THE LIFE OF S. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR.

I. THe Christian Religion being designed by God for the reformation of Mankind, and the rooting out that Barbarism and Idolatry wherewith the World was so over-grown, could not but meet with opposition, all corrupt Interests conspiring to give it no very welcom entertainment. Vice and Errour had too long usurped the Throne, to part with it by a tame and easie resignation, but would rather summon all their Forces against a Doctrin, that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruine of their Em­pire. Hence this Sect was every where spoken against, equally opposed both by Jew and Gentile. The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty, as having no antiquity to recommend it, nor could they endure that their Philosophy, which then every where ruled the Chair, should be controlled by a plain simple Doctrine, that pretended to no elabo­rate Schemes, no insinuative strains of Eloquence, no nice and subtile arts of Reasoning, no abstruse and sublime Speculations. The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty Prince who should greatly exalt their State, and redeem it from that oppression and slavery under which it groaned, frustrated by the coming of a Messiah, who ap­peared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace; and who was so far from rescuing them from the power of the Roman Yoke, that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatned the final and irrevocable ruine of their Countrey, and by the Doctrine he published plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaick Institutions, for which they had such dear regards, and so solemn a Veneration. Accordingly when he came amongst them, they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt, and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the People; they vilified and reproached his person, as but the son of a Carpenter, a Glutton and a Drunkard, a Traitor and an Enemy unto Caesar; they sleighted his Doctrine as the talk onely of a rude and illiterate person, traduced his Miracles as tricks of Imposture, and [Page 3]the effects of a black Confederacy with the infernal Powers. And when all this would not do, they violently laid hands upon him, and took away his life. And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died: but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt. On they resolve to go in these bloody methods, and to let the World see that the Disciples and Fol­lowers must expect no better then their Master, it was not many Moneths before they took occasion to refresh their rage in St. Stephens Martyr­dom: the History of whose Life and Death we now come to relate, and to make some brief Remarks upon it.

II. THE sacred Story gives us no particular account either of the Countrey or Kindred of this Holy man. That he was a Jew is unque­stionable, himself sufficiently owns the relation in his Apology to the People, but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham, or of Parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of Proselytism, whether born at Jerusalem, or among the dispersed in the Gentile Pro­vinces is impossible to determine. Ad Ann. XXXIV. n. 275, 298. Baronius (grounding his conjecture upon an Epistle of Lucian, of which more afterwards) makes him to have been one of Gamaliels Disciples, 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 Epiph. Haer [...]. XX. p. 27. Do­roth. Synops. de Vit. App. in Bibl. PP. Tom. 3. p. makes him, probably enough, to have been one of the LXX Disciples, chosen by our Lord as Co-adjutors to the Apo­stles in the Ministry of the Gospel: and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Christian Doctrine, his singular ability to defend the cause of Christs Messiaship against its most acute opposers, plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviours im­mediate institutions. 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 Religion for which it was famous and venerable, was for none more remarkable then 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 wor­shipped 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 minister to the necessi [...]ies 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 ones case and exigency did require. But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord, heaven onely is free from quarrels, and the occasions of offence. The Church increasing every day by vast numbers of Converts to the Faith, the Apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the Churches stock, and the making provision for every part, and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others, sometimes more and sometimes less, to assist in this affair. By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed, but either through favour and partiality, or the oversight of [Page 4]those that managed the matter, some had larger portions, others less re­lief then their just necessities called for. This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest Church that ever was, Act. 6.1. 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, Joh. 7.35. of the dispersed among the Gentiles (the [...], the word [...] in the stile of the New Testament, as also in the Wri­tings of the Fathers, being commonly used for the Gentile World) who accommodated themselves to their manner of living, spake the Greek Language, but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech, (and this called Lingua Hellenistica) and used no other Bible but the Greek Translation of the Septuagint. Comment. de Hellenist. Qu. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. praeci­pue pag. 232. &c. vid. etiam inter alios Bez. & Camer. in loc. A notion which Salmasius has taken a great deal of pains to confute, by shewing that never any People went under that notion and character, that the Jews in what parts of the World soever they were, were not a distinct Nation from those that lived in Palestine; that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hel­lenistic Dialect, nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient Writer; that the Phrase is very improper to express such a mixt Language, yea rather that [...] implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinary, as [...] denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek. Probable therefore it is, that they were not of the Hebrew race, but Greek or Gentile Proselytes, who had either themselves, or in their Ancestors deserted the Pagan Superstitions, and imbodied themselves in­to the Jewish Church, taking upon them Circumcision and the observa­tion of the Rites of the Mosaic Laws (which kind the Jews call [...] Proselytes of Justice,) and were now converted to Christianity. That there were at this time great numbers of these Proselytes at Jeru­salem, is evident; and strange it were, if when at other times they were desirous to 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 reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians) we find one ex­presly said to have been a Proselyte of Antioch, as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be Proselytes of Jerusalem. And thus where ever we meet with the word [...] or Grecians in the History of the Apostolic Acts (as 'tis to be met with in two places more) we may, Act. 9.29.11.20. and in reason are to understand it. So that these Hellenists (who spake Greek, and used the Translation of the LXX) were Jews by Religion, and Gentiles by descent; with the [...] 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 sti­led, 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, [Page 5]then to those who onely agreed with them in the profession of the same Religion, and who indeed were not generally so capable of contribu­ting to the Churches 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, presently called the Church together, and told them, that the disposing 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 chuse out among themselves some that were duly qualified, and present them to them, that they might set them apart peculiarly to superintend this affair, that so themselves being freed from these incumbrances, might the more freely and uninterruptedly devote themselves to prayer and preaching of the Gospel. Not that the Apostles thought the care of the Poor an Office too much below them, but that this might be dischar­ged by other hands, and they, as they were obliged, the better attend upon things of higher importance, Ministeries more immediately ser­viceable to the souls of men. This was the first original of Deacons in the Christian Church, they were to serve Tables, that is, to wait upon the necessities of the Poor, to make daily provisions for their public Feasts, to keep the Churches Treasure, and to distribute to every one accor­ding to their need. And this admirably agrees to one ordinary notion of the word [...] in Foreign Writers, [...]. Lucian. Chronosol. scu de Legg. Saturnal. Tom. 2. p. 823. where 'tis used for that peculiar Servant who waited at Feasts, whose Office it was to distribute the por­tions to every Guest, either according to the com­mand of the [...], the Orderer of the Feast, or according to the rule of Equality, to give every one alike. But though 'tis true this was a main part of the Deacons Office, yet was it not the whole. For had this been all, the Apostles needed not to have been so exact and curious in their choice of persons, seeing men of an ordinary rank and of a very mean capacity might have served the turn, nor have used such solemn Rites of Consecration to Ordain them to it. No question therefore but their serving Tables implied also their attendance at the Table of the Lords Supper. [...] (h. e. non [...]olum) [...]. Ignat. Epist. ad Trall. Append. Usser. p. 17. For in those days their Agapae or common Love-Feasts, (whereat both Rich and Poor sate down together) were at the same time with the Holy Eucharist, and both ad­ministred every day, so that their ministration re­spected both the one and the other. And thus we find it was in the practice of the Church: for so Justin Martyr tells us it was in his time, Apol. II. p. 97. that when the President of the Assembly had consecrated the Eucharist, the Deacons distributed the Bread and the Wine to all that were present, and after carried them to those who were necessarily absent from the Congregation. Nor were they restrained to this one particular Ser­vice, but were in some cases allowed to Preach, Baptize, and Absolve Penitents, especially where they had the peculiar warrant and autho­rity [Page 6]of the Bishop to bear them out: nor need we look far beyond the present Story to find St. Philip, one of the Deacons here elected, both preaching the Gospel, and baptizing Converts with great success.

VI. THAT this excellent Office might be duly managed, the Apo­stles directed and enjoined the Church to nominate such persons as were fitted for it, pious and good men, men of known honesty and integri­ty, of approved and untainted reputations, furnished and endowed with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, wise and prudent men, who would discreetly discharge the trust committed to them. The number of these persons was limited to seven, probably for no other reason but because the Apostles thought these sufficient for the business; unless we will also suppose the whole body of Believers to have been disposed into seven several Divisions, for the more orderly and convenient ma­nagery of their common Feasts, and distributions to the Poor, and that to each of these a Deacon was appointed to superintend and direct them; without further designing any peculiar Mystery, which Vid. Baron. ad Ann. 112. n. 7. Tom. 2. some would fain pick out of it. However the Church thought good for a long time to conform to this Primitive Institution, insomuch that the Fathers of the Conc. Neo-Caes. can. 15. Couc. Tom. 1. Col. 1484. Neo-Caesarean Council ordained, that in no City, how great soever, there should be more then seven Deacons, a Canon which they found upon this place: and Hist. Eccl. lib. 7. c. 19. p. 734. Sozomen tells us that in his time, though many other Churches kept to no certain number, yet that the Church of Rome in compliance with this Apostolical example, admitted no more then se­ven Deacons in it. The People were infinitely pleased with the order and determination which the Apostles had made in this matter, and ac­cordingly made choice of seven, whom they presented to the Apostles, who (as the solemnity of the thing required) first made their address to Heaven by Prayer for the divine blessing upon the undertaking, and then laid their hands upon them, an ancient symbolic Rite of Investiture and Consecration to any extraordinary Office. The issue of all was, that the Christian Religion got ground and prospered, Converts came flocking over to the Faith, yea very many of the Priests them­selves, and of their Tribe and Family, of all others the most zealous and pertinacious asserters of the Mosaic Constitutions, the bitterest adversa­ries of the Christian Doctrine, the subtlest defenders of their Religion, laid aside their prejudices, and embraced the Gospel. So uncontroula­ble is the efficacy of divine truth, as very often to lead its greatest ene­mies in triumph after it.

VII. THE first and chief of the persons here elected, (who were all chosen out of the LXX Disciples, as Haeres. XX. p. 27. Epip [...]anius informs us,) and whom the Ancients frequently stile Arch-deacon, as having the [...] (as Homil. XV. in Act. p. 555. Chrysostom speaks) the Primacy and Precedence among these new-elected Officers, was our St. Stephen, whom the Author of the Epistle to Epist. ad H [...]ron. in Bibl. PP. Gr. Lat. p. 37. Hero under the name of Ignatius, as also the Interpo­lator of that to the Ep. ad Trall. p. 6. Ibid. Trallians makes in a more peculiar manner to have been Deacon to St. James, as Bishop of Jerusalem. He is not onely pla­ced first in the Catalogue, but particularly recommended under this character, a man full of Faith, and of the Holy Ghost; he was exquisitly skilled in all parts of the Christian Doctrine, and fitted with great elo­quence and elocution to declare and publish it; enriched with many miraculous gifts and powers, and a spirit of courage and resolution to encounter the most potent opposition. He preached and pleaded the [Page 7]cause of Christianity with a firm and undaunted mind, and that nothing might be wanting to render it effectual, he confirmed his doctrine by many publick and unquestionable miracles, plain evidences and demon­strations of the truth and divinity of that Religion that he taught. But Truth and Innocency, and a better Cause, is the usual object of bad mens Spight 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 oppose and contradict him. So natural is it for Errour 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 performed, vast numbers of Synagogues for Prayer and Expounding of the Law, where­of the Jews themselves tell us there were not less then CCCCLXXX in that City. In these, or at least some apartments adjoining to them, there were Schools or Colledges 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! [...] (as Chrysostom calls it) a whole Army of wicked adversaries, Orat. in S. Steph. Tom. 6. p. 276. 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, then 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 conjectured. Passing by Junius his conceit of Labra signifying in the Aegyptian Language the whole Precinct that was under one Synagogue, whence Labratenu, Jun. in loc. & in G [...]n. 8.4. or corruptly (says he) Libertini must denote them that belonged to the Sy­nagogue of the Egyptians, omitting this as altogether absurd and fantastical, besides that the Synagogue of the Alexandrians is mentioned afterwards; Suidas tells us 'twas the name of a Nation, Suid. in voc. [...]. but in what part of the World this People or Countrey 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 Judaea, and reduced it under the Roman 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, Antiquit. Jad. lib. 17. c. 12. p. 610. that there were about eight thousand of the Jews who then lived at Rome, that joined themselves to the Embassadors 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, Phil. de legat. ad Gai. p. 78 [...]. who (as Philo informs) suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transti­berin Region: most whereof were Libertines, such who having been made Captives by the Fortune of War, had been set free by their Ma­sters, and permitted to live after the manner of their Ancestors. They had their Proseucha's or Oratories, where they assembled, and perfor­med their devotions according to the Religion of their Country: every [Page 8]year they sent a Contribution in stead of first-fruits to Jerusalem, and deputed certain persons to offer sacrifices for them at the Temple. In­deed afterwards (as we find in Tac. Annal. lib. 2. c. 85. p. 88. Tacitus and Sueton. in vit. T [...]b [...]. 36 p. 334. Suetonius) by an Order of Senate he caused four thousand Libertini 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 Antiq. l. 18. c. 5. p. 623. Jose­phus) and the rest, both Jews and Proselytes, to be banished the City, Tacitus adds, Italy it self. This occasion, I doubt not, many of these Libertine-Jews took to return home into their own Countrey, and at Je­rusalem to erect this Synagogue for themselves and the use of their Countreymen who from Rome resorted thither, stiling 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 Pentecost, he mentions Strangers of Rome, and they both Jews and Pro­selytes.

X. THE next Antagonists were of the Synagogue of the Cyrenians, that is, Ap. J [...]ph. An­t [...] Jad. lib. 16. c. 10. p. 561. Jews who inhabited Cyrene, a noted City of Libya, where (as ap­pears from a Rescript of Augustus) great numbers of them did reside, and who were annually wont to send their holy Treasure or accustomed Offerings to Jerusalem, where also (as we see) they had their peculiar Sy­nagogue. Accordingly we find among the several Nations at Jerusa­lem, Act. 2.10. those who dwelt in the parts of Libya about Cyrene. Thus we read of Simon of Cyrene, whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviours Cross; of Lucius of Cyrene, Act. 13.1.11.19, 20 a famous Doctor in the Church of Antioch; of men of Cyrene, who upon the persecution that followed St. Stephens death, were scattered abroad from Jerusalem, 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 what great priviledges they enjoyed, is too well known to need insisting on. The fourth were them of Cilicia, a known Province of the lesser Asia, the Metropolis whereof was Tarsus, well stored with Jews; it was S. Pauls birth-place, whom we cannot doubt to have born a principal part among these assailants, finding him afterwards so active and busie in S. Stephens death. The last were those of the Synagogue of Asia: where by Asia we are probably to understand no more then 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 'tis 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 different 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, Loc. [...] citat. 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 doest thou study with such cunningly-contrived dis­courses to inveigle and perswade the People? and with deceitful mi­racles to undo the Nation? Here lies the crisis of the Controversie. 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? was not Bethlehem the place of his Nativity, and Nazareth of his education? canst thou [Page 9]imagine him to be God, that was born upon Earth? who was so poor that he was wrapt up in swadling cloths 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 Jordan? who was subject to hunger and thirst, to sleep and weariness? who being bound, was not able to escape, nor being buffeted, to rescue or 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 himself? Is it likely that God should suffer such things as these? would he not rather with an angry breath have struck his adversaries dead at the first approach, and set them beyond the reach of making attempts upon his own person? either cease therefore to delude the People with these impostures, or prepare thy self to undergo the same fate.’

XII. IN answer to which we may imagine S. Stephen thus to have re­plied upon them. ‘And why, Sirs, should these things seem so incre­dible? have you not by you the Writings of the Prophets? do you not read the Books of Moses, and profess your selves 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 hear? Have not the Pro­phets long since foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem, and conceived in the womb of a Virgin? that he should fly into Egypt, that he should bear our griefs and carry our sorrows? 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 meer 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.’

XIII. THIS is the sum of what that ingenious and eloquent Fa­ther conceives S. Stephen did, or might have returned to their Enquiries. 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 wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So particularly did our Lord make good what he had promised to his Disciples, Luke 21.14, 15. Setle 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 gain-say 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 baffled by one single adversary; vexed and troubled that they had not carried the day, and that the Religion which they opposed had hereby received such signal credit and confirmation. Cod. Bezae MS. & 2 Codd. H. Steph. And now being no longer able [...] (as the addition in some very ancient Manuscript Copies does elegantly express it) with open face to resist the truth, they betake themselves to clancular Arts, to sly and sinister Designs, hoping to accomplish by craft and subtlety what they could not carry by fairness and force of reason.

XIV. TO this purpose they tamper with men of debauched profli­gate Consciences, to undermine him by false accusations, that so he might fall as a Sacrifice to their spight and malice, and that by the hand of public Justice. Ubi supra, pag. 278. S. Chrysostom brings them in with smooth and plau­sible insinuations encouraging the men to this mischievous attempt. ‘Come on, worthy and honourable Friends, lend your assistance to our declining cause, and let your Tongues minister to our Counsels and Contrivances. Behold a new Patron and Advocate of the GALI­LAEAN is started up: one that worships a God that was buried, and preaches a Creator shut up in a Tomb; who thinks that he whom the Souldiers despised and mocked upon Earth, is now conversing with the Host of Angels in Heaven, and promises that he shall come to judge the World, who was not able to vindicate and right himself: His Disciples denied him, as if they thought him an Impostor, and yet this man affirms, that every tongue shall confess and do homage to him: himself was not able to come down from the Cross, and yet he talks of his second coming from Heaven; the vilest miscreants reproached him at his death, that he could not save either himself or them, and yet this man peremptorily proclaims him to be the Saviour of the World. Did you ever behold such boldness and impudence? or have you ever heard words of so much madness and blasphemy? Do you there­fore undertake the cause, and find out some specious colour and pre­tence, and thereby purchase to your selves glory and renown from the present Generation.’

XV. THE Wretches were easily persuaded to the undertaking, and to swear whatever their Tutors should direct them. And now the cause is ripe for action, the case is divulged, the Elders and the Scribes are dealt with, (and a little Rhetoric would serve to persuade them) the people possessed with the horrour of the Fact, the Sanhedrim is summoned, the Malefactor haled to the Bar, the Witnesses produced, and the charge gi­ven in. They suborned men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God; the false witnesses said, this man cea­seth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law: for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us: that is, (that we may still proceed with that excellent man in opening the several parts of the charge) ‘he has dared to speak against our wise and great Lawgiver, and blasphemed that Moses, for whom our whole Nation has so just a veneration; that Moses who had the whole Creation at his beck, who freed our Ancestors from the house of bondage, and with his rod tur­ned the Waters into Walls, and by his prayer drowned the Egyptian Army in the bottom of the Sea; who kindled a fiery Pillar for a light by night, and without plowing or sowing fed them with Manna and Bread from Heaven, and with his rod pierced the Rock and gave them drink. But what do we speak of Moses, when he has whetted his tongue, and stretched it out against God himself, and set up one that is dead as an Anti-god to the great Creator of the World? He has not blushed to reproach the Temple, that holy place, where the divine Oracles are read, and the Writings of the Prophets set forth, the Re­pository of the Shew-bread and the Heavenly Manna, of the Ark of the Covenant, and the Rod of Aaron; where the hoary and venerable heads of the High-priests, the dignity of the Elders, and the honour [Page 11]of the Scribes is seen: this is the place which he has reviled and set at naught; and not this onely, but the Law it self; which he boldly declares to be but a shadow, and the ancient Rites but types and fi­gures: he affirms the Galilaean to be greater then Moses, and the Son of Mary stronger then our Law-giver; he has not honoured the di­gnity of the Elders, nor had any reverence to the society of the Scribes. He threatens us with a dead Master; the young man dreams sure, when he talks of Jesus of Nazareth rising again, and destroying this holy place: he little considers with how much wisdom it was con­trived, with what infinite charges it was erected, and how long be­fore it was brought to its perfection. And yet forsooth, this Jesus of Nazareth must destroy it, and change the customs which Moses delivered to us: our most holy Sabbath must be turned out of doors, Circumci­sion abolished, the New-Moons rejected, and the Feast of Taberna­cles laid aside; our Sacrifices must no longer be accepted with God, our Sprinklings and solemn Purgations must be done away: as if we knew not this Nazarens end, and as if one that is dead could revenge himself upon them that are living. How many of the ancient Pro­phets and Holy men have been cruelly murdered, whose death none ever yet undertook to revenge? and yet this man must needs appear in the cause of this crucified Nazarene, and tell us of a dead man that shall judge us: Silly Impostor! to fright us with a Judge who is himself imprisoned in his own Grave.’

XVI. This then is the sum of the charge, that he should threaten the ruine of the Temple, and the abolition of the Mosaick Rites, and blasphe­mously affirm that Jesus of Nazareth should take away that Religion which had been established by Moses, and by God himself. Indeed the Jews had an unmeasurable reverence and veneration for the Mosaick In­stitutions, and could not with any patience endure to hear of their being laid aside, but accounted it a kind of blasphemy so much as to mention their dissolution. Little thinking in how short a time these things which they now so highly valued should be taken away, and their Tem­ple it self laid level with the ground. Which a few years after came to pass by the Roman Army under the Conduct of Titus Vespasian the Roman General, when the City was sacked, and the Temple burnt to the ground. And so final and irrevocable was the sentence by which it was doomed to ruine, that it could never afterwards be re­paired, Heaven it self immediately declaring against it. Insomuch that when Julian the Emperour, out of spight and opposition to the Chri­stians, was resolved to give all possible encouragement to the Jews, and not only permitted but commanded them to rebuild the Temple, fur­nishing them with all charges and materials necessary for the Work, (hoping that hereby he should prove our Saviour a false Prophet) no sooner had they begun to clear the Rubbish, and lay the Foundation, but a terrible Earthquake shattered the Foundation, killed the Undertakers, and shaked down all the buildings that were round about it. And when they again attempted it the next day, great balls of fire suddenly breaking out from under the Foundations consumed the Workmen and those that were near it, and forced them to give over the attempt. A strange instance of the displeasure of Heaven towards a place which God had fatally devoted to destruction. And this related not onely by Christian Socrab. H. Ecc. l. 3. c. 20. p. 193. Sozom. H. E. l. 5. c. 22. p. 631. Writers, but as to the substance of it, by the Heathen [Page 12] A. Marcell. l. 23. non longe ab l [...]t. Historian himself. And the same curse has ever since pursued and fol­lowed them, they having been destitute of Temple and Sacrifice for sixteen hundred years together. ‘Were that bloody Sanhedrim now in being, and here present, (says one of the Greg. Nissen. O [...]t. [...] S. Steph. T [...]. 2. p. 791. Ancients speaking of this accusation) I would ask them about those things for which they were here so much concerned, what is now become of your once famous and renowned Temple? where are those vast stones, and incredible Piles of building? where is that Gold that once equalled all the other materials of the Temple? what are become of your legal Sacrifices? your Rams and Calves, your Lambs and Heifers, Pigeons, Turtles, and Scape-goats? if they therefore condemned Stephen to die, that none of these miseries might befal them, let them shew which of them they avoided by putting him to death; but if they escaped none of them, why then did they imbrue their hands in his innocent bloud?’

XVII. THE Court being thus set, and the Charge brought in and opened, that nothing might be wanting to carry on their mock Scene of Justice, they give him liberty to defend himself. In order whereunto while the Judges of the Sanhedrim earnestly lookt upon him, they disco­vered the appearances of an extraordinary splendor and brightness upon his face, the innocency of his cause and the clearness of his conscience manifesting themselves in the brightness and chearfulness of his counte­nance. The High-priest having asked him whether guilty or not, he in a large discourse pleaded his own cause to this effect: ‘That what apprehensions soever they might have of the stateliness and magnifi­cence of their Temple, of the glory and grandeur of its services and mi­nistrations, of those venerable customs and usages that were amongst them, as if they looked upon them as indispensably necessary, and that 'twas blasphemy to think, God might be acceptably served without them; yet that if they looked back to the first originals of their Na­tion, they would find, that God chose Abraham to be the Father and Founder of it, not when he lived in a Jerusalem, and worshipped God with the pompous services of a Temple, but when he dwelt among the Idolatrous Nations: that then it was that God called him from the impieties of his Fathers house, and admitted him to a familiar acquain­tance and intercourse with himself; wherein he continued for many years without any of those external and visible Rites which they laid so much stress upon; and that when at last God entered into Cove­nant with him, to give his posterity the Land of Canaan, and that in his seed all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed, he bound it upon him with no other ceremony, but onely that of Circumcision, as the Badge and Seal of that foederal compact that was between them: that without any other fixed Rite but this, the succeeding Patriarchs worshipped God for several Ages, till the times of Moses, a wise, lear­ned, and prudent person, to whom God particularly revealed himself, and appointed him Ruler over his People, to conduct them out of the House of Bondage, a great and famous Prophet, and who was conti­nually inculcating this Lesson to their Ancestors, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear; that is, that God in the latter days would send amongst them a mighty Prophet, who should do as Moses had done, introduce new Rites, and set up more excellent Institutions and ways of Worship, to whom they should yield all diligent attention, and ready obedience: [Page 13]that when their fore-fathers had frequently lapsed into Idolatry, God commanded Moses to set up a Tabernacle, as a place of publick and so­lemn Worship, where he would manifest himself, and receive the ad­dresses and adorations of his People; which yet however was but a transient and temporary ministration, and though erected by the im­mediate order of God himself, was yet after some years to give place to a standing Temple designed by David, but built by Solomon; state­ly indeed and majestick, but not absolutely necessary, seeing that infi­nite Being that made the World, who had the heaven for his throne, and the earth for his footstool, could not be confined within a material Tem­ple, nor tied to any particular way of worship; and that therefore there could be no such absolute and indispensable necessity for those Mosai­cal Rites and Ceremonies, as they pretended; especially when God was resolved to introduce a new and better Scene and state of things. But it was the humour of this loose and unruly, this refractory and undisciplinable generation, (as it ever had been of their Ancestors) to resist the Holy Ghost, and oppose him in all those methods, whereby he sought to reform and reclaim them; that there were few of the Prophets whom their fore-fathers had not persecuted, and slain them that had foretold the Messia's coming, the just and the holy Jesus, as they their unhappy posterity had actually betrayed and murdered him, without any due reverence and regard to that Law, which had been solemnly delivered to them by the ministry of Angels, and which he came to fulfil and perfect.’

XVIII. THE holy man was going on in the Application, when the patience of his Auditors, which had hitherto holden out, at this began to fail; that fire which gently warms at a distance, scorches when it comes too near; their consciences being sensibly stung by the too near approach of the truths he delivered, they began to fume and fret, and express all the signs of rage and fury. But he regardless of what was done below, had his eyes and thoughts directed to a higher and a nobler object, and looking up saw the heavens opened, and some bright and sen­sible appearances of the divine majesty, and the holy Jesus clothed in the robes of our glorified nature, not sitting (in which sense he is usually de­scribed in Scripture) but standing (as ready to protect and help, to crown and reward his suffering servant) at the right hand of God. So easily can Heaven delight and entertain us in the want of all earthly comforts, and divine consolations are then nearest to us, when humane assistances are farthest from us. The good man was infinitely ravished with the Vision, and it inspired his soul with a fresh zeal and courage, and made him long to arrive at that happy place, and little concerned what use they would make of it; he could not but communicate and impart his happiness; the Cup was full, and it easily overflowed; he tells his adversaries what himself beheld, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the son of man standing on the right hand of God.

XIX. THE Heavenly Vision had very different effects, it encoura­ged Stephen, but enraged the Jews, who now taking it pro confesso that he was a blasphemer, resolved upon his death, without any further pro­cess. How furious and impatient is mis-guided Zeal! they did not stand to procure a Warrant from the Roman Governour (without whose leave they had not power to put any man to death) nay they had not the patience to stay for the judicial sentence of the Sanhedrim, but [Page 14]acted the part of Zealots, (who were wont to execute vengeance upon Capital Offenders without staying for the ordinary formalities of Ju­stice) and raising a great noise and clamour, and stopping their ears, that they might hear no further blasphemies, and be deaf to all cries for mer­cy, they unanimously rushed upon him. But Zeal is superstitious in its maddest fury: they would not execute him within the Walls, lest they should pollute the holy City with his blood, but hurried him without the City, and there fell upon him with a shower of stones. Stoning was one of the four Capital punishments among the Jews, inflicted upon greater and more enormous crimes, especially Blasphemy, Idolatry, and strange Worship: Vid. P. Fag. in Exod. 21.16. and the Jews tell us of many particular circumstances used in this sort of punishment. The Malefactor was to be led out of the Consistory, at the door whereof a person was to stand with a Napkin in his hand, and a man on Horse-back at some distance from him, that if any one came and said, he had something to offer for the deliverance of the Malefactor, upon the moving of the Napkin the Horseman might give notice, and bring the offender back. He had two grave persons to go along with him to exhort him to confession by the way; a Crier went before him, proclaiming who he was, what his crime, and who the Witnesses; being come near the place of execution (which was two cubits from the ground) he was first stripped, and then stoned, and afterwards hanged, where he was to continue till Sun-set, and then being taken down, he and his Gibbet were both buried together.

XX. SUCH were their customs in ordinary cases, but alass their greediness of St. Stephens bloud would not admit these tedious procee­dings; onely one formality we find them using, which the Law requi­red, Deut. 17.7. which was, that the hands of the Witnesses should be first upon him, to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the People: a Law surely contrived with great Wisdom and Prudence, that so the Witness, if for­sworn, might derive the guilt of the bloud upon himself, and the rest be free; so thou shalt put the evil away from among you. Accordingly here the Witnesses putting off their upper garments (which rendred them less nimble and expedite, being loose and long, according to the mode of those Eastern Countries) laid them down at Sauls feet, a zealous Youth, at that time Student under Gamalicl, the fiery zeal and activity of whose temper made him busie no doubt in this, as we find he was in the fol­lowing Persecution. An action which afterwards cost him tears and penitent reflections, Act. 22.20. himself preferring the Indictment against himself; When the bloud of thy Martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. Thus prepared they began the Tragedy, whose example was soon followed by the multitude. All which time the innocent and holy man was upon his knees, sending up his prayers faster to Heaven then they could rain down Stones upon him, piously recommending his own soul to God, and charitably interceding for his Murderers, that God would not charge this guilt upon them, nor severely reckon with them for it: and then gave up the Ghost, or as the sacred Historian elegantly expresses it, fell asleep. So soft a pillow is death to a good man, so willingly, so quietly does he leave the World, as a weary Labourer goes to bed at night. What Storms or Tempests soever may follow him while he lives, his Sun in spight of all the malice and cruelty of his enemies sets serene and calm; Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace.

XXI. THUS died S. Stephen, the Protomartyr of the Christian Faith, H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 2. p. 38. obtaining [...] (says Eusebius) a reward truly answering to his name, a Crown. He was a man in whom the Vertues of a divine life were very eminent and illustrious; a man full of Faith, and of the Holy Ghost. Admirable his Zeal for God and for Religion, for the propagating whereof he refused no pains, declined no troubles or difficulties: his courage was not baffled either with the angry frowns, or the fierce threatnings of his enemies, nor did his spirit sink, though he stood alone, and had neither Friend nor Kinsman to assist and comfort him; his constancy firm and unshaken, notwithstanding tem­ptations on the one hand, and the dangers that assaulted him on the other: in all the oppositions that he met with, under all the torments and sufferings that he underwent, he discovered nothing but the meek and innocent temper of a Lamb, never betraying one passionate and re­vengeful word, but calmly resigned up his soul to God. He had a cha­rity large enough to cover the highest affronts, and the greatest wrongs and injuries that were put upon him; and accordingly after the exam­ple of his Master, he prayed for the pardon of his Murderers, even while they were raking in his bloud. Ego sum Jesus Nazarenus, quem tu perseque­ris. Quid mihi & tibi? Quare te erigis con­tra me, ad tanta mala quae commisisti in me? Olim quidem debui perdere te, sed Stephanus meus oravit pro [...]te. O Saule lupe rapax, comedi­sti; expecta paululum, & digeres. Dicam pla­ne, elisus est filius perditionis. Nam si Sanctus STEPHANUS sic non orasset, Ecclesia PAULUM non haberet. Sed ideo erectus est Paulus, quia in terra inclinatus exauditus est Stephanus. Quod fecit persecutor, patitur prae­dicator. August. Serm. 1. de S. Steph. Tom. 10. col. 1168. And the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availed much; Heaven was not deaf to his Petition, as appeared in the speedy conversion of S. Paul, whose admi­rable change we may reasonably suppose to have been the birth of the good mans 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, not thought more highly of himself then he ought to think, esteeming meanly of, and preferring others be­fore himself. And therefore the Author of the Apostolic Lib. 8. cap. 46. Concil. Tom. 1. Col. 509.Constitutions brings in the Apostles commending S. Stephen for his humility, that though he was so great a person, and honoured with such singular and extraordinary Visions and Revelations, yet never attempted any thing above his place, did not consecrate the Eucharist, nor confer Or­ders upon any; but (as became a Martyr of Christ [...], to preserve Order and Decency) he contented himself with the station of a Deacon, wherein he persevered to the last minute of his life.

XXII. HIS Martyrdom hapned (say some) three years after our Saviours Passion, which Euodius Bishop of Antioch (if that Epistle were his cited by H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 3. p. 134. Nicephorus, which 'tis probable enough was not) extends to no less then seven years. Doubtless a very wide mistake. Sure I am Lo [...]supr. lan­dat. Eusebius affirms, that it was not long after his ordination to his Deacons Office, and the Author of the Excerpta Chronologica published by Ad calc. Chro. Euseb. pag. 82. Scaliger more particularly, that it was some few days less then eight moneths after our Lords Ascension. He is generally supposed to have been young at the time of his Martyrdom; and Orat. in S. Steph [...]bi supr. Chr [...]sostom makes no scruple of styling him yoang man at every turn, though for what reason, I confess I am yet to learn. He was martyred without the Walls, near the Gate on the North side, that leads to Cedar, (as Ep. de Invent. S. Steph. ap. Sur. ad Aug. 3. Bed. de loc. S. c. 1. p. 363. T. 3. Broc. descript. Terr. s. pon. 328. Convic. Itin. l. 2. c. 11. p. 250. Lucian tells us) and which was afterwards called S. Stephens Gate; anciently (say some) stiled the Gate of Ephraim, or as others the Valley Gate, or the Fish Gate which stood on the East side of the City, where the place we are told is still shewed, where S. Paul sate when he kept [Page 16]the clothes of them that slew him. Over this place (where ever it was) the Empress Euagr. H. Eccl. l. 1 c. 22. p. 280. Eudocia Wife of Theodosius, when she repaired the Walls of Jerusalem, erected a beautiful and stately Church to the honour of S. Stephen, wherein she her self was buried afterwards. The great Stone upon which he stood while he suffered Martyrdom, is Bed. ib. cap. 3. p. 364. 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 Bar. not. in Martyr Ram. ad Aug. 3. p. 475. ex Martyrol. S. Cyriac. told) carried into Italy, and laid up as a choice Treasure at Ancona, and a Church there built to the me­mory 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. They carried, or as the word [...] 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 Lucian. Ep. de invent. S. Steph. abi supr. & apud Bar. ad Ann. 415. p. 371 vid. Niceph. l. 14 c. 9. Tom. 2. p. 454. one of the An­cients, who pretends 'twas 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 Carcass should remain in the place of its Martyrdo [...] 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 com [...]s [...]onating the case of the holy Martyr, persuaded some religious Christian Proselytes, who dwelt at Jerusalem, and furnished them with all things [...] Isary for it, to go with all possible secrecy and fetch off his bod [...] [...] [...]hey brought it away in his own Carriage, and conveved it to [...] called Caphargamala, (corruptly, as is probable, for Caphargamala, otherwise [...] properly signifies the Town of Camels) that is, the Village of Gamaliel, twenty miles distant from Jerusalem; where a solemn mourning was kept for him seventy days at Gamaliels charge, who also caused him to be buried in the East side of his own Monument, where afterwards he was interred himself. The Greek Menaeon adds, that his body was put into a Coffin made of the wood of the Tree called Persea, [...]. Menaeon Graecor. [...]. sub lit. Σ. 111. (this was a large beau­tiful Eg [...]ptian Tree, as Histor. Plant. l. 4. c. 2. p. 286. 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 Gamaliels Revelation) I am not able to imagine. [...] &c. c. 14. p. 19. Edit. Allat. 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, [...]oid. c. 15. p. 25. which (says he) was on the left side the City, as it looks towards Samaria, where a famous Mona­stery was built afterwards.

XXIV. BUT where ever his body was interred, it rested quietly for several Ages, till we hear of its being found out in the reign of Honorius; [Page 17]for then as H. Eccl. l. 9. c. 16, 17. p. 817. Sozomen informs us, it was discovered at the same time with the bones of the Prophet Zachary, an account 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 Vid. loc. sapr. citat. & Phot. Cod. Cl. XXI. Col. 383. Lucian, Presbyter of the Town of Caphargamala in the Diocess 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 Bapti­sterium of his Church, (this was Ann. CCCCXV. Honor. Imper. XXI.) there appeared to him a grave venerable old man, who told him he was Gamaliel, bad him go to John Bishop of Jerusalem, and will him to re­move his remains and some others (whereof S. 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 Elentherius of Hieri­cho, along with him. The Monument being opened, they found an Inscription upon S. Stephens 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 remains being closed up again (onely 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 onely mentioned by Loc. citat. Photius, and before him by Marcel. Chron. Ind [...]ct. XIII. p. m. 17. Marcellinus Comes, some­times Chancellor or Secretary to Justinian, afterwards Emperour (who sets it down as done in the very same year, and under the same Consuls wherein Lucians Epistle reports it) but before both by De Script. Ecc. c. 46, 47. p. 55. Gennadius Presbyter of Marseilles, who lived Ann. CCCCXC. and many years be­fore, and consequently 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 Latine, whose Epistle is prefixed to it, wherein he gives an account of it to Balchonius Bishop of Braga, and sent it by Orosius into Spain.

XXV. THESE remains (whether before or after, the Reader 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. Niceph. H. Ecc. lib. 14. c. 9. p. 454. Tom. 2. Eadem ha [...]et Menaeon Graec. [...]. sab. lit. [...]. 11. Alexander a Nobleman of the Senatorian Order, having a particular 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 S. Stephen, should be bu­ried by him. Eight years after, his Lady (whose name, say some, was Juliana) removing to Constantinople, resolved to take her husbands body along with her: but in a hurry she chanced to mistake S. Stephens Coffin for that of her husband, and so set forward on her journey. But it soon betrayed it self by an extraordinary odor, 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. [Page 18]Which yet could not be effected: for the sturdy Mules that carried the Treasure being come as far as Constantines 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 Balaams Ass been upon record in Scripture. I confess Bar. ad Ann. 439. Tom. 5. p. 681. Baronius seems not over-forward to believe this relation, not for the trifling and ridiculous improbabilities of it, but onely 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 onely 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 Martyrs right hand, which being arrived at Constantinople, was with singular reverence and rejoy­cing 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.

XXVI. Marcell. Chro. Indict. VII. p. 24. Theodor. Lect. lib. 2. p. 568. AUTHORS mention another remove Ann. CCCCXXXIX. (and let the curious and inquisitive after these matters reconcile the different accounts) of his remains to Constantinople by the Empress Eu­docia, Wife to Theodosius, who having been at Jerusalem upon some pious and charitable designs, carried back with her to the Imperial City the remains of S. Stephen, which she carefully laid up in the Church of S. Laurence. The Roman Ad VII. Maii p. 284. Martyrology says, that in the time of Pope Pelagius they were removed from Constantinople to Rome, and lodg'd in the Sepulchre of S. Laurence the Martyr in agro 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 Vid. Avit. Ep. Praef. Ep. Lucian. Gen­nad. de script. Eccl. in Oros. c. 39. p. 53. Marcell. Chron. p. 17. Orosius brought from Jerusalem (whither he had been sent by S. Augustin to know S. Hieroms 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 Afric, for whether it went any further, I find not.

XXVII. AS for the miracles reported to have been done by the re­mains of this Martyr, Deglor. Mar­tyr. lib. 1. cap. 33. p. 42. &c. 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 over-run with an excessive and immoderate Veneration of the Reliques of departed Saints. However I can venture the Readers displeasure for relating one, and the rather because 'tis so solemnly aver­red by Annot. in Mar­tyr. Rom. ad Aug. III. p. 474. Baronius himself. S. Gaudiosus an African Bishop, flying from the Vandalic Persecution, brought with him a Glass Vial of S. Stephens 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 S. Stephens body was first discovered) to melt and bubble, as if it were but newly shed.

But the miracle of the miracle lay in this, that when Pope Gregory the XIII. reformed the Roman Kalendar, and made no less then ten days difference from the former, the bloud in the Vial ceased to bubble upon the third of August according to the old computation, 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 Kalendar, and the Popes Constitutions: but yet it was ill done to set the Kalendars at variance, when both had been equally justi­fied by the miracle. But how easie 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 imagin.

XXVIII. LET us then look to the more early Ages, when Cove­tousness and Secular Interests had not so generally put men upon Arts of craft and subtlety; and we are told both by Lucian and Photius, Loc. an [...]e eleat. that at the first discovery of the Martyrs body many strange miraculous cures were effected, seventy three healed onely by smelling the odor and fragrancy of the body; in some Daemons were cast out, others cu­red of Issues of Bloud, Tumours, Agues, Fevers, and infinite other distem­pers that were upon them. But that which most sways with me, is what S. Augustin reports of these matters; who seems to have been in­quisitive about matters of Fact, De Civ. D [...]i. lib. 22. cap. 8. col. 1346. &c. Tom. 5. 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 miraculously done at the remains of S. Stephen, brought thither (as before we noted) by Orosius from Jerusalem; all done thereabouts, 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 then seventy written of the Cures done at Hippo (the place where he lived) though it was not full two years since the memorial of S. Stephens 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 Readers patience be­yond all recovery, a few onely for a specimen shall suffice. At the Aquae Tibilitanae Projectus the Bishop bringing the remains of the Martyr, in a vast multitude of People a blind woman desiring to be brought to the Bishop, and some Flowers which she brought being laid upon them, and after applied to her eyes, to the wonder of all she instantly received her sight. Lucillus Bishop of Synica near Hippo, carrying 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 expected the Chirurgeons Knife. Eucharius a Spanish Pres­byter, then dwelling at Calama (whereof Possidius who wrote S. Augu­stins Life was 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 sollicited by his Daughter and her Husband (both Christians) to turn Christian, especially in his sickness, but still resented the motion with indignation. His Son-in-law went to the place dedicated to S. Stephens [Page 20]Martyrdom, and there with prayers and tears passionately begged of God his Conversion. Departing he took some Flowers thence with him, which at night he put under his Fathers head; who slept well, and in the morning called for the Bishop, in whose absence (for he was at that time with S. Augustin at Hippo) the Presbyters were sent for; at whose coming he acknowledged himself a Christian, and to the joy and 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 Protomartyrs 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 Cae­sarea in Cappadocia (all the children of one man) had for some notorious misdemeanour after their Fathers 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 Afric, and dwelt at Hippo, notoriously known to the whole City. They arrived fifteen days before Easter, where they frequented the Church, especially the place dedicated to the Martyrdom of S. Ste­phen every day, praying that God would forgive them, and restore them to their health. Upon Easter-day the Young man praying as he was wont at the accustomed place, suddenly dropt 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 S. Augustin, 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 befel him. The day after, when the narrative of his Cure was to be recited to the People, his sister also was healed in the same manner and at the same place, the particular cir­cumstances of both which S. Augustin 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, Vid. Aug. loc. cit. initio cap. 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 Christianity. 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 effoete and weak, that he had not left the Chri­stian Religion wholly destitute of immediate and miraculous attesta­tions, 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 [Page 21]to be conducted by more humane and regular ways, and to preserve its Authority over the minds of men by those standing and innate chara­cters of Divinity, which he has impressed upon it. 'Tis true that the Church of Rome still pretends to this power, which it endeavours to justifie 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 ludicrous, 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 believes them. I shall observe no more, then that in all these cases related by S. Augustin, 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 S. PHILIP THE DEACON and EVANGELIST.

I. Epist. l. 1. Ep. 449. ad An­noch. p. 95. S. PHILLIP was born (as Isidore the Peleusiot plain­ly intimates) at Caesarea, a famous Port-Town be­tween Joppa and Ptolemais in the Province of Sa­maria; but whether he had any other warra [...] [...] it then his own conjecture, I know [...] being some circumstances however that [...] probable. He has been by some both [...] and of later times for want of a due regard to things and persons, carelesly confounded with S. Philip the Aposile. 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 onely, and one of the Seven, chosen out of the People, and set apart by the Apostles, that they themselves might attend the more im­mediate Ministeries of their Office, that the one was dispersed up and down the Countrey, while the other remained with the Apostolical Col­ledge at Jerusalem, that the one though commissionated to Preach and to Baptize, could not impart the Holy Ghost (the peculiar prerogative of the Apostolical Office) will see just reason to force him to acknow­ledge a vast difference between them. Our S. Philip was one of the Seventy Disciples, and S. Stephens next Colleague in the Deacons Office, erected for the conveniency of the Poor, and assisting the Apostles in some inferiour Services and Ministrations: which shews him to have been a person of great esteem and reputation in the Church, endowed with miraculous powers, full of Wisdom, and of the Holy Ghost; which were the qualifications required by the Apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place. In the discharge of this Ministery he con­tinued at Jerusalem for some moneths after his election, till the Church being scattered up and down, he was forced to quit his station: as what wonder if the Stewards be dismissed, when the Houshold is broken up?

II. THE Protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his Enemies: but the bloudy Cloud did not so blow over, but increa­sed into a blacker tempest. Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough, like the temper of the Devil, whose malice is insatiable and eternal. Stephens death would not suffice, the whole Church is now shot at, and they resolve (if possible) to extirpate the Religion it self. The great Engineer in this Persecution was Saul, whose active and fiery genius, and passionate concern for the Traditions of the Fathers, made him pur­sue the design with the Spirit of a Zealot, and the rage of a Mad-man. Having furnished himself with a Commission from the Sanhedrim, he quickly put it in execution, broke open Houses, seized whoever he met [Page 25]with, that looked but like a Disciple of the crucified Jesus, and without any regard to Sex or Age, beat, and haled them unto prison, plucking the Husband from the bosom of his Wife, and the Mother from the em­braces of her Children, blaspheming God, prosecuting and being inju­rious unto men, breathing out nothing but slaughter and threatnings where-ever he came; H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 39. whence Eusebius calls it the first and most grie­vous Persecution of the Church. The Church by this means was for­ced to retire, the Apostles onely remaining privately at Jerusalem, that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the Church, while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring Coun­tries, publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel, and declaring the na­ture and design of it in all places where they came; so that what their Enemies intended as the way to ruine them, by breaking the knot of their Fellowship and Society, proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity. Thus excellent perfumes, while kept close in a box, few are the better for them, whereas being once, whether casual­ly or maliciously spilt upon the ground, the fragrant scent presently fills all corners of the house.

III. AMONG them that were thus dispersed was our Evangelist, so stiled not from his Writing, but preaching of the Gospel. He dire­cted his journey towards the Province of Samaria, and came into a City of Samaria (as those words may be read) probably Gitton, the birth­place of Simon Magus; though it's safest to understand it of Samaria it self. This was the Metropolis of the Province, had been for some Ages the Royal Seat of the Kings of Israel, but being utterly destroyed by Hyrcanus, had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus ( [...]) by him stiled Sebaste. The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, made up of the remains that were left of the Ten Tribes which were carried away captive, and those Heathen Colo­nies which the King of Babylon brought into their room; and their Re­ligion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan Rites, though so highly prized and valued by them, that they made no scru­ple to dispute place, and to vie with the Worship of the Temple at Je­rusalem. Upon this account there had been an ancient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them, so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other. Joh. 4.9. Hence the Samaritan Woman wondred, that our Lord being a Jew, should ask drink of her, who was a Woman of Samaria; for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. They despised them at the rate of Heathens, devoted them under the most solemn execrations, allowed them not to become Proselytes, nor to have any Portion in the Resurrection of the Just, suffered not an Israelite to eat with them, no nor to say Amen to their Blessing, nor did they think they could fasten upon our Saviour a greater Character of reproach, then to say that he was a Samaritan, and had a Devil. But God regards not the prejudices of men, nor always with-holds his kind­ness from them, whom we are ready to banish the Lines of Love and Friendship. 'Tis true the Apostles at their first mission were charged not to go in the way of the Gentiles, Matth. 1 [...].5.nor to enter into any City of the Samari­tans. But when Christ by his death had broken: down the partition wall, Eph. 2.14, 15. & seq.and abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, then the Gospel came and preached peace as well to them that were afar off, as to them that were nigh. Philip therefore freely [Page 26]preached the Gospel to these Samaritans, so odious, so distastful to the Jews: to which he effectually prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles, which being arguments fitted to the capacities, and accommodate to the senses of the meanest, do easiliest convey the truth into the minds of men. And the success here was accordingly, the people generally embracing the Christian Doctrine, while they be­held him curing all manner of diseases, and powerfully dispossessing daemons, who with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence, to the equal joy and wonder of that place.

IV. IN this City was one Simon, born at a Town not far off, who by Sorcery and Magic Arts had strangely insinuated himself into the reverence and veneration of the People. A man crafty and ambitious, daring and insolent, whose Diabolical sophistries and devices, had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the Vulgar, that they really thought him (and for such no doubt he gave out himself) to be the supreme Di­vinity, probably magnifying himself as that divine Power, that was to visit the Jews as the Messia, or the Son of God; among the Samaritans, giving out himself to be the Father, (as Lib. 1. c. 20. p. 115. Irenaeus assures us,) [...], as his Countryman Apol. II. p. 69. vid. Tert. de praeser. Haeret. c. 46. p. 219. Justin Martyr tells us the People worshipped him, as the first and chiefest Deity; as afterwards among the Gentiles he stiled 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 S. Philips arrival, whose greater and more unquestionable 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 errour, universally flocked to S. Philips Sermons, and convinced 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 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 H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 1. p. 39. Eusebius tells us, his Disciples and Followers still observed in his time, who in imitation of their Father, like a Pest or a Leprosie, 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 S. Philips 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, ordaining 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 Apostolic Power: Philip had converted and ba­ptised them, but being onely a Deacon, (as Eplph. Haeres. XXI. p. 29. Epiphanius and Christ. Hor [...]. 18. in [...] p. [...]. Chrysostom truely observe) could not conser the Holy Ghost, this being a faculty bestowed onely upon the Apostles. Simon the Magician observing this, that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of [Page 27]the Apostles hands, hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and re­putation with the people; to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself, to corrupt the Apostles by a sum of money, to confer this power upon him. Peter resented the 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 Ancients) we have related more at large in another place Antiquit. App. Life of S. P [...]t. Sect. 8. v. 1 Sect. 9. [...]. 4..

VI. WHETHER S. Philip returned with the Apostles to Jerusalem, or (as H [...]il. 19. in Act. App p. 585. Chrysostom thinks) staid at Samaria, and the parts thereabouts, we have no intimations left upon Record. [...]. Chrysost. ibid. p. 586. But where-ever he was, an Angel was sent to him with a message from God, to go and instruct a Stranger in the Faith. The Angel one would have thought had been most likely himself to have managed this business with success. But the wise God keeps Method and Order, and will not suffer an Angel to take that Work which he has put into the hands of his Ministers. The sum of his Commission was to go to­ward the South, unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desart: A circumstance, which whether it relate to the way, or the City, is not easie to decide, it being probably true of both. Gaza was a City anciently famous for the strange efforts of Sampsons strength, for his captivity, his death, and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same Ruine. It was afterwards sacked and laid wast by Alexander the Great, and as Geograph. l. 16. p. 759. Zach. 2.4, Jer. 47.5. Strabo notes, remained wast and desart 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 threatnings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent People; so easily do they set open the Gates for ruine to enter into the strongest and best fortified Cities, where Sin has once undermined, and stript them naked of the divine protection.

VII. NO sooner had S. Philip received his Orders, though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey, but he addressed himself to it, he arose and went: he did not reason with himself whether he might not be mistaken, and that be a false and deluding Vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand, and into a Desart and a Wilderness, where he was more likely to meet with Trees and Rocks, and wild Beasts, then Men to preach to: but went however, well knowing God never sends any upon a vain or a foolish errand. An excellent instance of obedience; as 'tis also recorded to Abrahams eternal honour and commendation, that when God sent his Warrant, he obeyed and went out, not knowing whither he went. As he was on his journey, he espied coming towards him a man of Aethiopia, an Eunuch of great authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians; who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jeru­salem to worship; though in what part of the World the Countrey here spoken of was situate (the word being variously used in Scripture) has been some dispute. Doro [...]h. Synops. p. 148. Dorotheus and Sopi [...]. ap. Hier. de Strip Eccl. in Cre­scent. Sophronius of old, and some later Writers, place it in Arabia the Happy, not far from the Persian Gulf: but [Page 28]it's most generally conceived to be meant of the African Aethiopia, lying under or near the torrid Zone, the People whereof are described by Homer, to be [...], the remotest part of mankind; and accor­dingly Hier. ad Paul. Tom. 3. p. 7. S. Hierom says of this Eunuch, that he came from Aethiopia, that is, ab extremis mundi finibus, from the farthest corners of the World. The Countrey is sometimes stiled Cusch, probably from a mixture of the Ara­bians, who inhabiting on the other side of the Red Sea, might send over Colonies hither, who setling in these parts, communicated the names of Cush and Sabaea 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; Amos 9.7. Are ye not as the children of the Aethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? nay the very meeting an Aethiopian 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 Aethiopia at large, especially as parallel at this day with the Abys­sine Empire, but rather of that part of the Countrey whose Metropo­lis was called Meroe, and Saba (as 'tis called both by Antiq. Jud. l. 2. c. 5. p. 58. 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 Hist. Nat. l. 6. c. 29. p. 105. Pliny tells us) that Queens had a long time governed under the title of Candace, a custom (as we find in Strabo) first commencing in the time of Augustus, when a Queen of that name having for her incomparable Vertues been dear to the People, her successors in honour of her took the title of Candace, in the same sense that Ptolomy was the common name of the Kings of Egypt, Artaxerxes of the Kings of Persia, and Caesar of the Roman Emperours. Indeed Oecumenius was of opinion that Candace was one­ly the common name of the Queen-mothers of Aethiopia, [...]. Oecumen. Comment. in Act. VIII. p. 82. that Nation not giving the name of Fathers to their Kings, as acknowledging the Sun onely 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 H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 40. Eusebius expresly says, 'twas the custom of this Coun­trey 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 imploy Eunuchs in places of great trust and honour, and especially of near access to, and attendance upon Queens. [...]. Herod. lib. 8. Auctor Sinnaces, insigni familia ac perinde opibus, & proxime hale Abdus, ademptae viri­litatis, non despectum id apud barbaros, ultro­que potentiam habet. Tacit. Ann. l. 6. c. 31. p. 182. For however among us the very name sounds vile and contemptible, yet in those Coun­tries 'tis otherwise, among the Barbarians (says Herodotus) that is, the Eastern People, Eunuchs are persons of the greatest esteem and value. Our Eunuchs name (as we find it in the Confession made by Extat ad Bzov. Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. 1524. [...] XXXII. p. 543. Zaga Zabo Embassador from the Aethio­pian [Page 29]Emperour) was Indich; [...], a potent Courtier, an Officer of State of prime Note and Quality, being no less then High-Trea­surer to the Queen; nor do we find that Philip either at his Con­version or Baptism found fault with him for his place or greatness. Certainly Magistracy is no ways inconsistent with Christianity, the Church and the State may well agree, and Moses and Aaron go hand in hand. Peter baptized Cornelius, and S. 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 then Philip did here with the Lord Treasurer of the Aethiopian Queen. For his Religion, he was, if not a Proselyte of Justice (as some think) circumcised, and under an obligation to observe the Rites and Pre­cepts of the Law of Moses, at least a Proselyte of the Gate, (in which respect it is that one of the Ancients calls him a Jew) Pont. Diac. in vit. Cypr. p. 11. entered al­ready into the knowledge of the true God, and was now come to Jerusalem (probably at the solemnity of the Passover, or the Feast of Pentecost) to give publick and solemn evidences of his devotion. Though an Aethiopian, and many thousand miles distant from it, though a great Statesman, and necessarily swallowed up in a croud of business, yet he came to Jerusalem 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 Countrey; 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 sate in his Chariot (as Homil. 19. in Act. p. 585. Tantus amator Legis divinae (que) scientiae fuit, at etiam in v [...]hi­culo sacras li­teras legeret. Hier. Epist. ad Paulin. T. 3. p. 7 Chrysostom 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 jour­nying, our thoughts should be at work, and our affections travelling towards Heaven. While the Eunuch was thus imployed, a Messenger is sent to him from God: the best way to meet with divine communi­cations, is to be conversant in our duty. By a voice from Heaven, or some 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 Messia, his meek and innocent carriage under the bloody and barbarous violences of his enemies, who dealt with him with all cruelty and injustice. This the Eunuch not well understanding, nor knowing certainly whether the Prophet meant it of himself or another, desired S. Philip to explain it; who being courteously taken up into his Chariot, shewed him that all this was meant of, and had been accom­plished in the Holy Jesus, taking occasion thence to discourse to him of his Nativity, his Actions and Miracles, his Sufferings and Resurrection from the dead, and his Ascension into Heaven, declaring to him the whole system of the Christian Faith. His discourse wanted not its de­sired [Page 30]effect; the Eunuch was fully satisfied in the Messiaship 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 Aethiopian white.

XI. The place where this Eunuch was baptized, Annot. in Act. 8.36. 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 Countrey: Descript. Terr. Sanct. p. m. 330. Brocard places it near Nehel Escol, or the Torrent of the Grape, the place whence the Spies fetched the bunch of Grapes; on the left side of which Valley about half a League runs a Brook not far from Sicelech, in which this Eunuch was baptized. But Euseh. de loc. Hebr. in voc. [...]. p. 66. Eusebius and Hieron. de loc. Hebr. in voc. Besur. S. Hierom (followed herein by Ad. Martyr. VIII. Idus Jun. Ado the Martyrologist) more probably place it near Bethsoron, (where we are told Cotovic. Itin. l. 2. c. 9. p. 247. it is still to be seen at this day) a Village 20 miles distant from Jerusalem in the way between it and Hebron, near to which there was a Spring bubling up at the foot of a Hill. S. Hierom adds, that it was again swallowed up in the same ground that produced it, and that here it was that Philip bapti­zed the Ethiopian. Which was no sooner done, but Heaven set an ex­traordinary seal to his Conversion and Admission into the Christian Faith, (especially if it be true what some very ancient Manuscripts add to the passage, V. 39. [...]. [...]od. Alexand. in Bibl. Reg. Angl. aliique plures Codd. MSs. that being baptized, the Holy Ghost fell 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 Com. in Esai. 53. T. 5. p. 195. S. Hierom stiles him the Apostle of the Ethiopians, and the Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. p. 40 Cyril. Catech. XVII. p. 457. Psal. 68.31. Ancients generally make that prediction of David fulfilled in him, Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God, and hence the Ethiopians are wont to glory (as appears by the Apud Brov. ubi supr. vid. Godig [...]. de re­bus Acyssin 1. c. 18 p. 113. Confession made by the Ahyssin Em­bassador) that by means of this Eunuch they received 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 Countrey, 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 then what Synops. u­bi supr. vid. etiam Sophr. ap. Hier. in Cres [...]. Dorotheus and others relate, that he is reported to have suf­fered Martyrdom, and to have been honourably buried, and that disea­ses were cured, and other miracles done at his Tomb even in his time. The Traditions of the Countrey more particularly tell us, that the Eu­nuch being returned home, first converted his Mistress Candace to the Ap. Godign. loc. [...]itat. p. 117. [Page 31]Christian Faith, and afterwards by her leave propagated it throughout Aethiopia, till meeting with S. 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 Christian Religion in Arabia, Persia, India, and many other of those Eastern Nations, till at length in the Island Taprobana, since called Ceilon, he sealed his Doctrine with his blood.

XIII. GOD, who always affords what is sufficient, is not wont to mul­tiply means farther then 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 Philistin 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 enlightned with S. Philips preaching, who went up and down publishing the Gospel in all the parts hereabouts till he arrived at Caesarea. This City was heretofore called Turris Stratonis, and afterwards rebuilt and enlarged by Herod the Great, and in honour of Augustus Caesar, to whom he was greatly obliged, by him called Caesarea; for whose sake also he erected in it a stately palace of Marble, called Herods Judgment Hall, wherein his Nephew ambitious of greater honours and acclamations then became him, had that fatal execution served upon him. It was a place remark­able 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 S. Paul his imprisonment and martyrdom: here S. Paul himself was kept prisoner, and made those brave and generous Apologies for himself, first before Felix, as afterwards before Fesius and Agrippa. Here also our S. Philip had his House and Family, to which probably he now retired, and where he spent the remainder of his life: for here many years after we find S. Paul and his company, Act. 21 8, 9. 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 prophesie. 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 abstruse and difficult parts of the Christian Doctrine, and a peculiar abi­lity to demonstrate Christs Messiaship from the predictions of Moses and the Prophets, and to express themselves on a sudden 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 Congregation. This therefore unquestionably respected things to come, and was an instance of Gods accomplishing an an ancient promise, that in the times of the Messia, Act. 2.17, 18. he would pour out of his Spirit upon all flesh, on their sons, and daughters, servants and handmaidens, and they should prophecy. The names of two of these daughters the Greek Menaeon tells us were Hermione and Eutychis, who came into Asia after S. Johns death, and the first of them died, and was buried at Ephesus.

XIV. HOW long S. Philip lived after his return to Caesarea, and whe­ther he made any more excursions for the propagation of the Faith, is not certainly known. Synops. de Vit. App. loc. citat. Dorotheus, I know not upon what ground, will [Page 32]have him to have been Bishop of Trazellis, a City in Asia: [...] others con­founding him with S. Philip the Apostle, make him resident at Hierapolis in Phrygia, where he suffered Martyrdom, and was buried (say they) together with his Daughters. Most probable it is that he died a peaceable death at Caesarea, where his Daughters were also buried, as some ancient [...] Martyrologies inform us; where his House and the apart­ments of his Virgin-Daughters were yet to be seen in Hi [...]. Epitaph. Pa [...]. ad E [...] ­s [...]o [...]. T. 1. p. 172. S. Hieroms time, visited and admired by the noble and religious Roman Lady Paula in her journey to the Holy Land.

THE LIFE OF S. BARNABAS THE APOSTLE.

I. THE proper, and (if I may so term it) original name of this Apostle (for with that title S. Luke, and after him the Ancients constantly honour him) was Joses, by a softer termination familiar with the Greeks for Joseph, and so the Kings, and several other Manuscript Copies read it. It was the name given him at his Circumcision, in ho­nour no doubt of Joseph, one of the great Pa­triarchs of their Nation, to which after his em­bracing Christianity, the Apostles added that of Barnabas; Joses, who by the Apostles was sirnamed Barnabas, either implying him a Son of Pro­phecy, eminent for his prophetic gifts and endowments, or denoting him (what was a peculiar part of the Prophets Office) a Son of Consolation, [...]. Chrysost. Homil. XI. in Act. App. p. 529. for his admirable dexterity in erecting troubled minds, and leading them on by the most mild and gentle methods of persua­sion: Vid. Notker. Martyr. ad III. Id. Jan. ap. Ca­ [...]is. Antiq. Lect. Tom. 6. though I rather conceive him so stiled for his generous charity in resreshing the bowels of the Saints; especially since the name seems to have been imposed upon him upon that occasion. He was born in Cy­prus, a noted Island in the Mediterranean Sea, lying between Cilicia, Sy­ria, and Egypt; a large and fertile Countrey, the Theatre anciently of no less then nine several Kingdoms, so fruitful and richly furnished with all things that can minister either to the necessity or pleasure of mans life, that it was of old called Macaria, or The Happy; and the Historian reports, [...]. Flor. lib. 3. [...]. p. 67. that Portius Cato having conquered this Island, brought hence, greater treasures into the Exchequer at Rome, then 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, then 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 setled here.

II. He was descended of the Tribe of Levi, and the line of the Priest­hood, which rendred his Conversion to Christianity the more remarka­ble, all interests concurring to leaven him with mighty prejudices against [Page 35]the Christian Faith. But the grace of God delights many times to exert it self against the strongest opposition, and loves to conquer, where there is least probability to overcome. His Parents were rich and pious, and finding him a beautiful and hopeful youth (says my Alexand. M [...] ­ [...]a [...]h. [...] S. Barna [...]. inte [...] vit. a [...] S. M [...]. extat. ap. sur. ad J [...]. XI. p. 1 [...]. vi [...]. [...]. 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 S. Paul; which if so, might lay an early foun­dation of that intimate familiarity that was afterwards between them. Here he improved in learning and piety, frequenting the Temple, and devoutly exercising himself in Fasting and Prayer. Ibid. [...]. VI [...]. We are further told, that being a frequent Spectator of our Saviours miracles, and among the rest, of his curing the Paralitie 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 Messia, who hastned 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, Mark 14.1 [...]. who bore the Pitcher of Water, whom our Lord commanded the two Disciples to fol­low home, and there prepare for the celebration of the Passover.

III. 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, Loc. supr citat Chrysostom I am sure enters his dissent) that he is the same with Joseph called Barsabas, who was put candidate with Matthias for the Apostolate in the room of Judas. However that he was one of the LXX. Str [...]. l. 2. P. 412. Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ex [...]l [...]m. H [...]ot. l. 7. [...] Alex. pag. [...]. Clemens Alexandrinus expresly affirms, as others do after him. And when the necessities of the Church dayly increasing, required more then 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 Mosaick Law allowed them no particular portions, but what were made by public provision, it needs no other answer then 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 then ordinary, otherwise the sacred Historian would not have made such a particular remark concerning it.

IV. THE Church being dispersed up and down after S. Stephens Martyrdom, we have no certain account what became of him, in all pro­bability he staid with the Apostles at Jerusalem, where we find him not long after S. Pauls 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 sight of the Wolf that [Page 36]had made such havock 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 Conversion, 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 increaseth: the dispersion of the Church by Sauls Persecution proved the means of a more plentiful harvest, the Christian Religion being hereby on all hands conveyed both to Jews and Gentiles. Act. 11.20. 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 setle 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 Converts 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 S. Paul lately come thither. Him he brings back with him to Antioch, where both of them conti­nued industriously ministring to the increase and establishment of the Church for a whole year together; and then and there it was that the Dis­ciples of the Holy Jesus had the honourable name of Christians first so­lemnly fixed upon them.

VI. IT hapned 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 Judaea, whereby the Christians, whose estates were exhausted by their conti­nual contributions for the maintenance of the Poor, were reduced to great extremities. The Church of Antioch compassionating their mise­rable case, agreed upon a liberal and charitable supply for their relief, which they intrusted with Barnabas and Paul, whom they sent along with it to the Governours of the Churches, that they might dispose it as necessity did require. Ritual. Graecor. in promot. Oeco­nom. p. 281. This charitable Embassie the Greek Rituals no doubt respect, when in the Office at the Promotion of the Magnus Oe­conomus, or High Steward of the Church (whose place it was to manage and dispose the Churches Revenues) they make particular mention of the Holy and most famous Barnabas the Apostle, and generous Martyr. Ha­ving discharged their trust, Act. 12.25. they returned back from Jerusalem to An­tioch, bringing along with them John sirnamed Mark, the son of Mary, sister to Barnabas, whose house was the sanctuary, where the Church found both shelter for their persons, and conveniency for the solemnities of their Worship.

VII. THE Church of Antioch being now sufficiently 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 Prayer, and other public exercises of their Reli­gion, the Spirit of God by some prophetic afflatus or revelation made to some of the Prophets there present, commanded that Barnabas and [Page 37] Saul should be set apart to that peculiar Ministry, to which God had designed them. Accordingly 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 imployments. But herein though they did [...], stretch 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 Co-adjutors 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 constantly kept in appointing both Civil and Ecclesiastical Officers, and that not onely while their Temple and Polity stood, but long after the fall of their Church and State. For so Itinerar. p. 73. 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 [...] as they call him the [...], or Head of the Captivity, residing at Babylon, (at that time R. Daniel the son of Hasdai) that he might receive [...] 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 [...] and the [...] are not of equal extent in the writings and practice of the Church; the one implying the bare Rite of laying on of hands, while the other denotes Ordination it self, and the intire solemnity of the action. Whence the Lib. 8. c. 28. col. 494. Apostolical Constitutor speaking of the Presbyters interest in this af­fair, says [...], 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 Com­mission 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 ruines whereof are two miles distant from the present Famagusta, where they undanted­ly preached in the Jewish Synagogues. From Salamis they travelled up the Island to Paphos, a City remarkable of old for the Worship of Venus, Divapotens Cypri, 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 Cotovic. Itin. l. 1. c. 16. p. 100. Tradition that at S. Barnabas his Prayers it fell flat to the ground; and the ruines 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 Praetor, or President of the Island (not properly [...], 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 [Page 38]from the Proposals of Christianity, till the Magician being struck by S. Paul with immediate blindness for his malicious opposition of the Gospel, this quickly determined the Governours belief, and brought him over a Convert to that Religion, which as it made the best offers, so he could not but see had the strongest evidences to attend it.

IX. Act. 13.13. 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 attended 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 S. 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 S. Paul, treated them as gods come down from Heaven in humane shape; S. Paul as being principal Speaker, they termed Mer­cury, the interpreter of the gods; Barnabas they looked upon as Jupiter, their soveraign deity, either because of his Age, or (as Homil. XXX in Act. App. p. 361. Chrysostom thinks) because he was [...], for the gravity 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 S. Paul, who was of a very mean and contemptible presence. But the malice of the Jews pursued them hither, and prevailed with the People to stone S. 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. Act. 15.1. 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 dispatched 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 where-ever they came, they should betake themselves to the Jews, while Paul and Bar­nabas applied themselves unto the Gentiles. And here probably it was [Page 39]that Mark reconciled himself to his Uncle Barnabas, which, Alexand. Mo­nach. ubi supr. n. XV. one tells us, he did with tears and great importunity, earnestly begging him to for­give his weakness and cowardice, and promising for the future a firmer constancy and more undanted 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 Barnabas 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 Paul, to whom the Council gave this elogium and character, that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with whom they joyned 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 controversie for the present laid asleep.

XI. IT was not long after this, that S. Peter came down to Antioch, Gal. 2.11. 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 Jerusalem. 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 S. 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 our selves with the guilt of those that follow after us? S. 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 S. Paul would by no means consent to, having found by his cowardly deserting them at Pamphylia, how unfit he was for such a troublesome and dangerous service. This begat a sharp contest, and ripened into almost an irreconcilable 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 [...] (as Comment. i [...] Esa. 11. p. 55. Tom. 2. Theo­doret stiles these two Apostles) this sacred pair, that had hitherto equally and unanimously drawn the Yoke of the Gospel, now drew several ways, and in some discontent parted from each other; S. Paul taking Silas went to the Churches of Syria and Cilicia, while Barnabas accom­panied with his Cousin Mark set sail for Cyprus, his own Countrey.

XII. THUS far the sacred Historian has for the main gone before [Page 40]us, who here breaks off his accounts concerning him. What became of him afterwards we are left under great uncertainty. Doroth. Sy­nops. Bibl. PP. Tom. 3. p. 148. col. 2. Dorotheus and the Recogn. lib. 1. c. 7. p. 400. Edit. Paris. 1672. Clemen­ti [...]. Homil 1. [...]. 7. p. 549. ib. Epit. de Gest. B. Petr. c. 7. ib. p. 752. Author of the Recognitions, and some other Writings attributed to S. Clemens, makes him to have been at Rome, and one of the first that preached the Christian Faith in that City; for which B [...]ron. ad Ann. 51. n. 52.54. not. ad Martyr. Rom. p. 359. Baronius falls foul upon them, not being willing that any should be thought to have been there before S. Peter, though after him (and 'tis 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, [...]. ‘O ye Romans give ear. The Son of God has appeared in the Countrey of Judaea, promising eternal life to all that are willing to embrace it, and to lead their lives according to the will of the Fa­ther that sent him. Wherefore change your course of life, and turn from a worse to a better state, from things temporal to those that are eternal. Acknowledge that there is one onely God, who is in Hea­ven, and whose world you unjustly possess before his righteous face. But if you reform, and live according to his Laws, you shall be tran­slated into another World, where you shall become immortal, and enjoy the ineffable glories and happiness of that state. Whereas if you persist in your infidelity, your souls after the dissolution of these bodies, shall be cast into a place of flames, where they shall be eter­nally tormented under the anguish of an unprofitable and too late Repentance. For the present life is to every one the onely space and season of repentance.’ This was spoken with great plainness and simplicity, and without any artificial Schemes of Speech, and according­ly took with the attentive populacy: while the Philosophers and more inquisitive heads entertained the discourse with scorn and laughter, (this indeed the Clement. ib. c. 8, 9, 10. Author of the [...], and the Epitom. c. 8. & seq. Epitome [...], 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.

XIII. DEPARTING from Rome, he is by different Writers made to steer different courses. The Clem. & Epi­tom. ibid. Ale­xand. Monach. loc. cit. n. 13, 14. Greeks tell us he went for Alexan­dria, and thence for Judaea: The Baron. ad An. 51. n. 54. Sanct. de praed. S. Jac. T [...]. 3. c. 1 n. 9. Writers of the Roman Church (with whom agrees Synops. in Bibl. PP. p. 148. T. 3. Dorotheus in this matter) that he preached the Gospel in Liguria, and founded a Church at Milain, whereof he became the first Bishop, propagating Christianity in all those parts. But however that was, probable it is that in the last periods of his life he returned unto Cyprus, where my Alexand. ib. n. XVIII. & seq. Author tells us, he converted many, till some Jews from Syria coming to Salamis, where 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 faith of it must rest upon the credit of the Relater, who Ad Ann. 485. v. 4. p. 428. Baronius tells us, lived at the same time when his corps was first found out) that they [Page 41]threw his body into the fire with an intent to consume it, but that the flames had not the least power upon it, and that Mark his Kins­man privately buried it in a Cave not far distant from the City, his Friends resenting the loss with solemn lamentation. I omit the miracles reported to have been done at his Tomb: the remains of his body were discovered in the reign of Theod. Lect. H. Eccl. l. 2. p. 557. Alex. Mon. loc. cit. n. XXXI. Zeno the Emperour ( Niceph. H. Ecc. l. 16. c. 37. p. 716. Tom 2. Nicephorus by a mi­stake makes it the XII. year of Anastasius) Ann. CCCCLXXXV. dug up under a Bean or Carob Tree, and upon his Brest was found S. Matthews Gospel written with Barnabas his own hand, which Anthemius the Bishop took along with him to Constantinople, where it was received by the Emperour with a mighty reverence, and laid up with great care and diligence. The Emperour as a testimony of his joy, honouring the Epi­scopal See of Salamis with this Prerogative, that it should be sedes [...], independent upon any Foreign Jurisdiction, a Priviledge rati­fied by Justinian the Emperour, whose Wife Theodora was a Cypriot: The Emperour also greatly enriched the Bishop at his return, comman­ding him to build a Church to S. Barnabas over the place of his inter­ment, which was accordingly erected with more then ordinary stateli­ness and magnificence. 'Tis added in the Alex. ut s [...]pr [...] n. XXIX, XXX. Story, that these remains were discovered by the notice of S. Barnabas himself, who three several times appeared to Anthemius; which I behold as a meer addition to the Story, designed onely to serve a present turn. For Peter sirnamed the Fuller, then Patriarch of Antioch, challenged at this time a jurisdiction over the Cyprian Churches as subject to his See; this Anthemius would not agree to, but stiffly asserted his own rights, and how easie was it to take this occasion of finding S. Barnabas his body, to add that of the appearances to him, to gain credit to the cause, and advance it with the Emperor? And accordingly it had its designed effect; and whoever reads the whole Story, and the circumstances of the apparitions, as related by my Author, will see that they seem plainly calculated for such a pur­pose.

XIV. FOR his outward form and shape, he is thus represented by the Id. Ibid. n [...] XVIII. Ancients. He was a man of a comely countenance, a grave and venerable aspect, his eye-brows short, his eye chearful and pleasant, darting some­thing of majesty, but nothing of sowrness and austerity, his speech sweet and obliging; his garb was mean, and such as became a man of a morti­fied life, his gate composed and unaffected, grave and decent. This ele­gant structure was but the lodging of a more noble tenant, a Soul richly furnished with divine graces and vertues, a profound humility, diffusive charity, firm faith, an immoveable constancy, and an unconquerable pa­tience, a mighty zeal, and an unwearied diligence in the propagating of Christianity, and for the good of Souls. So entirely did he devote him­self to an ambulatory course of life, so continually was he imployed in running up and down from place to place, that he could find little or no time to leave any Writings behind him for the benefit of the Church; at least none that have certainly arrived to us. Indeed anciently there were some, and De pudicit. c. 20. p. 582. vid. Philastr. de Hae­res. c. 60. Tertullian particularly, who supposed him to be the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, an opinion generally rejected and thrown out of doors: there is also an Epistle still extant under his name of great antiquity frequently cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, and his Scholar Origen (to pass by others) the latter of whom stiles it the Contr. Cels. lib. 1. p. 49. Catholic Epistle of Barnabas, but placed by H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 25. p. 97. Eusebius among the [...], [Page 42]the Writings that were not genuine. The frame and contexture of it is intricate and obscure, made up of uncouth Allegories, forced and im­probable interpretations of Scripture, though the main design of it is to shew, that the Christian Religion has superseded the Rites and Usages of the Mosaic Law. The latter part of it contains an useful and excel­lent exhortation managed under the notion of two ways, the one of light, the other of darkness, the one under the conduct of the Angels of God ( [...], those illuminating Ministers, as he calls them,) the other under the guidance of the Angels of Satan, the Prince of the ini­quity of the Age. Under the way of light he presses to most of the particular duties and instances of the Christian and the Spiritual life, which are there with admirable accuracy and succinctness reckoned up: Under that of darkness he represents those particular sins and vices, which we are to decline and shun; and I am confident the pious Reader will not think it time lost, nor repent his pains to peruse so ancient and use­ful a discourse. Thus then he expresses himself.

XV. Ev [...]a [...]. Epist. p. 2 [...]8. Edit. Vess. 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 glorifie him who redeemed thee from death. Thou shalt be simple in heart, and being rich in spirit shalt not join thy self 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 hypocrisie. Thou shalt not forsake the Command­ments of the Lord. Exalt not thy self, but be of an humble mind. Thou shalt not assume glory to thy self. Neither shalt thou take evil counsel against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not add boldness to thy soul. Thou shalt not commit fornication, nor be guilty of adultery or buggery. Thou shalt not neglect Gods command in cor­recting other mens 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 instable mind, doubting whether thus or thus. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. [...].Thou shalt love thy neighbor above thy life. Thou shalt not destroy a child by abortion, nor make it away when it is born. Thou shalt not with-hold thy hand from thy son, or from thy daughter, but from their youth shalt teach them the fear of the Lord. Be not desirous of thy neighbours goods, nor covet much. Neither shalt thou heartily join with the proud, but shalt be numbred with the just and the humble. Entertain trials and temptations when they happen to thee, as instruments of good. Thou shalt not be double minded, nor of a deceitful tongue, for a double tongue is the snare of death. Thou shalt be subject to the Lord, and to Masters as Gods representatives, in reverence and fear. Thou shalt not command thy Maid or Man-servant with bitterness and severity, those especially that hope in God, lest thou thy self prove one that fearest not him, who is over both: For he came not to call men according to outward appearance, but those whom his Spirit did prepare. Thou shalt communicate to thy neighbour in all things, and shalt not call what thou hast thine own: For if ye mutually partake in incorruptible things, how much more in things that are corruptible. Be not rash with thy tongue, for the mouth is the snare of death. Keep thy soul as chast as thou canst, stretch not forth thy hands to take, and shut them when thou shouldst give. Love all those that speak to thee the word of the Lord, as the apple of thine eye. Remember the day of judgment night and day. Se [...]k out daily the faces of holy men, and searching by the Word, go forth to [Page 43]exhort, and by it study to save a soul. And with thy hands shalt thou labour for the redemption of thy sins. Delay not to give, nor begrutch when thou art charitable. Give to every one that asks thee; and thou shalt know who is the good recompenser of the reward. Thou shalt keep the things which thou hast received, neither adding to them, nor taking from them. Thou shalt ever hate a wicked person. Judge righteously. Make no Schism. Make peace between those that are at difference, reconciling them to each other. Confess thy sins, and come not to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of Light.

XVI. BUT now the way of darkness is crooked and full of curses. For it is the way of eternal death attended with punishment; wherein are things destructive to their souls, idolatry, audaciousness, heighth of domi­nation, hypocrisie, double-heartedness, adultery, murder, rapine, pride, trans­gression, deceit, malice, arrogance, witchcraft, magic, covetousness, want of the fear of God. Persecuters of good men, haters of the truth, men who love but do not know the wages of righteousness. Persons that adhere not to what is good, nor who by righteous judgment regard the case of the Widow and the Orphan; watchful not for the fear of God, but for what is evil: great stran­gers to meekness and patience. Lovers of vanity, greedy of revenge, who com­passionate not the poor, nor endeavour to relieve the oppressed, prone to de­traction, not knowing their Maker, murderers of children, defacers of Gods workmanship, such as turn away themselves from the needy, add affliction to the afflicted, plead for the rich, and unjustly judge the poor, sinners altogether. And having thus described these two different ways, he concludes his discourse with a hearty and passionate exhortation, that since the time of rewards and punishments was drawing on, they would mind these things, as those that were taught of God, searching after what God required of them, and setting themselves to the practice of it, that they might be saved at the day of judgment. I have no more to remark concerning this excellent person, then to add the character gi­ven of him by a pen that could not err, he was a good man, full of faith, Act. 11.24.and of the Holy Ghost.

THE LIFE OF S. TIMOTHY THE APOSTLE and EVANGELIST.

I. S. TIMOTHY was, as we may probably conceive, a Lycaonian, born at Lystra, a noted City of that Province. He was a person in whom the Jew, the Gentile, and the Christian met altogether. His Father was by birth a Greek, by Religion a Gentile, or if a Proselyte, at most but [...] a Proselyte of the Gate, who did not oblige themselves to circumcision, and the rites of Moses, but onely to the observance of the se­ven precepts of the sons of Noah: his Mother Eunice, daughter to the de­vout and pious Lois, [...]. Chrysost. Ho­mil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1627. was a Jewess, who yet scrupled not to marry with this Greek, An argument that the partition wall now tottered, and was ready to fall, when Jew and Gentile began thus to match together. His Mother and Grandmother were Women very eminently vertuous and holy, and seem to have been amongst the first that were converted to the Christian Faith. Nor was it the least instance of their piety, the care they took of his education, instructing him in the knowledge of divine things, and seasoning his tender years with vertuous and sober principles, 2 Tim. 3.15. so that from a child he was acquainted with the holy Scriptures, whereby he was admirably prepared for the reception of Christianity, and furnished for the conduct of a strict pious life. [...]. Plut. de liber. educ. pag. 4. And indeed Religion never thrives more kindly, then when 'tis planted betimes, and the foun­dations of it laid in an early piety. For the mind being then soft and tender, is easily capable of the best impressions, which by degrees insi­nuate themselves into it, and insensibly reconcile it to the difficulties of an holy life, so that what must necessarily be harsh and severe to a man that endeavours to rescue himself from an habitual course of sin, the other is unacquainted with, and goes on smoothly in a way that's become pleasant and delightful. None start with greater advantages, nor usually persevere with a more vigorous constancy, then they who remember their Creator in the days of their youth, and sacrifice the first fruits of their time to God and to Religion, before corrupt affections have clapt a bias upon their inclinations, and a train of vices depraved, and in great mea­sure laid asleep the natural notions of good and evil.

II. PREPARED by so excellent a culture in the Jewish Religion, God was pleased to transplant him into a better soil. S. Paul in pursuance of his Commission to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles had come as far as [Page 47] 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 Doctrin. Among others there converted, we are S. M [...]t [...]. de S. Timoth. [...]p. Sur. ad Jan 24. n. [...]. 1. p 4 [...]1. told were S. Timothies Parents, who courteously treated and entertained the Apostle at their house, wholly resigning up their Son to his care and conduct. About two years after in his review of these late Plantations he came again to Lystra, where he made choice of Timothy, Act. 16.1, 2, 3. recommen­ded to him by the universal testimony of the Christians thereabouts, as an Evangelist, to be his assistant and the companion of his travels, that he might have somebody always with him, with whom he could intrust matters of importance, and whom he might dispatch upon any extraor­dinary affair and exigence of the Church. Indeed Timothy was not circumcised, for this being a branch of the Paternal Authority, did not lie in his mothers power: this was notoriously known to all the Jews, and this S. Paul knew would be a mighty prejudice to his Ministry where ever 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 Homil. XXXIV. in Act. App p. [...] Chrysostom) the wisdom and prudence of S. Paul, who had this design in it, [...], 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 justification of the Mosaic Institutions, and a virtual undermining the great ends of Christianity. Nor did he in this instance contradict his own Doctrin, or unwarrantably symbolize with the Jews; it being onely (as Str [...] [...] 7. pag. [...]. 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 hypocrisie; 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 [...] the part of a wise and kind Instructer, who is a true lover of God, and the souls of men.

III. S. PAƲL 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 Philippi, the Metropolis of that part of Macedonia: where being evil intreated by the Magistrates and Peo­ple, they departed to Thessalonica, whence the sury and malice of the Jews made them fly to Beraea. Here they met with people of a more generous and manly temper ready to embrace the Christian Doctrin, 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 S. Paul to Athens, while Silas and Timothy, [Page 48]not so much the immediate objects of their spight and cruelty, staid be­hind, to instruct and confirm the Converts of that place. Whether they came to him during his stay at Athens, is uncertain: S. Luke takes no farther notice of them, till their coming to him at Corinth, his next re­move. 1 Thess. 3.1, 2, 3. Where at their first arrival (if it was not at Athens) S. Paul di­spatched away Timothy to Thessalonica, to enquire into the state of Chri­stianity in that City, and to confirm them in the belief and profession of the Gospel, — 2. v. 17, 18, 19. for he seems to have had a more peculiar kindness for that Church, having since his last being there, more then 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. 1 Thess. 3.6, 7, & seqq. FROM Thessalonica Timothy returned with the welcom news of their firmness and constancy notwithstanding the persecutions they endu­red, their mutual charity to each other, and particular affection to S. Paul; news, wherewith the good man was infinitely pleased: As certainly no­thing can minister greater joy and satisfaction to a faithful Guide of Souls, then 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 inserted not onely his own name, but also those of Silas and Timothy, 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 passionately to desire. Eighteen months at least they had continued at Corinth, when S. Paul resolved upon a journy to Jerusalem, where he staid 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. S. PAƲL 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, 1 Tim. 1.3. and the Ancients generally con­ceive) that he constituted Timothy Bishop and Governour of that Church; he was the first Bishop (says H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 73. Eusebius) of the Province or Diocess of Ephesus; he did [...], says the Martyr. Tim. ap. Phot. Cod. CCLIV. col. 1401. Author in Photius, first act as Bishop of Ephesus, and in the Council of Chalcedon XXVII Bishops are said successively to have sitten in that Chair, whereof S. Timothy was the first. Conc. Chalced. Act. XI. Conc. Tom. 4. col. 609. In the Lib. 7. c. 47. col. 451. Apostolical Constitutions he is expresly said to have been ordained Bishop of it by S. Paul, or as he in Photius expresseth it a little more after the mode of his time, he was ordained and enthroned (or installed) Bishop of the Metropolis of the Ephesians by the great S. Paul. Ephesus was a great and populous City, and the Civil Government of the Proconsul, who resided there reached over the whole Lydian or Pro­consular [Page 49]Asia. And such in proportion the Ancients make the Eccle­siastical Jurisdiction of that Church, Homil. XV. in 1 Tim. p. 1606. S. Chrysostom affirming it to be plain and evident, that Timothy had the Church, or rather the whole Nation of Asia committed to him; to him (says Argum. in 1 ad Tim p. 462 Theodoret) divine S. Paul committed [...], the care and the charge of Asia; upon which ac­count a little after Com. in 1 Tim. 3. p. 475. T. 3. he calls him the Apostle of the Asians. As for the manner of his Ordination, or rather designation to the ministeries of Religion, it was by particular and extraordinary designation, God im­mediately testifying it to be his will and pleasure; thence it is said to have been done [...], 1 Tim. 1.18. 1 Tim. 4.14. according to some preceding predictions concerning him, and that he received it not onely by the lay­ing on of hands, but by prophesie, that is, as Homil. V. in 1 Tim. p. 1545. Chrysostom truly explains it, by the Holy Ghost; it being part of the Prophetic Office (as he adds, and especially it was so at that time) not onely to fore-tell future events, but to declare things present, God extraordinarily manifesting whom he would have set apart for that weighty Office. Thus Paul and Bar­nabas were separated by the special dictate of the Holy Ghost, and of the Governours of the Ephesine Churches that met at Miletus, it is said, that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops, or Over-seers of the Church. And this way of election by way of prophetic revelation continued in use at least during the Apostolic Age: Epist. ad Co­rinth. pag. 54. Clemens in his Epistle to the Corin­thians, tells us that the Apostles preaching up and down Cities and Countries, constituted their first-fruits to be the Bishops and Deacons of those who should believe, [...], making trial of them by the spirit: and another Clem. Al. lib. [...]. ap. Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 23. p. 92. Clemens reports of S. 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 chusing Bishops and Ecclesiastic Officers, besides other advantages, begat a mighty reverence and veneration for the Governours of the Church, who were looked upon as God's choice, and as having the more immediate character of Heaven upon them. And especially this way seemed more necessary for S. Timothy then 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 S. Pauls counsel to him, 1 Tim. 4.12. so to de­mean himself, that no man might despise his youth: the Governours of the Church in those days were [...], in respect of their age as well as office, and indeed therefore stiled Elders, because they usually were persons of a considerable age that were admitted into the Orders of the Church. This Timothy had not attained to. And yet the word [...], youth, admits a greater latitude then we in ordinary speech con­fine it to. In Orator. p. 266. Tom. 1. Cicero tells us of himself, that he was adolescentulus, but a very youth when he pleaded Roscius's cause; and yet Noct. Attic. l. 15. c. 28. p. 383. A. Gellius proves him to have been at that time no less then XXVII years old. Alexander the son of Aristobulus is called Joseph. Antiq. l. 14. c. 13. p. 480. [...], a youth, at the time of his death, when yet he was above thirty. Hiero in Hist. l. 1. p. 11. Edit 8. ubi vid. Casaub. Com­ment. p. 129. & ejusd. exercit. ad Baron. Appar. n. 99 p. 154. Polybius is stiled [...], a very young man, whom yet Casaubon proves to have been XXXV years of Age; and the same Historian speaking of T. Flaminius his making War upon Philip of Macedon, says he was [...], a very young man, for that he was not above thirty years old: it being (as Casaubon ob­serves) the custom both of Greek and Latine Writers to extend the ju­ventus, or youthful age from the thirtieth till the fortieth year of a mans [Page 50]life. To which we may add what Grotius observes, that [...] answer­ing to the Hebrew [...] denotes the Military Age, Annot. in loc. all that civil and manly part of a mans life that is opposed to Old Age; so that Timothies youth, without any force or violence to the word, might very well consist with his being at least thirty, or five and thirty years of age, and he so sti­led onely comparatively with respect to that weighty Function, which was wont to be conferred upon none but grave and aged men. But of this enough.

VII. Acts 20.2, 3, &c. S. TIMOTHY thus fixed at Ephesus, did yet accompany S. Paul some part of his journey into Greece, at least went to him thither upon some urgent affairs of the Church, and then returned to his charge. Not long after which S. Paul wrote his first Epistle to him, to encourage him in his duty, and direct him how to behave himself in that eminent Station wherein he had set him. And because the success of the Ministry does in a great measure depend upon the persons imployed in it, he gives him more particular rules how to proceed in this matter, and how the per­sons ought to be qualified, whom he admitted to that honourable and important Office, [...], as H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 34. p. 189. Nicephorus speaks, excellently representing in that Epistle, as in a short draught, the life and conversation of the sacred Governours of the Church, describing the tempers and manners of those who are appoin­ted to be the Guides and Ministers of Religion. Well he knew also that crafty Teachers and false Apostles were creeping into the Church, whose principles and practices he remarks, warning him to beware of them, and to stand continually upon his guard against them. The holy man followed his instructions, and was no doubt faithful to his trust, which he managed with all care and diligence. About six years after, S. Paul being then a Prisoner at Rome, wrote a second Epistle to him (for that this Epistle was written at his first coming to Rome, we have shewed elsewhere Antiq. Apost. Life of S. Paul Sect. 7. n. 5. 2 Tim. 4.9.) to excite him to a mighty care and fidelity in his business, and in undermining the false and subtle insinuations of Sedu­cers. In it he orders Timothy to come to him with all speed to Rome, who accordingly came, and joined with him in the several Epistles writ­ten thence to the Philippians, Colossians, and to Philemon, as his name in the front of those Epistles does abundantly declare. During his stay at Rome he was upon some occasion cast into prison, and thence released and set at liberty about the time of S. Pauls enlargement, as he clearly intimates in the close of his Epistle to the Hebrews; Hebr. 13.23, 24. after which he came back to Ephesus, nor is it probable that he any more removed from thence, till his translation into Heaven. And here it was that he became acquainted with S. John, whose Apostolical Province mainly lay in Asia, and the parts about Ephesus; and so the Ap. Bolland. Januar. XXIV Acts under the name of Poly­crates, one of his successors (doubtless of good antiquity, being those mentioned and made use of by Photius) report, that he conversed with, and was an auditor of S. John the Divine, who lay in the bosom of our Lord.

VIII. THE Ephesians were a people of great looseness and impiety, their manners were wanton and effeminate, prophane and prodigal: they banished Hermodorus onely because he was more sober and thrifty then the rest, Strab. Geogr. lib. 14. enacting a Decree, Let none of ours be thrifty. They were strangely bewitched with the study of Magic and the Arts of Sorcery and Divination; miserably over-run with with Idolatry, especially the [Page 51]Temple and Worship of Diana, for which they were famous through the whole World. Among their many Idolatrous Festivals they had one called Martyr. Timoth. Apost. ap. Phot. Cod. 254. col. 1401, 1404. Com. de S. Timoth. S. Metaphr. apud Sur. ad Jan. XXIV. n. 9, 10. Fragment. vit. S. Timoth. Graece ap. P. Halloix in vit. Po­lycarp. p. 558. forsan ex Act. S. Timoth. à Poly­crat. (uti alunt) scriptis, quae eadem habent, ap. Bolland. ad Januar. XXIV. p. 566. ΚΑΤΑΓΩΓΙΟΝ, which was cele­brated after this manner; Habiting themselves in an antic dress, and covering their faces with ugly Vizors, that they might not be known, with Clubs in their hands, they carried Idols in a wild and a frantic manner up and down the more emi­nent places of the City, singing certain Songs and Verses to them; and without any compassion or respect either to Age or Sex, setting upon all persons that they met, they beat out their brains, glorying in it as a brave atchievement, and a great honour to their gods. This cursed and execrable custom gave just offence to all pious and good men, especially S. Timothy, whose spirit was grieved to see God so openly dishonoured, humane nature sunk into such a deep dege­neracy, and so arbitrarily transported to the most savage barbarities by the great murderer of souls. The good man oft endeavoured to reclaim them by lenitive and mild intreaties; but alas gentle Physic works little upon a stubborn constitution. When that would not do, out he comes to them into the midst of the street upon one of these fatal so­lemnities, and reproves them with some necessary sharpness and severity. But cruelty and licentiousness are too headstrong to brook opposition: impatient of being controlled in their wild extravagancies, they fall up­on him with their Clubs, beat and drag him up and down, and then leave him for dead, whom some Christians finding yet to breath, took up, and lodged him without the Gate of the City, where the third day after he expired. He suffered martyrdom on the thirtieth day of the fourth moneth, according to the Asian computation, or in the Roman ac­count on the XXII of January, as the Greek Church celebrates his me­mory, or the XXIV, according to the Latine. It happened (as some will have it) in the time of Nerva, while others more probably refer it to the reign of Domitian, it being done before S. John's return from his banishment in Patmos, which was about the beginning of Nerva's reign. Being dead, the Christians of Ephesus took his body, and decent­ly interred it in a place called Pien, Piron (says De Vit. & Obit. SS. c. 86. p. 542. Isidore, who adds that 'twas a Mountain) where it securely rested for some Ages, till Hieron. adv. Vigil. p. 122. Tom. 2. Niceph. Eccl. H. l. 2. c. 43. p. 210. Me­taphr. ubi supr. n. X. Con­stantine the Great, or as others, his son Constantius caused it to be transla­ted to Constantinople, and laid up together with those or S. Andrew and S. Luke, in the great Church erected by Constantine to the holy Apostles.

IX. HE was a man of no very firm and healthful constitution, fre­quent distempers assaulting him, besides the constant infirmities that hung upon him. Which S. [...]. Chrysost. Homil. I. ad Pop. Antioch. Tom. 1. p. 5. Chrysostom conceives were in a great measure owing to his extraordi­nary temperance, and too frequent fastings. An effectual course to subdue those youthful lusts which S. Paul cautioned him to shun, there being no such way to extinguish the fire, as to with­draw the fewel: he allowed himself no delicious Meats, no generous Wines; Bread and Water was his usual Bill of Fare, till by excessive abstinence, and the meaness and courseness of his diet he had weakned his appetite, and rendred his stomach unfit to serve the [Page 52]ends of nature. Insomuch that S. Paul was forced to impose it as a kind of law upon him, 1 Tim. 5.23. that he should no longer drink water, but use a little wine for his stomachs sake, and his often infirmities. And yet in the midst of this weak tottering carcase there dwelt a vigorous and sprightly mind, a soul acted by a mighty zeal, and inspired with a true love to God: he thought no difficulties great, no dangers formidable, that he might be serviceable to the purposes of Religion, and the interest of souls; he flew from place to place with a quicker speed, and a more un­wearied resolution, then could have been expected from a stronger and a healthier person, now to Ephesus, then to Corinth, oft into Macedo­nia, then to Italy, crossing Sea and Land, and surmounting a thousand hazards and oppositions: in all which (as Loc. citat. pag. 7. Chrysostoms words are) the weakness of his body did not prejudice the divine Philosophy of his mind; so strangely active and powerful is Zeal for God, so nimbly does it wing the soul with the swiftest flight. And certainly (as he adds) as a great and robust body is little better for its health, which has nothing but a dull and a heavy soul to inform it; so bodily weakness is no great impediment, where there is a quick and a generous mind to animate and enliven it.

X. THESE excellent Vertues infinitely endeared him to S. 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, 1 Thess. 3.2. 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, 2 Tim. 1.2. Timothy, my dearly beloved son; Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord: and to the Church at Philippi more expresly, I trust to send Timotheus shortly to you, Philip. 2.19, 20, &c.for I have no man like-minded ( [...], equally dear to me as my self) who will naturally care for your state: for all seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christs; 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, 1 Cor. 16.10, 11.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 conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me. Instances of a great care and tenderness, and which plainly suppose Timothy to have been an extraordinary person. His very calling him his dearly beloved son, Homil. 1. in 2 Tim. p. 1626.Chrysostom thinks a sufficient argument of his Vertue. For such affection not being founded in Na­ture, can flow from nothing but Vertue and Goodness, the lovely and essential ornaments of a divine and a holy soul. We love our children not onely because witty, or handsom, 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 Vertue 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.

XI. SOME dispute there has been among the Writers of the Church of Rome, whether our S. 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 [Page 53]of the controversie is quite taken away with us, who are sufficiently assured, that those Books were written some hundreds of years after S. Denys his head was laid in the dust. However it may not be improper to remarque, that besides ours, Bishop of Ephesus, we are Pet. de Natal. Hist. SS. l. 1.24. Naucler. Chron. vol. 2. gener. 6. confer. Adon. Martyr. ad XII. Kal. Jul. vid. Usser. de pri­mord. c. 3. p. 31. told of another S. Timothy, Disciple also to S. Paul, the son of Pudens and Priscilla, who is said to have lived unto a great Age, till the times of Antoninus the Emperour, 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 Christian Faith. Pius Bishop of Rome in a Concil. Tom. 1. col. 576. Letter to Justus Bishop of Vienna (which though suspected by most, is yet owned by Bar. ad Ann. 166. n. 1.2. 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 Martyrol. Rom. ad Mart. 24. p. 190. Roman Martyrology informs us, that he obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under Antoninus the Em­perour. A Story which as I cannot confute, so I am not over-forward to believe, nor is it of moment enough to my purpose more particularly to enquire about it.

THE LIFE OF S. TITUS BISHOP of CRETE.

I. THE ancient Writers of the Church make little mention of this holy man, who, and whence he was, is not known, but by uncertain probabili­ties. H [...]ri [...]. 1. in Tit pag 1693. S. 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 S. Act. 18.7. Pauls going at Corinth into the house of one [Titus] named Justus, one that worshipped. 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 Flor. H. Rom. l. 3. c. 7. p. 65. Historian calls it, who adds that the onely cause of the Romans making War there, was a desire to conquer so brave a Countrey,) in the Aegean Sea, not more fa­mous of old for being the birth-place of Jupiter, the Soveraign of the Heathen gods, and the Daedalean Labyrinth said to be in it, then of late for its having been so long the seat of War between the Turkish Empe­rour 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 then Minos King of Crete, [...]. [Legend. sine dubio [...]. Menaeon Graec. [...]. sub lit. μ 111. 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 mens 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, Ubi supr. 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: [...]. Men. ib. 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 [Page 57]again to hear the voice. A year after he was again commanded in a Vision to peruse the Volume of the Jewish Law. He opened the Book, and cast his eye upon that of the Prophet, Keep silence before me, Isa. XLI. 1.O 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 Proconsul of Crete, having heard the fame of our Lords mi­racles in Judaea, sent him to Jerusalem, where he continued till Christs ascension, when he was converted by that famous Sermon of S. Peters, 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 S. 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 Judaea, or the parts thereabouts, and convinced of the truth and divinity of the Christian faith, he became S. Pauls Con­vert and Disciple, though when or where converted we find not. Like­ly it is, either that he followed S. Paul in the nature of a companion and attendant, or that he incorporated himself into the Church of Antioch: where when the famous controversie arose concerning Circumcision and the Mosaic Institutions, as equally necessary to be observed with the belief and practice of Christianity, Act 15.1, 2. they determined that Paul and Bar­nabas, and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the Apostles and Elders about this question; nay, a very ancient Cod. Bezae MS. ad Act. 15.2. MS. adds, that when Paul earnestly persuaded them to continue in the Doctrine which they had been taught, those very Jewish Zelots 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 determination of the case. In the number of those who were sent upon this Evangelical Embassy was our S. Titus, Gal. 1.2, &c. whom S. Paul (encouraged to this journey by a particular revelation) 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 S. Pauls 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 S. Paul (who knew when to give ground, and when to maintain his station) would by no means consent to: he who at another time was content to circumcise Timothy, a Jew by the mothers 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 Heathens, and give just ground of scandal and discouragement to 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.

III. THE affair about which they were sent being dispatched in the Synod, he returned no doubt with S. Paul to Antioch, and thence accompa­nied him in his travels, till having gone over the Churches of Syria and Cili­cia, they set sail for Crete. For that period of time I conceive with Histor. Apost. ad ann. Christ. 46. Capellus most probable for their going over to that Island, rather then with Ad ann. 57. n. 212. Baro­nius and others to place it at S. Pauls coming out of Macedonia into Greece, which he supposes to have been by a Sea-voyage, passing by the Cycladae Islands through the Aegean Sea, or with In Argum. E­pist. ad Tit. Act. 27.7. Grotius to refer it till his Voyage to Rome, founding his conjecture upon a double mistake, that S. Paul and his company put in and staid at Crete, when 'tis onely 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 therefore from some Port in Cilicia, they arrived at Crete, where S. 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 mans 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 H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 73. Eusebius) of the Churches in Crete: the Apostle consecrated him Bishop of it, so Praef. in Tit. p. 419. T. 5. S. Ambrose; so Doroth. Synops. p. 148. Dorotheus, and Ap. Hier. de Script. in Tit. Sophro­nius; he was (says Homil. 1. in Tit. p. 1692. Chrysostom) an approved person, to whom [...], the whole Island was intirely committed, that he might exercise power and jurisdiction over so many Bishops: he was by S. Paul ordained Bishop of Crete, though a very large Island, that he might ordain Bishops un­der him, says Argum. Epist. ad Tit. Tom. 3. Theodoret expresly. To which might be added the testi­monies of Theophylact, Oecumenius, and others, and the subscription at the end of the Epistle to Titus, (which though not dictated by the same hand, is ancient however) where he is said to have been ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians. And Argum. in 1 ad Tim. p. 1519. S. Chrysostom gives this as the reason, why of all his Disciples and Followers S. Paul wrote Epistles to Titus and Timothy, and not to Silas or Luke, because he had committed to them the care and government of Churches, while he reserved the others as attendants and ministers to go along with himself.

IV. NOR is this meerly the arbitrary sense of Antiquity in the case, but seems evidently founded in S. Pauls own intimation, Tit. 1.5. where he tells Titus, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain Elders in every City, as I had appointed thee, that is, I constituted thee Governour of that Church, that thou mightst dispose and order the affairs of it according to the rules and di­rections which I then gave thee. Ordain Elders] he means Bishops (says Homil. 2. in Tit. p. 1700. vid. etiam Theoph. & Oc­cumen. in loc. Chrysostom) as elsewhere I have oft explained it. Elders in every City] he was not willing (as he adds) that the whole administration of so great an Island should be managed by one, but that every City might have its proper Governour to inspect and take care of it, that so the burden might be lighter by being laid upon many shoulders, and the people at­tended with the greater diligence. Indeed Crete was famous for number of Cities above any other Island in the World, thence stiled of old He­catompolis, the Island of an hundred Cities. In short, plain it is, that Titus [Page 59]had power of Jurisdiction, Ordination, and Ecclesiastical Censures, above any other Pastors or Ministers in that Church conferred and derived upon him.

V. SEVERAL years S. Titus continued at his charge in Crete, when he received a summons from S. Paul, then ready to depart from Ephesus. The Apostle had desired Apollos to accompany Timothy and some others whom he had sent to Corinth, but he chusing rather to go for Crete, by him and Zenas he wrote an Epistle to Titus, to stir him up to be active and vigilant, and to teach him how to behave himself in that station wherein he had set him. And indeed he had need of all the counsels which S. Paul could give him, who had so loose and untoward a generation of men to deal with. For the Countrey it self was not more fruitful and plenteous then the manners of the people were de­bauched and vicious. Tit. 1.3 [...]. S. Paul puts Titus in mind what a bad character one of their own Poets (who certainly knew them best) had given of them: ‘ [...].’ The Cretians are always Liars, Evil Beasts, Slow-bellies. This Verse Homil. III. in Tit. pag. 1707. S. Chry­sostom supposes the Apostle took from Callimachus, who makes use in­deed of the first part of it, charging the Cretians to be like themselves, notorious Liars, in pretending that Jupiter was not onely born, but died among them, and that they had his Tomb with this Inscription, ΕΝΤΑΥΘΑ ΖΑΝ ΚΕΙΤΑΙ, Here lies Jupiter, when as the deity is immortal: whereupon the good Father perplexes himself with many needless difficulties in reconciling it. Whereas in truth S. Paul bor­rowed it not from Callimachus, but Epimenides, a native of Crete, famous among the Ancients for his Raptures and Enthusiastic divinations, [...], as In vit. Solon. pag. 84. Plutarch says of him. From him Callimachus cites part of the Verse, [...] [...]. Callim. Hymn. [...]. p. 1. [...]. Vet. Schol. ibi. and applies it to his particular pur­pose, while S. Paul quotes it intire from the Au­thor himself. This witness (says he) is true. And indeed that herein he did not bely them, we have the concurrent testimonies of most Heathen Writers, who charge the same things upon them. [...]. Suid. in voc. [...]. Eadem Mich. Apostol. in eod. verb. [...]. Psell. de ope­rat. Damon. p. 37. So famous for lying, that [...] and [...] became proverbial, to lie like a Cretian, and to cousen a cheat, and nothing more obvious then mendax Creta. Histor. l. 6. p. 681. & l. 4. p. 386. Edit. L Bata [...]Polybius tells us of them, that no where could be found more subtle and deceitful Wits, and generally more wicked and pernicious Counsels; that their Manners were so very sor­did and covetous, that of all men in the World the Cretians were the only persons who accounted nothing base or dishonest, that was but gain­ful and advantagious. Besides they were idle and impatient of labour, gluttonous and intemperate, unwilling to take any pains farther then to make provision for the flesh; as the natural effect of ease, idleness, and plenty, they were wanton and lascivious, and prone to the vilest and basest sort of lust, [...] (as Deipnosoph. l. 13. pag. 601. Athenaeus informs us) outragiously mad upon that sin that peculiarly derives its name from Sodom. And such being the case, what wonder if S. Paul bids Titus re­prove [Page 60]them sharply, seeing their corrupt and depraved manners would ad­mit of the sharpest lancets, and the most stinging corrosives he could ap­ply to them.

VI. IN the Epistle it self the main body of it consists of rules and directions for the several ranks and relations of men: and because Spi­ritual and Ecclesiastical affairs are of all others most considerable, he first instructs him in the qualifications of those whom he should set apart to be Bishops, and Guides of Souls, that they be holy and harmless, in­nocent and inoffensive, such as had not divorced and put away their first Wife that they might marry a second, whose children were sober and re­gular, and trained up in the Christian Faith; that they be easie and treatable, meek and unpassionate, free from the love of Wine, and a de­sire after riches by sordid and covetous designs; that they be kind and hospitable, lovers of goodness and good men, modest and prudent, just and honest, strict and temperate, firm and constant in owning and asser­ting the Doctrines of Christianity that have been delivered to them, that being thoroughly furnished with this pure Evangelical Doctrine, they may be able both to persuade and comfort others, and mightily to convince those that resist and oppose the truth. And certainly it was not without great reason, that the Apostle required that the Guides and Governours of the Church should be thus able to convince gain­sayers. For whatever Authors report of Crete, that it bred no Serpents or venomous Creatures, yet certain it is that the poison of Errour and Heresie had insinuated it self there together with the entertainment of Christianity, Tit. 1.10. there being many unruly and vain talkers, especially they of the Circumcision, Verse 14. who endeavoured to corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel with Jewish Fables, groundless and unwarrantable Traditions, mystical and Cabalistic explications, —3.9. and foolish questions and genealogies. For the Jews, borrowing their notions herein from the Schools of Plato, were fallen into a vein of deriving things from an imaginary generation, first Binah or Understanding, then Achmoth or Cochmah Wisdom, and so till they came to Milcah the Kingdom, and Schekinah or the Divine Presence. Much after the same rate as the Poets of old deduced the pedigrees of their gods, they had first their several [...] their conjunctions, the coupling and mixing of things together, and thence proceeded their [...] their genealogies or generations; out of Chaos came Erebus and the dark Night, the conjunction of whom begot Aether and the Day, and thence Hesiod. Theo­gon p.m. 466. Hesiod proceeds to explain the whole Pagan Theology concerning the original of their gods.

VII. IN imitation of all which, and from a mixture of all together the Valentinians, Basilidians, and the rest of the Gnostic crew formed the sensless and unintelligible Schemes of their [...] and XXX Aeo­nes, divided into three Classes of Conjunction; in the first were four couples, Profundity and Silence, Mind and Truth, the Word and Life, Man and the Church: in the second five, viz. Profound and Mixture, Ageratus and Ʋnion, &c. in the third six, the Paraclete and Faith, Pa­tricos and Hope, &c. Of all which if any desire to know more, they may (if they can understand it) find enough in Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Epi­phanius, to this purpose. The Haeres. XXXI p [...]g. 76. vid. Ter­tull. de Prae­script. Haeret. c. 7. p. 204. last of whom not onely affirms expresly that Valentinus and his Party introduced [...], the fabulous and Poetic fancies of the Heathens, but draws a particular parallel be­tween Hesiods Theogonia, and their thirty Aeones or Ages, consisting [Page 61]of fifteen Couples or Conjugations, Male and Female, which he shews exactly to agree both in the number, design, and order of them. For instance, Valentinus his Tribe begins thus;

• Ampsiu that is Profundity
• Auraan that is Silence.
• Bucua that is Mind
• Tharthuu that is Truth.
• Ʋbucua that is Word
• Thardeadie that is Life.
• Merexa that is Man
• Atarbarba &c. that is Church. &c.

All which was nothing but a trifling and fantasti­cal imitation of Hesiods Progeny and generation of the gods, [...]. Id. ibid. which being joined in conjugations succeeded in this order; Chaos, Night; Erebus, Earth; Aether, Day; &c. There being (as he observes) no difference between the one Scheme and the other, but onely the change and altera­tion of the names. This may suffice for a Speci­men to shew whence this idle Generation bor­rowed their extravagant conceits, though there were that had set much what the like on foot be­fore the time of Valentinus. By such dark and wild notions and prin­ciples the false Apostles both in Crete and elsewhere, sought to undermine the Christian Doctrin, mixing it also with principles of great looseness and liberty, that they might the easilier insinuate themselves into the af­fections of men, whereby they brought over numerous Proselytes to their Party, of whom they made merchandise, Tit. 1.11. gaining sufficient advantage to themselves. So that 'twas absolutely necessary that these mens mouths should be stopped, and that they should not be suffered to go on under a shew of such lofty and sublime speculations, and a pretence of Chri­stian liberty, to pervert men from the Christian Religion, and the plain­ness and simplicity of the Gospel. Having done with Ecclesiastics, he proceeds to give directions for persons of all Ages and Capacities, whe­ther old or young, men or women, children or servants, and then of more public concernment, Rulers and People, and indeed how to de­port our selves in the general carriage of our lives. In the close of the Epistle he wishes him to furnish Zenas and Apollos, the two Apostoli­cal Messengers by whom this Letter was conveyed to him, with all things necessary for their return, commanding that he himself with all conve­nient speed should meet him at Nicopolis (though where that was is not certain, whether Nicopolis in Epirus, so called from Augustus his Victory there over Antony and Cleopatra, or rather Nicopolis in Thrace, upon the River Nesus, not far from the borders of Macedonia, whither S. Paul was now going, or some other City, whereof many in those parts of that name) where he had resolved to spend his Winter. And that by with­drawing [Page 62]so useful and vigilant a Shepherd he might not seem to expose his Flock to the fury and the rage of the Wolves, he promises to send Artemas or Tychicus to supply his place during his absence from them.

VIII. S. PAƲL departing from Ephesus was come to Troas, where though he had a fair opportunity to preach the Gospel offered to him, yet (as himself tells us) he had no rest in his spirit, 2 Cor. 2.12, 13.because he found not Titus his brother, whom he impatiently expected to bring him an account of the state of the 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, away he goes for Macedonia, 2 Cor. 7.5, 6, 7. & 13, 14, 15. 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 welcom entertainment which Titus found amongst them. Soon after S. Paul having received the Collections of the Mace­donian Churches for the indigent Christians at Jerusalem, 2 Cor. 8.6, 15, 16. sent back Titus and with him S. 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.

IX. TITƲS faithfully discharged his errand to the Church of Co­rinth and having dispatched the services for which he was sent, returned, we may suppose, back to Crete. Nor do we hear any further news of him till S. Pauls imprisonment at Rome, whither he came (if my Pet. de Natal. Hist. SS. lib. 7. c. 108. Author say true) about two years after him, and continued with him till his mar­tyrdom, whereat he was present, and together with S. Luke committed him to his Grave. An account, which I confess I am the less inclined to believe, 2 Tim. 4.10. because assured by S. Paul himself, that before his death Titus had left him, and was gone into Dalmatia, a Province 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 Re­marques 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 learned and eloquent man, Proconsul of Bithynia, and intimate Privy Counsellor to Trajan the Emperour. For so they tell us Pet. de Natal. loc. cit. ex Act. S. Titi à Zena (uti. sertur) script. Fl. Pseu­do-Dext. Chron. ad Ann. CCXX., that returning from his Province in Bithynia, he landed in Crete, where the Emperour had commanded him to erect a Temple to Jupiter: which was accordingly done, and no soo­ner finished, but S. 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 it self, and which I behold as just of the same Metal, and coined in the [Page 63]same Mint with that of his Master Trajans soul being delivered out of Hell by the prayers of S. Gregory the Great, so gravely told, so seriously believed by many, not in the Greek Church onely, but in the Church of Rome: nay, which the whole East and West, (if we may believe Damascen. Serm. [...]. Da­mascen) held to be [...], true and uncontrollable.

X. S. TITƲS lived, as the Ancients tell us, to a great age, dying about the ninety fourth year of his life. He died in peace (says Ap. Hieron. de Script. in Tito. Sophro­nius and De vit. & ob. SS. c. 87. p. 542. Isidore) and lies buried in Crete: the Ad diem. IV Jan. p. 16. Roman Martyrology adds, that he was buried in that very Church, wherein S. Paul ordained him Bishop of that Island. I understand him where a Church was afterwards built, it not being likely there should be any at that time. At Candia, the Metropolis of the Island, there is, or lately was, an ancient and beau­tiful Cotovic. Itin. lib. 1. c. 12. p. 60. Church dedicated to S. 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 veneration. Though what is become of them since that famous City lately fell into the hands of the Turk, that great Scourge of Christendom, is to me unknown. His Festival is celebrated in the Western Church on the IV day of January, in the Greek Church August the XXV, and among the Christians in Aegypt (as appears by the Arabic Calendar published by De Synedr. Tom. 3. c. 15. p. 396. Mr. Selden) the XXII of the Moneth Barmahath, answering to our March the XVIII, is consecrated to his memory.

THE LIFE OF S. DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE.

I. S DIONYSIƲS was born at Athens, the Eye of Greece, and Fountain of Learning and Hu­manity, the only place that without competi­tion had for so many Ages maintained an uncon­trolled reputation for Arts and Sciences, and to which there was an universal confluence of per­sons from all parts of the World to accomplish 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 persons of a noble quality, at least of a better rank than ordinary, seeing none were admitted to be Areopagite Judges (as Isoer. Orat. Arcopag. p. 147. vii. Maxim. Prolog. Oper. S. Dionys. Pref. pag. 34. one who knew very well informs us) [...], unless they were nobly born, and eminently exem­plary for a vertuous and a sober life. Being born in the very midst of Arts and Civility, his education could not but be learned and ingenuous, especially considering the advantages of his birth and fortunes. Ac­cordingly he was Suid. in voc. [...]. p. 744. instructed in all the learned Sciences of Greece, where­in he made such vast improvements, that he easily out-stript 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, then because the Doctrin contained in the Books that bear his name, seems so neer of kin to the principles of that noble Sect.

II. BUT it was not an homebred Institution, or all the advantages 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 XXV [...]. years, he took with him one Apollophanes a Rhetorician, his fellow-stu­dent, and (if [...] p. 349. T [...]m. 1 Syncellus 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 furnished with a suitable Companion, he is said to have gone for Egypt, to converse [Page 67]with their Philosophers and Wise Men, that he might perfect himself in the Study of the Mathematics, and the more mysterious and recondite parts of Learning. Egypt had in all Ages been looked upon as the prime School not onely 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 Stromat. lib. 1. p. 302.Clemens of Alexandria reports that he suffered himself to be circumcised, that so he might be admitted [...], 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 the Egyptian Priests for the most resided, as a place admira­bly advantagious for the contemplation of the Heavenly bodies, and the Study of Philosophy and Astronomy; and where Geograph. lib. 17. p. 806. Strabo (who lived much about this time) tells us he was shewed the habitations of the Priests, and the apartments of Pl [...] and Eudoxus, who lived here thir­teen years; nay, a very ancient Alexand. Po­lyhist. Hist. de Judaeis ap. Eu­seb. praep. Evang. l. 9. c. 17. p. 419. Historian assures us, that Abraham him­self lived here, and taught the Egyptian Priests Astronomy, and other parts of Learning.

III. DIONYSIƲS 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 hapning in a Full Moon, when the Moon is in its greatest distance from the Sun, and consequently not liable to a conjunction with him, the Moon moving it self 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 preternatu­ral darkness over all the Earth for three hours at the time of our Saviours suffering, whereby the Sun was darkned, is unanimously attested by the Evangelical Historians; and not by them onely, but Chronic. lib. 13. apud Euseb. Chron. ad Ann. Chr. XXXII. vid. Graeca [...] ET. ΛΓ p. 202. vid. Orig. contr. Cels. l. 2. p. 80. & Chro. Alexandr. ad Ann. Tiber. XVIII. Indict. 4. Olymplad. CCII. 4. p. 520. Phlegon Trallianus sometimes servant to the Emperour Trajan, speaks of an Eclipse of the Sun that hapned about that time, [...], the greatest of any that had been ever known, whereby the day was turned into night, and the Stars appeared at noon-day, an Earthquake 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 revolutions of some great affairs, to whom the other replied, that either God suffered, or at least sympathized and bore part with him that did. I confess these passages are not to be found in the most ancient Writers of the Church: but that ought to be no just exception, when we consider what little care was then taken to con­sign things to writing, and how great a part of those few ancient Records that were written were quickly lost, whereof Eusebius sufficiently com­plains; not to say, that a great many writings might, and did escape his notice; and Prolog. ante oper. S. Dionys. p. 36. Maximus, I remember, answering the objection, that the Books ascribed to S. Denys are not mentioned by Eusebius, tells us, that [Page 68]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 S. Polycarp and Apollophanes. 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 Tr [...]ct. XXXV. in Matth. f [...]l. vi. Ep. tol. 1. Origen supposes, that this darkness that was over all the Earth, and the Earthquake that attended our Lords Passion, extended no farther then Judaea, as some of the Prodigies no farther then Jerusalem. But to what degrees of truth or probability that opinion may approve it self, I leave to others to enquire.

IV. DIONYSIƲS having finished his Studies at Heliopolis, retur­ned to Athens, incomparably fitted to serve his Countrey, and accor­dingly was advanced to be one of the Judges of the Areopagus, a place of great honour and renown. The Areopagus was a famous Senate-house built upon a Hill in Athens, wherein assembled their great Court of Ju­stice, [...], as Arislid. Tom. 1. p. 331. one calls it, the most sacred and venerable Tribunal in all Greece. Under their co­gnizance came all the greater and more capital Causes, and especially matters of Religion, blasphemy against the gods, and contempt of the holy mysteries; and therefore S. Paul was arraigned before this Court, as a setter forth of strange gods, when he preached to them concerning Jesus and Anastasis, or the Resurrection. None might be of this Council but persons of birth and quality, wise and prudent men, and of very strict and severe manners, and so great an awe and reverence did this solemn and grave Assembly strike into those that sate in it, that Loco supr. lan­dat. Isocrates tells us, that in his time, when they were somewhat degenerated from their ancient Vertue, however otherwise men were irregular and exorbitant, yet once chosen into this Senate, they presently ceased from their vicious inclinations, and chose rather to conform to the Laws and Manners of that Court, [...], then to continue in their wild and debauch'd course of life. They were exactly upright and impar­tial in their proceedings, and heard causes at night, or in the dark, that the person of the Plaintiff or the Pleader might have no undue influence upon them. Their sentence was decretory and final, and from their de­termination lay no appeal. Their number was uncertain, by some re­strained to nine, by others enlarged to thirty one, by others to fifty one, and to more by some. Indeed the Novemviri, who were the Basileus or King, the Archon, the Polemarchus, and the six Thesmothetae, were the constant Seminary and Nursery of this great Assembly, who having dis­charged their several Offices, annually passed into the Areopagus, and therefore when Socrates was condemned by this D. Laert. l. 2. in vit. S. [...]at. p. 115. Court, we find no less then two hundred fourscore and one, giving their Votes against him, — [...] Caetera vid. apud R. Volaterran. Comment. Urban. l. 8. t [...]l. 318. besides those whose White Stones were for his absolution: and in an ancient Inscription up­on a Column in the Acropolis at Athens, erected to the memory of Rufus Festus, Proconsul of Greece, and one of these Judges, mention is made of the Areopagite Senate of three hundred.

V. IN this grave and venerable judicature sate our S. Denys, when S. Paul about the year XLIX or L, came to Athens, where he resolutely asserted the cause of Christianity against the attempts of the Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers, who mainly appeared against it. The Athenians, who were infinitely curious and superstitious in matters of Religion, not knowing what to make of this new and strange Doctrin that he taught, presently brought him before the Areopagite-Senate, to whom the pro­per cognizance of such causes did belong. Here in a neat and eloquent discourse, delivered not with greater freedom of mind, then strength of reason, he plainly demonstrated the folly and absurdity of those many vain deities, whom they blindly worshipped, explained to them that in­finite Being that made and governed the World, and what indispensable obligations he had laid upon all Mankind to worship and adore him, and how much he had enforced all former engagements to gratitude and obedience, to repentance and reformation by this last and best dispensa­tion, by sending his Son to publish so excellent a Religion to the World. His discourse however entertained by some with scorn and laughter, and gravely put off by others, yet wanted not a happy influence upon many, whom it convinced of the reasonableness and divinity of the Christian Faith: among whom was our Dionysius, one of the Judges that sate up­on him, and Damaris his wife (for so Desacerdot. l. 4. c. 7. p. 67. T. 4. Ambros. Epist. 82. p. 198. Tom. 3. S. Chrysostom and others make her) and probably his whole house. An Hild. in passio. S. Dionys. n. 6, 7, 8. ap. Sur. Octob. IX. p. 122. Author (I confess I know not by what Authority) relates a particular dispute between Dionysius and S. Paul concerning the Ʋnknown God, who as God-man was to appear in the latter Ages to reform the World; this the Apostle shewed to be the Holy Jesus, lately come down from Heaven, and so satisfied S. Denys that he prayed him to intercede with Heaven, that he might be fully confirmed in this belief. The next day S. Paul having restored sight to one that was born blind, charged him to go to Dionysius, and by that token claim his promise to be his Convert; who being amazed at this sight, readily renounced his Idolatry, and was with his house baptized into the Faith of Christ. But I know the credit of my Author too well to lay any great stress upon this relation, and the rather because I find that Baronius himself is not willing to venture his Faith upon it. To which I might add Loc. supr. citat. S. Chrysostoms observation, that the Areopagite was converted [...], onely by S. Pauls discourse, there being no miracle that we know of, that might promote and further it.

VI. BEING baptized, he was, we are S. Metaphr. ap. Sur. ibid. Maxim. Syncel. ubi supr. Psendo-Dionys. de di­vin. nomin. c. 2. p. 175. T. 1. told, committed to the care and tutorage of S. Hierotheus, to be by him further instructed in the Faith, a person not so much as mentioned by any of the Ancients, which creates with me a vehement suspicion, that it is onely a feigned name, and that no such person ever really was in the World. Indeed the [...]. Greek Me­naeon makes him to have been one of the Nine Senators of the Areopagus, to have been converted by S. Paul, and by him made Bishop of Athens, and then appointed Tutor to S. Denys. Pseudo-Dext. Chron. ad. Ann. Chr. LXXI. Others make him by birth a Spaniard, first Bishop of Athens, and then travelling into his own Coun­trey, Bishop of Segovia in Spain. And both I believe with equal truth. Nor probably had such a person ever been thought of, had there not been some intimations of such an instructor in Dionysius his Works, con­firmed by the Scholiasts that writ upon him, and afterwards by others improved into a formal Story: As for S. Dionysius he is made to travel with S. Paul for three years after his Conversion, and then to have [Page 70]been constituted by him Bishop of Athens; so that it was necessary it seems to pack Hierotheus into Spain, that room might be made for him. Indeed that Dionysius was, and that without any affront to S. Hierotheus, the first Bishop of Athens, we are assured by an Authority that cannot be doubted, Apud Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. p. 74. & l. 4. c. 23. p. 144. Dionysius the famous Bishop of Corinth (who lived not long after him) expresly affirming it; and Niceph. H. Ecc. l. 2. c. 20. p. 167. Nicephorus adds, what is probable enough, that it was done with S. Pauls own hands. I shall but mention his journey to Jerusalem to meet the Apostles, who are said to have come from all parts of the World to be present at the last hours of the Blessed Virgin, and his several Visitations of the Churches in Phrygia and Achaia, to plant or confirm the Faith.

VII. ALL which, supposing they were true, yet here we must take our leave. For now the Writers of his Life generally make him pre­pare for a much longer journey. Having setled his affairs at Athens, and substituted a Successor in his See, he is said to go to Rome (a brief ac­count of things shall suffice, where no truth lies at the bottom:) at Rome he was dispatched by S. Clemens into France, where he planted the Faith, and founded an Episcopal See at Paris, whence after many years, about the ninetieth year of his Age, he returned into the East, to converse with S. John at Ephesus, thence back again to Paris, where he suffered mar­tyrdom, and among infinite other miracles reported of him, he is said to have taken up his head, after it had been cut off by the Executioners, and to have carried it in his hands (an Angel going before, and an hea­venly Chorus attending him all the way) for two miles together, till he came to the place of his interment, where he gently laid it and himself down, and was there honourably entombed. This is the sum of a very tedious Story. A Story so improbable in it self, so directly contrary to what Sa [...]. Hist. lib. 2. pag. 143. Severus Sulpitius affirms, that none were martyred for the Faith in France, till the fifth Persecution under the reign of M. Aurelius Antoni­nus; that I shall not spend much time in its confutation. Especially when the thing has been unanswerably done by so many learned and ingenious men in the Church of Rome, and by none more effectually then Sirmond and Launoy, who have cleared it beyond all possibilities of just exception.

VIII. INDEED we find in several very ancient Usuard. Mar­tyr. Calend. Octob. & VII. Id. Octob. Mar­tyr. Bede VII. Id. Octob. Martyrologies, as also in Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc. lib. 1. c. 28. p. 265. Edit. Du. Ch [...]sn. Gregory Bishop of Tours, who reports it out of the Acts of Saturninus the Martyr, that one Dionysius with some others was sent by the Bishop of Rome into France in the time of Decius the Emperour, Ann. Chr. CCL. where he preached the Christian Faith, and became Bishop of Paris, and after great torments and sufferings, was beheaded for his resolute and constant profession of Religion, and accordingly his mar­tyrdom is recorded in the most ancient Martyrologies, upon a day di­stinct from that of the Athenian Dionysius, and the same miracles ascribed to him, that are reported of the other. And that this was the first and true foundation of the Story, I suppose no wise man will doubt. Nor indeed is the least mention made of any such thing, I am sure not any in Writer of Name and Note, till the times of Charles the Great: When V [...]. Epist. e­ja [...]. & Hilduin. Rescript. apud Surdoc. citat. Ludovicus Emperour, and King of France wrote to Hilduin Abbot of S. Denys, to pick up what ever Memoirs he could find concerning him, either in the Books of the Greeks or Latines, or such Records as they had at home, and to digest and compile them into orderly Tracts. He did so, and furnished out a very large and par­ticular [Page 71]relation, which was quickly improved and defended by Hinemar Bishop of Rhemes, Scholar to Hilduin, and Anastasius Bibliothecarius of Rome, to whom the Greek Writers of that and the following Ages rea­dily gave their Vote and Suffrage. Nor has a late J. Mabillon [...] not. ad Epist. Hincmar. inter Analect. Veter. p. 63. Author much men­ded the matter in point of antiquity, who tells us that in a convention of Bishops in France held Ann. DCCCXXV. ten years before Hilduin wrote his Areopagitics, mention is made of S. Dionysius his being sent into France by Clemens S. Peters Successor. For we can easily allow that there might about that time be some blind and obscure Tradition, though the fragment of the Synod, which he there produces, speaks not one sylla­ble of this Dionysius his being the Areopagite, or having any relation to Athens. In short the case seems plainly this:

IX. HILDƲIN set on by his potent Patron, partly that he might exalt the honour of France, partly to advance the reputation of his particular Convent, finding an obscure Dionysius to have been Bishop of Paris, re­moves him an Age or two higher, and makes him the same with him of Athens, a person of greater honour and veneration, and partly from the Records, partly from the Traditions currant among themselves, draws up a formal account of him from first to last; adding 'tis like what he thought good of his own, to make up the Story. These Commentaries of his, we may suppose, were quickly conveyed to Rome, where being met with by the Greeks, who came upon frequent Embassies to that See about that time, they were carried over to Constantinople, out of which Methodius (who had himself been Aprocrisiarius or Embassador from Nicephorus the Greek Patriarch to Pope Paschal at Rome, and after infinite troubles was advanced to the Patriarchat of Constantinople,) furnishes himself with materials to write the life of Dionysius: for that he had them not out of the Records of his own Church is plain, in that when Hilduin set upon composing his Arcopagitics, he expresly says Rescript. ad Ludov. Imper. n. 10. ibid., that the Greeks had writ­ten nothing concerning the Martyrdom of S. Denys, the particulars whereof, by reason of the vast distance, they could not attain. Out of Hilduin therefore, or at least some reports of that time, Methodius must needs derive his intelligence; but most probably from Hilduin, between whose relation and that of Methodius, there is so exact an agreement, not onely in particular passages, but oft-times in the very same words, as Respons. dis­cuss. cap. 9. p. 120. Monsieur Launoy has demonstrated by a particular collation. Me­thodius his Tract was by the Greek Embassadors quickly brought from Constantinople to Rome, where Epist. ad Ca­rol. Calv. Imp. apud. Sur. ibid. p. 132. Anastasius confesses he met with it, tran­slated it into Latine, and thence transmitted it into France, where it was read, owned, and published by Extat apud. Sur. ubi supr. & Mabillon. lec. citat. Hincmar, as appears by his Epistle to Charles the Emperour. Where he plainly tells us, that no sooner had he read this Life written by Methodius, but he found it admirably to agree with what he had read in his Youth (he means I doubt not, the Writings of Hilduin) by whom and how the Acts of S. Denys and his companions came to the knowledge of the Romans, and thence to the notice of the Greeks. This is the most likely pedigree and procedure of the Story that I can think of; and from hence how easie was it for the after-Wri­ters both of the Western and the Eastern Church to swallow down a Story, thus plausibly fitted to their taste? Nor had the Greeks any rea­son over-nicely to examine, or reject what made so much for the ho­nour of their Church and Nation, and seemed to lay not France onely, but the whole Western Church under an obligation to them, for furnish­ing [Page 72]them with so great and excellent a person. But to return to our Dionysius.

X. THOUGH we cannot doubt but that he behaved himself with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge of his Office; yet because the Ancients have conveyed down no particulars to our hands, we shall not venture upon reports of false, or at best doubtful credit. No­thing of certainty can be recovered of him, more then what Aristides the Christian Philosopher (who himself lived, and was probably born at Athens, not long after Dionysius) relates in the Apud Usuard. & Adon. Mart. V. Non. Octobr. Apology which he pub­lished for the Christian Religion, that after a most resolute and eminent confession of the Faith, after having undergone several of the severest kinds of torment, he gave the last and great testimony to it, by laying down his life. This was done, as is most probable, under the reign of Domitian, as is confessed (betraid into it by a secret instinct of truth) by Abbot Hilduin, Methodius, and their followers: while others extend it to the times of Trajan, others to the reign of Adrian, who entered upon the Empire Ann. CXVII. partly that they might leave room enough for the account which they give of him, partly to preserve the Authori­ty of his Writings, wherein a passage is cited out of Ignatius his Epistles, written just before his Martyrdom, Ann. CVII. The Reader I hope will not expect from me an account of the miracles said to be done by him either before or since his death, or of the fierce contests that are be­tween several places in the Roman Church concerning his Reliques. One passage however I shall not omit. In a Village in Luxemburg not far from Treves is a Church dedicated to S. Denys, wherein is kept his Scull, at least a piece of it, on the Crown whereof there is a white Cross while the other parts of the Scull are black. This common Tradition, and some Vid. Author. citat. ap. P. Hal­loix. not. ad vit. Dionys. p. 241. Authors to avouch it, will have to be made, when S. Paul laid his hands upon him at his consecration. Which if so, I have no more to observe, but that Orders (which the Church of Rome make a Sacra­ment) did here even in a literal sense confer an indeleble character and mark upon him.

XI. HIS [...], the shape and figure of his body is by the [...]. Greek Menaeon thus described: he was of a middle stature, slender, fair, but inclining to paleness, his nose gracefully bending, hollow-eyed with short eye-brows, his ear large, his hair thick and white, his beard mo­derately long, but very thin. For the image of his mind expressed in his discourses, and the excellent conduct of his life, the Greeks accord­ing to their magnifying humour as well as language, bestow most hyper­bolical elogies and commendations on him. Ibid. They stile him, [...], the Sacred Interpreter and contemplator of hid­den and unspeakable mysteries, and an unsearchable depth of heavenly knowledge; [...], the Trinity-Divine, the divine instrument of those enlive­ning graces that are above all comprehension. They say of him that his life was wonderful, his discourse more wonderful; his tongue full of light, his mouth breathing an holy fire; but his mind [...], most exactly like to God; with a great deal more of the like na­ture up and down their Offices. And certainly were the notions which he has given us of the coelestial Hierarchy and Orders of An­gels, and the things of that supramundane State, as clear and cer­tain, as some would persuade us, he might deserve that title which [Page 73] Vid. Anasias-Biblioth. Epist. ap. Sur. loc. cit. p. 132. Chrysost. de Pseud [...] Preph. p. 401. Tom 6. others give him [...], the Wing, or the Bird of Heaven.

XII. THE great and evident demonstration of his Wisdom and Elo­quence, we are told Suid. in voce [...], p. 745. Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 20. p. 167., are the Works which he left behind him, the No­tions and Language wherewith they are clothed, being so lofty and sub­lime, as are scarcely capable to be the issue of a meer mortal creature. Books infinitely intricate and perplext (as our Countreyman Epist. ad Ca­rol. Calv. Franc. Reg. ap. Usser. Epist. Hibern. p. 59. Johannes Scotus, who first translated them into Latine, tells us) far beyond the reach of Modern apprehensions, and which few are able to pierce into, both for their Antiquity, and sublimeness of those Heavenly Mysteries, whereof they treat. A Work so grateful to all specula­tive Enquirers, into the natures of things, and the more abstruse and recondite parts of Learning, that (if Suidas say true) some of the Heathen Philosophers, and particularly Proclus, often borrows not onely his notions, but his very words and phrases from him; whence he suspects, that some of the Philosophers at Athens stole those Books of his mentioned in the Epistle Dedicatory to S. Timothy, and which now are wanting, and published them under their own names. But had I been to make the conjecture, I should rather have suspected that this Pseudo-Dionysius fetched his speculations, and good part of his expressions from Plotinus, Iamblichus, and the rest of the later Plato­nists. For certainly one egg is not more like another, then this mans Divi­nity is like the Theology of that School, especially as explained by the Philosophers who lived in the first Ages of Christianity. That our Dionysius was not the Author of the Books at this day extant under his name, I shall not concern my self to shew. For however it be conten­ded for by many with all imaginable zeal and stif [...]ness, yet want there not those, and men of note, even in the Roman Communion, who clear­ly disown and deny it; as among the Reformed it has been largely dis­proved by many, and by none with greater learning and industry then Monsieur Daille, who has said whatever is necessary, if not more then enough upon this argument: though as to the date of their birth and first appearance, when he thrusts them down to the sixth Century, he takes somewhat off from the antiquity, which may with probability be allowed them.

XIII. WHO was the particular Author of these Books, is not easie to determine. Among the several conjectures about this matter, none methinks deserves a fairer regard, then what Annot. in Act. Apost. c. 17. Laurentius Valla tells us some learned Greeks of his time conceived, that it was Apollinaris, but whether Father or Son, it matters not, both being men of parts, and of the same strain and humour, [...] Socrat. H. Ecc. l. 2. c. 46. p. 160., both of them Masters in all the learning of the Greeks, though of the two the Son was most likely to be the man. Certain it is, that Apollinaris was [...], as H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Socr. loc. citat. Sozomen de­scribes him, trained up to all sorts of Learning, and skilled in the artifi­ces and frames of Words and Speeches, and Ep. LXXIV. p. 125. Tom. 2. S. Basil says of him, that be­ing indued with a facility of writing upon any argument, joined with a great readiness and volubility of language, he filled the World with his Books: though even in his Theologic Tracts he sought not to esta­blish them by Scripture-proofs, but from humane arguments and ways of reasoning: [...], as Leont. de Sect. Act. IV. p. 446. another also says of him. He was born and bred at Alexan­dria, [Page 74](then which no place more famous for Schools of Humane Learning, especially the Profession of the Platonic Philosophy) and afterwards lived at Laodicea, where he was so intimately familiar with the Gentile-Philosophers, that Theodotus Bishop of the place forbad him (though in vain) any longer to keep company with them, fearing lest he might be perverted to Paganism; as afterwards George his successor excommuni­cated him for his insolent contempt in not doing it. This is said to have given the first occasion to his starting aside from the Orthodox Do­ctrines of the Church. For resenting it as an high affront, and being [...] Socrat. ib. p. 161., prompted with a bold conceit of his sophistical Wit, and subtle ways of reasoning, he began to innovate in matters of Doctrine, and set up a Sect after his own name. And certainly whoever thoroughly considers Apollinaris his principles, as they are represented by Socrat. [...]. ci­tat. Socrates, S [...]n. l. 6. c. 27. p. 676. ex Ep. N [...]ian. de Ne­c [...].Sozomen, Th [...]dor. l. 5. c. 3. p. 2 [...]0.Theodoret, Basil. ubi supr.Basil, and Epiph. Haeres. 77. p. 421. Epi­phanius, will find many of them to have a great affinity with the Platonic notions, and some of them not un-akin to those in Dionysius his Books, and that as to the Doctrine of the Trinity they were right in the main, which Ibid. vid. [...]. loc. citat. Socrates particularly tells us the Apollinarians confessed to be consubstantial. To which I add, what a learned Dr. Stillingfl. his Answer to Cress. Apolog. c. 2. §. 17. p. 133. man of our own has observed upon this argument, that Apollinaris and his followers were guilty of forging Ecclesiastical Writings, which they fastned upon Gr [...] ­gory Thaumaturgus, Athanasius, and Pope Julius, as De Sect. Act. VIII. p. 527. Leontius particu­larly proves at large. So that they might be probably enough for­ged in the School of Apollinaris, either by himself, or some of his Dis­ciples

XIV. IT makes the conjecture look yet more favourable, that there was one Vid. Collat. Cat [...]ol. cum Se­ve [...]an. Co [...]. Tr [...]. 4. [...] 1767. Dionysius, a friend probably of Apollinaris, to whom he is said to have written that famous Epistle that went under the name of Pope Julius: and then among his own Scholars he had a Timotheus (condemned together with his Master by [...]. H. Ecc. [...] 5. c. [...], 10. p. 21 [...]. Damasus, and the Synod at Rome) so that they might easily enough take occasion from their own to vent their conceptions under the more venerable names of those an­cient and Apostolic persons. Or, which is more probable, Apollinaris himself so well versed in the arts of counterfeiting, might from them take the hint to compose and publish them under the name of the an­cient Dionysius. Nor indeed could he likely pitch upon a name more favourable and agreeable to his purpose, a man born in the very Center of Learning and Eloquence, and who might easily be supposed to be bred up in all the Institutions of Philosophy, and in a peculiar manner acquainted with the Writings and Theorems of Plato and his Followers, so famous, so generally entertained in that place. And there will be the more reason to believe it still, when we consider, that Socrat. l. 3. c. 16. p. 187. Apollinaris reduced the Gospels and the Writings of the Apostles into the form of Dialegues in imitation of Plato among the Greeks. And then for the stile, which is very lofty and affected, we noted before how peculiarly qualified Apollinaris was with a quick invention of words, and a sophi­stical way of speech, and the So [...]om. l. 6. c. 25. p. 672. Historian observes that the great instru­ment by which he set on foot his Heresie, and wherein he had a singular talent, was [...], artificial Schemes of Words, and subtle ways to express himself. So [...]om. l. 5. c. 18. p. 623. Besides he was an incomparable Poet (not onely the Father but the Son) to the study whereof he peculiarly addicted him­self, and wrote Poems to the imitation, and the envy of the best among [Page 75]the Heathens. In imitation of Homer he writ Heroic Poems of the Hi­story of the old Testament till the reign of Saul, Comedies after the man­ner of Menander, Tragoedies in imitation of Euripides, and Odes in imita­tion of Pindar: he composed Divine Hymns, Id. l. 6. c. 25. p. 671. that were publicly sung in the Churches of his separation, and Songs which men sung both in their Feasts and at their Trades, and even women at the Distaff. By this means he was admirably prepared for lofty and poetic strains, and might be easily tempted, especially the matter admitting it, to give way to a wanton and luxuriant fansie in the choice, composition, and use of words. And certainly never was there a stranger heap ( [...], Maximus himself calls it) of sublime, affected, bombast, and poetic phrases, then is to be met with in these Books attributed to S. Denys.

XV. IF it shall be enquired, why a man should after so much pains chuse to publish his Labors rather under another mans name then his own; there needs no other answer, then that this has been an old trade, which some men have taken up, either because 'twas their humor to lay their own children at other mens doors, or to decline the censure which the notions they published were likely to expose them to, or principally to conci­liate the greater esteem and value for them, by thrusting them forth un­der the name of those, for whom the World has a just regard and vene­ration. As for Monsieur Dailles conjecture, De Script. Dio­nys. c. 39. p. 221. that the reason why several learned Volumes were written and fastned upon the Fathers of the an­cient Church, was to vindicate them from that common imputation of the Gentiles, who were wont to charge the Christians for being a rude and illiterate generation, whose Books were stuffed with nothing but plain simple Doctrines, and who were strangers to all kind of Learning and Eloquence; that to obviate this objection, several took upon them to compose Books full of Learning and Philosophy, which they pub­lished under the names of the first preachers and propagaters of the Chri­stian Faith, and that this particularly was the case of the Recognitions ascribed to Clemens, and the Writings attributed to Dionysius: The first I grant very likely and rational, the Recognitions being probably writ­ten about the second Century, when (as appears from Celsus his Book against the Christians) this objection was most rife, and when few lear­ned discourses had been published by them: But can by no means allow it as to the second, Dionysius his Works being written long after the Learning and Eloquence of the Christians had sufficiently approved it self to the World, to the shame and conviction, the envy and admi­ration of its greatest Enemies. And there was far less need of them for this purpose, if it be true what Daille himself so confidently asserts, and so earnestly contends for, that they were not written till the begin­ning of the sixth Century, about the year DXX. when there were few learned Gentiles left to make this objection, Heathenism being almost wholly banished out of the civilized World.

XVI. BUT whoever was their genuine Parent, or upon what account soever he wrote them, it is plain, that he laid the foundation of a mysti­cal and unintelligible Divinity among Christians, and that hence procee­ded all those wild Rosicrucean notions, which some men are so fond of, and the life and practice whereof they cry up as the very soul and perfe­ction of the Christian State. And that this Author does immediately minister to this design, let the Reader judge by one instance, and I assure [Page 76]him 'tis none of the most obscure and intricate passages in these Books. I have set it down in its own Language as well as ours, not being confi­dent of my own version (though expressed word for word;) for I pre­tend to no great faculty in translating what I do not understand. Thus then he discourses concerning the knowledge of God. [...]. Dionys. de Divin. Nomin. cap. 7. p. 238. God (saith he) is known in all things, and without all things: he is known by knowledge, and by ignorance: there is both a cogitation of him, and a word, and a science, and a touch, and a sense, and an opinion, and an imagination, and a name, and all other things; and yet he is neither thought, nor spo­ken, nor named. He is not any thing of those things that are, nor is he known in any of the things that are; he is both all things in all, and nothing in nothing; out of all things he is known to all and out of nothing to nothing. These are the things which we rightly discourse concerning God. And this again is the most divine knowledge of God, that which is known by ignorance, according to the union that is above understanding; when the mind getting at a distance from all things that are, and having dismissed it self, is united to those super-illustrious Beams, from whence and where it is en­lightned in the unfathomable depth of wisdom. More of this and the like stuff is plentifully scattered up and down these Books. And if this be not mystical and profound enough, I know not what is; and which certainly any man but one well versed in this sort of Theology, would look upon as a strange Jargon of non sense, and contradiction. And yet this is the height of devotion and piety, which some men earnestly press after, and wherein they glory. As if a man could not truly understand the mysteries of Religion, till he had resigned his reason, nor be a Chri­stian, without first becoming an Enthusiast, nor be able to speak sense, unless in a Language which none can understand.

THE LIFE OF S. CLEMENS BISHOP of ROME.

I. IT makes not a little for the honour of this Ve­nerable Apostolical Man, (for of him all anti­quity understands it) that he was Fellow-la­bourer with S. Paul, and one of those, whose names were written in the Book of Life. He was born at Rome, upon Mount Caelius, as, besides others, the Vit. Clement. Concil. Tom. 1. col. 74. Pontifical under the name of Da­masus, informs us. His Fathers name was Fau­stinus, but who he was, and what his Profession and course of life is not recorded. Indeed in the Book of the Recogni­tions, and the [...] (mentioned by the Ancients, and lately pub­lished) we have more particular accounts concerning him: Books which however falsly attributed to S. Clemens, and liable in some cases to just exception, yet being of great antiquity in the Church, written not long after the Apostolic Age (as we shall shew hereafter) we shall thence derive some few notices to our purpose, though we cannot absolutely engage for the certainty of them. There we find S. Clemens brought in, giving this account of himself.

II. HE Recogn. l. 7 n. 8. p. 476. Clem. Homil. 12. n. 8. p. 678. Epitom. [...]. 76. p. 781. Edit. Paris. was descended of a noble race, sprung from the family of the Caesars, his Father Faustinianus, or Faustus, being near a kin to the Em­perour (I suppose Tiberius) and educated together with him, and by his procurement matched with Mattidia, a woman of a prime Family in Rome. He was the youngest of three sons, his two elder Brothers be­ing Faustinus and Faustus, who after changed their names for Nicetas and Aquila. His Mother, a Woman it seems of exquisit beauty, was by her husbands own brother strongly sollicited to unchast embraces. To avoid whose troublesome importunities, and yet loth to reveal it to her hus­band, lest it should break out to the disturbance and dishonour of their Family, she found out this expedient: she pretended to her husband that she was warned in a dream together with her two eldest sons to de­part for some time from Rome. He accordingly sent them to reside at [Page 79] Athens, for the greater conveniency of their education. But hearing nothing of them, though he sent Messengers on purpose every year, he resolved at last to go himself in pursuit of them; which he did, leaving his youngest son, then twelve years of age, at home, under the care of Tu­tors and Guardians. Recogn. l. 2. [...]. 1. p. 399. [...]. Hom. 1. p. 540. Epist. p. [...]49. S. Clemens grew up in all manly Studies, and ver­tuous actions, till falling under some great dissatisfactions of mind con­cerning the immortality of the soul, and the state of the other life, he applied himself to search more narrowly into the nature and the truth of things. After having baffled all his own notions, he betook himself to the Schools of the Philosophers, where he met with nothing but fierce contentions, endless disputes, sophistical and uncertain arts of reasoning; thence he resolved to consult the Egyptian Hierophantae, and to see if he could meet with any who by arts of Magic was able to fetch back one of those who were departed to the invisible World, the very sight of whom might satisfie his curious enquiries about this matter. While he was under this suspense, he heard of the Son of God his appearing in the world, and the excellent doctrins he had published in Judaea, where­in he was further instructed by the ministry of S. Barnabas, who came to Rome. Him he followed first to Alexandria, and thence after a little time to Judaea. Arriving at Caesarea he met with S. Peter, by whom he was instructed and baptized, whose Companion and Disciple he conti­nued for a great part of his life.

III. THIS is the sum of what I thought good to borrow from those an­cient Writings. As for his relations, what various misadventures his Father and Mother, and his two Brothers severally met with, by what strange accidents they all afterwards met together, were converted and baptized into the Christian Faith, I omit, partly as less proper to my purpose, partly because it looks more like a dramatic Scene of Fansie, then a true and real History. As to that part of the account of his be­ing related to the Imperial Family, though it be more then once and again confidently asserted by H. Fee [...]. l. 2. c. 35. p. 191. l. 3. c. 2. & 18. p. 247. Nicephorus (who transcribes a good part of the Story) and by Euther. Lugd. ad Valerian. de contempt. Mund. Anonym. de vit. Petr. & Paul. ap. P. Jun. not. in Clem. Ep. ad Co­rinth. others before him, yet I cannot but behold it as an evident mistake, arising from no other Fountain then the Story of Flavius Clemens the Consul, who was Cousin-german to the Emperour Domitian, and his Wife Flavia Domitilla near akin also to the Empe­rour; concerning whose conversion to, and martyrdom for the Faith of Christ, we have Primit. Christ. p. 1. ch. 3. elsewhere given an account from the Writers of those Times. Probable it is, that S. Clemens for the main attend S. Peters motions, and came with him to Rome, where he had at last the Govern­ment of that Church committed to him. Synops. de vit. App. in Bibl. PP. Tom 3. p. 150. col. 1. Dorotheus tells us, that he was the first of the Gentiles that embraced the Christian Faith, and that he was first made Bishop of Sardica, a City in Thrace, afterwards called Triaditza, and then of Rome. But herein I think he stands alone, I am sure has none of the Ancients to join with him; unless he understands it of another Clemens, whom the Chron. Alex. p. 508. Chronicon Alexandrinum also makes one of the LXX Disciples, but withall seems to confound with ours. That he was Bishop of Rome, there is an unanimous and unquestionable agreement of all ancient Writers, though they strangely vary about the place and order of his coming to it. The Writers of the Roman Church, how great words soever they speak of the constant and uninter­rupted succession of S. Peters Chair, are yet involved in an inextricable labyrinth about the succession of the four first Bishops of that See, [Page 80]scarce two of them of any note bringing in the same account. I shall not attempt to accommodate the difference between the several Schemes that are given in, but onely propose what I conceive most likely and probable.

IV. EVIDENT it is both from Adv. Heres. l. 3. c. 3. p. 232. Irenaeus and Epiph. Haeres. XXVII. p. 51. vid. Ham. Dis­sert. V. c. 1. p. 256. Epiphanius, as also before them from Cal. adv. Pro­c [...]l. & Caius an ancient Writer, and from Dionys. Epist. ad Rom. apud Euseb. l. 2. c. 25. p. 68. Dionysius Bishop of Co­rinth, that Peter and Paul jointly laid the Foundations of the Church of Rome, and are therefore equally stiled Bishops of it, the one as Apostle of the Gentiles (as we may probably suppose) taking care of the Gentile Christians, while the other as the Apostle of the Circumcision, applied him­self to the Jewish Converts at Rome. For we cannot imagine, that there being such chronical and inveterate prejudices between Jews and Gentiles, especially in matters of Religion, they should be suddainly laid aside, and both enter-common in one public Society. We know that in the Church of Jerusalem till the destruction of the Temple, none were admitted but Jewish Converts: and so it might be at first at Rome, where infinite numbers of Jews then resided, they might keep themselves for some time in distinct assemblies, the one under S. Paul, the other under Peter. And some foundation for such a conjecture there seems to be even in the Apostolic History, Act. 28.23, 24, 25, 28, 39, 31. where S. Luke tells us, that S. Paul at his first coming to Rome being rejected by the Jews turned to the Gentiles, declaring to them the salvation of God, who gladly heard and enter­tained it, and that he continued thus preaching the Kingdom of God, and receiving all that came in unto him for two years together. This I look upon as the first setled foundation of a Gentile Church at Rome, the further care and presidency whereof S. Paul might devolve upon Linus (whom the interpolated Ignatius makes his Deacon or Minister) as S. Peter having established a Church of Jewish Converts might turn it over to S. Clemens, of whom De Praescript. Haeret. c. 32. p. 213. Tertullian expresly says, that Peter ordained him Bishop of Rome. Accordingly the Compiler of the Lib. 7. c. 47. col. 451. Apostolic Constitutions makes Linus to be ordained Bishop of Rome by S. Paul, and Clemens by S. Pe­ter. He says indeed that Linus was the first, and so he might very well be, seeing S. Paul (whatever the Modern Writers of that Church say to the contrary) was some considerable time at Rome, before S. Peter came hither. Linus dying, was probably succeeded by Cletus or Ana­cletus (for the Greeks, and doubtless most truly, generally make him the same person) in his distinct capacity. At which time Clemens, whom S. Peter had ordained to be his Successor, continued to act as President over the Church of Jewish Converts: and thus things remained till the death of Cletus, when the difference between Jew and Gentile being quite worn off, the entire Presidency and Government of the whole Church of Rome might devolve upon S. Clemens as the surviver; and from this period of time, the years of his Episcopacy, according to the common computation, are to begin their date. By this account, not onely that of De Schism. Donat. lib. 2. p. 38. Optatus and the A Bucher. edit. comment. in Vict. Can. Pasch. c. 15. p. 269. Bucherian Catalogue may be true, who make Clemens to follow Linus, but also that of Baronius and many of the Ancients, who make both Linus and Cletus to go before him, as we can allow they did as Bishops and Pastors of the Gentile Church. As for a more distinct and particular account of the Times, I thus compute them: Peter and Paul suf­fered Martyrdom in the Neronian persecution (as we have elsewhere probably shewed) Ann. LXV. After which Linus sate twelve years, four moneths, and twelve days: Cletus twelve years, one (but as Baronius, se­ven) [Page 81]moneths, and eleven days, which between them make XXV years, and extend to Ann. Chr. XC. after which if we add the nine years, eleven moneths, and twelve days, wherein Clemens sate sole Bishop over that whole Church, they fall in exactly with the third year of Trajan, the time assigned for his Martyrdom, by Eusebius, Hierom, Damasus, and many others. Or if with Petavius, Ricciolus, and some others, we assign the Martyrdom of Peter and Paul, Ann. LXVII. two years later, the computation will still run more smooth and easie, and there will be time enough to be allowed for the odd moneths and days assigned by the dif­ferent accounts, and to make the years of their Pontificat compleat and full. Nor can I think of any way, considering the great intricacy and perplexity of the thing, that can bid fairer for an easie solution of this matter. For granting Clemens to have been ordained by S. Peter for his successor, (as several of the Ancients expresly affirm) and yet withall (what is evident enough) that he died not till Ann. Chr. C. Traj. III. it will be very difficult to find any way so proper to reconcile it. As for that fansie of Contr. Carpo­crat. Haeres. XXVII. p. 51. vid. Clem. Epist. ad Corinth. p. 69. Epiphanius, that Clemens might receive imposition of hands from Peter, but refused the actual exercise of the Episcopal Office, so long as Linus and Cletus lived: he onely proposes it as a conjecture, founded meerly upon a mistaken passage of Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians, and confesses 'tis a thing wherein he dare not be positive, not being confident whether it were so or no.

V. MIGHT the ancient Extat Grace & Lat. inter PP. Apost. à Co­teler. [...]dit. Epistle written to S. James the Brother of our Lord, under the name of our S. Clemens, be admitted as a competent evidence, there we find not onely that Clemens was constituted Bishop by S. Peter, but with what formality the whole affair was transacted. It tells us that the Apostle sensible of his approaching dissolution, presented Clemens before the Church as a fit person to be his Successor; the good man with all imaginable modesty declined the honour, which S. Peter in a long discourse urged upon him, and set out at large the particular du­ties both of Ministers in their respective Orders and Capacities, as also of the people; which done, he laid his hands upon him, and compelled him to take his seat. How he administred this great but difficult Pro­vince, the Ecclesiastical Records give us very little account. The Au­thor of the Lib. Pontif. in vit. Clem. Conc. T. 1. col. 74. Pontifical that fathers himself upon Pope Damasus, tells us, that he divided Rome into seven Regions, in each of which he appointed a Notary, who should diligently enquire after all the Martyrs that suf­fered within his division, and faithfully record the Acts of their Mar­tyrdom. I confess the credit of this Author is not good enough abso­lutely to rely upon his single testimony in matters so remote and distant: though we are otherwise sufficiently assured, that the custom of Nota­ries taking the Speeches, Acts, and Sufferings of the Martyrs did obtain in the early ages of the Church. Besides this, we are told by others that he dispatched away several persons to preach and propagate the Christian Religion in those Countries, whither the sound of the Gospel had not yet arrived. Nor did he onely concern himself to propagate Christianity, where it wanted, Hegesip. ap. Ex­seb. l. 3. c. 16. p. 88. but to preserve the peace of those Chur­ches where it was already planted. For an unhappy Schism having bro­ken out in the Church of Corinth, they sent to Rome to require his ad­vice and assistance in it, who in the name of the Church, whereof he was Governour, wrote back an incomparable Epistle to them, to com­pose and quel [...], as Epist. ad Co­rinth, p. 2. he calls it, that impious and abo­minable [Page 82]Sedition that was arisen amongst them. And indeed there seems to have been a more intimate and friendly intercourse between these two Churches in those times, then between any other mentioned in the Writings of the Church. The exact time of writing this Epistle is not known, the date of it not being certainly determinable by any notices of Antiquity, or any intimations in the Epistle it self. The conjecture that has obtained with some of most note and learning is, that it was writ­ten before the destruction of Jerusalem, while the Temple and the Levi­tical ministration were yet standing. Which they collect, I suppose, from a Ibid. pag. 53. passage, where he speaks of them in the present tense. But who­ever impartially considers the place, will find no necessary foundation for such an inference, and that S. Clemens his design was onely to illustrate his Argument, and to shew the reasonableness of observing those parti­cular Stations and Ministries which God has appointed us, by alluding to the Ordinances of the Mosaic Institution. To me it seems most proba­ble to have been written a little after the Persecution under Domitian, and probably not long before Clemens his exile. For excusing the no sooner answering the Letters of the Church of Corinth, he Ib pag. 1. tells them it was [...], by reason of those calami­ties and sad accidents that had happened to them. Now plain it is, that no Persecution had been raised against the Christians, especially at Rome, from the time of Nero till Domitian. As for Mr. Youngs conjecture from this place, that it was written in the time of his banishment; he forgot to consider that the Epistle was written not in Clemens his own name, but in the person of the Church of Rome. A circumstance that renders the place incapable of being particularly applied to him.

VI. BY a firm patience and a prudent care he weathered out the stormy and troublesom times of Domitian, and the short but peaceable reign of Nerva. When alas the clouds returned after rain, and began to thicken into a blacker storm in the time of Trajan, an excellent Prince in­deed, of so sweet and plausible a disposition, of so mild and inoffensive a conversation, that it was ever after a part of their solemn acclamation at the choice of a new elected Emperour, MELIOR TRAJANO Entrop. H. Rom. l. 8. non longe ab initie., better then Trajan. But withall he was zealous for his Religion, and up­on that account a severe enemy to Christians. Among several Laws enacted in the beginning of his reign, he published one (if Ad. Ann. 100. [...]. VIII. Tom. 2. Baronius, which I much question, conjecture the time aright, for Epist. 97. l. 10 Plinies Epistle, upon which he seems to ground it, was probably written at least nine or ten years after) whereby he forbad the Heteriae, the Societies or Colledges erected up and down the Roman Empire, whereat men were wont to meet, and liberally feast under a pretence of more convenient dispatch of business, and the maintainance of mutual love and friend­ship; which yet the Roman State beheld with a jealous eye, as fit Nur­series for Treason and Sedition. Under the notion of these unlawful combinations, the Christian Assemblies were looked upon by their Ene­mies; for finding them confederated under one common President, and constantly meeting at their solemn Love-feasts, and especially being of a way of Worship different from the Religion of the Empire, they thought they might securely proceed against them as illegal Societies, and contemners of the Imperial constitution, wherein S. Clemens as head of the Society at Rome, was sure to bear the deepest share. And in­deed it was no more then what himself had long expected, as appears [Page 83]from his Letter to the Corinthians; where having spoken of the tor­ments and sufferings which the Holy Apostles had undergone, he tells them Ubi supr. p. 9., that he looked upon himself and his people as [...], set to run the same race, [...], and that the same fight and conflict was laid up for them.

VII. SIMEON the Metaphrast in the account of his Habetur Graec. & Lat. inte­grum ap. Coteier. loc. cit. p. 826. Martyrdom, (much what the same with that Life of S. Clemens, said to be written by an uncertain Author, published long since by Lazius at the end of Ab­dias Babylonius) sets down the beginning of his troubles to this effect. S. Clemens having converted Theodora, a noble Lady, and afterwards her Husband Sisinnius, a Kinsman and favourite of the late Emperour Nerva, the gaining so great a man quickly drew on others of chief note and quality to embrace the Faith. So prevalent is the example of religious Greatness to sway men to Piety and Vertue. But Envy naturally ma­ligns the good of others, and hates the Instrument that procures it. This good success derived upon him the particular odium of Torcutianus, Id. ibid. p. 832. a man of great power and authority at that time in Rome, who by the in­feriour Magistrates of the City, excited the People to a mutiny against the Holy Man, charging him with Magic and Sorcery, and for being an enemy and blasphemer of the gods, crying out either that he should do sacrifice to them, or expiate his impiety with his blood. Mamertinus Praefect of the City, a moderate and prudent man, being willing to ap­pease the uproar, sent for S. Clemens, and mildly persuaded him to com­ply. But finding his resolution inflexible, he sent to acquaint the Em­perour with the case, who returned this short Rescript, that he should either sacrifice to the gods, or be banished to Cherson, a disconsolate City beyond the Pontic Sea. Mamertinus having received the Impe­rial Mandat, unwillingly complied with it, and gave order that all things should be made ready for the Voyage, and accordingly he was transpor­ted thither, to dig in the Marble Quarries, and labour in the Mines. Damnatio ad Metalla is a punishment frequently mentioned in the Roman Laws, where it is said to be proxima morti poena L. 28. ff. de poen.lib. 48. Tit. 19., the very next to ca­pital punishments. Indeed the usage under it was very extreme and rigorous: for besides the severest labour and most intolerable hardship, the condemned person was treated with all the instances of inhumanity, whiped and beaten, chained and fettered, deprived of his estate L. 36. ubi supr. l. 12. ff. de jur. fisc. l. 49. Tit. 14. l. 1. de bon. dam­nat. l. 8. Quitest. fac. poss. §. 4., which was forfeited to the Exchequer, and the person himself perpetually de­graded into the condition of a Slave, and consequently rendred inca­pable to make a Will. And not this onely, but they were further ex­posed to the most public marks of Infamy and Dishonour, Cypr. Epist. 77. ad Nemes. p. 155 Euseb. l. 8. c. 12. p. 307. their heads half shaved, their right eye bored out, their left leg disabled, their fore­heads branded with an infamous mark, a piece of disgrace first used in this case by Sueton. in vit. Calig. c. 27. p. 428. Caligula (and the Historian notes it as an instance of his cruel temper) and from him continued till the times of Constantine, who abolished it by a L. 2. Cod. Th. de poen. l. 9. Tit. 40. Law Ann. Chr. CCCXV. not to mention the hunger and thirst, the cold and nakedness, the filth and nastiness, which they were forced to conflict with in those miserable places.

VIII. ARRIVING at the place of his uncomfortable exile, he found vast numbers of Christians condemned to the same miserable fate, whose minds were not a little erected under all their pressures at the sight of so good a man, by whose constant preaching, and the frequent mira­cles that he wrought, their Enemies were converted into a better opi­nion [Page 84]of them and their Religion, the Inhabitants of those Countries daily flocking over to the Faith, so that in a little time Christianity had beaten Paganism out of the Field, and all Monuments of Idolatry thereabouts were defaced and overturned. The fame whereof was quickly carried to the Emperour, who dispatched Aufidianus the President to put a stop to this growing Sect, which by methods of terrour and cruelty he set upon, putting great numbers of them to death. But finding how rea­dily and resolutely they pressed up to execution, and that this days Martyrs did but prepare others for to morrows Torments, he gave over contending with the multitude, and resolved to single out one of note above the rest, whose exemplary punishment might strike dread and terrour into the rest. To this purpose S. Clemens is pitched on, and all temptations being in vain tried upon him, the Executioners are com­manded to carry him aboard and throw him into the bottom of the Sea, where the Christians might despair to find him. This kind of death was called [...], and was in use not onely among the Greeks, as appears by the instance mentioned by Biblioth. l. 16. Diodorus Siculus, but the Ro­mans, as we find in several Malefactors condemned to be thrown into the Sea both by Sueton. in vit. Tib. c. 62. p. 366. Vul. Gallic. in Avid. Cass. c. 4. p. 247. Mark 9.42. Tiberius and Avidius Cassius. To this our Lord has respect, when in the case of wilful scandal, he pronounces it better for the man that a Mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the bottom of the Sea. Where though Com. in Matt. 18. p. 53. Tom. 9. S. Hierom tells us that this punishment was usual among the ancient Jews in case of more enormous crimes, yet do I not remember that any such capital punishment ever prevailed among them. I shall not here relate what I find concerning the strange and miraculous discovery of S. Clemens his body, nor the particular miracle of a little Child preserved in the Church erected to him in the middle of the Sea for a whole year together (though solemnly averred by Serm. de mi­ra [...]. in Puer. à S. Clor. fact. ap. Sur. Novemb. 23. & Gr. & Lat. ap. Coteler. p. 837. Ephraem Bishop of the place) as despairing they would ever find a be­lief wide enough to swallow them, nor those infinite other miracles said to be done there; it shall onely suffice to mention one; that upon the Anniversary solemnity of his Martyrdom the Sea retreats on each side into heaps, and leaves a fair and dry passage for three miles together to the Martyrs Tomb, erected within a Church, built (as it must be sup­posed by Angels) within the Sea, and the Peoples devotions being en­ded, the Sea returns to its own place, [...], says Ibid. p. 841. one of my Authors, God by this means doing honour to the Martyr. I onely add, that these Traditions were currant before the time of Gregory Bishop of Tours, De mirac. l. 1. c. 35, 36. p. 46. who speaks of them with great re­verence and devotion. S. Clemens died (as both Lib. 3. c. 34. p. 106. Eusebius and De Script. Eccl. in Clem. S. Hie­rome witness, for I heed not the account of the Alexandrin Chronicon, which places it four years after, Trajan VII. though the Consuls which he there assigns properly belong to the IV. of that Emperour) in the third year of Trajan, a little more then two years after his banishment, after he had been sole Bishop of Rome nine years six moneths and so many days, ubi supra. say Baronius and others, though Bucherius his Catalogue, more to be trusted (as being composed before the death of Pope Liberius, Ann. CCCLIV.) nine years eleven moneths and twelve days. His mar­tyrdom happened on the XXIV. of November, according to Baronius and the ordinary Roman computation, but on the nineth of that Moneth, says the little Martyrology published by Ann. 4. Olymp. CCXX. Ind. 1. p. 594. Bucherius, and which unquestionably was one of the true and genuine Calendars of the an­cient Lors. pr. cltat. p. 2 [...]9. [Page 85]Church. He was honoured at Rome by a Church erected to his memory, yet standing in De Script. i [...] Clement. S. Hieroms time.

IX. THE Writings which at this day bear the name of this Aposto­lic man, are of two sorts, Genuine or Supposititious. In the first Class is that famous Epistle to the Corinthians, so much magnified by the Ancients, [...] (as Adv. Haeres. l. 3. ap. Eus [...]b. l. 5. c. 6. p. 170. Irenaeus calls it) the most excellent and ab­solute writing, [...], says Lib. 3. c. 16. p. 88. Eusebius a truly great and admirable Epistle, and very useful as De Script. Eccles. in Cl [...]m. S. Hierom adds, [...] as Cod. CXII. col. 289. Photius stiles it, worthy of all esteem and veneration, [...], as Ibid. c. 38. p. 110. Eusebius assures us, received by all, and indeed reverenced by them next to the Holy Scriptures, and therefore publicly read in their Churches for some Ages, even till his time, and it may be a long time after. The stile of it (as Cod. CXXVI. col. 305. Photius truely observes) is very plain and simple, imitating an Ecclesiastical and unaffected way of Writing, and which breaths the true genius and spirit of the Apostolic Age. It was written upon occasion of a great Schism and Sedition in the Church of Corinth, begun by two or three factious persons against the Governours of the Church, who envying either the gifts, or the authority and esteem of their Guides and Teachers, had attempted to depose them, and had drawn the greatest part of the Church into the Conspiracy: whom therefore he endeavours by soft words and hard Arguments to reduce back to Peace and Unity. His modesty and humility in it are peculiarly discernable, not onely that he wholly writes it in the name of the Church of Rome, without so much as ever mentioning his own, but in that he treats them with such gentle and mild persuasives. No­thing of sowreness, or an imperious lording it over Gods heritage to be seen in the whole Epistle. Had he known himself to be the infallible Judge of Controversies, to whose sentence the whole Christian World was bound to stand, invested with a supreme unaccountable Power, from which there lay no Appeal, we might have expected to have heard him argue at another rate. But these were the Encroachments and Usur­pations of later Ages, when a spirit of Covetousness and secular ambi­tion had stifled the modesty and simplicity of those first and best Ages of Religion. There is so great an affinity in many things both as to Words and Matter between this and the Epistle to the Hebrews, as tem­pted Eusebius and S. Hierom of old, and some others before them, Ibid. to conclude S. Clemens at least the Translator of that Epistle. This Epistle to the Corinthians after it had been generally bewailed as lost for many Ages, was not more to the benefit of the Church in general, then the honour of our own in particular, some forty years since published here in England, a treasure not sufficiently to be valued. Besides this first, there is the fragment of a second Epistle, or rather Homily, containing a serious exhortation and direction to a pious life: ancient indeed, and which many will persuade us to be his, and to have been written many years before the former, as that which betrays no footsteps of trouble­som and unquiet times: but Eusebius, S. Hierom, Losis suprecitat. and Photius assure us that it was rejected, and never obtained among the ancients equal ap­probation with the first. And therefore though we do not perempto­rily determine against its being his, yet we think it safer to acquiesce in the judgment of the Ancients, then of some few late Writers in this matter.

X. AS for those Writings that are undoubtedly spurious and suppo­sititious, [Page 86]disown'd (as Ibid. pag. 110. Eusebius says) because they did not [...], retain the true stamp and character of Orthodox Apostolic Doctrin, though the truth is, he speaks it onely of the Dialogues of Peter and Appion, not mentioning the Decre­tal Epistles, as not worth taking notice of, there are four extant at this day that are entitled to him, the Apostolical Canons and the Constitutions (said to be penned by him, though dictated by the Apostles) the Re­cognitions, Praef. to Pri­mit. Christia­nity. and the Epistle to S. James. For the two first, the Aposto­lic Canons and Constitutions, I have declared my sense of them in ano­ther place, to which I shall add nothing here. The Recognitions succeed, conveyed to us under different titles by the Ancients, sometimes stiled S. Clemens his Acts, History, Chronicle, sometimes S. Peters Acts, Itinerary, P [...]riods, Dialogues with Appion, all which are unquestionably but diffe­rent inscriptions (or it may be parcels) of the same book. True it is what Cod. CXII. col. 289. Photius suspected, and Praefat. ad Gaudent. p. 397. Rufinus (who translated it) expresly tells us, that there were two several editions of this Book, differing in some things, but the same in most. And it deserves to be considered, whether the [...] mentioned by H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 18. p. 248. Nicephorus, and which he says the Church received, and denies to be those meant by Eusebius, and those Clementine Homilies lately published under that very name, be not that other Edition of the Recognitions, seeing they exactly answer Rufinus his Character, differing in some things, but in most agreeing with them. There is yet a third Edition, or rather Abstract out of all, stiled [...], &c. Clemens his Epitome of the Acts, Travels, and Preachings of S. Peter, agreeing with the former, though keeping more close to the Homilies then the other. This I guess to have been compi­led by Simeon the Metaphrast, as for other reasons, so especially because the appendage added to it by the same hand concerning Clemens his martyrdom is word for word the same with that of Metaphrastes, the close of it onely excepted, which is taken out of S. Ephraems Homily of the miracle done at his Tomb.

XI. THE Recognitions themselves are undoubtedly of very great antiquity, Pseudo-Isid. p. 28. written about the same time, and by the same hand (as Blondel probably conjectures) with the Constitutions about the Year CLXXX, or not long after. Sure I am, they are cited by Philocal. c. 23. p. 81, 82. Origen as the Work of Clemens in his Periods, and his large quotation is in so many words Recognit. l. 10. ex­tant in them at this day. Nay before him we meet with a very long fragment of Bardesanes the Extat ap. Eu­seb. Praep. Evan. l. 6. c. 10. p. 273 & seq. vid. Re­cogn. lib. 9. p. 503. &c.Syrian (who flourished Ann. CLXXX.) con­cerning Fate, word for word the same with what we find in the Recog­nitions, and it seems equally reasonable to suppose that Bardesanes had it thence, as that the other borrowed it from him. Nay what if Bardesanes himself was the Author of these Books? 'Tis certain that he was a man of great parts and learning, a man prompt and eloquent, [...] Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 4. c. 30. p. 151. Epiph. Haeres. LVI. p. 207., an acute and subtle Disputant, heretically enclined, for he came out of the School of Valentinus, whose uncouth notions he had so deeply im­bibed, that even after his recantation, he could never get clear from the dregs of them, as Eusebius informs us: though Epiphanius tells us he was first Orthodox, and afterwards fell into the errours of that Sect, like a well fraighted Ship that having duly performed its Voyage, is cast away in the very sight of the Harbour. He was a great Mathematician and Astrologer, [...] Enstb Praep. Evang. l. 6. c. [...] p. 273., accurately versed in the Chaldaean learning, and wrote incomparable Dialogues concerning [Page 87] Fate, which he dedicated to the Emperour Antoninus. And surely none can have looked into the Recognitions, but he mus [...] see what a conside­rable part the Doctrines concerning Fate, the Genesis, the Influence of the Stars and heavenly Constellations, and such like notions make there of S. Peters and S. Clemens his Dialogues and Discourses. To which we may add what Photius has observed, Ubi supre. and is abundantly evident from the thing it self, that these Books are considerable for their clearness and perspicuity, their eloquent stile, and grave Discourses, and that great variety of Learning that is in them, plainly shewing their Composer to have been a Master in all Humane Learning, and the Study of Philoso­phy. I might further remarque, that Bardesanes seems to have had a peculiar genius for Books of this nature, it being particularly Epip [...]. loc. cit. noted of him, that besides the Scriptures, he traded in certain Apocryphal Wri­tings. He wrote [...] Euseb. H. Eccl. ubi supr. de Script. Eccl. in Bardes., which S. Hierom renders infi­nite Volumes, written indeed for the most part in Syriac, but which his Scholars translated into Greek, though he himself was sufficiently skil­ful in that Language, as Epiphanius notes. In the number of these Books might be the Recognitions, plausibly fathered upon S. Clemens, who was notoriously known to be S. Peters Companion and Disciple: and were but some of his many Books now extant, I doubt not but a much greater affinity both in stile and notions would appear between them. But this I propose onely as a probable conjecture, and leave it at the Readers pleasure either to reject or entertain it. I am not igno­rant that both Apol. adv. Ru­fin. p. 219. S. Hierom and Phot. Cod. CXII. col. 289. Photius charge these Books with haeretical Opinions, especially some derogatory to the honour of the Son of God, which it may be Rufinus (who Apolog. pro Orig. ap. Hieron. Tom. 4. p. 195. confesses the same thing, and supposes them to have been inserted by some haeretical hand) concealed in his Translation: Nay Haeres. XXX. p. 65. Epiphanius tells us, that the Ebionites did so ex­tremely corrupt them, that they scarce left any thing of S. Clemens sound and true in them, which he observes from their repugnancy to his other Writings, those Encyclical Epistles of his (as he calls them) which were read in the Churches. But then its plain, he means it onely of those Copies which were in the possession of those haeretics, probably not now extant, nor do any of those particular adulterations which he says they made in them, appear in our Books, nor in those large and to be sure uncorrupt fragments of Bardesanes and Origen is there the least con­siderable variation from those Books which we have at this day. But of this enough.

XII. THE Epistle to S. James the brother of our Lord is, no doubt, of equal date with the rest, in the close whereof the Author pretends that he was commanded by S. Peter to give him an account of his Tra­vels, Discourses, and the success of his Ministry, under the title of Cle­mens his Epitome of Peters popular preachings, to which he tells him he would next proceed. So that this Epistle originally was nothing but a Praeface to S. Peters Acts or Periods (the same in effect with the Recogni­tions) and accordingly in the late Edition of the Clementine Homilies (which have the very Title mentioned in that Epistle) it is found prefi­xed before them. Loc. supra citat. This Epistle (as Photius tells us) varied according to different Editions, sometimes pretending that it, and the account of S. Pe­ters Acts annexed to it, were written by S. Peter himself, and by him sent to S. James; sometimes that they were written by Clemens at S. Peters in­stance and command. Whence he conjectures that there was a twofold [Page 88]Edition of S. Peters Acts, one said to be written by himself, the other by Clemens, and that when in time the first was lost, that pretending to S. Clemens did remain: For so he assures us he constantly found it in those many Copies that he met with, notwithstanding that the Epistle and Inscription were sometimes different and various. By the Original whereof now published appears the fraud of the Factors of the Romish Church, who in all Latine Editions have added an Appendix almost twice as large as the Epistle it self. And well had it been, had this been the onely instance, wherein some men to shore up a tottering Cause, have made bold with the Writers of the ancient Church.

THE LIFE OF S. SIMEON BISHOP of JERUSALEM.

I. IT cannot be unobserved by any that have but looked into the Antiquities of the Church, what confusion the identity or similitude of names has bred among Ecclesiastic Writers, especially in the more early Ages, where the Records are but short and few. An instance whereof, Vid. Caron. A­lexandr. Olymp. CCXX. Ind. I. Traj. VII. & Ann. sequent. p. 594. were there no other, we have in the person of whom we write: Whom some will have to be the same with S. Simon the Cana­nite, one of the twelve Apostles; others confound him with Simon, one of the four brethren of our Lord, while a third sort make all three to be but one and the same person: the sound and similitude of names giving birth to the several mistakes. For that Simeon of Jerusalem was a person altogether distinct from Simon the Apostle, is undeniably evi­dent from the most ancient Martyrologies both of the Greek and the Latine Church, where vastly different accounts are given concerning their persons, imployments, and the time and places of their death; Simon the Apostle being martyred in Britain, or as others in Persia, while Si­meon the Bishop is notoriously known to have suffered in Palestine or in Syria. Nor are the testimonies of Dorotheus, Sophronius, or Isidore, considerable enough to be weighed against the Authorities of Hegesip­pus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others. But of this enough.

II. S. Simeon was the son of H [...]gesip. ap. Euseb. l. 3. c. 11. p. 87. Epiph. Hae­res. LXVI. p. 274. & omnia antiqua Martyro­logia, Adonis, Bedae, Notkeri, Usuardi apud Bolland. de Vit. SS. ad diem XVIII. Febr. pag. 53, 54. Cleophas, brother to Joseph, husband to the Blessed Virgin, and so his Father had the honour to be Uncle to our Saviour, in the same sense that Joseph was his Fa­ther. His Mother (say H [...]gesip. ib. c. 32. p. 104. Nic [...]ph. l. 3. c. 16. p 245. some) was Mary the Wife of Cleophas, mentioned in the History of the Gospel, Sister or Cousin-german to the Mother of our Lord: And if so, he was by both sides nearly related to our Savior. He was born (as appears from his Age, and the date of his Martyrdom assigned by Eusebius) Ann. Mundi 3936. thirteen years according to the Vulgar computation before our Saviours Incarnation. His Education was according to the severest rules of Religion professed in the Jewish Church, being entered into the Order of the Rechabites, as may be probably collected from the Ancients. For Ibid. l. 2. c. 23. p. 65. Hegesippus informs us, that [Page 91]when the Jews were busily engaged in the Martyrdom of S. James the Just, a Rechabite Priest, one of the Generation of the sons of Rechab mentioned by the Prophet Jeremy, stept in, and interceded with the People to spare so just and good a man, and one that was then praying to Heaven for them. This person Haeres. LXXVIII. p. 441. Epiphanius expresly tells us was S. Simeon the son of Cleophas, and Cousin-german to the holy Martyr. The Rechabites were an ancient Institution, founded by Jonadab the son of Rechab, who flourished in the reign of Jehu, and obliged his posterity to these following Rules, to drink no Wine, sowe no Fields, Jer. 35.2, 3, &c. plant no Vineyards, build no Houses, but to dwell onely in Tents and Taberna­cles. All which precepts (the last onely excepted, which Wars and Foreign Invasions would not suffer them to observe) they kept with the most religious reverence, and are therefore highly commended by God for their exact conformity to the Laws of their Institution, and brought in to upbraid the degeneracy of the House of Israel, in viola­ting the Commands he had laid upon them. They continued it seems (and so God had promised them, that they should not want a man to stand before him for ever) till the very last times of the Jewish Church, though little notice be taken of them, as indeed they are but once mentioned throughout the whole History of the Bible, and that onely accidentally, and then too no less then three hundred years after their first Institution. Probable it is, that in after-times all Rechabites were not Jonadabs im­mediate descendants, but that all were accounted such, who took upon them the observance of the same Rules and Orders which Jonadab had prescribed to his immediate posterity. It further seems probable to me, that from these Rechabites, the Essenes, that famous Sect among the Jews, borrowed their Original; that part of them especially, that dwelt in Towns and Cities, and in many things conformed themselves to the Rules of the civil and sociable life. For as for the [...] described Lib. [...]. p. 891. & seq. by Philo, they gave up themselves mainly to solitude and contemplation, lived in Forests and among Groves of Palm-trees, and shunned all intercourse and converse with other men. While the Practic part of them (more par­ticularly taken notice of by De Bell. Jud. l. 2. [...]. p. 785. & Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617. Josephus) though abstaining from marriage, and despising the riches and pleasures of this World, did yet reside in Cities, and places of Public Concourse, labour in their several Trades and Callings, maintain Hospitality, and were united in a common Col­ledge and Society, where they were kept to a solemn observance of the great duties of Religion, and devoted to the Orders of a very strict pious life. And among these, I doubt not, the Rechabites were incor­porated and swallowed up, though it may be together with the gene­ral name of Essenes, they might still retain their particular and proper name. But to return.

III. HIS first Institution in Christianity was probably laid under the Discipline of our Lord himself, whose Auditor and Follower Ap. E [...]seb. l. 3. c. 32 p. 104. Hegesip­pus supposes him to have been; and in all likelihood he was one of the LXX Disciples, in which capacity he continued many years, when he was advanced to a place of great honour and eminency in the Church. About the Year LXII. S. James the Just, Bishop of Jerusalem by the arti­fices of Ananus the High-Priest, had been cruelly martyred by the Jews. The providing for whose place was so far thought to be the concern­ment of the whole Christian Church, that the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord are said Ibid. c. 11. p. 86. vid. lib. [...]. c. 22. p. 142. to have come from all parts to advise and consult with those [Page 92]of our Saviours Kindred and Relations, about a fit Successor in his room. None was thought meet to be a Candidate for the place, but one of our Lords own Relations; and accordingly with one consent they devolved the honour upon Simeon, our Lords next Kinsman, whom they all judged most worthy of the place. I know Eusebius seems to in­timate that this Election was made not onely after S. James his death, but after the destruction of Jerusalem, between which there was the distance of no less then eight or nine years. But (besides that Eusebius makes the destruction of Jerusalem immediately to succeed upon S. James his Martyrdom, when yet there was so great a space) it's very unreasona­ble to suppose that so famous and eminent a Church, a Church newly Constituted, and planted in the midst of the most bitter and inveterate Enemies, should for so long a time be destitute of a Guide and Pastor, espe­cially seeing the Apostles were all long since dispersed into several re­mote quarters of the World: Not to say that most of the Apostles were dead before that time; or if they had not, could not very con­veniently have returned and met together about this affair in so dismal and distracted a state of things, as the Roman Wars, and the utter ruine and overthrow of the Jewish Nation had then put those parts into. Be­sides that Chron. ad Ann. Chr. LXII. Eusebius himself elsewhere places Simeons succession imme­diately after S. James his Martyrdom. Nor is the least vacancy in that See mentioned by any other Writer. The Ann. 1. Olym­piad. CCXII. Indict. XI. Vespas. 2. p. 580. Chronicle of Alexandria places his succession Ann. LXIX. for it tells us, that this year S. James the Apostle and Patriarch of Jerusalem (whom S. Peter at the time of his going to Rome, as his proper See, had ordained to that place; this passage, 'tis plain the Publisher for want of rightly distinguishing, did not under­stand) dying, Simeon or Simon was made Patriarch in his room. But this account is against the Faith of all the Ancients, who make S. James to have suffered Martyrdom several years before; nor do any of them say that he was ordained by S. Peter, many of them expresly affirming, that he immediately received his Consecration from the hands of our Lord himself.

IV. HOW he managed the affairs of that Church, is not distinctly known, few particular accounts of things being transmitted to us. Con­fident we may be that his presidency was attended with sufficient trou­ble and difficulty, not onely from the malicious and turbulent temper of that People, whom he was continually exposed to, but because it fell in with the most black and fatal period of the Jewish Church. For the sins of that Nation being now ripe for Vengeance, and having filled up the measure of their iniquities by their cruel usage of the Apostles and Messengers of our Saviour, their barbarous treatment of S. Stephen, and afterward of S. James the great, and their last bloudy murder of S. James the less, but above all, by their insolent and merciless carriage towards the Son of God, and the Saviour of the World, the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, and the Romans broke in upon them, and took away both their Place and Nation. The sum whereof, because containing such re­markable passages of Providence, such instances of severe displeasure to­wards a People, that for so many Ages had enjoyed the peculiar influen­ces of the Divine Favour, and whose destruction at last so evidently ju­stified the predictions of our Saviour, and made such immediate way for the honour and advancement of Christianity, we shall here relate.

V. THE Jews, a stubborn and unquiet People, impatiently resented [Page 93]the tyranny of the Roman Yoke, which seemed heavier to their necks then it did to other Nations, because they looked upon themselves as a more free-born People, and were elated with those great Charters and Immunities which Heaven had immediately conferred upon them. This made them willing to catch at any opportunity to re-assert themselves into their ancient liberty. A thing which they more unanimously at­tempted under the Government of J [...]sep [...]. de Be [...]. Judaic. l. 2. c. 4. p. 798. Egesip. de excid. Hier [...] ­sol. l. 2. c. 14. p. 272, &c. Cestius Florus, whom Nero had sent to be Procurator of that Province: by whose intolerable oppres­sions and insolent cruelties for two years together, nothing abated by prayers and importunities, and the solicitations of potent Intercessors, their patience was tired out, and they broke out into Rebellion. The fatal assault began first at Ibid [...]. p. 809. Caesarea, which instantly like lightning spread it self over the whole Nation, till all places were full of Bloud and Vio­lence. Florus unable himself to deal with them, called in to his assistance Cestius Gallus the President of Syria, who came from Antioch with an Army, took Joppa and some other places, and sate down before Jerusa­lem, but after all was forced to depart, and indeed to fly with his whole Army, leaving all his Warlike Instruments and Provisions behind him. The news of this ill success was soon carried to Ibid. l. 3. c. 1. p. 830. Nero, then residing in Achaia, who presently dispatched Vespasian (a man of prudent Conduct, experienced Valour, the best Commander of his time) to be General of the Army. He coming into Syria, united the Roman Forces, fell into Galilee, burnt Gadara, and destroyed Jotapata, where Ib. [...]. p. 850. Egesep. l. 3. c. 18. p. 351. Josephus himself was taken Prisoner. He pursued his Conquests with an unwearied di­ligence, Victory every where attending upon his Sword, and was prepa­ring to besiege Jerusalem Ibid. l. 5 [...]. p. 892., when hearing of the distractions of Italy by the death of Nero, and the Usurpations of Galba, Otho, and V [...]ellius, he resolved for Rome, to free it from those unhappy incumbrances that were upon it; whose resolutions herein were so far applauded by the Army, that they presently proclaimed him Emperour. Who thereupon hast­ned into Egypt to secure that Countrey, a place of so considerable im­portance to the Empire.

VI. FROM Alexandria Ibid. [...]. p 9 [...]3.Vespasian remanded his son Titus back into Judaea to carry on the War, who thought no way quicker to bring it to a period, then to attempt the Capital City, to strike at Jerusalem it self, and accordingly put all things in readiness to besiege it. The state of Ibid. l. 6. c. 1. p. 904. [...]. p. 910. Jerusalem at this time was very sad. That place, whose honour and security once it was to be a City at unity within it self, was now torn in pieces with intestine Factions; and how unlikely is that Kingdom long to stand, that is once divided against it self? Simon the son of Giora, a bold and ambitious man, had possessed himself of the upper City; John who headed the Zealots, an insolent and ungovernable Generation, com­manded the lower parts, and the out-skirts of the Temple; the inner parts whereof were secured by Eleazar the son of Simon, who had drawn over a considerable number of the Souldiers to his Party; and all those mutually quarrelling with, and opposing one another. Titus with his Army approaching, a little before the Paschal solemnity begirt the City, drawing it by degrees into a closer Siege, he straitly block'd up all avenues and passages of escape, building a Wall of thirty nine Ibid. l. 6. [...]. p. 936. Furlongs, which he strengthened with thirteen Forts; whereby he prevented all possibi­lity either of coming into, or going out of the City. And now was exactly accomplished, what our Lord had some time since told them [Page 94]would come to pass, Luke 19.41, 42, 43, 44. when he beheld the City and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! but now they are hidden from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, because thou knowst not the time of thy visitation. The truth is, who ever would be at the pains to compare what our Lord has said concerning this War and the sackage of Jerusalem, [...]; Euseb. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 7. p. 81. with the accounts given of them by Josephus, would find so just a correspondence be­tween the prophecy and the success, as would tempt him to think that the Historian had taken his measures as much from our Lords predictions as from the event of things. But to proceed: Terms of mercy were offered upon surrender, but scornfully rejected, which exasperated the Roman Army to fall on with greater fierceness and severity. And now God and Man, Heaven and Earth seemed to fight against them. Besides the Roman Army without, and the ir­reconcilable Factions and Disorders within, a Ibid. [...]. p. 937. & l. 7. [...]. p. 954. Famin (hastned by those vast multitudes that had flocked to the Passover) raged so horribly within the City, that they took more care to prey upon one another, and to plunder their Provisions, then how to defend themselves against the common Ene­my: thousands were starved for want of Food, who died so fast, that they were not capable of performing to them the last Offices of Humanity, but were forced to throw them upon common heaps; nay were redu­ced to that extremity, that some offered violence to all the Laws of Nature, among which was [...]. ubi supr. Mary the daughter of Eleazar, who being undone by the Souldiers, and no longer able to bear the force and rage of Hunger, boiled her sucking child and eat him. So plainly had our Lord foretold the daughters of Jerusalem, that the days were coming, in the which they should say, blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

VII. TITƲS went on with the Siege, and finding that no methods either of kindness or cruelty would work upon this obstinate genera­tion of men, gave order that all things should be made ready for a storm. Having gained the Tower of Antonia, the Jews fled to the Temple which was hard by, the Ib. [...]. &c. p. 956. Out-gates and Porches whereof were immediately set on fire, the Jews like persons stupified and amazed, never endeavouring to quench it. Titus, the sweetness of whose nature ever enclined him to pity and compassion, was greatly desirous to have spared the People, and saved the Temple. But all in vain; an obscure Souldier threw a Firebrand into the Chambers that were about the Temple, which pre­sently took fire, and though the General ran and stormed, and com­manded to put it out, yet so great was the clamour and confusion, that his Orders could not be heard; and when they were, it was too late, the conquering and triumphant Flames prevailing in spight of all oppo­sition, and making their way with so fierce a Ibid. [...]. p. 959. rage, as if they threatned to burn up Mount Sion to the very roots. So effectually did our Saviours Commination take place, who told his Disciples, when they admired the stately and magnificent buildings of the Temple, Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And that nothing might be wanting to verifie our Lords praedi­ction, Turnus Rufus was commanded to plow up the very foundations [Page 85]of it. How sad a sight must it needs be to behold all things hurled in­to a mixture of Bloud, Smoke, and Flames! the Jews were slain like Sheep, or Dogs, and many to prevent the Enemies Sword, voluntarily leapt into the Fire; the Ibid. [...]. p. 968. number of them that perished in this Siege amounting to no less then eleven hundred thousand, besides ninety seven thousand that were made Slaves; the infinite multitudes that from all parts had flocked to the Feast of the Passover, and were by the Roman Ar­my crowded up within the City, rendring the account not improbable.

VIII. SUCH was the period of the Jewish Church and State; thus fell Jerusalem, (by far the most eminent City not of Judaea onely, but of the whole East, as Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 14 p. 8 [...]. Pliny himself confesses) notwithstanding its antiqui­ty, wealth, and strength, after it had stood from the time of David MCLXXIX. years. And memorable it is, that this fatal Siege began a little before the Passover, about that very time when they had so bar­barously treated and put to death the Son of God. So exact a propor­tion does the Divine Justice sometimes observe in the retributions of its Vengeance. A Fate not onely predicted by our Lord and his Apostles, but lately presignified by immediate J [...]s [...]ph. ubi [...]up. l. 7. [...]. p 960. Prodigies and Signs from Heaven. A blazing Comet in the fashion of a Sword, hung directly over the Ci­ty for a whole year together. In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a little before the breaking out of the War, at Nine of the Clock of the Night, a light suddenly shined out between the Altar and the Temple, as bright as if it had been Noon-day. About the same time a Heifer as she was led to sacrifice, brought forth a Lamb in the very midst of the Temple. The East Gate of the inner part of the Temple, all of massy Brass, and which twenty men could hardly shut, after it had been fast locked and barred, was at night seen to open of its own accord. Chariots and Armies were beheld in the Air, all in their Martial Postures, and preparing to surround the City. At Pentecost when the Priests entered into the in­ner Temple, they first perceived a noise and motion, and immediately heard a voice that said, [...], Let us depart hence. And four years before ever the War began, while all things were peaceable and secure, one Jesus, a plain Country Fellow, pronounced many dread­ful woes against the Temple, the City, and the People, wherein he con­tinued, especially at festival times, notwithstanding all the cruelties used towards him for seven years together, when some made a shift to dispatch him by a violent death. But alas, an Angel it self cannot stop men that are riding Post towards their own de­struction. So little will warnings, or threatnings, [...], Joseph. loc. citat. or miracles signifie with them, whom Heaven hath once given up to an incurable infatua­tion.

IX. BUT it's high time to return and enquire, in the midst of this sad and calamitous state of things what became of S. Simeon and the Chri­stians of that place. And of them we find, that being timely warned by the caution which our Lord had given them, that when they should see Jerusalem compassed with Armies, and the abomination of desolation (that is the Roman Army) standing in the holy place, they should then flee unto the Mountains, betake themselves to some obscure place of refuge; and ha­ving been lately commanded by a particular Eusch. l. 3. c. [...] p. 75. Epiph. Haeres. XXIX. p. 58. Haere [...]. XXX. p. 59. de Po [...]d. & men [...]. p. 537. revelation communicated to some pious and good men among them, (which says Epiphanius was done by the ministry of an Angel,) to leave Jerusalem, and go to Pella, they [Page 96]universally withdrew themselves, and seasonably retreated thither, as to a little Zoar from the flames of Sodom, and so not one perished in the common mine. This Pella was a little Town in Coelo-Syria beyond Jordan, deriving its name probably from Pella a City of Ma­cedonia, as being founded and peopled by the Macedonians of Alexan­ders Army, who sate down in Asia. That its inhabitants were Gen­tiles, it's plain, in that the Joseph. Antiq. Jad. l. 13. c. 23. p. 462. Jews under Alexander Jannaeus their King sacked it, because they would not receive the Rites of their Reli­gion. And God 'tis like on purpose directed the Christians hither, that they might be out of the reach of the Besom of Destruction that was to sweep away the Jews where-ever it came. Nor was it a less remarkable instance of the care and tenderness of the Divine Provi­dence over them, that when Cestius Gallus had besieged Jerusalem, on a sudden he should unexpectedly break up the Siege, at once giving them warning of their danger, and an opportunity to escape. How long Si­meon and the Church continued in this little Sanctuary, and when they returned to Jerusalem, appears not. If I might conjecture, I should place their return about the beginning of Trajans reign, when the fright being sufficiently over, and the hatred and severity of the Romans asswa­ged, they might come back with more safety. Certain it is, that they re­turned before Epiph. de Pond. & Mens. ibid. Adrians time, who forty seven years after the devasta­tion coming to Jerusalem in order to its reparation, found there a few houses, and a little Church of Christians built upon Mount Sion, in that very place where that Ʋpper Room was, into which the Disciples went up when they returned from our Lords Ascension. Here the Christians who were returned from Pella, kept their solemn Assemblies, and were so renowned for the flourishing state of their Religion, and the emi­nency of their Miracles, that Aquila the Emperours Kinsman, and whom he had made Governour and Overseer of the rebuilding of the City, being convinced, embraced Christianity. But still pursuing his old Ma­gic and Astrological studies, notwithstanding the frequent admonitions that were given him, he was cast out of the Church. Which he re­sented as so great an affront, that he apostatized to Judaism, and after­wards translated the Bible into Greek. But to return back to Sim [...]on; confident we may be that he administred his Province with all diligence and fidelity, in the discharge whereof God was pleased to preserve him as a person highly useful to his Church, to a very great Age, till the mid­dle of Trajans reign, when he was brought to give his last testimony to his Religion, and that upon a very slight pretence.

X. THE Roman Emperors were infinitely jealous of their new establi­shed Sovereignty, and of any that might seem to be Corrivals with them, especially in Palestine and the Eastern parts. For an ancient and con­stant tradition (as appears besides Josephus, both from Suetonius and Ta­citus) had been entertained throughout the Eust, that out of Judaea should arise a Prince, that should be the great Monarch of the World. Which though Josephus to ingratiate himself with the Romans, flatter­ingly applied to Vespasian, yet did not this quiet their minds, but that still they beheld all that were of the line of David with a jealous eye. [...]. Chron. Alexandr. ad Ann. 1. Olympiad. CCXIII. Indict. XV. Vespas. V. p. 586. eadem habet de Domitian ad An. 1. Olymp. CCXVIII. Ind. V. Domit. XIII. p. 590. This made Domitian, Vespasians son resolve to destroy all that were of [Page 97]the blood royal of the house of Judah; upon which account two Ne­phews of S. Jude one of the brothers of our Lord were brought before him, and despised by him for their poverty and meanness, as persons ve­ry unlikely to stand competitors for a Crown. The very same Indict­ment was brought against our aged Bishop; for some of the Sects of the Euseb. l. 3. c. 32. p. 103. 104. Jews not able to bear his activity and zeal in the cause of his Religion, and finding nothing else to charge upon him, accused him to Atticus, at that time Consular Legat of Syria, for being of the Posterity of the Kings of Judah, and withall a Christian. Hereupon he was apprehended and brought before the Proconsul, who commanded him for several days to­gether to be wracked with the most exquisit torments. All which he underwent with so composed a mind, so unconquerable a patience, that the Proconsul and all that were present were amazed to see a person of so great age able to endure such and so many tortures: at last he was commanded to be crucified. He suffered in CXX. year of his age, and in the X. year of Trajans reign, Ann. Chr. CVII. (the Alexandrin Chroni­con An. 4. Olymp. CCXX. Ind. [...]. p. 594. places it Traj. VII. Ann. Chr. as appears by the Consuls, CIV. though as doubtful of that, he places it again in the following year) after he had sate Bishop of Jerusalem (computing his succession from S. James his Martyrdom) XLIII, or XLIV. years; Animadv. ad Epiph. Haeres. LXVI. p. 266 Petavius makes it no less then XLVII. though Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople (probably by a mistake of the figure) assign him but XXIII. A longer proportion of time then a dozen of his immediate successors were able to make up, God probably lengthening out his life, that as a skilful and faithful Pilot he might steer and conduct the Affairs of that Church in those dismal and stormy days.

THE LIFE OF S. IGNATIUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH.

I. FINDING nothing recorded concerning the Countrey or Parentage of this Holy Man, I shall not build upon meer fansie and conjecture. He is ordinarily stiled both by himself and o­thers Theophorus, which though like Justus it be oft no more then a common Epithet, yet is it sometimes used as a proper name. It is writ­ten according to the different accents, either [...], and then it notes a divine person, a man whose soul is full of God, and all holy and divine qualities, [...], as Ignatius himself is said to explain it; or [...], and so in a passive signification it implies one that is born or carried by God. And in this latter sense he is said to have derived the title from our Lords taking him up into his Arms. For thus we are told, that he was that very Child whom our Saviour took into his arms, Mark 9.36. Matt. 18.2, 3, 4. and set in the midst of his Disciples, as the most lively instance of Innocency and Humi­lity. And this affirmed (if number might carry it) not onely by the Maenaeon Grae­cor. [...]. Greeks in their public Rituals, by Metaphr. ad Decembr. 20. Graec. & Lat. apud Cottler. p. 991. Metaphrastes, Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 35. p. 192.Nicephorus, and others, but (as the Primate of Armagh Annot. in Ig­nat. Act. p. 37. [...]. Men. Graec. loc. cit [...]t. observes from the Manuscripts in his own possession) by two Syriac Writers, more ancient then they. But how confidently or generally soever it be reported, the Story at best is precarious and uncertain, not to say absolutely false and ground­less. Sure I am Homil. in S. Ignat. p. 506. Tom. 1. S. Chrysostom (who had far better opportunities of knowing then they) expresly affirms of Ignatius, that he never saw our Saviour, or enjoyed any familiarity or converse with him.

II. IN his younger years he was brought up under Apostolical Institu­tion: so Ibid. p. 499. Chrysostom tells us, that he was intimately conversant with the Apostles, educated and nursed up by them, every where at hand, and made partaker [...], both of their familiar discourses, and [Page 101]more secret and uncommon Mysteries. Which though 'tis probable he means of his particular conversation with S. Peter and Paul, yet some of the forementioned Authors, and not they onely, but the Act. Ignat. p. 1. &. 5. Edit. Usser. Acts of his Martyrdom, written as is supposed by some present at it, further assure us, that he was S. Johns Disciple. Being fully instructed in the Doctrines of Christianity, he was for his eminent parts, and the great Piety of his life, chosen to be Bishop of Antioch the Metropolis of Syria, and the most famous and renowned City of the East; not more remarkable among Foreign Writers for being the Oriental Seat of the Roman Emperours, and their Vice-Roys and Governours; then it is in Ecclesiastics for its eminent entertainment of the Christian Faith, its giving the venerable title of Christians to the Disciples of the Holy Jesus, and S. Peters first and peculiar refidence in this place. Whence the Synod of Ap. Theod [...]. H. Eccl. l. 5. [...]9. p. 211. Constantino­ple assembled under Nectarius, in their Synodical Epistle to the Western Bishops, deservedly call it, the most ancient and truly Apostolic Church of Antioch, in which the honourable name of Christians did first commence. In all which respects it is frequently in the Writings of the Church by a proud kind of title stiled [...], or the City of God. That Ignatius was constituted Bishop of this Church, is allowed on all hands, though as to the time and order of his coming to it, almost the same difficulties occur, which before did in Clemens his succession to the See of Rome, possibly not readily to be removed but by the same method of solution, easily granted in this case by Ad Ann. 45. n. 14. vid. Ad. Martyr. Rom. Feb. 1. p. 88. Baronius himself, and some other Writers of note in that Church. I shall not need to prove what is evident enough in it self, and plainly acknowledged by the Ancients, that Peter and Paul planted Christianity in this City, and both concurred to the foundation of this Church, the one applying himself to the Jews, the other to the Gentiles. And large enough was the Vineyard to admit the joint-en­deavours of these two great Planters of the Gospel, it being a vast po­pulous City, containing at that time according to S. Chrysostoms compu­tation no less then two hundred thousand souls. But the Apostles (who could not stay always in one place) being called off to the Ministry of other Churches, saw it necessary to substitute others in their room, the one resigning his trust to Euodius, the other to Ignatius. Hence in the Apostolic Constitutions Lib. 7. c. 47. p. 451.Euodius is said to be ordained Bishop of Antioch by S. Peter, and Ignatius by S. Paul; till Euodius dying, and the Jewish Converts being better reconciled to the Gentiles, Ignatius succeeded in the sole care and Presidency over that Church, wherein he might possi­bly be afterwards confirmed by Peter himself. In which respect proba­bly the Author of the Ad Ann. Tib. XIX. p. 526. Alexandrine Chronicon meant it, when he affirms that Ignatius was constituted Bishop of Antioch by the Apostles. By this means he may be said both immediately to succeed the Apostle, as Orig. Hom. 6. in L [...]c. p. 214. Ori­gen,Easeb. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p. 106.Eusebius, Athan. de Sy­nod. Arim. & Seleu. p. 922.Athanasius, and Chrys [...]s [...]. loc. cit. p. 500. Chrysostom affirm, and withall to be the next after Euodius, as Hier. de script. in Ignat. S. Hierom, Socr. H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 8. p. 313.Socrates, Metaphr. ubi supr.Metaphrastes and others place him. However Euodius dying, and he being setled in it by the Apostles hands, might be justly said to succeed S. Peter; in which sense it is that some of the Ancients expresly affirm him to have received his Consecration from S. Peter, [...], says De Immutab. Dialog. 1. p. 33. Tom. 4. Theodoret; and so their own Jo. Malel Chron. l. 10. ap. Usser. Not. in Epist. ad Antioch. pag. 107. Historian relates it, that Peter coming to Antioch in his passage to Rome, and finding Euodius [Page 102]lately dead, committed the Government of it to Ignatius, whom he made Bishop of that place: though it will be a little difficult to recon­cile the Times to an agreement with that account.

III. SOMEWHAT above forty years S. Ignatius continued in his charge at Antioch, (Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople assigns him but four years, the figure μ for forty, being probably through the careless­ness of Transcribers slipt out of the account) in the midst of very stormy and tempestuous times. But Act. Ig [...]at. p. 1, 2. he like a wise and prudent Pilot sate at the Stern, and declined the dangers that threatned them by his prayers and tears, his fastings and the constancy of his preaching, and those inde­fatigable pains he took among them, fearing lest any of the more weak and unsetled Christians might be overborn with the storms of Persecu­tion. Never did a little calm and quiet interval happen, but he rejoiced in the prosperity of the Church: though as to himself he somewhat impa­tiently expected and longed for Martyrdom, without which he accoun­ted he could never perfectly attain to the love of Christ, nor fill up the duty and measures of a true Disciple, which accordingly afterwards be­came his portion. Indeed as to the particular acts of his Government, nothing memorable is recorded of him in the Antiquities of the Church, more then what H. Eccl. loc. citat. Socrates relates (by what authority, I confess, I know not) that he saw a Vision, wherein he heard the Angels with alternate hymns celebrating the honour of the holy Trinity, in imitation where­of he instituted the way of Antiphonal hymns in the Church of Antioch, which thence spread it self over the whole Christian Church. Whether this Story was made on purpose to out-vie the Arrians who were wont on the Sabbaths and Lords-days to sing alternate hymns in their Congre­gations, with some tart reflections upon the Orthodox, insomuch that Chrysostom was forced to introduce the same way of singing into the Or­thodox Assemblies; or whether it was really instituted by Ignatius, but afterwards grown into dis-use, I will not say. Certain it is, that Flavia­nus afterwards Bishop of Antioch in the reign of Constantius is Theodoret. H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 24. p. 107. said to have been the first that thus established the Quire, and appointed Davids Psalms to be sung by turns, which thence propagated it self to other Churches. S. Ambrose was the first that brought it into the Western Church, reviving (says the Sigebert. Chr. ad Ann. Chr. 387. Historian) the ancient institution of Ignatius, long disused among the Greeks. But to return.

IV. IT was about the year of Christ CVII. When Trajan the Em­perour swelled with his late Victory over the Scythians and the Daci, about the nineth year of his reign came to Antioch, to make preparation for the War which he was resolved to make upon the Parthians and Armenians. He entered the City with the Pomps and Solemnities of a triumph, and as his first care usually was about the concernments of Re­ligion, he began presently to enquire into that affair. Indeed he Act. ib. p. 2. loo­ked upon it as an affront to his other Victories to be conquered by Chri­stians; and therefore to make this Religion stoop, had already commen­ced a Persecution against them in other parts of the Empire, which he re­solved to carry on here. S. Ignatius (whose solicitude for the good of his Flock made him continually stand upon his guard) thinking it more prudent to go himself, then stay to be sent for, of his own A [...]. Ign. p. 3. accord pre­sented himself to the Emperour, between whom there is said to have passed a large and particular discourse, the Empire wondring that he dared to transgress his Laws, while the good man asserted his own inno­cency, [Page 103]and the power which God had given them over evil Spirits, and that the gods of the Gentiles were no better then Daemons, there being but one supreme deity, who made the World, and his onely begotten Son Jesus Christ, who though crucified under Pilate, had yet destroyed him that had the power of sin, that is, the Devil, and would ruine the whole Power and Empire of the Daemons, and tread it under the feet of those, who carried God in their hearts. The issue was, that he was cast into prison, where (if what the [...]. Greek Rituals and some others report, be true) he was for the constancy and resolution of his Profession, sub­jected to the most severe and merciless torments, whipped with Plum­batae, Scourges with leaden Bullets at the end of them, forced to hold fire in his hands, while his sides were burnt with papers dipt in oil, his feet stood upon live coals, and his flesh was torn off with burning Pincers. Having by an invincible patience overcome the malice and cruelty of his Tormenters, the Emperour pronounced the Act. Martyr. p. 4. final sentence upon him, that being incurably over-run with Superstition, he should be carried bound by Souldiers to Rome, and there thrown as a prey to wild Beasts. The good man heartily rejoiced at the fatal decree, I thank thee, O Lord (said he) that thou hast condescended thus perfectly to honour me with thy love, and hast thought me worthy with thy Apostle Paul to be bound with iron chains. With that he chearfully embraced his chains, and ha­ving fervently prayed for his Church, and with tears recommended it to the divine care and providence, he delivered up himself into the hands of his Keepers, that were appointed to transport him to the place of execution.

V. IT may justly seem strange, and 'twas that which puzled the great Animadv. ad Euseb. Chron. p. 207. Scaliger, why he should be sent so vast a way from Antioch in Syria to be martyred at Rome. Whereof these probable accounts may be ren­dred. First, It was usual with the Governours of Provinces, where the malefactors were more then ordinarily eminent, either for the qua­lity of their persons, or the nature of their crimes, to send them to Rome, that their punishment might be made exemplary in the eye of the World. Secondly his enemies were not willing he should suffer at home, where he was too much honoured and esteemed already, and where his death would but raise him into a higher Veneration with the People, and settle their minds in a firmer belief of that Faith, which he had taught them, and which they then saw him sealing with his bloud. Thirdly, by so long a journey, they hoped that in all places where he came, men would be more effectually terrified from embra­cing that Religion, which they saw so much distasted and resented by the Emperour, and the profession whereof could not be purchased but at so dear a rate; besides the probability, that by this usage the con­stancy of Ignatius himself might be broken, and he forced to yield. Fourthly, they designed to make the good mans punishment as severe and heavy as they could, and therefore so contrived it, that there might be a concurrence of circumstances to render it bitter and grievous to him. His great age, being then probably above fourscore years old, the vast length and tediousness of the journey, (which was not a little encreased by the [...], as H [...]il. cit. p. 504. S. Chrysostom ob­serves, their going the farthest way about, for they went not the direct passage to Rome, but by infinite windings, divertee from place to place) the trouble and difficulty of the passage, bad at all times, but much [Page 104]worse now in Winter, the want of all necessary conveniencies and ac­commodations for so aged and infirm a person, the rude and merciless usage of his Keepers, who treated him with all ruggedness and inhuma­nity: From Syria even to Rome both by Sea and Land I fight with Beasts, night and day I am chained to ten Leopards, (which is my military guard) who, the kinder I am to them, are the more cruel and fierce to me, as Epist. ad Rom. p. 23. & ap. Eu­seb. l. 3. c. 36. p. 107. him­self complains. Besides what was dearer to him then all this, his credit and reputation might be in danger to suffer with him, seeing at so great a distance the Romans were generally more likely to understand him to suffer as a Malefactor for some notorious crime, then as a Martyr for Re­ligion, and this Martyr. ubi s [...]pr. p. 995. Metaphrastes assures us, was one particular end of his sending thither. Not to say that beyond all this, the Divine Provi­dence (which knows how to bring good out of evil, and to over-rule the designs of bad men to wise and excellent purposes) might the rather permit it to be so, that the leading so great a man so far in triumph, might make the Faith more remarkable and illustrious, that he might have the better opportunity to establish and confirm the Christians, Vid. Chrysost. Homil. cit. pag. 505. who flocked to him from all parts as he came along; and by giving them the example of a generous Vertue, arm them with the stronger resolu­tion to die for their Religion, and especially that he might seal the truth of his Religion at Rome, where his death might be [...], (as Chrysostom speaks) a Tutor of Piety, Ibid. and teach [...], the City that was so famous for Arts and Wisdom, a new and bet­ter Philosophy then they had learned before. To all which may be ad­ded, that this was done not by the Provincial Governour, who had in­deed power of executing capital punishments within his own Province (which seems to have been the main ground of Scaligers scruple) but immediately by the Emperour himself, whose pleasure and command it was that he should be sent to Rome; whither we must now follow him to his Martyrdom: in the account whereof we shall for the main keep to the Acts of it, written in all probability by Philo and Agathopus, the Companions of his Journey, and present at his Passion; two ancient Versions whereof the incomparable Bishop Ʋsher first recovered and published to the World.

VI. BEING Act. Ignat. pag. 5. consigned to a guard of ten Souldiers, he took his leave of his beloved Antioch (and a sad parting no doubt there was be­tween him and his people; who were to see his face no more) and was conducted on foot to Seleucia, a Port-town of Syria, about sixteen miles distant thence, the very place whence Paul and Barnabas set sail for Cy­prus. Here going aboard, after a tedious and difficult Voyage they ar­rived at Smyrna, a famous City of Ionia, where they were no sooner set on shore, but he went to salute S. Polycarp Bishop of the place, his old Fellow-Pupil under S. John the Apostle. Joyful was the meeting of these two Holy men, S. Polycarp being so far from being discouraged, that he rejoiced in the others chains, and earnestly pressed him to a firm and final perseverance. Hither came in the Country round about, especially the Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons of the Asian Churches, to behold so venerable a sight, to partake of the holy Martyrs prayers and bles­sing, and to encourage him to hold on to his consummation. To re­quite whose kindness, and for their further instruction and establishment in the Faith, he wrote E [...]seb. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p. 107. Letters from hence to several Churches, one to the Ephesians, wherein he commends Onesimus their Bishop for his sin­gular [Page 105]charity; another to the Magnesians, a City seated upon the River Meander, which he sent by Damas their Bishop, Bassus and Apollonius Presbyters, and Sotio Deacon of that Church; a third to the Trallians by Polybius their Bishop, wherein he particularly presses them to subje­ction to their spiritual Guides, and to avoid those pestilent haeretical do­ctrines that were then risen in the Church. A fourth he wrote to the Christians at Rome, to acquaint them with his present state, and passio­nate desire not to be hindred in that course of Martyrdom, which he was now hastening to accomplish.

VII. HIS Keepers a little impatient of their stay at Smyrna, set sail for Troas, a noted City of the lesser Phrygia, not far from the ruines of the ancient Troy: where at his arrival he was not a little refreshed with the news that he received of the Persecution ceasing in the Church of Antioch. Hither several Churches sent their Messengers to visit and sa­lute him, and hence he dispatched two Epistles, one to the Church at Philadelphia, to press them to Love and Unity, and to stand fast in the truth and simplicity of the Gospel, the other to the Church of Smyrna, from whence he lately departed, which he sent, as also the former, by Burrhus the Deacon, whom they and the Ephesians had sent to wait upon him; and together with that (as Loc. cit. p. 1 [...]. Eusebius informs us) he wrote pri­vately to S. Polycarp, particularly recommending to him the care and oversight of the Church of Antioch, for which as a vigilant Pastor he could not but have a tender and very dear regard; though very learned men (but certainly without any just reason) think this not to have been a distinct Epistle from the former, but jointly directed and intended to S. Polycarp and his Church of Smyrna. Which however it be, they con­clude it as certain that the Epistle to S. Polycarp now extant, is none of it, as in which nothing of the true temper and spirit of Ignatius does appear, while others of great note not improbably contend for it as genuine and sincere. From Troas they sailed to Neapolis, a maritime Town of Mace­donia, thence to Philippi, Act. 16.11.12. a Roman Colony (the very same journey which S. Paul had gone before him,) where (as Epist. Poly­carp. ad Philip. p. 13. [...]on longe ab [...]nit. S. Polycarp intimates in his Epistle to that Church) they were entertained with all imaginable kindness and courtesie, and conducted forwards in their journey. Hence they passed on foot through Macedonia and Epirus, till they came to Epidamnum a City of Dalmatia, where again taking Ship they sailed through the Adriatic, and arrived at Rhegium a Port-Town in Italy, whence they directed their course through the Tyrrhenian Sea to Puteo­li, Ignatius desiring (if it might have been granted) thence to have gone by Land, that he might have traced the same way, by which S. Paul went to Rome. After a day and a nights stay at Puteoli, a prosperous wind quickly carried them to the Roman Port, the great Harbour and Station for their Navy, built near Ostia at the mouth of Tyber, about sixteen miles from Rome, whither the holy Martyr longed to come, as much desirous to be at the end of his Race, as his Keepers weary of their voyage, were to be at the end of their journey.

VIII. THE Christians at Rome daily expecting his arrival, were come out to meet and entertain him, and accordingly received him with an equal resentment of joy and sorrow. Glad they were of the presence and company of so great and good a man, but quickly found their joy allayed with the remembrance, how soon, and by how severe a death he was to be taken from them: and when some of them did but intimate, [Page 106]that possibly the People might be taken off from desiring his death, he expressed a pious indignation, intreating them to cast no rubs in his way, nor do any thing that might hinder him, now he was hastening to his Crown. Being conducted to Rome, he was presented to the Praefect of the City, and as 'tis probable, the Emperours Letters concerning him were delivered. In the mean time while things were preparing for his Martyrdom, he and the Brethren that resorted to him improved their time to pious purposes; he prayed with them, and for them, heartily recommended the state of the Church to the care and protection of our blessed Saviour, and earnestly solicited Heaven, that it would stop the Persecution that was begun, and bless Christians with a true love and charity towards one another. That his punishment might be the more pompous and public, one of their solemn Festivals, the time of their Sa­turnalia, and that part of it when they celebrated their Sigillaria, was pitched on for his Execution: at which times they were wont to enter­tain the People with the bloudy Conflicts of the Gladiators, and the hunting of, and fighting with wild Beasts. Accordingly on the XIII. of the Kalends of January, that is, December XX. he was brought out into the Amphitheatre, and according to his own fervent desire, that he might have no other grave but the bellies of wild Beasts, the Lions were let loose upon him, whose roaring alarm he entertained with no other con­cernment, then that now as Gods own Corn he should be ground between the teeth of these wild Beasts, and become White Bread for his heavenly Master. The Lions were not long doing their work, but quickly di­spatched their Meal, and left nothing but what they could not well de­vour, a few hard and solid bones. This throwing of persons to wild Beasts was accounted among the Romans, Paul. JC. Sent. lib. 5. Tit. 23. L. 3. §. 5. ff. ad leg. Cornel. de Si­car. & Venef.inter summa supplicia, and was never used but for very capital offences, and towards the vilest and most despicable Malefactors, under which rank they beheld the Chri­stians, who were so familiarly destined to this kind of death, that (as Apolog. c. 40. p. 32. Tertullian tells us) upon any trifling and frivolous pretence, if a Famin or an Earthquake did but happen, the common out-cry was, Christianos ad Leones, Away with the Christians to the Lions.

IX. AMONG other Christians that were mournful spectators of this Tragic Scene, were the Deacons I mentioned, who had been the Companions of his Journey, who bore not the least part in the sorrows of that day. And that they might not return home with nothing but the account of so sad a Story, Act. Ignat. p. 8. Metaphr. loc. cit. Men. Graec. [...]. Hieron. de Script. in Ignat. they gathered up the bones which the wild Beasts had spared, and transported them to Antioch, where they were joyfully received, and honourably entombed in the Coemetery without the Gate that leads to Daphne. A passage which Chrysostom according to his Rhetorical Vein elegantly amplifies as the great honour and treasure of that place. From hence in the reign of Euagr. H. Ecc. l. 1. c. 16. p. 274. Theodosius they were by his command, with mighty pomp and solemnity removed to the Tychaeon within the City, a Temple heretofore dedicated to the public Genius of the City, but now consecrated to the memory of the Martyr. And for their Translation afterwards to Rome, and the miracles said to be done by them, they that are further curious may enquire. Bolland. ad diem 1. Febr. p. 35. &c. For indeed I am not now at leisure for these things. But I can direct the Reader to one that will give him very punctual and par­ticular account of them, and in what places the several parcels of his Re­liques are bestowed; no less then five Churches in Rome enriched with [Page 107]them, besides others in Naples, Sicily, France, Flanders, Germany, and indeed where not. And verily but that some men have a very happy faculty at doing wonders by multiplication, a man would be apt to won­der how a few bones (and they were not many which the Lions spared) could be able to serve so many several Churches. I could likewise tell him a long story of the various travels and donations of S. Ignatius his head, and by what good fortune it came at last to the Jesuites Col­ledge at Rome, where it is richly enshrined, solemnly and religiously worshipped, but that I am afraid my Reader would give me no thanks for my pains.

X. ABOUT this time, or a little before, while Trajan was yet at An­tioch, he stopped, or at least mitigated the Persecution against Christians: For having had an account from Epist. 97. l. 10. Euseb l. 3. c. 34. p 105. J. Malel. Chron. l. 11. ap. Usser. not. in Ignat. Epist. p. 43. Pliny the Proconsul of Bithynia (whom he had imployed to that purpose) concerning the innocency and sim­plicity of the Christians, that they were a harmless and inoffensive Ge­neration; and lately received a Letter from Extat ap. Jo. Malel. loc. cit. ap. Usser. Appen. Ignat. p. [...]. vid. Excerpt. er Jo. Antioch. à Val. edit. p. 818. Tiberianus Governour of Palestina Prima, wherein he told him that he was wearied out in exe­cuting the Laws against the Galilaeans, who crouded themselves in such multitudes to execution, that he could neither by persuasions nor threat­nings keep them from owning themselves to be Christians, further pray­ing his Majesties advice in that affair: Hereupon he gave command, that no inquisition should be made after the Christians, though if any of them offered themselves, execution should be done upon them. So that the fire which had hitherto flamed and burnt out, began now to be extin­guished, and onely crept up and down in private corners. There are that tell Sim. Metaphr. Martyr. Ignat. apud Coteler. p. 1002. us that Trajan having heard a full account of Ignatius and his sufferings, and how undauntedly he had undergone that bitter death, repented of what he had done, and was particularly moved to mitigate and relax the Persecution: whereby (as Metaphrastes observes) not onely Ignatius his Life, but his very death became [...], the Procurer of great peace and prosperity, and the glory and esta­blishment of the Christian Faith. Some not improbably conceive, that the severe judgments which hapned not long after, might have a peculiar influence to dispose the Emperours mind to more tenderness and pity for the remainder of his life. For during his abode at Antioch, there were dreadful and unusual Dio. Cass. Hist. Rom. l. 68. & Xiphil. in vit. Traj. p. 249, 250, 251. Jo. Malel. Chro. l. 10. ubi supr. Earthquakes, fatal to other places, but which fell most heavy upon Antioch, at that time filled more then ordi­nary with a vast Army and confluence of People from all parts of the World. Among thousands that died, and far greater numbers that were maimed and wounded, Pedo the Consul lost his life, and Trajan him­self, had he not escaped out at a window, had undergone the same fate. Accidents which I doubt not prepared his mind to a more serious consi­deration and regard of things. Though these calamities happened not till some years after Ignatius his death.

XI. WHETHER these judgments were immediate instances of the divine displeasure for the severity used against the Christians, and particularly for their cruelty to Ignatius, I will not say. Certain it is, that the Christian Church had a mighty loss in so useful and excellent a person. For he was a good man, one in whose brest the true spirit of Religion did eminently dwell, a man of very moderate and mortified affections, in which sense he doubtless intended that famous saving, so much celebrated by the Ancients, [...], [Page 108] my Love is crucified, that is, (for to that purpose he explains it in the ve­ry words that follow) his appetites and desires were crucified to the World, and all the lusts and pleasures of it. We may with Orat. supr. laud. p. 499. S. Chryso­stom consider him in a threefold capacity, as an Apostle, a Bishop, and a Martyr. As an Apostle (in the larger acception of the word, he being [...], as the Men. Graet. [...]. Greek Offices stile him, the im­mediate successor of the Apostles in their See,) he was careful to diffuse and propagate the genuine Doctrine which he had received of the Apostles, and took a kind of Oecumenical care of all the Churches; even in his passage to Rome he surveyed [...], as H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p. 106. Eusebius tells us, the Diocesses, or Churches, that belonged to all the Cities whither he came, confirming them by his Sermons and Exhortations, and direct­ing Epistles to several of the principal, for their further order and esta­blishment in the Faith. As a Bishop, he was a diligent, faithful and in­dustrious Pastor, infinitely careful of his charge; which though so ex­ceedingly vast and numerous, he prudently, instructed, governed, and superintended, and that in the midst of ticklish and troublesome times, above forty years together. He had a true and unchangeable love for his People, and when ravished from them in order to his Martyrdom, there was not any Church to whom he Epist. ad. Eph. p. 9. ad Magnes. p. 15. ad Tral­lian. p. 20. ad Rom. p. 25. ad Phila [...]elph p. 31 ad Smyrn. p. 37. wrote, but he particularly beg­ged their prayers to God for his Church at Antioch, and of some of them desired that they would send [...], a divine Embassador thi­ther on purpose to comfort them, and to congratulate their happy de­liverance from the Persecution. And because he knew that the prospe­rity of the Church and the good of Souls were no less undermined by Heresie from within, then assaluted by Violence and Persecution from without, he had a peculiar eye to that, and took all occasions of warn­ing the Church to beware of Hereticks and Seducers, [...], as he stiles Epist. ad Smyrn p 34. & Easeb. ubi supr. them, those beasts in the shape of men, whose wild notions and brutish manners began even then to embase Religion, and corrupt the simplicity of the Faith. Indeed he duly filled up all the measures of a wise Governour, and an excellent Guide of Souls, and Ubi supr. p. 500. &c. S. Chrysostom runs through the particular characters of the Bishop deli­neated by S. Paul, and finds them all accomplished and made good in him; with so generous a care (says he Ibid. p. 499.) so exact a diligence did he pre­side over the flock of Christ, even to the making good what our Lord describes, [...], as the utmost pitch and line of Episcopal fidelity, to lay down his life for the sheep; and this he did with all courage and fortitude; which is the last consideration we shall remarque concerning him.

XII. AS a Martyr he gave the highest testimony to his fidelity, and to the truth of that Religion which he both preached and practised. He gloried in his sufferings as his honour and his priviledge, and looked upon his chains, [...], he calls Epist. ad Eph. p. 6. them, as his Jewels and his Ornaments: he was raised above either the love or fear of the present state, and could with as much ease and freedom (says Lo [...]. landat. Chryso­stom) lay down his life, as another man could put off his clothes. The truth is, his soul was strangely inflamed with a desire of Martyrdom, he wished every step of his Journey to meet with the wild Beasts that were prepared for him, and tells the Epista [...] Rom. 2.23. & apud [...] Romans, he desired nothing more then they might presently do his Work, that he would invite and court them speedily to devour him, and if he found them backward, as they had [Page 109]been towards others, he would provoke and force them. And though the death he was to undergo was most savage and barbarous, and dres­sed up in the most horrid and frightful shapes, enough to startle the fir­mest resolution, yet could they make no impression [...] (as the Men. Graec ubi supr. Greeks say of him) upon his impregnable ada­mantine mind, any more then the dashes of a Waye upon a Rock of Marble, Let the fire (said he Epist. ad Rom. p. 24. & ap. E [...] ­seb. ubi supr.) and the Cross, the assaults of wild Beasts, the breaking of bones, cutting of limbs, battering the whole body in pieces, yea and all the torments which the Devil can invent come upon me, so I may but at­tain to be with Jesus Christ; professing he thought it much better to die for Christ, then to live and reign the sole Monarch of the World. Ex­pressions certainly of a mighty Zeal, and a divine Passion wound up to its highest note. And yet after all, this excellent person was humble to the lowest step of abasure: he oft Epist. ad Eph. p. 9. ad Rom. p. 25. Epist. ad Trall. p. 17. professes that he looked upon him­self as an Abortive, and the very least of the Faithful in the whole Church of Antioch, and that though it was his utmost ambition, yet he did not know whether he was worthy to suffer for Religion. I might in the last place enter into a discourse concerning his Epistles (the true Indices of the piety and divine temper of his mind,) those seven I mean, enumera­ted and quoted by Eusebius, and collected by S. Polycarp, as Epist. Polycar. p. 23. edit. Usser. & ap. Euseb. loc. cit. p. 108. himself ex­presly testifies; but shall forbear, despairing to offer any thing confide­rable after so much as has been said by learned men about them: onely observing, that in the exceptions to the argument from S. Polycarps te­stimony, little more is said even by those who have managed it to the best advantage, then what might be urged against the most genuine writing in the World. I add S. Polycarps character of these Epistles, whereby he recommends them as highly useful and advantagious, that they contain in them Instructions and Exhortations to Faith and Patience, and whatever is necessary to build us up in the Religion of our Lord and Sa­viour.

THE LIFE OF S. POLYCARP BISHOP of SMYRNA.

I. S POLYCARP was born towards the latter end of Nero's reign, or it may be a little sooner, his great Age at the time of his death, with some other circumstances rendring it highly probable, if not certain. Uncertain it is where he was born, and I see no sufficient reason to the contrary, why we may not fix his Nativity at Smyrna, an eminent City of Ionia in the lesser Asia, the first of the seven that entered their claim of being the birth-place of the famous Strab. Geo­graph. l. 14. p. 646. Homer, in memory whereof they had a Library, and a four-square Portico, called Homereum, with a Temple and the Statue of Homer adjoining to it, and used a sort of brass Coin, which they called [...], after his name, and probably with his Image stampt upon it. A place it was of great honour and renown, [...]. [...]. Oxon. II. p 47. Evdem hab [...]t Marm. [...]XXVIII. p. 129. CXLIII. p. 277. Append. XV. p. 296. and has not onely very magnificent ti­tles heaped upon it by the Writers of those Times, but in several ancient Inscriptions, set up by the public Order of the Senate, not long after the time of Adrian, it is stiled, The chief City of Asia, both for beauty and greatness, the most splendid, the Metropolis of Asia, and the Ornament of Ionia. But it had a far greater and more honourable Privi­lege to glory in, if it was (as we suppose) the place of S. Polycarp's Nativity, however of his Education, the seat of his Episcopal care and charge, and the Scene of his Tragoedy and Martyrdom. The [...] Greeks [Page 113]in their Menaeon, report that he was educated at the charge of a certain noble Matron (whose name we are told was Callisto) a woman of great Piety and Charity, who when she had exhausted all her Cranaries in re­lieving the Poor, had them suddenly filled again by S. Polycarps prayers. The circumstances whereof are more particularly related by Pionius (who suffered, if, which I much question, it was the same under the De­cian Persecution) to this Pion. vit. S. Polycarp. ex MS. Graec. apud. Bolland. Ja­nuar. XXVI. p. 696. effect. Callisto warned by an Angel in a dream sent and redeemed Polycarp (then but a child) of some who sold him, brought him home, took care of his education, and finding him a Youth of ripe and pregnant parts, as he grew up, made him the Major-domo and Steward of her house; whose charity it seems he dispenced with a very liberal hand, insomuch that during her absence, he had emptied all her Barns and Store-houses to the uses of the Poor. For which being char­ged by his Fellow-Servants at her return, she not knowing then to what purpose he had imployed them, called for the Keys, and commanded him to resign his trust, which was no sooner done, but at her entrance in, she found all places full, and in as good condition as she had left them, which his prayers and intercession with Heaven had again reple­nished. As indeed Heaven can be sometimes content rather to work a Miracle, then Charity shall suffer and fare the worse for its kindness and bounty. In his younger years he is said to have been instructed in the Christian Faith by Bucolus, whom the same [...]. Menaeon elsewhere informs us S. John had consecrated Bishop of Smyrna; however Act. Ignat. p. 5. Hieron. de Script. in Poly­carp. E. sib. [...] p. 81 Authors of more unquestionable credit and ancient date tell us, that he was S. Johns Disciple, and not his onely, but as Adv. [...]eres. l. 3. c. 3. p. 233. & ap. Eusth. l. 4. c. 14. p. 127. Irenaeus, who was his Scholar (fol­lowed herein by S. Hierom) assures us, he was taught by the Apostles, and familiarly conversed with many who had seen our Lord in the Flesh.

II. BƲCOLƲS the vigilant and industrious Bishop of Smyrna being dead, (by whom S. Polycarp was, as we are Pion. c. 3. n. 12. ubi supr. told, made Deacon and Ca­techist of that Church, an Office which he discharged with great dili­gence and success,) Polycarp was ordained in his room, according to Bu­colus his own prediction, who as the Men. 23. Febr. [...]hi s [...]pr. Greeks report, had in his life time fortold that he should be his Successor. He was constituted by S. John, say the Tirtull. de prae­script. Haeretic. c. 32. p. 213. Hieron. ubi [...]apr. vid. Suid. in vo [...] [...]. [...] l. 3. c. 2 p. 225. M [...]yr. Rom. ad 20. Jan p. [...]1. Ancients generally; though [...] citat. Irenaeus followed herein by the Ol [...]p. CCXXIV. 1. Anton. XXI. p. 602. Chronicle of Alexandria, affirms it to have been done by the Apostles, whether any of the Apostles besides S. John were then alive, or whether he means Apostolic persons (commonly stiled Apostles in the Writings of the Church) who joined with S. John in the consecration. H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p 1 [...]6. Eusebius says, that Polycarp was familiarly conversant with the Apostles, and re­ceived the Government of the Church of Smyrna from those who had been Eye-witnesses and Ministers of our Lord. It makes not a little for the honour of S. Polycarp, and argues his mighty diligence and solicitude for the good of souls, that (as we shall note more anon) Ignatius passing to his Martyrdom, wrote to him, and particularly recommended to him the inspection and oversight of his Church at Antioch, knowing him (says Ib. p. 1 [...]. Eusebius) to be truly an Apostolical man, and being assured that he would use his utmost care and fidelity in that matter. The Ad. Ann. 1. Olynpiad. CCXX. In­di. [...]. XIII. ann. Tray 4. p. 594. Author of the Alexandrian Chronicle tells us, that it was the Bishop of Smyrna (who could not well be any other then S. Polycarp) to whom S. John committed the tutorage and education of the young man, whom he took up in his Visitation, who ran away, and became Captain of a Company of loose and debauched High-way men, and was afterwards reduced [Page 114]and reclaimed by that Apostle. But seeing Clemens Alexandrinus, who relates the Story, sets down neither the name of the Bishop, nor the City, though he Ap. Eusebd. 3. c. 23 p. 92. confesses there were some that made mention of it, nor is this circumstance taken notice of by any other ancient Writer, nor that Bishops neglecting of his charge well consistent with S. Polycarps care and industry, I shall leave the Story as I find it. Though it cannot be denied but that Smyrna was near to Ephesus, as S. Clemens says that City also was, and that S. John seems to have had a more then ordinary regard to that Church, it being next Ephesus, the first of those seven famous Asian Churches, to whom he directed his Epistles, and S. Polycarp at this time Bishop of it: for that he was that Angel of the Church of Smyrna, to whom that Apocalyptical Epistle was sent, is not onely highly pro­bable, but by a Usser. Prole­gom. ad Ignat. Epist. c. 2. p. 9. learned man put past all question. I must confess that the character and circumstances ascribed by S. John to the Angel of that Church seem very exactly to agree with Polycarp, and with no other Bishop of that Church (about those times especially) that we read of in the History of the Church. And whoever compares the account of S. Polycarps Martyrdom, with the notices and intimations which the Apocalypst there gives of that persons sufferings and death, will find the prophecy and the event suit together. That which may seem to make most against it, is, the long time of his presidency over that See: seeing by this account he must sit at least LXXIV years Bishop of that Church, from the latter end of Domitians reign (when the Apocalyps was written) to the Persecution under M. Aurelius, when he suffered. To which no other solution needs be given, then that his great, nay extreme Age at the time of his death renders it not at all improbable; especially when we find several Ages after, that Remigius Bishop of Rhemes, sate LXXIV years Bishop of that place.