^.J 922.2 C3M 1 CoXttmtjia 'Slnlucrsltij AviS • \i:*/ifc?-:' '^.}'i■^^ )i(.^V:C\\ LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT FATHERS OF THE CHURCH THAT FLOUKISHED IN THE FIRST FOUE CENTURIES; WITH AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF PAGANISM UNDER THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS. EY WILLIAM CAVE, D. D. A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED, BY HENRY GARY, M.A. WORCESTER COLLEGE, AXD PERPETUAL CURATE OF ST. PAUL's, OXFORD. VOL. 1. IJBIIARY. OXFORD, PRINTED BY J. VINCENT, FOR THOMAS T E G G, 73, C H E A P S I D E, L N D N. 1840. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION. The writings of Cave, especially his Lives of the Fathers, are so well known and appreciated, that the Editor is persuaded a lengthened preface of his own would not add at all to their value. He need therefore only state what his task has been in preparing the present edition for the press. The text has been carefully revised throughout, and the authorities quoted and referred to have been collated and examined. But the most laborious part of the editor's undertaking has been in correcting his author's references. Cave had, in great measure from necessity, made use of inferior editions of the Fathers ; of some of them, there were not at the time of his writing accurate imprints. In the present work, therefore, later and improved editions of the authors quoted or referred to, have been in many cases consulted throughout. The following table of editions used, will enable the studious reader to verify Cave's statements : many, however, are not here particularized, either because they are only once or twice referred to, or because, being quoted by chapter or section, or both, they may readily be found in the various editions. a 2 ^-v wr i^ TABLE OF EDITIONS REFERRED TO. A MBROSirS, ^'"■- 1 '''"'' ''^• Ammianus Mara-Uinus, Lucid. Bat. 1693. Apostolonira Canoncs inter Patkks Apo- stolicos. Apostolorum Constitutioncs, inter Patrks Apostolicos. Aristidcs, Ojton. 1722. Amobius, Lugd. Bit. 1651. Atlianasius, Par. 1698. Athcn.TUS, /,!«/cn]it. Kubub. PREFACE. xiii Euseblus collected into one volume, under the title of 'Ap')(^aLcov Maprvpi(Dv Swaycoyr], "A Collection of the Ancient Martyr- doms,"" which he refers to at every turn ; besides a particular narrative which he wrote (still extant as an appendage to the eighth book of his Ecclesiastical History) " concerning the Mar- tyrs that suffered in Palestine." A great part of these acts, by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding times, were interpolated and corrupted ; especially in the darker and more undiscerning ages, when su]ierstition had overspread the church, and when ignorance and interest conspired to fill the world with idle and improbable stories, and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own brains, insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman commu- nion have complained, not without a just resentment and indigna- tion, that Laertius has written the lives of philosophers with more truth and chasteness than many have done the lives of the saints. Upon this account, a great and general outcry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes, as the father of incredible legends, and one that has notoriously imposed upon the Avorld by the most fabulous reports. Nay, some, to reflect the more disgrace upon him, have represented him as a petty schoolmaster : a charge, in my mind, rash and inconsiderate, and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable. He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes, advanced to the highest honours and ofiices, one of the premier ministers of state, and, as is probable, great chancellor to the emperor of Constantinople ; learned and eloquent above the common standard, and who, by the persuasions not only of some great ones of that time, (he flourished under Leo the Wise about the year 900, but principally wrote under the reign of his successor,) but of the emperor him- x'lv l'RKKA(JE. self", was prevailed with to reduce the lives of the saints into order : to which end, hy his own infinite labour, and the no less expenses of the emperor, he ransacked the libraries of the em- pire, till he had amassed a vast heap of volumes. The more ancient acts he passed without any considerable alteration, more than the correcting them by a collation of several copies, and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easy, as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day. Where lives were confused and inmiethodical, or written in a style rude and barbarous, he digested the history into order, and clothed it in more polite and elegant language : others, that were defective in neither, he left as they were, and gave them place amongst his own. So that I see no reason for so severe a censure, unless it were evident, that he took his accounts of things not from the writings of those that had gone before him, but forged them of his own head. Not to say, that things have been made much worse by translations, seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latin church, and that many lives are laid at his door, of which he never was the father, it being usual with some, when they met with the life of a saint, the author whereof they knew not, presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes, But to return to Eusebius, from whom we have digressed. His ecclesiastical history, the almost only remaining records of the ancient church, deserves a just esteem and veneration, without which those very fragments of antiquity had been lost, which by this means have escaped the common shipwreck. And indeed St. Ilierom, Nicephorus, and the rest, do not only build upon his foundation, but almost entirely derive their ma- terials from him. As for Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and the PREFACE. XV * later historians, they relate to times without the limits of my present business, generally conveying down little more than the history of their own times, the church history of those more early ages being either quite neglected, or very negligently managed. The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation, were the centuriators of Magdeburg, a combination of learned and industrious men, the chief of whom were John Wigandus, Matth. Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus, who was the very soul of the undertaking. They set themselves to traverse the writings of the fathers, and all the ancient monuments of the church, col- lecting whatever made to their purpose, which with indefatigable pains they digested into an ecclesiastic history. This they di- vided into centuries, and each century into fifteen chapters, into each of which, as into its proper classes and repository, they re- duced whatever concerned the propagation of religion, the peace or persecutions of the Christians, the doctrines of the church, and the heresies that arose in it ; the rites and ceremonies, the government, schisms, councils, bishops, and persons noted either for religion or learning ; heretics, martyrs, miracles, the state of the Jews, the religion of " them that were without," and the political revolutions of that age : a method accurate and useful, and which administers to a very distinct and particular under- standing the aifairs of the church. The four first centuries were finished in the city of Magdeburg, the rest elsewhere : a work of prodigious diligence and singular use. True it is, that it labours under some faults and imperfections, and is chargeable with considerable errors and mistakes. And no wonder : for besides that the persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betrayed into an afierpla t7]<; dv6oXK7]<;, by xvi PREFACE. the lieats and contentions of those times, it was tlie first at- tempt in this kind, and whicli never passed the emendations of a second review ; an nndertakin<2f vast and diffusive, and en- gaged in whih' books were yet more scarce and less correct. Accordingly they modestly enough confess,'' that they rather attempted a delineation of church-history, than one that was complete and absolute, desiring only to minister opportunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more entire and perfect. And yet take it with all the faults and disad- vantages that can be charged upon it, and they bear no propor- tion to the usefulness and excellency of the thing itself. No sooner did this work come abroad, but it made a loud noise and bustle at Rome, as wherein the corruptions and in- novations of that church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the world. Accordingly it was necessary that an antidote should be provided against it. For which purpose, Philip Nereus (who had lately founded the oratorian order at Rome) com- mands Jiaronius, then a very young man, and newly entered into the congregation, to undertake it ; and in order thereunto daily to read nothing but ecclesiastical lectures in the oratory. This course he held for thirty years together, seven several times going over the history of the church. Thus trained up, and abundantly furnished with fit materials, he sets upon the work itself, which he disposed by way of Annals, comprising the affairs of the whole Christian world in the orderly series and succession of every year : a method much more natural and historical than that of the Centuries: a noble design, ;ind which it were injustice '■ Prafat. in Hist. Ecclcs. prrefix. Cent. i. PREFACE. xvii to defraud of its due praise and commendation, as wherein, be- sides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the church, reduced (as far as his skill in chronology could enable him) under their proper periods, he has brought to light many pas- sages of the ancients not known before, peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble libraries that are at Rome : a monu- ment of incredible pains and labour, as which, besides the diffi- culties of the thing itself, was entirely carried on by his single endeavours, and written all with his own hand, and that too in the midst of infinite avocations, the distractions of a parish-cure, the private affairs of his own oratory, preaching, hearing con- fessions, writing other books, not to mention the very trouble- some though honourable offices and employments which in the course of the work were heaped upon him. In short, a work it was by which he had infinitely more obliged the world than can be well expressed, had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and industry. But, alas, too evident it is, that he designed not so much the advance- ment of truth, as the honour and interest of a cause, and there- fore drew the face of the ancient church, not as antiquity truly represents it, but according to the present form and complexion of the church of Rome, forcing every thing to look that way, to justify the traditions and practices, and to exalt the supereminent power and grandeur of that church, making both the sceptre and the crosier stoop to the triple-crown. This is that that runs almost through every page ; and indeed both he himself,' and the writer of his Life,'' more than once expressly affirm, that ' Epist. Ded. ad. Sixt. V. vol. i. Annal. praefix. ^ Hier. Bamah. dc vit. Bavoii. 1. i. c. 18, 10. vol,. I. t vviii PREFACE. his design was to det'ond the traditions, and to preserve tlie dignity of that chnrch against the late innovators, and the la- bours of the Magdeburgensian centuriators, and that the op- posing of them was the occasion of that work. So fatally does partiality and the interest of a cause spoil the most brave and generous undertakings. What has been hitherto prefaced, the reader, I hope, will not censure as an unprofitable digression, nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present work, whereof it is like he will expect some short account. Being some time .since engaged, I know not how, in searching after the antiquities of the apostolic age, I was then strongly iiuportuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding ages. This I then wholly laid aside, without any further thoughts of reassuming it. For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of the thing, ami I well foresaw how almost impossible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfaction ; so small and inconsiderable, so broken and imperfect are the accounts that are left us of those early times. Notwithstanding which, 1 have once more sutlered myself to be engaged in it, and have endeavoured to hunt out and gather together those ruins of primitive .story that yet re- main, that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men, who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the world, to seal it with their blood, and to oblige posterity by those excellent monuments of learning and piety which they left behind them. I have bounded my account within the first three hundred years, notwithstanding the barren- ness and obscurity of those ages of the church. Had I consulted my own ease or credit, I should have commenced mv design PREFACE. xix from that time which is the period of my present undertaking, viz. the following swculum, when Christianity became the reli- gion of the empire, and the records of the church furnish us with large and plentiful materials for such a work. But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best ages of religion, the memoirs whereof I have picked up, and thereby enabled myself to draw the lineaments of as many of those apostolical persons, as concerning whom 1 could retrieve any considerable notices and accounts of things. With what success, the reader must judge : with whom, what entertainment it will find, I know not, nor am I much solicitous. I have done what 1 could, and am not conscious to myself that I have been wanting in any point either of fidelity or care. If there be fewer persons here described than the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise, and less said concerning some of them than the reader does expect, he will, I presume, be more just and charitable than to charge it upon me, but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfuhiess of succeeding times. As far as my mean abilities do reach, and the nature of the thing will admit, I have endeavoured the reader's satisfaction ; and though I pretend not to present him an exact church-history of those times, yet I think I may with- out vanity assure him, that there is scarce any material passage of church-antiquity of which, in some of these Lives, he will not find a competent and reasonable account. Nor is the history of those ages maimed and lame only in its main limbs and parts, but (what is greatly to be bewailed) purblind and defective in its eyes ; I mean, confused and uncertain in point of chronology. The greatest part of what we have is from Eusebius, in whose XX PKKFACE. aceoimt of times suiue things are false, more uncertain, and the whole the worse for passing through other hands after his. In- deed, next to the recovering the lost portions of antiquity, I know nothing would be more acceptable than the setting right the disjointed frame of those times : a cure which we hope for shortly from a very able hand. In the mean time, for my own part, and so far as may be useful to the purposes of the following papers, I have, by the best measures I could take in some haste, drawn uj) a chronology of these three ages, which though it pre- tends not to the utmost exactness and accuracy that is due to a matter of this nature, yet it will serve however to give a quick and present prospect of things, and to shew the connexure and concurrence of ecclesiastic aifairs with the times of the Roman empire. So far as I follow Eusebius, I princij)ally rely upon the accounts given in his history, which being written after his Chronicon, may be supposed the issue of his more exact re- searches, and to have passed the judgment of his riper and more considering thoughts. And perhaps the reader will say, (and I confess I am somewhat of his mind,) had I observed the same rule towards these papers, he had never been troubled with them. But that is too late now to be recalled ; and it is folly to bewail what is impossible to be remedied. CONTENTS. PAGE The Introduction --------- ...j The Life of St. Stephen the Protomartyr 47 The Life of St. Philip the Deacon and Evangelist 77 The Life of St. Barnabas the Apostle ----..-.90 The Life of St. Timothy the Apostle and Evangelist 106 The Life of St, Titus, Bishop of Crete 118 The Life of St. Dionysius the Areopagite - - - - - - - -130 The Life of St. Clemens, Bishop of Rome - - - - - - - -147 The Life of St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem - - - - - - -164 The Life of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch ------- \'jq The Life of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna - - - - - - -192 The Life of St. Quadratus, Bishop of Athens ----... 219 The Life of St. Justin the Martyr 228 The Life of St. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons .-...-- 258 The Life of St. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch 273 The Life of St. Melito, Bishop of Sardis -------- 280 The Life of St. Pantsenus, Catechist of Alexandria ------ 287 The Life of St. Clemens of Alexandria 296 The Life of Tertullian, Presbyter of Carthage 305 The Life of Origen, Presbyter, Catechist of Alexandria - - - - - 321 The Life of St. Babylas, Bishop of Antioch 362 The Life of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage --...-. 374 The Life of St. Gregory, Bishop of Neocassarea 396 The Life of St. Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria - - 417 Chronological Table of the first three Ages of the Christian Church - - - 438 LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT FATHERS OF THE CHURCH THAT FLOURISHED IN THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. COI.COI.L,. X ^ IJBRARY N.YORK. INTRODUCTION. Thb several periods of the three first ages. Our Lord's coming, and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the gospel. His entrance upon his prophetic office, and the sum of his ministr}^ The success of his doctrine, and the several places where he preached. The story of Agbarus not altogether improbable. Our Lord's death. What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by heathen writers. The testimony of Tacitus. Pilate's relation sent to Tiberius. The Acts of Pilate what. Pilate's letter now extant, spurious. The apostles entering upon their commission, and first acts after our Lord's ascension. How long they continued- in Judea. Their dispersion to preach in the Gentile provinces, and the success of it. The state of the church after the apostolic age. The mighty progress of Christianity. The numbers and quality of its converts. Its speedy and incredible success in all countries, noted out of the writers of those times. The early conversion of Britain to Christianity. The general declension of Paganism. The silence and ceasing of their oracles. This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian religion appearing in the world. A great argument of its truth and divinity. The means contributing to the success of Christianity. The miraculous powers then resident in the church. This proved at large out of the primitive writers. The great learning and abilities of many of the church's champions. The most eminent of the Christian apologists. The prin- cipal of them that engaged against the heresies of those times. Others renowned for other parts of learning. The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity. Instructing and catechizing new converts. Schools erected. Travel- ling to preach in all parts of the world. The admirable lives of the ancient Christians. The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrine upon the minds of men. A holy life the most acceptable sacrifice. Their incomparable patience and constancy under suf- ferings. A brief survey of the ten Persecutions. The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagances, and inhuman cruelties. His burning Rome, and the dreadful- ness of that conflagration. This charged upon the Christians, and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus. The chief of them that suffered. The Persecu- tion under Domitian. The vices of that prince. The cruel usage of St. John. The third begun by Trajan. His character. His proceeding against the Christians as illegal societies. Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians, with the emperor's answer. Adrian, Trajan's successor ; a mixture in him of vice and virtue. His per- secuting the Christians. This the fourth Persecution. The mitigation of it, and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius. The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius. The fifth Persecution raised by him. Its fierceness in the East, at Rome, especially in France ; the most eminent that suffered there. The emperor's victory in his German wars gained by the Christians' prayers. Severus's temper : his cruelty towards the Christians. Tiie ciiief of the martyrs under the sixth Persecution. Maximinus's immoderate ambition and barbarous cruelty. The author of the seventh ^^ Persecution. This not universal. The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians. Decius the eighth persecutor ; otherwise an excellent prince. The VOL. I. n ^ 2 I NTHODLCTION. violence of tliis Persecution, and llie most noted sufferers. The foundations of nio- nnchisin when laid. The ninth Persecution, and its rage under Valerian. The most eminent martyrs. The severe punishment of Valerian : his miserable us;igc by the Persian king. The tenth Persecution begun under Dioclesian, and when. The fierce- ness and cruelty of that time. The admirable carriage and resolution of the Chris- tians under nil these sufferings. The proper influence of this argument to convince the world. The whole concluded with Lactantius's excellent reasonings to this purpose. I. The state of the Chi-istian church in the three first ages of it may be considered under a threefold period : as it was first planted and established by our Lord himself during his residence in the ^\■orld ; as it was enlarged and propagated by the apo- stles and first missionaries of the Christian faith ; and as it grew up and prospered from the apostolic age till the times of Con- stantine, when the empire submitted itself to Christianity. God, who in former times was pleased by various methods of revela- tion to convey his will to mankind, " hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son." For the great blessing of the pro- mised seed after a long succession of several ages being come to ■its just maturity and perfection, God was resolved " to perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and to remember his holv covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham." Accordingly, " In the fulness of time God sent his Son." It was in the declining part of Augustus's reign, when this great Am- bassador arrived from heaven, to publish to the world the glad tidings of salvation. A period of time (as ''Origen observes) wisely ordered by the divine providence. For the Roman em- pire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur, all its parts united under a monarchical government, and an universal peace spread over all the provinces of the empire, that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted commerce with all nations, a smoother and sj)cedier passage was hereby jn-epared for the pub- lishing the doctrine of the gospel, which the apostles and first preachers of religion might with the greater ease and .security carry up and down to all quarters of the world. As for the Jews, their minds were awakened about this time with busy expectations of their Messiah's coming : and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the eastern magi, who came to pay homage to him, l)ut Jcrusah^m was filled » Contr. Cels. 1. ii. c. .10. vol. i. i,. tl:.'. INTRODUCTION. 3 with noise and tumult, the Sanhedrin was convened, and con- sulted by Herod, who, jealous of his late gotten sovereignty, was resolved to dispatch this new competitor out of the way. De- luded in his hopes of discovery by the magi, he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty, commanding all infants under two years old to be put to death, and among them it seems his own son, which made ''Augustus pleasantly say, (alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from swine''s flesh,) " It is better to be Herod's hog than his son." But the providence of God se- cured the holy infant, by timely admonishing his parents to re- tire into Egypt, where they remained till the death of Herod, which happening not long after, they returned. II. Near thirty years our Lord remained obscure under the retirements of a private life, applying himself (as the ancients tell us, and the evangelical history plainly intimates) to Joseph's employment, the trade of a carpenter. So little patronage did he give to an idle unaccountable course of life. But now he was called out of his shades and solitudes, and publicly owned to be that person, whom God had sent to be the great prophet of his church. This was done at his baptism, when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him, and God by an audible voice testified of him, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Accordingly he set himself to declare the counsels of God, "going about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom." He particularly explained the moral law, and restored it to its just authority and dominion over the minds of men, redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which the masters of the Jewish church had put upon it. He next in- sinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic economy, to which he was sent to put a period, to enlarge the bounds of salvation, and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy : that he came as a mediator between God and man, to reconcile the world to the favour of heaven by his death and sufferings,' and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to all that by an hearty belief, a sincere repentance, and an holy life, were willing to embrace and entertain iL Tliis was the sum of the doctrine which he preached every where, as opportunity and occasion led him, and which he did not impose upon the world merely upon '' Macrob. Saturnal. 1. ii. c. 4. B 2 t INTRODUCTION. the account of his own authority and power, or beg a precarious enterttiinmont of it ; he did not tell men tliev niunt believe hitn, because he said he came from God, and had his warrant and commission to instruct and reform the world, but gave them the most satisfactory and convictive evidence, by doing such miracles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of art or nature, whereby he unanswerably demonstrated, that "he was a teacher come from God, in that no man could do those miracles which he did, except God were with him." And because he himself was in a little time to return back to heaven, he or- dained twelve, whom he called apostles, as his immediate delegates and vicegerents, to whom he deputed his authority and power, furnished them with miraculous gifts, and left them to carry on that excellent religion which he himself had begun, to whose assistance he joined seventy disciples, as ordinary coadjutors and companions to them. Their commission for the present was limited to Palestine, and they sent out only "■' to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel." III. How great the success of our Saviour's ministry was, may be guessed from that complaint of the Pharisees, " Behold the world is gone after him;''"''' people from all parts in such vast multitudes flocking after him, that they gave him not time for necessary solitude and retirement. Indeed he " went about doing good, preaching the word throughout all Judea, and healing all that were possessed of the devil." The seat of his ordinary abode was Galilee, residing for the most part (says one of the ancients'') in Galilee of the Gentiles, that he might there sow and reap the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles. We usually find him preaching at Nazareth, at Cana, at Corazin and }3ethsaida, and the cities about the sea of Tiberias, but especially at Capernaum, the metropolis of the province, a place of great conmierce and traflic. He often visited Judea and the parts about Jerusalem, whither he was wont to go up at the paschal solemnities, and some of the greater festivals, that so the ge- neral concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net, and to communicate and impart his doctrine to them. Nor did he, who was -to be a common Saviour, and came to break down the partition-wall, disdain to converse with the Samaritans, so contemptible and hateful to •^ Jolin xii. 19. "i F.usoK Donionstr. Kvjing. 1. i.\. p. 4'MK INTRODUCTION. 5 the Jews. In Sychar, not far from Samaria, he freely preached, and gained most of the inhabitants of that city to be proselytes to his doctrine. He travelled up and down the towns and villages of Cesarea Philippi, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis, and where he could not come, the renown of him spread itself, bringing him disciples, and followers from all quarters. Indeed " his fame went throughout all Syria, and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Judea, Decapolis, Idumsea, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon." Nay, might we believe the story so solemnly reported by Eusebius" and the ancients, (and excepting the silence of the evangelical historians, who recorded onl}- some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour, I know no wise argument against it,) Agbarus, prince of Edessa beyond Euphrates, having heard of the fame of our Saviour's miracles, by letters humbly besought him to come over to hira ; whose letter, together with our Lord's answer, are extant in Eusebius, there being nothing in the letters themselves that may justly shake their credit and authority, with much more to this purpose, transcribed (as he tells us) out of the records of that city, and by hira translated out of Syria c into Greek, which may give us some account why none of the ancients before him make any mention of this aifair, being generally strangers to the language, the customs, and antiquities of those eastern countries. IV. Our Lord having spent somewhat more than three years in the public exercise of his ministry, kept his last passover with his apostles ; which done, he instituted the sacramental supper, consigning it to his church as the standing memorial of his death, and the seal of the evangelical covenant, as he appointed baptism to be the federal rite of initiation, and the public tessera or badge of those that should profess his religion. And now the fatal hour was at hand : being betrayed by the treachery of one of his own apostles, he was apprehended by the officers and brought before the public tribunals. Heavy were the crimes charged upon him, but as false as spiteful ; the two luain ar- ticles of the charge were blasphemy against God, and treason against the emperor : and though they were not able to make them good by any tolerable pretence of proof, yet did they con- « Hist. Eccl. 1, i. c. 1 3. 6 INTRODUCTION. deinn and execute liini upon the cross, several of themselves vindicating his innocency, that he was a "righteous man," and " the Son of God." The third day after his interment he rose again, appeared to and conversed with his disciples and followers, and having taken care of the affairs of his church, given a larger commission, and fuller instructions to his apostles, he took his leave of them, and visibly ascended into heaven, and "sat down on the right hand of God, as head over all things to the church, angels, authorities, and powers being made subject unto him." V. The faith of these passages concerning our Saviour, are not only secured to us by the report of the evangelical historians, and that justified by eye-witnesses, the evidence of miracles, and the successive and uncontrolled consent of all ages of the church, but (as to the substance of them) by the plain confession of heathen writers, and the enemies of Christianity. 'Tacitus tells us, that the author of this religion was Christ, who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilate, the pro- curator of Judea : wliereby though this detestable superstition was sujipressed for the present, yet did it break out again, spreading itself not only through Judea, the fountain of the mischief, but in the very city of Home itself, where whatever is wicked and shameful meets together, and is greedily advanced into reputation. ^Eusebius assures us, that after our Lord's ascension, Pilate, according to custom, sent an account of him to the emperor: which Tiberius brought before the senate, but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them ; it being a fundamental law of the Roman state, that no new god could be taken in without the decree of the senate ; but that however Tiberius continued his good thoughts of Christ, and kindness to the Christians. For this he cites the testimony of Tertullian, who in his ''Apology presented to the Roman poAvers affirms, that Tiberius, in whose time the Christian religion entered into the world, having re- ceived an account from Pilate out of Palestine in Syria con- cerning the truth of that divinity that was there, brought it to the senate Avith the prerogative of his own vote : but that the senate, because they had not before approved of it, would not admit it ; however the emperor continued of the same mind, and ' Anna). I. xv. c. 44. " Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 2. vid. OroB. adv. Pag. I. vii. c. 4. '' Apol. r. ."). of c. '21. INTRODUCTION. 7 threatened punishment to them that accused the Christians. And before Tertullian, Justin Martyr,' speaking concerning the death and sufterings of our Saviour, tells the emperors, that they might satisfy themselves in the truth of these things from the Acts written under Pontius Pilate ; it being customary not only at Rome to keep the Acts of the senate and the people, but for the governors of provinces to keep account of what memorable things happened in their government, the Acts whereof they transmitted to the emperor. And thus did Pilate during the procuratorship of his province. How long these Acts remained in being, I know not : but in the controversy about Easter, we find the Quartodecimans ^ justifying the day on which they ob- served it from the Acts of Pilate, wherein they gloried that they had found the truth. Whether these were the Acts of Pilate to which Justin appealed, or rather those Acts of Pilate drawn up and published by the command of ' Maximinus, Dioclesian's successor, in disparagement of our Lord and his religion, is uncertain, but the latter of the two far more probable. How- ever Pilate's letter to Tiberius, (or as he is there called Claudius,) at this day extant in the Anacephalseosis"" of the younger Egesippus, is of no great credit, though that author challenges greater antiquity than some allow him, being probably con- temporary with St. Ambrose, and by many, from the great con- formity of style and phrase, thought to be St. Ambrose himself, who with some few additions compiled it out of Josephus. But then it is to be considered, whether that Anacephalseosis be done by the same, or (which is most probable) by a much later hand. Some other particular passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by G-entile writers, the appearance of the star by Calcidius, the murder of the infants by Macrobius, the eclipse at our Saviour's passion by Phlegon Trallianus, (not to speak of his miracles frequently acknowledged by Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry,) which I shall not insist upon. ' VI. Immediately after our Lord's ascension (from whence we date the next period of the church) the apostles began to execute the powers intrusted with them. They presently filled up Judas's vacancy by the election of a new apostle, " the lot falling upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven ' Apol. i. c. 35. '' Epiph. Haeres. xxx. sive L. vol. i. p. 419. ' Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 5. >" Ad calcem lib. de Excid. urb. Hieros. 8 INTRODUCTION. apostles." Being next endued with power t'roiii on higli, (as our Lord had j)ronii!;ied them,) furnislied with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse, and to the faces of their greatest enemies. They w ho but a while before fled at the first approach of danger, now boldly plead the cause of their crucified Master, with the immediate hazard of their lives. And that nothing might inter- rupt them in this employment, they instituted the office of deacons, who nnght attend the inferior services of the church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessary to the good of souls. By which prudent course religion got ground apace, and innumerable converts were daily added to the faith : till a persecution arising upon St. Stephcn"'s mar- tyrdom, banished the church out of Jerusalem, though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue, Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the neighbour countries. The apostles, notwithstanding the rage of the perse- cution, remained still at Jerusalem, only now and then dis- patching some few of their number to confirm and settle the plantations, and to propagate the faith, as the necessities of the church required. And thus they continued for near twelve years together, our Lord himself having commanded them not to de- part Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts, till twelve years after his ascension, as the ancient tradition mentioned both by Apol- lonius" and Clemens Alexandrinus" informs us. And now they thought it high time to apply themselves to the full execution of that conmiission w^hich Christ had given them, "to go teach and bapti/e all nations." Accordingly having settled the general afi'airs and concernments of the church, they betook themselves to the several provinces of the C-entile world, preaching the gospel to every nation under heaven, so that even in a literal sense " their sound Avent into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." " Infinite multitudes of people in all cities and countries, (says Eusebius,') like corn into a well- filled granary, being brought in by that grace of God that brings salvation. And they whose minds were heretofore distempered and overrun with the error and idolatry of their ancestors, were cured by the sermons and miracles of our Lord's disciples, and " Kti-'ob. Hist. Keel. l.v. c. 18. " Stromat. 1. vi. c. 5. vid. Life of St. Peter,-*. 11. n. .i. r Etcl. Hist. 1. ii. r. 3, INTRODUCTION. 9 shaking oft' those chains of darkness and slavery which the mer- ciless demons had put upon them^ freely embraced and enter- tained the knowledge and service of the only true God, the great Creator of tlie world, whom they worshipped according to the holy rites and rules of that divine and wisely-contrived religion which our Saviour had introduced into the world." But con- cerning the apostles' travels, the success of their ministry, the places and countries to which they went, the churches they planted, their acts and martyrdoms for the faith, we have given an account in a work peculiar to that subject, so far as the records of those times have conveyed any material notices of things to us. It may suffice to observe, that God was pleased to continue St. John to a very great age beyond any of the rest, that he might superintend and cultivate, confirm and establish what they had planted, and be as a standing and lively oracle, to which they might from all parts have recoui'se in any consi- derable doubts and exigences of the church, and that he might seal and attest the truth of those things, which men of corrupt and perverse minds even then began to call in question. VII. Hence then we pass on to survey the state of the church from the apostolic age till the times of Constantine, for the space of at least two hundred years. And under this period we shall principally remark two things. What progress the Christian religion made in the world. Secondly, what it was that con- tributed to so vast a growth and increase of it. That Christianity, from, the nature of its precepts, the sublimeness of its principles, its contrariety to the established rites and religions of the world, was likely to find bad entertainment, and the fiercest opposition, could not but be obvious to ever}' impartial considerer of things; which accordingly came to pass. For it met with all the dis- couragement, the secret undermining, and open assaults which malice and prejudice, wit and parts, learning and power were able to make upon it. Notwithstanding all which, it lift up its head, and prospered under the greatest oppositions. And the triumph of the Christian faith will appear the more considerable, whether we regard the number and quality of its converts, or the vast circumference to which it did extend and diff"use itself. Though it appeared under all manner of disadvantages to recom- mend itself, yet no sooner did it set up its standard, but persons from all parts, and of all kinds of principles and educations. 10 INTRODUCTION. hogau to tlofk to it, so acliuiriibly aticftiiig very many, both of the Greeks uii Contr. Ceh. 1. i. c. --'7. vol. i. j.. 345. ' Ibid. 1. iii. c. 24. vol. i. p. 461. • Uiiil. I. i. c. 7. vol. i. p. 3'2o. • Adv. Cent. I. ii. p. '21. " Apol. c. :i7. X Ad Scapul. c. :.. J" Ad Traj. 1. x. ppist. 97. . INTRODUCTION. 11 Christians was a matter worthy of deliberation, especially by reason of the multitudes that were concerned, for that many of each sex, of every age and quality, were and must be called in question, this superstition having infected and overrun not the city only, but towns and countries, the temples and sacrifices being generally desolate and forsaken. VIII. Nor was it thus only in some parts and provinces of the Roman empire, but in most nations and countries. Justin Martyr ^ tells the Jews, that whatever they might boast of the universality of their religion, there were many places of the world whither neither they nor it ever came : whereas there was no part of mankind, whether Greeks or Barbarians, or by what name soever they were called, even the most rude and unpo- lished nations, where prayers and thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the world through the name of the cruci- fied Jesus. The same Bardesanes," the Syrian, Justin's contem- porary, affirms, that the followei-s of the Christian institution, though living in diiferent parts of the world, and being very numerous in every climate and country, were yet all called by the name of Christians. So Lactantius ;'' the Christian law (says he) is entertained from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, where every sex, and age, and nation, and country does Avith one heart and soul worship God. If from generals we de- scend to particular places and countries, Irenseus,'' who entered upon the see of Lyons, A. D. 179, affirms, that though there were different languages in the world, yet that the force of tradition (or that doctrine that had been delivered to the church) was but one and the same ; that there were churches settled in Germany, Spain, France, in the East, in Egypt and Lybia, as well as in the middle of the world. Tertullian,'^ who probably wrote not above twenty years after Irenseus, gives us in a lai-ger account. " Their sound," says he, " went through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. For in whom but Christ did all nations believe ? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, and Cappadocia, of Pontus, Asia, and Pamphylia, those who dwell in Egypt, Africa, and beyond Cyrene, strangers at Rome, ^ Dial, cum Tryph. p. 34.5. ■'' Lib. de Fat. ap. Euseb. prsep. Evang. l.vi. c. 10. p.27n. *> De Justit. 1. V. c. 13. p. 494. -^^ Adv. Hieres. 1. i. c. 3. p. 52. << Adv. JiKbcos, c. 7. p. 18.0. 12 INTHUUrCTlON. Jews at Jcrii.saleni, and other nations; as also now tlie (jietnll and the Mauri, the Spaniards and the (ianls, yea, and those places of Britain, which were unapproachable by the Roman armies, are yet subdued to Christ ; the Sarmatre also and the Daci, the Germans and the Scythians, together with manv undis- covered countries, many islands and provinces unknown to us, which he professes himself unable to reckon up. In all which places (says he) the name of Christ reigns, as before whom the gates of all cities are set open, and to whom none are shut; before whom gates of brass fly open, and bars of iron arc snapt asunder." To which Arnobius^ adds the Indians, the Persians, the Serre, and all the islands and provinces which are visited by the rising or setting sun, yea, and Rome itself, the empress of all. IX. From Tertullian''s account we have a most authentic tes- timony how early Christianity stretched itself over this other world, having before his time conquered the most rough and in- accessible parts of Britain to the banner of the cross, -which may probably refer to the conversion of king Lucius, (the first Chris- tian king that ever was,) a potent and considerable prince in this island, who embraced the Christian religion about the vear 186, and sent a solemn embassy to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, for some who might further instruct him and his people in the faith ; who accordingly dispatched Faganus and Derwia- nu8 hither upon that errand. Not that this was the first time that the gospel made its way through the 0DKeav6<; aTrepavro?, (as Clemens' calls the British ocean, and so the ancients con- stantly style it,) " the unpassable ocean, and those worlds which are beyond it;" that is, the liritannic islands: it had been here many years before, though proljably stifled and overgrown with the ancient jjaganism and idolatry. St. Clemens = tells us of St. Van], that he preached both in the East and West; and liaving instructed the whole world in righteousness, made his way to the utmost bounds of the West : bv which he must either mean Spain, or more probably Britain, and it may be both. Accordingly Theodoret,*" speaking of his coming into Spain, says, that besides that, he brought great advantage to the isles of the sea; and he reckons' the Cimbri and the IJritains among the ' ■'•''■ '•• P- 23. I F.pist. ad Corinth, p. 28. •'*'••*• P- «• "Comment, in Psal. 116 ' He cunind. firaccor. affect Serin, ix. p. liA. INTRODUCTION. 13 nations which the apostles (and he particularly mentions the tent-maker) converted to the Christian faith. If after all this it were necessary to enter into a more minute and particular disquisition, I might inquire, not only in what countries, but in what towns and cities in those countries, Christianity fixed itself, in what places episcopal sees were erected, and what succession of bishops are mentioned in the records of the church ; but that this would not well consist with the designed shortness of this Introduction, and would be more perhaps than the reader's patience would allow. X. The shadows of the night do not more naturally vanish at the rising of the sun, than the darkness of pagan idolatry and superstition fled before the light of the gospel ; which the more it prevailed, the clearer it discovered the folly and impiety of their worship : their solemn rites appeared more trifling and ridiculous, their sacrifices more barbarous and inhuman, their demons were expelled by the meanest Christian, their oracles became mute and silent, and their very priests began to be ashamed of their magic charms and conjurations ; and the more prudent and subtle heads among them, who stood up for the rites and solemnities of their religion, were forced to turn thera into mystical and allegorical meanings, far enough either from the apprehension or intention of the vulgar. The truth is, the devil, who for so many ages had usurped an empire and tyranny over the souls of men, became more sensible every day that his kingdom shaked ; and therefore sought, though in vain, by all ways to support and prop it up. Indeed, some time before our Saviour's incarnation, the most celebrated oracle at Delphos had lost its credit and reputation, as after his appearance in the world they sunk and declined every day ; whereof their best writers universally complain, that their gods had forsaken their temples and oracular recesses, and had left the world in dark- ness and obscurity ; and that their votaries did in vain solicit their counsels and answers. Plutarch, who lived under Trajan, wrote a particular tract (still extant) Concerning the Ceasing of Oracles, which he endeavours to resolve partly into natural, partly into moral, partly into political causes, though all his philosophy was too short to give a just and satisfactory account of it. One cause he assigns of it is, the death and departure of those demons, that heretofore presided over these oracles. U IXTKODrCTIOX. To which purpose he relates a memorable passage, concerning a voice that called three times aloud to one Thamus, an Egyptian ship-master, and his company, as they sailed by the Echinadae islands, commanding him when they came near to Palodes to make proclamation, that " the great Pan was dead," which he did ; and the news was entertained not with the resentment of one or two, but of many, who received it with great mourning and consternation. The circumstances of this story he there reports more at large, and adds, that the thing being published at Rome, Thamus was sent for by Tiberius, to whom he gave an account, and satisfied him in the truth of it. AVliich cir- cumstance of time, EusebiusJ observes, corresponds with our Lord's conversing in the world, when he began openly to dis- possess demons of that power and tyranny which they had gained over mankind. And (if the calculation which some make, hit right) it fell in about the time of our Saviour's passion, who " led captivity captive, spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross, and by his death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." XI. However that the silence of oracles, and the enervating the power of demons, was the effect of the Christian religion in the world, we need no more than the plain confession of Porphyry himself, (truth will sometimes extort a confession out of the mouth of its gi-eatest enemy,) who says, that " now it is no wonder if the city for so many years* has been overrun with sickness, -^sculapius and the rest of the gods having with- drawn their converse with men : for that since Jesus began to be worshipped, no man hath received any public help or benefit by the gods."** A great argument, as Eusebius well urges, of our Saviour's divine authority, and the truth of his doctrine. For when (says he a little before) such numbers of fictitious deities fled at our Lord's appearance, who would not with ad- miration behold it as an uncontrolable demonstration of his truly saving and excellent religion, whereby so many churches and oratories through all the world, both in cities and villages, and even in the deserts and solitudes of the most barbarous nations, have been erected and consecrated to the great Creator, and the only Sovereign of the world : when such multitudes of books > Pnepar. Kvaiia. 1. v. c. 17. p. "207. i* Kiisoh. iilii siipr. c. 1. p. 17?'. INTRODUCTION. 15 have been written, containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect virtue and religion, precepts accommodate not to men only, but to women and children : when he shall see that the oracles and divinations of the demons are ceased and gone ; and that the divine and evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind, but they began to leave off their wild and frantic ways of worship, and to abhor those human sacrifices (many times of their dearest relations) wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their blood}^ and merciless demons, and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced. I add no more but St. Chrysostom's' challenge, "Judge now with me, O thou incredulous Jew, and learn the excellency of the truth ; what impostor ever gathered to himself so many churches throughout the world, and propagated his worship from one end of it to the other, and subdued so many subjects to his crown, even when thousands of impediments lay in the way to hinder him ? certainly no man : a plain evidence that Christ was no impostor, but a Saviour and Benefactor, and the Author of our life and happiness. XII. We have seen with what a mighty success Christianity displayed its banners over the world ; let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an increase and propagation of it. And here not to insist upon the blessing of the divine pro- vidence, which did immediately superintend its prosperity and welfare, nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the religion itself, which carried essential characters of divinity upon it, sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man, there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it ; the miraculous powers then resident in the church, the great learning and abilities of its champions and defenders, the indefatigable industry used in propagating of it, the incomparable lives of its professors, and their patience and constancy under suiferings. It was not the least means that procured the Christian religion a just veneration from the world, the miraculous attestations that were given to it. I shall not here concern myself to shew, that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that religion, which they are brought to confirm ; the force of the argument is suf- ' Orat. iii. adv. Judaos, p. 420. torn. i. IG INTHODrCTION. fioienlly pleaded by the Christian apologists. That such lui- lacnlous powers were then ordinary in the church, wo have the concurrent testimonies of all the first writers of it. Justin Martyr' tells the emperor and the senate, that our Lord wa« born for the subversion of the demons, which they might know from the very things done in their sight ; for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by demons, throughout the world, and in this very city of theirs, whom all their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve, had been cured by several Christians through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pontius Pilate; and that at this very time they still cured them, disarming and expelling the demons out of those whom they had possessed. The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho*" the Jew, more than once, that the devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ ; and to this day, being ad- jured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate the procurator of Judea, they were obedient to Christians. Ire- nreus" assures us, that in his time the Christians, enabled by the grace of Christ, raised the dead, ejected demons and unclean .spirits ; the persons so dispossessed coming over to the church : others had visions and the gift of prophecy ; others by imposi- tion of hands healed the sick, and restored them to perfect health. But I am not able (says he) to reckon up the number of those gifts, which the church throughout the world, receiving from God, does every day freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate, to the benefit of the world. Tertullian" challenges the Roman governors to let any pos- sessed person be brought before their own tribunals, and they should sec, that the spirit being commanded to speak by any Christian, should as truly confess himself to be a devil, as at other times he falsely boasted himself to be a god. And he tells Scapula, P that they rejected, disgraced, and expelled demons every day, as most could bear them witness. Origen*" bids Celsus take notice, that whatever he might think of the reports which the gospel makes concerning our Saviour ; yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus, by his name to heal even to this day, whom (rod pleased; that he ' Apol. i. p. 4'). •" Dial, cum Tryph. p. 247, &c. p. 30-2. " Adv. Hares. 1. ii. c. oH. p. 21.'; ; r. .57. p. 218. " Apol. c. 23. p. 22. P Ad Sher of that city, a man Avise and eloquent, dedicated each an Apologetic to the emperor Adrian : Justin the Martyr, besides several tracts against the Gentiles, wrote two Apologies; the first presented to Antoninus Pius, the second to M. Aure- Hus and the senate: about which time also Athenagoras pre- sented his Apology to M. Aurelius and Aurelius Commodus; ' Theod. H. Eccl. 1. iii. t. 8. p. 1.31. INTRODUCTION. 19 not to mention his excellent discourse concerning the resurrec- tion. To the same M. Aurelius, Melito bishop of Sardis exhi- bited his apologetic oration for the Christians : under this em- peror also flourished Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia, and dedicated to him an incomparable discourse in defence of the Christian faith ; besides five books which he wrote against the Gentiles, and two concerning the Truth. Not long after, Theophilus bishop of Antioch composed his three excellent books for the conviction of Autolycus : and Miltiades presented an Apology (probably) to the emperor Commodus. Tatian the Syrian, scholar to Justin Martyr, a man learned and eloquent, among other things wrote a book against the Gentiles, which sufiiciently evidences his great abilities. Tertullian, a man of admirable learning, and the first of the Latins that appeared in this cause, under the reign of Severus, published his Apologetic, directed to the magistrates of the Roman empire ; besides his books, " Ad Nationes," " De Idololatria," " Ad Scapulam," and many more. After him succeeded Origen, whose Eight Books against Celsus did not greater service to the Christian cause, than they did honour to himself. Minucius Felix, an eminent advocate at Rome, wrote a short, but most elegant Dialogue be- tween Octavius and Csecilius, which (as Lactantius long since observed) shews, 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 Gallus and Volusian, Cyprian addresed him- self in a discourse to Demetrian the proconsul of Africa, in be- half of the Christians and their religion, and published his tract " De Idolorum vanitate," which is nothing but an epitome of Minucius's Dialogue. Towards the close of that age, under Dio- clesian, Arnobius taught rhetoric with great applause at Sicca in Africa; and being convinced of the truth of Christianity, could hardly make the Christians at first believe that he was real. In evidence therefore of his sincerity, he wrote seven books against the Gentiles, Avherein he smartly and rationally pleads the Christian cause : as not long after his scholar Lac- tantius, who under Dioclesian professed rhetoric at Nicomedia, set himself to the composing several discourses in defence of the Christian, and subversion of the Gentile religion. A man witty and eloquent, but more happy in attacking his adversaries than in establishing the principles of his own religion, many whereof c 2 liU INTRODUCTION. he seems not very distinctly to have understood. To all these I may add Apollonius, a man versed in all kind of learning and philosophy ; and (if St. Hierom say right) a senator of Rome, who in a set oration with so brave and generous a confidence eloquently pleaded his own, and the cause of Christianity before the senate itself; for which he suffered as a martyr in the reign of Conimodus. XIV. And as they thus defend Christianity on the one hand from the open assaults and calumnies of the Gentiles, so were they no less careful on the other to clear it from the errors and heresies wherewith men of perverse and evil minds sought to corrupt and poison it. And the chief of those that engaged in this way were these : Agrippa Castor, a man of great learning in the time of Adrian, wrote an accurate Refutation of Basilides and his Principles in twenty-four books. Theophilus of Antioch against Hermogenes and Marcion ; Apollinaris, Philip bishop of Gortyna in Crete, Musanus, Modestus, Rhodon, Tatian's scholar, Miltiades, Apollonius, Serapion bishop of Antioch, and hundreds more, who engaged against the Marcionites, Mon- tanists, and other heretics of those times. But the principal of all was Irenteus, who took to task the most noted heresies of those ages, and with incomparable industry and quickness of reasoning unravelled their principles, exposed their practices, re- futed their errors, whereby (as he frequently intimates) many were reduced and recovered to the church. I might also men- tion several others, who though not known to have particularly adventured in either of these ways, are yet renowned for their excellent skill in all arts and sciences, whereby they became eminently useful to the church. Such (besides those whereof an account is given in the following work) were Dionysius bishop of Corinth, Bardesanes the Syrian, whose learning and eloquence were above the common standard, though he also wrote against almost all the heresies of the age he lived in. Ammonius the celebrated philosopher of Alexandria; Julius Africanus, a man peculiarly eminent for history and chronology ; Dorotheus pres- byter of Antioch, famous for his skill in Hebrew, as well as other parts of learning; Anatolius the Alexandrian, whom Eu- sebius magnifies so much as the most learned man and acute philosopher of his age, exquisitely skilled in arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, logic, pliysic, rhetoric, and indeed what not? Picrius INTRODUCTION. 21 presbyter of Alexandria, an eloquent jDreacher, and so great a scholar, that he was commonly styled Origen Junior. But this is a field too large to proceed any further in, and therefore I stop here. By all which it is evident, what St. Hierom"' re- marks, how little reason Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian had to clamour against the Christians, as a rude and illiterate genera- tion, who had no learning, no eloquence, or philosophy to recom- mend them. XV, A third advantage that helped on the progress of Chris- tianity, was the indefatigable zeal and industry used in the pro- pagation of it. No stone was left unturned, no method unat- tempted, whereby they might reclaim men from error, and bring them over to the acknowledgment of the truth. Hence in an ancient inscription^'' said to be set up in Spain, to the honour of Nero, they are described under this character, qui novam generi HUM. SUPERSTITION. iNcuLCAB. " Tliosc wlio iuculcatcd and ob- truded a new superstition upon mankind." Indeed they were infinitely zealous to gain proselytes to the best religion in the world. They preached it boldly, and prayed heartily for the conversion and reformation of mankind, solicited their neigh- bours that were yet strangers to the faith, instructed and in- formed new converts, and built them up on the most holy faith. Those that were of greater parts and eminency erected and in- stituted schools, where they publicly taught those that resorted to them, grounding them in the rudiments of the faith, and an- tidoting them both against heathens on the one side, and here- tics on the other. Among us, (says Tatian,") not only the rich and the wealthy learn our philosophy, but the poor are freely disciplined and instructed : we admit all that are willing to learn, whether they be old or young. And what the success was, he tells us a little after,^ that all their virgins were sober and modest, and were wont to discourse concerning divine things, even while they were sitting at their distaffs. Nor did they content themselves only to do thus at home, many of them freely exposing themselves to all manner of hazards and hard- ships : no pains were thought great, no dangers considerable, no difficulties insuperable, that they might enlarge the bounds of the gospel, travelling into the most barbarous nations, and to " S. Hieron. prsef. ad Catalog, de script. Eecles. "' Ap. Gruter. Inscript. p. 238. N. ix. " Orat. contr. Grrec. p. 1 fi7. > Ibid. p. 1 68. 22 INTRODUCTION. the remotest corners of the world. " The divine and adiniriible disciples of the apostles (says ^Eusehius) Imilt np the superstruc- tures of those churches, the foundations whereof the apostles had laid in all places where they came : they every where promoted the publication of the gospel, sowing the seeds of that heavenly doctrine throughout the whole world. For their minds being inflamed with the love of a more divine philosophy, according to our Lord's counsel, they distributed their estates to the poor ; and leaving their own countries, took upon them the ofl^ice of evangelists; preaching Christ, and delivering the evangelical writings to those who had not yet so much as heard of the Christian faith. And no sooner had they founded the faith in any foreign countries, and ordained guides and pastors, to whom they committed the care of those new plantations, but they pre- sently betook themselves to other nations, ratifying their doc- trine with the miraculous powers of that Divine Spirit that at- tended them : so that as soon as ever they began to preach, the people universally flocked to them, and cheerfully and heartily embraced the worship of the true God, the great Creator of the world." In the number of these evangelical missionaries, that were of the first apo.stolical succession, were Silas, Sylvanus, Crescens, Andronicus, Trophimus, Marcus, Aristarchus, &c. as afterwards Pant?enus who went into India, Pothinus and Ire- nseus from Smyrna into France, each successively becoming bishop of Lyons, and infinite others mentioned in the histories and martyrologies of the church, who " counted not their lives to be dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy," and make known the mysteries of the gospel to the ends of the earth. XVI. Fourthly, Christianity recommended itself to the world by the admirable lives of its professors, which were so truly con- sonant to all the laws of virtue and goodness, as could not but reconcile the M'iser and more unprejudiced part of the Gentile world to a better opinion of it, and vindicate it from those absurd and senseless cavils that were made against it. For when they saw Christians every where so seriously devout and pious, so incomparably chaste and sober, of such humble and mortified tempers, so strictly just and righteous, so kind and charitable, not to themselves only, but to all mankind, they » H. F,(xle». 1. iii. c. 37. p. 109. INTRODUCTION. 23 concluded there must be something more than human in it : as indeed no argument is so convictive, as a demonstration from experience. Their singular piety, and the discipline of their manners, weighed down all the disadvantages they were under. The divine and most admirable apostles of Christ, (says Eusebius,") how rude soever they were in speech, were yet tov ^lov uKpco^ KeKadapfiivoi, koI dperfj irdar] ra? '\\rv')(a'^ KCKoafirjfMevoi, " of the most pure and holy lives, and had their minds adorned with all sorts of virtue." And such generally were the Christians of the succeeding ages ; they did not entertain the world with a jDarcel of good words and a plausible story, but shewed their faith by their works, and proved the divinity of their religion by the heavenliness of their lives. We (says the Christian in Minucius Felix '') despise the pride and superciliousness of philosophers, whom we know to be debauched persons, and always eloquent against those vices of which themselves are most guilt}^ For we measure not wisdom by men's garbs and habits, but by their mind Jind manners ; nor do we speak great things so much as live them, glorying that we have attained what they earnestly sought, but could never find. Christians were then the only persons that really were what they pretended to, men heartily reformed from vice to virtue : " Being persuaded (as Justin Martyr'^ tells the emperors) by the word, we have renounced the demons, and through the Son worship the only and unbegotten Deity : and we who heretefore took pleasure in adulteries, do now embrace the strictest chastity ; and who were addicted to magic arts, have devoted ourselves to the benign and immortal God : we who valued estate and riches before all things in the world, do now cast what we have in common, distribut- ing to every one according to his need : we who by hatred and slaughters mutually raged against each other, and refused to sit at the same fire with those who were not of our own tribe, since Christ''s appearing in the world, familiarly converse to- gether, pray for our enemies, and for the conversion of those that unjustly hate us, endeavouring to persuade them to live according to the excellent precepts of Christ, that so they may have just ground to hope for the same rewards with us from the great judge of the world."'* Indeed strange was the efficacy of ^ Ubi supr. c. 24. p. 94. *> M. Fael. Dial, non longe a fin. p. 31. <■ Apol. ii. p. 61. ^ Tcrtul. Apol. c. 3. p. 4. ad Nation, c. 1. p. 41. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. i. p. 9, 15, 21, 24 INTRODrCTION. the Christian doctrine over the minds of men, which the Chris- tian apologists at every turn plead as uncontrolable evidence of their religion ; that it made all sorts of persons that complied with it chaste and temperate, quiet and peaceable, meek and modest, and afraid of the least appearance and colour of what was evil.* When the heathens derided them for the mean and unpompous solemnities of their religion, they imiversally de- clared, that God respected no man for any external excellencies or advantages, it was the pure and the holy soul he delighted in; that he stood in no need of blood or smoke, perfumes and in- cense ; that the greatest and best sacrifice was to offer up a mind truly devoted to him : that meekness and kindness, an humble heart, and an innocent life, was the sacrifice with which God was well pleased, and infinitely beyond all holocausts and oblations ; that a pious and devout mind was the fittest temple for God to dwell in, and that to do one"'s duty, to abstain from sin, to be intent upon the offices and ministrations of prayer and praise, is the truest festival ; yea, that the whole life of a good man is nothing else but a holy and festival solemnity. This was the religion of Christians then, and it rendered their pro- fession amiable and venerable to the world ; and forced many times its most violent opposers to fall down, and say, " that God was in them of a truth." But the less of this argument is said here, a full account having been given of it in a work peculiar to this subject. XVII. Fifthly, the disciples of this holy and excellent re- ligion gained innumerable proselytes to their party by their patience and constancy under sufferings. They were immutably resolved to maintain their station, notwithstanding all the at- temj)ts made to beat them from it. They entertained the fiercest threatenings with an unshaken mind, and fearlessly beheld the racks and engines prepared for them ; they laughed at torments, and courted flames, and went out to meet death in its blackest dress : they died rejoicing, and triumphed in the 36, 50, 53. 1. ii. p. 61, 85, 88, 110. 1. iii. p. 128, 147, 152, 157. 1. iv. p. Ifi7. 1. vi. p. 306. 1. vii. p. 364. 1. viii. p. 409, et alibi passim. Lactant 1. iii. c. 26, p. .S28. 1. iv. c. 3. p. 351. *■ .1. Mort Orat. ad Grace, p. 40. Athenag. Legat. p. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vii. p. 706, 709, 714, 719,728. Minuc. Fael. p. 26, 30. Amob. adv. Gent. 1. vii. p. 104. Orig. contr. Cels. 1. viii. p. 38.i, 3Rf). 392. TiBctant. 1. i. c. 20. p. 108. 1. vi. r. 1. p. 540. c. 21. p. ';.3«. Fpitom. c. 2. p. 736. INTRODUCTION. 25 midst of the greatest tortures ; which happening for some ages ahnost every day, could not but convince their enemies that they were in good earnest, that they heartily believed their religion to be true, and that there must be a divine and super- natural power going along with it, that could support them under it ; which Justin Martyr confesses, was one main in- ducement of his conversion to Christianity. What particular methods of cruelty were used towards the primitive Christians, and with how brave and generous a patience, with what even- ness and tranquillity of mind they bore up under the heaviest and acutest torments, we have sufficiently declared in another place ; ^ and therefore shall here only take a short survey of those ten famous Persecutions, that so eminently exercised the faith and patience of the primitive saints, and then collect the force of the argument resulting from it. And this the rather, because it will present us with the best prospect of the state of the church in those early ages of it. As to the particular dates and periods of some of these persecutions, different ac- counts are assigned by Sulpitius Severus, Eusebius, Orosius, Hierom, and others ; we shall follow that which shall appear to be most likely and probable. XVIII. The first that raised a general persecution against the Christians, was Nero, as Tertullian ^ tells the Gentiles ; and for the truth of it, refers them to their own public archives and records : a prince of that wild and ungovernable temper, of such brutish and extravagant manners, that their own writers scruple not to style him, a beast in human shape, and the very monster of mankind. He was guilty of the most unbounded pride and ambition, drunkenness, luxury and all manner of debauchery, sodomy and incest, which he attempted to commit with his own mother. But cruelty seemed to predominate among his other vices ; besides infinite others, he dispatched the greatest part of the senate, put to death his tutor Seneca and his wife, Lucan the poet ; nay, violated all the laws of nature, in falling upon his own near relations : he was privy to, if not guilty of the death of his father Claudius ; killed his two wives, Octavia and Poppeea, and murdered Antonia, because refusing to succeed in their bed ; he poisoned his brother Britannicus : and to complete Jill his villanies, fell next upon his own mother Agrippina, whom f Prim. Christ, part ii. ch. 7. ' Apol. c. 5. p. 6. 26 INTR<.)l)rCT10N. lie hatod tor her free reproving lii.s looseness anil extravaganey; and having iir.st spoiled her of all public honors, and caused her to be openly disgraced and derided, then thrice attempted her life by poison, he at last sent an assassin to stab her. And the tradition then went, that not content to do this, he himself came and beheld her naked corpse, contemplating and handling its several parts ; commending some and dispraising others. And if thus barbarous and inhuman towards his own kindred and subjects, we cannot think he was over-favourable to Christians ; wanting this title (says Eusebius '') to be added to all the rest, to be styled the first emperor that became an enemy to the Christian religion, publishing laws and edicts for the suppressing of it ; and prosecuting those that possessed it, with the utmost rigour in every place ; and that upon this occasion. Among infinite other instances of this madness and folly, he took up a resolution to burn Rome, either as being offended with the narrowness of the streets, and the deformity of the buildings, or ambitious to become the author of a more stately and magui ficent city, and to call it after his own name. But however it was, he caused it to be set on fire, about the 19th of July, A. D. (J4. The conquering flames quickly prevailed over that city, that had so often triumphed over the rest of the world, in six or seven days spoiling and reducing the far greatest part of it (ten regions of fourteen) into ashes ; laying waste houses and temples, and all the venerable antiquities and monuments of that place, which had been preserved with so mucli care and reverence for many ages ; himself in the mean while from Meca^nas^s tower beholding the sad spectacle with pleasure and delight, and in the habit of a player, singing the destruction of Troy. And when the people would but have searched the ruins of their own liouses, he forbade them, not suffering them to reap what the mercy of the flames had spared. This act (as well it might) exposed him to all the hatred and detestation wherewith an injured and abused people could resent it, M'hich he endeavoured to remove by large promises and great rewards, by consulting the Sibylline books, and by public supplications and sacrifices to the gods. Notwithstanding all which, Tacitus' tells us, the people still believed him to be the author of the mischief. This not suc- ceedijig, he sought to clear himself by deriving the odium upon i" H. Ecclrs. 1. ii. c. 2.1. p. fi7. ' Annal. 1. xv. c. 44. p. 310. INTRODUCTION. 27 the Christians, whom he knew to be sufficiently hateful to the people, charging them to have been the incendiaries, and pro- ceeding against them with the most exquisite torments. Having apprehended some, whom they either forced or persuaded to confess themselves guilty, by their means great numbers of others were betrayed; whom Tacitus confesses, that not the burning of the city, but the common hatred made criminal. They were treated with all the instances of scorn and cruelty; some of them were wrapt up in skins of wild beasts, and worried by dogs ; others crucified ; others burnt alive, being clad in paper coats, dipped in pitch, wax, and such combustible matter, that when day-light failed, they might serve for torches in the night. These spectacles Nero exhibited in his own gardens, which yet the people entertained with more pity than pleasure ; knowing they were done not for the public benefit, but merely to gratify his own private rage and malice. Little better usage did the Christians meet with in other parts of the empire, as appears from the inscription'' found at Clunia in Spain, dedicated to Nero in memory of his having cleared the province of those that had introduced a new superstition amongst mankind. Under this persecution suffered Tecla, Torques, Torquatus, Marcellus, and several others mentioned in the ancient mar- tyrologies, especially the apostles Peter and Paul ; the one upon the cross, the other by the sword. XIX. The troublesome vicissitudes and revolutions of affairs that happened under the succeeding emperors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius ; and the mild and merciful disposition of Vespasian and Titus, srave some rest to the Christians : till Domitian sue- ceeding, began a second Persecution. A man of a temper vastly different from that of his father and his brother ; for though at first he put on a plausible carriage, yet he soon left off the vizor, and appeared like himself; lazy and inactive, ill-natured and suspicious, griping and covetous, proud and insolent : yea, so vainly ambitious as to affect divinity, in all public edicts assum- ing to himself, and in all petitions and addresses requiring from others, the titles of Lord and God. He never truly loved any man ; and when he most pretended it, it was a sure sign of that man's ruin. His cruelty he exercised first upon flies, thousands whereof he dispatched every day ; next upon men, and those '' Ap. Gruter. loc. supr. citat. 28 INTRODUCTION. of all ranks and states: j)utting to death the most illustriousi ticnators, and persons of the greatest honour and nobility, upon the most trifling pretences; and many times for no cause at all. In the fierceness and brutality of his temper he equalled Nero, Portio Neronis de crudelitate^ as Tertullian styles him ; nay, in this exceeded him : that Nero was content to command execu- tion to be done at a distance, while Domitian took pleasure in beholding his cruelties exercised before his eyes ; an argument of a temper deeper dyed in blood. But the Christians, alas, bore the heaviest load of his rage and malice, whom he every where persecuted either by death or banishment. Under him, St. John the evangelist -was sent for to Rome, and by his com- mand thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil : in the midst whereof, when the divine providence had miraculously preserved him, he immediately banished him into Patmos. He put to death his cousin-german FI. Clemens (at that time consul) for being a Christian, and banished his wife Fl. Domitilla, (his own kins- woman also,) upon the same account, into the island Pandataria. At length his brutish and bloody pi-actices rendered him into- lerable to his own friends and servants, who conspired against him (his own wife Domitia being of the confederac}) and slew him. His successor Nerva abrogated his acts, and recalled those whom he had proscribed and banished ; among whom St. John, taking the benefit of that act of revocation, quitted Pat- mos, and returned to Ephesus. XX. The third Persecution commenced under Trajan, whom Nerva had adopted to be his successor. A prince he was of excellent and incomparable virtues, whose justice and impar- tiality, gentleness and modesty, munificence and liberality, kind- ness and affability, rendered him infinitely dear and acceptable to the people; the extravagancies of his predecessors not a little contributing to sweeten his government to them. He was mild and dispassionate, familiar and courteous ; he shewed a great reverence to the senate, by whose advice he usually acted ; and they to requite him, gave him the title of Optimus, as whom they judged the best of all their princes. He conversed freely and innocently with all men, being desirous rather to be beloved than either feared or honoured by the people. The glory of all which is exceedingly stained in the records of the church by his ' I Herod, lib. vii. in Maxim, p. 253. ' CapitoL in vit. Maxim, c. 0. "" H. Keel. 1. vi. c. .^8. " Inter. Epist. Cypr. INTRODUCTION. 39 tion happened, presently to fall foul upon the Christians, and conclude them the causes of all those evils and mischiefs that came upon the world. And, this Origen° meant when he tells us, that he knew some places overturned with earthquakes, the cause whereof the heathens cast upon the Christians ; for which their churches were persecuted and burnt to the ground: and that not only the common people, but the wiser sort among them did not stick openly to affirm, that these things came for the sake of the Christians. Hereupon he wrote his book " De Martyrio," for the comfort and support of those that suffered in this evil time. XXVI. After Maximinus reigned Pupienus and Balbinus, to them succeeded Gordian, and to him Philip : all which time, for at least ten years together, the church enjoyed a competent calmness and tranquillity ; when Decius was in a manner forced in his own defence to take the empire upon him. A man of great activity and resolution, a stout commander, a wise and prudent governor, so universally acceptable for his modest and excellent carriage, that by the sentence of the senate he was voted not inferior to Trajan, and had the title of Optimus adjudged to him. But he was a bitter and implacable enemy to Christians, against whom he raised the eighth Persecution, which proved, though the shortest, the hottest of all the per- secutions that had hitherto afflicted and oppressed the church. The ecclesiastic '' historians generally put it upon the account of Decius's hatred to his predecessor Philip, for being a Christian; whereas it is more truly to be ascribed to his zeal for the cause of declining paganism, which he saw fatally undermined by Christianity, and that therefore there was no way to support the one, but by the ruin of the other. We have more than once taken notice of it in some of the following Lives, and therefore shall say the less here. Decius reigned somewhat above two years, during which time the storm was very black and violent, and no place but felt the dreadful effects of it. They were every where driven from their houses, spoiled in their estates, tormented in their bodies; whips and prisons, fires and wild beasts, scalding pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes and burning " Horn, xxviii. in Matth. P Euseb. H. Eccl. 1. vi. c. 39. Chron. ad Ann. 252. Oros. 1. vii. c. 21. Niceph. 1. v. c. 27. 40 INTKUDUCTION. l)iiicers, were but suiue of the methods of their treatment; and when the okl ones were run over, new were daily invented and contrived. The hiws of nature and humanity were broken down, friend betrayed his friend, and the nearest reUitive his own father or brother. Every one was ambitious to promote the imperial edicts, and thought it meritorious to bring a Christian to the stake. This persecution swept away at Alexandria, Julian, Chronion, Epimachus, Alexander, Amnion, Zeno, Pto- lemy, Ammonaria, Mercuria, Isidore, and many others men- tioned by Dionysius bishop of that church ; at Carthage, Mappalicus, IJassus, Fortunio, Paulus, Donatus, Martialis, &c. ; it crowned ]Jabylas bishop of Antioch, Alexander of Jerusalem, Fabian bishop of Home, Victoria, Anatolia, Parthenius, Mar- cellianus, and thousands more: Nicepborus'' affirming it to be easier to count the sands of the shore, than to reckon up all the martyrs that suft'ered under this persecution. Not to say any thinof of those incredible numbers of confessors that were beaten, imprisoned, tormented ; nor of the far greater number of those who betook themselves to a voluntary exile; choosing rather to commit themselves to the barrenness of rocks and mountains, and the mercy of wild beasts, than to those that had put off all reason and humanity. Among whom was Paul of Thebais, a youth of fifteen years of age, who withdrew himself into the Egyptian deserts, where finding a large and convenient cavern in a rock, (which heretofore had been a private mint-house in the time of Antony and Cleopatra,) he took up his abode and residence, led a solitary and anchoretic course of life, and be- came the father of hermits, and those who afterwards were desirous to retire from the world, and to resign up themselves to solitude, and a more strict mortified life. In this pious and devout retirement he continued till he was one hundred and thirteen years of age; and in the last period of his life was visited by Antonius, who had spent the greatest part of ninety years in those desert places, and who now performed the last offices to him in committing his dead body to the earth. XXVII. (jiallus succeeded Decius as in his government so in his enmity to Christians, carrying on what the other had begun. But the clouL\o6ea) "^v^^^ as he adds, "yea rather with a soul truly pious and devoted unto God ;" so that neither fears nor charms could take hold upon them, at once giving undeniable evidences both of their own courage and fortitude, and of that divine and unconceivable power of our Lord that went along with them. The acutest torments did not shake the firmness and stability of their minds, but they could with as much unconcernedness lay down their lives (as Origen' tells Celsus) as the best philosopher could put off his coat. They valued their innocency above their ease, or life itself; and sufficiently shewed they believed another state, by an argument beyond what any institution of philosophy could afford. " The great philosophers of the Gentiles, (as Eusebius" reasons in this matter,) as much as they talk of immortality, and the happiness of the future state, did yet shew that they looked upon it only as a childish and a trifling report : whereas amongst us, even boys and girls, and as to outward appearance the meanest and rudest persons, being assisted by the power and aid of our blessed Saviour, do by their actions, rather than their words, demonstrate the truth of this great principle, the im- mortality of the soul. Ten years this persecution lasted in its strength and vigour, under Dioclesian in the East, and Maximian in the West ; and they thought, it seems, they had done their • Lib. viii. c. 12. ' Contr. Ccls. 1. vii. p. 357. " Praepar. Evang. 1. i. c. 4. 44 INTRODUCTION. work, and actordingly tell tlie world in some ancient inscriptions/ that they had utterly tlefaced the name and superstition of the Christians, and had restored and propagated the worshij) of the gods ; hut were miserably mistaken in the case ; and, as if weary of the work, laid down their purple, and retired to tlie solitudes of a private life. And tliough Galerius, Maximianus, Jovius Maximinus, Maxentius, and Licinius did Avhat they could to set the persecution on foot again, yet all in vain ; both they and it in a very few years expiring and dwindling into nothing. XXIX. Thus we have seen the hardships and miseries, the torments and sufferings which the Christians were exposed to for several ages, and with how invincible a patience they went through with them. Let us noAv a little review the argument, and see what force and influence it had to convince the world of the truth of their religion, and bring in converts to the faith. Tertullian*' tells the Gentiles, "That all their cruelty was to no l)urpose, that it was but a stronger invitation to bring over others to the party ; that the oftener they mowed them down, the faster they sprang up again ; and that the blood of Christians was a seed that grew up into a more plentiful harvest ; that several among the Gentiles had exhorted their auditors to patience under suffering, but could never make so many pro- selytes with all their fine discourses, as the Christians did by their actions : that that very obstinacy which was so much charged upon them was a tutor to instruct others. For who, when they beheld, such things, could not but be powerfully moved to enquire what really was within ? who when he had once found it, would not embrace it i and having once embraced it, not be desirous to suffer for it ; that so he may obtain the full grace of God, and the pardon of his sins assured by the shedding of his blood i Lactantins"^ manages this argument with incomparable ehxpience and strength of reason : his discourse is somewhat long, but not unworthy the reader's consideration. " Since our number (says he) is always increased from amongst the votaries of the heathen deities, and is never lessened, no not in the hottest persecution, who is so blind and stupid as not to sec in which party true wisdom does reside? But they, alas, are blinded with rage and malice, and think all to be fools, who " Ap. (Jriiter. p. 280. nimi. :<. i. > Apol. c. nit. p. 40. ' I>e Justit. 1. V. c. 13. INTRODUCTION. 45 when it is in their power to escape punishment, choose rather to be tortured and to die ; whenas they might perceive by this, that that can be no such folly, wherein so many thousands throughout the whole world do so unanimously conspire. Sup- pose that women through the weakness of their sex may mis- carry, (and they are pleased sometimes to style this religion an effeminate and old-wives' superstition,) yet certainly men are wiser. If children and young men may be rash, yet at least those of a mature age and old men have a more stable judgment. If one city might play the fool, yet innumerable others cannot be supposed to be guilty of the same folly. If one province, or one nation, should want care and providence, yet all the rest cannot lack understanding to judge what is right. But now, when the divine law is entertained from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, and every sex, age, nation, and country serves God with one heart and soul ; when there is every where the same patience, and contempt of death, they ought to consider that there is some reason for it, and that it is not without caiise, that it is maintained even unto death : that there is some fixed foundation when a religion is not only not shattered by injuries and persecutions, but always increased and rendered more firm and stable. When the very common people see men torn in pieces by various engines of torment, and yet maintain a patience unconquerable in the midst of their tired tormentors ; they cannot but think what the truth is, that the consent of so many, and their perseverance unto death, cannot be in vain, nor that patience itself, without the divine assistance, should be able to overcome such exquisite tortures. Highwaymen and persons of the most robust constitutions are not able to bear such pulling asunder; they roar, and groan, and sink under pain, because not furnished with a divine patience. But our very children (to say nothing of our men) and our tender wpmen, do by silence conquer their tormentors ; nor can the flames extort one sigh from them. Let the Romans go now, and boast of their Mutius and their Regulus, one of which delivered up himself to be put to death by his enemies, because he was ashamed to live a prisoner ; the other thrust his hand into the fire when he saw he could not escape death. Behold, with us the weaker sex, and the more delicate age, suffers the whole body to be torn and burnt ; not because they could not avoid it if they would, but 46 INTKODUCTTON. voluntarily, because they trust in God. This is true virtue, which philosophers in vain only talk of, when they tell us, that nothing is so suitable to the gravity and constancy of a wise man, as not by any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opinions ; but that it is virtuous, and great indeed, to be tor- tured and die, rather than betray one's faith, or be wanting in his duty, or do any thing that is unjust or dishonest, though for fear of death, or the acutest torment, unless they thought their own poet raved, when he said,'' ' Justum ac tenacem propositi vinim, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni Mcnte quatit solida.' The just man that resolved stands, Not tyrants' frowns, nor fierce commands, Nor all the people's rage combined, Can Bhake the firmness of his mind. Than which nothing can be more truly said, if meant of those who refuse no tortures, nor death itself, that they may preserve fidelity and justice ; who regard not the command of tyrants, nor the swords of the governors, that they may with a constant mind preserve real and solid liberty, wherein true wisdom alone is to be maintained." Thus far that elegant apologist. And certainly the truth of his reasonings was abundantly verified by the experience of the world ; Christians getting ground, and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy, till they had subdued the empire itself to the acknowledgment of the truth. And when once the great Con- stantine had entertained Christianity, it went along with wind and tide, and bore down all before it. And surely it might be no unpleasant survey, to consider what was the true state of paganism under the first Christian emperors, and how and by what degrees that religion, which for so many ages had governed the world, slunk away into obscurity and silence. But this is a business without the bounds of my present enquiry to search into. * Horat. Carm. I. iii. od. .3. THE LIFE OF SAINT STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR. The violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles. St. Stephen's kindred unknown. One of the Seventy. The great charity of the primitive believers. Dissension between the Hebrews and Grecians. Hellenists, who. The original of deacons in the Christian church. The nature of their office : the number and qualification of the persons. Stephen's eminent accom- plishments for the place. The envy and opposition of the Jews against him. The synagogue of the Libertines, what. Of the Cyrenians, Alexandrians, &c. Their disputation with St. Stephen, and the success of it. False witnesses suborned to de- pose against him. The several parts of their charge considered. The mighty venera- tion of the Jews for their temple and the Mosaic institutions. Its destruction by Titus ; and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle. Stephen's apology before the Sanhedrin. The Jews rage against him. He is encouraged by a vision. Stoning to death, what kind of punishment ; the manner of it among the Jews. St. Stephen's martyrdom. His character, and excellent virtues. The time and place of his suffering. The place and manner of his burial. His body first discovered, when and how. The story of its translation to Constantinople. The miracles said to be done by his relics, and at his memorice. Several reported by St. Augustine. What credit to be given to them. Miracles, how long and why continued in the church. The vain pretences of the church of Rome. I. The Christian religion being designed by God for the re- formation of mankind, and the rooting out that barbarism and idolatry wherewith the world was so over-grown, could not but meet with opposition, all corrupt interests conspiring to give it no very welcome entertainment. Vice and error had too long usurped the throne to part with it by a tame and easy resigna- tion, but would rather summon all their forces against a doctrine that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruin of their empire. Hence this sect was every where spoken against, equally op- posed both by Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty, as having no antiquity to recommend it, nor could they endure that their philosophy, which then every Avhere ruled the chair, should be controlled by a plain simple 48 THE LIFE OF doctrine, th:it prcteiuled to no elaborate schemes, no insinuative strains of t'loquence, no nice and subtle arts of reasoning, no abstruse and sublime speculations. The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty prince, who should greatly exalt their state, and redeem it from that oppression and slavery under which it groaned, frustrated by the coming of a Messiah, who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and dis- grace ; and who was so far from rescuing them from the power of the Roman yoke, that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatened the final and irrevocable ruin of their countrv; and by the doctrine he published plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaic institutions, for which they had such dear regards, and so solemn a veneration. Accordingly, when he came amongst them, they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt, and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the people ; they vilified and re- proached his person, as but the son of a carpenter, a glutton and a drunkard, a traitor and an enemy unto Caesar ; they slighted his doctrine as the talk only of a rude and illiterate person, traduced his miracles as tricks of imposture, and the eifects of a black confederacy with the infernal powers. And when all this would not do, they violently laid hands upon him, and took away his life. And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died : but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt. On they re- solve to go in these bloody methods ; and to let the world see that the disciples and followers must expect no better than their Master, it was not many months before they took occasion to refresh their rage in St. Stephen's martyrdom : the history of whose life and death we now come to relate, and to make some brief remarks upon it. II. The sacred story gives us no particular account either of the country or kindred of this holy man. That he was a Jew- is untjuestionable, himself sufficiently owns the relation in his apology to the people, but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham, or of parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of proselytism, whether born at Jerusalem, or among the dispersed in the Gentile provinces, is impossible to determine. Baronius"" (grounding his conjecture upon an epistle of Lucian, » Ad Ann. XXXIV. n. 27.i, 2f»8. SAINT STEPHEN. 49 of which more afterwards) makes him to have been one of Gamaliel's disciples, and fellow-pupil with St. Paul, who proved afterwards his mortal enemy : but I must confess, I find not in all that epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance .that conjecture. Antiquity'' makes him, probably enough, to have been one of the seventy disciples, chosen by our Lord as coadjutoi-s to the apostles in the ministry of the gospel : and in- deed his admirable knowledge in the Christian doctrine, his singular ability to defend the cause of Christ ""s Messiahship against its most acute opposers, plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviour\s immediate in- stitutions. Certain it is, that he was a man of great zeal and piety, endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spirit that was lately shed upon the church, and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers, which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the church, whereto he was advanced upon this occasion. III. The primitive church, among the many instances of reli- gion for which it was famous and venerable, was for none more remarkable than their charity; they lived and loved as brethren, " were of one heart and one soul, and continued together with one accord." Love and charity were the common soul that animated the whole body of believers, and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part. They prayed and vi^orshipped God in the same place, and fed together at the same table. None could want, for " they had all in common."" The rich sold their estates to mi- nister to the necessities of the poor, and deposited the money into one common treasury, the care whereof was committed to the apostles, to see distribution made as every one's case and exigency did require. But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord, heaven only is free from quarrels, and the occasions of oifence. The church increasing every day by vast numbers of converts to the faith, the apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the church's stock, and the making provision for every part, and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others, sometimes more and some- times less, to assist in this affiiir. By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed, but either through favour and '• Epiph. Hagres. XX. Dorotb, Synops. de Vit. Apostt. in Bibl. PP. vol. ii. p. 182. ed. de la Eigne, 1575. VOL. I. K 50 THE LIFE OF partiality, or tlio oversight of those that managed the matter, some had hirger portions, others less relief tlian their just neces- sities called for. This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest church that ever was, " the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration."'' IV. Who these Grecians or Hellenists were, opposed here to the Hebrews, however a matter of some difficulty and dispute, it may not be unuseful to enquire. The opinion that has most generally obtained, is that they were originally Jews, born and bred in Grecian or heathen countries, of "the dispersed among the Gentiles,"'' (the Bcaairopa rwv 'EXkijvcov, the word" EW'r]ye. pr^'(ii)ur>, p. '2',i2, &c. >'ide etiani inter alios Hfz. ot CniiHT. in loc. SAINT STEPHEN. 51 have the gospel preached to them, none of them should have been brought over to the faith. Even among the seven made choice of to be deacons, (most, if not all, of whom we may reason- ably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians,) we find one expressly said to have been " a proselyte of Antioch,"^ as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be proselytes of Jeru- salem. And thus wherever we meet with the word 'EXkij- viaral or Grecians in the history of the Apostolic Acts, (as it is to be met with in two places more,^) we may, and in reason are to understand it. So that these Hellenists (who spake Greek, and used the translation of the seventy) were Jews by religion, and Gentiles by descent ; with the "EXXijve^ or Gentiles they had the same common original, with the Jews the same common profession ; and therefore are not here opposed to Jews, (which all those might be styled who embrace Judaism and the rites of Moses, though they were not born of Jewish ancestors,) but to the Hebrews, who were Jews both by their religion and their nation. And this may give us some probable account, why the widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews ; the persons with whom the apostles in a great measure intrusted the ministration being kinder to those of their own nation, their neighbours, and it may be kindred, than to those who only agreed with them in the profession of the same religion, and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the church's stock as the native Jews, who had lands and possessions, which they " sold and laid at the apostles' feet." V. The peace and quiet of the church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed, the apostles, who well understood how much order and unity conduced to the ends of religion, pre- sently called the church together, and told them, that the dis- posing of the common stock, and the daily providing for the necessities of the poor, however convenient and necessary, was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other parts and duties of their office, and that they did not judge it fit and reasonable to neglect the one, that they might attend the other ; that therefore they should choose out among themselves some that were duly qualified, and present them to them, that they might set them apart peculiarly f Acts vi. a. s Acts ix. 29. xi. 20. K 2 52 THE LIFE OF to .superintend this afFair, that so themselves, beinir freed from these ineunihrances, might the more freely and iniiiiterruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the gospel. Not that the apostles thought the care of the poor an office too much below them, but that this might be discharged by other hands, and they, as they were obliged, the better attend upon things of higher importance, ministeries more immediately serviceable to the souls of men. This was the first original of deacons in the Christian church : they were to " serve tables," that is, to wait upon the necessities of the poor, to make daily provisions for their public feasts, to keep the church's treasure, and to distri- bute to every one according to their need. And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word Biukovo^ in foreign writers,'' where it is used for that peculiar servant who waited at feasts, whose office it was to distribute the portions to every guest, either according to the command of the ap'x^LTpiKKivo'i, the orderer of the feast, or according to the rule of equality, to give every one alike. But though it is true this was a main part of the deacon's office, yet was it not the whole. For had this been all, the apostles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons, seeing men of an ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn, nor have used such solemn rites of consecration to ordain them to it. No question therefore but their " serving tables" implied also their attendance at the table of the Lord's Supper.' For in those days their arfapo}^ or common love-feasts, (whereat both rich and poor sat down together.) were at the same time with the holy oucharist, and both administered every day, so that their ministration respected both the one and the other. And thus we find it was in the practice of the church : for so Justin Martyr J tells us it was in his time, that when the president of the assembly had consecrated the eucharist, the deacons dis- tributed the bread and the wine to all that were present, and after carried them to those who were necessarily absent from the congregation. Nor were they restrained to this one particu- lar service, but wei-e in some cases allowed to preach, baptize, and absolve penitents, especially where they iiad the peculiar warrant and authority of the bishop to bear them out : nor need '■ Liicinn Clironosol. seu dc Lcgg. Satumiil. vol. ii. p. filf?. cd. 1687. ' Ign.it. Kpist. nd Trail. Ap])end. Usser. p. 17. •! Apol. i. c. 6.5. SAINT STEPHEN. 53 we look far beyond the present story to find St. Philip, one of the deacons here elected, both preaching the gospel and baptizing converts with great success. VI. That this excellent office might be duly managed, the apostles directed and enjoined the church to nominate such per- sons as were fitted for it, pious and good men, men of known honesty and integrity, of approved and untainted reputations, furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, wise and prudent men, who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them. The number of these persons was limited to seven, probably for no other reason but because the apostles thought these sufficient for the business ; unless we will also suppose the whole body of believers to have been dis- posed into seven several divisions, for the more oi'derly and con- venient managery of their common feasts and distributions to the poor, and that to each of these a deacon was appointed to superintend and direct them ; without further designing any peculiar mystery, which ''some would fain pick out of it. How- ever the church thought good for a long time to conform to this primitive institution, insomuch that the fathers of the ' Neo- Csesarean council ordained, that in no city, how great soever, there should be more than seven deacons, a canon which they found upon this place : and "" Sozomen tells us, that in his time, though many other churches kept to no certain number, yet that the church of Rome, in compliance with this apostolical example, admitted no more than seven deacons in it. The people were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the apostles had made in this matter, and accordingly made choice of seven, whom they presented to the apostles, who (as the solemnity of the thing required) first made their address to heaven by prayer for the divine blessing upon the undertaking, and then laid their hands upon them ; an ancient symbolic rite of investiture and consecration to any extraordinary office. The issue of all was, that the Christian religion got ground and prosjjered, converts came flocking over to the faith, yea, very many of the priests themselves, and of their tribe and family, of all others the most zealous and pertinacious asserters of the Mosaic constitutions, the bitterest adversaries of the Christian ^ Vid. Baron, ad Ann. 112. n. 7. • Cone. Neo-Caes. can. xv. "' Hist. Eccl. lil). vii. c. 19. 64 THE LIFE OF doctrine, the subtlest defenders of their religion, laid aside their prejudices, and embraced tlie gospel. So uiicontrolable is the ■efficacy of divine truth, as very often to lead its greatest enemies iu triumph after it. VII. The first and chief of the persons here elected, (who were all chosen out of the seventy disciples, as " Epiphanius in- forms us,) and whom the ancients frequently style archdeacon, as having the ra irpooreia (as "Chrysostom speaks) the primacy and precedence among these new-elected officers, was our St. Stephen, whom the author of the Epistle to Ilero,^ under the name of Ignatius, as also the interpolator of that to the Tral- lians,*' makes in a more peculiar manner to have been deacon to St. James, as bishop of Jerusalem. He is not only placed first in the catalogue, but particularly recommended under this cha- racter, " a man full of foith, and of the Holy Ghost ;" he was exquisitely skilled in all parts of the Christian doctrine, and fitted with great eloquence and elocution to declare and publish it ; enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers, and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent opposition. He preached and pleaded the cause of Christianity ■with a firm and undaunted mind ; and that nothing might be wanting to render it effectual, he confirmed his doctrine by many public and unquestionable miracles, plain evidences and demon- strations of the truth and divinity of that religion that he taught. But truth and innocency, and a better cause, is the usual object of bad men^s spite and hatred. The zeal and diligence of his ministry, and the extraordinary success that did attend it, quickly awakened the malice of the Jews, and there wanted not those that were ready to opj)osc and contradict him. So natural is it for error to rise up against the truth, as light and darkness mutually resist and expel each other. VIII. There were at Jerusalem besides the temple, where sacrifices and the more solemn parts of their religion were per- formed, vast numbers of synagogues for prayer and expounding of the law, whereof the Jews themselves tell us there were not less than four hundred and eighty in that city. In these, or at least some aj)artments adjoining to them, there were schools or " H.Tercs. XX. " Honiil. xv. in Act s. 1. vol. ix. p. 119. ^ Kpist. ad Heron, c. 3. in Cotclerii Patres Apostt. vol. ii. p. lOf. T Kp. iid Trail, c. 7. p. 6.3. ibid. SAINT STEPHEN. 55 colleges for the instruction and education of scholars in their laws : many whereof were erected at the charges of the Jews who lived in foreign countries, and thence denominated after their names ; and hither they were wont to send their youth to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and the mysterious rites of their religion. Of these, five combined together to send some of their societies to encounter and oppose St. Stephen. An unequal match ! avSpMV aae/BecrTdroiv TJevrdiroXi'^ (as Chrysos- tom*" calls it), a whole army of wicked adversaries, the chief of five several synagogues, are brought out against one, and him but a stripling too, as if they intended to oppress him rather with the number of assailants, than to overcome him by strength of argument. IX. The first of them were those of the synagogue of the Libertines; but who these Libertines were, is variously conjec- tured. Passing by Junius's' conceit of Lahra signifying in the Egyptian language the whole precinct that was under one synagogue, whence Lahrateuu., or corruptly (says he) Libertini, must denote them that belonged to the synagogue of the Egypt- ians, omitting this as altogether absurd and fantastical, besides that the synagogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned afterwards ; Suidas* tells us it was the name of a nation, but in what part of the world this people or country were, he leaves us wholly in the dark. Most probably therefore it relates to the Jews that were emancipated and set at liberty. For the understanding whereof we must know that when Pompey had subdued Judeea, and reduced it under the Eoman government, he carried great numbers of Jews captive to Rome, as also did those generals that succeeded him, and that in such multitudes, that when the Jewish state sent an embassy to Augustus, Josephus" tells us, that there were about eight thousand of the Jews who then lived at Rome, that joined themselves to the ambassadors at their arrival thither. Here they continued in the condition of slaves, till by degrees they were manumitted and set at liberty, which was generally done in the time of Tiberius, who (as Philo" informs) suftered the Jews to inhabit the Transtiberine region, most whereof were Libertines, such who having been made cap- •• Orat. in S. Steph. s. 1. vol. viii. p. 18. inter spuria. • Jun. in loc. et in Gen. viii. 4. ' Suid. in voc. Ai^epT^uos. " Antiq. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 12. " De legat. ad Gaium. vol. ii. p. 568. 56 THE LIFE OF lives by the t'urtiine of war, liuil been set free by their masters, and permitted to hvc after the manner of tlieir ancestors. They had their proseuchas or oratories, where they assembled, and performed their devotions according to the rehgion of their country : every year they sent a contribution instead of first- fruits to Jerusalem, and deputed certain persons to offer sacri- fices for them at the temple. Indeed afterwards, (as we find in Tacitus" and Suetonius^) by an order of senate, he caused four thousand Lihertini generis, of those Libertine Jews, so many as were young and lusty, to be transported into Sardinia to clear that island of robbers, (the occasion whereof is related by Jose- phus/) and the rest, both Jews and proselytes, to be banished the city, Tacitus adds, Italy itself. This occasion, I doubt not, many of these Libertine Jews took to return home into their own country, and at Jerusalem to erect this synagogue for themselves and the use of their countrymen who from Rome re- sorted thither, st3-ling it, from themselves, the synagogue of the Libertines ; and such questionless St. Luke means, when among the several nations that were at Jerusalem at the day of Pente- cost, he mentions " strangers of Rome," and they " both Jews and j)roselytes." X. The next antagonists were of the synagogue of the Cj'- renians, that is, Jews who inhabited Cyrene, a noted city of Libya, where (as appears fiom a rescript of Augustus'') great numbers of them did reside, and who were annually wont to send their holy treasure or accustomed offerings to Jerusalem, where also (as we see) they had their peculiar synagogue. Accordingly we find among the several nations at Jerusalem, those who ''dwelt in the parts of Libya about Cyrene.'"'^ Thus we read of Simon of Cyrene,'' whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's cross ; of Lucius of Cyrene,*" a famous doctor in the church of Antioch ; of men of Cyrene, who u])on the persecution that fol- lowed St. Stephen's death, " were scattered abroad from Je- rusalem, and preached as far as Phoenice, Cyprus, and Antioch.'"'^ The third were those of the synagogue of the Alexandrians, there being a mighty intercourse between the Jews at Jerusalem and Alexandria, where what vast multitudes of them dwelt, and '' Annal. lib. ii. c. J^5. ' Stieton. in vit. Tib. c. .36. » Antiq. 1. xviii. c. h. •• Apiul .lospph. Antiq. Jiul. 1. xvi. c. 10. ' Acts ii. 10. <^ Matt, xxvii. 32. ' Arts xiii. 1. f Acts xi. 10. 20. SAINT STEPHEN. 57 what great privileges they enjoyed, is too well kuowa to need insisting on. The fourth were them of Cilicia, a known province of the Lesser Asia, the metropolis whereof was Tarsus, well stored with Jews ; it was St. PauFs birth-place, whom we cannot doubt to have borne a principal part among these assailants, finding him afterwards so active and busy in St. Stephen''s death. The last were those of the synagogue of Asia : where by Asia we are probably to understand no more than part of Asia properly so called, (as that was but part of Asia Minor,) viz. that part that lay near to Ephesus, in which sense it is plain Asia is to be taken in the New Testament. And what infinite numbers of Jews were in these parts, and especially at Ephesus, the history of the Apostles' Acts does sufficiently inform us. XI. These were the several parties that were to take the field, persons of very diffi^rent countries, men skilled in the subtleties of their religion, ^ who all at once rose up to dispute with Stephen." What the particular subject of the disputation was, we find not, but may with St. Chrysostom'^ conceive them to have accosted him after this manner. " Tell us, young man, what comes into thy mind thus rashly to reproach the Deity? Why dost thou study with such cunningly-contrived discourses to inveigle and persuade the people I and with deceitful miracles to undo the nation ? Here lies the crisis of the controversy. Is it like that he should be God, who was born of Mary ; that the Maker of the world should be 'the son of a carpenter T was not Bethlehem the place of his nativity, and Nazareth of his educa- tion ? canst thou imagine him to be God, that was born upon earth? who was so poor that he was wrapt up in swaddling clothes and thrown into a manger ? who was forced to fly from the rage of Herod, and to wash away his pollution by being baptized in Joi'dan ? who was subject to hunger and thii'st, to sleep and weariness? who being bound, was not able to escape, nor being buffeted, to rescue or revenge himself? who, when he was hanged, could not come down from the cross, but underwent a cursed and a shameful death ? wilt thou make us believe that he is in heaven, whom we know to have been buried in his grave ? that he should be the life of the dead, who is so near akin to mortality him- self? Is it likely that God should suffer such things as these? would he not rather with an angry breath have struck his ad- S Orat. in S. Steph. s. i. vol. viii. i>. 18. inter spuria. 58 THE LIFE OF versariess dead at the lirst approach, aiul set them heyuiid the reach of making attempts upon his own person i either cease therefore to clehide the people with these impostures, or prepare thyself to undergo the same fate." XII. lu answer to which we may imagine St. Stephen thus to have replied upon them. " And why, sirs, should these things seem so incredible^ have you not by you the writings of the prophets i do you not read the books of Moses, and profess yourselves to be his disciples ? did not Moses say, ' a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hearf' Have not the prophets long since foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem, and con- ceived in the womb of a virgin? that he should fly into Egypt? that he should 'bear our griefs and carry our sorroAvs ?"■ ' that they should 'pierce his hands and his feet,"' and hang him on a tree? that he should be buried, rise again, and ascend up to heaven with a shout ? Either now shew me some other in whom all these prophecies were accomplished, or learn with me to adore as God our crucified Saviour. Blind and ignorant that you are of the predictions of Moses, you thought you crucified a mere man ; but had you known him, you would not have crucified the Lord of Glory : you denied the Holy One, and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of Life." XHL This is the sum of what that ingenious and eloquent father conceives St. Stephen did, or might have returned to their en(|uiries. Which, whatever it was, was delivered with that life and zeal, that evidence and strength of reason, that freedom and majesty of elocution, that his antagonists had not one word to say against it ; " they were not able to resist the w'isdom and the spirit by which he spake."' So particularly did our Lord make good what he had promised to his disciples, " Settle it in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."'" Hereupon the men presently began to retreat, and departed the lists, equally divided between shame and grief. Ashamed they were to be so openly battled by one single adversary; vexed and troubled that they •• Deut. xviii. 15. ' Is;ii. liii. 4. ^ Pk. xxii. KJ. ' Acts vi. 1 0. in Luke xxi. 1 4, 1 .5. SAINT STEPHEN. 59 had not carried the day, and that the religion which they op- posed had herehy received such signal credit and confirmation. And now being no longer able dvT0 Hist. Ectl. 1. ii. c. 1. SAINT STEPHEN. 67 the torments and sufterings that he underwent, he discovered nothing but the meek and innocent temper of a lamb, never be- traying one passionate and revengeful word, but calmly resigned up his soul to God. He had a charity large enough to cover the highest affronts, and the greatest wrongs and injuries that were put upon him ; and accordingly, after the example of his Master, he prayed for the pardon of his murderers, even while they were raking in his blood. And " the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availed much;"^ heaven was not deaf to his peti- tion, as appeared in the speedy conversion of St. Paul,'' whose admirable change we may reasonably suppose to have been the birth of the good man's dying groans, the fruit of his prayer and interest in heaven. And what set off all these excellencies, he was not elated with lofty and arrogant conceits, nor " thought more highly of himself than he ought to think," ^ esteeming meanly of, and preferring others before himself. And therefore the author of the " Apostolic Constitutions"'^ brings in the apo- stles commending St. Stephen for his humility, that though he was so great a person, and honoured with such singular and ex- traordinary visions and revelations, yet never attempted any thing above his place, did not consecrate the eucharist, nor con- fer orders upon any ; but (as became a martyr of Christ rrjv evra^lav airoaoi^eiv, to preserve order and decency) he contented himself with the station of a deacon, wherein he persevered to the last minute of his life. XXn. His martyrdom happened (say some) three years after our Saviour's passion, which Euodius, bishop of Antioch, (if that epistle Avere his cited by Nicephorus, ** which it is probable enough was not,) extends to no less than seven years. Doubtless a very wide mistake. Sure I am, Eusebius affirms,^ that it was not long after his ordination to his deacon's office ; and the author of the Excerpta Chronologica, published by Scaliger,*^ more par- ticularly, that it was some few days less than eight months after our Lord's ascension. He is generally supposed to have been young at the time of his martyrdom ; and Chrysostom ^ makes no scruple of styling him " young man" at every turn, though * James v. 16. » See August. Semi. CCCLXXXII. de S. Steph. vol. v. p. 1483. •• Rom. xii. 3. c lj^, y^ ^ 45. d jjist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 3. « Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 1. f Ad calc. Chron. Euseb. p. 82, s Orat. in S. Steph. vol. viii. p. 1 7. inter spuria. f2 68 THE LIFE OF for what reason, I confess I am yet to learn, lie was martyred without the walls, near the gate on the north side that leads to Cedar, (as Lucian tells us,'') and which was afterwards called St. Stephen''s Gate ; ' anciently (say some) styled the Gate of Ephraim ; ^ or, as others, the Valley Gate, or the Fish Gate ; ' which stood on the cast side of the city, where the place, we are told, is still shewed, where St. Paul sat when he kept the clothes of them that slew him. Over this place (wherever it was) the empress Eudocia,"' wife of Theodosius, when she repaired the walls of Jerusalem, erected a beautiful and stately church to the honour of St. Stephen, wherein she herself was buried afterwards. The great stone upon which he stood while he suffered martyr- dom, is said to have been afterwards removed into the church built to the honour of the apostles upon Mount Sion,° and there kept with great care and reverence : yea, one of the stones wherewith he was killed, being preserved by some Christian, was afterwards (as we are told") carried into Italy, and laid up as a choice treasure at Ancona, and a church there built to the me- mory of the martyr. XXIII. The church received a great wound by the death of this pious and good man, and could not but express a very deep resentment of it : " Devout men" (probably proselytes) " carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation for him." p They carried, or, as the word avveKOfiicrav properly signifies, they dressed him up, and prepared the dead body for the burial. For we cannot reasonably suppose, that the Jews being at this time so mightily enraged against him, the apostles would think it prudent further to provoke the exasperated humour by making a solemn and pompous funeral. His burial (if we might believe one of the ancients,'' who pretends it was revealed to him in a vision by Gamaliel, whom many of the ancients make to have been a Christian convert) was on this manner. The Jewish Sanhedrim having given order that his carcase should remain in ^ Ep. (le Invent. S. Stcph. ap. Snr. ad Aug. Til. ' Ikd. dc locis Sanctis, c. 1. vol. iii. p. 487. '' Brocardus, descript. terrse sanctae, c. viii. p. 35. ' Coto>'ic. Itin. 1. ii. c. 11. "' Evagr. Hist. Eccl. 1, i. c. 22. " Bed. de locis Sanctis, c. 3. vol. iii. p. 489. ° Bar. not. in Martyr. Rora. ad Aug. III. p. 341. ex Martyrol. S. CjTiiic. p Acts viii. 2. t Lucian. Ep. dc invent. S. Steph. in ap. Aug. opp. vol. vii. et apud Bar. ad ann. 415. vid. Nicejth. 1. xiv. c. 9. SAINT STEPHEN. 69 the place of its martyrdom to be consumed by wild beasts, here it lay for some time night and day, untouched either by beast or bird of prey. Till Gamaliel, compassionating the case of the holy martyr, persuaded some religious Christian proselytes, who dwelt at Jerusalem, and furnished them with all things necessary for it, to go with all possible secrecy and fetch off his body. They brought it away in his own carriage, and conveyed it to a place called Caphargamala, (corruptly, as is probable, for Caphar- gamaliel, otherwise i^bt2^ ")H)D, properly signifies the Toivn of Camels), that is, the village of Gamaliel, twenty miles distant from Jerusalem ; where a solemn mourning was kej)t for him seventy days at GamalieFs charge, who also caused him to be buried in the east side of his own monument, where afterwards he was interred himself The Greek Menjeon'' adds, that his body was put into a coffin made of the wood of the tree called persea, (this was a large beautiful Egyptian tree, as Theophrastus tells us,^ of which they were wont to make statues, beds, tables, &c.) though how they came by such very particular intelligence (there being nothing of it in GamalieFs revelation) I am not able to imagine. Johannes Phocas,* a Greek writer of the middle age of the church, agrees in the relation of his interment by Gamaliel ; but adds, that he was first buried in Mount Sion, in the house where the apostles were assembled when our Lord came in to them, " the doors being shut," after his resurrection, and afterwards removed by Gamaliel to another place, which (says he") was on the left side the city, as it looks towards Sa- maria, where a famous monastery was built afterwards. XXIV. But wherever his body was interred, it rested quietly for several ages, till we hear of its being found out in the reign of Honorius ; for then, as Sozomen informs us,'' it was discovered at the same time with the bones of the prophet Zachary, an ac- count of both which he promises to give ; and having spoken of that of the prophet, there abruptly ends his history. But what is wanting in him is fully supplied by other hands, especially the forementioned Lucian,^ presbyter of the town of Caphargamala •■ Menason Graeeor. rp kctt' tov AeKe/xfip. sub. lit. 2. 111. ' Histor. Plant. 1. iv. c. 2. ' "'E.KcppacT. tS>v ay. T6iro>v, &c. c. xiv. p. 19. edit. Allat. " Ibid. c. XV. p. 2.5. ^ Hist. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 16, 17. y Lucian. Ep. de invent. S. Steph. in ap. Aug. opp. vol. vii. et Phot. Cod. CLXXI. 70 THE LIFE OF in the diocese of Jerusalem, who is very large and punctual in his account, the sum whereof (so far as concerns the present case, and is material to relate) is this. Sleeping one night in the laptisterium of his church, (this was anno 415. Honor. Imper. 21.) there appeared to him a grave venerable old man, who told him he was Gamaliel, bade him go to John bishop of Jeru- salem, and will him to remove his remains and some others (whereof St. Stephen was the principal) that were with him from the place where they lay. Three several times the vision appeared to him before he would be fully satisfied in the thing, and then he acquainted the bishop with it, who commanded him to search after the place. After some attempts, he found the place of their repository, and then gave the bishop notice, who came and brought two other bishops, Eleutherius of Sebaste and Eleutherius of Hiericho, along with him. The monument being opened, they found an inscription upon St. Stcphen''s tomb-stone in deep letters, " CELIEL," signifying (says mine author) the " Servant of God ;" at the opening of the coffin there was an earthquake, and a very pleasant and delightful fragrancy came from it, and several miraculous cures were done by it. The re- mains being closed up again, (only some few bones, and a little of the dust that was taken out, and bestowed upon Lucian,) were with great triumph and rejoicing conveyed to the church that stood upon Mount Sion, the place where he himself while alive had discharged the office of a deacon. I add no more of this, but that this story is not only mentioned by Photius,^ and before him by Marcellinus Comes," sometime chancellor or secretary to Justinian, afterwards emperor, (who sets it down as done in the very same year, and under the same consuls wherein Lucian's Epistle reports it) ; but before, both by Gennadius,*" presbyter of Marseilles, who lived anno 490, and many years before, and con- sequently not long after the time of Lucian himself; who also adds, that Lucian wrote a relation of it in Greek to all the churches, which Avitus, a Spanish presbyter, translated into Latin, whose epistle is prefixed to it, wherein he gives an ac- count of it to Balchonius bishop of Braga, and sent it by Orosius into Spain. XXV. These remains (whether before or after, the reader ' riint. Coil. CLXXI. » Marcel. Chron. Indict, xiii. p. m. 17. ^ De Script. Eccl. c. 46, 47. SAINT STEPHEN. 71 must judge by the sequel of the story, though I question whether he will have faith enough to believe all the circumstances of it) were translated to Constantinople upon this occasion. Alexander,^ a nobleman of the Senatorian order, having a par- ticular veneration for the protomartyr, had erected an oratory to him in Palestine, commanding that himself when dead, being put into a coffin like that of St. Stephen, should be buried by him. Eight years after, his lady, (whose name, say some, was Juliana,) removing to Constantinople, resolved to take her husband's body along with her : but in a hurry she chanced to mistake St. Stephen's coffin for that of her husband, and so set forward on her journey. But it soon betrayed itself by an extra- ordinary odour, and some miraculous effects : the fame whereof flying before to Constantinople, had prepared the people to conduct it with great joy and solemnity into the imperial palace. Which yet could not be effected: for the sturdy mules that carried the treasure being come as far as Constantine's baths, would not advance one step further. And when unreasonably whipped and pricked, they spake aloud, and told those that conducted them, that the martyr was to be reposed and interred in that place : which was accordingly done, and a beautiful church built there. But certainly they that first added this passage to the story had been at a great loss for invention, had not the story of Balaam's ass been upon record in Scripture. I confess Baronius ^ seems not over-forward to believe this rela- tion, not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it, but only because he could not well reconcile it with the time of its being first found out by Lucian. Indeed my authors tell us, that this was done in the time of Constantine, Metrophanes being then bishop of Constantinople, and that it was only some part of his remains, buried again by some devout Christians, that was discovered in a vision to Lucian ; and that the empress Pulcheria, by the help of her brother Theodosius, procured from the bishop of Jerusalem the martyr's right hand, which, being arrived at Constantinople, was with singular reverence and re- joicing brought into the palace, and there laid up, and a stately and magnificent church erected for it, set off with all rich and costly ornaments and advantages. <= Niceph. Hist. Eccl. lib. xiv. c. 9, Eadem habet Menaeon Grsec. Avjovitt. tj? /8'. sub. lit, jS'. 1 1. ■* Bar. ad Ann. 439. 72 THE LIFE OF XXN'^I. 'Autlior.s nicntion anotlier remove, anno 439, (and lot the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the diflcTcnt accounts,) of his remains to Constantinople by the empress Eudocia, wife to Theodoslus, who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs, carried back with her to the imperial city the remains of St. Stephen, which she carefully laid up in the church of St. Laurence. The Roman Martyrology says,*^ that in the time of po])c Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome, and lodged in the sepulchre of St, Laurence the ^Martyr in ar/ro Verano, where they are honoured with great piety and devotion. But I find not any author near those times mentioning their translation into any of these western parts, except the little parcel which Orosius^ brought from Jerusalem, (whither he had been sent by St. Augustine to know St. Hierom's sense in the question about the original of the soul,) which he received from Avitus, who had procured it of Lucian, and brought it along with him into the West, that is, into Africa, for whether it went any further I find not. XXVn. As for the miracles reported to have been done by the remains of this martyr, ^ Gregory bishop of Tours, and the writers of the following ages, have furnished the world with abundant instances, which I insist not upon, superstition having been the peculiar genius and humour of those middle ages of the church, and the Christian world miserably overrun Avith an excessive and immoderate veneration of the relics of departed saints. However I can venture the reader's displeasure for relating one, and the rather because it is so solemnly averred by Baronius' himself. St. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, flying from the Vandal ic persecution, brought with him a glass vial of St. Stephen's blood to Naples in Italy, where it was famous especially for one miraculous effect — that being set upon the altar, at the time of mass it was annually wont, upon the third of August, (the day whereon St. Stephen s body was first dis- covered,) to melt and bubble, as if it were but newly shed. But the miracle of the miracle lay in this, that when pope Gregory «= Marcell. Cliron. Indict, vii. p. 24. Thcodor. Lcct. 1. ii. ' Ad 7 Maii, p. 203. K Vid. A\-it. Ep. Pracf. E]t. Lucian. Gennad. dc script. EccL in Oros. cxxxix. Marcell. Chron. p. 17. •• Dc glor. Martyr. 1. i. c. 33. ' Annot. in Martyr. Rom. ad Aug. III. p. 340. SAINT STEPHEN. 73 the Xlllth reformed the Roman calendar, and made no less than ten days difference from the former, the blood in the vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August, according to the old compu- tation, and bubbled upon that that fell according to the new reformation. A great justification, I confess, (as Baronius well observes,) of the divine authority of the Gregorian calendar and the pope's constitutions : but yet it was ill done to set the calendars at variance, when both had been equally justified by the miracle. But how easy it was to abuse the world with such tricks, especially in these later ages, wherein the artifice of the priests was arrived to a kind of perfection in these affairs, is no difficult matter to imagine. XXVIII. Let us then look to the more early ages, Avhen covetousness and secular interests had not so generally put men upon arts of craft and subtlety ; and we are told both by Lucian and Photius,'' that at the first discovery of the martyr's body many strange miraculous cures were effected, seventy-three healed only by smelling the odour and fragrance of the body ; in some demons were cast out, others cured of issues of blood, tumours, agues, fevers, and infinite other distempers that were upon them. But that which most sways with me, is what St. Augustine' reports of these matters ; who seems to have been inquisitive about matters of fact, as the argument he managed did require. For being to demonstrate against the Gentiles that miracles were not altogether ceased in the Christian church, among several others he produces many instances of cures mira- culously done at the remains of St. Stephen, brought thither (as before we noted) by Orosius from Jerusalem ; all done there- abouts, and some of them in the place where himself lived, and of which (as he tells us) they made books, which were solemnly published, and read to the people ; whereof (at the time of his writing) there were no less than seventy written of the cures done at Hippo, (the place where he lived,) though it was not full two years since the memorial of St. Stephen's martyrdom had begun to be celebrated in that place, besides many whereof no account had been given in writing. To set down all were to tire the reader's patience beyond all recovery ; a few only for a specimen shall suffice. At the Aquce Tihilitanw Projectus, the '' Lucian. Ep. de invent. S. Stepli. in ap. Aug. opp. vol. vii. et Photius cod. CLXXI. ' De Civ. Dei. 1. xxii. c. 8, 74 THE LIFE OF Ijislioj) bringing tlie remains of the martyr, in a vast multitude of people, a blind woman desiring to be brought to the bishop, and some flowers which she brought being laid upon them, and after ajtplied to her eyes, to the wonder of all she instantly re- ceived her sight. Lucillus bishop of Synica near Hippo, carry- ing the same remains, accompanied with all the people, was suddenly freed from a desperate disease, under which he had a long time laboured, and for which he even then exi)ected the surgeon's knife. Eucharius, a Spanish presbyter, then dwelling at Calama, (whereof Possidius who wrote St. Augustine's Life Avas bishop,) was by the same means cured of the stone, which he had a long time been afflicted with, and afterwards recovered of another distemper, when he had been given over for dead. Martialis, an ancient gentleman in that place, of great note and rank, but a pagan, and highly prejudiced against the Christian faith, had been often in vain solicited by his daughter and her husband (both Christians) to turn Christian, especiall}" in his sickness, but still resented the motion Avith indignation. His son-in-law went to the place dedicated to St. Stephen's martyr- dom, and there with prayers and tears passionately begged of God his conversion. Departing, he took some flowers thence with him, which at night he put under his father's head ; avIio slept well, and in the morning called for the bishop, in whose absence (for he was at that time with St. Augustine at Hippo) the presbyters were sent for ; at whose coming he acknowledged himself a Christian, and, to the joy and admiration of all, was immediately baptized. As long as he lived he often had these words in his mouth, and they were the last words that he spake, (for he died not long after,) " O Christ, receive my spirit," though utterly ignorant that it was the protomartyr's dying speech. XXIX. Many passages of like nature he relates done at his own see at Hippo, and this among the rest. Ten children of eminency at Csesarea in Cappadocia, (all the children of one man,) had for some notorious misdemeanor, after their father's death, been cursed by their mother, whereupon they were all seized with a continual trembling and shaking in all parts of their body. Two of these, Paulus and Palladia, came over into Africa, and dwelt at Hippo, notoriously known to the whole city. They arrived fifteen days before Easter, where they fre- quented the church, especially the place dedicated to the mar- SAINT STEPHEN. 75 tyrdora of St. Stephen, every day praying that God would for- give them, and restore them to their health. Upon Easter-day, the young man praying as he was wont at the accustomed place, suddenly dropped down, and lay like one asleep, but without any trembling, and awaking found himself perfectly restored to health, who was thereupon with the joyful acclamations of the people brought to St. Augustine, who kindly received him, and after the public devotions were over, treated him at dinner, where he had the whole account of the misery that befell him. The day after, when the narrative of his cure was to be recited to the people, his sister also was healed in the same manner and at the same place, the particular circumstances of both which St. Augustine relates more at large. XXX. What the judicious and unprejudiced reader will think of these and more the like instances there reported by this good father, I know not, or whether he will not think it reasonable to believe,"' that God might suffer these strange and miraculous cures to be wrought in a place where multitudes yet persisted in their gentilism and infidelity, and who made this one great objection against the Christian faith, that whatever miracles might be heretofore pretended for the confirmation of Christian religion, yet that now they were ceased, when yet they were still necessary to induce the world to the belief of Chris- tianity. Certain it is, that nothing was done herein, but what did very well consist with the wisdom and the goodness of God, who, as he is never wont to be prodigal in multiplying the effects of his omnipotent power beyond a just necessity, so is never wanting to afford all necessary evidences and methods of conviction. That therefore the unbelieving world (who made this the great refuge of their infidelity) might see that his arm was not grown effete and weak, that he had not left the Chris- tian religion wholly destitute of immediate and miraculous at- testations, he was pleased to exert these extraordinary powers, that he might baffle their unbelief, and silence their objections against the divinity of the Christian faith. And for this reason God never totally withdrew the power of working miracles from the church, till the world was in a manner wholly subdued to the faith of Christ. And then he left it to be conducted by more human and regular ways, and to preserve its authority over the •" Vid. Aug. loc. supra citato. 76 THE LIFE OF SAINT STEPHEN. minds of men, by those standing and innate characters of di- vinity whicli he has impressed upon it. It is true that the church of Rome still pretends to this power, which it endeavours to justify by appealing to these and such like instances. But in vain, and to no purpose ; the pretended miracles of that church being generally trifling and ridiculous, far beneath that gravity and seriousness that should work upon a wise and considering mind, the manner of their operation obscure and ambiguous, their numbers excessive and immoderate, the occasions of them light and frivolous, and, after all, the things themselves for the most part false, and the reports very often so monstrous and extravagant, as would choke any sober and rational belief, so that a man must himself become the greatest miracle that be- lieves them, I shall observe no more, than that in all these cases related by St. Augustine we never find that they invocated or prayed to the martyr, nor begged to be healed by his merits or intercession, but immediately directed their addresses to God himself. THE LIFE OF SAINT PHILIP THE DEACON AND EVANGELIST. His birth-place. The confounding him with St. Philip the Apostle. His election to the oiRce of a deacon. The dispersion of the church at Jerusalem. Philip's preaching at Samaria. Inveterate prejudices between the Samaritans and the Jews. The great success of St. Philip's ministry. The impostures of Simon Magus, and his embracing Christianity. The Christians at Samaria confirmed by Peter and John. Philip sent to Gaza. His meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch. What Ethiopia here meant. Candace, who. The custom of retaining eunuchs in the courts of the eastern princes. This eunuch, who. His office. His religion, and great piety. His conversion and baptism by St. Philip. The place where he was baptized. The eunuch's return, and propagating Christianity in his own country. Philip's journey to Csesarea, and fixing his abode there. His four daughters virgin-prophetesses. His death. I. St, Philip was born (as Isidore^ the Peleusiot plainly intimates) at Offisarea, a famous port-town between Joppa and Ptolemais, in the province of Samaria ; but whether he had any other warrant for it than his own conjecture, I know not, there being some circumstances however that make it probable. He has been by some both formerly and of later times, for want of a due regard to things and persons, carelessly confounded with St. Philip the apostle : a mistake of very ancient date, and which seems to have been embraced by some of the most early writers of the church. But whoever considers that the one was an apostle, and one of the twelve, the other a deacon only, and one of the seven, chosen out of the people, and set apart by the apostles, that they themselves might attend the more immediate ministeries of their office ; that the one was dispersed up and down the country, while the other remained with the apostolical college at Jerusalem ; that the one, though commissionated to preach and to baptize, could not impart the Holy Ghost, (the peculiar prerogative of the apostolical office,) will see just reason to force him to acknowledge a vast difference between them. a Epist. 1. i. ep. 449. 78 THE LIFE OF Our St. Philip was one of the seventy disciples, and St. Stephen's next colleague in the deacon's office, erected for the conveniency of the poor, and assisting the apostles in some inferior services and ministrations : which shews him to have been a person of great esteem and rei)utation in the church, endowed with mira- culous powers, " full of wisdom, and of the Holy Ghost ; '' which were the qualifications required by the apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place. In the discharge of this ministry he continued at Jerusalem for some months after his election, till the church being scattered up and down, he was forced to quit his station : as what wonder if the stewards be dismissed, when the household is broken up I II. The protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his enemies : but the bloody cloud did not so blow over, but increased into a blacker tempest. Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough, like the temper of the Devil, whose malice is insatiable and eternal. Stephen's death would not suffice, the whole church is now shot at, and they resolve (if possible) to extirpate the religion itself. The great engineer in this persecution was Saul, whose active and fiery genius, and passionate concern for the traditions of the fathers, made him pursue the design with the spirit of a zealot and the rage of a madman. Having furnished himself with a commission from the Sanhedrim, he quickly put it in execution, broke open houses, seized whoever he met with, that looked but like a disciple of the crucified Jesus, and without any regard to sex or age, beat, and haled them unto prison, plucking the husband from the bosom of his wife, and the mother from the embraces of her children, blaspheming God, prosecuting and being injurious unto men, breathing out nothing but slaughter and threatenings wherever he came : whence Eusebius "' calls it the first and most grievous persecution of the church. The church by this means was forced to retire, the apostles only remaining privately at Jerusalem, that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the church, while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring countries, publishing the glad tidings of the gospel, and declaring the nature and design of it in all places wlicre they came ; so that what their enemies intended as the way to ruin them, by breaking the knot of their fellowship and society, ** Acts vi. 3. ■' Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 1. SAINT PHILIP. 79 proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity. Thus excellent perfumes, while kept close in a box, few are the better for them, whereas being once, whether casually or mali- ciously, spilt upon the ground, the fragrant scent presently fills all corners of the house. III. Among them that were thus dispersed was our evangelist, so styled not from his writing but preaching of the gospel. He directed his journey towards the province of Samaria, " and came into a city of Samaria,"'' (as those words may be read,) probably Gitton, the birth-place of Simon Magus ; though it is safest to understand it of Samaria itself. This was the me- tropolis of the province, had been for some ages the royal seat of the kings of Israel, but being utterly destroyed by Hyi'canus, had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus (5'e/3a.crT09) by him styled Sebaste. The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, made up of the remains that were left of the ten tribes which were carried away captive, and those heathen colonies which the king of Babylon brought into their room ; and their religion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan rites, though so highly prized and valued by them, that they made no scruple to dispute place, and to vie with the worship of the temple at Jerusalem. Upon this account there had been an ancient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them, so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other. Hence the Samaritan woman wondered, that our Lord, " being a Jew, should ask drink of her, who was a woman of Samaria ; for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans."^ They despised them at the rate of heathens, devoted them under the most solemn execra- tions, allowed them not to become proselytes, nor to have any portion in the resurrection of the just, sufi^ered not an Israelite to eat with them, no, nor to say Amen to their blessing ; nor did they think they could fasten upon our Saviour a greater character of reproach, than to say that he was " a Samaritan, and had a devil." But God regards not the prejudices of men, nor always withholds his kindness from them, whom we are ready to banish the lines of love and friendship. It is true the apostles at their first mission were charged " not to go in the way of the Gentiles, nor to enter into any city of the Samaritans."^ But when Christ ^ Acts viii. S. e John iv. 9. f Matt x. 5. 80 THE LIFE OF by his deatli had " broken down the partition wall, and abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances," "^ then the gospel came "and preached peace as well to them that were afar ofl', as to them that were nigh.''"' Philip therefore fi-eely preached the gospel to these Samaritans, so odious, so distasteful to the Jews : to which he effectually prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles, which being arguments fitted to the capacities, and accommodate to the senses of the meanest, do easiliest convey the truth into the minds of men. And the success here was accordingly, the people generally embracing the Christian doctrine, while tliey beheld him curing all manner of diseases, and powerfully dis- possessing demons, who with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence, to the equal joy and wonder of that place. IV. In this city was one Simon, born at a town not far ofi\, who by sorcery and magic arts had strangely insinuated himself into the reverence and veneration of the people. A man crafty and ambitious, daring and insolent, whose diabolical sophistries and devices had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the vulgar, that they really thought him (and for such no doubt he gave out himself) to be the supreme divinity, probably magnify- ing himself as that divine power that was to visit the Jews as the Messiah, or the Son of God ; among the Samaritans, giving out himself to be the Father, (as Irenseus assures us,"") rov irpw- Tov ©eov, as his countryman Justin Martyr tells us,' the people worshipped him, as the first and chiefest deity; as afterwards among the Gentiles he styled himself the Holy Ghost. And what wonder if by this train of artifices the people were tempted and seduced to admire and adore him. And in this case things stood at St. Philip's arrival, whose greater and more unquestion- able miracles quickly turned the scale. Imposture cannot bear the too near approach of truth, but flies before it, as darkness vanishes at the presence of the sun. The people, sensible of their error, universally flocked to St. Philip's sermons, and con- vinced by the efficacy of his doctrine, and the power of his miracles, gave up themselves his converts, and were by baptism initiated into the Christian faith : yea, the magician himself, K Eph. ii. 14, 15, &c. h Adv. ILxres. 1. i. c. 23. (al. 20.) ' Apol. i. e. 2f). vide Tertull. do Prascr. Iln-rot. c. 4f;. SAINT PHILIP. 81 astonished at those mighty things which he saw done by Philip, professed himself his proselyte and disciple, and was baptized by him ; being either really persuaded by the convictive evidence of truth, or else for some sinister designs craftily dissembling his belief and profession of Christianity : a piece of artifice which Eusebius'' tells us, his disciples and followers still observed in his time, who in imitation of their father, like a pest or a leprosy, were wont to creep in among the Christian societies, that so they might with the more advantage poison and infect the rest, many of whom having been discovered, had with shame been ejected and cast out of the church. V. The fame of St. Philip''s success at Samaria quickly flew to Jerusalem, where the apostles immediately took care to dispatch some of their own number to confirm these new converts in the faith. Peter and John were sent upon this errand, who being come, prayed for them, and laid their hands upon them, ordain- ing probably some to be governors of the church, and ministers of religion ; which was no sooner done, but the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost fell upon them ; a plain evidence of the apo- stolic power. Philip had converted and baptized them, but being only a deacon (as Epiphanius' and Chrysostom'" truly observe) could not confer the Holy Ghost, this being a faculty bestowed only upon the apostles. Simon the Magician observing this, that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of the apostles' hands, hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and reputation with the people ; to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself, to corrupt the apostles by a sum of money, to confer this jDOwer upon him. Peter resented the motion with that sharpness and severity that became him ; told the wretch of the iniquity of his offer, and the evil state and condition he was in ; advised him by repentance to make his peace with heaven, that, if possible, he might prevent the miserable fate that otherwise did attend him. But what passed between Peter and this magician, both here and in their memorable encounter at Rome, (so much spoken of by the an- cients,) we have related more at large in another place." VI. Whether St. Philip returned with the apostles to Jeru- ^ Hist. Eccl 1. ii. c. 1. ' Epiph. Hseres, xxi. '" Chrysost. Horn, xviii. in Act. Apostt. s. 3. vol. ix. p. 14G. " Antiq. App. Life of St. Peter, sect. 8. n. 1. sect. 9. n. 4. G 82 THE LIFE OF salem, or (as Chrysostom" thinks) stayed at Samaria, and the partis thereabouts, we have no intimations left upon record, IJut wherever he was, an angel was sent to him with a message from God, to go and instruct a stranger in the faith. The angel, one w^ould have thought, had been most likely himself to have managed this business with success. But tlie wise God keeps method and order, and will not suffer an angel to take that work which he has put into the hands of his ministers.P The sum of his commission was to go towards the " south, unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert:"'' a circumstance which, whether it relate to the way or the city, is not easy to decide, it being probably true of both. Gaza was a city anciently famous for the strange efforts of Samson s strength, for his captivity, his death, and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same ruin. It was afterwards sacked and laid waste by Alexander the Great, and, as Strabo notes,' remained waste and desert in his time ; the prophetical curse being truly accomplished in it, "Gaza shall be forsaken;"' a fate which the prophet Jeremy had foretold to be as certain, as if he had seen it already done, "baldness is come upon Gaza."' So certainly do the divine threatenings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent people ; so easily do they set open the gates for ruin to enter into the strongest and best fortified cities, where sin has once undermined, and stripped them naked of the divine protection. VII. No sooner had St. Philip received his orders, though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey, but he addressed him- self to it, "he arose and went:"" he did not reason with himself whether he might not be mistaken, and that be a false and de- luding vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand, and into a desert and a wilderness, where he was more likely to meet with trees and rocks and wild beasts, than men to preach to ; but went however, well knowing God never sends any upon a vain or a foolish errand. An excellent instance of obedience ; as it is also recorded to Abraham's eternal honour and com- mendation, that when God sent his warrant, "he obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went."" As he was on his o Horn. xix. in Act. Apostt. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 152. p Vide Chrj-sost. ibid. p. 153. n Acts viii. 26. ' Geograph. 1. xvi. p. 1102. (al. 750.) ' Zeph. ii. 4. • Jer. xh-ii. 5. " Acts viii. 27. " Heb. xi. 8. SAINT PHILIP. 83 journey, he espied coming towards him "a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians ; who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship ;"y though in what part of the world the country here spoken of was situate (the word being variously used in scripture) has been some dispute. Dorotheus' and Sophronius^ of old, and some later writers, place it in Arabia the Happy, not far from the Persian Gulf: but it is most gene- rally conceived to be meant of the African Ethiopia, lying under or near the torrid zone, the peoj^le whereof are described by Homer, to be eaxarot dvSpcov, the remotest part of mankind ; and accordingly St. Hierom'' says of this eunuch, that he came from Ethiopia, that is, ab extremis muncli jfinibus, from the farthest corners of the world. The country is sometimes styled Cush, probably from a mixture of the Arabians, who inhabiting on the other side of the Red Sea, might send over colonies hither, who settling in these parts, communicated the names of Cush and Sabrea to them. The manners of the people were very rude and barbarous, and the people themselves, especially to the Jews, contemptible even to a proverb ; " Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, children of Israel, saith the Lord?"'' nay, the very meeting an Ethiopian was accounted an ill omen, and an unlucky prognostication. But no country is a bar to heaven; "the grace of God that brings salvation"*^ plucks up the enclosures, and "appears to all;" so that "in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."* VIII. But we cannot reasonably suppose that it should be meant of Ethiopia at large, especially as parallel at this day with the Abyssine empire, but rather of that part of the country whose metropolis was called Meroe, and Saba, (as it is called both by Josephus,*" and the Abyssines themselves at this day,) situate in a large island, encompassed by the Nile, and the rivers of Astapus and Astoborra, as Josephus informs us: for about these parts it was (as Pliny tells us^) that queens had a long time governed under the title of Candace ; a custom (as we find y Acts viii. 27. ^ Dorott. Synops. vol. ii. bibl. patrum. p. 1 86. * Sophr. ap. Hier. de Scriptt. Eccl. in Crescent. ^ Hier. ad Paulinum, Ep. L. vol. iv. part ii. p. 570. <^ Amos ix. 7. ^ Tit. ii. 11. « Acts X. 35. f Antiq. Jud. 1. iL c. .5. e Hist. Nat. 1. vi. c. 29. G 2 84. THE LIFE OF in Strabo) first commenoing in the time of Angustus, vvlien a queen of that name having for lier incomparable virtues been dear to the people, her successors, in honour of her, took the title of Candace, in the same sense that Ptolemy was the common name of the kings of Egypt, Artaxerxes of the kings of Persia, and C?esar of the Roman emperors. Indeed Oecumenius'' was of opinion that Candace was only the common name of the queen-mothers of Ethiopia, that nation not giving the name of fathers to their kings, as acknowledging the sun only for their common father, and their princes the sons of that common parent. But in this I think he stands alone, and contradicts the general vote and suffrage of the ancients, which affirms this nation to have been subject to women ; sure I am Eusebius' ex- pressly says, it was the custom of this country to be governed by queens even in his time. The name of the present queen (they say) was Lacasa, daughter of king Baazena, and that she outlived the death of our Saviour four years. IX. Among the great officers of her court she had one (if not more) eunuch, probably to avoid suspicion, it being the fashion of those Eastern countries (as it still is at this day) to employ eunuchs in places of great trust and honour, and especially of near access to, and attendance upon queens. For however among us the very name sounds vile and contemptible, yet in those countries it is otherwise : among the Barbarians, (says Herodotus,'') that is, the Eastern people, eunuchs are persons of the greatest esteem and value.' Our eunuch's name (as we find it in the Confession made by Zaga Zabo,'" ambassador from the Ethiopian emperor) was Indich ; Bvvdarrjf;, a potent courtier, an officer of state of prime note and quality, being no less than high- treasurer to the queen ; nor do we find that Philip, either at his conversion or ba])tism, found fault with him for his place or greatness. Certainly magistracy is no w^ays inconsistent with Christianity ; the church and the state may well agree, and Moses and Aaron go hand in hand. Peter baptized Cornelius, and St. Paul Sergius the proconsul of Cyprus into the Christian faith, and yet neither of them found any more fault with them for their places of authority and power than Philip did here with the lord treasurer of the Ethiopian queen. For his re- '' Opcumcn. Coram, in Act. viii. c. xii. p. 82. ' H. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 1 . ^ 1 lornd. 1. viii. c. 1 OH. ' Tacit. Ann. 1. \i. c. 31. ■" Extat ml Bzov. Annul. Eccl. ad Ann. 1524. n. xxxii. SAINT PHILIP. 85 Hgion, he was, if not a "proselyte of justice*" (as some think) cir- cumcised, and under an obligation to observe the rites and pre- cepts of the Law of Moses, at least a " proselyte of the gate,"" (in which respect it is that one of the ancients calls him a Jew,) "entered already into the knowledge of the true Uod, and was now come to Jerusalem (probably at the solemnity of the Pass- over, or the feast of Pentecost) to give public and solemn evidences of his devotion. Though an Ethiopian, and many thousand miles distant from it, though a great statesman, and necessarily swallowed up in a crowd of business, yet " he came to Jei^usalem for to worship."^ No way so long, so rugged and difficult, no charge or interest so dear and great, as to hinder a good man from minding the concernments of religion. No slender and trifling pretences, no little and ordinary occasions, should excuse our attendance upon places of public worship ; behold here a man that thought not much to take a journey of above four thousand miles, that he might appear before God in the solemn place of divine adoration, the place which God had chosen above all other parts of the world, " to place his name there." X. Having performed his homage and worship at the temple, he was now upon his return for his own country ; nor had he left his religion at church behind him, or thought it enough that he had been there ; but improved himself while travelling by the way : even while he sat in his chariot (as ChrysostomP observes) he read the scriptures : a good man is not willing to lose even common minutes, but to redeem what time is possible for holy uses ; whether sitting, or walking, or journeying, our thoughts should be at work, and our affections travelling towards heaven. While the eunuch was thus employed, a messenger is sent to him from God : the best way to meet with divine communica- tions, is to be conversant in our duty. By a voice fi-om heaven, or some immediate inspiration, Philip is commanded to "go near the chariot,"'' and address himself to him. He did so, and found him reading a section or paragraph of the prophet Isaiah, concerning the death and sufferings of the Messiah, his meek and innocent carriage under the bloody and barbarous violences of his enemies, who dealt with him with all cruelty and injustice. " Pont. Diac. in vit. Cypr. p. 2. " Acts viii. 27. P Horn. xix. in Act. Apostt. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 153. et vide Hier. ad Paulinum, Ep. L. vol. iv. partii. p. 571. '' Acts viii. 29. 86 THE LIFE OF This the eunuch not well understanding, nor knowing certainly whether the prophet meant it of himself or another, desired St. Philip to explain it ; who heing courteously taken up into his chariot, shewed him that all this was meant of, and had been accomj)lished in the holy Jesus ; taking occasion thence to dis- course to him of his nativity, his actions and miracles, his sufferings and resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, declaring to him the whole system of the Christian faith. His discourse wanted not its desired effect ; the eunuch was fully satisfied in the Messiahship and divine authority of our Saviour, and wanted nothing but the solemn rite of initiation to make him a Christian proselyte. Being come to a place where there was conveniency of water, he desired that he might be baptized ; and having professed his faith in the Son of God, and his hearty embracing the Christian religion, "they both went down into the water," where Philip baptized him, and washed this Ethiopian white. XL The place where this eunuch was baptized, Beza"^ by a very wide mistake makes to be the river Eleutherus, which ran near the foot of Mount Lebanon in the most northern borders of Palestine, quite at the other end of the country : Brocard* places it near Nehel Escol, or the Torrent of the Grape, the place whence the spies fetched the bunch of grapes ; on the left side of which valley, about half a league, runs a brook not far from Sicelech, in which this eunuch Avas baptized. But Eusebius' and St. Hierom" (followed herein by Ado" the martyrologist) more probably place it near Bethsoron, (where we are told^ it is still to be seen at this day,) a village twenty miles distant from Je- rusalem, in the way between it and Hebron, near to which there was a spring bubbling Tip at the foot of a hill. St. Hierom adds, that it was again swallowed up in the same ground that produced it, and that here it was that Philip baptized the Ethio- pian ; which was no sooner done, but heaven set an extra- ordinary seal to his conversion and admission into the Christian faith, especially if it be true what some very ancient manuscripts add to the passage, that being baptized, " the Holy Ghost fell "■ Annot. in Act. viii. 36. • Descript. Terr. Sanct. c. ix. p. 48, ' Euscb. de loc. Ilcbr. in voc. BtSrovp. " Hieron. de loc. Hob. in vnc. Betlisur, vol. ii. p. 418. * Ad. Martyr. VI IT. Idus .lun. y Cotovic. Itin. 1. ii. c. 9. SAINT PHILIP. 87 upon him,""^ furnishing him with miraculous gifts and powers, and that Philip was immediately snatched away from him. XII. Though the eunuch had lost his tutor, yet he rejoiced that he had found so great a treasure, the knowledge of Christ, and of the true way to heaven, and he went on his journey with infinite peace and tranquillity of mind, satisfied with the happiness that had befallen him. Being returned into his country, he preached and propagated the Christian faith, and spread abroad the glad tidings of a Saviour: in which respect St. Hierom^ styles him the apostle of the Ethiopians, and the ancients'' generally make that prediction of David fulfilled in him, "Ethio- pia shall stretch out her hands unto Grod ;"''"^ and hence the Ethio- pians are wont to glory, (as appears by the Confession'^ made by the Abyssine ambassador,) that by means of this eunuch they re- ceived baptism almost the first of any Christians in the world. Indeed they have a constant tradition, that for many ages they had the knowledge of the true God of Israel, from the time of the queen of Sheba, (and Seba being the name of this country, as we noted before, makes it probable she might govern here) ; her name (they tell us) was Maqueda, who having learnt from Solomon the knowledge of the Jewish law, and received the books of their religion, taught them her subjects, and sent her son Meilech to Solomon to be instructed and educated by him ; the story whereof may be read in that Confession more at large. I add no more concerning the eunuch than what Dorotheus® and others relate, that he is reported to have suffered martyrdom, and to have been honourably buried, and that diseases were cured, and other mii-acles done at his tomb even in his time. The traditions of the country more particularly tell us,^ that the eunuch being returned home, first converted his mistress Candace to the Christian faith, and afterwards by her leave propagated it throughout Ethiopia, till meeting with St. Matthew the apostle, by their joint-endeavours they expelled idolatry out of all those parts. Which done, he crossed the Red Sea, and preached the « V. 39. Cod. Alexand. in Bibl. Reg. Angl. aliique pliires Codd. MSS. '^ Com. in Esai. liii. vol. iii. p. 385. >> Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 1. Cyril. Catech. xvii. s. 12. = Ps. Ixviii. 31. <* Apud Bzov. Annal. Eccl. ad. ann. 1524. n. xxxii. vid. Godign. de rebus Abyssin. 1. i. c. 18. • Synops. vol. ii. bibl. patruin, p. 1 86, Vid. etiam Sophr. ap. Hier. in Cresc. '' Ap. Godign. 1. i. c. 18. 88 THE LIFE OF Christian religion in Arabia, Persia, India, and many other of those Eastern nations, till at length in the island Taprobana, since called Cevlon, he sealed his doctrine with his Wood. XIII. God, who always affords what is snfficient, is not wont to nuiltiply means farther than is necessary. Philip having done the errand upon which he was sent, was immediately caught and carried away, no doubt by the ministry of an angel, and landed at Azotus, anciently Ashdod, a Philistine city in the borders of the tribe of Dan, famous of old for the temple and residence in it of the idol Dagon, and the captivity of the ark kept for some time in this place, and now enlightened with St. Philip's preaching, who M^ent up and down publishing the gospel in all the parts hereabouts till he arrived at Oaesarea. This city was heretofore called Turris Stratonis, and afterwards rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus Caisar, to whom he was greatly obliged, by him called Cwsarea ; for whose sake also he erected in it a stately palace of marble, called Herod's Judgment Hall, wherein his nephew, ambitious of greater honours and acclamations than became him, had that fatal execution served upon him. It was a place re- markable for many devout and pious men ; here dwelt Cornelius, who together with his family being baptized by Peter, was in that respect the first-fruits of the Gentile world : hither came Agabus the prophet, who foretold St. Paul's imprisonment and martyrdom : here St. Paul himself was kept prisoner, and made those brave and generous apologies for himself, first before Felix, as afterwards before Festus and Agrippa. Here also our St. Philip had his house and family, to which probably he now re- tired, and where he spent the remainder of his life : for here many years after we find St. Paul and his company, coming from Ptolemais in their journey to Jerusalem, " entering into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abiding with him ; and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy." ^ These virgin-prophetesses were endowed with the gift of foretelling future events ; for though prophecy in those times implied also a faculty of explaining the more ab- struse and difficult parts of the Christian doctrine, and a peculiar ability to demonstrate Christ's Messiahship from the predictions of Moses and the prophets, and to express themselves on a sudden f Acts xxi. 8, 9, SAINT PHILIP. 89 upon any difficult and emergent occasion, yet can we not suppose these virgins to have had this part of the prophetic faculty, or at least that they did not publicly exercise it in the congrega- tion. This therefore unquestionably respected things to come, and was an instance of God's accomplishing an ancient promise, that in the times of the Messiah he would " pour out of his Spirit upon all flesh, on their sons and daughters, servants and handmaidens, and they should prophesy."'""' The names of two of these daughters, the Greek Menseon tells us, were Hermione and Eutychis, who came into Asia after St. John"'s death, and the first of them died, and was buried at Ephesus. XIV. How long St. Philip lived after his return to Csesarea, and whether he made any more excursions for the propagation of the faith, is not certainly known. Dorotheus,' I know not upon what ground, will have him to have been bishop of Tra- zellis, a city in Asia : others,'' confounding him with St. Philip the apostle, make him resident at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where he suifered martyrdom, and was buried (say they) together with his daughters. Most probable it is that he died a peaceable death at Csesarea, where his daughters Avere also buried, as some ancient martyrologies ' inform us ; where his house and the apartments of his virgin-daughters were yet to be seen in St, Hierom's time,™ visited and admired by the noble and religious Roman lady Paula in her journey to the Holy Land. •" Acts iL 17, 18. ' Synops. de Vit. App. vol. ii. bibl. patrum. p. 182. '' Polycrat. ap. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 31. Procul. ibid. ' Martyr. Rom. ad VI. Jun. Martyr. Adon. VIII. Id. Jun. ■» Hier. Epitaph. Paul, ad Eustoch. vol. iv. p. 673. THE LIFE OF SAINT BARNABAS THE APOSTLE. His surname Joses. The title of Barnabas whence added to him. His country and parents. His education, and conversion to Christianity. His generous charity. St, Paul's address to him after his conversion. His commission to confirm the church of Antioch. His taking St. Paul in to his assistjince. Their being sent with contribu- tions to the church at .lerusalem. Their peculiar separation for the ministry of the Gentiles. Imposition of hands the usual rite of ordination. Their travels through several countries. Their success in Cyprus. Barn:ibas at Lystra taken for Jupiter, and why. Their return to Antioch. Their embassy to Jerusalem about the con- troversy concerning the legal rites. Barnabas seduced by Peter's dissimulation at Antioch. The dissension between him and St. Paul. Barnabas's journey to Cyprus. His voyage to Rome, and preaching the Christian faith there. His martyrdom by the Jews in Cj-prus. His burial. His body, when first discovered. St. Matthew's Hebrew Gospel found with it. The great privileges hereupon conferred upon the see of Salamis. A description of his person and temper. The epistle anciently published under his name. The design of it. The practical part of it excellently managed under the two ways of light and darkness. I. The proper and (if I may so term it) original name of this apostle (for with that title St. Luke, and after him the ancients, constantly honour him) was Joses, by a softer termination familiar with the Greeks for Joseph, and so the king's, and several other manuscript copies, read it. It was the name given him at his circumcision, in honour, uo doubt, of Joseph, one of the great patriarchs of their nation, to which, after his embracing Chri.s- tianity, the apostles added that of Barnabas ; " Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas,"" either implying him a " son of prophecy," eminent for his prophetic gifts and endow- ments, or denoting him (what was a peculiar part of the prophets' office) "a son of consolation,"'' for his admirable dexterity in * Acts iv. .Sfi. '' Clirysost. Homil. xi. in Act Apostt. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 01. THE LIFE OF SAINT BARNABAS. 91 erecting- troubled minds, and leading them on by the most mild and gentle methods of persuasion : though I rather conceive him so styled for his generous charity in " refreshing the bowels of the saints," "^ especially since the name seems to have been imposed upon him upon that occasion.'^ He was born in Cyprus, a noted island in the Mediterranean sea, lying between Oilicia, Syria, and Egypt ; a large and fertile country, the theatre anciently of no less than nine several kingdoms, so fruitful and richly furnished with all things that can minister either to the necessity or pleasure of man's life, that it was of old called Macaria, or " the Happy ;" and the historian reports,* that Fortius Cato, having conquered this island, brought hence greater treasures into the exchequer at Rome, than had been done in any other triumph. But in nothing was it more happy, or upon any account more memorable in the records of the church, than that it was the birth-place of our apostle ; whose ancestors in the troublesome times of Antiochus Epiphanes, or in the conquest of Judaea by Pompey and the Roman army, had fled over hither, (as a place best secured from violence and invasion,) and settled here. II. He was descended of the tribe of Levi, and the line of the priesthood, which rendered his conversion to Christianity the more remarkable, all interests concui'ring to leaven him with mighty prejudices against the Christian faith. But the grace of God delights many times to exert itself against the strongest opposition, and loves to conquer, where there is least probability to overcome. His parents were rich and piovis, and finding him a beautiful and hopeful youth, (says my author,*^ deriving his intelligence concerning him, as he tells us, from Clemens of Alexandria, and other ancient writers,) they sent or brought him to Jerusalem, to be trained up in the knowledge of the law, and to that end committed him to the tutorage of Gamaliel, the great doctor of the law, and most famous master at that time in Israel, at whose foot he was brought up together with St. Paul ; which, if so, might lay an early foundation of that intimate ftimiliarity that Avas afterwards between them. Here he im- proved in learning and piety, frequenting the temple, and de- <= Philem. 7. *• Vid. Notker.' Martyr, ad III. Id. Jun. Canis. Antiq. Lect. vol. vi. e L. Flor. 1. iii. c. 9. ^ Alexand. Monach. Encom. S. Barnab. inter vitas S. Metaph. cxtat. ap Sur. ad Jun. XI. vid. ilt. n. 4, 5, 6. 92 THE LIFE OF voutl y exercising liiinself in fasting and prayer. We are further told,*^ tluit being a frequent spectator of our Saviour's miracles, and among the rest of his curing the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, he was soon convinced of his divinity, and persuaded to deliver up himself to his discipline and institutions: and as the nature of true goodness is ever communicative, he presently went and acquainted his sister Mary with the notice of the Messiah, who hastened to come to him, and importuned him to come home to her house, where our Lord afterwards (as the church continued to do after his decease) was wont to assemble with his disciples ; and that her son Mark was that " young man,""'' who bore the pitcher of water, whom our Lord com- manded the two disciples to follow home, and there prepare for the celebration of the Passover. IIL But however that was, he doubtless continued with our Lord to the last, and after his ascension stood fair to be chosen one of the twelve, if it be true, (what is generally taken for granted, though I think without any reason, Chrysostom' I am sure enters his dissent,) that he is the same with Joseph called Barsabas, who was put candidate with Matthias for the aposto- late in the room of Judas. However, that he was one of the seventy, Clemens Alexandrinus expressly affirms,'' as others do after him. And when the necessities of the Church daily in- creasing, required more than ordinary supplies, he, according to the free and noble spirit of those times, having lands of good value, " sold them, and laid the money at the apostles'' feet."' If it be enquired how a Levite came by lands and possessions, when the Mosaic law allowed them no particular portions, but what were made by public provision ; it needs no other answer than to suppose that this estate was his patrimonial inheritance in Cyprus, where the Jewish constitutions did not take place: and surely an estate it was of very considerable value, and the parting with it a greater charity than ordinary, otherwise the sacred historian would not have made such a particular remark concerning it. « Ibid. n. 7. •■ Mark xiv. 13. ' Horn. xi. in Act. Apostt. s. 1. vol. ix. p. 90. I* Strom, lib. ii. c. 20. p. 489. Kuseb. Hist, Eccl. lib. ii. c. 1. ex Clem. Hypot. 1. vii. Chron. Alex. p. 5.30. ' Acts iv. 37. SAINT BARNABAS. 93 IV. The church being dispersed up and down after St. Ste- phen''s martyrdom, we have no certain account what became of him ; in all probability he stayed with the apostles at Jerusalem, where we find him not long after St. Paul's conversion. For that fierce and active zealot being miraculously taken off in the height of his rage and fury, and putting on now the innocent and inoffensive temper of a lamb, came after some little time to Jerusalem, and addressed himself to the church. But they, not satisfied in the reality of his change, and fearing it might be nothing but a subtle artifice to betray them, universally shunned his company; and what wonder if the harmless sheep fled at the siffht of the wolf that had made such havoc of the flock : till Barnabas, presuming probably upon his former acquaintance, entered into a more familiar converse with him, introduced him to the apostles, and declared to them the manner of his conver- sion, and what signal evidences he had given of it at Damascus, in his bold and resolute disputations with the Jews. V. " There is that scattereth, and yet increase th :'""" the dis- persion of the church by SauFs persecution proved the means of a more plentiful harvest, the Christian religion being hereby on all hands conveyed both to Jews and Gentiles. Among the rest some Cyprian and Cyrenean converts went to Antioch," where they preached the Gospel with mighty success ; great numbers both of Jews and proselytes (wherewith that city did abound) heartily embracing the Christian faith. The news whereof coming to the apostles at Jerusalem, they sent down Barnabas to take an account of it, and to settle this new plantation. Being come, he rejoiced to see that Christianity had made so fair a progress in that great city, earnestly pressing them cordially and constantly to persevere in that excellent religion which they had entertained ; himself, like a pious and a good man, undergoing any labours and difficulties ; which God was pleased to crown with answerable success, the addition of multitudes of new con- verts to the faith. But the work was too great to be managed by a single hand : to furnish himself, therefore, with suitable assistance, he went to Tarsus, to enquire for St. Paul, lately come thither. Him he brings back with him to Antioch, where both of them continued industriously ministering to the increase and establishment of the church for a whole year together ; and ■n Prov. xi. 24. " Acts xi. 20. 94 THE LIFE OF tlicn aiul there it was that the disciples of the holy Jesus had the honourable name of Christians" first solemnly lixed upon them. VI, It happened about this time, or not long after, that a severe famine (foretold by Agabus, a Christian prophet, that came down to Antioch) pressed upon the provinces of the Roman empire, and especially Judiica, whereby the Christians, whose estates were exhausted by their continual contributions for the maintenance of the poor, were reduced to great ex- tremities. The church of Antioch compassionating their mise- rable case, agreed upon a liberal and charitable supply for their relief, which they entrusted witli ]3arnabas and Paul, whom they sent along with it to the governors of the churches, that they might dispose it as necessity did require. This charitable em- bassy the Greek rituals no doubt respect, when in the office at the promotion of the magnus ceconomus^^ or high steward of the church, (wliose place it A\^as to manage and dispose the church's revenues,) they make particular mention of " the holy and most famous Barnabas the apostle, and generous martyr." Having discharged their trust, they returned back from Jerusalem to Antioch, bringing along with them " John, surnamed Mark,'""' the son of Mary, sister to Barnabas, whose house was the sanctuary, where the church found both shelter for their persons, and con- veniency for the solemnities of their worship. VII. The church of Antioch being now suflSciently provided of spiritual guides, our two apostles might be the better spared for the conversion of the Gentile world. As they were therefore engaged in the duties of fasting and j^rayer, and other public exercises of their religion, the Spirit of God, by some prophetic afflatus or revelation made to some of the prophets there present, commanded that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart to that peculiar ministry, to which God had designed them. Accord- ingly, having fasted and prayed, hands were solemnly laid upon them, to denote their particular designation to that service. Imposition of hands had been a ceremony of ancient date. Even among the Gentiles they were wont to design persons to public functions and offices by lifting up, or stretching out the hand, whereby they gave their votes and suffrages for those em- ployments. But herein though they did x^Lporovecv, " stretch •* Acts xi. 2fi. P Ritual. GrsEcor. in promot. fficonom. i Acts xii. 25. SAINT BARNABAS. 95 forth," they did not " lay on their hands ;*" which was the proper ceremony in use, and of far greater standing in the Jewish church. When Moses made choice of the seventy elders to be his coadjutors in the government, it was (say the Jews) by laying his hands upon them : and when he constituted Joshua to be his successor, " he laid his hands on him, and gave him the charge before all the congregation."'' This custom they con- stantly kept in appointing both civil and ecclesiastical officers, and that not only while their temple and polity stood, but long after the fall of their church and state. For so Benjamin the Jew tells us,^ that in his time all the Israelites of the East, when they wanted a rabbin or teacher in their synagogues, were wont to bring him to the nSjH Wi^'^^ ^s they call him the al')(^lJiak(OTdp')(7]<;^ or " head of the captivity,'' residing at Babylon, (at that time R. Daniel the son of Hasdai,) that he might re- ceive jniirm rT]D''I2DrT power by " imposition of hands" to become preacher to them. From the Jews it was together with some other rites transferred into the Christian church, in ordaining guides and ministers of religion, and has been so used through all ages and periods to this day. Though the ')(^etpo6eaia and the x^cpoTovia are not of equal extent in the Avritings and prac- tice of the church ; the one implying the bare rite of laying on of hands, while the other denotes ordination itself, and the entire solemnity of the action. Whence the apostolical constitutor,* speaking of the presbyter's interest in this affair, says ^et/ao^eret ov '^ecpoTovel, he lays on his hands, but he does not ordain ; meaning it of the custom then, and ever since, of presbyters laying on their hands together with the bishop in that solemn action. VIII. Barnabas and Paul, having thus received a divine com- mission for the apostleship of the Gentiles, and taking Mark along with them as their minister and attendant, immediately entered upon the province. And first they betook themselves to Seleucia, a neighbour city, seated upon the influx of the river Orontes into the Mediterranean sea : hence they set sail for Cyprus, Barnabas's native country, and arrived at Salamis, a city heretofore of great account, the ruins whereof are two miles distant from the present Famagusta, where they un- dauntedly preached in the Jewish synagogues. From Salamis •• Numb, xxvii. 22,23. • Itinerar. p. 73. ' Lib. viii. c. 28. 96 THE LIFE OF they travelled up the island to Paphos, a city remarkable of old for the worship of Venus, Diva potens Cypr'i^'' the tutelar goddess of the island, who was here worshipped with the most wanton and immodest rites, and had a famous temple dedicated to her for that purpose, concerning which the inhabitants have a tradition ^ that at St. Barnabas's prayers it fell flat to the ground ; and the ruins of an ancient church are still shewed to travellers, and under it an arch, where Paul and Barnabas were shut up in prison. At this place was the court or residence of the prjctor, or president of the island, (not pro])erly avdviraToii, the proconsul, for Cyprus was not a proconsular but a praetorian province,) who being altogether guided by the counsels and sorceries of Bar-Jesus, an eminent magician, stood off from the proposals of Christianity, till the magician being struck by St. Paul with immediate blindness for his malicious opposition of the gospel, this quickly determined the governor's belief, and brought him over a convert to that religion, which as it made the best offers, so he could not but see had the strongest evi- dences to attend it. IX. Leaving Cyprus, they sailed over to Perga in Pamphilia,^ famous for a temple of Diana ; here Mark, weary it seems of this itinerant course of life, and the unavoidable dangers that at- tended it, took his leave and returned to Jerusalem ; which laid the foundation of an unhappy difference, that broke out between these two apostles afterwards. The next place they came to was Antioch in Pisidia, where in the Jewish synagogue St. Paul by an elegant oration converted great numbers both of Jews and proselytes ; but a persecution being raised by others, they were forced to desert the place. Thence they passed to Iconium, a noted city of Lycaonia, where in the synagogues they preached a long time with good success, till a conspiracy being made against them, they withdrew to Lystra, the inhabitants whereof, upon a miraculous cure done by St. Paul, treated them as gods come down from heaven in human shape ; St. Paul, as being principal speaker, they termed Mercury, the interpreter of the gods; Barnabas they looked upon as Jupiter, their sovereign deity, either because of his age, or (as Chrysostom thinks,^) because he was utto tt}? o>/re Acts xiii. 13. ' Horn. xxx. in Act. Apostt. s. 3. vol. ix. p. 237. SAINT BARNABAS. 97 and comeliness of his person, being (as antiquity represents him) a very goodly man, and of a venerable aspect, wherein he had infinitely the advantage of St. Paul, who was of a very mean and contemptible presence. But the malice of the Jews pur- sued them hither, and prevailed with the people to stone St. Paul, who presently recovering, he and Barnabas went to Derbe, where, when they had converted many to the faith, they returned back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, and so through Pisidia to Pamphylia, thence from Perga to Attalia, confirming as they came back the churches which they had planted at their first going out. At Attalia they took ship, and sailed to Antioch in Syria, the place whence they had first set out, where they gave the church an account of the whole success of their travels, and what way was made for the propagation of Christianity in the Gentile world, X. The restless enemy of all goodness was vexed to see so fair and smooth a progress of the gospel, and therefore resolved to attempt it by the old subtle arts of intestine divisions and animosities : what the envious man could not stifle by open violence, he sought to choke by sowing tares. Some zealous converts coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch, started this notion, which they asserted with all possible zeal and stiffness, that unless together with the Christian religion they joined the observance of the Mosaic rites," there could be no hopes of salvation for them. Paul and Barnabas opposed themselves against this heterodox opinion with all vigour and smartness, but not able to beat it down, were despatched by the church to advise with the apostles and brethren at Jerusalem about this matter : whither they were no sooner come, but they were kindly and courteously entertained, and the " right hand of fellowship,"'' given them by the three great apostles, Peter, James, and John ; and an agreement made between them, that wherever they came, they should betake themselves to the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas applied themselves unto the Gentiles. And here probably it was that Mark reconciled himself to his uncle Barnabas, which, one tells us,*^ he did with tears and great importunity, earnestly begj^ing him to forgive his weakness and cowardice, and promising for the futu*e a firmer constancy and =1 Acts XV. 1. ^ Gal. ii. 9. <^ Alexand. Monach. encom. S. Barnab. inter vitas S. Metapli. ap. Sur. ad Jun. xi. n. 15. VOL. I. H 98 THE LIFE OF more undaunted resolution. But they were especially careful to mind the great affair they were sent about, and accordingly opened the case in a public council convened for that purpose. And Peter having first given his sentence, that the Gentile converts were under no such obligation, Paul and ]Jarnabas acquainted the synod what great things God by their ministry had wrought for the conversion of the Gentiles ; a plain evidence that they were accepted by God without the Mosaic rites and ceremonies. The matter being decided by the council, the determination was drawn up into the form of a synodical epistle, which was delivered to Barnabas and I^aul, to whom the council gave this eulogium and character, that they were " men that had hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,"'' with Avhom they joined two of their own, that they might carry it to the churches. Being come to Antioch they delivered the decrees of the council, wherewith the church was abundantly satisfied, and the controversy for the present laid asleep. XL It was not long after this that St. Peter came down to Antioch,'' who, loth to exasperate the zealous Jews, withdrew all converse with the Gentile converts, contrary to his former practice, and his late vote and suffrage in the synod at Jeru- salem. The minds of the Gentiles were greatly disturbed at this, and the convert Jews, tempted by his example, abstain from all communion with the Gentiles ; nay, so strong was the temptation, that St. Barnabas himself was carried down the stream, and began now to scruple, whether it was lawful to hold communion with the Gentiles, with whom before he had so familiarly conversed, and been so eminently instrumental in their conversion to Christianity : so prevalent an influence has the example of a great or a good man to determine others to what is good or bad. How careful should we be what course we take, lest we seduce and compel others to walk in our crooked paths, and load ourselves with the guilt of those that follow after us! St. Paul shortly after propounded to Barnabas, that they might again visit the churches wherein they had lately planted the Christian faith : he liked the motion, but desired his cousin Mark might again go along with them, which St. Paul would by no means consent to, having found, <• Acts XV. 26. c Gal. ii. 11. SAINT BARNABAS. 99 by his cowardly deserting them at Pamphylia, how unfit he was for such a troublesome and dangerous service. This begat a sharp contest, and rij^ened into almost an irreconcileable difference between these two holy men : which, as at once it shews, that the best are men of like passions and infirmities with others, subject to be transported with partiality, and carried off with the heats of an irregular passion, so it lets us see " how great a matter a little fire kindles," ' and how inconsiderable an occasion may minister to strife and division, and hazard the breach of the firmest charity and friendship. The issue was that the to ^evyo'i TO lepbv, (as Theodoret^ styles these two apostles,) this sacred pair, that had hitherto equally and unanimously drawn the yoke of the gospel, now drew several ways, and in some dis- content pai'ted from each other: St. Paul, taking Silas, went to the churches of Syria and Cilicia ; while Barnabas, accompanied with his cousin Mark, set sail for Cyprus, his own country. XII. Thus far the sacred historian has for the main gone before us, who here breaks off his accounts concerning him. What became of him afterwards we are left under great uncer- tainty. Dorotheus'' and the author of the Recognitions,' and some other writings attributed to St. Clemens, make him to have been at Rome, and one of the first that preached the Christian faith in that city ; for which Baronius*^ falls foul upon them, not being willing that any should be thought to have been there before St. Peter, though after him (and it is but good manners to let him go first) he is not unwilling to grant his being there. Leaving therefore the difference in point of time, let us see what we find there concerning him. At his first arrival there, about autumn, he is said thus publicly to have addressed himself to the people, "AvSp€<; 'Ptofxaiot aKovaare. " O ye Romans, give ear. The Son of God has appeared in the country of Judea, promising eternal life to all that are willing to embrace it, and to lead their lives according to the will of the Father that sent him. Where- fore change your course of life, and turn from a worse to a better state, from things temporal to those that are eternal. Acknow- ledge that there is one only God, who is in heaven, and whose ^ James iii. 5. s Comm. in Esai. xi. vol. ii, p. 255. '• Doroth. Synops. ap. Bibl. patrum, vol. ii. p. 182. ' Recogn. 1. i. c. 7. Clementin. Horn. i. c. 7. Epitom. de gest. B. Petr. c. 7. '' Baron, ad Ann. 51. n. 52. 54. not. ad Martyr. Rom. Jun. xi. p. 257. H 2 100 THE LIFE OF world vou unjnstlv possess before liis righteous face. But if you reform, aud live acoordiug to bis laws, you shall be translated iuto another world, whore you shall become immortal, and enjoy the inetlable glories and ha])piness of that state. Whereas if you persist in your infidelity, your souls, after the dissolution of these bodies, shall be cast into a place of flames, where they shall be eternally tormented under the anguish of an unprofitable and too late repentance. For the present life is to every one the only space and season of repentance." This was spoken with groat plainness and simplicity, and without any artificial schemes of speech, and accordingly took with the attentive i)opulacy : while the philosophers and more inquisitive heads entertained the dis- course with scorn aud laughter, (this indeed the author of the KXrjfievTtva ' and the Epitome Ilpd^ewv,"' somewhat differently from the Recognitions, refers to his being at Alexandria,) setting upon him with captious questions and syllogisms, and sophistical arts of reasoning. But he, taking no notice of their impertinent questions, went on in his plain discourse, concluding that he had nakedly laid these things before them, and that it lay at their door whether they would reject or entertain them ; that for his part he could not without prejudice to himself not declare them, nor they without infinite danger disbelieve them. XITI. Departing from Home, he is by different writers made to steer different courses. The Greeks" tell us he went for Alexandria, and thence for Judea : the writers" of the Roman church (with whom agrees DorotheusP in this matter) that he preached the gospel in Liguria, and founded a church at Milan, whereof he became the first bishop, propagating Christianity in all those parts. But however that was, probable it is that in the last periods of his life he returned unto Cyi)rus, where my au- thor tells us, '' he converted many, till some Jews from Syria coming to Salamis, whore he then was, enraged with fury set upon him as he was disputing in the synagogue, in a corner whereof they shut him up till night, when they brought him forth, and after infinite tortures stoned him to death. He adds (and the ' Clcmentin. Horn. i. 8, 9, 10. "• Epitom. de pest. B. Petri, c. 8, Dc pudicit. c. 20. vid. Philastr. de Haeres. c. 60. ' Contr. CeU. 1. i. c. 63. » Hist. Ecd. I. iii. c. 25. SAINT BARNABAS. 103 ancient and useful a discourse. Thus then he expresses him- self: XV. " The way of life is this. Whoever travels towards the appointed place, will hasten by his works to attain to it. And the knowledge that is given us how to walk in this way is this : Thou shalt love thy Creator. Thou shalt glorify him who re- deemed thee from death. Thou shalt be simple in heart, and being rich in spirit shalt not join thyself to him that walks in the way of death. Thou shalt hate to do that which is displeasing unto God. Thou shalt hate all manner of hypocrisy. Thou shalt not forsake the commandments of the Lord. Exalt not thyself, but be of an humble mind. Thou shalt not assume glory to thyself. Neither shalt thou take evil council against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not add boldness to thy soul. Thou shalt not commit fornication, nor be guilty of adultery or bug- gery. Thou shalt not neglect God's command in correcting other men's impurity, nor shalt thou have respect of persons, when thou reprovest any man for his faults. Thou shalt be meek and silent, and stand in awe of the words which thou hearest. Thou shalt not remember evil against thy brother. Thou shalt not be of a double and unstable mind, doubting whether thus or thus. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt love thy neighbour above thy life. Thou shalt not destroy a child by abortion, nor make it away when it is born. Thou shalt not withhold thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but fi'om their youth shalt teach them the fear of the Lord. Be not desirous of thy neighbour's goods, nor covet much. Neither shalt thou heartily join with the proud, but shalt be numbered with the just and the humble. Entertain trials and temptations, when they happen to thee, as instruments of good. Thou shalt not be double-minded, nor of a deceitful tongue, for a double tongue is the snare of death. Thou shalt be subject to the Lord, and to masters as God's representatives, in reverence and fear. Thou shalt not command thy maid or man-servant with bitterness and severity, those especially that hope in God, lest thou thyself prove one that fearest not him, who is over both : for he came not to call men according to outward appearance, but those whom his Spirit did prepare. Thou shalt communi- cate to thy neighbour in all things, and shalt not" call what thou hast thine own : for if ye mutually partake in incorruptible 104. THE LIFE OF things, how much more in things that are corruptible, lie not rasli with thy tongue, for the mouth is the snare of death. Keep thy soul as chaste as thou canst ; stretch not forth thy hands to take, and shut them when thou shouldst give. Love all those that speak to thee the w^ord of the Lord, as the apple of thine eye. •llemember the day of judgment night and day. Seek out daily the faces of holy men, and searching by the word, go forth to exhort, and by it study to save a soul. And with thy hands shalt thou labour for the redemption of thy sins. Delay not to give, nor begrudge when thou art charitable. Give to every one that asks thee ; and thou shalt know who is the good recom- penser of the reward. Thou shalt keep the things which thou hast received, neither adding to them, nor taking from them. Tliou shalt ever hate a wicked person. Judge righteously. Make no schism. ^lake peace between those that are at differ- ence, reconciling them to each other. Confess thy sins, and come not to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light."" X VL " But now the way of darkness is crooked and full of curses. For it is the way of eternal death attended with punish- ment ; wherein are things destructive to their souls — idolatry, audaciousness, height of domination, hypocrisy, double-hearted- ness, adultery, murder, rapine, pride, transgression, deceit, ma- lice, arrogance, witchcraft, magic, covetousness, want of the fear of God ; persecutors of good men, haters of the truth, men who love but do not know the wages of righteousness ; persons that adhere not to what is good, nor who by righteous judgment regard the case of the widow and the orphan ; watchful not for the fear of God, but for what is evil ; great strangers to meek- ness and patience ; lovers of vanity, greedy of revenge, who compassionate not the poor, nor endeavour to relieve the op- pressed ; prone to detraction, not knowing their Maker ; mur- derers of children, defacers of God's workmanship, such as turn away themselves from the needy, add affliction to the afflicted, plead for the rich, and unjustly judge the poor, sinners altoge- ther." '^ And having thus described these two different ways, he concludes his discourse with a hearty and passionate exhortation, that since the time of rewards and punishments was drawing on, they would mind these things, as those that were taught of God, •> Baniab. Ep. c. If), •■ Ibid. c. 20. SAINT BARNABAS. 105 searching after what God required of them, and setting them- selves to the practice of it, that they might be saved at the day of judgment. I have no more to remark concerning this excel- lent person, than to add the character given of him by a pen that could not err, " he was a good man, full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost." " ^ Acts ri. 24. THE LIFE OF SAINT TIMOTHY THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST. St. Timothy's country and kindred. His religious education. The great advantages of an early piety. Converted to Christianity by St. Paul, and made choice of to be his companion. Circumcised by St. Paul, and why. This no contnidicting St. Paul's doctrine concerning circumcision. His travels with St. Paul for the propagation of the faith. His return from Thessalonica, and St, Paul's two epistles to that church. St. Timothy consecrated bishop of Ephesus. The consent of antiquity herein. Ordina- tion in those times usuallj' done by prophetic designation, and the reiison of it. Timo- thy's age enquired into. The importance of veos and PfSrris (let no man despise thy youth) ; the words shewed to be used by the best writers for a considerable age. St. Paul's first and second epistles to him, and the importance of them. The manners of the Ephesians noted. Their festival called Karayaiyiov. St. Timothy's martyrdom. The time of his death, place of his burial, and translation of his body. His weak and infirm constitution. His great abstinence, and admirable zeal. St. Paul's singular affection for him. Different from Timotheus in St. Denys the Areopagite. Another Timothy, St Paul's disciple, martyred under Antoninus. I. Saint Timothy was, as we may probably conceive, a Lycaonian, born at Lystra, a noted city of that province. He was a person in whom the Jew, the Gentile, and the Cliristian met altogether. His father was by birth a Greek, by religion a Cientile, or if a proselyte, at most but 2li^in 1.1, " a proselyte of the gate," who did not oblige themselves to circumcision, and the rites of Moses, but only to the observance of the " seven precepts of the sons of Noah : " his mother Eunice, daughter to the devout and pious Lois, was a Jewess, who yet scrupled not to marry with this Greek ; an argument that the partition wall now tottered, and was ready to fall, when Jew and Gentile began thus to match together.'' His mother and grandmother were women very emi- iifntiy virtuous and holy, and seem to have been among.st the first that were converted to the Christian faith. Nor was it the least instance of their piety, the care they took of his education, * Chrysost. Horn. i. in 2 Tim. s. 2. vol. xi. p. 660. THE LIFE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 107 instructing him in the knowledge of divine things, and seasoning his tender years with virtuous and sober principles, so that " from a child he was acquainted with the holy Scriptures," ^ whereby he was admirably prepared for the reception of Christianity, and furnished for the conduct of a strict pious life. And indeed religion never thrives more kindly, than when it is planted be- times, and the foundations of it laid in an early piety. " For the mind, being then soft and tender, is easily capable of the best impressions, which by degrees insinuate themselves into it, and insensibly reconcile it to the difficulties of an holy life; so that what must necessarily be harsh and severe to a man that endea- vours to rescue himself from an habitual course of sin, the other is unacquainted with, and goes on smoothly in a way that is be- come pleasant and delightful. None start with greater advan- tages, nor usually persevere with a more vigorous constancy, than they who " remember their Creator in the days of their youth," "^ and sacrifice the first-fruits of their time to God and to religion, before corrupt affections have clapped a bias upon their inclinations, and a train of vices depraved, and in great measure laid asleep, the natural notions of good and evil. 11. Prepared by so excellent a culture in the Jewish religion, God was pleased to transplant him into a better soil. St. Paul, in pursuance of his commission to preach the gospel to the Gen- tiles, had come as far as Antioch in Pisidia, thence to Iconium, and so to Lystra, where the miraculous cure of an impotent cripple made way for the entertainment of the Christian doctrine. Among others there converted, we are told^ were St. Timothy''s parents, who courteously treated and entertained the apostle at their house, wholly resigning up their son to his care and conduct. About two years after, in his review of those late plantations, he came again to Lystra, where he made choice of Timothy,^ recom- mended to him by the universal testimony of the Christians thereabouts, as an evangelist, to be his assistant and the com- panion of his travels, that he might have somebody always with him, with whom he could entrust matters of importance, and whom he might despatch upon any extraordinary affair and exi- gence of the church. Indeed Timothy was not circumcised; for this being a branch of the paternal authority, did not lie in his ^ 2 Tim. iii. 15. <= Plut. de liber, educ. vol. ii. p. 4. •* Eccl. xii. 1. e S. Metaphr. de S. Timoth. ap. Sur. ad Jun. 22. ' Acts xvi. 1, 2, 3. 108 THE LIFE OF mother's power : this was notoriously known to all the Jews, and this St. Paul knew would be a mighty prejudice to his ministry •wherever he came. For the Jews, being infinitely zealous for circumcision, would not with any tolerable patience endure any man to preach to them, or so much as to converse with them, who was himself uncircumcised. That this obstacle therefore might be removed, he caused him to be circumcised, becoming in lawful matters " all things to all men, that he might gain the more."^ Admirable (says Chrysostom'') the wisdom and pru- dence of St. Paul, who had this design in it, iTe/ateVe/iev, I'va irept- TOfjurjv KaOeXrj : " he circumcised him, that he might take away circumcision ;" that is, be the more acceptable to the Jews, and by that means the more capable to undeceive them in their opinion of the necessity of those legal rites. At other times we find him smartly contending against circumcision as a justifica- tion of the Mosaic institutions, and a virtual undermining the great ends of Christianity. Nor did he in this instance contra^ diet his own doctrine, or unwarrantably symbolize with the Jews; it being only (as Clemens ' of Alexandria observes concerning this passage) a prudent condescension to the present humour of the Jews, whom he was unwilling to disoblige, and make them wholly fly off, by a too sudden and violent rending them from the circumcision in the flesh, to bring them over to the circumcision of the heart. So that he who thus accommodates himself for the salvation of another, can no ways be charged with dissimulation and hypocrisy ; seeing he does that purely for the advantage of others, which he would not do for any other reason, or upon account of the things themselves : this being rov (^iXavOpuiirov KOI (piXodiov TraiSevTOv, the part of a wise and kind instructor, who is a true lover of God and the souls of men. III. St. Paul thus fitted with a meet companion, forwards they set in their evangelical progress, and having passed through Phrygia and Galatia, came down to Troas, thence they set sail for Samothracia, and so to Neapolis, whence they passed to Phi- lippi, the metropolis of that part of Macedonia : where being evil entreated by the magistrates and people, they departed to Thes- salonica, whence the fury and malice of the Jews made them fly to Beriea. Here they met with people of a more generous and « 1 Cor. ix. 1.0, 22. ^ Horn, xxxiv. in Act. Apost. b. 3. vol. ix. p. 2()3. ' Stromal. 1. vii. c. 9. SAINT TIMOTHY. 109 manly temper, ready to embrace the Christian doctrine, but yet not till they had first compared it with the predictions which the prophets had made concerning- the Messiah. But even here they could not escape the implacable spirit of the Jews, so that the Christians were forced privately to conduct St. Paul to Athens, while Silas and Timothy, not so much the immediate objects of their spite and cruelty, stayed behind, to instruct and confirm the converts of that place. Whether they came to him during his stay at Athens, is uncertain : St. Luke takes no far- ther notice of them till their coming to him at Corinth, his next remove. Where at their first arrival, (if it was not at Athens,) St. Paul despatched away Timothy to Thessalonica,*" to inquire into the state of Christianity in that city, and to confirm them in the belief and profession of the Gospel ; for he seems to have had a more peculiar kindness for that church, having since his last being there more than once resolved himself to go back to them,' but that the great enemy of souls had still thrown some rub in the way to hinder him. IV. From Thessalonica Timothy returned™ with the welcome news of their firmness and constancy, notwithstanding the perse- cutions they endured, their mutual charity to each other, and particular affection to St. Paul ; news wherewith the good man was infinitely pleased : as certainly nothing can minister greater joy and satisfaction to a faithful guide of souls, than to behold the welfare and prosperity of his people. Nor did his care of them end here, but he presently writes his first epistle to them, to animate them under their sufferings, and not to desert the Christian religion, because the cross did attend it, but rather to adorn their Christian profession by a life answerable to the holy designs and precepts of it. In the front of this epistle he in- serted not only his own name, but also those of Silas and Timo- thy, partly to reflect the greater honour upon his fellow-workers, partly that their united authority and consent might have the stronger influence and force upon them. The like he did in a second epistle, which not long after he sent to them, to supply the want of his personal presence, whereof in his former he had given them some hopes, and which he himself seemed so passion- ately to desire. Eighteen months, at least, they had continued k 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, 3. '1 Thess. ii. 17, 18, 19. ■" 1 Thes8. iii. 6, 7, &c. 110 THE LIFE OF at Corinth, wlien St. Paul resolved upon a journey to Jerusalem, where he stayed not long, but went for Antioch ; and having travelled over the countries of Galatia and Phrygia to establish Christianity, lately planted in those parts, came to Ephesus, where though he met with great opposition, yet he preached with greater success ; and was so wholly swallowed up with the concerns of that city, that, though he had resolved himself to go into Macedonia, he was forced to send Timothy and Erastus in his stead, who having done their errand, returned to Ephesus, to assist him in promoting the affairs of religion in that place. V. St. Paul having for three years resided at Ephesus and the parts about it, determined to take his leave, and depart for Macedonia. And now it was (as himself plainly intimates," and the ancients generally conceive) that he constituted Timothy bishop and governor of that church ; he was the first bishop (says Eusebius)° of the province or diocese of Ephesus; he did TT/DWTo? 'E TTveviJiaTc, " making trial of them by the Spirit :" and another Clemens*^ reports of St. John, that visiting the neighbour churches about Ephesus, he ordained bishops, and such as were signified, or pointed out to him " by the Spirit." VI. This extraordinary and miraculous way of choosing bishops and ecclesiastic officers, besides other advantages, begat a mighty reverence and veneration for the governors of the church, who were looked upon as God's choice, and as having the more imme- diate character of heaven upon them. And especially this way seemed more necessary for St. Timothy than others, to secure him from that contempt which his youth might otherwise have exposed him to. For that he was but young at that time, is evident from St. Paul's counsel to him, so to demean himself, that "no man might despise his youth i"*^ the governors of the church in those days were Trpea/Bvrepoc, in respect of their age as well as office, and indeed therefore styled elders, because they usually were persons of a considerable age that were admitted y 1 Tim. i. 18. M Tim. iv. 14. ^ Homil. V. in 1 Tim. s. 1. vol. xi. p. 574. '' Epist. ad Corinth, c. 42. '^ Clem. Alex. lib. Tis 6 irKovcrios ffw^SfXfvos, ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 23. ^ 1 Tim. iv. 12. 112 THE LIFE OF into tho orders of the church : this Timothy hail not attained to. And yet the word veorrj'i, youth, admits a greater latitude than we in ordinary speech confine it to. Cicero tells us of him- self,* that he was adolescentulus, but a very youth when he pleaded Eoscius"'s cause ; and yet A. Gellius' proves him to have been at that time no less than twenty-seven years old. Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, is called veavLaKo Loc. citat. s. 4. p. fi. li 116 TPIE LIFE OF nothing but a dull find a heavy soul to inform it ; so bodily weakness is no great impediment, where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it. X. These excellent virtues infinitely endeared him to St. Paul, who seems to have had a very passionate kindness for him, never mentioning him without great tenderness, and titles of reverence and respect : sometimes styling him his son, his brother, his fellow-labourer, " Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow-labourer in the gospel of Christ ;"" ^ sometimes with additions of a particular affection and honourable regard, "Timothy, my dearly beloved son;"'* "Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lordf'' and to the church of Pliilippi more expressly, " I trust to send Timotheus shortly to you, for I have no man like-minded, (tcro-^v^ov, e(|ually dear to me as myself,) who will naturally care for your state : for all seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's ; but ye know the proof of him, that as a son with the father he hath served with me in the gospel." " And because he knew that he was a young man, and of a temper easily capable of harsh and unkind impressions, he entered a particular caution on his behalf with the church of Corinth, " If Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do : let no man therefore despise him, but con- duct him forth in peace, that he may come unto nie."'^ Instances of a great care and tenderness, and Avhich plainly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary person. His very calling him his " dearly beloved son," Chrysostom* thinks a sufficient argument of his virtue. For such affection not being founded in nature, can flow from nothing but virtue and goodness, the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul. We love our children not only because witty, or handsome, kind and dutiful, but because they are ours, and very often for no other reason ; nor can we do otherwise, so long as we are subject to the impressions and the laws of nature. Whereas true goodness and virtue have no other arts but their own naked worth and beauty to recommend them, nor can by any other argument challenge regard and veneration from us. ^ 1 Thess. iii. 2. » 2 Tim. i. 2. ^ I Cor. iv. 17. •^ Phil. ii. l.O, 20, &c. " 1 Cor. xvi. 1(1, 1 1. " Horn. i. in 2 Tim. s. 1. vol xi. p. C59. SAINT TIMOTHY. 117 XI. Some dispute there has been among- the writers of the church of Rome, whether our St. Timothy was the same with him, to whom Dionysius the Areopagite dedicates the books said to be written by him ; and troops of arguments are mustered on either side. But the foundation of the controversy is quite taken away with us, who are sufficiently assured, that those books were written some hundreds of years after St. Denys's head was laid in the dust. However it may not be improper to i-emark, that besides ours, bishop of Ephesus, we are tokl of another St. Timothy,*^^ disciple also to St. Paul, the son of Pudens and Priscilla, who is said to have lived unto a great age, till the times of Antoninus the emperor, and Pius bishop of Rome ; and that he came over into Britain, converted and baptized Lucius king of this island, the first king that ever embraced the Chris- tian faith. Pius bishop of Rome, in a letter ^ to Justus bishop of Vienne, (which though suspected by most, is yet owned by Baronius,'') reckons him among the presbyters that had been educated by the apostles, and had come to Rome, and tells us that he had suffered martyrdom : accordingly, the Roman Mar- tyrology informs us,' that he obtained the crown of martyrdom under Antoninus the emperor : a story which, as I cannot con- fute, so I am not over-forward to believe, nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to inquire about it. '' Pet. de Natal. Hist. SS. 1. i. c. 24. Naucler. Chron. vol ii. gener. 6. confer. Adon. Martyr, ad xii. Kal. Jul. vid. Usser. de primord. c. 3. s Concill. ed. reg. vol. i. p. 230. •> Bar. ad Ann. 166. n. 1, 2. ' MartyroL Rom. ad Mar, 24. THE LIFE OF SAINT TITUS BISHOP OF CRETE. His country enquired into. The report of his noble extraction. His education and conver- sion to Christianity. His acquaintance with, and accompanying St. Paul to the synod at Jerusalem. St. Paul's refusing to circumcise him, and why. His attending St. Paul in his travels. Their arrival in Crete. Titus constituted by him bishop of that island. The testimonies of the ancients to that purpose. The intimations of it in St. Paul's epistle to him. St. Paul's censure of the people of Crete, justified by the account which Gentile writers give of their evil manners. A short view of the epistle itself. The directions concerning ecclesiastic persons. His charge to exhort and con- vince gainsayers. Crete abounding with heretical teachers. Jewish fables and genealogies what, and whence derived. The jTSones and arv^vyiai of the ancient Gnostics borrowed from the Oeoyovlat of the heathen poets. This shewn by particular instances. Titus commanded to attend St. Paul at Nicopolis. His coming to him into Macedonia. His following St. Paul to Rome, and departure into Dalmatia. 'J'he story of Pliny the Younger's being converted by him in Crete, censured. His age and death. The church erected to his memory. I. The ancient writers of the cliurch make little mention of this holy man ; who, and whence he was, is not known, but by un- certain probabilities. St. Chrysostom * conjectures him to have been born at Corinth, for no other reason, but because in some ancient copies (as still is in several manuscripts at this day) mention is made of St. PauFs going at Corinth into the house of one [Titus] named "Justus, one that worshi])ped."''''' The writers of later ages generally make him to be born in Crete, better known by the modern name of Candia, a noble island, (as the historian calls it,*^ who adds that the only cause of the Romans making war there, was a desire to conquer so brave a country,) in the ^gean sea, not more famous of old for being the birth-place of Jupiter, the sovereign of the heathen gods, and the Da^dalean labyrinth said to be in it, than of late for its ' Horn. i. in Tit. s. 1. vol. xi. p. 7'2i). '' Acts xviil. 7. *■ Flor. Hist. Rom. 1. iii. c. 7. THE LIFE OF SAINT TITUS. 119 having been so long the seat of war between the Turkish em- peror and the state of Venice. Antiquity has not certainly conveyed down to us any particular notice of his parents, though, might we believe the account which some give, he was of no common extract, but of the blood royal, his pedigree being derived from no less than Minos king of Crete,^ whom the poets make the son of Jupiter, and for the equity of his laws, and the impartial justice of his government, prefer him to be one of the three great judges in the infernal regions, whose place it is to determine men's future and eternal state ; while historians more truly affirm him to have been the son of Xanthus king of that island, and that he succeeded his father in the kingdom. But I pass by that. II. But whatever his parentage was, we are sure that he was a Greek, probably both by nation and religion. The Greek church in their public offices give us this account of his younger years, and conversion to Christianity : that being sprung from noble parents, his youth was consecrated to learning and a generous education. At twenty years old he heard a voice, which told him, he must depart thence, that he might save his soul, for that all his learning else would be of little advantage to him.* Not satisfied with the warning, he desired again to hear the voice. A year after, he was again commanded in a vision to peruse the volume of Jewish law. He opened the book, and cast his eye upon that of the prophet, " Keep silence before me, islands, and let the people renew their strength : let them come near, let them speak : let us come near together to judgment," &c.^ Whereupon his uncle, at that time pro- consul of Crete, having heard the fame of our Lord's miracles in Judea, sent him to Jerusalem, where he continued till Christ's ascension, when he was converted by that famous sermon of St. Peter's, whereby he gained at once three thousand souls. I cannot secure the truth of this story, though pretended to be derived out of the Acts, said to be written by Zenas the lawyer, mentioned by St. Paul : an authority, I confess, which without better evidence I dare not encourage the reader to lay too much stress upon. Let us therefore come to somewhat more certain and unquestionable. III. Being arrived in Judea, or the parts thereabouts, and ^ Menaeon Graec. Avyova-r t^ Ke' sub. lit. ^.111. " Id. ibid. f Isai. xli. 1. 120 THE LIFE OF convinced of the truth and divinity of the Christian faith, he became St. Paul's convert and disciple, though when or where converted we find not. Likely it is, either that he followed St. Paul in the nature of a companion and attendant, or that he incorporated himself into the church of Antioch : where when the famous controversy arose concerning circumcision and the Mosaic institutions, as equally necessary to be observed with the belief and practice of Christianity, they determined that " Paul and JJarnabas, and certain others of them should go up to Jeru- salem unto the apostles and elders about this question ;"'"'^ nay, a very ancient IMS.'' adds, that when Paul earnestly persuaded them to continue in the doctrine which they had been taught, those very Jewish zealots who came down to Antioch, and had first started the scruple, did " themselves desire Paul and Barnabas and some others to go and consult with the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and stand to their sentence and de- termination of the case." In the number of those who were sent upon this evangelical embassy was our St. Titus, whom St. Paul ' (encouraged to this journey by a particular revela- tion) was willing to take along with him. No sooner were they come to Jerusalem, but spies were at hand ; some zealous Jews, pretending themselves to be Christian converts, insinuated themselves into St. Paul's company and acquaintance, narrowly observing what liberty he took in point of legal rites, that thence they might pick an accusation against him. They charged him that he preached to, and conversed with the Gentiles, and that at this very time Titus an uncircumcised Greek was his intimate familiar : a scandal which there was no way to avoid, but by circumcising him, that so it might appear that he had no design to undermine the rites and customs of the law. This, St. Paid (who knew when to give ground, and when to maintain his station) would by no means consent to : he who at another time was content to circumcise Timothy, a Jew by by the mother's side, that he might please the Jews to their edification, and have the fairer advantage to win upon them, refused here to circumcise Titus a Gentile, that he might not seem to betray the liberties of the gospel, harden the Jews in their unreasonable and inveterate prejudices against the hea- thens, and give just ground of scandal and discouragement to 8 Acts XV. 1, 2. h Cod. Bcza; MS. ad Act. xv. 2. ' Gal. ii. 1,2. SAINT TITUS. 121 the Gentiles, and make them fly off to a greater distance from Christianity. Accordingly he resisted their importunity with an invincible resolution, and his practice herein was immediately justified by the decretory sentence of the council, summoned to determine this matter. IV. The affair about which they were sent being despatched in the synod, he returned no doubt with St. Paul to Autioch, and thence accompanied him in his travels, till having gone over the churches of Syria and Cilicia, they set sail for Crete. For that period of time I conceive with Capellus'' most probable for their going over to that island, rather than, with Baronius' and others, to place it at St. PauFs coming out of Macedonia into Greece, which he supposes to have been by a sea voyage, passing by the Cycladse islands through the ^gean sea; or with Grotius™ to refer it till his voyage to Rome, founding his conjecture ujion a double mistake, that St. Paul and his company put in and stayed at Crete, when it is only said, that " they sailed under it, and passed by it," and that Titus was then in the company, whereof no footsteps or intimations appear in the story. Sailing there- fore from some port in Cilicia, they arrived at Crete," where St. Paul industriously set himself to preach and propagate the Christian faith, delighting (as much as might be) to be the first messenger of the glad tidings of the gospel to all places where he came, not planting " in another man's line,'"' or building " of things made ready to his hand." But because the care of other churches called upon him, and would not permit him to stay long enough here to see Christianity brought to a due maturity and perfection, he constituted Titus bishop of that island, that he might nourish that infant church, superintend its growth and prosperity, and manage the government and administration of it. This the ancients with one mouth declare : " He was the first bishop (says Eusebius)° of the churches in Crete:" "the apostle consecrated him bishop of it," so St. Ambrose ; so Dorotheus,P and Sojihronius : "^ "he was (says Chrysostom) ■■ an approved person, to whom rj vrjao,+• ) Mind Merexa | *i, + • j Man Tharthuu \ ^'^^^ ^^ / Truth. Atarbarba. \ ^'^^^ ^^ \ Church. &c. &c. All which was nothing but a trifling and fantastical imitation of Hesiod's progeny and generation of the gods, which being joined h Tit. i. 14. ' Tit. iii. 9. ^ Hesiod. Theogon. 124. ' Haeres. xxxi. c. 2, 3. vid. Tertull. de Praescript. Hseret. c. 7. 126 THE LIFE OF in conjugations sxiccceded in this order; Chaos, Night; Erebus, Earth ; ^^tlier, Day, &c. ; there being (as lie observes) no dif- ference between the one scheme and the other, but only the change and alteration of the names." This may suffice for a specimen to shew whence this idle generation borrowed their extravagant conceits, though there were that had set much- what the like on foot before the time of Valentinus, By such dark and wild notions and principles, the false apostles, both in Crete and elsewhere, sought to undermine the Christian doctrine, mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty, that they might the easilier insinuate themselves into the af- fections of men, whereby they brought over numerous proselytes to their party, of whom " they made merchandise," ° gaining sufficient advantage to themselves. So that it was absolutely necessary that these men's mouths should be stopped, and that they should not be suffered to go on mider a show of such lofty and sublime speculations, and a pretence of Christian liberty, to pervert men from the Christian religion, and the plainness and simplicity of the gospel. Having done with ecclesiastics, he proceeds to give directions for persons of all ages and capacities, whether old or young, men or women, children or servants ; and then of more public concernment, rulers and people, and indeed how to deport ourselves in the general carriage of our lives. In the close of the epistle he wishes him to furnish Zenas and ApoUos, the two apostolical messengers by whom this letter was conveyed to him, with all things necessary for their return ; commanding that he himself, with all convenient speed, should meet him at Nicopolis, (though where that was is not certain ; whether Nicopolis in Epirus, so called from Augustu.s"'s victory there over Antony and Cleopatra ; or rather Nicopolis in Thrace, upon the river Nesus, not far from the borders of Macedonia, whither St. Paul was now going ; or some other city, whereof many in those parts of that name,) where he had resolved to spend his winter. And that by withdrawing so useful and vigilant a shepherd he might not seem to expose his flock to the fury and the rage of the wolves, he promises to send Artemas or Tychicus to supply his place during his absence from them, IX. St. Paul departing from Ephesus was come to Troas, where though he had a fair opportunity to preach the gospel " Kpiphan. Ihtres. xxxi. c. 2, .3. " Tit. i. 11. SAINT TITUS. 127 offered to liim, yet (as himself tells us) he " had no rest in his spirit, because he found not Titus his brother,"'' whom he im- patiently expected to bring him an account of the state of the church of Corinth ; whether Titus had been with him, and been sent upon this errand, or had been commanded by him to take Corinth in his way from Crete, is not known. Not meeting him here, aw^ay he goes for Macedonia,'' where at length Titus arrived, and comforted him under all his other sorrows and difficulties, with the joyful news of the happy condition of the church of Corinth, and how readily they had reformed those miscarriages, which in his former epistle he had charged upon them, fully making good that great character which he had given of them to Titus, and whereof they gave no inconsiderable evidence in that kind and welcome entertainment which Titus found amongst them. Soon after, St. Paul, having received the collections of the Macedonian churches for the indigent Christians at Jerusalem, sent back Titus,"" and with him St. Luke, to Corinth, to excite their charity, and prepare their contributions against his own arrival there, and by them he wrote his second epistle to that church. X. Titus faithfully discharged his errand to the church of Corinth ; and having despatched the services for which he was sent, returned, we may suppose, back to Crete. Nor do we hear any further news of him till St. PauUs imprisonment at Rome, whither he came (if my author * say true) about two years after him, and continued with him till his martyrdom, whereat he was present, and together with St. Luke committed him to his grave. An account, which I confess I am the less inclined to believe, because assured by St. Paul himself, that before his death Titus had left him, and was gone into Dalmatia,* a pro- vince of Illyricum, to plant that fierce and warlike nation with the gospel of peace, taking it probably in his way in order to his return for Crete. And this is the last notice we find taken of him in the holy writings, nor do the records of the church henceforward furnish us with any certain memoirs or remarks concerning him. Indeed were the story which some tell us true, one thing alone were enough to make him memorable to posterity, I mean his converting Pliny the Younger, that P 2 Cor. ii. 13. 12 Cor. vii. 5—7. 13—15. ■• 2 Cor. viii. «. 16. 18. » Pet. de Natal. Hist. SS. lib. vii. c. 108. '2 Tim. iv. 10. 128 THE LIFE OF learned and c]o(|nont man, proconsul of Bithvnia, and intimate privy-connsellor to Trajan the emperor. For so they tell us," that returning from his province in liithynia, he landed in Crete, where the emperor had commanded him to erect a temple to Jupiter ; which was accordingly done, and no sooner finished, but St. Titus cursed it, and it immediately tumbled to the ground. The man, you may guess, was strangely troubled, and came with tears to the holy man, to request his counsel ; who advised him to begin it in the name of the God of the Christians, and it would not fail to prosper. He did so, and having finished it, was himself, together with his son, baptized. Nay, some, to make the story perfect, add, that he suffered martyrdom for the faith at Novocomum, a city of Insubria in Italy, where he was born. The reader, I presume, will not expect I should take pains to confute this story, sufficiently improbable in itself, and which I behold as just of the same metal, and coined in the same mint, with that of his master Trajan"'s soul being delivered out of hell by the prayers of St. Gregory the Great, so gravely told, so seriously believed by many, not in the Greek church only, but in the church of Home : nay, which the whole east and west, (if we may believe Damascen,'') held to be yvrjcnov Kal uBui/3\7}Tov, true and uncontrollable. XI. St. Titus lived, as the ancients tell us, to a great age, dying about the ninety-fourth year of his life. He died in peace, (say Sophronius •^' and Isidore ^) and lies buried in Crete : the Roman Martyrology ^ adds, that he was buried in that very church, wherein St. Paul ordained him bishop of that island. I understand him, where a church was afterwards built, it not being likely there should be any at that time. At Candia, the metropolis of the island, there is, or lately was, an ancient and beautiful church, dedicated to St. Titus;'' wherein, under the high altar, his remains are said to be honourably laid up, and are both by the Greeks and Latins held in great venera- tion. Though what is become of them since that famous city lately fell into the hands of the Turk, that great scourge of Christendom, is to me unknown. His festival is celebrated in " Pet de Natal, loc. cit. ex Act. S. Titi a Zena (uti fcrtur) script. Fl. Pseiulo-Dcxt. Chron. ad Ann. 220. " Damasccn. Serm. irept rwv iv ttist. KfKoifj.. y Ap. Hicron. de Script, in Tito_ * De vit. et ob. c. 87. , * Ad diom 4. Jan. •» Cotovic. Itin. 1. i. c. 12. SAINT TITUS. 129 the Western church on the fourth day of January, in the Greek church August the twenty-fifth, and among the Christians in Egypt (as appears by the Arabic calendar published by Mr. Selden)'' the twenty-second of the month Barmahath, answering to our March the eighteenth, is consecrated to his memory. *= De Synodr. vol. iii, c. 15. VOL. I. K THE LIFE OF SAINT DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE. Dionysins bom at Athens. The cjualit}' of his parents. His domestic studies. His foreign travels. Mgvpt frequented as the staple place of all recondite learning. His residence at Heliopolis. The strange and miraculous eclipse at our Saviour's Passion. Dionj'sius's remarks upon it. His return to Athens, and being m:ide one of the judges of the Areopagus. The nature of this court : the number and quality of its judges. St. Paul arraigned before it : his discourse, and its success. Dionysius's conversion. His further instruction by Hierotheus. Hierotheus, who. Dionysius constituted bishop of Athens. A brief account of his story, according to those that confound him with Dionysius bishop of Paris. These shewn to be distinct. The original and pro- cedure of the mistake inquired into. A probable account given of it Dionysius's martyrdom at Athens, and the time of it. A fabulous miracle reported of his scull. Tile description of his person, .and the hyperbolical connnendations which the Greeks give of him. The books ascribed to him. These none of his. Apollinaris (probably) shewed to be the author of them. Several passages of the ancients noted to that purpose. Books, why oft published under other men's names. These books the founUiin of en- thusiasm and mystical theologj'. A passiige in them instanced in to that purpose, I. Saint Dionysius was born at Athens, the eye of Greece, and fountain of learning and humanity, the only place that without conijjetition had for so many ages maintained an uncontrolled reputation for arts and sciences, and to which there was an uni- versal confluence of persons from all parts of the world to accom- plish themselves in the more polite and useful studies. Though we find nothing particularly concerning his parents, yet we may safely conclude them to have been per.sons of a noble quality, at least of a better rank than ordinai'y, seeing none were admitted to be Areopagite judges, (as one who knew very well informs us,") II\r)V 01 «a/V&)9 yeyovoTe'i, Koi TroWijv aperi^v koI crcocjipo- crvvrjv tV tcS /3i&) ivBeSeiyfievoi, iniless they were nobly born, and eminently exemplary for a virtuous and a sober life. Being » Ibocr. Ordt. Areopag. c. 14. Vid. Ma.xini. Prolog, opp. S. Dionys. Pref. p. 34. THE LIFE OF SAINT DIONYSIUS. 131 born in the very midst of arts and civility, his education could not but be learned and ingenuous, especially considering the ad- vantages of his birth and fortunes. Accordingly, he was in- structed in all the learned sciences of Greece,'' wherein he made such vast improvements, that he easily outstripped any of his time; scarce any sect or institution in philosophy then in vogue, which he had not considered and made trial of: it does not indeed appear to which of them he particularly devoted and applied himself; and they who suppose him to have addicted himself to the school of Plato, do it, I conceive, for no other reason, than because the doctrine contained in the books that bear his name, seems so near of kin to the principles of that noble sect. II. But it was not an homebred institution, or all the ad- vantages which Athens could afford, that could fill the vast capacities of his mind, which he therefore resolved to polish and improve by foreign travels. Being in the prime and vigour of his youth, about the age of twenty-five years,*" he took with him one Apollophanes, a rhetorician, his fellow-student, and (if Syn- cellus say true*^) his kinsman, who was afterwards at Smyrna, master to Polemon the Laodicean, as he was to Aristides the famous philosopher and apologist for the Christians. Thus fur- nished with a suitable companion, he is said to have gone for Egypt, to converse with their philosophers and wise men, that he might perfect himself in the study of the mathematics, and the more mj^sterious and recondite parts of learning. Egypt had in all ages been looked upon as the prime school, not only of astrology, but of the more abstruse and uncommon speculations of theology; and the great masters of wisdom and divinity among the Gentiles never thought they had gained enough, till they had crowned their studies by conversing with the Egyptian sages. Hence it was frequented by Orpheus, Homer, Solon, Thales, by Pythagoras and Plato, and whom not ? nay, of Pythagoras, Clemens of Alexandria reports,*^ that he suffered himself to be circumcised, that so he might be admitted et? ra aSvra, to the concealed rites and notions of their religion, and be acquainted with their secret and mystical philosophy. The place he fixed at was Heliopolis, a city between Coptus and Alexandria, where •* Suid. in voc. Atovvcnos. "^ Suid. ubi supra. Maxim. Pachym. Syncel. aliique plures. •1 Encom. S. Dionys. vol. ii. p. 213. opp. Dionys. "" Stromat. 1. i. c. 15. K 2 132 THE LIFE OF the Egyptian priests for the most resided, as a place achnirahly advantageous for the contemplation of the heavenly hodies, and the study of philosophy and astronomy; and where Straho' (who lived much about this time) tells us, he was shewed the habitations of the priests, and the apartments of Plato and Eudoxus, who lived here thirteen years ; nay, a very ancient liistorian assures us,'^ that Abraham himself lived here, and taught the Egyptian priests astronomy, and other parts of learninof. III. Dion^^sius no doubt plied his studies in this place, during whose stay there, one memorable accident is reported. The Son of God about this time was delivered up at Jerusalem to an acute and shameful death by the hands of violence and injustice ; when the sun, as if ashamed to behold so great a wickedness, hid his head, and put on mourning to wait upon the funerals of its Maker. This eclipse was contrary to all the known rules and laws of nature, it happening in a full moon, Avhen the moon is in its greatest distance from the sun, and consecjuenth' not liable to a conjunction with him, the moon moving itself under the sun from its Oriental to its Occidental point, and thence back by a retrograde motion, causing a strange defection of light for three hours together. That there was such a wonderful and pre- ternatural " darkness over all the earth" for three hours, at the time of our Saviour's suffering, whereby the sun ^\ as darkened, is unanimously attested by the evangelical historians ; and not by them only, but Phlcgon Trallianus,'' sometime servant to the emperor Trajan, speaks of an eclipse of the sun that happened about that time, Meyia-Tr) rwv iyvoipicrfievcov Trporepov, the greatest of any that had been ever known, whereby the day was turned into night, and the stars appeared at noon-day, an earth- quake also accompanying it, whereby many houses at Nice in Bithynia were overturned. Apollophanes, beholding this strange eclipse, cried out to Dionysius, that these were changes and re- volutions of some great affairs ; to whom the other replied, that " either God suffered, or at least sympathized and bore part with ' Geogr. 1. xvii. p. 11.50. K Alexand. Polyhist. Hist, de Judaeis ap. Euscb. praep. Evang. 1. ix. c. 17. *• Clironic. lib. xiii. apuJ Euseb. Chrnn. ad Ann. Chr. xxxii. vid. firwca "ET. AF. p. 202. vid. Orig. contr. Ccls. 1. il c. .33. et Chron. Alexandr. ad Ann. Tiber, xvii. Indict 4. Olympiad. 202. 4. SAINT DIONYSIUS. 183 him that did." I confess these passages are not to be found in the most ancient writers of the church : but that ought to be no just exception, when we consider what little care was then taken to consign things to writing, and how great a part of those few ancient records that were written were quickly lost, whereof Eusebius sufficiently complains ; not to say, that a great many writings might and did escape his notice ; and Maximus,' I re- member, answering tbe objection, that the books ascribed to St. Denys are not mentioned by Eusebius, tells us, that himself had met with several pieces of the ancients, of which not the least footstep in Eusebius. But however that be, it concludes not against the matter of fact ; many things, though never entered upon record, being as to the substance of them preserved by constant tradition and report. I deny not but that the several authors who report this passage, might immediately derive it out of the epistles said to be written to St. Polycarp and Apollo- plianes ; but then cannot suppose that the author of these epistles did purely feign the matter of fact of his own head, but rather delivered what tradition had conveyed down to his time. Indeed that which would more shrewdly shake the foundation of the story, if it be true, is what Origen supposes, "^ that this " darkness that was over all the earth," and the earthquake that attended our Lord's Passion, extended no farther than Judea, as some of the prodigies no farther than Jerusalem. But to what degrees of truth or probability that opinion may approve itself, I leave to others to inquire. IV. Dionysius, having finished his studies at Heliopolis, re- turned to Athens, incomparably fitted to serve his country, and accordingly was advanced to be one of the judges of the Areo- pagus, a place of great honour and renown. The Areopagus was a famous senate-house built upon a hill in Athens, wherein assembled their great court of justice, tcov iv rol'i "EWrj(rt StKacTTijplcov Tifitcorarov koX dyKoraroVf as one calls it,' "the most sacred and venerable tribunal in all G-reece." Under their cognizance came all the greater and more capital causes ; and especially matters of religion, blasphemy against the gods, and contempt of the holy mysteries ; and therefore St. Paul "" was arraigned before this court, as a " setter forth of strange gods, ' Prolog, ante oper. S. Dionys. p. 3(). '' Tract, xxxv. in Matt. c. 134. ' Aristid. vol. i. p. 190. »' Acts xvii. 18, 19. 134 THE LIFE OF when he preached to them concerning Jesus and Anastasis, or the resurrection^'' None might be of this council but persons of biith and (juahty, wise and prudent men, and of very strict and severe manners ; and so great an awe and reverence did this solemn and grave assembly strike into those that sat in it, that Isocrates tells us," that in his time, when they Mere somewhat degenerated from their ancient virtue, however otherwise men were irregular and exorbitant, yet once chosen into this senate, they presently ceased from their vicious inclinations, and chose rather to conform to the laws and manners of that court, 17 Tal