black. This common tradition, and some ^authors to avouch it, will have to be made, when St. Paul laid his hands upon him at his consecration. Which if so, I have no more to observe, but that orders (which the church of Rome make a sacrament) did here even in a literal sense confer an indelible character and mark upon him. 11. His TiTT®- Qa^fA^iiKoc, the shape and figure of his body is by the ''Greek Meuteon thus described : he was of a middle stature, slender, fair, but inclining to paleness, f Ap'id us!iard. & Adnn. Mart. v. Non. Octobr. g Vid. author, cilat ap. P. Halluix. not. ad vit. Dionys. 241. )i Kij y tJ OkJoC^. THE LIFE OF ST. DIONYSIUS. 1^7 his nose gracefully bending, hollow-eyed with short eye- brows, his ear large, his hair thick and white, his beard moderately long, but very thin. For the image of his mind expressed in his discourses, and the excellent con- duct of his life, the Greeks according to their magnifying humour as well as language, bestow most hyperbolical elogies and commendations on him. ^ They style him, ii^o