.v:.i ,l BR 53 .H4 1845 c.l Historical collections relating to remarkable CO py HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS RELATING TO REMARKABLE PERIODS OF THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL COMPILED BY THE REV. JOHN GILLIES, D.D. PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY IN 1754, AND NOW REPRINTED WITH A PREFACE AND CONTINUATION TO THE PRESENT TIME; BY THE REV. HORATIUS BONAR, KELSO. KELSO: JOHN RUTHERFURD, MARKET PLACE. EDINBURGH: JOHN JOHNSTONE; W. P. KENNEDY; CHARLES ZIEGLEIi: WILLIAM OLIPHANT & SONS; AND ROBERT OGLE. CARLISLE: J. F. WHITRIDGE. LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO.; R. GROOMBRIDGE. MDCCCXLV. KELSO : PRINTED AT Till; liORDER WATCH OFFICE. GENERAL CONTENTS. BOOK I. SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL FROM THE FIRST TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. BOOK II. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. BOOK III THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. BOOK IV. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BOOK V. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BOOK VI. CONTINUATION TO THE PRESENT TIME. A \ EDITOR'S PREFACE. The world is still sleeping its " sleep of death." It has been a slumber of many gene- rations ; — sometimes deeper, sometimes lighter, — yet still a slumber like that of the tomb, as if destined to continue till the last trumpet sound ; and then there shall be no more sleep. Yet God has not left it to sleep on unwarned. He has spoken in a voice that might reach the dullest ears and quicken the coldest heart. Ten thousand times has He thus spoken and still He speaks. But the world refuses to hear. Its myriads slumber on, as if this sleep of death were the very blessedness of its being. Yet in one sense the world's sleep has never been universal. Never has there been an age when it could be said there is not one awake. The multitude has always slept, but there has always been a little flock awake. Even in the world's deepest midnight there have been always children of the light and of the day. In the midst of a slum- bering world some have been in every age awake. God's voice had reached them, and His mighty power had raised them, and they walked the earth, awake among sleepers, the living among the dead. The volume before us contains not the history of the sleeping many, but of the waking few. Its object is to trace out their story and record it for a memorial to all generations. The world has written at large the history of its sleeping multitudes, it becomes the Church of Christ to record the simpler, briefer annals of its awakened ones. Doubtless, their record is on high, written more imperishably than the world can ever accomplish for its sons, yet still it is well for earth to have a record of those of whom the world was not worthy. Their story is as full of interest as it is of importance. The waking up of each soul would be matter enough for a history, — its various shakings and startings up, ere it was fully aroused ; the word or the stroke that effected the work ; the time, the way in which it became awake for eternity and for God, as well as its new course of light after it awoke, — all these are fraught with an interest to which nothing of time or earth can ever once be compared. And then, when the voice of God awakes not one, but thousands, it may be in a day ; when whole villages and districts seem as if vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. arising and putting on new life, — how intensely, how unutterably interesting ! At such a crisis it seems as if the world itself were actually beginning to awake, — as if the shock that had broken the slumbers of so many were about to shake the whole world together. Yet alas ! the tokens of life soon vanish. The half-awakened sleepers sink back into deeper slumber, and the startled world lies down in still more sad and desperate security. The history of the Church is full of these awakenings, some on a larger and some on a smaller scale. Indeed, such narratives as those with which this work abounds form the true history of the Church, if we are to take our ideas of tliis from the in- spired Church-history given us in the Acts of the Apostles. Many a wondrous scene has been witnessed from the day of Pentecost downwards to our own day, and what volume better deserves the attention and study of the believer than that which con- tains the record of these outpourings of the Spirit ? Besides the interest that cleaves to them there is much to be learned from them by the Church. To see how God has been working, and to mark the means and intruments by which he has carried on his work, cannot fail to be profitable and quickening. It makes us sensible of our own shortcomings, and it points out the way by which the blessing may be secured. Let us look for a little at the instruments and their success as we find them recorded in tins volume. Let us mark their character and contemplate their success. They were men of like passions as we are, yet how marvellously blest in their labours ! Whence, then, comes their vast success ? What manner of men were they ? What weapons did they employ ? 1. They were in earnest about the great work of the ministry on which they had en- tered. They felt their infinite responsibility as stewards of the mysteries of God, and shepherds appointed by the Chief Shepherd to gather in and watch over souls. They lived and laboured and preached like men on whose lips the immortality of thou- sands hung. Every thing they did and spoke bore the stamp of earnestness, and proclaimed to all with whom they came into contact that the matters about winch they had been sent to treat were of infinite moment, admitting of no indifference, no post- ponement even for a day. Yet their fervour was not that of excitement ; it was the stedfast but tranquil purpose of men who felt the urgency and weight of the cause in- trusted to them, and who knew that necessity was laid upon them, yea, woe was unto them if they preached not the Gospel. They felt that, as ministers of the Gospel they dared not act otherwise ; they dared not throw less than their whole soul into the conflict ; they dared not take their ease or fold their arms ; they dared not be in- different to the issue when professing to lead on the hosts of the living God against the armies of the prince of darkness. 2. They were bent upon success. It was with a good hope of success that they first undertook the awful office of the ministry, and to despair of this would have been shameful distrust of him who had sent them forth, while to be indifferent to it would have been to prove themselves nothing short of traitors to him and to his cause. As warriors, they set their hearts on victory, and fought with the believing anticipation of triumph, under the guidance of such a Captain as their head. As shepherds, they could not sit idle on the mountain-side in the sunshine, or the breeze, or the tempest, heedless of their straying, perishing, bleating flock. They watched, gathered, guarded, fed the sheep committed to their care. Hear the testimony of one of them : — " When I came there, which was about seven years after, I had the pleasure of seeing much of the fruits of his ministry ; divers of his hearers, with whom I had opportunity of con- versing, appeared to be converted persons, by their soundness in principle, Christian experience, and pious practice ; and these persons declared that the ministrations of the aforesaid gentleman were the means thereof. This, together with a kind letter which he sent me respecting the necessity of dividing the word aright, and giving to every man his portion in due season, through the divine blessing, excited me to greater ear- nestness in ministerial labours. I began to be very much distressed about my want of success ; for I knew not, for half a year or more after I came to New Brunswick, that any one was converted by my labours, although several persons were at times af- fected transiently. " It pleased God to afflict me about the time with sickness, by which I had affect- ing views of eternity. I was then exceedingly grieved that I had done so little for God, and was very desirous to live for one half year more, if it was his will, that I might stand upon the stage of the world, as it were, and plead more faithfully for his cause, and take more earnest pains for the conversion of souls. The secure state of the world appeared to me in a very affecting light ; and one thing among others pressed me sore ; viz., that I had spent much time in conversing about trifles, which might have been spent in examining people's states towards God, and persuading them to turn unto liim. I therefore prayed to God that he would be pleased to give me one half year more, and I was deternnned to endeavour to promote his kingdom with all my might at all adventures. The petition God was pleased to grant manifold, and to enable me to keep my resolution in some measure." 3. They were men of faith. They ploughed and sowed in hope. They might sometimes go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, yet these were the tears of sorrow and compassion, not of despair ; they knew that in due season they should reap if they fainted not, that then labour in the Lord would not be in vain, and that ere long they would return bringing their sheaves with them. They had confidence in the God whose they were and whom they served, knowing that He would not send them on this warfare on their own charges. They had confidence in the Saviour whose com- mission they bore, and on whose errands they were gone forth. They had confidence in the promises of glorious success with which He had armed and comforted them. They had confidence in the Holy Spirit's almighty power and grace, as the glorifier of Christ, the testifier of his work, and the quickener of dead souls. They had confidence in the word, the gospel, the message of reconciliation which they proclaimed, knowing that it could not return void to him who sent it forth. Thus they went forth in faith viii EDITOR'S PREFACE. and confidence, anticipating victory, defying enemies, despising obstacles, and counting not their lives dear unto them that they might finish their course with joy, and the mi- nistry which they had received of the Lord Jesus. 4. They were men of labour. They required to bear the burden and heat of the day. It might be truly said of them, that ' they scorned delights and loved laborious days.' Their lives are the annals of incessant, unwearied toil of body and soul : time, strength, substance, health, all they were and possessed, they freely offered to the Lord, keeping back nothing, grudging nothing, — -joyfully, thankfully, surrendering all to him who loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, — regretting only this that they had so little, so very little to give up for him who for their sakes had freely given himself! They knew by experience something of what the apostle testifies concerning himself to the Corinthian church. They knew what it was to be ' in wrcariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fast- ings often, in cold and nakedness.' They had no tune for levity, or sloth, or pleasure, or idle companionship. They prevented the dawning of the morning to commence their labours, and the shades of evening found them, though wearied and fainting, still toiling on. They laboured for eternity, and as men who knew that time was short and the day of recompense at hand. 5. They icere men of patience. They were not discouraged, though they had to la- bour long without seeing all the fruit they desired. They continued still to sow. Day after day they pursued what, to the eye of the world, appeared a thankless and fruitless round of toil. They wore not soon weary in well-doing, remembering the ex- ample of the husbandman in regard to his perishable harvest : 'behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he re- ceive the early and latter rain.' Many a goodly plan has been rendered abortive by impatience. Many a day of toil has been thrown away by impatience. Many a rash step has been taken and hasty changes adopted in consequence of impatience. At- tempts have been made to force on a revival by men who were impatient at the slow progress of the work in their hand ; and seldom have these ended in anything but ca- lamitous failure, or at best a momentary excitement which scorched and sterilised a soil from which a little more patient toil would have reaped an abundant harvest. There may be and there always ought to be the calmest patience in conjunction with the most intense longing for success. ' He that believeth doth not make haste.' A friend and brother in the Lord some years ago was called to till a portion of the Master's vineyard in our own land. He laboured and prayed and sought fruit with all his soul. Yet at that time he saw but little. He was called away to another circle of labour. After some years he heard that a work of God had taken place in his former field under another faithful brother and fellow-worker in Christ. On visiting the spot he was amazed and delighted to find that many of those who had been con- verted were the very individuals whom he had several years before visited, and warned, and prayed for. ' One man soweth and another reapeth.' EDITOR'S PREFACE. ix G. They were men of boldness and determination. Adversaries might contend and oppose, timid friends might hesitate, but they pressed forward, in nothing terrified by difficulty or opposition. Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness, and loses many a precious opportunity ; it wins no friends, while it strengthens every enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness, nor gained by fear. It seems often as if there were a premium upon mere boldness and vigour, apart from other things. Even natural courage and resolution will accomplish much ; how much more, courage created and upheld by faith and prayer. In regard, for instance, to the dense masses of ungodliness, and profli- gacy in our large towns, what will ever be effected, if we timidly shrink back, or slothfully fold our hands, because the array is so terrific, and the apparent probabili- ties of success so slender ? Let us but be prepared to give battle, though it should be one against ten thousand, and who shall calculate the issues ? But there is needed not merely natural courage in order to face natural danger or difficulty ; there is, in our own day, a still greater need of moral boldness, in order to neutralize the fear of man; the dread of public opinion, that god of our idolatry in this last age, which boasts of superior enlightment, and which would bring every thing to the test of rea- son, or decide it by the votes of the majority. We need strength from above to be faithful in these days of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy — to set our faces like flint alike against the censure and applause of the multitude, and to dare to be singular for righteousness' sake, and to fight, singled landed, the battles of the faith. The sneer, the scoff, the contemptuous smile of superiority, the cold support, the cordial opposi- tion, the timid friendship, the bold hostility, in private and public, from lips of compa- nions, or neighbours, or fellow-citizens, — oftim under pretext of reverence for religion, — these arc fitted to daunt the mind of common nerve, and to meet these nothing less than divine grace is needed. Never, perhaps, in any age, has wickedness assumed a bolder front and attitude; and never, therefore, was Chris- tian courage more required than now. It needs little, indeed, of this, to traverse the customary routine of parish duty. Men of the world, and mere professors, can tole- rate, or perhaps commend such diligence ; but to step beyond that — to break the re- gularity of well-beaten forms — to preach and labour in season and out of season — in churches, or barns, or school-houses, or fields, or streets, or highways — to deal faith- fully and closely with men's consciences wherever you may happen to be brought into contact with them — to be always the minister, always the watchman, always the Chris- tian, always the lover of souls — tliis is to turn the world upside down, to offend against every rule of good breeding, and to tear up the landmarks of civilized society. Mi- nisters and private Christians do require more than ever to be " strong and of good courage," to be " steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." This has ever been one of the great secrets of ministerial success. Them that honour God, God has never failed to honour and to bless. 7. They were men of prayer. It is true that they laboured much, visited much, studied much, but they also prayed much. In this they abounded. They were much EDITOR'S PREFACE. alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water.1 In our day there is doubtless among many a grievous mistake upon this point. Some who are really seeking to feed the flock, and to save souls, are led to exhaust their energies upon external duties and labours, overlooking the absolute necessity of enriching, ripening, filling, elevating their own souls by prayer and fasting. On this account there is much time wasted and la- bour thrown away. A single word, coming fresh from lips that have been kindled in- to heavenly warmth, by near fellowship with God, will avail more than a thousand others. Did Christ's faithful ministers act more on this principle, they Mould soon learn what an increased fruitfulness and power are thereby imparted to all their labours. Were more of each returning Saturday spent in fellowship with God, in solemn inter- cession for the people, in humiliation for sin, and supplication for the outpouring of the Spirit, — our Sabbaths would be far more blest, our sermons would be far more blest, our sermons would bo far more successful, our faces would shine as did the face of Moses, a more solemn awe and reverence would be over all our assemblies, and there would be fewer complaints of labouring in vain, or spending strength for nought. What might be lost in elaborate composition, or critical exactness of style or argument, would be far more than compensated for by the " double portion of the Spirit" we might then expect to receive. 8. They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind, both as respects law and gospel. There is a breadth and power about their preaching — a glow and energy about their words and thoughts, that makes us feel that they were " men of might." Then' trumpet gave no feeble nor uncertain sound, either to saint or sinner — either to the church or the world. They lifted up their voices, and spared not. There was no flinching, no flattering, or prophesying of smooth things. Perhaps they excelled more in the proclamation of the law, and its eternal penalties, than in the declaration of the glad tidings of great joy, through Him who finished transgression, and made an end of sin upon the cross. There is sometimes a lack of fulness and liberty in then* statements of the gospel ; there is a constraint about some of their sermons, as if they feared making the glad tidings too free ; there is, in their dealings with inquirers, a tendency to throw them in upon their own acts, or feelings, or convictions, instead of drawing them out at once to what has been finished on the cross, leading them to look for some preparatory work in themselves, before rejoicing in the gospel ; but still there are at other times full exhibitions of the Saviour, and free proclamations of his glorious gos- pel. Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy ; it was far too solemn to be such ; it was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than a two-edged sword. The weapons wielded by them were well tempered, well furbished, sharp and keen. Nor were they wielded by a feeble or un- them 1 " We often spent whole days in prayer, singing, and preaching." Such is the testimony of one of EDITORS PREFACE. xi practised arm. These warriors did not fight with the scabbard instead of the blade. Nor did they smite with the nut instead of the edge of the sword. Nor did they spare any effort, either of strength or skill, which might cany home the thrust or the stroke to the very vitals. Hence so many fell wounded under them, such as in the case of the celebrated Thomas Shepard of Cambridge, regarding whom it is said, that " he scarce ever preached a sermon but some or other of his congregation Avere struck with great distress, and cried out in agony, What shall I do to be saved." Or take the following account of the effects produced by a sermon of Edwards at Enfield, in July 1741, which, as being new, we lay before our readers : — " While the people in the neighbouring towns were in great distress for their souls," says the histo- rian, " the inhabitants of that town were very secure, loose and vain. A lecture had been appointed at Enfield ; and the neighbouring people, the night before, were so affected at the thoughtlessness of the inhabitants, and in such fears that God would, in his righteous judgment, pass them by, while the di- vine showers were falling all around them, as to be prostrate before him a considerable part of it, sup- plicating mercy for their soul*. "When the appointed time for the lecture came, a number of the neighbouring ministers attended, and some from a distance. When they went into the meeting- house, the appearance of the assembly was thoughtless and vain. The people hardly conducted them- selves with common decency. Edwards preached. His plain, unpretending manner, both in lan- guage and delivery, and bis established reputation for holiness and knowledge of the truth, forbade the suspicion that any trick of oratory would be used to mislead his hearers, He began in the clear, careful, demonstrative style of a teacher, solicitous for the result of his effort, and anxious that every step of his argument should be early and fully understood. His text was Deut. xxxii. 35. ' Their foot shall slide in due time.' As he advanced in unfolding the meaning of the text, the most careful logic brought him and his hearers to conclusions, which the most tremendous imagery could but inad- equately express. Hi* most terrific descriptions of the doom and danger of the impenitent, only en- abled them to apprehend more clearly the truths which he had compelled them to believe. They seemed to be, not the product of the imagination, but what they really were, a part of the argument. The effect was as might have been expected. Trumbull informs us, that 'before the assembly was ended, the assembly appeared deeply impressed and bowed with an awful conviction of their sin and danger. There was such a breathing of distress and weeping, that the preacher was obliged to speak to the people and desire silenee, that he might be heard. This was the beginning of the same great and prevailing concern in that place, with which the colony in general was visited.' " 9. They were men of solemn deportment and deep spirituality of sold. Their lives and their lips accorded with each other. Their daily walk furnished the best attesta- tion and illustration of the truth they preached. They were always ministers of Christ, wherever they were to be found or seen. No frivolity, no flippancy, no gaiety, no worldly conviviality or companionships neutralized their public preaching, or marred the work they were seeking to accomplish. The world coidd not point to them as being but slightly dissimilar from itself, or as men who, though faithful in the pulpit, forgot throughout the week their character, their office, their errand. Luther once re- marked, regarding a beloved and much admired friend, " he lives what we preach." So it was with those much-honoured men, Stoddard, Shepard, Mather, Edwards, Ten- nent, and their noble fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life. We ex- tract the following account of Tennent's life and doctrine from the pen of Prince, another of the glorious band. It will illustrate some remarks under the former head as wrell as this :— " He did not indeed at first come up to my expectation, but afterwards exceeded it. In private converse with him, I found him to be a man of considerable parts and learning ; free, gentle, condes- cending ; and, from his own various experience, reading the most noted writers on experimental di- vinity, as well as the Scriptures, and conversing with many who had been awakened by his ministry in New Jersey, where he then lived, he seemed to have as deep an acquaintance with the experi- mental part of religion as any I have conversed with ; and his preaching was as searching and rous- ing as ever I heard. " He seemed to have no regard to please the eyes of his hearers with agreeable gesture, nor their ears with delivery, nor their fancy with language ; but to aim directly at their hearts and consciences, to lay open the ruinous delusions, show them their numerous, secret, hypocritical shifts in religion, and drive them out of every deceitful refuge wherein they made themselves easy with the form of godliness without the power. And many who were pleased in a good conceit of themselves before, now found, to their great distress, they were only self-deceived hypocrites. And though, while the discovery was making, some at first raged, as they have owned to me and others, yet in the progress of the dis- covery many were forced to submit ; and then the power of God so broke and humbled them, that they wauted a further and even a thorough discovery ; they went to hear him, that the secret corrup- tions and delusions of their hearts might be more discovered ; and the more searching the sermon, the more acceptable it was to their anxious minds. " From the terrible and deep convictions he had passed through in his own soul, he seemed to have such a lively view of the divine majesty, the spirituality, purity, extensiveness, and strictness of his law; with his glorious holiness, and displeasure at sin, his justice, truth, and power in punishing the damned ; that the very terrors of God seemed to rise in his mind afresh, when he displayed and bran- dished them in the eyes of unreconciled sinners. And though some could not bear the representation, and avoided his preaching, yet the arrows of conviction, by his ministry, seemed so deeply to pierce the hearts of others, and even some of the most stubborn sinners, as to make them fall down at the feet of Christ, and yield a lowly submission to him. " As to Mr Tennent's preaching : It was frequently both terrible and searching. It was often for matter justly terrible, as he, according to the inspired oracles, exhibited the dreadful holiness, justice, law, threatenings, truth, power, majesty of God ; and his anger with rebellious, impenitent, unbeliev- ing, and Christless sinners ; the awful danger they were every moment in of being struck down to hell, and being damned for ever ; with the amazing miseries of that place of torment. But his exhi- bitions, both for matter and manner, fell inconceivably below the reality : And though this terrible preaching may strongly work on the animal passions and frighten the hearers, rouse the soul, and pre- pare the way for terrible convictions — yet those mere animal terrors, and these convictions are quite different things. " Such were the convictions wrought in many hundreds in this town by Mr Tennent's searching mi- nistry ; and such was the case of those many scores of several other congregations as well as mine, who came to me and others for direction under them. And indeed by all their converse I found, it was not so much the terror as the searching nature of his ministry, that was the principal means of their conviction. It was not merely, nor so much, his laying open the terrors of the law and wrath of God, or damnation of hell (for this they could pretty well bear, as long as they hoped these belonged not to them, or they could easily avoid them), as his laying open their many vain and secret shifts and re- fuges, counterfeit resemblances of grace, delusive and damning hopes, their utter impotence, and im- pending danger of destruction ; whereby they found all their hopes and refuges of lies to fail them, and themselves exposed to eternal ruin, unable to help themselves, and in a lost condition. This searching preaching was both the suitable and principal means of their conviction. " And now was such a time as we never knew. The Rev. Mr Cooper was wont to say, that more came to him in one week in deep concern about their souls, than in the whole twenty-four years of his preceding ministry. I can also say the same as to the numbers who repaired to me. By Mr Cooper's letter to his friend in Scotland, it appears he had had about six hundred different persons in three months' time; and Mr Webb informs me, he had had in the same space about a thousand." — We might swell out these remarks upon the characteristics of the ministry of that day, as illustrative of what a Christian ministry ought ever to be, and as in many- respects exposing and rebuking its defects in our day, but we must not unduly pro- tract our Preface. And, therefore, instead of any further comments of our own, we EDITORS PREFACE. Xlll add a few quotations from Wliitcfield's Journals. The reader will see how they bear upon the preceding statement regarding the Christian ministry. " On Thursday, he preached the public lecture at the Old South. He had chosen another text but it was much impressed on his heart, that he should preach from our Lord's conference with Nico- demus. A great number of ministers were present : and when he came to the word, 'Art thou a master in Isreal, and knowest not these things,' he pays,— 'The Lord enabled me to open my mouth boldly against unconverted ministers ; to caution tutors to take care of their pupils ; and also to ad- vise ministers particularly to examine into the experiences of candidates for ordination. For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reasons why congregations have been so dead is, because they have had dead men preaching to them. O that the Lord may quicken and revive them, for his own name's sake. For how can dead men beget living children ? It is true, indeed, God may convert men by the devil, if he pleases, and so he may by unconverted ministers ; but I believe he seldom makes use of either of them for this purpose. No, the Lord will choose vessels made meet by the operations of the blessed Spirit for his sacred use ; and as for my own part, I would not lay hands on an unconverted man for ten thousand worlds. Un- speakable freedom God gave me while treating on this head. In the afternoon, I preached on the Common to about fifteen thousand people, and collected upwards of L.200 for the orphan house. Just as I had finished my sermon, a ticket was put up to me, wherein I was desired to pray for a person just entered upon the ministry, but under apprehensions that he was unconverted. God enabled me to pray for him with my whole heart ; and I hope that ticket will teach many others not to run before they can give an account of their conversion. If they do, they offer God strange fire." " He preached on Monday at "Westfield and Springfield, and on Tuesday at Suffield, to large au- diences, and with his usual power. A little below Springfield, when crossing a bridge, he was thrown from his horse, and ' stunned for a while ;' but was soon able to remount and proceed. At or near Suffield, he met with a minister, ' who said it was not absolutely necessary for a gospel minister to be converted ;' meaning, doubtless, that though conversion was necessary for his salvation, it was not in- dispensable to his ministerial character and usefulness. This interview gave Whitefield a subject, ' I insisted much in my discourse upon the doctrine of the new birth, and also the necessity of a minister's being converted before he could preach Christ aright. The word came with great power, and a great impression was made upon the people in all parts of the assembly. Many ministers were present. 1 did not spare them. Most of them thanked me for my plain dealing. But one was offended ; and so would more of his stamp if I was to continue longer in New England. For unconverted MINISTERS, ARE THE BANE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.' " " He preached with good success at Milford on Monday morning, and with less at Stratford in the afternoon. He was still more ' restrained at Fairfield and Norwalk on Tuesday, when the weather was cold, snow had fallen, and his hearers were few. Yet he observed that some were affected, and believed the Lord never let him preach in vain. His ride to Stanford, on Tuesday evening, was dark and rainy. That night he was visited with a great inward trial, so that he was pained to the heart. He was somewhat dejected before he went out of his lodgings the next morning, and somewhat dis- tressed for a text after he got into the pulpit. ' But at length the Lord directed me to one, but I looked for no power or success, being very low by my last night's trial. Notwithstanding, before I had preached half-an-hour, the blessed Spirit began to move on the hearers' hearts in a very awful manner. Young, and especially many old people, were surprisingly affected, so that I thought they would have cried out. At dinner, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me again, and enabled me to speak with such vigour against sending unconverted persons into the ministry, that two ministers, with tears in their eyes, publicly confessed, that they had laid their hands on young men, without so much as asking them whether they were borne again of God or not. After dinner, finding my heart much enlarged, I prayed, and with such power, that most in the room were put under concern. And one old minister was so deeply convicted, that, calling Mr Noble and me out, with great difficulty (because of his weeping) he desired our prayers ; for, said he, ' I have been a scholar, and have preached the doctrines of grace for a long time, but I believe 1 have never felt the power of them in my own soul.' O that all unconverted ministers were brought to make the same confession." Such were the instruments. Such were the mighty things accomplished by them in the strength of the Spirit of the Lord. In the different awakenings, there were doubt- xiv EDITOR'S PREFACE. less many things which proclaimed the frailty and imperfection of the agency through which the Holy Spirit wrought his mighty signs and wonders. There were things to remind man that the treasure was in earthen vessels. These revivals were not without their blemishes. There might be errors, there might be imprudencies, there might be excitement, there might be physical emotion ; but still, notwithstanding all that may be spoken against them, the hand of God was manifestly there, awakening, deepen- ing, extending, carrying forward the mighty movement by which the walls and bul- warks of the prince of darkness were, in many of his strongest fastnesses, shaken to their deepest base. The Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those who published it, as well as of those who received and obeyed it. Nothing was to be seen but a faithful minister of Christ, surrounded by a small band of praying ones, leading on the array against the prince of darkness ! There was no pomp, no display, no artifice, no carnal attraction. Yet the ranks of darkness gave way be- fore them, and multitudes owned the power of the simple yet resistless words that fell from their earnest lips ! How could the world but wonder at such vast results, so dis- proportioned to the apparent cause ? How could they but feel, if they did not confess, that all this was the doing of the Lord ? As an illustration of how remarkably the work was of God and not of man, we quote without comment the following passages : — " It is observable how, at tbis remarkable day, a spirit of deep concern would seize upon persons. Some were in the bouse, and some walking in the highway ; some in the woods, and some in the field ; some in conversation, and some in retirement ; some children, and some adults, and some ancient per- sons, would sometimes on a sudden be brought under the strongest impressions, from a sense of the great realities of the other world and eternal things. But such things, as far as I can learn, were usually, if not ever, impressed upon men while they were in some sort exercising their minds upon the word of God or spiritual objects. And for the most part, it has been under the public preaching of the word, that these lasting impressions have been fastened upon them." " Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees and all ages ; the noise among the dry bones waxed louder and louder ; all other talk but about spiritual and eternal things, were soon thrown by. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world ; it was treated among us as a thing of very little consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly business more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it. It was then a dreadful thing amongst us to lie out of Christ, in danger every day of dropping into hell ; and what persons' minds were intent upon was, to escape for their lives, and fly from the wrath to come. All would eagerly lay hold of opportunities for their souls, and were wont very often to meet together in private houses for religious purposes; and such meetings, when appointed, were wont greatly to be thronged. And the work of conversion was carried in a most astonishing manner, and increased more and more. Souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. From day to day, for many months together, might be seen evident instances of sinners brought out of darkness into marvellous light. Our public assemblies were then beautiful; the congregation was alive in God's service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word was preached ; some weep- ing with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbours. Those amongst us that had formerly been converted, were greatly enlivened and renewed with fresh and extraordinary incomes of the Spirit of God ; though some much more than others, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Many that had before laboured under difficulties about their own state, had now their doubts removed by more satisfying experience, and more clear discoveries of God's love." EDITOR'S PREFACE. xv When man proceeds to the accomplishment of some mighty enterprise, he puts forth prodigious efforts, as if by the sound of his axes and hammers he would proclaim his own fancied might, and bear down opposing obstacles. He cannot work without sweat, and dust, and noise. When God would do a marvellous work, such as may amaze all heaven and earth, he commands silence all around, sends forth the still small voice, and then sets some feeble instrument to work, and straightway it is done ! Man toils [and pants, and after all effects but little : the Creator, in the silent majesty of power, noiseless yet resistless, achieves by a word the infinite wonders of omnipotence ! In order to loose the bands of winter, and bring in the verdure of the pleasant spring, he does not send forth his angels to hew in pieces the thickened ice, or to strip oft* from the mountain's side the gathered snows, or to plant anew over the face of the bleak earth, flowers fresh from his creating hand. No. He breathes from his lips a mild warmth into the frozen air ; and forthwith, in stillness, but in irresistible power, the work proceeds ; the ice is sliivered, the snows dissolve, the rivers resume their flow, the earth awakes as out of sleep, the lulls and the valleys put on their freshening ver- dure, the fragrance of earth takes wing and fills the air, — till a new world of beauty rises in silence amid the dissolution of the old ! Such is God's method of workino-, both in the natural and in the spiritual world — silent, simple, majestic, and resistless ! Such was the reformation ! Such were the revivals in Scotland under our fathers of the covenant ! Such was the Kirk of Shotts on that memorable Pentecost, when the unstudied words of a timid, trembling youth, carried salvation to five hundred souls. Such was Ayr in its Pentecostal days, when from the lonely church at midnight, there went up to heaven the broken sighs of that man of prayer, John Welsh. And such was Northampton in later times, when Edwards watched and prayed for its citizens, and when, from the closet of that holy man, there went forth the living power that wrought such wonders there ! " And is the Lord's hand shortened that it cannot save, or is his ear heavy that it cannot hear ?" Dr Gillies, the author of the " Historical Collections," was one whose ministry God seems to have extensively blest ; and whose zeal for the reviving of God's work led him not only to search out the times of refreshing enjoyed by the churches in other days, but to use every effort to bring the records of these days both before his own people, and before his brethren in the ministry. Besides the two volumes of Histo- rical Collections, he published an Appendix in 1761, and had prepared some materials for a supplement, which was published by Dr Erskine of Edinburgh, after his death. During 1750 and 1751, he published a weekly address to his people, which contains much valuable matter upon the same subject. He was born in 1712, and was the son the Rev. John Gillies, minister of Carriston, near Brechin. In 1742, he was ordained minister of the College Church, Glasgow, where he remained till his death, in 1796. The records of his life and ministry are very scanty indeed ; and thereby, we doubt not, the Church of Christ has suffered loss. We know not how far private documents might yet supply the loss. If such exist, why should they be kept from the Church ? xvi EDITOR'S PREFACE. We have little more to say of his character than what is contained in the following extract from Dr Erskine's biography of him, in the Supplement to his Historical Col- lections : — " To grow in the experimental knowledge of Christ, and to conduct others to that knowledge, was the business of his life, and the chiefest joy of Ins heart. Love to God, to the Redeemer, to all men, though especially to the household of faith, animated him to unwearied efforts in promoting the cause of truth and holiness. His pulpit ser- vices were conducted in a style, plain, simple, and unadorned, yet with force and energy. Besides generally delivering three discourses every Sabbath, several years of his life were distinguished, by his instituting public lectures and serious exhortations, twice and often thrice every week. While health and strength permitted him, he was equally faithful in visiting and examining the people of his charge, in visiting the sick and af- flicted, and in every other private parochial duty. For some time he published a weekly paper, addressed to the consciences and hearts of his people. His warm affectionate expostulations from the pulpit and from the press, drew the attention, and awakened the religious concern of many. A pious student of divinity informed me a few days ago, that his first serious thoughts arose from one of the Doctor's weekly papers occa- sionally falling in his way. Thus was the Doctor instant in season and out of season, and studied to keep back from Ms people nothing profitable, but to declare to them the whole counsel of God. Indeed, they had daily lessons in the consistency and uniformity of his conduct, and in his upright, circumspect, and exemplary walk. He approved himself a minister of God, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by kindness, by love unfeigned ; and to his dear hearers his mouth was open, and his heart enlarged. He was gentle among them, even as a nurse cherisheth her children ; and being affectionately desirous of them, he was willing to have imparted to them, not the gospel of God only, but his own soul also, because they were dear to him. Having been fifty-four years their pastor, he had baptized and married the larger part of his congregation. To him they looked up as a father and a friend ; and many tender tokens of his affection will long five in their grateful remembrance. When, in the last years of his life, he was only able to appear in church at sacramental occasions, and to exhort one table, the most indifferent spectator could not but observe the sympathy and love which shone in the faces of his hearers, and the tears which they could not restrain, when he solemnly blessed them in the name of the Lord, and spoke of his dissolution, as being at hand, with looks of humility, serenity and joy." Kelso, March 1, 1845. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY WAV OF SUPPLEMENT TO THE AUTHOR'S ORIGINAL PREFACE. The venerable author of this Work has prefixed a few remarks to his volumes respecting the nature and use of such a kind of history as that which his compilation furnishes. In it he adverts at the outset to the inspired narratives of the New Tes- tament, as to the success of the Gospel in Apostolic times. His sketch of this is very brief, as in- deed, was necessary and fitting, consisting of little more than a reference to the different passages in the Acts of the Apostles, in which mention is made of the success of the Gospel in different parts of Judea and of the World. We may venture a little farther back, and, for the sake of unity and com- pleteness, point out the allusions made in Old Tes- tament history to the success of the same Gospel at different periods of the former dispensation. From the beginning downward, the work of the Holy Spirit presents to us many of the same fea- tures and characteristics as in our own day. Pe- riods of revival and decay succeed each other. Iniquity abounds, and is allowed to proceed onward apparently unchecked, as if God had forsaken the earth. A few remain faithful and testify for Jeho- vah. All in vain. Then suddenly God steps in, makes bare his arm, does his own work, puts aside the instrument, manifests special grace, and reaps special glory to his name. Then, perhaps, judg- ment succeeds, — either the swift vengeance of his sharp sword or a long night of death. Anon he draws nigh once more, puts forth his hand, and the tide rises in silent majesty, like the Ocean, along all its shores. Again barrenness prevails and desolation covers the land, Then he opens the windows of heaven, and the swollen torrents rush along the valleys, diffusing life on every side. Such are his dealings with the children of men, and such the plan on which the kingdom of grace is administered, having, like that of nature, its seasons and fluctua- tions, its winter and its spring, its droughts and its floods ; all to shew forth more clearly God himself as the doer of the whole, to sink the creature and exalt the Creator ; that thus men may not mistake the hand by whose pressure the tide rises, from whose invisible but resistless influence every ripple takes its form and course. All is God, and God is all ; man the mere subject or spectator of the change. It is God's earth, made for his glory, and he doeth with it according to his will ; manifesting, at even- new turn of its history some new marvels, of wisdom, love, grace, and power ; alike in his dealings with a rebellious world and in the calling in of his own chosen ones, whose names are in the Lamb's book of life. God has had his single witnesses from the be- ginning, each in succession bearing testimony to the love of a redeeming God .and looking joyfdly forward through the gloom of night to the rising of the morning star. But it is not so much with the single witness-bearers that we have at present to do, as with those groups of them which God from time to time has raised up for the glory of his name. Our narrative is not so much designed to be the his- tory of solitary stars, however bright, as of clusters and constellations, though perhaps apparently of inferior lustre. 1. The first indication of any great ingather- ing of souls is in the fourth chapter of Genesis, where it is written, " Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." These words refer, no doubt, to the effects of such an ingathering, rather than to the nature or manner of it ; still, as President Edwards remarks, this seems to have been the effect of " a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit of God — the first remarkable outpouring that ever was." 2. There appears to have been some spe- cial work of the Spirit in the days of Noah, imme- II INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. diately before the Deluge. We might have inferred this from the general tenor of God's dealings since, from which it is manifest, that always before the in- fliction of judgment he sends his Spirit, not merely to strive with men, but to gather the wheat into his garner before the chaff is set on fire. Probably this was the case in Noah's days. The mass of the world s population remained impenetrable, and went on recklessly in crime, with judgment hanging over them. But there were, in all likelihood, some with whom the Spirit not merely strove, but strove effec- tually, and who were safely lodged in the better ark before the deluge came, being taken away from the evil to come. 3. Abraham's day was, in many respects, a remarkable one. There was a band of witnesses for God all raised up together, such as had never been seen, before nor since, till the days of the Apostles. Abraham, Lot, Melchizedec, Job, with his four friends, who, with all their failings, seem to have been men of God ; all these coming together not only lead us to rejoice that God had such witnesses in that age, but also to infer that there were many more such who, though unrecorded here, are yet " written in Heaven." Surely the Holy Spirit wrought mightily in that period, when men, such as those we have named, stand forth as the representatives of the Church, and monuments of divine grace and power. 4. During the wilderness sojournings of Israel, there are several indications of a work of God at different periods. We read, for instance, regarding the people, that, u when he slew them then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God." (Ps. Ixxviii. 34.) And though, with regard to the majority of the nation, this was done feignedly, and under the mere influence of terror, still it is almost certain that at such seasons, there was much real turning to the Lord, and much of the Spirit's awakening and con- verting power manifested before the eyes of Israel. While the soul of Moses was grieved at their false- heartedness and formality, yet doubtless it was oftentimes cheered by witnessing many real conver- sions. 5. The days of Joshua seem to have been days of blessing. The unanimity which prevailed among the people, the cordiality with which they followed him as their leader, and the zeal which they on several emergencies manifested for the glory of God, indicate something more of genuine reli- gion than had before been manifested. And when, in answer to his dying charge, they solemnly de- clared with one voice, " The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey," (Josh. xxiv. 24.), we can scarcely fail to recognize in this the Holy Spirit's power, in giving them one heart and one soul to seek the Lord. 6. The next great awak- ening is that recorded in the beginning of the second chapter of Judges. The angel of the Lord " came up from Gilgal to Bochim," to reprove the people for their ingratitude and backsliding. On hearing his expostulation of mingled severity and love, " they lifted up their voice and wept." The Holy Spirit seems to have descended at Bochim, as he did at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, in convincing power. The whole camp was awakened. One united cry of conviction and alarm rose from the tents of Israel, and the sacrifice which they imme- diately offered shews that their convictions drove them to the blood of sprinkling. Surely this w_as the mighty hand of God. It must have been a solemn scene. 7. On several occasions during the period of the Judges, there were remarkable movements among the people, very similar to what had taken place in the wilderness. The seasons of alternate revival and decay are perhaps more marked during these four hundred years than at any other period. Israel forsook God, and worshipped idols. God gave them over to their enemies, and wrought against them with his terrible judgments. Then he returned to them in mercy, swept off their invaders, and poured out the spirit of repentance upon them. 8. In the days of Samuel, God seems to have made bare his arm. He seems to have wrought mightily in the midst of them through means of that holy man, who is truly one of the most wonderful of all Israel's mighty men, combining in his own person the offices of prophet, priest, and king, and present- ing to us, from childhood to age, a most marvellous example of consistent holiness, childlike simplicity, manly boldness, and heavenly walking with God. 9. Under David there seems to have been a most ex- tensive revival of the work of God in Israel. The Spirit seems to have been plentifully poured out on the nation in those days, when he fashioned the lips of David to utter those manifold breathings of his soul, which, while they guided the worship of Israel in that age, led their eye forward to Him who was the true theme of all these songs of Zion. 10. Solomon's days seem to have been days of refreshing. The Holy Spirit was manifestly present at the dedi- cation of the temple, making the people's hearts to overflow with gladness when coming together to wor- ship God in the midst of the varied types, which spoke of the manifold fulness of a coming Saviour. Jesus was then lifted up, and men were drawn to him by the Father. II. Several periods in the history of the kings of Judah, seem to have been blest with the outpouring of the Spirit. In the reigns of Jehosha- phat, Josiah, and Hezekiah, God visited his people, and sent rain to his weary heritage, that his name might not be forgotten in Israel, and that a pro- mised Saviour might not want many, even in the days of Israel's idolatry, to rejoice in his approach- ing advent. 12. Probably, during their captivity, God gave evidence that he had not forsaken his people, even in their desolation and exile. Many- were raised up in Babylon to testify for the true God. Tribulation seems to have humbled them ; and the hearts of the believing ones were gladdened INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 311 by receiving a little revival in their bondage, as well as by having Jehovah as " a little sanctuary," in the land of their enemies. Even in Babylon, the Holy Spirit wrought His mighty wonders, and ma- nifested His power in raising up and sanctifying such men as Ezekiel and Daniel, two of the most holy, heavenly, spiritual characters which the Old Testament presents to us. 13. At the return from Babylon the Spirit again moved upon the face of that long-desolate land, bringing order out of confu- sion, and light out of darkness, " renewing the face of the earth." Something 11 ore was wrought than merely rearing the walls of Jerusalem or rebuilding and readorning the courts and chambers of the temple. Living temples rose by the Spirit's hand, not only in Jerusalem, but throughout the cities and villages of Judah. 14. The last scriptural record of a revival in Israel is that alluded to by the prophet Malachi. " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another." (Mai. iii. 16.) This description has manifest reference to some striking spiritual movement among that degenerate and God-forsaking people. It is not the picture of an ordinary state of things. It is not the mere " two or three " meeting together to talk cf their common hopes and common joys. It is evidently some drawing together of God's faithful ones, a company whose numbers the Spirit had been adding to in a very striking way, a band such as the praying ones in the upper chamber of Jerusalem, after the Lord's ascension, a band such as that which drew around Wesley aud Whitefield, in our own land, a band such as that which God seems calling out and joining together in our own day. The Lord call out thousands and tens of thousands more than have been already done ! The Lord link together, in blessed bonds of love, those whom he has already called ! The Lord make ready a peo- ple for the coming of the Son of Man ! The present situation of the Church of Christ bears a striking resemblance to its condition in some of these past ages to which we have been referring. Iniquity prevails, and the love of many waxes cold; yet still there is a remnant witnessing for God amid a crooked and perverse generation; still the Holy Spirit is manifestly working among us, and reviving us in our bondage. True there are no scenes such as that of Israel at Bochim, — a whole people melted down before the Lord, and trembling at his word ; nor are there scenes such as that of Pentecost, when three thousand were converted under one sermon. Yet still there are tokens of God's presence and fa- vour even amid marks of his just displeasure against our sins. There are signs of his returning to bless us as in the days of old. In the days of Zerubabbel, when the Jewish Church was just beginning to raise her head a little amid the ruins of Jerusalem, the prophet Haggai was sent to comfort her under her desolations, with the assurance that Jehovah was still with her, and to cheer her with the prospect of coming, though still distant glory. Israel's consolation may be ours. W e have the same assurances of unchanging love to take refuge in, and the same prospect of ap- proaching glory and deliverance, not only for the Church of Christ, but for the whole earth. Nothing could make Jehovah break his covenant with Israel or lead him to forsake his people and his temple. It was not the extinguished lire and the shivered altar that could induce him to depart from the shrine where his glory had so long made its visible abode. It was not the ruined temple with its plundered courts and spoiled glory, that could lead him to for- sake the Mount Zion that he loved. It was not the deserted city, with its fallen towers and dismantled bulwarks, nor the desolate land with its unfilled un- trodden fields, that could drive him from the beloved Jerusalem, or from the soil which he had given to Abraham, and to his seed as an inheritance for ever. Nor was it all Israel's long trangressi on, aggravated and multiplied, age after age, that could make him cast them utterly away, if only they would return unto him from all their backslidings. Even so may we take refuge in his grace, resting ourselves upon his promises, and looking to him to revive his work in the midst of us. True our iniquities have separated us from God. Our backslidings testify against us. We have sinned away his mercy. We have grieved the Holy Spirit, so that his hand works not now among us in the same mighty power as in other days. Our pride, in which we so much resemble Israel, has grieved him. He cannot dwell with those whose feeling is, " stand by, for I am holier than thou." Our unteachableness and stubbornness of heart have vexed him and con- strained him to leave us to the blindness of our own dark minds. Will he always strive with those who will not be taught, and who prefer man's wisdom to his ? Our " anger, wrath, malice, clamour, and evil-speaking" have grieved him; for he is the Spirit of love, his emblem is the dove, and how can he dwell amid the bitter strife of human passions ? Our inconsistency and worldly-mindedness have banished him from our coasts ; for how can he whose office is to glorify Christ abide with those who name the name of Christ, yet do not depart from iniquity ? Nor can anything more certainly quench him than that formality and hollowness in religion which is but too prevalent in these days. The drawing near to God with the lip while the heart is far distant, is one of the sins which God most abhors, and which tends more, perhaps, than any other sin, to grieve the Spirit away. And oh, what an amount of for- mal, hollow profession is there amongst us ! The churches of Christ, like Jeshurun, have " waxed fat and kicked." Like Ephesus, they have left their first love. Like Sardis, they have but a " name that they live and are dead." Like Laodicea, they IV INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. fancy that they are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, not knowing that they are " wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked." Yet God has not forsaken them ; and he is mak- ing these, their iniquities and backslidings, the oc- casion of displaying yet more of the riches of his grace. He is lifting up his voice to awaken us from our security. He is stretching out his hand to shake us out of our slothfulness, and causing us feel that it is not for any Christian, or for any Church of Christ, to be enjoying the luxury of " ease in Zion," and forgetting that this is the wilderness, not Ca- naan, Egypt, not Jerusalem, a place for the pitching of our tents day by day, not the city of everlasting habitations. Oh that the Churches of Christ would awake at the sound of his voice ! Oh that they would turn unto him who hath torn and who will heal them, who hath smitten and who will bind them up ! Oh that they would recognise the Holy Spirit's hand and power, from the beginning downwards to the present Kutso, Oct. 21,1843. hour. Oh that they would cease to think of him as some vague diffusive influence, and acknowledge him as the Living Spirit of God, by whose personal indwelling and inworking in our souls, we are quick- ened, convinced, converted, comforted, sanctified, and made meet for the kingdom ! "Who can say how much of our present barrenness and backsliding may be traced to our not honouring the Spirit with that honour which is due unto his name ? Dr .Owen truly remarks, " there is nothing excellent among men, whether it is absolutely extraordinary, or whether it consists in an eminent improvement of their abilities, but is ascribed in Scripture to the Holy Spirit as the immediate operator and efficient cause of it. Of old He was all ; now some would have him to be nothing." How can there be prosperity in a church or progress in a soul where there is not the distinct acknowledging and honouring of the Holy Spirit in every thing? " He that ii a in an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith cxto the Churches/' : _^ • 3IT • LOGICAL AUTHOR'S PREFACE, ON THE CHARACTERS AND USES OF THIS KIND OF HISTORY. All who are acquainted with the New Testament, know what a considerable part of it is employed in historical narrations of the success of the Gospel. We meet with them in the Evangelists ; the Acts of the Apostles are a continued series of them ; and thcy are even to be found in the Epistles intermixed with doctrinal and practical subjects; a convincing proof that they have a tendency, by the divine blessing, to promote real religion. These Scripture narrations (the true standard of this manner of writing) are of two sorts : the first sort contain accounts of considerable numbers wrought upon, at one and the same time. And these accounts are sometimes more compendious, sometimes more diffuse and circumstantiate. The second sort con- tain large accounts of particular eminent persons, such as Paul, Cornelius, the jailor at Philippi, &c. The chief materials of the first sort of narrations are such as these; 1. The numbers that were con- verted, sometimes told in a more general way, as when it is said, " Believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." And " the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly." Sometimes in amore particular and deter- minate way, as when we are told, that " there were added to the church about three thousand souls." And that " the number of the men who believed were about five thousand." 2. The religious instructions that were the means of this happy change, and the instruments employed in proposing these instructions. 3. The providences that brought them in the way of those that reaped such benefit by them. 4. The earnest prayers that preceded such times, and the uncommon influences of the Holy Spirit that attended them. 5. The blessed fruits of holiness in the lives of the converts, as when we are told, " They con- tinued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people." And again, " the churches had rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied." And, in another place, " Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ; and ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much afflic- tion, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia." By the way we may notice, that the short descriptions contained in the passage just now quoted, of the blessed change wrought upon the hearts of sinners, when redemption is applied to them, the divine image restored, and the precious grace repentance, faith, and love, &c. implanted, are to be considered as explained more fully in the other parts of Scripture that are more strictly doctrinal and prac- tical, which show more particularly the nature of those blessed attainments, and teach us to make pro- per allowances for the diversity of degrees in spiritual attainments of the same kind. As to the second sort of narrations, concerning particular eminent persons, we find these used in such cases as the following: 1. "When the persons were made remarkably instrumental in promoting the Gospel ; especially if they were formerly noted opposers of it, as Paul ; or had denied it in any de- gree, as Peter. 2. When they were men of extra- ordinary gifts and graces, and of exemplary diligence and fervency, as Barnabas and Apollos ; descriptions of such characters being very proper parts of a his- tory of the success of the Gospel, both as such men were instances of it in their own persons, and as they were instruments in the hand of God to bring in others. 3. When they were men of exemplary fide- lity and steadiness, in sealing the truth with their sufferings of various kinds, as Stephen, Paul, Silas, VI AUTHORS PREFACE. Peter. 4. When there was something remarkably gracious, or remarkably providential, or both, in their conversion ; as the jailor and Onesimus. Several other particulars might be added, but these few hints may be sufficient to direct an intelligent reader who is acquainted with the Scriptures, to judge how far the following collection is agreeable to the Scripture pattern oi this species of writing. There is indeed an infinite disparity betwixt in- spired and uninspired writings : yet it is to be con- sidered that the knowledge of facts relating to the success of the Gospel, is represented to have had very good effects even before they were recorded in holy Scripture, when spread merely in the ordinary way of well attested report or correspondence. l And this show show wisely He, who is at once the author of nature, and God of all grace, does, in the opera- tions of his grace, act suitably to the frame of our nature, on which example has so peculiar an influ- ence, though far from being of sufficient efficacy in this case, without the Almighty influences of his Holy Spirit. And here it seems to deserve particular notice, that though the age of the apostles was that of mira- cles, and immediate inspiration : and though it was easy to Him who instructed his servants in that way, in the knowledge of the truths of the Gospel, to have informed them at any time, in the same way, as to the facts relating to the success of it: yet the great apostle Paul, is made to set us a pattern of seeking information about such facts from men who had access to know them.2 This consideration ought to make us beware of despising the knowledge we may attain of the success of the Gospel, in the ordinary way of moral or historical evidence. When witnesses are sufficient as to their charac- ters, their numbers, and their means of information; their testimony affords a very high degree of moral evidence. This is still increased when it has the concurrence of adversaries ; as the accounts we have of the primitive Christians, for instance, are great'y confirmed by the testimony of Pliny, a heathen. A nd the evidence which facts admit of is still greater, when what is attested is not merely one single fact, or a number of facts happening at the same instant; but a permament series of them exposed to the view of numbers. Of this kind was the evidence Paul had of the conversion of these Corinthians, which he speaks of not as peculiar to himself and other apostles, but as known to all, " Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known aud read of all men, for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us."3 Such evidence of holiness is what the Scripture calls elsewhere " a light shin- ing before men," and what makes its subjects to " shine as lights in the world." As to the uses of the following collection, it is i See Rom. i. 8, compared with 1st Thess. i. 7, 8. 2 1st Thess. iii. 5, C. 3 2d Cor. iii. 2, 3. hoped several will occur to the intelligent serious reader, which need not be enumerated here. Only (as was observed in the recommendation annexed to the proposals): 1. Without such a collection, several smaller pieces, out of which valuable materials are here taken, are in danger of being lost. 2. When similar facts, that were so dispersed, and sometimes mixed with other subjects in different books (some of which are rare in this country) are now united, so as to be laid before the reader in one view, and me- thodized according to the order of time in which the events happened in different places; they may be read and compared with much greater advantage in subserviency to the various branches of edification for which they ought to be improved. .'J. Though the chief subject of the whole is the success of the Gospel ; yet, as it is of great use to know the evils which have been found, in experience, to have greatly marred that success, the composures, here collected, do contain important informations on that head. 4. Though by far the greatest part of the materials are taken from the useful writings formerly published, yet there are some new materials of so much the greater importance, as they relate directly to the evidences of the perseverance of goodly numbers, concerning whom several things formerly published could only narrate hopeful beginnings. To which may be added, ■">. That the lovers of religious intelli- gence, who observe involuntary defects in this collec- tion, for want of more materials, have in this an ar- gument to excite them to get these defects made up, that so this kind of history may be gradually more completed. And, if this end is gained, it may prove, by the divine blessing, of real service to the interests of religion. I shall conclude, with insisting a little upon one particular improvement of all our reading and con- versation of this kind, which, for various reasons, claims peculiar attention : and that is, that it should move us to continual ardent prayer, that the Lord would give more success than ever to his gospel in all parts of the earth. If this is one of the branches of practical religion that has been least inculcated, in proportion to its importance, is not this an additional inducement to greater application to a too much neglected duty ? Does not the first half of the prayer, which our Lord himself taught us, relate to this case ? so that to put up any of the first three petitions of it, is in effect to pray for the success of the gospel. But, besides that excellent pattern of prayer, is there not a great variety of other scripture motives to this duty, from scripture precepts, examples, and promises ; from the love we owe to God, to his Zion, to his ordinances and truths, to his saints, to all men, to our own souls ; from the tendency of such exer- cises, to strengthen and evidence the graces whence they flow; to purify the heart through grace from the opposite evils, and to promote the heavenly and an- A.UTHOBS PKEF.v Til gelical joy resulting from dispensations that fulBlthe desires implied in such pray Is it not a just motive to superior earnestness, in the duty under consideration, that whereas in pr ing merely for ourselves, we pray but for the happi- -ul ; in prayer f .r the success of the gos- pel, we pray for the happiness of thousands, and for our own anions the rest? If it is cruelty to indulge iudifference about the temporal interests of others, ■ially the most important of them, though even these deserve not tlie name of happiness; is not a worse name, if worse then- is, than cruelty, due to indifference about these eternal interests of men, to which their highest temporal interests bear no pro- portion:1 1< it not to kindle ardent desire, and prayer for the success of the gospel, that the scripture descrip- tions of* eminent dispensations of that kind, are made with such uncommon magnificence of style, as to re- semble descriptions of hi "Zion is said to awake, to put on strength, to put on her beautiful garments, to arise and shake herself from the dust. to arise and shine, because her light is come, and the glory of the Lord risen on her, and that his glory is seen on her, whence nations will come to the brightness of her rising; that her righteousness breaks forth as brightness, and her salvation as I lamp thai burncth; yea, that she is clothed with the robes of righteousness, and garments of salvation, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels; so as she is a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a dia- dem of beauty in the hand of her God. Her stones laid with fair colours, her foundations with sapphires, her windows made of agates, her gates carbuncles, and all her borders of pleasant stones. Not only the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, and the glory of Lebanon given her; but her wilderness made like Eden, and her desert as the garden of the Lord. The Lord rending the heavens, coming down, plac- ing salvation in Zion for Israel his glory ; appearing in his glory to build up Zion, and by doing so, tak- ing to him his great power and reigning. Making his work to appear unto his servants, and his glory to their children, so as the beauty of the Lord their God may be upon them, girding his sword ou his thigh in his glory and majesty, and in his majesty rid- ing prosperously, making his people see his goings, as the goings of their God and their King in his sanctuary. As walking amidst the golden candle- sticks, glorifying the house of his glory, and mak- ing the place of his feet glorious. On all the glory creating a defence, and shewing himself a wall of fire round about Zion, and the glory in the midst of her, as her everlasting light, her God and her glory." Should it not greatly add to the ardour of our prayers, for the success of the gospel, and our praise for every instance of it, when we consider that such events are represented, not only as the objects of Zion's heavenly joy, but of a joy infinitely more glo- rious, and in which it is her highest dignity to share, that of Him whose great and free lo\e makes its own chief effects, consistently with self-suffkienev, tin- objects of great complacency, without being the cause of any advantage. " Be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create ; for behold I create Je- rusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy ; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. ' No wonder such expressions should be followed with promises about putting an end to the voice of weep- ing: and when they are compared with others of the same import, are they not a commentary on our Lord's words, about his servants, as entering into his joy, and his joy as being in them, that their joy may be full ? In the Hundred and Second Psalm, when ti< mentioned as a proof, that the time of Gods favouring Zion was come, because his servants were favouring her dust and stones; is it not plainly implied that such glorious days cannot be far oil", when there is much longing and pleading for them? and though the regarding the prayer of the destitute, mentioned in that Psalm, is indeed accomplished, in dispensa- tions of grace, to particular members of Zion ; is there not gooi ground from the connection of purposes, to understand it there, a< respecting the general inte- rests of Zion, which are the subject both of the pre- ceding and following context, especially considering that remarkable character of the mentioned regard to prayer; that it was to be written on record, not only for the present but future generations.'' To restrict that context to the return from Babylon would be absurd, when it speaks so evidently of New Testament times, and seems to extend even to the latest and happiest of them. Mean time, may it not be considered as one of these Scriptures, which directs us to consider New Testament revivals, not only as accomplishments of Old Testament predic- tinns, but also as answers to Old Testament prayers? according to what is said of the tribes cf the ancient church, " Unto which promise made of God to our fathers, our twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. "'-' Though great importunity in such prayers is strongly inculcated in the expression of the sixty- second chapter of Isaiah, which require the Lord's people not to hold their peace, not to keep silence day or night; and, to give themselves no rest; is there not something still more astonishing in what is added, verse seventh of the same chapter, about their giving Him no rest, till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth ? The above persuasives to prayer, are things about which it may be hoped, that people who differ about other things must agree. Such pious persons as are not yet sufficiently informed, and persuaded of seve- i Is. Lev. 18, lf>. - Acts, xxvj. C, 7. V1U AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ral past events, as instances of the success of the Gospel, must own, that they see not the less, but rather the more need of prayer for future success, even such as shall unite us all in thanksgiving, for what we must own we are now bound to unite in prayer for. Are not all these late extraordinary dispensations of grace, with which the Lord has favoured so many different corners, so many gracious invitations and encouragements, and consequently so many new additional obligations to ask for more, as they put new arguments in our mouths; so that, in pleading, that the arm of the Lord may " Awake as in the days of old," we may add now also as in the days of late. If before these late gracious dispensations, prayer for such blessings was so much neglected, that in some respect it may be said, the Lord was found of people when they sought him not, and did wonderful things which we looked not for ; may it not be hoped, if there shall be an abundant united seeking and looking for him, a seeking his face, and that with all the heart, that we shall find, that he has not commanded the house of Jacob to do this in vain, and that as he never was, he never will be " a wilderness, nor land of darkness" to them who long for him ? It is indeed too certain that there are also, in our day, several discouragements relating to the public interests of religion; particularly the opposition to Christianity, whether more openly or otherwise, sur- passing perhaps what has appeared in Christendom for some ages. Our own sinfulness and ingratitude may also discourage us. But will remissness in prayer be justified by the things which shew the greatest need of earnestness? should not such things rather excite our attention the more to the assurances given us, that when so employed we are pleading for a cause that must finally prevail ; and whose most threatening dangers and lowest times have frequently been soon followed with the most signal appearances in its behalf: as is evident from the times preceding the deliverances from Egypt and Babylon, the first promulgation of the Gospel, and the Protestant refor- mation. So agreeable is it to the church's experience and the Scripture promises concerning her, that when her power is gone, and she seems in imminent danger of being consumed; the power and good-will of him who dwelt in the bush seasonably interposes ; and the time of need proves the time for the Lord to work. How much is the exercise of faith and hope, even under public discouragements, extolled in Scripture, not only as a forerunner of success, but also as mat- ter of joyful reflection when it comes, as in that passage of the prophet, " The rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth ; and it shall be said in that day, lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation I"1 Whether the times of the greatest and most ex- tensive flourishing of the Gospel promised to the church in the last days be far off or near at hand, is it not desirable to be of the number of those to whose fervent prayers these inestimable blessings shall be gracious returns? seeing it is evident from Scripture, that God will be enquired after, even for what he has absolutely promised ; and that they who see such promises only afar off ought to embrace them. But it is no small encouragement, that as the glory of the latter days is still necessarily ap- proaching, so some interpreters of great name, have, without presuming to determine the precise time, brought arguments of considerable weight to prove in general that the happy period cannot be far oft". Sir Isaac Newton in his observations on the predic- tions, relating to that period in Daniel and the Apo- calypse, which were published more than twenty years ago, in Part II. of his Book, Chap. I.near the end, has some remarkable passages upon the grounds of that probability. He observes, that in Daniel xii. 4, that prophet was commanded to shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end : " That therefore is a part of this prophecy that it shall not be understood" (so clearly and fully) "before the last age of the world : but if the last age, the age of opening, these things be now approaching, as by the great successes of late interpreters it seems to be; we have more encouragement than ever to look into these things. If the general preaching of the Gospel be approaching, it is to us and our posterity that those words mainly belong. ' In the time of the end the wise shall understand, but none of the wicked shall understand." Blessed is he thai readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.'1 "3 And afterwards he adds, " Amongst the interpreters of the last age there is scarce one of note who hath not made some discovery worth knowing ; and thence I seem to gather that God is about opening these mys- teries. The success of others put me upon consider- ing it; and if I have done any thing which may be useful to following writers, I have my design." i Is. xxv. 8, 9. 2 Dan. xii. 4. 10. 3 Apoc. i. 3. HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. BOOK I. A FEW HINTS OF THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER I. ITS QUICK AND EXTENSIVE PROGRESS IS THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. SOME OF TI1E MEANS EMPLOYED BT DIVIn:: wisdom tor PROMOTING it ; such a>, 1. the apologies fob CHRISTIANITY WRITTEN BY MEN OF LEARNING. '.'. THE ZEAL OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. :3. THE HOLINESS OK Till. IP. LIVES. 4. THEIR PATIENCE AND CONSTANCY IN SUFFERING MARTYRDOM. THE GOSPEL NOT ONLY SUBSIST! HUT FLOU- RISHES UNDER REPEATED PERSECUTION IN THE TEARS 87, 92, 108, 118, 167, 205, 237, 250, 257, 303. From Millar's Propagation ofChriltia Vol. I. j'":/' 165, iVc. The swift progress of the Gospel, iii the time of the Apostles, through most part of the then known world, was indeed astonishing. What followed was also remarkable; especially, if we consider that Christianity, from the spirituality of its precepts, its tendency to suppress lusts and corruptions, and its contrariety to the idolatry and superstition which had obtained a footing in the world for some thou- sands of years, was likely to meet with the fiercest opposition. In fact, it did meet with such opposi- tion; yet still it prospered, being attended with the power of God. Origen tells Celsus1, " Many, both Greeks and Barbarians, wise and unwise, contend for the truth of our religion, even to the laying down their lives, a thing not known to any other profession in the world;" and he challenges him'2, " To shew such an unspeakable number, reposing confidence in ^Escu- lapius, as he could shew of those who had embraced the faith of the holy Jesus." When Celsus objects, " That Christianity was a clandestine religion that crept up and down in corners;'' Origen answers3, " That the religion of the Christians was better known through the world than the dictates of their best philosophers.'' Nor were they mean and ignorant persons only that came over to Christianity. But, as Arnobius observes4, "Is not this an argument for our faith, that in so little a space of time, the sacraments of Christ's great name are diffused over the world ; that orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, and philosophers, men of great genius, love our religion, i Book i. Pp. 21, 22. 2 Book iii. p. 124. 3 Book. i. p.7. * Against the Gentiles, Book i. p. 53. B raising these things wherein before they trusted? that servants will rather suffer torments from their : masters, wives sooner part with their husbands, and 1 children chuse to be disinherited by their parents, rather than abandon the Christian faith?" TertoIKan, addressing himself to the Roman go- vernors, in behalf of the Christians, assures them1, ■• That though Christians be as strangers of no long Standing, yet they had tilled all places of their do- minions, their cities, islands, castles, corporations, councils, armies, tribes, the palace, senate, and courts of judicature ; only they had left to the Hea- thens their temples. They are fit an.l ready to war, though they yield themselves to be killed for their religion. Had they a mind to revenge themselves, their numbers were great enough to appear in open arms, having a party not in this or that province, but in all quarters of tin- world. Nay, should they all but agree to retire out of the Roman empire, what a loss would there be of so many subjects. The world would be amazed at the solitude which would ensue upon it; and you would have more enemies than friends; whereas now your enemies are fewer, because of the multitude of Christians, almost all your subjects and best citizens consisting of Christians. It would be more than a sufficient revenge to us, that your city, if we were gone, would be an empty possession to unclean spirits: and there- fore Christianity is not to be called a trouble to your cities, but a favour; nor are we to be accounted enemies to mankind, but only adversaries to human errors?" The same learned Author, writing to Scapula, deputy of Africa, then persecuting the Christians, desires him to consider2, " If he went on with his persecution, what he would do with these many thousands, both of men and women, of every rank and age, that would readily offer themselves? what fires or swords must he have to dispatch them? Carthage itself must be decimated, his own friends and acquaintances, the principal men and matrons in the city, will suffer; if you spare not us, spare yourself, spare Carthage ; have pity on the province." Pliny the younger, though a Heathen, confesses to the Emperor3, " That the cause of the Christians was a matter worthy of deliberation, by reason of the multitudes who were concerned; for many of each sex, of every age and quality, were and must be called in question; this superstition, says he, having in- 1 Apology, Chap, xxxvii. p. 46. 2 To Scapula, Chap. xv. p. 92. 3 Pliny's Epistles, Book x. £pis. 97. JO SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. fected and over-run not the city only, but towns and countries, the temples and sacrifices being generally forsaken." Justin Martyr tells Tryphon, the Jew1, "That however they might boast of the universality of their religion, that there were many nations and places of the world, where they nor it ever came; whereas there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or by what name soever they be called, even the most rude and unpolished nations, where prayers and thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the world, through the name of the crucified Jesus." Irenneus, who flourished in the year 170, informs us2, " This preaching of the Gospel, and this faith the church scattered up and down, the whole world maintains, as inhabiting one house, and believes it with one heart and soul, teaches and preaches it as with one mouth ; for though there be different lan- guages in the world, that doctrine that has been delivered to the church is but one and the same. The chinches which are founded in Germany do not believe otherwise than those in Spain, France, Egypt, and Lybia, as well as those in the middle of the world." Tertullian, above-cited, gives a larger account,3 " Their sound," says he, " went through all the earth (speaking of the Apostles,) in whom but in Christ, who is now come, have all these nations be- lieved ? Even Parthians, Medes, Elamites, the in- habitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phry da, Cap- padocia, Pontus, Asia, and Paraphilia, those who dwell in Egypt, and the region of Africa, which is beyond Cyrene, strangers and denizens at Rome, Jews at Jerusalem, and the rest of the nations ; as also many of the Getuli, many borders of the Moors ; the utmost bounds of Spain, divers nations in Gaul, and places of Britain, inaccessible to the Roman armies, have yielded subjection to Christ; and also the Sarmatians, the Dacians, the Germans, and the Scythians, with many obscure countries and provin- ces, islands and places unknown to us, which, says he, I cannot reckon up; in all which the name of Christ reigns, because he is now come, before whom the gates of all cities are set open, and bars of iron are snapt asunder; that is, these hearts, once pos- sessed by the devil, are opened by faith in him." And afterwards he demonstrates, that the kingdom of Christ is more extensive than any of the four great monarchies. To which, add another passage of Arnobius ; he, when speaking of the success of the Gospel, says4, " We may enumerate these things done in India among the Persians and the Medes ; and also in Arabia, Egypt, Asia, Syria, Galatia, Cappadocia, among the Parthians, Phrygians, in Achaia, Mace- donia and Epirus ; and in all isles and provinces that the rising or setting sun shines upon, even at Borne itself, the empress of all, where men, educated in king Numa's arts and ancient supersition, have for- saken the same, and heartily embraced the truth of the Christian religion." There were many things, in the first two or three centuries, that very much recommended Christianity to the world, and in divine providence tended to the happy progress of it. I shall notice the followiug. I Dialogue with Tryphon. » Against Heresies, Book iii. Chap. iii. p. a Against the Jews, Chap. vii. p. 98. i Against the Gentiles, Hook ii. p. Gl. First, Several men of learning became defenders of Christianity. It could not but be satisfying to men of meaner capacities, to see those of greater understanding, who could not be easily imposed upon, trampling under toot their former opinions, and not only entertaining the Christian faith, but strenuously defending it. The Gospel, at its first appearing in the world, was published by men of ordinary educa- tion, that it might not seem to be a human artifice. But, when after an hundred years considerable pro- gress, malice did inflame its adversaries, it was pro- per to take in external helps to its assistance. The Christian apologists, and first writers against the Gentiles, did, by rational discourses, justify the Chris- tians from the things they were unjustly charged with; proved the excellency, reasonableness and divinity of onr holy religion, and exposed the foily and wickedness of Heathenism: by which means prejudices Were removed, and many brought over to the faith. Tims, Quadratusof Athens, and Aristides, formerly a philosopher in thai edicated each an apology to the emperor Hadrian. Justin, the martyr, besides his tract against the Gentiles, wrote two apologies ; the first to Antoninus Pius, the second to Marcus Aurelius and the senate. About the same time Athenagoras presented his apology to the em- perors Marcus Aurelius. and Aurelius Commodus, and wrote his excellent discourse concerning the re- surrection. To the same Marcus Aurelius, Melito, ^[' Sardis, did exhibit his apologetic oration. To him also Apollinaris, of Hierapolis, in Asia, dedicated his defence of the Christian faith, and wrote five books mst the Gentiles, and two concerning the truth. Notlong after, Theophilus, of Antioch, composed his three excellent books for the conviction of Autolycus ; and Miltiades presented an apology, probably, to the emperor Commodus ; and Tatian, the Syrian, scholar to Justin Martyr, wrote a book against the Gentiles. Tertullian a man of great learning, the first among the Latins that appeared in this cause, under the reign of Sevcrus, published his apologetic, directed to the magistrates of the Roman empire, besides his books to the Gentiles, to Scapula, and many more. After him succeeded Origen, whose eight books against Celsus, did great service to the Christian cause. Minucius Felix, an eminent advocate at Rome, wrote a short, but most elegant dialogue be- tween Octavius and Caecilius, which, as Lactantius observes,1 shows how fit and able an advocate he would have been to assert the truth, had he wholly applied himself to it. About the time of the empe- rors Gallus and Velusian, Cyprian addressed himself in a discourse to Demetrius, pro-consul of Africa, in behalf of the Christians, and published his tract on the Vanity of Idols, which is a compend of Minu- cius' Dialogue. Toward the close of that age, under Diocletian, Arnobius, who taught rhetoric at Sicain Africa, being convinced of the truth of Christianity, could hardly at first make others believe he was in earnest ; therefore, to evidence his sincerity, he wrote seven, books against the Gentiles, where he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause. Lactan- tius, his scholar, professed rhetoric at Nicodemia; he composed several discourses in defence of the Christian, and in subversion of the Gentile religion. A second mean of the progress of Christianity, was the indefatigable zeal used in the propagation of it. Every method was essayed to reclaim men from i Of Righteousness, Look v. Chap. i. p. 395. Chap. I. IN THE THItEE FIRST CENTURIES. 11 error, and brine: them to the acknowledgment of the truth. The teachers of the primitive church preached boldly, and prayed heartily, for the reformation of mankind, solicited their neighbours, who were yet strangers to the truth, instruct) •! and informed i converts, and built them up on their most holy faith. Those who were of greater parts and cminency erected schno'-: where they publicly taught such as resorted to them, in the principles of the faith, af- fording them antidotes both against heathens and heretics. Among ns, says Tatian,1 u Not only the rich and wealthy, but even the poor are freely in- structed: for the doctrine concerning God is greater than can be recompensed with gifts; then admit all who are willing to learn, whether old or young." And a little after, he -. " All our vir- gins are sober and modest, and use to discourse of divine things, even sitting at their distaffs." No pains, no travel nor hard! e counted insu- perable to enlarge the bounds of the gospel-church. " The divine and admirable di ' the apot says Eusebius,2 built up the superstructures of the churches, the foundations whereof the apostles had laid, in all places v ey can"; they every where promoted the preachir.fr of the Go-; I, sowing the seeds of I J doctrine through the whole world. ! the disciples then alive distributed their estates to the poor; and leaving their own country, did the work of evangelist to those ■ had never yet heard the Christian faith, preaching Christ, and delivering the evangelical writhi - to them. No sooner had they planted the faith in any foreign countries, and ordained guides and pastors, to whom they committed the care of these new plan- tations, but they went to other natio-w, assist fd by the grace and powerful working of the Holy Spirit. As soon as ever they began to preach the Gospel, the people flocked universally to them, and cheerfully worshipped the true God, the creator of the world, piously and heartily believing in his name." In the number of these evangelical missionaries, were Silas, Sylvanus, Crescens, Andronicus, Trophimus, .Mar- cus, Aristarchus, and afterwards Pantaenus, Pothin- H8 and Irenaeus, with many others mentioned in the histories and martyrologies of the church, who count- ed not their lives dear to them ; so that they might finish their course with joy. Thirdly, Christianity recommended itself to the world, by the admirable holy lives of its professors, which could not but reconcile the unprejudiced part of the Gentiles to a good opinion of them, and vin- dicate their religion from the cavils of its adversaries. The piety of these primitive Christians towards God, their sobriety toward themselves, and their justice, righteousness, and charity towards others, are well explained a'ld illustrated by the learaed Dr Cave, from their own writings, in bis book of Primitive Christianity. A few testimonies, to confirm it, shall suffice at this time. The Christian, in Minucius Felix, says,3 " We despise the pride and supercili- ousness of philosophers, whom we know to be de- bauched, corruptmen, adulterers and tyrants, always eloquent against the vices of which themselves are most guilty. We measure not wisdom by men's habits, but by their minds and manners ; nor do we speak great things so much as we live them, glory- ing that we have attained these things which they i Discourse against the Greeks, Pp. Ifi7, 168. 2 Church History, Book iii. Chap, xxxvii. •i In h:s Dialogue, p. S3. (i. c. the Gentiles) sought for, but could never find." Justin Martyr tells the emperor,' " We Christians have renounced demons, and worship the only tin- begotten God through his own Son: we, who formerly took pleasure in adulteries, now embrace the strict- est chastity ; we, who used magic charms, have devoted ourselves to the immortal God; we, who valued money and gain above all things, do now cast what we have in common, distributing to every one according to his need : we, who by hatred and slaughter, raged against each other, and refused to sir at the same fire with these who were not of our tribe, since Christ's coming into the world, fami- liarly com -her, pray for our enemies, and the conversion of those who unjustly hate us, endea- vouring to persuade them to live according to the [lent precepts of Christ.'' Thereafter he informs the emperor of the precepts of holiness, given by Christ i:i his excellent sermon on the mount. Wonderful was the efficacy of this doctrine upon the hearts and lives of men, which the Christian apologists plead, at every turn, as an unanswerable evidence, that their religion was of God, since it made all sorts of men, who received it, chaste and temperate, quiet and peaceable, meek and modest, yea, afraid of the appearance of evil. When the Heathens derided them for the mean and unpompous amities of their religion, they declared, that God ected no man for external advantages; he de- lighted in the pure and holy soul ; he stood in no need of blood or smoke, perfumes or incense; th- best sacrifice was toori'er a mind truly devoted to him. Meekness and kindness, an humble heart, and an innocent life, was the offering with which God was well pleased; a pious soul was the fitte-t temple for God to dwell in; to do our duty, to abstain from sin, to be intent upon prayer and praise, the truest festi- val. This religion of the Christians rendered their profession amiable to the world, and oft forced their enemies to fall down, and sav, God was in them of a truth. Fourthly, The first Christians gained many p - lyres, by their patience and constancy in their sufFer- -. They entertained the fiercest threatening-; with an unshaken mind : they died rejoicing, and triumph- ed in midst of the greatest tortures. This continu- ing for some ages, convinced their enemies that they were supported by a divine supernatural power. Lactantius thus triumphs in the cause,'2 " By reason of our wonderful courage," says he, " our number is increased, many flocking to us from those that wor- ship idols ; for, when they see men torn in pieces by variety of torments, and yet maintaining patiencein- vincible, able to tire out their tormentors, they begin to think, as they have ground to do, that the consent of so many, and the perseverance of such dying persons, cannot be in vain; and that patience itself, were it not from God, could not hold out under such racks and tor- tures. Thieves, and men of robust bodies, are not able to bear such tearing in pieces; they groan and cry out. being overcome with pain, because not endued with patience inspired from Heaven ; but our very child- ren and women, to say nothing of our men, do with silence conquer their tormentors. Let the Romans go and boast of their Mutius and Regulus. Behold with us the weaker sex, and the most tender age. suffer their bodies to be torn and burnt. This is tha- true virtue which the philosophers vainly boast of, i Second Apology. r>. fit. si Of Righteousness, 3ook v. Chap. xiii. xiv. p. iM. 12 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. but never really possessed." This, and more to the same purpose, he there urges to the honour of our re- ligion. By the force of such arguments, Justin Martyr confesses he was brought over from being a Platonic philosopher to become a Christian ; for when he ob- served the Christians, whom he had often heard ca- lumniated, not afraid of terrible deaths, " I thought withmyself/'sayshe,1 " that it was not possible such persons could wallow in vice and luxury, it being the interest of vicious people to shun death, to dissemble with magistrates, and to do everything to save their lives." Tertullian tells Scapula, in the conclusion ofhis address to him,- " It is to no purpose to think this sect will fail, which you see is the more built up the faster it is cast down ; for who can behold such eminent patience, and not have some scruple in his mind, and begin to inquire into the cause of it, and, when once he knows the truth, will not immediately follow it." Arrian, a Heathen, in his Commentary on Epictetus, owns,3 that the Galileans did undergo death and torments with courage, but ascribes it to fury and custom. Lucian, an avowed enemy of Christians, says,4 " These miserable wretches or devils do persuade those of their own party, that they shall surely be immortal, and live for ever; upon which account they despise death." Hence Julian, called the apostate, is said to have counted it po- licy not to put the Christians openly to death, be- cause he perceived they were like new mown grass the oftener it was cut down, the thicker it sprang up again. The first who raised a general persecution against the Christians, was the emperor iN ero, of whom Ter- tullian tells the Gentiles; and, for the confirmation thereof, appeals to their public records ;5 " We glory, says he, in such an author of our persecution : any body who knows him, may understand, that nothing but what is eminently good could be condemned by Nero." He was a prince of such brutish and extra- vagant manners, as their own writers scruple not to call him a beast in human shape, the very monster of mankind. He published laws for suppressing Christianity, and putting Christians to death, as appears by an inscription found in Spain ;c for he seems to hn\e carried his persecution even to that country. Among other instances of his madness, he set Home on fire in the year of our Lord 65. The llames reduced the far greatest part of it to ashes, Nero himself beholding the same with pleasure from Mecaenas' tower, and, in the habit of a player, singing the destruction of Troy. This act exposed him to the hatred of an injured people, which he endeavoured to remove by promises and rewards, and by public supplication to the gods. Notwith- standing all this, Tacitus says,7 " The infamy could not be wiped off, the people still believing the burning of the city to have been done by his order: to abolish this rumour, he attached the odium of it to those who are commonly called Christians, from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Though this superstition had i First Apology, p. 50. - To Scapula. Chap. v. p. 92. a Book iv. Chap. vii. p. 407. 4 Lucian's Works, Vol. ii. p. 7G3. i Apology, Chap. vi. p. 23. 6 NERONI. CL. CAES. AUG. POXT. MAX. OB. PROVINC. LATRONIB. F.T. HIS. QUI. NOV AM. GENEr.I. HUM. SUPERSTITION. INCULCAB. PURGATAM.. that is. " TO NERO CESAR AUGUSTUS, high-priest, in memory of his having pureed the country of robbers, and of such as had introduced and obtruded a new superstition upon mankind." — Cave's Primitive Christianity, p. 322. 7 Annals, Book xv. Chap. xliv. p. 364. been'a little borne down, yet it had spread again, not only through Judea, but through the city of Rome, where, says he, all evil things meet, and are had in reputation; they, who confessed themselves to be Christians, were seized upon, and, by farther dis- covery, a great multitude, whom not the burning of the city, but common hatred, made criminal. They were treated, when dying, with all instances of scorn and cruelty, were wrapped up in the skins of wild beasts, and worried by dogs ; others were cru- cified, and others burnt alive, that, when day-light failed, they might serve for torches in the night. These spectacles Nero exhibited in his own gardens, as if they had been a Circensian game, himself being among the people in the habit of a charioteer. Yet though severity was used against those, says Tacitus, who deserved death, the people beheld them with pity, as the thing was not done for the public good, but to satisfy the cruelty of one man." This persecution continued a full year. The short reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitelline and the merciful disposition of Vespasian, and Titus his son, gave some rest to the Christians, till Domi- tian succeeding to the empire, began a new persecu- tian. " He had a portion,"' says Tertullian,1 " of Nero's cruelty, but in this he exceeded him; Nero was content to command executions to be done at a distance, while Domitian took pleasure to see them done before his own eyes." The Christians did bear the heaviest load of his rage and malice, whom he every where persecuted by death or banishment. He commanded those to be killed who were of the stock of David in Judea.'-' He put to death his cousin- german Clemens, at that time consul, for giving a good testimony to Christ, and banished his wife Domitilla, his own kinswoman, into the island Pon- tia, upon the same account. This persecution began in the ninety-second year of the Christian era, twenty- six years after that by Nero, and continued to Do- mitian's death, which happened about three years after. His successor, Cocceius Nerva, abrogated his acts, and recalled those he had proscribed or banished. The third persecution commenced under Trajan, whom Nerva appointed to be his successor: he looked upon the religion of the empire as under- mined by this new way of worship; that the number of Christians grew formidable, and might possibly endanger the tranquillity of the Roman state ; and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods, especially in the wars, than to punish the Christians. Accordingly he issued out orders to proceed against them as illegal societies, erected, and acting contrary to the laws. He looked upon Christian assemblies as heteriae, or unlawful corporations; and under this pretence endeavoured to suppress them ; and, in the mean time, command- ed Christians either to sacrifice to the gods, or to be punished, as contemners of them. The chief of those who obtained the crown of martyrdom in this persecution, were, Clemens of Rome, Simon of Jeru- salem, and Ignatius of Antioch. The last of these Trajan himself condemned, and ordered to be sent to Rome, and there thrown to wild beasts. His desire for martyrdom was great, as his words, re- corded in Eusebius' history,3 do declare: "From Syria even to Rome, says he, I fight with beasts by i Apology, Chap. vi. p. 23. 3 Eusebius* History, Hook iii. Chap xv. 3 Book iii. Chap. xxxvL Chap. I. IN THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. 13 land and sea, night and day ; bound with ten leopards, that is, B guard of soldiers, who are worse for the favours I do them. I am instructed by their inju- : ries; yet by this I am not justified. I wish I may enjoy the beasts that are prepared for me, who I pray may make quick dispatch of me: I know what is hest for me : now I begin to be a disciple, desir- ing nothing of things seen or unseen, that so I may gain Christ. Let fire, cross, troops of violent bea7 can be compelled to do, I dismissed. Others men- tioned in the libel confessed themselves Christians, but presently denied it ; they had been such, but had renounced it, some by the space of three years, others many years, and one twenty-five years ago. All these paid their veneration to your statue, and to the images of the gods, and blasphemed Christ. They affirmed, the whole sum of their sect or error lay in this that they used on a set solemn day. to meet together before sun-rising, and to sing among themselves a hymn to Christ, as the God whom they wor-hipped ; and to o' iige themselves, by an oath, not to commit any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery, to keep faith, to restore any pledge intrusted with them; which being done, to depart for that time, and to meet again at a common meal, to partake of a promiscuous and harm- less food, which they laid aside after my edict, ac- cording to your order, prohibiting the heteriae, or unlawful assemblies, to lie kept. To satisfy myself of the truth of this, I commanded two maids, called deaconesses, to be examined upon the rack; but I perceived nothing but a wicked and immoderate superstition; and therefore, delaying any further process, I have sent for your advice: for the case seemed to me worthy to be consulted, especially considering the great numbers that are in danger; for very many of all ages and ranks, both men and women, are. and will be called in question, the con- tagion of this superstition having overspread, not only cities, but towns and country villages, which yet, it seems, maybe stopped and cured. "lis very evident, that the temples, which were almost quite forsaken, begin to be frequented; that the holy rites and solemnities, of a long time neglected, are set on foot again; and that sacrifices, from all parts, bc^in to be sold, which hitherto found very few to buy them: whence it is easy to conjecture, what mul- titudes might be reclaimed, if place be given to repentance." This letter seems to be wTitten about the year of our Lord one hundred and seven, the ninth of Tra- jan's reign,the emperor lying then at Antioch, in order to prosecute his wars in the East, where the perse- cution was very hot. By this account we see, that though the enemies of our religion load it with hard names, as a wicked and immoderate superstition, yet, at the same time, they own it innocent and un- blameable. Though the severity of the persecution might tempt some to turn renegades, yet, so great was the number of the professors of Christianity in those parts, that Pliny knew not how to deal with them. To direct him, therefore, in this affair, the emperor sent him the following rescript :— 1 Trajan to Pliny greeting: "As to the man- ner of your procedure, my Secundus, in examining the causes of these that "have been brought before you, for being Christians, you have taken the course you ought to take ; for no general law can be framed, so as to provide for all cases. Let them not he sought for; but, if they be accused, and convicted, let them be punished. Yet, if any denies himself to be a Christian, and gives evidence of it, by supplicating our gods, though, heretofore, he has been suspected, let him be pardoned upon his repentance. But, as for libels, published without the names of the authors, let them not be regarded as to the crimes they charge ; for that were an ill precedent, and is not usual in our reign." i Pliny, Book x. Epis. 93. 14 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. Hadrian, the adopted son of Trajan, succeeded in the empire, and continued the persecution raised by his predecessor: though we do not find that he made any new laws against the Christians, yet the old ones were still in force: and, as he countenanced heathenism, he gave occasion to those who hated the Christians, without any particular warrant, to fall upon them. Tertullian says,1 "That when Arrius Antoninus (whom many conceive to be the same per- son who succeeded Hadrian in the empire) was pro- consul of Asia, he severely persecuted the Christians. But the whole of them in that city, where he at the time was, having, as one man, beset his tribunal, and openly confessing themselves to be Christians, he was so amazed at the multitude that he caused only 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 come hither for execution." Eusebius informs us, that Serenius Granianus, one of the following proconsuls, wrote to Hadrian to mitigate the perse- cution ; which the emperor commanded to be done, by a rescript,2 directed to Minucius Fundanus, his successor in that province. The like he did in other places of the empire, as appears by Melito's Apolo- gy, a part whereof is preserved by Eusebius, Book iv. chap. 2(5. The next persecution was under Antoninus Philo- sophus, and his brother Verus. The writers of An- toninus' life speak great things of him, as a good man, and a. great philosopher; but, withal, zealous of heathen rites to the highest degree of superstition. He had, from his youth, been educated in the Salian college, all the offices whereof he ha I gone through,3 affecting an imitation of Numa Pompilius, from whom he pretended to derive his original. What thoughts he had of the Christians appears from this; that he ascribes their resolute undergoing of death to stub- bornnessand obstinacy ;4 he was, therefore, easily led, by the priests and philosophers about him, into a pre- judice against Christianity, and persuaded to begin a fifth persecution against the Christians, whom he endeavoured to suppress by new laws and edicts, ex- posing them to all the malice of their enemies. This persecution commenced in the eastern parts, about the seventh year of his reign, and continued several years; it spread likewise into the west, especially France, where it raged with great severity. That the conflict was very sharp, may be guessed by the crowd of apologies presented to the Emperor by Jus- tin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras, and Apollinaris. In Asia, Polycarp of Smyrna was among the first martyrs; twelve others, from Philadelphia, suffered with him. When the proconsul began to persuade him, saying, "Regard thy great age; swear by the genius of Cfesar; say, with us, Take away the im- pious, swear, blaspheme Christ, and I will release thee:" Polycarp answered, "These fourscore and six years have I served him, and He never did me any harm; how shall I blaspheme my Saviour!" He suffered about the hundredth year of his age, in the year of our Lord 16". In this persecution many others received the crown of martyrdom. At Rome, Ptolemy and Lucius, Justin, the martyr, and his companions, were first scourged, and then beheaded. In France, the letter writ by the churches of Lyons and Vienne to these of Asia and Phrygia, preserved i To Scapula, Chap. v. p. 0?. 2 Church Hist. Rook iv. Chap. ix. 3 Julius Capitolinus, p. 152. 4 Meditations, Book ii. Sect. 3. by Eusebius,1 informs us, "That it was impossible for them to describe the cruelty of their enemies, and the severity of these torments the martyrs suffered, being beaten, hurried from place to place, plundered, stoned, imprisoned, with all expressions of ungovern- able fury. Vettius Epagathus, a man full of zeal and piety, seeing his fellow-Christians unjustly drag- ged before the judgment-seat, asked leave of the pre- sident that he might plead his brethrens' cause, and openly shew that they were not guilty of the least wickedness or impiety. But the court not daring to grant him so reasonable a request, the judge took the advantage to ask, if he was a Christian ? which he publicly owning, suffered martyrdom. Blandina, a lady of singular virtue, but of whom the church doubted how she would hold out to make a resolute confession, by reason of the weakness of her sex, and tenderness of her education, yet endured all with such invincible magnanimity, that her tormentors, though they used all kinds of tortures, were forced to give over, and confess themselves overcome ; won- dering that a body so broken and mangled should yet be able to draw its breath: and declared, that one of these torments was sufficient to take away her life; much more so many and so great! But her happy soul gained strength by suffering, and miti- gated all the sense of her pain, by repeating these words, I am a Christian. Biblis, though at first she fainted, yet recovered her courage, and expired in the midst of the most acute tortures. Pothinus, of Lyons, an infirm man, above ninety years old, was beaten and stoned to death. Sanctus, a deacon of Vien, together with Maturus, were exposed in the amphitheatre, tormented, and imprisoned several days together, presented to wild beasts, placed in an iron chair red-hot; and, at last, run through with a spear. Attalus, a Roman citizen, was disgracefully led up and down, as in triumph, and then beheaded; as was also Alexander, the physician, a Phrygian, who readily professed himself a Christian; and Pon- fu us, a youth of fifteen years of age, who, through all methods of cruelty and torment, which might have shaken a more mature age, entered the kingdom of heaven." These, and stpne others, the circumstan- ces of whose sufferings are more at large preserved by Eusebius, in the place last cited, cheerfully en- dured these extremities themselves, and encouraged and strengthened others. Under the reigns of the emperors Commodus, iElius Pertinax, and Julian, that is, from about the year 180 to 195, the Christians enjoyed peace ; and, during this time, religion made great progress, for, 51s Eusebius informs us,2 the doctrine of salvation did then prevail with all sorts of men to worship the only true God. Even at Rome, these who were of the first rank for riches and honours, with their whole families, joined themselves to the Christian church. In the year 195, Severus, an African, got into the throne: he was a prince witty and learned, prudent and politic, hardy and valiant : though, at the same time, crafty, unfaithful, bloody, and passionate, as his own historian observes;3 his nature truly an- swering his name, vere pertinax, vere severus ; that is, truly obstinate and cruel. He put to death many of the Roman senators. Under him began the sixth persecution ; for though, at first, he shewed him- self favourable to the Christians, yet afterwards he changed his mind, and gave ear to these who tra- 1 Church Hist. Book v. Chap. i. 2 Church Hist. Book v. Chap. xxi. 3 Spartian's Severus, p. 184. Chap. I. IN THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. 15 duced them, as an infamous generation, a people that designed nothing but rebellion and treason against the state. 'Whereupon he not onlv suffered his ministers and governors of provinces to treat them with all imaginable cruelty, but also he him- self gave out edicts, forbidding any, under the most terrible penalties, to profess either the Jewish or Christian religion, as is mentioned even by Spartian, a heathen,1 which edicts were execute! with that ri- gour and inhumanity, that the Christians in those days verily believed that the time of Antichrist did then take place. The martyrs of note, whom this persecution sent to heaven, were, Victor of Rome, Leonidas, the father of Origen, beheaded at Alex- andria,2 Serenus Heraclides, Heron, another Se- renus, Plutarchus,all Origen's scholars, and Rhais, a Catechumen, Potamiana, an illustrious virgin, and her mother Marcella, after various torments, were committed to the flames, and Basilides, one of the officers who led them to the execution. Irenseus, of Lyons, having suffered several torments, was at length put to death. 'Tis not easy to assign the cer- tain date of his martyrdom, the record thereof being lost; but, probably, it was about the year of our Lord 202, » before Severus' expedition into Britain, when he took Lyons in his way. And, indeed, the vast numbers who are said to have suffered there, agree well enough with the fierce and cruel temper of that prince, who had conceived a particular dis- pleasure against these citizens, and a worse again at the Christians. After his death, the church enjoyed peace for about twenty-seven years. The next who created disturbance to the Christians, was Maximinus, a man of an obscure original, and of a mean and sor- did education. He was of strength and stature be- yond the ordinary size, and his manners as robust *.and boisterous as his constitution. Never did a more cruel beast, says his historian,4 tread upon the earth, relying altogether upon his strength; and, upon that account, reckoning himself almost immor- tal: he spared none, especially those that knew any thing of his mean descent, that none might reproach him with the obscurity of his birth. The seventh persecution was raised" by him. This persecution is placed in the year 237. Firtnilian of Cappadoeia, in his letter to Cyprian, says, " 1 1 was not a general but a local persecution that raged in some particular places,5 and especially in that province where he lived, Serenianus, the Roman president, driving the Christians out of all these countries." He adds, " That many dreadful earthquakes happening in these parts, whereby some towns were swallowed up, this gave new life and vigour to the persecution, it being usual with the Gentiles, if a famine, pestil- ence, earthquake, or inundation happened, to charge all upon the Christians, and to fall foul on them." Pontian, of Rome, (being before banished to Sar- dinia), and Anteros, his successor, did at that time both suffer martyrdom. 6 Ambrosius, who was con- verted by Origen from the errors of Valentinus and Marcion, a rich man, and also of great parts and i Spartian's Severus, p. 1R4.— " Judspos fieri sub qravi poena vetuit. Idem de Christianis sanxit :" That is, he pro- hibited Judaism under a severe penalty. The same law he made against Christianity. 2 Eusebius' Church Hist. Book vi. Chap. i. 3 Cave's Life ot'Iren;EUs. p. 164. 4 Julius Capitolinus. p. 23 8. 6 Spanheim's Christian Hist. Col. 7G1. u Cyprian's Epistles, No. 7-3, learning, was then a noble confessor.1 Origen wrote hi~ book de Marfyrio, for the comfort of those who suffered in this evil time. But this being lost, the names of the most of those who then suffered are un- known to us, but they are honourably written in the Lamb's Book of Life. After Maximinus, reigned Balbinus and Pu- picnus : to them succeeded the Gordians ; and to them Philippus Arabs, at which time, for about twelve years space, the Church enjoyed some tran- quillity. But Decins having mounted the imperial throne, proved, though a good commander of an army, and a prudent governor, yet an implacable enemy to Christians, against whom he raised the eighth persecution in the year 2J0. This persecu- tion, though among the shortest (for it continued nor two years) yet was the hottest of any that had hitherto oppressed the Church : which may be ascribed to the emperor's zeal for declining Hea- thenism, which he saw undermined by Christianity, and that there was no support for the one, but by the ruin of the other. During his time the storm was very black and violent. There was no place but what felt the dreadful effects of it : the Chris- tians were everywhere drawn from their houses, spoiled of their estates, and tormented in their bodies. Whips and prisons, fire and wild beasts, ling pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning pincers, were but some of the methods of their treatment. When the old ones were run over, new were daily contrived ; the laws of nature and humanity were broken down, friend betrayed friend, and the nearest relation, his own father and brother. Every ene was ambitious to promote the imperial edicts, and thought it meritorious to bring a Chris- tian to the stake. Dionysius, of Alexandria, Bays,* " That in that city they fell upon a Presbyter, called Metra, whom they would have forced to blaspheme Christ. When he refused to do it, they beat him with staves and clubs, with sharp reeds pricked his face and eyes, and then stoned him to h. They apprehended a holy woman, called Quinta, and endeavoured to compel her to worship in an idol temple, which she refusing, the persecu- tors bound her feet, and dragged her through the Street on hard stones, whipt her, dashed her against millstones, and stoned her to death. They appre- hended Serapion in his house, whom they treated with the most bitter torments, broke all the joints of his body, and throwing him from a high loft killed him. The poor Christians could no where shelter themselves, nor rest day or night, the multitudes crying out, that unless they would blaspheme Christ, they should all be burned. But sedition and intestine war troubling our persecutors, we got a little breathing. Soon after came out cruel edicts, which made some stagger : o_hers more strong in the faith, valiantly endured persecution, and ob- tained martyrdom ; as Julian, a man diseased with the gout, and not able to stand, and Cronion, who were laid upon camels, scourged, and at last thrown into the fire, where, with great constancy, they suf- fered death in view of the multitude. When Julian went to martyrdom, a soldier standing by checked those who abused the sufferer with reproachful words ; whereupon a cry being raised, the soldier was presently apprehended, and, being found a sted- i Fusebius' Church Hist. Book vi. Chap, xviii, xix. 2 In the same place, Chap. xli. 10 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. fast soldier of Christ, was beheaded." It might detain us too long to give a detail of the sufferings of the rest ; as Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ammonaria, Mercuria, lsiodore, and Dioscorus, a boy of fifteen years of age, and manv others, who willingly declared themselves to be Christians before the Heathen tribunals, and that they were ready to seal their testimony with their blood ; which frightened the judges, and made the cause of Christ to triumph, as is mentioned by the same Dionysius: " Neither know I any, save one, says he, of all they seized to this very day, who denied our Lord." Gallus succeeded Decius, as in his government, so in his enmity to the Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the cloud soon blew over ; he having made an ignominious peace with the Scythians, his own army turned him off, and put him and his son to death.1 He was succeeded by Valerian, who entered up- on the empire with universal applause. In the be- ginning of his reign he was a patron to the Chris- tians, treating them with all offices of kindness and humanity, and entertaining them in his own family, so as his court seemed a little church for piety, a sanctuary and refuge for good men.2 But, alas ! this pleasant scene soon vanished, the emperor be- ing seduced by a magician of Egypt, called Macri- nus, who persuaded him, that the only way to pros- per in his affairs, was to suppress Christianity, so hateful to the gods. Whereupon he commenced the ninth persecution, which began about the year 257, and continued three years and a half. Diony- sius, of Alexandria, says,a " The Christians, who Buffered at this time are many, and unknown to me ; but this I know, in general, that both men ami women, young and old, soldiers and country people, persons of all ranks and ages, were some of them scourged and whipt, others beheaded, others cast into the flames. To this very day the praeses does not cease to kill some, to expose others to torments, and weary others with prisons and chains, ordering that no person see them ; and if any inquire for them, that such be apprehended. But God comforts his afflicted, by the cheerful care and diligence of the brethren." Cyprian very pathetically bewails the hardships and sufferings which the martyrs did then undergo, in his letter to Numesian, and the rest that were condemned to the mines ; nor did he him- self escape, being beheaded at Carthage,4 as Xistus and Quartus had been before him. In Spain suf- fered Fructuosus, of Terragon, with his two dea- cons ; at Rome Xistus and Laurence ;s at Caesarea, Priscus, Melchus and Alexander.6 At length Di- vine Providence punished this emperor for his horri- ble cruelty to those whose interest with Heaven, while he was favourable to them, secured his prospe- rity ; for not only the Northern nations did break in upon the empire, but Valerian himself was taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, who treated him below the rate of the meanest slave, using him as his footstool to mount on horseback;7 and, after some years captivity, caused him to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt ; and so put a period to his Pompinus Loc-tus. Eusebius, Book vii. Chap. ix. In Eusebius. Book vii. Chap. ix. x. See Cyprian's Life before his Works. Cyprian's Epistles, Epist 82. Eusebius, Book vii. Chap. xii. Eutropius and Aurelius Victor. miserable life. His son, Gallienus, growing wiser, by the miscarriages of his father, stopped the perse- cution, and restored peace to the Church, as appears by his edict recorded by Eusebius. 1 Under the reigns of the emperors Claudius, Ta- citus, Florianus, Probus, Cams, and Numerian, the Christians enjoyed a long time of p.jace and prosperity. If we reckon, from the captivity of Va- lerian in the year 260 to the beginning of the tenth persecution, which I conceive may be placed in the year 302, this tranquillity continued near forty-two years. Indeed, if we consider the ten Heathenish persecutions from first to last, we may obsene, that there were such intervals betwixt them, as gave the Church, not only a sweet breathing time, but also a happy occasion to propagate Christianity over the world. Yea, the courage, constancy, and patience of the martyrs, with the holy lives and zealous en- deavours of the primitive Christians, to promote the kingdom of Christ, did very much tend to advance the glory of our Redeemer, and the good of the Church, in spite of all the persecutions w hich the enemy of mankind raised against it. In the year 284 Diocletian was declared empercr, and assumed Maximums Herculeus for his col- league in 286. These two governed the empire themselves for some years ; but, finding themsehej, straitened on all hands, by the revolt of their sub- jects, they made two Caesars, Constantius Chlorus, father to Constantine the Great, and Galerius Maximianus. About this time Eusebius informs us,- " That the emperors were so favourable to the Christians, as to make them deputies and governors over whole nations ; that they lived in honour at the emperor's court ; that they made public profession of their religion ; that great numbers of the Hea- thens embraced Christianity ; that there were churches in all cities; that the assemblies of the Christians were so numerous, they were forced to pull down the old, and build new and more spacious houses for public worship ; that Dorotheus, and Gorgonius, and others who preached the word, were had in honour by the officers and governors of the provinces ; and the emperors themselves shewed affection to the Christians : the wives, children, and servants of the emperors were Christians; and the greatest part of the subjects of the empire had aban- doned the worship of false gods to embrace Chris- tianity. This prosperity did daily increase, and could not be hindered by the arts of the devil or wicked men, as long as the right hand of the Lord did protect his people. But, alas ! says he, our af- fairs by too great softness and liberty, did degene- rate, one hating and reproaching another; the mi- nisters of Christ conterding with one another; and the people running into factions ; and, at last, hypo- crisy, dissimulation, and wickedness began to pre- vail.'' In this state of affairs, the Lord was pleased to permit another persecution, Diocletian and Gale- rius, meeting at Nicomedia in Bithynia,3 passed the winter in considering upon methods to extermi- nate the Christians. Diocletian opposed it a long time, but at last it was resolved upon. Then, in the nineteenth year of his reign, in the year of our Lord 303, he commanded the churches to be pulled down to the ground,4 the bibles to be burned, the richer i Church Hist. Book vii. Chap. xiii. •2 Church Hist. Book viii. Chap. i. s Lactantius, Chap. vi. 4 Eusebius, Book viii. Chap. ii. iii. Chap. I. RTB I ENTURY. ir sort of Christiana to be branded with infamy, and the vulgar to be ma -. IK subsequen dcrs he deprived Christiana of all protection by the laws, that they could have no reparation for any injury done them.' He commanded Christ's minis- ters to be everywhere imprisoned, and forced to sacri- i but a prelude to wh- ed, other orders being ommanding those who reft to offer Ba< rifice, to be exposed to all manner of tor- ments. It were tedious to reckon up the particular persona who suffered in this evil time. The eighth and ninth b lokfl ofEusebins' History are full of them. It may suffice us to observe from him, that the Chris- tians were scourged to death, had their flesh torn off with pi:; re cast to lions and tigers, were burned, beheaded, crucified, thrown into the torn to pieces by distorted bongha of tree-,- roasted at a fjentle fire, or, by holes made on purpose, had melted lead poured into their bowels. Orders 1 given, that all the ministers I hristian churches should be put in prisons and chain-. All jails . so full of them, that there was no room for malefac- tors;* and Maxiinian stirred up Diocletian, to carry on the persecution with -rill greater fury on occasion of a fire that was raised in the emperor's palace at imedia,4 the blame whereof was laid upon Christians. In the meantime Diocletian wen Rome to celebrate the solemnity of 0 ieth year of his reign, which was observed with profane Heathenish gam -. He had not staid long there, wlun he retired to pass the winter at Raven ia. By the way he was seized with sickness, and bis disease increasing, he went to Nicomedia, where he grew still worse, go as the report did sometimes go that he was dead. He had tits of madness, but v. calm and sedate intervals.4 Tu this situation of affairs, Maxiinian, a conning mi n, persuaded Dio- cletian to resign the imperial purple, which he al last consented to, about the year 304, and retire Salone, where he lived private to the day of his death. At his resignation Constantius and Gralerius Maxiinian, were declared einj.er.e-, and Severtis, with Blaximian the younger, created Caesars, i leriua Maxiinian, as he had begun, so be WAS the great instrument of carrying on the pi rsecution. Ir i- indeed impossible for us to conceive, much more to express, the cruelties of that time. Eo bins, who was an eye-witness to them, tells u-," that they were innumerable, and exceeded all relation: what a multitude of men, says he, had their right i bored out, and cauterized with a red-hot iron, had their left legs burnt, and were condemned to the mines ; all which they endured with the mo-r admir- able patience. They despised the threatening and barbarities of their enemies, and received the fatal sentence with a smile. When persuaded to be ten- der of their lives, and to compassionate the case of their wives and children, they bore up against the temptation with manly courage, or rather with a soul truly pious and devoted to God, so as neither fears nor charms could take hold on them through the mighty power of God.' One other passage I shall offer from Ensebius, he having discoursed of the impiety and horrid crimes of Maxiinian, adds,8 " The Christians, contemning death, undervalued i Lactantins. Chap. viii. 2 Eusebius, i'ook viii. l hap. i\. 3 Chap. \ i. * Chap. vi. e Lactantius. Chap. xvn. 6 Church History, Hook viii. Chap, xii. ' Against Celsus, Book vii. p. "'w. s Church History, Hook vii:'. Chap. xv. C hi- tyranny. Men did endure >rd, cruci- fixion, cruel beasts, drowning in the • ampu- tation and burning of the members of their the borintr of their eye-, famine, chains ; and, in tine, all torments, rather than forsake the wi ad embrace that of idols. Women also, as well as men, by the doctrine of the Word of Cod, were made so coura suffer the same tor- ments.'' Of which he there gives many hist; Monsieur Godeau reckons, that in this j there was no fewer than seventeen thousand mar- ry:- killed in one mont'; . And he observe-, that, during the continuance of it, tin . in the province of Egypt alone, DO less than one hundred and forty-four thousand persons who died by the violence of their persecutors, and seven hundred md who died through the . of banish- ment, or of the public works to which the condemned.' ' This persecution seems to have been the first of the ten that affected the isle of Bri- tain. Gildas. the: ient British historian we have. • That, by this persecution of Diocle- . the churches were thrown down, and all the of the Holy Scriptures that could be found were burned in the and the chosen priests of the Bock of our Lord, with the innocent sheep, ;'< in seine parts of the province no .' the Christian religion did appear." Ten did this persecution continue. The emperors thought they hail finished their work, and told the world, as in some ancient inscriptions1 found at Clunia in Spain, that they had utterly destroyed the name and superstition of the Christians, and hail restored and propagated the worship of the Hut they were far deceived in their vain boastings: Christianity was not destroyed, but ra- ther farther propagated ; and where they had done their Utmi i it, even there ir had a glorious on, and Paganism hastened to its ruin. It is remarkable, that Divine vengeance did pur- sue many who had an active hand in this and the former persecutions of tie Chrii tian i hurch. This i- ao frequently noticed by ecclesiastical histo- . that I cannot but with them also observe, thai Nero Ix ing thrust from his throne, and perceiv- ing bin danger of death, became his own exe- er : • Domitian was killed by hie rants; Hadrian died of a distemper accompanied with un- easiness of mind, as appears by some of bis last words;* Severus, after he persecuted the Church, i Dr Calaun's Sermon on Matt x\ i. I •'. j Gildas on Britain's Ruin, near tl>< bt CLETIANUS. IOVTU9. i: r. KAXIMIAN. 5. CABS, ■. MiMJiwero. per, OBXBNT1 If. BT nn tie via K. IB ' i . vomivi;. cum- ri \ soar H.DBLETO. QUI. RBMP. i ' Gruterus' Inscriptions, So. ■'•■ p. 280. woci etian.cj OAJLBBIO ■ 1 a:. ADOPT. BUPBB8TITIONE. CHBI8T.UBIQ.tlE, i. bt. CUI.TU. deobum. FBOPAGAT \. No. 4. The mean- ing of both winch is to show, that Diocletian, and his col- league Maximianti-, bad every where extinguish wicked superstition of Christianity, so pernicious to the commonwealth, and had restored Paganism, and the wor- ship of th< gods.— Cave's Primitive Christianity, p. 3il. 4 8ueton, Chap. \iix. 5 Spartian's Life of the Emperor HaDBIAK. Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thine, Mu-t we no longer live togi tlier ? Ami dost thou prune thy trembling u ing, To take thy flight thou know'st not whither ? , Thy pleasing vein, thy humVous folly Is all neglected— all forgot ; ' And pensive, wavering, melancholy, Thou hop'st and fear'st thou km iw 'st . blandtUa JJospes, con corporis, Quae nunc abibis fa loea Pnllidula, rigida, nudula ? Xee, tit soles, dabis JOCOS. not what. 10 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book 1. fast soldier of Christ, was beheaded." It might detain us too long to give a detail of the sufferings of the rest ; as Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ammonaria, Mercuria, Isiodore, and Dioscorus, a boy of fifteen years of age, and manv others, who willingly declared themselves to be Christians before the Heathen tribunals, and that they were ready to seal their testimony with their blood ; which frightened the judges, and made the cause of Christ to triumph, as is mentioned by the same Dionysius: "Neither know I any, save one, says he, of all they seized to this very day, who denied our Lord." Gallus succeeded Decius, as in his government, so in his enmity to the Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the cloud soon blew over ; he having made an ignominious peace with the Scythians, his own army turned him off, and put him and his son to death.1 He was succeeded by Valerian, who entered up- on the empire with universal applause. In the be- ginning of his reign he was a patron to the Chris- tians, treating them with all offices of kindness and humanity, and entertaining them in his own family, so as his court seemed a little church for piety, a sanctuary and refuge for good men.2 But, alas! this pleasant scene soon vanished, the emperor be- ing seduced by a magician of Egypt, called Macri- nus, who persuaded him, that the only way to pros- per in his affairs, was to suppress Christianity, so hateful to the gods. Whereupon he commenced the ninth persecution, which began about the year 257, and continued three years and a half. Diony- sius, of Alexandria, says,3 " The Christians, who suffered at this time are many, and unknown to me ; but this I know, in general, that both men and women, young and old, soldiers and country people, persons of all ranks and ages, were some of them scourged and whipt, others beheaded, others cast into the flames. To this very day the praeses does not cease to kill some, to expose others to torments, and weary others with prisons and chains, ordering that no person see them ; and if any inquire for them, that such be apprehended. But God comforts his afflicted, by the cheerful care and diligence of the brethren." Cyprian very pathetically bewails the hardships and sufferings which the martyrs did then undergo, in his letter to Numesian, and the rest that were condemned to the mines ; nor did he him- self escape, being beheaded at Carthage,4 as Xistus and Quartus had been before him. In Spain suf- fered Fructuosus, of Terragon, with his two dea- cons ; at Rome Xistus and Laurence ;5 at Cssarea, Priscus, Melchus and Alexander.6 At length Di- vine Providence punished this emperor for his horri- ble cruelty to those whose interest with Heaven, while he was favourable to them, secured his prospe- rity ; for not only the Northern nations did break in upon the empire, but Valerian himself was taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia, who treated him below the rate of the meanest slave, using him as his footstool to mount on horseback;' and, after some years captivity, caused him to be flayed alive, and rubbed with salt ; and so put a period to his Pompinus Loetus. Eusebius, Boole vii. Chap. ix. In Eusebius, Book vii. Chap. ix. x. See Cyprian's Life before his Works. Cyprian's Epistles, Epist 82. Eusebius, Book vii. Chap. xii. Eutropius and Aurelius Victor. miserable life. His son, Gallienus, growing wiser, by the miscarriages of his father, stopped the perse- cution, and restored peace to the Church, as appears by his edict recorded by Eusebius.1 Under the reigns of the emperors Claudius, Ta- citus, Florianus, Probus, Carus, and Numerian, the Christians enjoyed a long time of p^ace and prosperity. If we reckon, from the captivity of Va- lerian in the year 260 to the beginning of the tenth persecution, which I conceive may be placed in the year 302, this tranquillity continued near forty-two years. Indeed, if we consider the ten Heathenish persecutions from first to last, we may observe, that there were such intervals betwixt them, as gave the Church, not only a sweet breathing time, but also a happy occasion to propagate Christianity over the world. Yea, the courage, constancy, and patience of the martyrs, with the holy lives and zealous en- deavours of the primitive Christians, to promote the kingdom of Christ, did very much tend to advance the glory of our Redeemer, and the good of the Church, in spite of all the persecutions which the enemy of mankind raised against it. In the year 284 Diocletian was declared empercr, and assumed Maximinus Herculeus for his col- league in 236. These two governed the empire themselves for some years ; but, finding themseher, straitened on all hands, by the revolt of their sub- jects, they made two Caesars, Constantius Chlorus, father to Constantine the Great, and Galerius Maximianus. About this time Eusebius informs us,- " That the emperors were so favourable to the Christians, as to make them deputies and governors over whole nations ; that they lived in honour at the emperor's court ; that they made public profession of their religion ; that great numbers of the Hea- thens embraced Christianity ; that there were churches in all cities; that the assemblies of the Christians were so numerous, they were forced to pull down the old, and build new and more spacious houses for public worship ; that Dorotheus, and Gorgonius, and others who preached the word, wTere had in honour by the officers and governors of the provinces ; and the emperors themselves shewed affection to the Christians : the wives, children, and servants of the emperors were Christians ; and the greatest part of the subjects of the empire had aban- doned the warship of false gods to embrace Chris- tianity. This prosperity did daily increase, and could not be hindered by the arts of the devil or wicked men, as long as the right hand of the Lord did protect his people. But, alas ! says he, our af- fairs by too great softness and liberty, did degene- rate, one hating and reproaching another; the mi- nisters of Christ conterding with one another; and the people running into factions ; and, at last, hypo- crisy, dissimulation, and wickedness began to pre- vail." In this state of affairs, the Lord was pleased to permit another persecution, Diocletian and Gale- rius, meeting at Nicomedia in Bithynia,3 passed the winter in considering upon methods to extermi- nate the Christians. Diocletian opposed it a long time, but at last it was resolved upon. Then, in the nineteenth year of his reign, in the year of our Lord 303, he commanded the churches to be pulled down to the ground,4 the bibles to be burned, the richer i Church Hist. Book vii. Chap. xiii. -' Church Hist. Book viii. Chap. i. s Lactantius, Chap. vi. < Eusebius, Book viii. Chap. ii. iii. Chip. I. IN T URTH CENTURY sort of Christians to be branded with infamy, and the vulgar to be ma By sabi or- ders be deprived Christians of all proteetioD by the laws, that they conld have no reparation for any injury done them.1 He commanded Christ's minis- ten to be everywhere imprisoned, and forced to sacri- i- but a prelude to what fol her orders bring those who refused to offer sacrifice, to bi 11 manner of tor- ments. It were > reckon up the particular •ho suffered in this evil time. The eighth and ninth books of Eusebiu- 11 full of them. It may suffice u- 1 from him, that the Chris- tians were Bconrgi i to death, had their flesh torn off with pi:i rs, were burned, beheaded, crucified, thrown into the irted boughs of trees,' ro i at :i gentle fire, or, by hole- made on ; had melted lead poured into their bowels. Orders v< given, that all the ministei I hristian chnn Id be pnt in prisons and chains, .ill jails t so full of them, that then- was a i room for malefac- tors;" and Maximian stirred op I' . to carry on the persecution with still great* r fur in the < Nicomedia,4 fcne blame whereof was laid upon Christians, in the meantime Diocletian rj to celebrate the solemnity of I ieth year of bis reign, which was • with pro! Heatheii -. Be had not staid lo when he retired to pass the winter i By the way he was seized wirh si. increasing, he went to Nicomedia, where he grew still worse, so as the report did so that he was dead. Be had tits of m . bnt with calm and sedate intervals.1 In this situation of Maximian, a cunning man, persuaded Dio- cletian to resign the imperial purple, which b last consented to, about the year S04, and retired to Salone, where he lived private to the day of his death. At liN resignation I M i \ i 1 1 1 i : ! 1 1 , were declared en, with Maximian the younger, i lerius -Maximian, as he had begun, so be was the neat instrument of carrying on the pi rsecntion. It is indeed impossible for us to conceive, much more to express, the cruelties of that time. Eusel who was an cye-wiln B88 to them, tells US, ,: 'hat they were innumerable, and ex all relation: what a multitude of men, says he, had their ri bored out, and cauterized with a red-hot iron, had their left legs burnt, and iiUiniied to the mines ; all which they endured with the most admir- able patience. They despisi d the threatening and barbarities of their enemies, and received the fatal sentence with a smile. When persuaded to be ten- der of their lives, and to compassionate the case of their wives and children, they bore up against the temptation with manly courage, or rather with a soul truly pious and devoted to God, so as neither fears nor charms could rake hold on them through the mighty power of God.7 One otlu ge I shall offer from Eusebins, he having discoursed of the impiety and horrid crimes of Maximian, adds,8 " The Christians, contemning death, undervalued i Lactantius, < hap. '.ni. •j Busebius, Book \iii. Chap. ix. 3 Chap. rt. 4 Chap. n. .■; Lactantms, Chap. ^ u. '■ Church History, Book viii. Chap, xii. » Against Celsus, Boob vii. p. 357. s Church Historv, Book vih. C hap. xv. C his tyranny. Men did endure fire, sword, cruci- fixion, cruel dng in the sea, the ampn- n and burning of the members of their body, the borinc of their eyes, famine, chains ; and, in fine, all torments, rather than forsake the worship of Gc.d, and embrace that of idols. Worn • . I ! as DM n, by the doctrine of the 'Word of God, wen ■ courageous as to Buffer ti men: . I which he th many i: ,-ieurGodeau reckons, that in this there was no fewer than seventeen thousand mar- killed in one lnoir And he obser that, during the continuance of '.'.ere, in the province of Egypt alone, no less t'.ian one bond and forty-four thousand persons who died by the violence of their persecutors, an hundred t who died through the fa f banish- ment, or of the public work- to whi< condemned."1 Thi- bave Brat of (he t. n thai 1 the isle of Bri- tain. Gildas, t! tcient British historian we bai us persecution of Diocle- tian, thrown do\-, n, and all 1 1 ly Scriptures that could be found -. and t; - - the t'.o'-k of our Lord, with the innocent sfa f the province no hristian religion did appear." Ten ■s did thi - ition continue, The i thought they had finished their work, and told the world, : - me ancient inscription-3 found at uia in Spain, that they had utterly d the name and superstition of the Christians, had restored and propagated the worship of the Is. But they were far deceived in their vain boa- ings: Christianity was not destroyed., but ra- ther farther pro;, re they had done their ut: in it, even then- it had a glorious on, and Paganism hastened to its ruin. It is remarkable, that Divine vengeance did pur- sue many of those who had an active hand in this and the former persecutions of the Christian church. This i- so frequently noticed I astical 1, rians, that I cannot but with them also i bserve, that Nero being thrust from his throne, and pen in : himself in danger of death, became his own ■ner;4 Domitian was killed by his own serva irian died of a distempi r accompanied with un- of mind, as appears by some of his last words ;* Severus, after he persecuted the Church, i Dr Calamy*s Sermon on Matt i\ i. I '• s Gildas on Britain's Ruin, near tA< &< ■■ DIOCUTIAHCS. luvirj. i:t. •■: UUMIAN. 3. CASS. .. AMIM.Ir AC TO. .i;.\l. I'.TO: K. IMP. BOM. E.CHBI8T1 UfT. Gruterus' Inscriptions, No. 3, p. 280. dioci etian.i GAL. itM'E. ADOPT. SCPBBSTrriOKB. CHBOT.UBIQOZ. delkta. :.". rri.Tf. deobttm. pbopaoata. No. 4. The mean- ing Of both which is to Show, that Diocletian, and his league Manmianus, had every where extinguished wicked superstition of Christianity, so pernicious to the common* d had restored Paganism, and the wor- sbipofthi gods. Cave's Primitive Christianity, p. 82L 4 Sm-t in. Chap. xiix. s SPABTIAN'S Life of the Emperor HaDBIAK. . . , Poor, little, pretty, fluttering thing, Must we no longer live together ? Ami dost thou prune thy trembling Hospes, eomegque, wing, corporis, To take'thv flight thou know'st not Quae nunc abibis whither! inloea _ _ Thy pleasing vein, thy hum'rous folly Pallidula, rtfftda, Is .M nejglected— all forgot ; ttudula? And pensive, wavering, melancholy i Wee, ut soles, daoit xhou hop'st and fear'st thou know'st jocos. not what. ■20 SUCCESS OF THE COSPEi Book I. uity, by fighting and sedition, let them be punished, for their insolence, with sword, banishment, and fire." Fourthly, Though he himself abstained from open persecution, yet he connived at those who persecuted the Christians. " He glories oft what kindness he had shewn to these Galileans,1 beyond what they had met with from his predecessors. Instead of banishment, they had been sent home ; instead of a prison, they had enjoyed liberty ; instead of being plundered, their confiscated goods had been restored to them by edicts." He observed that the Chris- tians gloried in martyrdom ; he would not, there- fore, gratify them with that honour. But though no public warrants were issued, he left his officers to use their discretion in those places that were far from court. They understood their master's mind, and were not backward to use their power. Several examples of this are upon record in Theodoret's Church History.2 They killed Cyril, a deacon, who had broken a heathenish image in the emperor Constantine's reign ; and, after putting him to death, they ate of his liver. They acted a terrible tragedy on the person of Marcus Arethusius, a grave man, who had overturned a heathen temple, and destroyed images in that reign. They tormented his body, cast him into a stinking privy, hung him up in a basket greased with honey, that the wasps and Hies might torment him in the hot sun ; yet he would not yield to any of their proposals, but gloried in his suf- ferings.3 Capitolinus, governor of Thrace, caused burn iEmilian. Artemius, an officer of Egyptian soldiers, because in Constantine's reign he had bro- ken images, was beheaded. Publia, a noble woman, for singing, " The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands," was cruelly beaten. Yea, not content to abuse the living, their rage ex- tended to the dead. Among others, they digged up the bones of John the Baptist, buried at Samaria, called also Sebasta, and having mixed them with the bones of beasts, burnt them to ashes, and then scattered the ashes in the wind.4 Fifthly, He endeavoured especially to weary out and discourage the clergy with bad usage. To com- pass this more effectually, he seized their incomes,5 took away their allowances of corn, repealed the laws in their favours, and made them liable to bear burdens in civil courts. When all this would not do, he removed them by fraud or force. Thus Ath- anasius being brought home to Alexandria, after the death of the Emperor Constantius, was obliged by Julian to leave it again. He had a particular spleen at this honest man, as appears by his letter to Ecdi- cius, governor of Egypt, which is yet extant, where he says,' "Though you write nothing of others, yet be sure you ought to write of Athanasius, that ene- my of the gods, since you know our decrees against him. I swear by the great Serapis, that if, before the kalends of December, that enemy of the gods, Athanasius, lie not expelled, not only out of that city, but also out of" -ill Egypt, you shall be adjudged to lose your troop, which is worth an hundred pounds of gold. It is very uneasy tome that, by this man's industry, the gods are contemned. I can hear noth- ! .luli in". Epistles, Epist. vii. and lii. 't Booh lii. Chap. vi. vii. jvi.xvii.xviii. \i\. ■<■ Nazianzen's Discourse against Julian. 4 Theodoret, Book iii. Chap. vi. :, Sozomen, Booh ■. . ( hap. v. ,, Julian's Epistles, Epist. vi. ing more to my pleasure, than that this wicked Ath- anasius is expelled out of all Egypt, who has had the confidence, in my very reign, to allure some illus- trious Greek women to baptism." The like orders he gave to the people of Alexandria.1 Athanasius retired to shun the storm ; but, with undaunted cour- age, said to his dejected flock, " It is but a little cloud that will soon pass away."2 Sixthly, He gave all manner of assistance and en- couragement to the Jews, in contempt of the Chris- tians. He hated both ; but when he found the Jews were like to be instruments to promote his purpose, he called for them, spoke tenderly to them, pitied their miserable and afflicted state, released the tri- bute put upon them, desired the help of their pray- ers in his Persian wars, and wrote to them a kind letter, yet extant;3 in the end whereof he tells them, " This is what you ought principally to attend, that when I shall have successfully managed my Persian expedition, and the holy city Jerusalem, which you have so long and so earnestly desired to see inhabit- ed, shall be rebuilt by my endeavours, I may dwell in it, and, together with you, offer up our joint-pray- ers to the Supreme Being of the world." "When the Jews told him the reason why they could not offer sacrifices, was, " That the law had fixed these to a particular place at Jerusalem, where their temple was ruined, and themselves banished ;" he command- ed them immediately to go repair the temple, retrieve the customs of their ancestors, and worship God ac- cording to the rites of their religion. The Jews were so glad of these orders, that they began to triumph over the Christians, threatening to make them feel as terrible effects of their severity, as ever they themselves did feel from the Romans. When the news came abroad of rebuilding the temple, con- tributions were made by all hands : the very women sold their ornaments and jewels to advance rhe work ; what was wanting the emperor commanded to be furnished from his own treasury. Alypius of Antioch was overseer of the work; tradesmen were brought from all parts ; all materials were made ready, and the work begun. But Cyril, the bishop of Jerusalem, remembering Daniel's prophesy, and that of our Lord, told them, "That even now the time was come, that not one stone should be left upon another." The event justified his prediction:4 for, in whatever manner their disappointment hap- pened, it is certain that providence defeated the de- sign. Seventhly, Julian endeavoured to extinguish all humane learning among the Christians, well know- ing how naturally ignorance opens a door to con- tempt, barbarism, and impiety. To effectuate this design, he emitted the following law: "Professors of any art or science should excell in eloquence and good manners ; and because I cannot be present in every city, I command that no teacher shall set up in any place, till by long exercise he is fitted for it, and, after mature deliberation, be found deserving of it by the court of the city ; and that their decree be sent to me for approbation." Theodoret tells,5 that hi' discharged the children of Galileans from being taught poesy, rhetoric, and Philosophy ; for, said he, ' We are killed by our own arrows ; they take wea- i Julian's Epistles, Epist. xxvi. ' Sozomen, Book v. Chap. xv. :< Julian's Epistles, Epist. xxv. * See Warburton's Julian. 6 Church History, Book iii. Chap. viii. Chap. 2. IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. 21 pons out of our own books whereby they fight against us." This decree is called by Arnmianus Marcel- linus, a Heathen, " A cruel edict, worthy to be covered with eternal silence." ' By these methods he designed to introduce rudeness and ignorance among the Christians, and thereby to dispose them to any impressions he might make upon them, that they might not be able to encounter the Heathens. Eighthly, Above all men he highly honoured and rewarded philosophers, and those who were most likely to reiute Christianity. It grieved him to see so many excellent books writ in defence and expli- cation of our religion. He wished the writings of these Galileans were banished out of the world.2 He encouraged the sophists, philosophers, and ora- tors, by pensions and privileges to write against them. He brought the most eminent of that tribe to court, as Jainblichus, Libanius, Maximus, Ecebolius, Ori- basius, iEdesius, Chrysanthius, and others, whose lives are described by Eunapius, an author who fre- quently shews his spleen against the Christians, especially in the lives of iEdesius, and Maximus, and in some other places of his book. Any body who reads Julian's letters to these philosophers, yet extant among his works, may see with what fond- ness of affection he writes to them, as his dear com- rades, whom he would put all in his bosom. The truth is, if wit, learning, or eloquence could have done it, he had driven our religion out of the world. But Divine wisdom broke all his measures. Ninthly, He used the most popular arguments he could think of to persuade the world to return to Pa- ganism. We may have a taste of these from his letter to the people of Alexandria, where he tells them,3 "Though you had had another founder of your city than Alexander, I should have expected that those who have transgressed the laws, and introduced new doctrines and opinions should be punished. Will you then make any requests for Athanasius ? when Alexander built your city, and Serapis is your tutelar God, with Isis queen of Egypt, a maid who assists him. — I swear by the gods, I am ashamed of you, people of Alexandria, that any among you should own himself a Galilean. The fathers of the Hebrews did serve the Egyptians, but you who have conquered Egypt, for your founder Alexander conquered it, how do you debase yourselves to serve those who condemn the ancient opinions of your fathers ? Unmindful of the ancient happiness of your country, when the world had communion with the gods of Egypt, and you lived in great abundance of all things. But those who have brought in this new religion, what good can they do to your city ? Your founder, Alexander, the Macedon, was religious toward the gods: so was Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, who pro- tected this city. Did it grow by the preaching of Jesus, or by the hateful doctrine of the Galileans ? When we the Romans took this city from the Ptole- mies, Augustus came to it, and speaking to your citizens, said, I pardon you all your faults, for the respect I bear to the great god Serapis, to this people, and great city. To all which I may add, says Ju- lian, the proofs you have of my kindness. Have you no sense of that bright sun which shines upon you, that makes summer and winter, grass and plants to grow ? and of the moon that affords great advantages to your city ? Dare you worship none of these gods, but only mustbelieve in Jesus, whom neither you nor i Buck xxii. -' Julian's Epistles, Epist. Ix. and ix. '- Epist li. your fathers knew." These were the strongest argu- ments he could adduce for Paganism ; but they were too weak to persuade a Christian people to renounce the service of the glorious God, who made sun, moon, and stars, to whom we are reconciled through Jesus our blessed redeemer, and to serve idols or devils to their own eternal destruction. Finally, He tried all subtile arts to ensnare unwary Christians to comply with pagan superstition, to raise horror in their conscience, or to undermine their re- putation. To this end he used, as was noticed above, to place the images of the heathen gods next to or behind his own, that when the people came, accord- ing to custom, to do obeisance to the one, they might do it to the other.1 Those who did it, he persuaded to venture a little further. Those who discovered the cheat and refused, he charged with treason, and pro- ceeded against them as delinquents. When the soldiers came at solemn times to receive their dona- tives, the ancient use was to throw apiece of frankiu- scense into the fire, in honour of the gods. Which though the Christians detested, yet some surprised by an inveterate custom, did it : who being reminded afterwards of what they had done, horror seized their consciences ; they went to the emperor, and threw back their donatives, publicly professing themselves Christians. Bnt he would not grant such the honour of martyrdom, only he expelled them from the palace and the army. At other times he used to defile the fountains and springs with heathen sacrifices, and sprinkle all the flesh and food in the market,-' with hallowed water offered to his gods, that so the Chris- tians might neither eat nor drink, but they must seem, at least, to be partners in idolatry. The Chris- tians resented this with just indignation. Juventius and Maximus, two officers of the imperial guards, expressed to the emperor's face a just dislike of his actions, and of his apostacy. " These are the things," said they, "which we lament and complain of pri- vately, and now in your presence, as the great blem- ishes of your reign. We were educated in true piety under Constantine, and his sons, and cannot but now be uneasy when we see all places full of abomina- tion, and our very meat polluted with filthy sacrifi- ces." Julian, notwithstanding his gravity and philo- sophic composure, was so nettled with this answer, that he commanded them to be first miserably tor- tured, and then put to death ; though he would not have it thought they suffered as martyrs for religion, but for their petulant carriage to himself. Seven or eight months Julian stayed at Constan- tinople, using these methods to suppress Christiani- ty, and restore paganism. Having settled his secu- lar affairs, he crossed the Hellespont, and came to Pessinus, a city of Galatia,3 where stood an ancient temple dedicated to Rhea, or Ceres, the mother of the heathen deities ; the worship whereof he restored. Thence he passed through Cilicia, and came to An- tioch, July 362 ; thence" to Edessa, but would not enter the "city, because it was all inhabited by Chris- tians; thence to Carrae, a city in Mesopotamia, April 18th, where he entered the pagan temple, and performed many execrable rites ; which being finish- ed, he sealed up the doors, and set a guard on them, giving orders that none should open them till his re- turn. When they were broke open, upon the news of his death, there was found a woman hanging by i Sozomen, Book v. Chap. xvii. 2 Theodoret, Book iii. Chap. xv. a Libanius p. 254. 22 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. die hair of the head, her hands extended, and her belly ript up, that a presage of success might be had by inspecting her liver.1 The like seems to have been done at Antioch, where many chests were found in the palace, filled with dead men's sculls, and several dead bodies hid in the wells ; which seem to have been the engines and monuments of his dia- bolic divination. In the middle of Summer, he came within sight of the Persian army, and had a hopeful prospect of victory ; when, venturing too far, without bis ar- mour, he was on a sudden struck with a horseman's lance, g which, grazing on his arm, passed in at his side, and went to the lower lap of the liver. The lance being two-edged, he cut his fingers while he strove to pull it out, and, fainting with the loss of blood and spirits, he sunk down on his horse's neck. It is reported by Theodoret,3 that Julian, finding himself mortally wounded, took a handful of his blood, and, throwing it up in the air, cried, "Thou hast overcome, 0 Galilean !" Sozomen says,4 " He threw up his blood into the air, as looking to Christ, and accusing him as author of his death." His wounds being found dangerous, he was laid on a target, and carried into his tent, where he died about midnight, June 26th, 363, in the 32d year of his age, when he had not reigned full two years. Li- banius ought not to have reproached the Christians as killing him by treachery,5 which calumny Sozo- men« refutes. Even Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan, who was present at the fight, says,7 " It is uncertain who did it ;" and Eutropius, another pa- gan, and at that time in the battle, says, Hostili mitnu interfectus est.6 " He was killed by the hand of an enemy." He was a prince superstitious rather than religious, of a nimble satyrical wit, loved to talk much, affected to be flattered, was skilled in profane learning, diligent in his studies, so as when lie had employed the day in business, he would spend the night in reading and writing. In the good pro- vidence of God, his death restored health and safety to the Christian world. Had he returned victorious from the Persian expedition, the Christians might have felt the utmost effects of his severity ; for it was what he threatened ; and, if he had prolonged his reign many years, he might have reduced Christian- ity to a very low ebb, in all human appearance. It is no wonder, then, that Christians entertained the news of his death with triumph and joy, and that their churches were filled with hymns and thanks- givings. At Antioch the people insulted Maximus, the philosopher and magician, who had blown up Julian in his folly and cruelty, crying out, " What is now become, 0 thou foolish Maximus, of all thy oracles and divinations? God and his Christ have overcome."9 Before I conclude this section, I shall observe, that Christianity made farther progress in Persia in this fourth century. Some authors are of opinion, that there were Christians in that kingdom in the days of John the apostle.10 And Bardesanes, who flourished in Mesopotamia in the end of the second century, writes, " That there were Christians in his time in the country of the Parthians, of Medes and i Theodoret, Book iii. Chap. xxvi. xxvii. 5 Ammianus Marcellinus, Book xxv. a Book iii. Chap. xxv. 4 Book vi. Chap. ii. s Libanius, p. 324. 6 Book vi. Chap. ii. ' Book xxv. 8 EutrophiK, Book x. 9 Theodoret Book iii. Chap, xxvii. xxviii. i o Du Pin's Abridgment ot Church History, Vol. ii. p. 86. Persians, as far as Bactria." But, in the fourth age, the kingdom of Christ was farther enlarged in Per- sia. In the beginning of it, James of Nisibia went from Mesopotamia into Persia, to visit the Chris- tians who were already there, and to endeavour to make new ones. The Christian religion was exten- sively spread there at the time of the council of Nice in 325. Adiabene was almost all Christian. Con- stantine was very glad to hear so good news ; and Sapor, king of Persia, having sent ambassadors to him about the year 332, to make an alliance with him, he wrote a letter to that king, wherein he prays him to grant protection to the Christians that were in his kingdom. Nevertheless, there arose a great persecution in Persia against the Christians after- wards. In this century also, the Scythiaa Nomades, who dwelt beyond the Ister, being disposed to entertain the gospel, but having few or none to preach it to them, Chrysostom got men of zeal to undertake this work. Theodoret says,1 "I have read letters written to Leontius, bishop of Ancyra, concerning the con- version of the Scythians, and desiring fit teachers might be sent to them." The same Chrysostom, finding the Goths over-run with Arianism, got some proper person* of that coun- try, and ordained them readers, deacons, and pres- byters, and assigned them a church within the city. By their industry he reclaimed many to the church ;2 and, that this might succeed the better, he himself went often and preached among them, making use of an interpreter to convey his discourse to the peo- ple, and persuaded other preachers to do the like. SECTION II. IN THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND FOLLOWINO CENTTTIUES, TO THE THIRTEENTH. That the reader may not be surprized to find so little said upon such a number of centuries, it is proper to observe, that this period does not afford much matter upon the success of true Christianity. A specimen of such accounts as are to be had, may be seen in Millar, vol. ii. page 89, &c. to which the inquisitive reader is referred. There are two pas- sages in another part of that vol. ii. that deserve particular notice; one concerning the church of Malahar in the East Indies, page 219, &c. ; another concerning the church of Abyssinia in Africa, a large country, containing the great and higher Ethio- pia, page 874, &c. Of both which churches it is remarkable that they are very ancient, and that they condemn many of the errors and corruptions of the church of Rome. The following passages relating to our own country, as they shew our early obliga- tions to Divine grace, I shall insert at large, vol. ii. page 93. " There was a Christian church with us in Scot- land about the end of the second century ; for Tertul- lian, who wrote about that time, says,3 these places of Britain that were inaccessible to the Roman armies have yielded subjection to Christ." And, page 127, " The Christianity that was in this island before the Saxon conquest (that is before the year i Church History, Book v. Chap. xxix. xxx. xxxi. 2 Theodoret, Book v. Chap. 30. 3 Against the Jews, Chap. vii. p. $S. Chap. 2. IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 23 450) was more pure than what came in afterwards. There were great contests between those of the old stamp and those of the new. The former lived in Wales and Scotland ; the latter in the heart of Eng- land. In the year 601 , there was a synod called by Austine, to which, Rede tells us,1 the bishops or doctors of the next province of the Rritons were summoned ; in which Dinooth, abbot of Rangor, told him, They owned no other subjection to the Pope of Rome, but what they were bound to by the Chris- tian duties of love and charity." And, page 130, " We have reason to believe that many of these old Rritons and Scots were excellent persons; and that God, by their means, kept up true Christianity in this island to a greater degree than it would other- ways have been preserved. Even Rede himself re- presents Aidaa, Finan, and Colman, who were chief leaders of the Scots, and famous preachers in Nor- thumberland, to have been eminent for their love of God and their regular life, and great observers of the works of piety and chastity, which they learned out of the holy scriptures. In a word, they stood up for the purity of Christianity, as founded on the word of God, against the canons of the Romish council-.' SECTION III. IN Till. THIIlTEENTn CENTURY OF THE WALDENSES AND ALBI- CENSES.— Til EI II ANTIQUITY. — GREAT NUMBERS.— CONSTANCY IN SUFFERING FOR THE TRCTn.— FROM FRANCE THEY SPREAD INTO GERMANY, ITALY, AND SEVERAL OTHER. COUNTRIES. — THEIR ENEMIES COULD NEVER WHOLLY EXTIRPATE TUEM. From Uennet's Memorial of the Reformation, page 3C. Reinerus, their bitter enemy, gives this account of them in his book against the Waldenses, Chapter 14. " That*)f all sects that ever were, none were so pernicious to the church of Rome as the Leonists or Waldenses; and that for these reasons: 1. For their antiquity and long continuance, even from the time of Pope Sylvester, who was made Pope in the year 316 ; or, as others have affirmed, from the time of the apostles. 2. For the universality of that sect, because there was scarce any' country where they were not. 3. When all other heretics, by reason of their blasphemy against God, were abhorred, the Waldenses had a great appearance of piety, because they lived justly before men, believed all things well of God, and had all the articles of the creed, only they blasphemed the church and clergy of Rome." From Clark's Mart >irolog;i, page 76. When the darkness of Popery had overspread the Christian world, so that princes employed their au- thority to establish the Romish idolatry, appointing for slaughter such as denied transubstantiation, ado- ration of the host, and the like ; this occasioned many to detest this superstition, as unknown to the apos- tles and primitive church. Particularly, there was one Berengarius, soon after the year 1000, who boldly and faithfully preached the truth ; from whom the gospellers were, for some time, called Rerenga- rians. About the year 1110, common notice being taken of their separating from the church of Rome, and their disowning so many of its tenets, they be- i Church History, Cook ii. Chap. ii. came very odious to the Romanisfs. Twenty years after, when they were grown into a very great mul- titude, they had one Petri- Bruis, an eminentpreacher among them, who taught long and publicly at Tho- louse, under the protection and favour of a nobleman called Hildephonsus. From him they were, in those parts, called Petro-Rrusians : for, in the year 1120, Peter Rruis published their tenets in a book called Antichrist, wherein he declared both the grounds of their doctrine, and the causes of their separation from the Romish church. In the year 1140, they were grown so numerous, that the Pope began to set himself to extirpate them ; for which end he stirred up the most learned of his followers to write against them ; and warned princes to take heed of them, and to banish them out of their territories. In the year 1147, they had one Henry, of Tho- louse, for their most eminent preacher; where- upon they began to be called Henricians : and be- cause they were well read in the scriptures, especi- ally in the Epistles of Paul, whom, by way of emi- nency, they called the apostle, alleging texts out of him, and would admit of no testimonies for the proof of religion, but only out of scripture, they were called Apostolics. And, shortly after, God raised up Peter Valdo, a citizen of Lyons, in France, who shewed himself most courageous in op- posing the popish inventions ; withal taxing divers other innovations which were crept into the church of Rome ; and he was the more eagerly hearkened unto, because he was in high esteem for his learning and piety, and his liberality to the poor; for, besides the nourishing of their bodies, he did also feed their souls, by exhorting them to seek Jesus Christ, and salvation by him. The archbishop of Lyons, being informed, that Valdo used thus to instruct the peo- ple, boldly taxing the vices, luxury, and pride of the Pope and his clergy, forbad him the same, upon pain of excommunication, and proceeded against him as an heretic. Valdo replied, That he could not be silent in a cause of so great importance, as the sal- vation of men's souls; wherein he must obey God rather than man. Then did the archbishop seek to have him apprehended, but could not effect it, Valdo having many great friends, and being generally be- loved, whereby he continued (though closely) in Lyons three years. Pope Alexander the Third, being informed, that divers persons in Lyons questioned his sovereign authority over the whole Church, cursed Valdo and his adherents ; commanding the archbishop to pro- ceed against them by ecclesiastical censures, to their utter extirpation ; upon which they were wholly chased out of Lyons. Valdo and his followers were called Waldenses, who afterwards spread them- selves into divers countries. Valdo himself went into Dauphiny, conversing in the mountains of the same province, with certain rude persons, yet capa- ble of receiving his belief. His disciples also spread into Picardy, whence they were called Picards ; against whom afterwards King Philip (enforced by the ecclesiastical persons) took arms, and overthrew three hundred gentlemen's houses that followed their party, and destroyed some walled towns, pursuing them into Flanders, whither they fled, and causing many of them there to be burned to death. This persecution caused many of them to fly into Germany, and Alsatia, where they spread their doctrine ; and shortly after, the bishops of Mayence 24 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book 1. and Strasburgh raised a great persecution against them, causing rive and thirty citizens of Mayenee to be burned in one fire, and eighteen in another, who with great constancy suffered death. At Strasburg eighty were burnt, at the instance of the bishop ; yet multitudes of people received such edification by the exhortations, constancy and pa- tience of the martyrs, that, in the year 1315, in the county of Passau, and about Bohemia, there were above eighty thousand persons that made profession of the same faith. In the year 11 GO, " in the reign of King Henry the Second, there came above thirty of the Waldenses into England, one Gerard being their minister, ac- knowledged to be a learned man by the monk of Newbury, who writes the story : These people la- bouring "to win disciples to Christ, were quickly found out by the Popish clergy ; and great complaints were made against them to the King, who assembled a council of bishops at Oxford, before whom these godly persons were convented, and Gerard, their mi- nister, spoke for them all, saying, We are Christians, holding and reverencing the doctrine of the Apostles. Beingexamined in order (saith the monk) of the ar- ticles'of the holy faith, they held right things ; but they would not admit of salt, spittle, and exorcisms in baptism, &o. And being urged with arguments, they answered, that they believed as they were taught by God s word. Being admonished to re- pent, and to return to the unity of the church, they despised that counsel ; they scorned threats also, say- ing, ' Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of hea- ven.' Then did the bishops excommunicate them, and so delivered them over to be corporally punished by the King, who caused the character of heretical infamy to be burned in their foreheads ; and Gerard, their minister, suffered the disgrace of double burn- ing ; then were their clothes cut off to their girdles ; and they were publicly whipped through Oxford ; they singing all the while, ' Blessed are ye when men hate you, and despitefully use you.' The King further commanded, that none should presume to re- ceive them into their houses, nor to cherish them with any comfort, whereby they perished with hunger and cold.'1 And three years after, in the council of Turon, or Towers, in France, viz., 1163, Pope Alex- ander the Third, made a decree that these gospel- lers, and all their favourers, should be excommuni- cated ; and that none should sell them anything, or buy anything of them. But notwithstanding all these devices, they had goodly churches in Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Hungary. Cesarius saith, that this heresy (as he calls it) so increased, that in a short time it infected, usque ad rnillc civitates, a thousand cities. Parsons saith, that they had an army of seventy thousand men to fight for them ; yen,' they were so spread in Germany, that they 'could travel from Collen to Milan in Italy, and everynight lodge with hosts of their own profession. Between the years 11 76 and 1226, there was so greal havoc made of these poor Christians, that the archbishops of Aix, Aries, and Narbonne, being as- sembled, at the request of the inquisitors, to confer with them about divers difficulties in the execution oi' their offices, had compassion of the great number that were accused and cast into prison, saying, We hear that you have apprehended such a multitude of the Waldenses, that it is not only impossible to de- i Clark's Martyrology, page 376. fray the charge of their food, but to provide lime and stone to build prisons for them ; we therefore ad- vise you to forbear this rigour till the pope be adver- tised, and direct what he will have done in this case. Notwithstanding all their sufferings, there was in the year 1260, according to the report of George Morrel, in his Memorials, page 54, above 800,000 persons that made profession of the faith of the Wal- denses. Besides the churches that they had in Valentinois, where their faith was propagated from father to son, their religion spread also beyond the Alps, into the valley of Pragela, within tbe jurisdic- tion of the archbishop of Turin, from whence were peopled the Waldensian vallies of Piedmont, La Perouse, St. Martin, Angrogne, &c. This valley of Pragela was one of the safest retiring places that the Waldenses had, being environed, on all sides, with mountains almost inaccessible, into the caves whereof they retired themselves in the times of per- secution and though they were weakened on all sides, surrounded with enemies, and in danger of being apprehended, if they looked but out of their doors ; yet was there never any worldly respect that had power to alter their holy resolution, from the father to the son, to serve God, taking his word for the rule of their faith, and his law for the rule of their obedience ; yea, no sooner were the infants weaned from their mothers' breasts, but their parents took a singular delight to instruct them in the Christian faith. Their pastors also did not only preach to them on the Sabbath days, but went in the week days, to instruct them in the villages and hamlets, not sparing themselves for the coldness of the air, and the cragginess of the country, where they were fain to climb up high mountains to visit their flocks. There was also holy discipline exer- cised among them ; the people prayed with fervency at night when they went to their rest, and in the morning before they went about their* labour : and they had schools wherein their children were taught and nurtured. The Waldenses were dispersed also into several other countries, as Bohemia, Austria, Germany, Flanders, Poland, Italy, Spain, Dalmatia, Croatia, Sclavonia, Grecia, Philadelphia, Livonia, Sarmatia, Bulgaria ; in all which places, at one time or other, they suffered persecutions. The Albigenses were the same with the Wal- denses, differing only in name, from their habitation in the country of Albi. Divers of Waldo's disciples going into that country, and amongst them one Ar- nold (from whom they were called Arnoldists), laboured with so good success, that in a short time there was scarce any found that would go to mass. About the year 1210, the English who now possess- ed Guienne, which bordereth upon the earldom of Tholouse, began to help the Albigenses, being stirred up thereto by Lollard, a godly and learned man ; who, by his powerful preaching, converted many to the truth, and defended the faith of the Albigenses: and for his learning, it is evident by his comment up- on the Revelation, where he setteth forth many things that are spoken of the Roman Antichrist. This worthy man was afterwards apprehended in Ger- many ; and, being delivered to the secular power, was burnt at Collen. Yet, notwithstanding all cruelties used against them, their enemies could never prevail to a total extirpation of them, but they still lay hid like sparks under the ashes, desiring and longinsr to see that, which now, through God's grace, their posterity do enjoy, viz. the liberty to Chap. 2. IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. call upou God in purity of conscience, without being enforced to any superstition and idolatry ; and so, instructing their children in the service of God, the Lord was pleased to preserve a church amongst them in the midst of the Romish corruptions, till the Gos- pel was dispersed in a more general and public way, by the ministry of Luther and his fellow-labour- ers : at which rime these Albigenses received, with greediness, the doctrine of the Gospel, and so be- came more eminent in their profession of piety than formerly. SECTION" IV. IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.— OF WICKLIFF IN ENGLAND, AND OF SOME OTHERS WHO BEFORE HIS TIME HAD TESTIFIED FOR THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL THERE. From Millar's Propagation, fyc. vol. ii.page 173. Between the years 13/0 and 1380, God raised up Wickliff in England, to oppose the corrup- tion of the church of Rome. He had many fol- lowers, who were called Lollards, by way oi* con- tempt, yet continued down to the time of the reforma- tion both in England and Scotland. They were so inflamed with zeal, that no severities used against them could extirpate them. Several of our princes and great men favoured them, in opposition to the Pope, and his tyrannical encroachments, of which they were weary. The Scriptures were translated into our mother tongue, and read by many ; and such seeds of sacred truth were dispersed in various parts of the land as sprung up many years after, and help- ed to produce a plentiful harvest, when Almighty God, to shew forth his glory, brought about the re- formation from Popery. In reference to some of these periods, the reader may consult Knox's History, which, as the title of it shews, extends only from the year 1422, to August 28th 1567, begins with remarkable extracts from the records of Glasgow. The historian observes, that it was by the merciful providence of God, that such things, as are after mentioned, were kept even by the enemies of truth in their registers, to shew that God preserved in this realm some sparks of his light even in time of the greatest darkness. The first thing cited from these records is, that, in 1422, James Retby, a scholar of Wickliff s, was burnt for denying that the Pope was Christ's vicar. In 1431, Paul Craw, a Bohemian, apprehended in the University of St. Andrews, suffered death there. His enemies put a ball of brass in his mouth, that what he said for the truth, at his death, might not instruct the people. In 1494, thirty persons of those called the Lollards of Kyle, were accused before Blackadder, archbishop of Glasgow, of about thirty-four articles, contrary to Popish errors. Among those were George Campbell of Cesnock, Adam Reid of Bars- kymming, John Campbell of New-Mills, Andrew Shaw of Polkemmet, Helen Chamber, Lady Pokellie, Isobel Chamber, Lady Stairs. Some of the thirty resided in Kyle, others in Kingstyle, others in Cun- ningham. Although the bishop's accusation was very grievous, yet God so assisted his servants, partly by inclining the king's heart to gentleness, for se- veral of them were his familiar friends, and partly by enabling them to give bold and godly answers to their accusers ; so that, in the end, the enemies were D frustrate of their purpose. Adam Reid, in particular gave such answers, as turned the cause of the perse- cutors into ridicule, in the presence of the court where the king presided. From Clark's Lives, page 109. Mr Wickliff, a courageous witness of the truth, was a divinity-reader in Oxford, and had also a pastoral charge there, in which he took great pains. He received his first knowledge of the truth from one friar Lollard, who brought the doctrine of the Waldenses into England, and from whom his dis- ciples were called Lollards. Mr Wickliff was an eloquent man, and a great scholar. Many of the nobility favoured him, by whom he was sheltered from the rage of the Popish clergy. All his books were commanded to be burned, but he had before enlightened so great a number, who kept his books carefully, maugre all the diligence of his adversa- ries, that they could never wholly deprive the Church of them ; for the more they laboured, by horrible threats, and death itself, to hinder the knowledge and reading of them, the more were many kindled in their affections to read them with ardency. He wrote above an hundred volumes against Antichrist and the Church of Rome, besides commentaries on Scripture. He translated the Bible into English, with prefaces and arguments to each book. In his book, entitled "The Pathway to Perfect Know- ledge," he sheweth what pains he had taken in translating the bible into English ; how he had got many old Latin Bibles; "For the late books," saith he, " are very corrupt :" and he employed many learned men to assist him in his fourth trans- lation of it. He taught that the truth of the gospel sufficeth to salvation, without observing the legal ceremonies. He urged Christian men and women, young and old, to study the Scriptures frequently, especially the New Testament, " Which," said he, " is full of authority, and gives understanding to the simple, especially in all points needful to salva- tion,"1 &c. From Clark's Marty rology, page 37o. After a short account of about twenty eminent persons who appeared against Popery in England by their writings, or otherwise, before Wickliff, from the year 884, and downwards, and of near thirty more that came after Wickliff, till the year 1507, he concludes to the following purpose : " Thus we have seen in many particular instances, that God preserved a true church, a true ministry, and true ordinances amongst the people of this land, in despite of the devil and all his instruments ; and though many times the saints of God were fain to hide themselves, and underwent grievous persecu- tions for the cause of Christ, yet God still preserved a seed alive, who, when the storm was over, ap- peared again ; and when corruptions and Antichris- tianity had overspread the greatest part of the Christian world, God from time to time raised up some in this nation to bear witness against the same, who loved not their lives to the death, that they might be found faithful to Christ, and his truth." 1 Of his complaints of the idolatry, pride, and wickedness of the times, and how lie was persecuted by the Popish clergy, and defended by the favour of several of the English nobility, and by other Providences; see Clark's Lives, p. 114. 26 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. And therefore Dr Field, in his Book of the Church, hook iii. chap. vi. and viii., had good reason to say thus, " Although we do acknowledge Wickliff, Husse, Jerome of Prague, &c, to have been the worthy servants of God, and holy martyrs, suf- fering for the cause of Christ against Antichrist, yet we do not think that the Church was to be found only in them, or that there was no other appearance or succession of the Church and ministry, as the Papis's falsely charge us ; for we believe that they who taught and embraced those damnable errors which the Bomanists now defend, were a faction only in the Church, as were they that denied the resurrection, urged circumcision, and despised the apostles of Christ in the Churches of Corinth and Galatia.'' SECTION V. IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. — OF JOHN HUSSE AND JEROME Or PRAGUE— WHAT IJEFEL THE CHURCHES OF BOHEMIA AF- TERWARDS.— THE DISCOVERT OF NEW COUNTRIES IN THIS CENTURY, A MEAN OF PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATIIEN.— THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING SUBSERVIENT TO THE REFORMATION FROM POrERT. From Clark's Marbyrology, page 126, c5- c. When the Pope began to obtrude his superstitions upon the Bohemians, as he had done on other churches, they sent commissioners to Rome, desir- ing to be eased of their grievances, as early as the year 977, which, for some time, had a good effect. But when these oppressions were renewed, and, about the year 1197, others were added to them, God raised up many to oppose them, particularly John Melicius, a man of a noble family and fervent spirit, much honoured for his learning and holy life. Being much moved in spirit to go to Rome, and there to testily that the great Antichrist was come, he prayed to God, with fasting and tears, desiring, unless these thoughts came from the Spirit of God, to be delivered from them. But when he could find no inward quiet, he went to Rome, where the Pope excommunicated him and his hearers, and impri- soned him. Matthias of Prague was another opposer of the corruptions of the Church of Rome. In the year 1376, he, with some other learned men, went to King Charles, who then reigned, requesting him to call a council for the reformation of the Church. Charles sending to the Pope about it, he was so in- censed at the message, that he commanded the King to punish these rash and heretical men. Matthias was banished the kingdom, and the use of the sacra- ment, according to iis original institution, was pro- hibited through all Bohemia; to that the godly could not administer it but in private house;, or woods and caves : and yet neither so, but with the hazard of their lives. And thus matters continued to the days of John Huss >. From Clark's Lives, page ll'i. 1. John Htjsse, while he was a studentatthe Uni- versity of Prague, met with Wickliffs books, from whence he first got light and courage to profess the truth. In the year 1400, he was chosen pastor of a church, and, in 140!), rector of the university. He continued in the exercise of his ministry with great zeal, diligence, and faithfulness, for the space of twelve years, instructing the people out of the Holy Scriptures, and living an exemplary life. He vigorously opposed the Pope's proceedings, for which he was cited to Rome, to answer to such articles as should be laid against him. He sent his proctors to Rome, who appeared for him, answered the charge, and cleared his innocency ; yet did the Pope and his cardinals condemn him for an heretic, and ex- communicate him : which caused the Popish clergy, and some of the barons of Bohemia, to oppose Husse being thus excommunicated ; and King Winceslaus banished him, but he was entertained in the coun- try, and protected at Hussinets, where he preached in the parish church, and some places adjacent, against the Popish doctrine of merit of works, and against the pride, idleness, cruelty, and avarice of the Romish court and clergy, multitudes of persons resorting to his ministry. Sometimes also he re- paired to his church of Bethlehem, and preached there. But upon the Pope's death, the cardinals being divided, chose three popes, whereupon there was a council called at Constance, in the year 1414, to which council the Emperor Sigismund commanded Husse to come, giving him his safe conduct for his coining, and return. October 15th, John Husse began his journey towards Constance, being accom- panied with two noblemen and their followers ; and relying upon the goodness of his cause, the clearness of his conscience, and the Emperor's safe conduct, with a cheerful mind and undaunted spirit, he wrent to Constance, and, in his journey, setup writings in every city, the tenor whereof was this : " Mr Johu Husse, Batchelor of Divinity, goeth now to the council of Constance, there to declare his faith which he hath hitherto held, and even at this present doth hold, and by God's grace, will hold, and defend even to the death. Therefore, even as he hath manifested through all the kingdom of Bohemia, by his letters and intimations, willing, before his departure thence, to have satisfied and given an account of his faith unto every man who should object or lay any thing against him in the general convocation held in the archbishop of Prague's court : so also he doth mani- fest and signify, that if there be any man in this city, that can impute any error or heresy to him, that he would prepare himself to come unto the council ; forasmuch as the said Mr John Husse is ready to satisfy every man, at the said council, who J shall lay any thing to his charge, as touching his j faith." In all cities, as he passed by, especially I when he entered into Germany, a great number of people resorted to him, and he was everywhere kindly entertained, especially by the citizens and burgesses, insomuch, that he confessed in a certain epistle, that he found in no place so great enemies as in Bo- hemia; and when he came to Nuremberg, certain merchants, that went before, having given notice of his coming, almost all the priests that were in the city came to him, desiring him that they might talk with him in private, to whom he answered, that he desired rather to declare his mind openly; and so, from dinner till night, he spake before the priests, senators, and many citizens, insomuch, that they all had him in singular estimation and reverence. When Mr Husse came to Constance, he was cited to appear before some cardinals, to give an account of his doctrine; but he told them that he came to do it before all the council ; yet if they would force him to do it before them, he doubted not, but Christ would strengthen Chap. 2. IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. him to chose death for his glory's sake, rather than to deny the truth, which he had learned out of the Holy Scriptures. After examination, they com- mitted him to a filthy prison, where, by reason of the stink, he fell sick, and his life was in danger. In the meantime, his adversaries preferred articles against him, wherein they had forged many things of their own heads, wresting and perverting his godly and orthodox sayings to a bad sense, that they might have whereof to accuse him ; and thereupon desired of the council, that he might be condemned. Mr Husse hearing of these their malicious proceed- ings, moved that he might have an advocate ; but that was denied him. Whilst he lay there in prison, I when he had in some measure recovered his health, he wrote sundry books. From that prison be was removed by the Bishop of Constance to a castle on the other side of the Rhine, where, in the day time, he wTas so laden with fetters on his legs, that he could scarce go, and every night he was fastened by the hands up to a rack against the wall. Here- upon many noblemen of Bohemia petitioned for his release, at least upon bail ; but that was denied. They who were appointed for his judges, in his absence heard bis enemies, examined witnesses against him, judged his doctrine, not by the true touchstone of God's Word, but by the Popish ca- I nons; but when the council would have condemned him without hearing, the Emperor interposed, re- ! quiring that he should be first heard ; but, when he I was brought before them, they made such a con- fused noise, railing upon him, that he could not i speak one word. When he saw the cruelty of his ; judges, the malice of his accusers, the falsehood of his witnesses, and the rage of all the council against him, breathing forth nothing but fire and gots, he kneeled down, and commended his righ- teous cause to the Lord Jesus Christ, begging for- 1 giveness for his enemies; yet he earnestly requested the council, even with tears, that they would con- ' vince him of any error by the word of God, and he would willingly retract it. But nothing prevailed ; for they proceeded to condemn and degrade him ; j whereupon, kneeling down, he said, '' Lord Jesus Christ, forgive mine enemies, by whom thou know- est that I am falsely accused ; forgive them, I say, ! for thy great mercy's sake." In degrading him, they I pared off the crown of his head, and the skin, with a pair of shears: and, to justify their proceedings against j him, because the emperor had given him his safe | conduct, the council made a decree, that faith was | not to be kept with heretics. The Romish agents I persecuted him with such eagerness, that his works weie condemned to be burned with him. When he i was brought forth to be burned, they put on his head a triple crown of paper, painted over with ugly devils; , but, when he saw it, he said, " My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear a crown of thorns ; why should i not I, then, for his sake, wear this light crown, be it ' ever so ignominious ? Truly I will do it, and that j willingly." When it was set upon his head, the ! bishops said, now we commit thy soul to the devil. , " But I, said John Husse, (lifting up his eyes to- : wards heaven) do commit my spirit into thy hands, O I Lord Jesus Christ ! unto thee I commend my spirit, ' which thou hast redeemed." As he was going to ! execution, they burned his books before his face, at which he smiled, and said to the people, " Think not, good people, that I die for any heresy, or error, but j only for the ill-will of my adversaries." When he came to the place of execution, he kneeled down, and, with his eyes towards heaven, he prayed, and repeat- ed certain psalms, and with a cheerful countenance, cried often, u Into thy hands, O Lord ! I commend my spirit." When he rose from his knees, he said, " Lord Jesus Christ, assist and help me, that, with a constant and patient mind, by thy most gracious help, I may bear and suffer this cruel and ignominious death, to which I am condemned for the preaching of thy most holy gospel." And as they tied his neck with a chain to the stake, smiling, he said, " That he would willingly receive the same chain for Jesus Christ's sake, who he knew was bound with a far worse chain." When the fire was kindled, be began to sing, with a loud voice, " Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, have mercy on me ! " And, at the third time that he repeated it, the wind drove the flames so into his face, that it chonked him. He suffered martyrdom in 1415. He told them, at his dei h, " That out of the ashes of the Goose (for so Husse in the Bohemian language signifies) an hun- dred years after, God would raise up a Swan in Ger- many, whose singing would affrightall those vultures ; which vt as fulfilled in Luther, just about an hundred years after." 2. Jerome of Prague, a man famous for virtue, learning, and eloquence, when he understood that the public faith was violated, his country slandered, and Husse burnt, travelled to Constance, April 4th, 1415. But no sooner came he thither, but he un- derstood, that watch was laid for him. to apprehend him; whereupon the next day he went to Iberling, a city cf the empire, and a mile from Constance. From thence he sent to Sigismund, king of Hungary, and his barons, but especially to the council, most earnestly requesting, that they would give him a safe conduct freely to come and go, and then be would come in open audience to answer every man, if any would appear to charge him with any crime. But no safe conduct could be granted him ; wherefore the Lords of Bohemia gave him their letters patent with which he returned again towards Bohemia : but, by the treachery and subtilty of his enemies, he was apprehended by the way in Hirsaw, and by the offi- cers was carried before the duke, who presently car- ried him bound to Constance. Some of the bishops said to him, Jerome, why didst thou fly and run away, and not appear when thou wast cited ? To which he answered, Because I could get no safe con- duct neither from you nor the king; and perceiving that I had many' bitter enemies in the council, I would not be the author of my own peril ; but had I known of your citation, assuredly, though I had been in Bohemia, I would have appeared. Then was he delivered bound to the officers to be put in prison. As soon as he came thither, one called to him at his window, saying, " Mr Jerome, be constant, and fear not to suffer death for the truth's sake, of which, when you was at liberty, you did preach much good : " — to whom he answered, " Truly, brother, I do not fear death." But the prison-keeper coming to the man, drove him away with strokes from the window. Presently the bishop of Rigen sent for Jerome, strongly "bound with chains, both by the hands and neckband sent him to a tower, where they tied him fast to a great block, and his feet in the stocks, his hands being also made fast upon them, the block being so high, that he could by no means sit thereon, but his head must hang downwards ; where also they allowed him nothing but bread and water: but within 28 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. eleven days, hanging so by the heels, he fell very sick ; yet thus they kept him in prison a year want- ing seven days, and then sent for him, requiring him to recant, and to subscribe, that John Husse was justly put to death, which he did, partly for fear of death, and hoping thereby to escape their hands : after which they sent him back to prison, and kept him guarded with soldiers, yet not so strictly chained as before. Then they sent to examine him again ; but he refused to answer in private, except he might be brought before the council ; and they (supposing that he would openly confirm his former recantation) sentfor him thither, May 25th, 1416, suborning false witnesses to accuse him ; but he so learnedly cleared himself, and refuted his adversaries, that they were astonished at his discourse, and with shame enough were put to silence. He also concluded his speech with this, " That all such articles as "Wickliff and Husse had written against the enormities, pomp and disorder of the prelates, he would firmly hold and defend even unto death ; and that all the sins he had committed, did not so much trouble and gnaw his conscience, as did that most pestiferous act of his, in recanting what he had justly spoken, and in consent- ing to the wicked condemnation of Husse ; and that he repented of it with his whole heart." This bo enraged them, that they proceeded to condemn him ; whereupon he said, " I, after my death, will leave a remorse in your consciences, and a nail in your hearts ; Et citovosomnes ut respondeatis mihi coram altissimo et juatissimo Judice post centum annos; and I cite you all to answer to me before the most high and just judge within an hundred rears." As he went to the place of execution, he sung some hymns ; and coming to the place where John Husse was burned, he kneeled down, and prayed fer- vently. He was bound to the image of John Husse, and so fire was set to him, which he endured with admirable valour; for, standing at the stake bound, and the executioner kindling the fire behind him, he bade him kindle it before his face : " For (said he) if I had been afraid of it, I had not come to this place." The whole city of Constance admired his Christian magnanimity. At the giving up the ghost, he said, — Heme animam in flammis ojfero Christe tibi! This soul of mine, in flames of tire, O Christ, 1 offer thee. Poggius, who was secretary to the council of Con- stance, writing to a friend, saiththus of Jerome, " I profess I never saw any man, who, in discourse (es- pecially it being for life or death) came nearer to the eloquence of the apostles and ancients, whom we so much admire. It was a wonder to see with what words, with what eloquence, arguments, countenance, and with what confidence he answered his adversaries, and maintained his own cause ; insomuch, as it is to be lamented, that so fine a wit had strayed into the way of heresy, if that be true which was objected against him." And afterwards he saith, " When many things were heaped up against him, to fix the charge of heresy, which also were proved by wit- nesses, it was permitted to him to answer particu- larly to the same ; but he refused a long time, be- cause he ought first to plead his own cause, and then to answer- to the railings of his adversaries. And when this was denied him, he said, How great an injury and iniquity is this, that when I lived three bundled and forty days in a most bard prison, in filthiness, in dung, in fetters, and in want of all things, ye have heard my adversaries at all times, and you'will not hear me one hour !' It is possible you may err : you are men, and not gods." " "Whenever any article of his accusation was read publicly, and proved by witnesses, they asked him, Whether he had any thing to object P But it is almost incredible how he answered, and with what arguments he defended himself. He never spake one word unworthy a good man ; so that, if he thought in his heart, as he spake with bis tongue, no cause of death could have been found against him ; neither indeed was he guilty of the least offence." From, the Fulfilling of the Scriptures, Part Hi. Chap. 2, Sect. 22. It was a glorious appearance of Jesus Christ for his truth, that testimony by John Husse and Jerome of Prague, at the' council of Constance, with what followed in the church of Bohemia; a passage so remarkable, and such convincing circumstances at- tending it, that, if judicial induration were not a stroke which refuseth all cure, there could have been no resisting this conviction by the world, that surely it was the finger of God, and his immediate work; when these things are considered, 1. How, in a time of such darkness, and the Romish church at its greatest height, those were raised up with some more than ordinary elevation of spirit, and of the Lord suited to appear on his inte- rest. .Kneas Sylvius himself, who afterwards was Pope, saith, " That, with the sound of their voice, the Spirit of God assisting, the word thundering in them, did awake the people out of their dead sleep, as they run by flocks to this great light, inviting their neighbours thereto." If any question this, see *£//. Si//. Hist. Bohem. cap. 35. 2. That this testimony, even whilst the church was in the wilderness, could not get leave to be smothered in a corner, but was given in the most public view, where nothing could be more open and conspicuous, at the general council of Constance. The world must be forced to see what authority Jesus Christ can put upon the meanest of his follow- ers, in their appearance for the truth ; yea, what another spirit this is from that of the world, which could thus stand, and withstand, so impetuous a tor- rent of universal apostacy, even there where the united strength of the Eomish church and empire were at once met, yea, by patience and resolution, in avowing the truth, overcome their persecutors, and resist those allurements of preferment, and an honourable place of the church, which were then offered, if they would renounce this doctrine, to which the same ./Eneas Sylvius, cap. 36, shews what answer they made, that they taught the truth, being the disciples of Christ, and directed them- selves according to his Gospel, whilst the church of Rome was departed from the traditions of the apostles, seeking after riches and pleasures, and dominion over the people ; yea Poggius, secretary to the said council, gives this account of Jerome of Prague, that, being called before the council, after he had lain for a year in a most filthy prison and fetters, and in want of all earthly comfort, where he could neither read nor see, it was incredible how he then answered, and with what arguments; he never spoke anything unworthy of a good man, and at last hath these words, " O man, worthy of the eternal memorv of men !" Chap, 2. IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. •211 3. That whilst the\ were sentenced to die notwith- standing of the emperor 'a assurance, and safe con- dnei given, an extraordinary presence of the Lord in that hour of their goffering was thus also made liuhlie; for which I shall insert the very won: ntioned writers, whom none cculd - - pect to he partial. .Eneas Sylvius says, M That both of them suffered death (though not at one time) with a constant mind, and went joyfully to the tire, H to a feast, without the least heaviness or discon- tent, and at the fire sun:.' an hymn: neither b we read (says he) of any of the philosophers who did ■offer with more resolution." And Poggius, speak- ing of .Jerome, saith, " When the (ire v. -into him, he began to una an hymn, and when the i eutioner would have bandied the tire behind his back, that he might not see it, Come (saith he) and do it in my right; had 1 feared this, I would Dot I come Inn-. And in this maimer (sayi he) was that man, rare and excellent beyond all belief] consumed t" ashes; and adds, neither Miriuswith BO constant resolution endured the burning of one member, he of his whole body. Neither Bocrates so willingly drunk the poison, as be embrace I the tire." 4. That known propheCJ of hifl at tie .ru- in,: to the prelates there present, Alter an hundred years you shall answer to God and me, v. a- thi notour and undeniable, that, upon the money coined after in Bohemia, this inscription was pot on the one side in Latin, ( 'rut urn inuu.s rrrnlutis Din rrs/itm- debilia ft iitilii, whilst nothing then of the event could he known, which so remarkably answered to the first breakingout of the Reformation, Luther's appearing being in 1">1", and Zuinu;lius a little before ; and this ii 1410. 5. Upon this testimony, sealed with the blood of se excellent men, such wonderful providences did attend the actings in that party in Bohemia, then stirred up to appear against Buch horrid cruelty. idventure not only against the empire, but that v. hole formidable power of the Romish church in Europe, as would seem almost incredible, if the ad- versaries themselves were not enforced to testify it. m Ci. \::h\ Martgrol • \pagt 1-7. When these holy men of God were bo unjustly burned at Constance, the adversaries were not satis- fied with their bio id, but took further counsel for the destruction of the whole nation; for, when fii'ty- eight of the chief nobles of Bohemia, in the name of all the commons, in the year 141(i, had sent letters from Prague to the council, complaining that their pastor, an innocent and holy man, and faithful teacher of the truth, was unjustly condemned, the Council, instead of answering them, wrote letters to some violent Papists, who were in authority, to assist their legate in oppressing these heretics. After this, the Pope publicly excommunicated the Bohemians at Florence, exciting the emperor, kings, princes, dukes, &c. to take up arms against them, promising universal remission of sins to the most wricked person, if he did but kill one Bohemian. Hereupon great wars were raised against them; but it pleased God still to give them the victory under their brave cap- tain, Zisca. Yet still, as the Popish party prevailed at any time, they exercised all manner of cruelty upon the poor servants of Christ; insomuch, that at Cuttenburgh, where were deep metal mines, in the year 1 !-''>, thej threw into one of them a thousand and seven hundred persons ; into another, a thousand and (hirty-eight; and, into a third, a thousand three hundred and thirty-four perw -. In the year 14j'.», there were divers godly people in Bohemia, ministers, nobles, and commons, who being much pressed in conscience about the supersti- tions in the Church of Rome, obtained of their King, George l'o_riebraeius, a place in the hill country, near Silesia, to inhabit, where, throwing off all superstitions practices, they applied themselves to the form of the primitive simplicity, calling themselves brethren and -. The beginning of this church displeased the devil ; and, therefore, he raised a sudden and violent tempest to overthrow it, the priests in every pulpit stirring up the hatred of the people, and the King, by his edict, forbidding all pastors to administer holy without ceremonies ; and withal, threatening death to those thai should administer to thebrctf called now by the hateful name of Piccards. And presently after came forth a new edict, that none of them should be suffered to live in Bohemia. Upon which they were dispersed among the woods and mountains, where yet they wert safe. In the year 1468, there came out a new decree ng all the nobler of Bohemia, .n their several jurisdictions, to apprehend as many as they could, and to proceed against them. y therefore were apprehended and put into pri- . where they were kept for a long time; but, tnr ingh the wonderful working of Cod. e the enemies laboured to put out this spark, the more it broke forth into a great flame ; for many of their peers submitted to the discipline of the brethren, building churches for them in their towns and villa.', a ; BO that, in the year lotto, they hail, in Bohemia ami tin- country around, near two hundred churches. Alter the death of 1' icius, Cladili: Polonian, succeeded in the kingdom, to whom the brethren wrote an apology, by reason of many foul accusations that were carried to him against them. This so exasperated their enemies, that they en- ileavourcd by a most impudent invention to stir up the hatred of all men against them. The way they used was tins: — they suborned a wicked villain to ~ay that he came from amongst them, and that he had been an elder, but had therefore forsaken them, because, in their meetings they used to blaspheme an! the saints, to traduce t: ments, to mingle themselves incestuously, to commit murder, and practise witchcraft, tie. This man they led through the towns and cities, as a spectacle; they -brought him to their church, where he must adjure bis errors, and beseech the people to pray for him, a most miserable sinner, and to take heed, by his example, of the wicked Piccards. They also published his confession in writing, being confirmed with the seals and subscriptions of some deans and priests, causing them to be read in the churches to the people. But the devil was befooled herein; for the brethren, by public writings, did confute these lies ; and the vil- lain, trembling so often to forswear himself, confessed at last that he was suborned to do what he did, and that he knew not any of the Piccards: yet thus far it made for good, that some, to make experience of so great villanies, began privately, and disguised, to fre- quent the assemblies of the brethren ; and, finding it to be far otherwise than was reported, did associate themselves with them, as with true Christians. In the year 1510, the bishops, by their importunity, prevailed with the King, that sharp remedies should 30 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. be used against those growing evils, as they were pleased to call them ; whereupon an edict was made, that all the Piccards, without distinction of sex, age, or quality, should be slain. This mandate was brought to the assembly of states at Prague, by two bishops but divers of the chiefest nobles opposed it; so that eighteen months were spent in debate before anything was done; but, at last, by the cunning arti- fice of the chancellor, and his bloody associates, it was confirmed by the greatest part of the nobility, in presence of the King ; and a mutual confederacy whs entered into, that it should be prosecuted with an armed power : but God following some of the chief contrivers of it with sundry judgments, it almost came to nothing. Soon after, God stirred up in Germany undaunted Luther, that thunderbolt against the Pope, whose writings brought many to resolve to embrace the purer doctrine of the gospel, and to seek for the ordi- nation of their ministers from Wittenberg rather than from Home. In the mean time, the brethren being much encouraged by letters from Luther, Bu- cer, and Capito, went on constantly ; and, through God's mercy, a great number was added to the church, till that fatal year 1547, at which time Charles, the Fifth, putting in execution the decrees of the Council of Trent, raised wars against the Pro- testant princes in Germany. His brother, Ferdi- nand, solicited the Bohemians for aid ; but they re- fused it in regard of their ancient league with the house of Saxony. But the German Protestants be- ing overcome in war, Ferdinand entered Bohemia with an army, seizeth on Prague, imprisoneth the principal nobles, barons, and citizens ; some he scourged, some he beheaded, and upon others he laid grievious fines, and of others he sequestrated all their estates : also, he disarmed the city of Prague, took away their privileges, banishing some, whilst others went into voluntary exile. Then did the devil raise up some to lay all the blame upon the brethren, to which malicious suggestions the king giving heed, first, by open proclamation, commanded all their churches to be shut up, and then he took away their peers, and banished them all out of all his realms. When this heavy stroke befel them, the brethren agreed amongst themselves, that they would still be more faithful to God and their consciences than ever they had been; and so, by common con- sent, dividing themselves into three companies, they went into Poland; and all of them had experience of an admirable Divine Protection in their journey, escaping some that might and would have robbed them, but that they were restrained by God: as also, in most places where they came, they found pity and liberality, and they got courteous entertainment in Poland, though most of the people there were Papists ; yet notlong after, the bishop of that part where they were, got a mandate from the king, to drive them away : then were they forced to go into the farthest parts of Prussia, where, by Duke Albert of Brandenburg, they had a place of habitation allot- ted to them; and* one Paul Speratus, a Protestant bishop, having conferred with them about their faith, was very courteous and charitable to them. The next edict that Ferdinand set forth against the brethren, was for the apprehending of all their ministers ; whereupon some of them retired into Moravia ; others, that they might be near their flocks, hid themselves in private places and in the night- time they visited the faithful: which continued for some years; but, at last, three of them fell into their enemies hands ; yet one them, through the admirable providence of God, escaped out of a deep dungeon in the castle of Prague, and tied to his brethren ; and he sometimes passing through Poland, and preach- ing the Gospel, by Divine mercy, many of the nobi- lity and others were converted under his ministry ; so that, in a few years, he erected twenty churches in Poland. In the year 1549, Ferdinand published another decree for the extirpating both of the brethren and Lutherans; in consequence of which, the ministers that had received ordination in Ger- many were banished out of the kingdom, to the number of about two hundred. After the death of Ferdinand, Maximilian suc- ceeded in the year 1562, who being of a peaceable disposition, could by no means be induced that any should suffer for their faith. After him liodolphus succeeded in the year 1607, who treading in his father's steps, the church of Christ enjoyed peace under him; yea, pure religion so flourished through the whole kingdom, that there was scarce one among an hundred that did not pro- fess the Reformed religion : but, alas ! with liberty of religion, by little and little, men began to be li- centious in their lives, and carnal security so in- creased, that some began to presage that an horrible tempest should again overwhelm them. After the death of liodolphus succeeded Matthias, who coming into Bohemia in the year 1617, called an assembly of the states ; to them that did appear, he represented, that since he had no issue, he would adopt Ferdinand for his son, commendeth his virtues, that he may be crowned : the orders assembled af- firmed that a matter of that consequence could not be done in the absence of the united provinces ; Ccesar urged, that what Bohemia should do would be confirmed by all the rest, and that it could not be deferred till another time. In brief, the orders pro- tested that the terms of receiving him king were new ; that he ought first to be chosen, and then re- ceived; and some, perceiving that there was no place for a free voice, departed ; others, partly allured by promises, and partly deterred by threats, staid, and were present at the coronation of Ferdinand, after which he went into Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, requesting to be received for their king. Ferdinand being thus obtruded upon the Bohe- mians for their king, contrary to the ancient consti- tutions and customs of the kingdom, and not lawfully elected as he ought to have been, retired presently into Germany ; and thereupon the enemies of the truth began to crow, and openly to threaten the Pro- tectants ; and it appeared sufficiently, that Ferdinand swore to the orders with his mouth, but in his heart to the Pope ; and presently after his departure, the Popish bishops, clergy, and nobles, began to vex his subjects for their religion, contrary to that assurance which the king had given to them; they attempted also the like in Prague, the Jesuits daily threaten- ing that their liberty in religion should not last long. Then did they strictly prohibit the Protestants from printing any thing, unless licensed by the chancellor of the kingdom, themselves publishing their own slanderous pamphlets and dangerous writings against the Protestants. In the mean time the states re- solved not to admit Ferdinand to be their king, who was so open an enemy both to their religion and li- berties, and who was obtruded upon them without a due election ; they sent also ambassadors to Frank- Chap. 2. IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 31 fort, where the electors were met together to ehuse a new emperor, desiring that Ferdinand might not be admitted amongst tin m as king of Bohemia, not- withstanding which he was admitted, and was chosen emperor: the Bohemians, in the mean time, chusing Frederick elector Palatine for their king. This more enraged their enemies, so that they sent ano- ther army under Maximilian of Bavaria, which took two Protestant towns by storm, and put all to the sword, and every where made great slaughter of the Protestants. Then the Imperial armies came to Prague, which being struck with a panic fear, the Protestant army being overthrown in a set battle under the walls, surrendered to them, the conqueror promising to keep articles agreed upon, but perform- ing nothing less ; for they did more mischief to the church of Christ by their subtle and slow proceed- ings, than lately by their outrageous fury. The ministers were every where cast out of their churches; some imprisoned, and after a while dis- missed, and all commanded to depart the kingdom upon pain of death. In the year 1624, a decree came forth from the king, whereby all the ministers of the Gospel were commanded to depart the kingdom by a peremptory day prefixed, because, as was alleged, they were seditious men and seducers of the people ; yet, in most places, this edict was not known till the time was almost or altogether elapsed ; so that the minis- ters, not having time to communicate their counsels together, went into several provinces, and some were fain to hide themselves in caves and dens, and those either returned privately and visited their auditors, or comforted such as came to them in the mount: and woods, preaching and administering the sacra- ments to thein. But as soon as the enemies under- stood this, they presently published a new decree; wherein a punishment was threatened against those that should conceal the ministers, and a reward pro- mi ;cd to such as should betray them ; whereupon some of the ministers were taken and cast into pri-on ; then by the Jesuits were they by all ways solicited to apostasy; and fear of death, hunger, cold, &c, prevailed with some to renounce their ministry, but most bore up courageously against all storms, aud, at last, some, by paying great fines, others by giving it under their hands, that they would never return into Bohemia, were dismissed. The next design of the enemy was against the nobles ; their crime was, for taking up arms for Frederick, their lawful king, against an usurper : for though hope of pardon was granted, if, laying down arms, they would submit to Caesar's mercy, yet divers of them were apprehended. And, first, they seized upon some that were of the rank of de- fenders of the kingdom's liberties ; and then all those whom they knew to have done any thing for the common good of religion and liberty, or feared that they might be able to do for the time to come ; and all such as feared to break their faith given to Fre- derick. These were about the number of fifty men, famous for learning, skill in military affairs, and pru- dence in government, who were the light, delight, and safeguard of their country. All of these, in one night, and at one hour, were apprehended in their houses, when they suspected no danger, and by the captains were commanded to get up into waggons ; and so some of them were carried to the castle of Prague, others to the major's house. Next day they proceeded to the trial of the noble- men whom they had taken. Two apostate civilians were appointed to examine them, with some of the nobility, who tired them out with a thousand imper- tinent questions, labouring to extort that from them whereof they were never guilty : which one of them not able to endure, rending his garments, and open- ing his breast, said, lt Tear into a thousand pieces this body, and search into my heart, and you Bhall find nothing there but what is expressed in my Apo- logy. The love of religion and liberty made us un- sheath our swords; but seeing .God would have Caesar prevail, and hath delivered us into your hand, his will he done." Others of them also stoutly maintain- ed, that their cause was not the worse for want of succe After some time, when none of the noblemen would yield, or acknowledge themselves in an error, or sue unto them for mercy, they proceeded to exe- cution ; their judgments were committed to such as were sworn enemies to the gospel. After sentence was passed, it was sent to Caesar to consider of it ; and he was so troubled, that he slept none that night; and the next morning, calling his con. he said to him, " I adjure thee, upon thy conscience, to tell me, whether I may with a safe conscience, pardon these that are condemned P or whether 1 should suffer execution to passon them? The con- fessor answered, " O Caesar ! both are in thy power." Then did he with his pen, pardon some, and left others to execution, with a great addition of shame and ignominy. Presently after they were brought out singly to hear their sentence; wherein some were condemned to death, others to perpetual imprison- ment, others to banishment, ard some were reserved to Caesar's further pleasure. Then were each sort of prisoners carried to their several prisons ; the noblemen to the inward prisons of the castle, the citizens to the major's house ; and as they went, some villains were suborned to insult over them, say- ing, Why do they not now sing, the Lord reigneth? Then did the wives, children, and kinsfolk of the con- demned persons humbly petition for their lives ; but answer was made, that all the favour which could now be granted to them was, that they should have leave to bury the bodies of their friends. In the evening the condemned men, who were twenty-seven in number, had notice given them of the day when they were to suffer ; and therefore they were advised, for the good of their souls, to send for Jesuits, or a minister of the Augustine confession, but they must expect no minister of the brethren ; for that would not be granted them. The Jesuits and the Capu- chins, not staying till they were called for, flocked to them, using many persuasions, promising life, &c, if they would turn. But God so strengthened them, that all these endeavours were vain. Then were some ministers of the Augustine confession sent for, who spent that time which remained in religious exercises, conferences, prayer, and singing of psalms; and, lastly, in administering the sacraments to them. They who were of the brethren willingly admitted these ministers, protesting, that they acknowledged them for brethren, though they differed from them in some things. They who were prisoners in the major's house, being called to supper the night before they were to surfer, comforted themselves, saying, " That this was their last supper on earth ; but, to-morrow, said they, we shall feast with Christ in his kingdom." When it was told them, that the noblemen were coming to 32 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I. the scaffold in the market-place, where they were to suffer, they hastened to the windows, and entertained their fellow-martyrs with singing the forty-fourth Psalm, in which are these words, " For thy sake we are killed all the day," &c. The night after they spent in psalms, prayer, godly discourse, and mutual exhortations, that, since it pleased God to call them before others, to this honour of martyrdom, they hoped, by their constancy, to confound the world, to glorify Christ, and to leave a good example to others. Early in the morning they washed their faces, and put on clean clothes, as if they had been going to a wedding, and cut off the collars of their doublets, that, when they came to the scaffold, there should need no new making ready. Then presently was a gun discharged, which was a warning for their bring- ing forth to execution : whereupon these champions of Christ encouraged one another, praying, that each of them might be strengthened, Sec. Then came troops of horse and foot to fetch them, the streets, market-place, and houses, being rilled with multi- tudes of spectators. The martyrs being called forth one by one, went to their death with an undaunted courage, hasting as if they had been going to a ban- quet. When one was called for, he thus took leave of the rest, " Farewell, most loving friends ! God give you the comforts of his spirit, patience and courage, that what formerly with your mouths you have professed, you may confirm by your glorious death. Behold, I go before, that I may see the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ : you will follow me, that we may toge- ther see the face of our heavenly father. At this hour all sorrow departs from me, and joyful eternity shall succeed it." Then did the rest answer, " God above, to whom you are going, prosper your journey, and grant that you may pass happily from this vale of misery into that heavenly country. The Lord Jesus send his angels to meet you. Go, dear brother, into thine and our father's house, and we will follow after ; presently we shall meet in the heavenly glory : and this we are confident of, through Him in whom we have believed." The first was the Lord Schlik, a man of admirable parts, about fifty years old, when he was condemned to be quartered, and his members to be scattered here and there, he said, " The loss of a sepulchre is easy." Being exhorted by a minister .to courage, he said, " I have God's favour so, that no fear of death doth trouble me. I have formerly dared to oppose antichrist ; and I dare now die for Christ." The Jesuits troubling him when he came to the scaffold, he shook them off; and seeing the sun shining bright, he said, " Christ, thou Sun of Righteousness, grant, that through the darkness of death, I may pass into eternal light ;" and so, having ended his prayers, he calmly received the stroke. The Lord "Wenceslaus was next, about seventy years old, famous for learning, religion, and his travels through divers countries ; his house was formerly plundered, even to his wearing apparel, he only say- ing, " The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away." Holding forth his Bible, he said, " Behold my paradise ! it never yielded me so much nectar and ambrosia as now. On the scaffold, stroking his long beard, he said, " My grey hairs, behold what honour remains for you, that you should be crowned with martyrdom !" And so, praying for the church, his country, his enemies, and commend- ing his soul to Christ, his head was cut off. The next was the Lord Harant, a man that had gained much experience by his travels in Asia, Africa, and Europe ; his crime was, that he had taken an oath to be true to Frederick, and durst not violate it. Being called to execution, he said, I have escaped many perils by sea and land, and now suffer innocently in my own country, and by them, for whose sake, I and my forefathers have spent our estates and lives : Father, forgive them. Then he said, " In thee, O Lord, I have hoped! let me not be confouuded." On the scaffold, he said, " Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit ! In thee, O Lord, have I trusted from my youth ! I am con- fident, that I shall be accepted by that ignominious death of my Saviour ;" and falling upon his knees, he said, " To thee, O Lord, I commend my spirit ! for thou, O God, just and true, hast redeemed me;" and so he received the fatal stroke with the sword. The next was Casper Caplitz, a knight of eighty- six years old. When the minister came to him after his condemnation, he said, among other things, " My death indeed is disgraceful in the eyes of men, but glorious in the sight of God ; for God will ac- count that death precious in his sight, which I suf- fer for his glory and truth." And when it was told him, that he might have his life if he would ask par- don, he answered, " That he would ask pardon of Him, against whom he had committed many sins all his life ; but he never offended the prince ; and therefore would not give occasion to suspect that he had committed some crime for which he had de- served death. God forbid, therefore," said he, " that I should be separated from this holy company of martyrs." As he was going to the scaffold, being feeble with age, he said, " O, my God, strengthen me, lest I fall down and become matter of scorn to the enemies !" Being crooked with age, and hang- ing down his head, the executioner could not well come at his neck ; whereupon the minister said to him, " My noble lord, as you have commended your soul to Christ, so now offer up your heavy head cheerfully to God, and lift up yourself towards hea- ven." Then lifting up his head as well as he could, he said, " Lord Jesus, into thy hand I commend my spirit !" and so his head was cut off. The next was Procopius Dorzeki, who, after his condemnation, said to the minister, " I have had a great contention all night with old Adam, so that it made me sweat again ; but thanks he to my God, by whom my soul hath overcome all temptations ;" saying further, " O, Almighty God, strengthen thy servant, that I may not be made a derision to mine enemies by any fear of death ; and as thou wast wont to encourage thy holy martyrs, so I strongly believe thou wilt comfort me." When he was called forth to execution, he said, "Thanks be to God, who doth now call me to himself; to him I have lived, and for him I will die ! for my Saviour hath there- fore died and risen again, that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead. I know that my soul shall live, and my body shall be raised like to his glorious body." Another was the Lord Henry Otto, a man of great judgment ; he having received the sentence of condemnation, said, " Kill my body, disperse my members whether you please ; yet do I believe that my Saviour will gather them together again, and clothe them with skin ; so that with these eyes I shall see him, with these ears I shall hear him, with this tongue I shall praise him, and rejoice with this Chap. -2. IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 33 heart for ever." Afterwards, when the minister came to him, amongst other things, he said, " I was troubled, but now I feel a wonderful refreshing in my heart ;" adding, with his hands lifted up to hea- ven, " I give the thanks, O most merciful Saviour ! who hast been pleased to fill me with so much com- fort ; O now I fear death no longer, I will die with joy !" As he was going to the scaffold, he sail to the minister, " I am sure that Christ Jesus will meet my soul with his angels, that he may bring it to an everlasting marriage, where I shall drink of a new cup, a cup of joy for ever : this death, I know, shall not separate me from him." After he had 1 silently, he said, " Into thy hands, O Lord God, I commend my spirit ! have pity on me through Jesus Christ, and let me see thy glory ; — and so he received the stroke of the sword. Another was the Lord of Rugenia, an excellent man, and full of zeal for God : when he was judged to die, he said, " That it was more welcome to him ! than if the Emperor had given him life, and restored j him to his estate, with addition of more:" after- j wards he said to the minister, u God is our witness, that we sought for nothing but the liberty of reli- j gion ; and in that we are overcome, and condemned to die : we acknowledge, and find, that God will not have his truth defended by our swords, but by our blood," &c. "When he saw divers called out before him, he said, " What is the matter, my God ? Thou knowest that I resign myself wholly to thee. Ah! do not despise thy servant, but make haste to take me away ;" and when the sheriff came for him, he rejoiced, and said, " Praised be my God, that I shall now be taken out of the world, that I may be with Christ ;" and so he went up to meet him. On the scaffold he comforted himself with that promise ; " Father, I will that where I am my servant may also be, to behold that glory which thou gavest me;" " Therefore," said he, " I make haste to die, that I may be with Christ, and see his glory ;" and so he suffered martyrdom courageously. The next was Valentine Cockan, of about sixty- years old: during his imprisonment, he was full of heavenly discourse; and, at the scaffold, be said, " Grant me, O God ! to pass through this valley of death, that I may presently see thee ; for thou know- est, my God, that I have loved thy word ; bring me, O God ! through the paths of life, that I may see fulness of joy in thy presence;" and, kneeling down, he said, " Into thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit !" and so holily ended his life. The next was Toby Steffick, a man of composed temper, he spent the most of the time of his impri- sonment in silent sighs and tears! before his execu- tion, he said, " I have received many good things of the Lord all my life long ; shall I not therefore receive this cup of affliction P I embrace the will of God, who, by his ignominious death, makes me con- formable to his Son, and, by a narrow way, brings me to his heavenly kingdom : I praise God, who hath joined me, undeservedly, to these excellent men. that I might receive, with them, the crown of mar- tyrdom." When he was called to die, he said, " My Saviour being about to die, said, ' Father, not as I will, but as thou wilt; thy will be done.' Shall I therefore, who am but a worm, yea, dust, and a shadow, contradict his will? Far be it from me ; yea, 1 come willingly, my God, only have mercy on me, and cleanse me from all my sins, that no spot or wrinkle may remain in me, but that I may appear pure in thy sight;" and so he lifted up himself full of sigh--, yet full of hope ; and, as he was praying, he rendered up his spirit to God. Another was Christopher Chober, who much en- couraged his fellow-martyrs, and then cited the words of Ignatius, u I am God's corn, and shall be ground with the teeth of wild beasts; so we," saith he, " are God's corn, sown in the field of the church ; and, that we may be for our master's use, we are now to suffer death; but, be of good cheer, God is able to raise up a thousand worshippers of himself out of every drop of our blood ; for though truth now suffers violence, yet Christ reigns, and no man shall cast him down from his throne." Being called to execution, he said, " I come in the name of my God, neither am I ashamed to suffer these things for his glory; for I know whom I have believed; I have fought the goodfight of faith, and finished my course, &c. Then praying, " Into thy hands, Lord, I com- mend my spirit, he received the crown of martyrdom." John Shultis was next, who, on the scaffold, said, " Why art thou so sad, O my soul? hope thou in God; for thou shalt yet praise him," Sec. "The righteous seem in the eyes of fools to die, but indeed they go to their rest. Lord Jesus, thou hast pro- mised, that who so comes to thee, thou wilt not cast off. Behold I now come, look on me, pity me, par- don my sins, and receive my soul to thyself: then, kneeling down, he said, Come, come, Lord Jesus, and do not tarry;" and so he was beheaded. The next was Maximilian Hostialick, a learned and pious man ; after his condemnation, he was sad- der than the rest; and, being asked by the minister the reason of it, he said, " The sins of my youth do now come into my mind ; for though I know that nothing remains to condemn them which are in Christ Jesus, yet I know that God exerciseth justice as well as mercy towards his own." Being called to death, he said, " Look upon me, O Lord my God ! and lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death ; and lest mine enemies say. We have pre- vailed." Afterwards, repeating the words of Simeon, " Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation," he was be- headed. The next was John Kutnaur, who, when the Jesuits began to speak to them, said, " Pray you trouble not our consciences ; we are sufficiently fur- nished against the fear of death ; we need none of your help." And when they would have proceeded, he said, " Why do you create unprofitable labour to yourselves, and trouble to us?" then said they one to another, " They are hard rocks, and will not suffer themselves to be removed:" to whom he answered, " You say true; Christ is an hard rock, and we are firmly fixed on him." When he was called forth to execution, he was besprinkled with the tears of his friends, to whom he said, " Play the men, brethren, and refrain from weeping: I go before, but it is but a short time, and we shall meet in the heavenly glory." When he was upon the ladder, he said, " I have plotted no treason, committed no murder ; I have done nothing worthy of death; but I die be- cause I have been faithful to the gospel and my country. O God ! pardon my enemies ; for they know not what they do: but thou, O Christ! have pity on me ; for I commit my soul unto thee," and so he slept in the Lord. The next was Simeon Sussickey, who, when he saw the Jesuits coming, he said to his companions, 34 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book 1. " These birds of prey are Hying hither ; but God hath promised to preserve his own, as the apple of his eye; and therefore he will not suffer us to be seduced." The last night he had a sore conflict, because the scripture saith, " Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.'' But when the minister told him, That that curse was taken away by the death of Christ, he was well satisfied. He went to his death praying and singing. It may be very edifying to the inquisitive and serious reader, to observe, in the history of those times, the remarkable providential chastisements that befel some of the persecutors, and to attend to the remarks that are frequently and justly made on the honour that providence has put on the posterity of King Frederick, whose family was brought so low at that time, for adhering to the cause of the gospel. But to return to the fifteenth century. CONCLUSION OF THE ACCOUNTS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. THE DISCOVERT OF NEW COUNTRIES, A MEAN OF PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL AMONG THE HEATHEN. — AND THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING SUBSERVIENT TO THE BLESSED REFORMATION FROM POPERY. From Millar's Propagation, cVc. vol. ii. page S40. Tn this century, the improvement of arts and sciences, the reviving of learning:, and the discoveries made by navigation, were made blessed occasions for advanc- ing the kingdom of Christ over the world. This is well represented by the learned Jurieu, in his Preface to the Accomplishment of Prophecies, where he says, " God has revived the light of knowledge, which was almost extinguisbel under the barbarism of scholastic learning. In the last century, God caused the Greek and Hebrew tongues to revive, which was of such use for understanding the sacred inspired writings, and the confutation of heresy and idolatry, that the Papists do not scruple to say, It is what has undone them. I look upon the voyages of our Europeans, the discoveries made of new countries in the east : nd west, and the improvement of the art of navigation, to be a mean which God prepares for the fulfilling of that great promise that concerns the more universal conve sion of the Gentiles. I con- sider the great number of half-Christians which the Popish missions makes in the Indies, to be just as proselytes of the Gate, which the Jews made; they were, properly, neither Jews nor Christians, but were the seed of Christianity. These Eastern con- verts made by Papists, are neither Heathens nor Christians, but they will be the first part of the har- vest God intends to have among this people, and after they are fully converted, they will be very service- ble to promote the conversion of those who are yet il ogefher Pagans. " I admire," says he, "the depth if Divine providence, that, by insensible steps and legrees, disposeth the Mahometan nations for Chris- ianity. For this we need but consult the second ook of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire, by Sir Paul Byeaut, where we meet with a sect of Mahometans, who believe the Messiah took a mtu- -al body, that being eternal, he became incarnate, as the Christians believe, wherefore they insert that article into their Confession of Faith, That Christ shall come to judge the world at the last day."1 We may also observe with Mr Jenkyns,2 that Christianity has been still professed in these parts of the world where there has been most learning and commerce, where they have been most able, and had greatest opportunities to instruct other nations. To which end the vast extent first of the Greek, Latin, and Syriac, and since of the Persian, Sclavonic, and Arabic tongues, have been very advantageous, the Scriptures of the New T< stament being written in the first, and translated into all the rest. And though, by the just and wise providence of God, Mahometans and idolaters have been suffered to pos- sess themselves ot those places in Greece, Asia, and Africa, where the Christian religion formerly most flourished, yet there are still remainders of the Chris- tian religion among them, so as to give them oppor- tunity to be converted, when their sins shall not hin- der to restore the Gospel to these countries ; for, by Mr Brerewood's account,3 in the dominions of the Turks in Europe, the professors of Christianity make two-thirds at least of the inhabitants ; and in Con- stantinople itself, he reckons above twenty Christian churches, and above thirty in Thessalonica, where the Mahometans have or had but three mosques. Philadelphia, now called Alashakir, has no fewer than twelve Christian churches.4 The whole island of Chio is governed by professing Christians; there are above thirty Latin churches, and above five hun- dred Greek ; and in some other islands of the Archi- pelago there are none but professing Christians. From the Fulfilling of the Scriptures, Part hi. Chap. % Sect. 27. Whilst the dawning drew near of that blest day of the Church's rising, after th t dark night of anti- Christianism, we may see some precious advantages mo-it remarkably from the Lord falling in to prepare the way thereof. 1. That in the preceding age, the knowledge of the original languages began to break up, and some instruments eminently fitted for the same ; human learning did in some further measure revive. 2. Many excellent men of rare endowments then brought forth beyond what had been known for L.ivers ages. 3. But which should be most convincing, how in ] the year 1440, or thereabout, that rare invention of printing broke up, as a blest and promising presage, to tell the world of the near approach of time, when the temple of God should be opened in heaven, and the Bible, which had for so many ages been shut up, be universally spread, and thus made accessible for the poorest boy or maid's having familiar converse therewith, and to have it at the easiest rate ; yea, for bringing forth those works to the world, in de- fence of the truth, and promoting of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which no pen could have reached without the advantage of such a singular mean given of the Lord for his Church's use; so fhat the thing itself was not more marvellous and remarkable than the time and season of its being brought forth, i Rycaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire, Eookii. Chap! 11, 12. 2 Reasonableness of the Christian Religion, vol. i. p. 116, &e. 3 Brerewood's Inquiry, Chap. 10. 4 Rycaut's Present State of the Greek Church, p. 74. Chap. 2. IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 35 the appointed time of the spreading of the kingdom of Christ, when men should run to and fro, and knowledge be increased. It will not be unsu table, before I pass this, to give in here some instances of such ch lice in^trum nts for knowledge and learning, who were then raised up a little before the dawning of that blessed reformation from Popery, as pioneers, to prepare the way of the Lord. 1. As Regiomontanus, who died in ^he year 14~0, one of great knowledge in the original languages, and who had such love to the Scripture, as that he wrote the whole Njw Testament in Greek with his own hand. 2. Rodolphus Agricola, who died 14(55, singularly learned in philosophy, Greek, and Hebrew langu- ages, which he studied with a special respect to the knowledge of the Scriptare, did much lament the Church's darkness under which she then lay, and ex- pressly owned the doctrine of Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ. 3. Wesselus, born at Groningen, and of deserve 1 renown at that time, for his knowledge in the langu- ages, laws, and divinity ; at bis dea'h, aa at length by Melchior Adams is shewed, when he was asked by a friend how he did, he answered, His case was but conform to his age, and painfulness of his dis- ease ; but one thing he was troubled with, which was a being tossed with doubtings about the truth of Christianity ; but shortly after, when his friend re- turned with great expressions of joy, he said, " Now blessed be the Lord for all these doubtings and false reasonings are gone, yea, I know nothing now but Christ and him crucified." He died 1439. 4. Mossilanus, a professor of the Greek tongue at Leipsick, one of singular candour, besides his great knowledge in thj original languages, yea, in those dark times, most convincingly pious also, as his epistles, wrote to the learned of that age, can wit- ness. I judge it edifying to set down here what ac- count he gave of himself, with much seriousness, sometime before death : — " Let not God, to whom all things are known, be gracious to hiin in the last shock and conflict with death, if he hath not from hi- youti, with greatest care, been concerned to wrong the fame of n »ne unjustly, yea, to contemn the honours, pleasures, and profits of this natural life, and hath not made this his one thing, to have his spirit kept from b ing defiled with the pollutions of the world, and given up to Jesus Chris: the alone fountain of wisdom an 1 knowledge, for being influ- enced and watered by his Spirit ; this I have had continually in my thoughts, have revolved in the nignt; this with all earnestness I have contended for, yea, hath been first in all my desires, to wit, lest that should be wanting, which was to that rich man, who came to Jesus Christ (when he gave such an ac- count what length he had come) of the faithful im- provement of those talents put under my hand, I can say, I had no other scope nor intent but this in my life ; for if I had pursued honours and greatness in a world, which might not have been successful for such an end, I had taken another way." He died in the year 1524, at the very breaking up of the Reforma- tion. 5. I shall but further add that notable learned man Capnio, who died in 1521, Erasmus, Stephanus, truly learned in the languages, and a special critic, for collating the most ancient copies then extant of the New Testament, whilst printing was but of late broke up in the world.' [ • Capnio, or Reuchlin, was by far the most accomplished Scholar of his own age, ami even in succeeding times his Oriental scholarship has hardly been surpassed. But he has higher merits than those of a scholar. He was the father of the Reformation. Born in 1454, several years before the more noted of the reformers, he was expressly recognized by them as their precursor. Yet our notices of h m are meagre, and our acquaintance with his lite and times but scanty. Even D'Aubigne"s information regarding him is but limited, considering the part that he acted, and the materials that exist, for a more ample biography. Maius, a native of Pforzheim, wrote his life in admirable Latin. Sehnurrerand Meiner have done the same ably; bat the most important work relating to tois great man is Ektayerhoffs German Treatise on Iteuehlin an I his limes. This lias recently been translated an I in sorporated into a small but most interest- ing volume, by a Mr Barham. It is published at London 1313.-ED.J BOOK II. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY OF THE EMINENT INSTRUMENTS RAISED UP AT AND AFTER THE REFORMATION IN VARIOUS TARTS OF THE WORLD. — SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR CONVERSION, AND SUCCESS IX CONVERTING OTHERS BY THEIR PREACHING AND WRITINGS. — SOME OF THEM HAD FORMERLY BEEN REMARKABLE FOR OPPOSING THE TRUTH LY PUBLIC DISPUTATIONS, &C. — THEIR LABORIOUSNESS IN PREACH- ING— THEIR COUBAGE !X SUFFERING. — MEEKNEBB AND FORGIVENESS TO PERSECUTORS. — THE RECANTATIONS of SOME OF THEM FOLLOWED WITH SUCH EXTRAORDINARY REPENTANCE AB TENDED TO CONFIRM THE GOOD CAUSE. PROVIDENTIAL OVER-RULING OF THE HEARTS OP SOME PERSONS OF EMINENT POWER IN THEIR FAVOURS.— RESTRAINTS OF THE PURT OFOTHJ TESTIMONIES OF ADVERSARIES TO THE GOODNESS OF THEIB LIVES. THETB ZEAL AGAINST I'N- BUITABLENESS OP PRACTICE TO PROFESSION. — THEIR PUBLIC SPIRIT AND CONCERN FOB TIP TERESTS OF RELIGION THROUGH THE world. — ON some OCCASIONS GOD MADE THEM INSTRU- MENTAL IN BRINGING GREAT NUMBERS AT ONCE To THE PROFESSION OF THE TRUTH.— SUCCESS WITH WHICH THEY WENT ON.— HUMAN row:;;; AND POLICY. COULD NOT PREVAIL AGAINST THEM. MANY OF THEM GAVE A REMARKABLE TESTIMONY TO THE WORK OF THE REFORMATION ON THEIR DEATH-BEDS, GOING OFF WITH TRIUMPHANT JOT AND FORETASTE HEAVEN. CHAPTER T. SOME INSTANCES OF THOSE IN GERMANY, VIZ., 1. Ll'TIlER.- .. MYCONICS. ZELLIUS.— i. IJfGENHAClUS.— 5. MELANC- THOX. — G. BEENT1US. — 7. BUCIIOLTZER. From Clark's Lives. 1. Luther. In the library of the College of Er- ford, he met with a copy of a Latin Bible, which he had never seen before, and, with admiration, observed that there wrere more portions of Holy Scripture than were read in the churches, which made him wish that he had the like book. And it pleased God that not long after, he obtained his desire, and fell close to the study of it, some sickness and fear also whetting him on in those studies. Afterwards, falling into a violent disease, which threatened death, an old priest came to him, who cheered him up by largely discoursing with him upon justification by faith, and explaining the articles of the creed to him : then did Luther read over Augus- tine's works, where he found the same doctrine of justification by faith frequently confirmed. After- wards he was sent to Rome in the behalf of his con- vent, where he saw the Pope and the manner of the Roman clergy ; concerning whom he saith, " At Rome I heard them say mass in such a manner as I detest them ; for, at the communion table, I heard courte- sans laugh, and boast of their wickedness." Upon his return from Rome, he w as taken notice of by Duke Frederick, elector of Saxony, wmo heard him preach, and admired the strength of his argu- ments, and the excellency of the things which he delivered. Soon after, he began to explain the Epistle to the Romans, and some Psalms, where he showed the difference between the law and the Gospel, and refuted justification by works; and his demeanour agreed with his doctrine ; his speech came not from his lips only, but from his heart. The year 1517, was, by the account of Scultetus, the 356th from the reformation of religion in France by the Waldenses,1 the 146th from the first confuta- tion of Popish errors in England by John Wickliff, the 1 lGtb from the first year of the ministry of John Husse, who opposed the errors of Popery in Bohe- mia,2 the 36th year from the condemnation of Dr Wessalia, who taught at Worms the same doctrine before Luther was born, that Luther did afterwards. In this year 1517, John Tecelius brought indulgen- ces into Germany to be sold, averring, that he had so large a commission from the Pope, that though a man had deflowered the blessed virgin, he could pardon him. Luther's zeal being inflamed herewith, caused him to set forth some propositions against in- dulgences, which so enraged Tecelius, that where- soever he came, he declaimed against Luther, and i See Vitringa on the Revelation, upon the three days an'! a half. 2 And about an hundred years after his martyrdom. I il \p. 1. SUC< BBS OF THE GOSPEL, & . 37 M I forth contrary positions; and, not content there- with, he burned openly Luther's propositions, and the sermon which he wrote ahout indulgences. This • (1 the students at Wittenberg to burn his posi- tions also. In 151*, Andrew Bodenstein, from his native place called Carlostadius, with many other divines of Wittenberg, defended Luther's doctrine by their writings. Also the elector of Saxony, of his own accord, without entreaty, took upon him the patron- age of Luther. Amongst the friars Luther disputed out of Paul's Epistles concerning justification by faith without works. Bncer being present, and tak- ing notes of this disputation, wrote thus of it to •us Rhenanus: His sweetness in answering (saith he) wis admirable; his patience in hearing was incomparable ; you might have seen the acute- - of St Paul in resolving doubts; so that he brought them all into admiration of him, by reason of his short and pithy answers, and chose taken out of the store-house of God's holy BCriptures. In his letters to Jodocus, a divine of II aach, who had I his master, he thus expreSMth himself: The whole university of Wittenberg, except one licenti of my mind, concerning the doctrine of faith and works, as is also the duke of Saxony : the bishop of Brandenburg (who is my ordinary) and many pre- -, and the more ingenious citiz( with one mouth, that they never knew Christ and the gospel before. At last the emperor sent for him, and withal sent him a safe conduct, requiring his repair to Worms within twenty-one days ; but many of his fib ads dis- suaded him from going ; to whom he answered, that these discouragements were cast into his way by Satan, who knew, that by his possession of the truth in so illustrious a place, his kingdom would be shaken ; therefore, if he knew that there were as many devils in Worms, as tiles on the houses, yet would he go thither. Accordingly he went to Worms : whereupon some persuaded the emperor to deal with him, a< the council of Constance had dealt with John Hus.se ; but the emperor said, that the public faith was not t.i lie violated. The next day Luther ap- peared before the emperor, and a frequent assembly of the princes ; at which time, Eccius, a lawyer, at the command of the emperor, made a speech ; in the end whereof, he asked him, whether he would recant and retract his works p To which Luther answered, '• Of my books (saith he) some tend to faith and piety ; to these my adversaries give an ample testimony: others are against the pope and his doctrine ; shculd I revoke these, [should confirm his tyranny : others are against private men who defend his cause ; in these, I confess, I have been too vehement: yet 1 cannot revoke them, unless I will set upeu a gap to the impudence of many.'' But Eccius told him, that the emperor was not satisfied with this answer, but required his recantation. To which Luther an- swered, " I beseech you, give me leave to maintain the peace of my own conscience, which, if I should consent to you, I cannot do: for unless my adver- saries can convince me by sound arguments taken out of the Holy Scriptures, I cannot satisfy my con- science ; for I can plainly prove that both popes and councils have often erred grievously ; and therefore it would be an ungodly thing for me to assent to them, and to depart from the Holy Scriptures, which are plain, and only cannot err. And so the assembly was dismissed at that time. A few days after, the bishop of Trevers appointed Luther to come unto him, with whom also some other of the princes were assembled ; at that time they nsed many arguments to draw him to a recan- tation, and concluded, that they perceived, if he re- fused, the Emperor's purpose was to banish him out of the boon Is of the empire ; and therefore they ex- horted him seriously to think upon the same. Luther rered, that he was very thankful to them, that so great princes would take BO much pains for his , who was so mean and unworthy a person ; yet he told them, that he would rather lose his life than irt from the manifest truth of the word of (- seeing it was better to obey God than man. Then he commanded to withdraw ; and there came to him one Vacus, a lawyer, who persuaded him to submit his writings to the judgment of Caesar and the princes; to whom he answered, that he would not decline the judgment of Caesar, and the orders of the empire, if they would be guided by the word of God ; which (saith he) makes 90 plain for me, that unless they convince me of an error, I cannot depart from mine opinion. Shortly after the emperor sent to him to depart home, giving him twenty-one days for his return, commanding him, neither by word nor writ to declare anything to the people by the way. And after his departure tin emperor pronounced sen- tence of banishment against him. This sentence being published, Prince Frederick appointed certain noblemen, whom he most confided in, to convey him to a secret place, thereby to avoid the danger, who accordingly conveyed him privately to Wartburg, which he called his Patmos, where he continued ten mouth*, and wrote divers useful breatisi s, In 1522, Luther wrote to Melancthon to provide him a lodging at Wittenberg ; for (saith he) the translation of the Bible will urge me to return. For having translated much of the Bible into Dutch in his Patmos, it was necessary for him to confer with learned men, and to have their assistance about the same. In his absence, Justus Jonas, Caruslostad, Melancthon, Ampsdorfius, and others, had removed private mass, images, auricular confession, prayer to saints, &c. Melancthon knowing the rage of the Papists, and Caisar's threats to subvert the gospel, was much troubled, and gave himself wholly up to grief, sighs, and teats ; v. hereupon Luther wrote to him : " In pri- vate conflicts I am weak, and you are strong ; but in public conflicts, you are found weak, and I stronger; use I am assured that our cause is just. If we fall, Christ, the Lord and ruler of the world falleth with ns; and suppose he fall, Mallcm mere cum Christo, auam regnare cum Ceesare, I had rather fall with Christ than stand with Cresar : I extremely dislike your excessive cares, with which you say, that you are almost consumed ; that these reign so much in your heart, it is not from the greatness of danger, but the greatness of your incredulity. If the cause be bad, let us give it up, and flee back ; if it be good, why do we make God a liar, who hath given us so great promises ? saying, cast thy care upon the Lord ; be of good comfort, I have overcome the world. A man should search such sentences as these upon his knees from Rome to Jerusalem. If Christ be the conqueror of the world, why should we fear it, as if it could overcome us? Be courageous and cheerful, solicitous for nothing; the Lord is at hand to help us." And, in another place, when king Henry the Eighth of England had written bitterly 38 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL Book I against him : " Let the Henrys, the bishops, the Turk, and the devil himself, do what they can, we are children of the kingdom, worshipping and wait- ing for that Saviou", whom they, and such as they, spit upon and crucify." In 15-23, a diet was held at Noremberg, in the absence of Cfesar, wherein the edict of Worms was made null. Of this the Pope's legate complained to the princes, saying, " That Luther was not pu- nished according to the Emperor's edict;" to which the princes answered, u That the court of Rome neglected reformation; that Germany was so far enlightened by the sermons and writings of Luther, that if they should go about to put the edict in exe- cution, great tumults would arise, and the people would be ready to think that they went about to op- press the truth, and to put out the light of the Gos- pel, that so they might the better defend those mani- fest vices which could be no longer concealed." He used to be very frequent in prayer. Vitus Theodorus thus write th of him: — " No day passeth wherein Luther spendeth not three hours at least in prayer. Once it fell out," saith he, " that I heard him; what a spirit, what a confidence was in his very expression ! With such a reverence he sued for anything, as one begging of God, and yet with such hope and assurance, as if he spake with a lov- ing father or friend." The day before his death, he dined and supped with his friends, discoursing of divers matters, and amongst the rest, gave his opinion, " That in hea- ven we shall know one another." After supper the pain in his breast increasing, he went aside and prayed; then went to bed and slept; but, about midnight, being awakened w-ith the pain, and per- ceiving that his life was at an end, he said, " I pray God to. preserve the doctrine of his Gospel amongst us; for the Pope and Council of Trent have griev- ous things in hand :" after which he thus prayed, " O Heavenly Father, my gracious God, and Fa- ther of our Lord Jesus Christ, thou God of all con- solation, I give thee hearty thanks, that thou hast revealed unto me thy son Jesus Christ, whom I be- lieve, whom I profess, whom 1 love, whom I glorify, whom the Pope, and the rout of the wicked, perse- cute and dishonour: I beseech thee, Lord Je^us Christ, receive my soul ! O, my Heavenly Father, though 1 be taken out of this life, and must lay down this frail body ; yet I certainly know that I shall live with thee eternally, and that I cannot be takeu out of thy hands : ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.' Lord, I render up my spirit into thy hands, and come to thee : and again, Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit : thou, O God of truth hast re- deemed me." When he was dying, Justus Jonas and Ccelius said to him, " O, Reverend Father, do you die in the constant confession of that doctrine of Christ, which you have hitherto preached ?" To which he answered, " Yea," which was the last word he spoke. He was always constant in the known truth, from the confession of which he could never be moved, either by promises or threats. He used to say, " Three things make a divine — meditation, prayer, temptation ; and that three things were to be done by a minister, 1. To read the bible over and over. 2. To pray earnestly. 3. Always to be a learner ; and that they were the best preachers who spake as to babes in Christ, in an ordinary strain, popularly and most plainly." He said, "That in the cause of God, he was content tot/ut mundi odium et i/njir- luiii sttstinere, to undergo the hatred and violence of the whole world." As he v.a; mighty in prayer. so, in his sermons, God gave him such a gift, that when he pre ched, his hearers thought their own temptations were noted and touched. Some of his friends asking him the cause of this, Mine own mani- fold temptations and experiences, said he, are the cause of it. W'ellerus also, a disciple of Luther's, recordeth, that he oft heard him say, that he had been freqnently assaulted and vexed with all kind of temptations, except to the sin of covetousness. He would by no means endure that any should be called after his name ; for, said he, the doctrine which I teach is none of mine, neither did I die for any man; nor would Paul suffer this, 1st Cor. i. 13. We are Christians, and profess the doctrine of Cnrist. He died 1546. 2. Myconius, Frederick. While he was yet in a monastery, he read privately Luther's books, which the other friars took very heinously, and threat- ened him for it. Afterwards, being called to be a prea her at Vinaria, he at first mixed some Popish errors with the truth; but, by the illumination of God's Spirit, he at last began to preach against Po- pery, and to hold forth the truth clearly in Thuringia, which spread so swiftly in one month's space, and was so greedily emliraced, not only through Saxony, but through many other countries, as if angels had been the carriers of it. At Dusseldorp he preached the Gospel sincerely and purely, though to the haz- ard of his life ; and, at Cullen, he maintained a pub- lic disputation with the friars, which was afterwards printed. With the like constancy and faithfulness, he preached the doctrine of the Gospel in Brunswick, in Cella of Saxony, and in other parts of Westphalia. Also in divers public conventions at Smalcald, Franc- fort, and Noremberg. his counsel being asked, with much courage and zeal he handled the affairs of reli- gion, seeking to promote the glory of God, and the p.ofit and welfare of the Church. In 1528, Henry the Eighth of England fell out with the Pope, for not divorcing him from his wife Catharine of Spain, sister to Charles the Fifth, by reason of whose greatness the Pope durst not do it ; whereupon the King of England sent over to the German princes (especially to the Duke of Saxony) to confederate against the Pope, and to join with them in an agreement about religion ; upon which occasion Myconius was sent over into England. But, coming thither, he discovered the King's hy- pocrisy about religion, not only by the six articles about that time established, but also by his impri- soning of Latimer, and cutting off the Lord Crom- well's head, and burning of Mr Barnes, &c, and by his seizing upon all the abbey-lands : whereupon he left England, and being come home, in 1538, he was called by Henry of Saxony to visit and reform the churches of Misnia, together with Luther, Jonas, Cruciger, &c. In 1541, he fell into a consumption, whereof he wrote to Luther, that he was sick, not to death, but to life : which gloss upon the text pleased Luther very well, who wrote back to him, " I pray Christ, our Lord, our Salvation, and our Health, that I may not live to see thee and some others of our colleagues die and go to heaven, and leave me here alone. I pray God, that I may first lay down this dry, ex- Chap. 1. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 39 hausted, and unprofitable tabernacle. Farewell, and ! id I should hear of thy death whilst I In A while after Blyconiua recovered, according to this prayer, though his disease seemed to be desperate, and outlived it six years, even till af;er Luthe - death. Upon which Justus Jonas, Bpeaking of Luther, says, ]>tt 4ti. .;. ZSLLIUS. He wa* the first that preached the truth in the church of Strasbnrg, to whom, alter a i while, Symphorianns, an ancient pastor "l St Martin's ( hurch, joined himself, who formerly had been very loose m his carriage ; and, therefore, the people did the more admire this great change in hiin ; and some of his former acquaintance, led by h a ex- ample, shook off Popery, and embraced the truth : these two were rather popular preachers than learn- ed ; yet Zellius was a m.m of singular piety : and, not long after, Anthonius Firoius, minister of St Thomas' Church, joined him-i If to them. Also, in the year 1523, there came thither .Martin Bucer, Capito, and Gaspar Hedio, Learned and eminent men, who more vigorously carried on the work of reformation in Strasburg. Zellius continued a faith- ful and painful pastor in tluit church about twenty- six years. He died 1548. 4. BuGEMiAinis Be was severe and bold in reproving, and an earnest defender of the tru h atrainst errors He joined with Luther in the trans- lation of the Bible; which being finished, every year, upon that day, he invited his friends, and made a feast, which he called the translation of the Bible. He attended his charge with great fidelity and extra- ordinary pains. In the year lit'.J, Christian, King of Denmark, sent for him to reform religion, and to erect schools in his dominions; in consequence of which, he is said to have appointed some thousands of ministers in Denmark and Norway. He died in 15.")*. 5, Melaxcthox. — In 1618, he was sontforfrom Tubinge, by Frederick, Duke of Saxony, to the university of Wittenberg, to teach the Greek tong'.ie. About which time Erasmus wrote thus of him, " Philip Melancthon is a most learned and excellent Grecian; he is a youth and stripling, if we consider his age, but one of us, if ye look upon his variety of knowledge almost in all books. He is very exqui- site in the learning of both the tongues. I pray Christ this young man may live: he will soon eclipse Erasmus.'' He came to Wittenberg, when he was but twenty-two years old ; there he began to expound Paul's Epistle to Titus out of Greek, to the great ad- miration of his hearers, who flocked exceedingly to his lectures. And Luther also was greatly taken with them, as he professeth in a letter to Spalatinus. When Melancthon was first himself converted, he thought it impossible for his hearers to withstand the evidence of the truth of the Gospel. But, after he had been for some time a preacher, be complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon. He used to say, that there were three labours very difficult, Regentis, Docorfis, Parturientis ; of ma- gistrates, of ministers, and of women in travail. He died in 15G0. 6. Brentitjs — When Luther's books came abroad, Brentius, by reading of them was brought to the knowledge of the truth, which he willingly embraced : and, being desirous to propagate it to Others, he began to read upon Matthew; firunttd an heretic. And his labours proved not fruitless; for (through God's blessing upon them) he converted many of that fra- ternity who afterwa'ds left their abbey, and became zealous professors of the truth unto death. Divers others also abroad were converted by him; and amongst them a certain nobleman, called Rein- hard of Rotenburgh, who was captain of the castle at Latzelsteine, and protector of that college. Mus- cu'.us was a man of much account with the Palatine, by whom he was protected from many dangers and snares that were laid for him, especially by the bishop, and some old monks that were obdurate in wickedness; and, therefore, more opposite to the truth. He was often in great peril of his life, and yet by special providences preserved: so that, per- ceiving in that place, he co'uld neither enjoy safety nor freedom in the service of Go , as he desired, he resolved to leave the monastery, and to go elsewhere ; which resolutions he communicated to some of his friends. But, in the meantime, the prior died, and he, by common consent of all, was chosen to succeed him. Musculus looked upon this as a design of the devil, by these baits of honour, pleasure, and profit, to withdraw him from his zealous purposes of propa- gating the truth, and to tie him to that kind of life, that he was resolved against: he, therefore, refused the offer, and, leaving the monastery, preached the gospel in several places, though sometimes in great poverty. He died in 1563. 4. Calvin. He was born in France, and la- boured in the work of the gospel at Geneva. Re- turning out of Italy, (into whose borders, he used to say, he went that he might return again) he settled his affairs, and taking along with him his only bro- ther. Anthony Calvin, he intended to go to Basil or Stra-borough ; but all other ways being stopped, by reason of wars, he went to Geneva, without any pu pose of staying there. A little before, the gos- pel of Christ had been very providentially brought into ttuit city by the lahour and industry of two ex- cellent men. V* illiam Farell of the Delpliinate, some- time a scholar of Faber Stapultnsis; and Peter Viret, a Bernate, whose labours God afterwards wonderfully blessed and prospered. Calvin hearing of these worthy men (as the manner is amongst the godly) went to visit them, to whom Mr Farrell, (being a man endowed with an heroical spirit) spake with great vehemency, and charged h;m to stay with them at Geneva, and to help them in the work of God. Calvin being moved with his earnest protes- tations, submitted to the judgment of the presbytery and of the magistrates, by whose suffrages, together with the conseut of the people, he was chosen pro- fearar of divinity. His ordinary labours in that office were these : every other Sabbath he preached twice; Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, he read his di- vinity lectures ; every Thursday he assisted in the consistory for the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline; on Fridays he read a lecture for the clearing of some hard places of Scripture; besides which, he wrote many commentaries upon the Scriptures ; answered many adversaries to the truth; wrote many letters to sundry places, of advice and direction in weighty affairs ; so that w, have cause to wonder how it was possible for one man to undergo so many businesses. He made very much use of Farell and Viret, and yet himself contributed much more to.them. And truly their familiarity, as it was much envied by the wicked, so it was very grateful to all good men. And it was a very pleasant si^ht to behold these three men, so famous in the church, and all agreeing in the work of the Lord, and yet so excelling in several gifts of the Spirit. Farell exceeded in a certain greatness of mind, whose thundering sermons could not be heard wit. out tremblmg, and whose ardent prayers would lift a man up into heaven. Viret d d so excel in sweet eloquence, that he chained his hearers to his lips. Calvin, how many words he sp ke, with so many grave and pithy sentences he filled the minds of his hearers; so that (saith Mr Beza) I often thought that the gifts of these three men meeting in one, would make up a complete pas- tor. Besides the forementioned labours of Calvin, he had also many foreign businesses; for God so blessed his ministry, that from all parts of the Chris- tian world he was sought to, partly for advice in matters of religion, and partly to hear him preach; so that at the same time there was an Italian church, an English church and a Spanish church, besides the church of Geneva, and that city seemed too little to entertain all that came to it for his sake. When he was indisposed, bis colleagues admon- ished and earnestly entreated him, that he would ab- stain from dictating, but especially from writing; but he answered, WThat? would you have me idle when my Lord comes ? Before his death, among other things in his speech to the syndicks and alder- men of Geneva, he had these words, " Of mine own accord, I acknowledge that I am much indebted to vou, for that ye have patiently borne with my too much vehemency sometimes ; which sin also I trust God that he hath forgiven me. But as touching the doctrine that you have heard from me, I take God 42 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL IN SWITZERLAND Book II to witness that I have not rashly and uncertainly, but purely and sincerely, taught the word of God in- trusted unto me." When he understood, by letters from Farell to Viret, that he who was now an old man of eighty years old and sickly, was yet deter- mined to come from Neocom to visit him, and was now onward upon his journey, he wrote thus to him to stay him : " Farewell, my best and sincerest bro- ther, and seeing God will have you to outlive me in this world, live mindful of our friendship, which, as it hath been profitable for the church of God here, so the fruit thereof tarrieth for us in heaven. I would not have you weary yourself for my sake. I hardly draw my bieath ; and I expect daily when it will wholly fail me. It is enough that I live and die to Christ, who is gain to his, both in life and death. Again farewell. May 11, 1564." Yet, for all this letter, the good old man came to Geneva, and having fully conferred with Mr Calvin, retnrned back to Nencom. The rest of his days, even till his depar- ture, Calvin spent almost in perpetual prayer, with his eyes fixed upon heaven. The day after his death there was a great weeping and wailing all over the city ; and when he was carried out, the senators, pastors, and professors of the school, and almost the whole city, followed the corps, not without abund- ance of tears. He was a man of an incredible and most ready memory, in the midst of numberless distractions, and of a most exact judgment. He was very regardless of preferment, even when it was often offered : he eat little meat, and took very little sleep. He had a certain sweetness mixed with his gravity. Dis- creet and mild he was in bearing with men's infirmi- ties ; yet would he severely, without dissimulation, reprove their vices, which freedom he always used from a child. Such a preacher he was, that he drew England, Spain, and Italy to him, filling Geneva with strangers. Such a voluminous writer, that (as it was said of St Augustin' ) he wrote more than another can well read. His writings were so eager- ly received, that, as most rare and precious pieces, they were forthwith translated into all languages. What shall I speak of his indefatigable industry, even beyond the power of nature, which, being paral- leled with our loitering, I fear, will exceed all credit? and may be a true object of admiration, how his lean, worn, spent, and weary body could possibly hold out. He read every week in the ye^.r three divinity lec- tures, and every other week, over and above, he preached every day, so that (as Erasmus saith of C'hrysostome) I do not know whether more to admire the indefatigableness of the man, or his hearers. Yea, some have reckoned up that his lectures were yearly one hundred and eighty-six, his sermons two hundred and eighty six, besides Thursday he sat in the pres- bytery. Every Friday, when the ministers met in conference to expound hard texts, he made as good as a lecture. Yea, besides, there was scarce a day wherein he spent not some part, either by woid or writing, in answering the questions and doubts of sundry pastors and churches that sought unto him for advice and counsel; over and above which, there was no year passed wherein came not forth from him some great volume or other in folio, so that, in few years, (besides many golden tractates, and sundry exquisite answers, which, upon short warning, he made to princi; al adversaries) his huge explications upon the five books of Moses, Joshua, Job, Psalms, on the Prophets, and almost the whole New Testa- ment, came forth into the world, fuller of pithy sen- tentious matter than of paper. These things consi- dered, what breathing time could he find for idle- ness, or loose thoughts ? in his last grievous sickness, he could scarce be compelled by his friends to preter- mit his daily task of preaching, and reading his di- vinity lectures, and at home, when he could not go abroad, he rather wearied others with continual dic- tation to them, than himself. Nothing was more frequent in his mouth than this, " Of all things, an idle life is most irksome to me." Yea, such con- science did he make of mispending a minute, that he was loth to detain the ministers that came to visit him from their public exercises. He died in 1564. 5. Farellus. — In 152/, he went to a certain town called Elin, where he preached the gospel, and was admonished by OZcolampadius to mingle pru- dence with his zeal. In 1528, he went to Aquileia amongst the Bernates, where he preached Christ, and undauntedly opposed Antichrist; disputing also with divers at Bern, whereupon ensued a wonderful change in ecclesiastical affairs. In 1528, he with Viret went to Geneva, where they planted the church, and propagated the gospel, and many of the citizens embraced it ; yet at first not so much out of love to the truth, as out of hatred to the Popish tyranny. Long he had not been there before he was drawn into the bishop's court, which two of the Syndics much disliked, the rather because Farell promised them that he would prove al his docrine out of the Holy Scriptures; so that they accompa- nied him into the bishops court, that they might see all tilings to proceed in judgment lawfully ; but it fell out otherways : for the judge of the court would by no means endure a disputation, saying, if that be suffered, all our mystery would be destroyed ; and withal railing upon Farell, he said, thou most wicked devil, why earnest thou to this city to trouble us? I am not (answered Farell) as you call me, but I [reach Jesus Christ who was crucified for our sins, and rose again, and he that believeth in his name shall be saved: this is the sum of my errand: I am a debtor unto all that are ready to hear, and obey the gospel, desiring this only, that the obedience of faith may flourish every where ; and I came into this city to see if there were any that would lend me the hearing, and I will render an account of my faith and hope every where ; and will confirm my doctrine with my blood if need be. Then cried out one of the court in Latin ; he hath blasphemed, what need we any more witnesses ? he is guilty of death. Hurl him into the Bhone : hurl him into the Rhone. 'Tis better this one Lutheran should be put to death, than that further troubles should be raised. Farell answered; do not utter the words of Caiaphas, but of God. Then one struck him on the mouth with his fist, and he was commanded to stand aside as if they would consult, and in the interim he was shot at with a gun by the vicar's servant, but it hit him not, God defending his servant And though one of the Syndics favoured him, yet now the other shrunk from him, so that the bishops council pre- vailed that he should be driven out of the city. And thus being accompanied with some citizens, he, and his partner Anthony Salner were expelled the city, but God turned it to the great good of others, for they sowed the seed of the word in the neighbouring country, by the side of the lake Lemain, viz. at Orba and Granson. Neither yet (through God's power and goodness) was the work interrupted at Chap. 2. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 43 Geneva : for just at the same time came a young man ot the Delphinate, called Anthony Frumintius, w .o entering into the city taught a public school, and together with the rudiments of grammar, he in i-t happily laid the foundation of Christian religion in the hearts and minds of h s scholars, which were not a few. In 1641, Farell went to Metz, and preached in the church-yard of the Dominicans; the friars, when they could not otherways hinder him, nag their bells : but he having a strong voice, did in it, th;it he went on audibly to the end of his s.-rmon. The day after there came about three thousand persons to hear the word of God ; hut some that favoured the gospel, intreated Mr Farell so Ion;.' to forbear, as till he might preach without a tumult. Then was he questioned by the magistrates, by what authority, or by whose request he preached. To which he answered, by the command of Christ, and at the request of his members : gravely discours- ing both of his own authority, and of the excellency of the gospel ; telling the magistrates what his duty was iii reference Hereunto. But shortly after, by the command of the Emperor, the citizens of .Metz were forbidden to hear any in in preach who was not licensed by the bishop, and some others. Whereupon Mr Farell went to Neocom, where he wholly employed himself in the service of the church, performing the office of a faithful pastor to extreme old age, with admirable zeal and diligence. This was that Farell who (discouraged by no difficulties, deterred with no tbreatenings, reproaches, or stripes) gained toChii-t multitudes in Montbelgard, Aquileia, Lausanna, Geneva, and Neocom. There was in him, be- piety, learning, innocency of life, exemplary mo- desty, a certain singular presence of mind, sharp wit, and vehemency of speech, so that he rather seemed to thunder than Bpeak ; and lastly such ad- mirable fervency in his prayers, that he seemed to carry his hearers into heaven with him. He died J5(>5. G. Bulltnoer When hewasstudyingdivinity, he observed, that, whereas the schoolmen quoted the fathers, the fathers they quoted the Scriptures. Hereupon he betook himself to the reading of the Scriptures, especially of the New Testament, with Jerome, and some c'her commentators upon it; by which at last, through God's mercy, he began to abhor the Popish errors. In 1529, he was called to his native place of Bre- mogart, where God so prospered his ministry, that, presently after his coming, the magistrates banished Popery, and set out a severe decree against adultery and drunkenness ; and being chosen pastor of that place, he preached every Sabbath in the afternoon, and the three days following in the morning: besides every day, at the time of evening pi avers, he ex- pounded a part of the New Testament. In 1571, by reason of the extreme hard winter, there was a very great dearth, in which Bullinger, and the other ministers, obtained of the senate, that there should be frequent prayer in public, and that provision should be made for the poor, which was done accordingly. In 1574, he fell into a grievous disease, which much tormented him for some weeks; but it pleased God to give him ease: whereupon he exercised his pub]ic ministry again. The year after he relapsed into his disease, and though the pain was almost intolerable, yet he never brake forth either in word or gesture into the least impatience, but prayed the more fervently; and when he had any ease, he used to discourse pleasantly with his friends, saying, " If the Lord will make any further use of me, and my mi- nistry in his church, I will ch erfnlly obey him ; but if he please (as I much desire) to take me out of th s miserable life, I shall exceedingly rejoice to go to my Saviour Christ. Socrates was glad when his death approach d, I ecause, as he thought, he would go to Homer, Hesiod,and other learned nun, whom he thought he should meet with in the other world : bow much more do I joy, who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ, the saints, patriarchs, pro- phets apostles, and all the holy men who have lived from the beginning of the world P These, 1 say, when I am sure to see, and to partake of their joys, why should I not willingly die, to enjoy their per- petual society and glory P" He died 1575. 7. Theodore Beza, was born at Ye/elai in 1519. He was early instructed in the true religion drawn out of the fountain of God's word. Through means of a wealthy uncle he was ltd into many of the world's pleasures, but being smitten w ith a dangerous . and brought near to the gates of death, he was bumbled under the mighty hand of God, and led to cry out, " Lord bring mv soul out of pri-on that 1 may praise thy name. " Being restored to health be forsook all for Christ, and was shortly after called to be Professor of Greek in the University of Lau- sanne. Here he carried on that" truly golden work," which bad been begun by Marot, of translating the Psahns into French metre. In 1559, he was removed to Geneva, and was chosen one of the pastors in that city. About the year 1501, after a long and singu- lar discussion between him and the Papists at Passy in France, Beza remained there, preaching much in various places around Paris, so that the word of God " grew mightily and prevailed." Soon after he re- turned to Geneva, where he endeavouied to stir up his countrymen to commi-erate and pny for their afflicted brethren in France. In 1589, Geneva was full of troubles ; whereupon extraordinary public prayers were appointed twice a-week, which burden Beza took upon himself, the other pastors freeing him from the daily sermons he used to preach before. Only he preached once ev. ry Sabbath morning be- tween eight and nine o'clock. Though very feeble and afflicted with a trouble in his head, he did not desist from preaching till the year 1600, when he was eighty-one years old. Not long after he invited his brethren to supper. They at first declined, be- cause there was to ne a public fast that week, and the magistrates had forbidden all feasting. Beza told them, that he would get leave of the magistrates, and that he did not intend a feast but a frugal sup- per. Whereupon they consented, and met together in brotherly fellowship and love. Beza in his younger years, after the Lord had touched his heart by the word, was one day in the church of Charenton, where he providentially heard the 91st Psalm expounded. It was followed with such power to him, that not only did he find it sweet at present, but was enabled to believe that the Lord would fulfil to him all the promises of that Psalm. At his death, he did declare to his Christian friends, that he had found it so indeed. That as hj had been enabled to close with the second verse, in taking the Lord for his God, and got a sure claim thereto, yea that he should be his refuge and fortress ; so he had found remarkably in the after changes of his life, that the Lord had " delivered him from the snare of 44 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL IN SCOTLAND Book II. the fowler ;" for he had been in frequent hazard by the lying in wait of many to ensnare him ; and "from the noisome pestilence," for he was sometimes in great hazard from the pestilence in these places where he was called to reside. And amidst the civil wars which were then so hot in France, he had most convincing deliverances from many imminent hazards, when he was called to be present sometimes with the Protestant princes upon the field, where " thousands did fall about him." And thus, when near his end, he found that Psalm so obviously veri- fied, whereon he was caused to hope, that he went through all these promises, declaring the comfortable accomplishment of them. How he had found the Lord " giving his angels charge over him, often answering-him when he called upon him;" how he had " been with him in trouble, had delivered him, and had satisfied him with long life." " And now,'* says he, " I have no more to wait for, but the ful- filling of these last words of the Psalm, ' I will show him my salvation,' which with confidence I long for." He was a thick set man and of a strong constitu- tion, insomuch that he used to say that he never knew what it was to have his head ache. He was of an excellent wit, an acute judgment, a firm me- mory ; very eloquent, affable, and courteous, so that he was called the Phoenix of his time. "When Cal- vin died he was very sorrowful, and is said to have exclaimed, in the true feeling of broken-hearted af- fection, " now that Calvin is dead, life will be less sweet and death less bitter." CHAPTER III. SOME INSTANCES OF THOSE IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, VIZ.: — 1. HAMILTON'.— 2. WISHART. — 3.MILL. — i. FKITH.— 5. BI" NET. — 6. TINDAL— 7. ROGERS.— 8. SAUNDERS.— 9. HOOPER.— 10. TAY- LOR.—11. BRADFORD.— 12. RIDLEY.— 13. LATIMER.— 14. PHIL- POT.— 15. CRANMER.— If!. JEWELL.— 17. KNOX.— 18. DEERING.— 19. GILPIN.— 20. FOX.— 21. GREENHAM.— 22. BOLLOCK.— 23. PERKINS.— 21. CARTWRIGHT. From Clark's Marlyrology, page 257, and Knox's History Book i. 1. Patrick Hamilton, in Scotland, was bro- ther's son to Jame-; Hamilton, earl of Arran, and sister's son to John Stuart, duke of Albany, which in providence was subservient to raise more attention to his doctrine, holy life, and sufferings. Having travelled into Germany, he became acquainted at Wittenberg with those eminent servants of Christ, Martin Luther, and Philip Melancthon, whereby he greatly increased in godly knowledge and learning ; from thence he went to the university of Marpurg, which was then newly erected by Philip Landgrave of Hesse, where he was intimate with other learned men, especially with Francis Lambert, by whose in- stigation he was the first that there publicly setup conclusions to be disputed of concerning faith and good works. By reason of his learning and integrity of life, he was had in admiration by many; but the zeal of God's glory did so eat him up, that he could not rest till he returned into his own country, where the bright beams of the true light, which by God's grace were planted in his heart, began most abun- dantly to break forth, as well in public as in secret. In process of time, the fame of his doctrine troubled the clergy, and came to the ears of James Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews, who grew impatient, that by this means the kingdom of darkness was disturbed ; and therefore he so laboured with Patrick Hamilton, that he got him to St Andrews, where, after divers days' conference, he had his freedom and liberty, the bishop seeming to approve his doctrine, acknowledg- ing, that in many things there needed a reformation in the church ; but, withal, fearing that their kingdom should be endamaged, they laboured with the king, who was then young, and much led by them, to go on pilgrimage to St Dothesse in Ross, that so by reason of his abseuce no intercession might be made to him, for the saving the life of this innocent servant of Jesus Christ, who, not suspecting the malice that lodged in their hearts, remained as a lamb amongst wolves. The king being gone, upon a night, Mr Hamil- ton was seized by the bishop's officers, and carried to the castle, and the morrow after he was brought forth unto judgment, and was condemned to be burnt for the testimony of God's truth ; the articles for which he suffered, were about pilgrimages, pur- gatory, prayer to saints, and for the dead, &c. And that his condemnation might have the greater authority, they caused it to be subscribed by all those of esteem that were present ; and to make their number great, they took the subscription of the very children who were of the nobility. Im- mediately after dinner, the fire was prepared, and he was led to execution ; yet most men thought it was only to terrify him, and to cause him to recant. But God, for his own glory, the good of his servants, and for the manifestation of their brutal tyranny, had otherwise decreed; for he so strengthened him, that neither the love of life, nor fear of this cruel death, could once move him to swerve from the truth which he had professed. At the place of execution he gave to his servant, that had long attended him, his gown, coat, cap, and his other g rments, saying, " After this, of me thou canst receive no commodity, except the exam- ple of my death, which I pray thee to bear in mind ; for, though it be bitter in the flesh, and fearful be- fore men, yet it is the entrance into eternal life, which none shall possess who deny Jesus Christ be- fore this wicked generation ;" and so, being tied to the stake in the midst of coals, and timber, they set fire to some powder, which with the blast scorched his left hand, and the side of his face, but neither killed him nor kindled the wood and coals, rill they ran to the ca«tle for more powder and more coiiibus- tible matter ; which being at last kindled, with a loud voice he cried, " Lord Jesus, receive my spi- rit. How long shall darkness overwhelm this realm ? and how long wilt thou suffer the tyranny of :hese men ?" The fire was slow, and therefore put him to the greater torment. But that which most grieved him, was the clamour of some wicked men set on by the friars, who continually cried, " Turn thou heretic ; call upon our lady ; say salve rrgina," &c, to whom he answered, " Depart from me ! nd trou- ble me not, thou messenger of Satan ;" and speak- ing to one Campbell, a friar, tha^ was the ringleader, who still ' oared on him with great vehemence, he said to him, " Wicked man, thou know est the con- trary, and hast confessed the contrary to me ; I ap- peal thee before the tribunal seat of Jesus Christ," after which words he resigned up his spirit unto Chap. 3. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 45 God, in the year of Christ 1527 ; and, within a few day* after, the said friar died in a frenzy, and as one that despaired. From K.sox's History, Book i. When those cruel wolves had, as they supposed, clean devoured the prey, they found themselves in worse case than before; for then, within St An- drews, yea, almos within the whole realm, who heard of that fact, there was none found who began not to inquire, wherefore Mr Patrick Hamilton was burnt; and when his articles were rehearsed, ques- tion was holden, if such articles were necessary to be believed, under the pain of damnation P And so, within short space, many began to call in doubt, that which before they held for a certain verity, in- somuch that the University of St Andrews and St Leonard's college, principally by the labours of Mr Gavin Logy, the novices of the abbey, and the sub- prior, began to smell somewhat of the verity, and to espy the vanity of the received superstition ; yea, within few years after, began both black and grey friars publicly to preach against the pride and idle life of bishops, and against the abusts of the whole ecclesiastical estate. A mongst whom was one called William Arithe, who, in a sermon preached in Dun- dee, spake somewhat more liberally against the li- centious life of the bishops, than they could well bear. The bishop of Brechin having his parasites in the town, butfetted the friar, and called him here- tic. The friar passed to St Andrews, and did com- municate the heads of his sermon to Mr John Mair, whose word then was holden as an oracle, in mat- ters of religion ; and, being assured of him that such doctrine mijfht well be defended, and that he would defend it, for it contained no heresy, there wa< a day appointed to the said friar, to make repetition of the same sermon ; an advertisement was given to all such as were offended at the former to be pre- sent. And so, in the parish church o{ St Andrews upon the day appointed, appeared the said friar, and had, amongst his auditors, Mr John Mair, Mr George Lockhart, the abbot of Cambuskeneth, Mr Patrick Hepburn, prior of St Andrews, with all the doctors and masters of the universities. Shortly af- ter this, new consultation was taken there, that some should be burnt; for men began liberally to speak. A merry gentleman, named John Lindsay, familiar to James Beaton, standing by when consul- tation was had, said, " My lord, if ye bu; n any more, except ye follow my counsel, ye will utterly destroy yourselves; if ye will burn them, let them be burnt in hollow cellars ; for the smoke of Mr Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon." From Clark's Martyrology, page 258. In the year 1534, the archbishop of St Andrews convened before him David Straiton, a gentleman, and Mr Norman Gourlay : the first of these had disobliged the bishop of Murray, in the matter of the tithes, but had nothing of religion in him ; but when he was summoned to answer for heresy, it troubled him exceedingly, and then he began to fre- quent the company of such as were godly, and there appeared a wonderful change in him ; so that, whereas before he despised the Word of God, now all his delight was in hearing of it read to him ; and he was a vehement exhorter of all men to peace and concord, and contempt of the world. He much fre- quented the company of the laird of Dun (Erskine), whom God, in those days, had marvellously illumi- nated ; hearing that text read (for he could not read himself), " He that denieth before men, or is asham- ed of me in the midst of this wicked generation, I will deny him before my Father and his holy angels." At those words, being suddenly as one revived, he fell upon his knees, and stedfastly lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven, at length he burst forth into these words, " Lord, I have been wicked, and justlv mnvest thnu withdraw thy grace from me ; but, Lord, for thy mercy's sake, let me never deny thee nor thy truth, for fear of death, or any corpo- real pain." Beinff afterwards, together with Mr N'Tinan, brought to judgment in Holyrood House, the King himself being present, much means were used to draw this David Straiton to make a recanta- tion ; but he persevered in his constancy, still deny- ing that he had offended ; and so they were both condemned to the fire, and in the year 1534, they were first hanged, and afterwards burnt. Not long after the burning of these two holy men, there was one dean Thomas Forrest, who used to preach every Lord's day to his parishioners, out of the Epistles and Gospels, as they fell in or^er : this was counted a great novelty ; for none used to preach but the friars ; and therefore they, envying him, ac- cused him to the bishop of Dunkeld for an heretic, and one that showed the mysteries of Scripture to the vulgar people. The bishop, instigated by the complaint of he friars, called the said dean Thomas before him, to whom he said, My joy, dean Thomas, I love you well ; and therefore I must counsel you how to govern yourself: the dean thanked him : and then he proceeded, I am informed that you preach the Epistle and the Gospel every Sunday to your people, and that you take not your dues from them ; which is very prejudicial to the churchmen ; and therefore, dean Thomas, I would have you take your dues, or else 'tis too much to preach every Sunday ; for, by so doing, you make the people think that we should do so also: 'tis enough for you, when you find a pood Episie or Gospel, to set forth and preach the liberty of holy church, and let the rest alone. Thomas answered, My lord, I presume none of my parishioners complain of my not taking my dues ; and whereas you say 'tis too much to preach every Sunday, I think it is too little, and wish that your lordship would do the like. Nay, nay, dean Thomas, said 'he bishop, let that be ; for we are not ordained to preach : then said Thomas, Whereas you bid me preach when I meet with a good Epistle and Gospel, I have read them all over, and I know no had ones amongst them ; but when your lordship shows me such, I will pass by them ; then said the bishop, I thank God I never kne" what the Old and New Testament was : and, dean Thomas, I will know nothing but my portuise and pontifical. Go your ways, and let all these fancies be ; for, if you perse- vere herein, you will repent when it is too late. I trust, said Thomas, my cause is good and just in the presence of God ; and therefore I care not what fol- lows thereupon ; and so he went his way ; but, shortly after, he was summoned to appear 1 efore the cardi- nal, by whom he was condemued and burnt for a chief heretic, and teacher of heresy. But, notwithstand- ing all their blood tyranny, the knowledge of God did wonderfully increase in Scotland, partly by read- 46 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL IN SCOTLAND Book II. ing, partly by brotherly conference, which in those dangerous days was much used to the comfort of many, which so enraged the Popish party, that, in 15;>8, there was burnt in one fire four persons of good quality. The year after there were apprehended Jerome Russell, a man of a meek and quiet nature, and Alexander Kennedy, of about eighteen years old; these two poor servants of Jesus Christ being brought before the archbishop, and his associates, to judgment, Kennedy at first was faint, and would fain have recanted ; but when all place of repentance was denied him, the Spirit of God (which seasonably comes in with comfort) began to refresh him; yea, the inward comlort began to burst forth, as well in his visage as in his tongue and words: for, with a cheerful countenance and joyful voice, falling on his knees, he said, " 0 eternal God, how wonderful is that love and mercy that thou bearest unto mankind, and to me a vile caitiff, and miserable wretch above all others! foreven now, when I would have denied thee, and thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Saviour, and so have cast myself into everlasting damnation, thou, by thine own hand, hast pulled me from the very bortom of hell, and made me to feel that heavenly comfort which takes from me that un- godly fear wherewith before I was o pressed : now, I defy de.th, do with me what you p'ease ; I prii^r God, I am ready." Then did they rail upon him and Jerome, who also said unto them, This is your hour and power of darkness; now sit ye as judges, and we stand wrongfully accused, and more wrong- fully to be condemned ; but the day will come when our innocency will appear, and ye shall see your own blindness, to your everlasting confusion Go forward, and fulfil the measure of your iaiqi ity Shortly after they were condemned to die; and as they went to execution, Jerome comforted Kennedy, saying to him, " Brother, fear not ; greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the w-orld ; the pain that we are to suffer is short, and shall be light, but our joy and consolation shall never have an end. Let us there- fore strive to en"-er into our Master and Saviour'sjoy by the same straightway which he hath liken before us. Death cannot hurt us, for it is already destroved by him for whose sake we now suffer." And thus passing cheerfully on, they constantly triumphed over death and S;tan, in the midst of the flaming fire, where they gave up their spirits to God. In the year 1543, Cardinal Beaton, coming to Edinburgh, caused many godly persons to be called before him ; and, when he could prove nothing else against them, he caused four men to be hanged, upon suspicion that they had eaten a goose upon a Friday ; and a woman, with her child sucking on her breast, to be drowned, for refusing to pray to the Virgin Mary. Many others he caused to be banished, others to be imprisoned at St Johnstoun ; amongst whom was one John Rogers, a godly and learned man, that had fruitfully preached Christ Jesus, to the comfort of many in Angus and Mearns, whom he caused to be murdered in prison, and then thrown over the wall, giving it out that, by attempting to escape, he had broken his neck. From, Knox's History. be lawful for even- man, to use the benefit of the translation which then they had of the Old and New Testament, togetherwith the benefit of other treatises containing wholesome doctrine, until such time as the prelates and other churchmen should give and set forth unto them a translation more correct. The clergy hereto long repugned ; but in the end, con- vinced by reasons, and by multitndes of voices, they also condescended. And so by act of Parliament it was made free to all men and women to read the scriptures in their own vulgar tongue; and so were all the acts made to the contrary abolished. This was no small victory of Jesus Christ, fighting against the conjured enemies of his veritie; no small comfort to such as before were holden in such bondage, that they durst not have read the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, nor the articles of their faith in the vulgar tongue, but they should have been accused of heresie. Then might have been seen the Bible lying almost upon evt ry gentleman's table. The New Testament was borne about in many men's hands. We grant that some (alas!) profaned that blessed word ; for some that perchance had n.ver read ten sentences in it, had it most common in their hand. they would chop their familiars on the cheek with it, and say, this hath lain under my bed feet these ten years. Others would glory, () how oft have I been in danger for this book, how secretly have I stolen from my wife at midnight to read upon it. And his was done we say of many to make court, and curry favour thereby : for all men esteemed the governor to have been one of the most fervent Protestants that was in Europe. Albeit we say that many abused that liberty, granted of God, yet thereby did the knowledge of God wondrously increase, and God i.':ive his holy spi it to simple men in great abundance. Then were set forth works in our own tongue, be- sides those that came from England, that did disclose the pride, the craft, the tyranny, and abuses of that Roman antichrist. Yet the same year, 1543, the commissioners of burghs, and a part of the nobility, required of the parliament, that it might be enacted, that it should From Clark's Martyrolorjy,page 260. 2. Wishart. He first preached in Ross, and then in Dundee, where, with great admiration of all that heard him, he expounded the Epistle to the Ro- mans, till, at the instigation of the Cardinal, one Robert Mill, a principal man there, and formerly a professor of religion, inhibited him from preaching, requiring him, that he should trouble their town no more, for he would not suffer it; and this was spoken to him in the public place : whereupon he mused a space with his eyes bent unto Heaven, and then looking sorrowfully upon the speaker and people, he said, " God is my witness that I never intended your trouble, but your comfort ; yea, your trouble is more dolorous to me than it is to yourselves ; but I am assured that, to refuse God's word, and to chase me from you, his messenger, shall not preserve you from trouble, but shall bring you into it : for God shall send you ministers that shall neither fear burn- ing nor banishment. I have offered you the word of salvation ; with the hazard of my life I have remained amongst you : now ye yourselves refuse me, and I must leave my innocency to be declared by ray God ; if it be long prosperous with you, I am not led by the spirit of truth ; but if unlooked for trouble come upon you, acknowledge the cause, and turn to God, who is gracious and merciful ; but if you turn not at the first warning, he will visit you with fire and sword.' Chap. 3. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 47 D went he into the west country, where he made offers of God'* word, which ru gladlj 1 by many, until the Bishop of Glasgow, by the instiga- tion of the Cardinal, came with his train to the town of Ayr to mist Wishart. The Earl of Glencairn, and some other gentlemen hearing of it, came thither v, ith their retinue, and, when they were all come ther, the bishop would needs have the church him-elf to pre;.
  • h1 will make them now to magnify and reverence the word of Cod, which before they lightly esteemed* Coming to Dundee, the joy of the faithful was exceeding great, and, without delay, he signified that the next day he would preach ; and because must of the inhabitants were either >ick, or employed about the sick, he chose the Ka-t-gate for the place of his preaching, so that the whole were within, and the sick without the gate : his text wa- P-alm cvii. ; " He sent his word, and healed them, &C. ; wherein he treated of the profit and comfort of God's word, the punishment that comes by the contempt of it, the readiness of God's mercy to such as truly turn to him, and the happi- ness of those whom God takes from this misery, &c. By which sermon, he so raised up the hearts of those that heard him, that they regarded not death, but judged them more happy that should then depart, rather than such as should remain behind ; consider- ing that they knew not whither they should have such a comforter with them. He spared not to visit them that lay in the greatest extremity, and to com- fort them ; he provided all things necessary for such as could take food, the town being very oountiful to them, through his instigation. But whilst he was thus busying himself for the comfort of the afflicted, the devil stirred up the Cardinal, who corrupted a desperate Popish priest, called John Weighton, to slay him. And on a day, the sermon being ended, and the people departed, suspecting no danger, the priest stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs, with a naked dagger in his hand, under his gown ; but Mr Wishart, being of a sharp piercing eye, seeing the priest as he came down, said to him, My friend, what would you have? and, withal, clapping his hand upon the dagger, took it from him; the priest herewith being terrified, fell down upon his knees, Confessed his intention, and craved pardon ; a noise beitiir hereupon rai-ed, and i* coming to the ears of those who were sick, they cried. Deliver the traitor to us, or we will take him by force ; and so they hurst in at the gate : but Wishart. taking him in his arms said, Whosoever hurts him, shall hurt me; for 1 e hath done me no hurt, but much nood, by teach- inore needfulness for the time to come; and ■0 he a; them, and saved the priest's life. Afterwards he preached in divers other places, the people much Hocking to hear him. In February 1.">4(J, Mr Wi-hart was sent for by Cardinal Beaten, to give an account of his seditious and heretical doctrine, as they called it ; the Cardi- nal called all his retinue to 0OSM armed to the place of their sittings which was the abbey church, whither, when Mr Wi-hart was brought, there was a poor man lying at the door that asked his alms, to whom he Hum.' his purse ; when be came before the Car- dinal, there »;i> I de.in appointed to preach ; whose -eruiMii being ended. Wishart was put up into the pulpit to beat his charge; and one Lawd- r, a priest, itood over agsinel him. and real a scrowl full of bit- ter accus bons and enrses, so that the ignorant peo- ple thought that the eartb would have opened and swallowed up Wishart quick: but he stood with