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 't is called both by b 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 c 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 d H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 40. Eusebius expresly says 't was 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 't is 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 e Extat ad Bzov. Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. 1524. â— XXXII p. 543. Zaga Zabo Embassador from the Aethiopian 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 a 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 b Homil. 19. in Act. p. 585. Tantus amator Legis divinaeque scientiae fuit at etiam in vâ—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
accord exactly the Menaea and Menologies of the Greek Church that ascribe not to Decius but Numerianus whom Suidas his Translator corruptly stiles Marianus who reigned at least thirty years after A mistake without any pillar or ground of truth to support it there being at that time no Babylas Bishop of Antioch whom all agree to have suffered under the Decian Persecution And it is not improbable what Baronius a Ad Ann. 253. n. CXXVI vid. S. Metaphr in Martyr S. Isidor apud Sur. Feb. V. p. 48. conjectures but the mistake might at first arise from this that there was under Decius one Numerius one of the Generals of the Army a violent persecutor of the Christians whom 't is not to be doubted the first mistakers of the report confounded with Numerianus and applied to him what belonged to the Emperour under whom he served V. EVSEBIVS relates a like passage to this but attributes it to the Emperour Philip b H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 34. p. 232. Decius his Predecessor telling us that when on the Vigils of Easter he would have gone with the rest of the Christians into the Church to be present at their Prayers the Bishop of the place would by no means suffer him unless he would make public confession of his sins and pass through the Order of the Penitents for that he had been guilty of many hainous and enormous crimes which he readily submitted to But besides that this is laid as the main foundation of Philip's falsly supposed Christianity Eusebius justifies it by no better authority then Fame and meer Report And indeed stands alone in this matter For though some of the Ancients referred it to Numerian yet none but he entitled Philip to it S. Chrysostom in a large a Ubi supr p. 655. Encomiastic wherein he describes this Act of Babylas in all the colours wherein Wit and Eloquence could represent it particularly equalling it with the spirit and freedom of Elias and John the Baptist tells us that when the Emperour made this attempt he had newly washed his hands in innocent bloud having barbarously and against the faith of his most solemn Oath and the Laws of Nations put to death the little Son of a certain King whom his Father had given in hostage to secure a Peace made between them This probably was either the son of some petty Prince in those parts who entered into a League with him while he was at Antioch or some young Prince of Persia pawned as a pledge to ensure the Peace between those two Crowns and whom he had no sooner received but either to gratifie his cruelty or else pretending some fraud in the Articles he inhumanely butchered The Author of the b Olymp. CCLVII 4. Decii 1. Indict XIV p. 630. vid. ibid. p. 628. Alexandrin Chronicon tells us and vouches Leontius Bishop of Antioch for the relation that Philip in the Greek is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probably for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the firname of that Emperour and not Junior the Younger as the Translator renders it and elsewhere corrects it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Elder being Governour of a Province in the reign of Gordianus Gordian had committed the care of his young son to him whom after his Fathers death he slew and usurped the Empire that being thus guilty of murther though he was a Christian yet S. Babylas would not admit him or his Wife into the Church for which affront offered to so great persons and not meerly because he was a Christian himself Decius afterwards put S. Babylas to death A strange medley of true and false as indeed 't is the custom of that Author to confound times things and persons However most evident it is from Chrysostom that it was the same Emperour by whom this young Prince was murdered and S. Babylas put to death which could be no other then Decius who with hands thus reeking in the bloud of the innocent would have irreverently rushed into the holy place of the Christian Sanctuary where none but pure hands were lift up to Heaven VI. DECIVS though for the present he dissembled c Philost Suid. ubi supr his anger and went away yet inwardly resented the affront and being returned to the Palace sent for Babylas and having sharply expostulated with him for the boldness and insolency of the Fact commanded him to do Sacrifice to the gods assuring him that this was the onely expedient to expiate his crime divert his punishment and to purchase him honour and renown The Martyr answered to all his enquiries with a generous confidence despised his profers and defied his threats told him that as to the offence wherewith he charged him he was obliged as a Pastor readily to do whatever was conducive to the benefit of his Flock and for his command he was resolved never to apostatize from the service of the true God and sacrifice to Devils and those who falsly usurped the naâ—â— and honour of Deities The Emperour finding his resolutions firm and inflexible gave order that chains and fetters should be clapt upon him with which he was sent to prison where he endured d Chrysost loc cit p. 667 668. martyr Rom. ad Januar. XXIV many severe hardships and sufferings but yet rejoiced in his bonds and was more troubled at the misery that attended him that sent him thither then at the weight of his own chains or the sharpness of those torments that were heaped upon him So naturally does Christianity teach us to bless them that curse us to pray for them that despightfully use and persecute us and to overcome evil with good VII THERE is some little difference in the accounts of the Ancients concerning the manner of his Martyrdom a Lib. 6. c. 39. p 234. Eusebius and some others make him after a famous confession to die in Prison while b Loc. cit p. 669. Chrysostom whom I rather incline to believe in this matter as more capable to know the Traditions and examine the Records of that Church and Suidas affirm that being bound he was led forth out of Prison to undergo his Martyrdom the one plainly intimating the other positively expressing it that he was beheaded The fatal sentence being passed as he was led to execution he began his Song of triumph Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me Together with him were led along three Youths Brothers whose names the Roman Martyrology * Loc. citat tells us were Vrbanus Prilidianus and Epolonius whom he had carefully instructed in the Faith and had trained up for so severe a trial The Emperour not doubting to prevail upon their tender years had taken them from their Tutor and treated them with all kinds of hardship and cruelty as methods most apt to make impression upon weak and timorous minds But perceiving them immovably determined not to sacrifice he commanded them also to be beheaded Being
INTRODUCTION The several periods of the three first Ages Our Lords coming and the seasonableness of it for the propagation of the Gospel His entrance upon his Prophetic Office and the sum of his Ministry The success of his doctrine and the several places where he preached The Story of Agbarus not altogether improbable Our Lords Death What attestation given to the passages concerning Christ by Heathen Writers The testimony of Tacitus Pilats relation sent to Tiberius The Acts of Pilat what Pilats Letter now extant Spurious The Apostles entering upon their Commission and first Acts after our Lords Ascension How long they continued in Judaea Their dispersion to preach in the Gentile Provinces and the success of it The state of the Church after the Apostolic Age. The mighty progress of Christianity The numbers and quality of its Converts It s speedy and incredible success in all Countries noted out of the Writers of those Times The early conversion of Britain to Christianity The general declension of Paganism The silence and ceasing of their Oracles This acknowledged by Porphyry to be the effect of the Christian Religion appearing in the World A great argument of its truth and divinity The means contributing to the success of Christianity The miraculous Powers then resident in the Church This proved at large out of the Primitive Writers The great learning and abilities of many of the Churches Champions The most eminent of the Christian Apologists The principal of them that engaged against the Heresies of those Times Others renowned for other parts of Learning The indefatigable zeal and industry used in the propagation of Christianity Instructing and Catechizing new Converts Schools erected Travelling to preach in all parts of the World The admirable lives of the ancient Christians The singular efficacy of the Christian doctrin upon the minds of men A holy life the most acceptable sacrifice Their incomparable patience and constancy under sufferings A brief Survey of the Ten Persecutions The first begun by Nero. His brutish extravagances and inhumane cruelties His burning Rome and the dreadfulness of that conflagration This charged upon the Christians and their several kinds of punishment noted out of Tacitus The chief of them that suffered The Persecution under Domitian The Vices of that Prince The cruel usage of S. John The third begun by Trajan His character His proceeding against the Christians as illegal Societies Plinies Letter to Trajan concerning the Christians with the Emperours answer Adrian Trajan 's successor a mixture in him of Vice and Vertue His persecuting the Christians This the fourth Persecution The mitigation of it and its breaking out again under Antoninus Pius The excellent temper and learning of M. Aurelius The fifth Persecution raised by him It s fierceness in the East at Rome especially in France the most eminent that suffered there The Emperours Victory in his German Wars gained by the Christians Prayers Severus his temper his cruelty towards the Christians The chief of the Martyrs under the sixth Persecution Maximinus his immoderate ambition and barbarous cruelty The Author of the seventh Persecution This not universal The common evils and calamities charged upon the Christians Decius the eighth Persecutor otherwise an excellent Prince The violence of this Persecution and the most noted sufferers The foundations of Monachism when laid The ninth Persecution and its rage under Valerian The most eminent Martyrs The severe punishment of Valerian his miserable usage by the Persian King The tenth Persecution begun under Dioclesian and when The fierceness and cruelty of that time The admirable carriage and resolution of the Christians under all these sufferings The proper influence of this argument to convince the World The whole concluded with Lactantius his excellent reasonings to this purpose I. THE state of the Christian Church in the three first Ages of it may be considered under a threefold period as it was first planted and established by our Lord himself during his residence in the World as it was enlarged and propagated by the Apostles and first Missionaries of the Christian Faith and as it grew up and prospered from the Apostolic Age till the times of Constantine when the Empire submitted it self to Christianity God who in former times was pleased by various methods of Revelation to convey his will to mankind hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son For the great blessing of the promised Seed after a long succession of several Ages being come to its just maturity and perfection God was resolved to perform the mercy promised to the Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant the Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham Accordingly In the fulness of time God sent his Son It was in the declining part of Augustus his reign when this great Ambassador arrived from Heaven to publish to the World the glad tidings of salvation A period of time as a Contr. Cels lib. 2. p. 79. Origen observes wisely ordered by the divine Providence For the Roman Empire being now in the highest pitch of its grandeur all its parts united under a Monarchical Government and an universal Peace spread over all the Provinces of the Empire that had opened a way to a free and uninterrupted commerce with all Nations a smoother and speedier passage was hereby prepared for the publishing the doctrin of the Gospel which the Apostles and first Preachers of Religion might with the greater ease and security carry up and down to all quarters of the World As for the Jews their minds were awakened about this time with busie expectations of their Messiah's coming and no sooner was the birth of the holy Jesus proclaimed by the arrival of the Eastern Magi who came to pay homage to him but Jerusalem was filled with noise and tumult the Sanhedrin was convened and consulted by Herod who jealous of his late gotten Soveraignty was resolved to dispatch this new Competitor out of the way Deluded in his hopes of discovery by the Magi he betakes himself to acts of open force and cruelty commanding all Infants under two years old to be put to death and among them it seems his own Son which made b Macrob. Saturnal l. 2. c. 4. p. 279. Augustus pleasantly say alluding to the Jewish custom of abstaining from Swines-flesh It is better to be Herods Hog then his Son But the Providence of God secured the holy Infant by timely admonishing his Parents to retire into Aegypt where they remained till the death of Herod which happening not long after they returned II. NEAR thirty years our Lord remained obscure under the retirements of a private life applying himself as the Ancients tell us and the Evangelical History plainly intimates to Joseph's imployment the trade of a Carpenter So little Patronage did he give to an idle unaccountable course of Life But now he was called out of his Shades and Solitudes and publicly owned to be that person whom God had sent to be the great Prophet of his
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 Seâ—k out daily the faces of holy men and searching by the Word go forth to exhort and by it study to save a soul And with thy hands shalt thou labour for the redemption of thy sins Delay not to give nor 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 End of S. BARNABAS'S Life THE LIFE OF S. TIMOTHY THE APOSTLE and EVANGELIST S. TIMOTHEUS Michael Burghers sulpsit S. Timothies Countrey and Kindred His religious education The great advantages of an early piety Converted to Christianity by S. Paul and made choice of to be his companion Circumcised by S. Paul and why This no contradicting S. Pauls doctrine concerning Circumcision His travels with S. Paul for the propagation of the Faith His return from Thessalonica and S. Pauls two Epistles to that Church S. Timothy consecrated Bishop of Ephesus The consent of antiquity herein Ordination in those times usually done by prophetic designation and the reason of it Timothies age enquired into The importance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let no man despise thy youth the words shewed to be used by the best Writers for a considerable Age. S. Pauls first and second Epistle to him and the importance of them The manners of the Ephesians noted Their festival called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Timothies martyrdom The time of his death place of his burial and translation of his body His weak and infirm constitution His great abstinence and admirable zeal S. Pauls singular affection for him Different from Timotheus in S. Denys the Areopagite Another Timothy S. Pauls Disciple martyred under Antoninus 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 't is planted
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 b 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 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 a 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 a Histor Apost ad ann Christ 46. Capellus most probable for their going over to that Island rather then with b 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 c 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 't 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 d 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 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 f 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 g 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 h Leont de Sect. Act. IV. p. 446. another also says of him He was born and bred at Alexandria 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 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 b Socrat. 〈◊〉 citat Socrates c Sâ—â—â—n l. 6. c. 27. p. 676. ex Ep. Nâ—â—ian de Necâ—â—â— Sozomen d Thâ—â—dor l. 5. c. 3. p. 2â—0 Theodoret e Basil ubi supr Basil and f 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 g Ibid. vid. 〈◊〉 loc citat Socrates particularly tells us the Apollinarians confessed to be consubstantial To which I add what a learned h 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 Grâ—gory Thaumaturgus Athanasius and Pope Julius as l 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 k Vid. Collat. Catâ—ol cum Seveâ—â—an Coâ—â— Trâ— 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 l 〈◊〉 H. Ecc. â— 5. c. â— 10. p. 21â— 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 m 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 n Soâ—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 Soâ—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 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
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 b Recogn l. 7 n. 8. p. 476. Clem. Homil. 12. n. 8. p. 678. Epitom â— 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 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 a Recogn l. 2. â— 1. p. 399. â—â— Hom. 1. p. 540. Epist p. â—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 b H. Feeâ— l. 2. c. 35. p. 191. l. 3. c. 2. 18. p. 247. Nicephorus who transcribes a good part of the Story and by c 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 d 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 e 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 f 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 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 a Adv. Heres l. 3. c. 3. p. 232. Irenaeus and b Epiph. Haeres XXVII p. 51. vid. Ham. Dissert V. c. 1. p. 256. Epiphanius as also before them from c Cal. adv Procâ—l Caius an ancient Writer and from d 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
10. Pliny tells us he observed towards Apostate Christians though he withall confesses that none of them that were really Christians could ever be brought to it The motion was resented with a noble scorn and drew from Polycarp this generous confession Fourscore and six years I have served him and he never did me any harm how then shall I now blaspheme my King and my Saviour But nothing will satisfie a malicious misguided Zeal the Proconsul still importuned him to swear by Caesars genius to whom he replied Since you are so vainly ambitious that I should swear by the Emperours genius as you call it as if you knew not who I am hear my free confession I am a Christian If you have a mind to learn the Christian Religion appoint me a time and I le instruct you in it The Proconsul advised him to persuade the People he answered To you I rather chuse to address my discourse for we are commanded by the Laws of our Religion to give to Princes and the Powers ordained of God all that due honour and reverence that is not prejudicial and contrary to the precepts of Religion As for them meaning the common Herd I think them not competent Judges to whom I should apologize or give an account of my Faith XI THE Proconsul now saw 't was in vain to use any further persuasives and intreaties and therefore betook himself to severer Arguments I have wild Beasts at hand said he to which I le cast thee unless thou recant Call for them cried the Martyr for we are immutably resolved not to change the better for the worse accounting it fit and comely onely to turn from Vice to Vertue Since thou makest so light of wild Beasts added the Proconsul I have a Fire that shall tame thee unless thou repent Thou threatnest me with a Fire answered Polycarp that burns for an hour and is presently extinct but art ignorant alas of the Fire of eternal damnation and the judgment to come reserved for the wicked in the other World But why delayest thou bring forth what ever thou hast a mind to This and much more he spake with a pleasant and chearful confidence and a divine grace was conspicuous in his very looks so far was he from cowardly sinking under the great threatnings made against him Yea the Proconsul himself was astonished at it though finding no good could be done upon him he commanded the Crier in the middle of the Stadium thrice to make open Proclamation as was the manner of the Romans in all Capital Trials Polycarp has confessed himself a Christian Whereat the whole multitude both of Jews and Gentiles that were present and probable it is that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Common-Council or Assembly of Asia might about this time be held at Smyrna for the celebration of their common Shews and Sports for that it was sometimes held here is evident from an ancient * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marm. Oxon. III. p. 70. Inscription making mention of it gave a mighty shout crying out aloud This is the great Doctor of Asia and the Father of the Christians this is the destroyer of our gods that teaches men not to do sacrifice or worship the deities XII THE cry being a little over they immediately addressed themselves to Philip the Asiarch these a Vid. l. 6. §. 14. ff de excusat Tit. 1. l. 8. §. 1. de Vacat Tit. 5. ibid. vid. etiam Aristid Orat. Sacr. IV. Asiarchs were Gentile Priests belonging to the Commonalty of Asia yearly chosen at the Common-Council or Assembly of Asia to the number of about ten whereof one was Principal out of the names returned by the several Cities It was an Office of great honour and credit but withall of great expence and charge they being obliged to entertain the people with Sights and Sports upon the Festival Solemnities and therefore it was not conferred but upon the more wealthy and substantial Citizens In this place was Philip at this time whom the people clamorously requested to let out a Lion upon the Malefactor Which he told them he could not do having already exhibited the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hunting of wild Beasts with men one of the famous Shews of the Amphitheatre Then they unanimously demanded that he might be burnt alive a fate which he himself from the Vision in his Dream had prophetically foretold should be his portion The thing was no sooner said then done each one striving to bear a part in this fatal tragoedy with incredible speed fetching Wood and Faggots from several places but especially the Jews were peculiarly active in the service malice to Christians being almost as natural to them as 't is for the fire to burn The fire being prepared S. Polycarp untied his Girdle laid aside his Garments and began to put off his Shoes ministeries which he before was not wont to be put to the Christians ambitiously striving to be admitted to do them for him and happy he that could first touch his body So great a reverence even in his younger years had he from all for the admirable strictness and regularity of his holy life XIII THE Officers that were imployed in his execution having disposed all other things came according to custom to nail him to the Stake which he desired them to omit assuring them that he who gave him strength to endure the fire would enable him without nailing to stand immovable in the hottest flames So they onely tied him who standing like a Sheep ready for the slaughter designed as a grateful sacrifice to the Almighty clasping his hands which were bound behind him he poured out his soul to Heaven in this following Prayer O Lord God Almighty the Father of thy well-beloved and ever-blessed Son Jesus Christ by whom we have received the knowledge of thee the God of Angels Powers and of every creature and of the whole race of the righteous who live before thee I bless thee that thou hast graciously condescended to bring me to this day and hour that I may receive a portion in the number of thy holy Martyrs and drink of Christs cup for the resurrection to eternal life both of soul and body in the incorruptibleness of the holy Spirit Into which number grant I may be received this day being found in thy sight as a fair and acceptable sacrifice such a one as thou thy self hast prepared that so thou mayest accomplish what thou O true and faithful God hast foreshewn Wherefore I praise thee for all thy mercies I bless thee I glorifie thee through the eternal High-priest thy beloved Son Jesus Christ with whom to thy self and the Holy Ghost be glory both now and for ever Amen Which last word he pronounced with a more clear audible voice and having done his Prayer the Ministers of Execution blew up the fire which increasing to a mighty flame behold a wonder seen say my Authors by us who were purposely reserved that
and their false doctrines let us return to that doctrine that from the beginning was delivered to us let us be watchful in Prayers persevering in Fasting and Supplications beseeching the All-seeing God that he would not lead us into temptation Matt. 26.41 as the Lord has said the Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Let us unweariedly and constantly adhere to Jesus Christ who is our hope and the pledge of our righteousness 1 Pet. 2.22 24. who bare our sins in his own body on the Tree who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth but endured all things for our sakes that we might live through him Let us then imitate his patience and if we suffer for his Name we glorifie him for such a pattern he set us in himself and this we have believed and entertained VI. I exhort you therefore all that ye be obedient to the word of righteousness and that you exercise all manner of patience as you have seen it set forth before your eyes not onely in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus but in others also among you and in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles being assured that all these have not run in vain but in faith and righteousness and are arrived at the place due and promised to them by the Lord of whose sufferings they were made partakers For they loved not this present world but him who both died and was raised up again by God for us Stand fast therefore in these things and follow the example of the Lord being firm and immutable in the faith lovers of the brethren and kindly affectionate one towards another united in the truth carrying your selves meekly to each other despising no man When it is in your power to do good defer it not for Alms delivereth from death Be all of you subject one to another having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that both you your selves may receive praise by your good works and that God be not blasphemed through you For wo unto him by whom the Name of the Lord is blasphemed Wherefore teach all men sobriety and be your selves conversant in it VII I am exceedingly troubled for Valens who was sometimes ordained a Presbyter among you that he so little understands the place wherein he was set I therefore warn you that you abstain from covetousness and that ye be chast and true Keep your selves from every evil work But he that in these things cannot govern himself how shall he preach it to another If a man refrain not from covetousness he will be defiled with Idolatry and shall be judged among the Heathen 1 Cor. 6.2 Who is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World as Paul teaches But I have neither found any such thing in you nor heard any such thing of you among whom the blessed Paul laboured and who are in the beginning of his Epistle For of you he boasts in all those Churches which onely knew God at that time whom as yet we had not known I am therefore Brethren greatly troubled for him and for his Wife the Lord give them true repentance Be ye also sober as to this matter and account not such as enemies but restore them as weak and erring members that the whole body of you may be saved for in so doing ye build up your selves VIII I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures and that nothing is hid from you a thing as yet not granted to me As it is said in these places be angry and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Blessed is he that is mindful of these things which I believe you are The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus the eternal High-priest and Son of God build you up in faith and truth and in all meekness that you may be without anger in patience forbearance long-suffering and chastity and give you a portion and inheritance amongst his Saints and to us together with you and to all under Heaven who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead Pray for all Saints Pray also for Kings Magistrates and Princes and even for them that hate and persecute you and for the Enemies of the Cross that your fruit may be manifest in all that you may be compleat in him IX YE wrote unto me both ye and Ignatius that if any one go into Syria he might carry your Letters along with him which I will do so soon as I shall have a convenient opportunity either my self or by some other whom I will send upon your errand According to your request we have sent you those Epistles of Ignatius which he wrote to us and as many others of his as we had by us which are annexed to this Epistle by which ye may be greatly profited For they contain in them faith and patience and whatever else is necessary to build you up in our Lord. Send us word what you certainly know both concerning Ignatius himself and his companions These things have I written unto you by Crescens whom I have hitherto commended to you and do still recommend For he has unblamably conversed among us as also I believe amongst you His sister also ye shall have recommended when she shall come unto you Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with you all Amen The End of S. POLYCARP'S Life THE LIFE OF S. QUADRATUS BISHOP of ATHENS Michael Burghers Dilineavit et sculpsit S. QUADRATUS His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Hadrian Hadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Hadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial I. WHETHER S. Quadratus was born at Athens no notices of Church-Antiquity enable us to determine though the thing it self be not improbable his Education and Residence there and the Government of that Church seeming to give some colour to it And as Nature had furnished him with incomparable parts
who the great honours done him by the Emperour Justin 's discourse with the Praefect His freedom and courage His sentence and execution The time of his death His great Piety Charity Impartiality c. His natural parts and excellent learning His unskilfulness in the Hebrew Language noted A late Author censured His Writings The Epistle to Diognetus Diognetus who His stile and character The unwarrantable opinions he is charged with His indulgence to Heathens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in what sense used by the ancient Fathers How applied to Christ how to Reason His opinion concerning Chiliasm The concurrence of the Ancients with him herein This by whom first started by whom corrupted Concerning the state of the Soul after this life The doctrine of the Ancients in this matter His assertion concerning Angels maintained by most of the first Fathers The original of it Their opinion concerning Free-will shewed not to be opposed by them to the Grace of God What influence Justin 's Philosophic education had upon his opinions His Writings enumerated I. JVSTIN the Martyr was one as of the most learned so of the most early Writers of the Eastern Church not long after the Apostles as a H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 13. p. 50. Eusebius says of him near to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Methodius b Ap. Phot. Cod. CCXXXIV col 921. Bishop of Tyre both in time and vertue And near indeed if we strictly understand what he c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Diognet p. 501. says of himself that he was a Disciple of the Apostles which surely is meant either of the Apostles at large as comprehending their immediate successors or probably not of the Persons but Doctrine and Writings of the Apostles by which he was instructed in the knowledge of Christianity He was d Apol. II. p. 53. born at Neapolis a noted City of Palestine within the Province of Samaria anciently called Sichem afterwards as e De Bell. Jud. l. 5. c. 4. p. 890. Josephus tells us by the inhabitants Mabartha corruptly by f H Nat. l. 5. c. 13 p. 79. Pliny Mamortha by the Romans Neapolis and from a Colony sent thither by Flavius Vespasian stiled Flavia Caesarea His Father was Priscus the Son of Bacchius for so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Sylburgius and Valesius observe must necessarily be understood implying the one to have been his Father the other his Grandfather a Gentile and as g Animadv ad Eus Chron. n. MMCLVII p. 219. Scaliger probably thinks one of those Greeks which were in that Colony transplanted thither who took care together with Religion to have him educated in all the Learning and Philosophy of the Gentile World And indeed how great and exact a Master he was in all their Arts and Learning how thoroughly he had digested the best and most useful notions which their Institutions of Philosophy could afford his Writings at this day are an abundant evidence II. IN his younger years and as is probable before his conversion to Christianity he travelled into foreign parts for the accomplishment of his Studies and particularly into Egypt the Staple-place of all the more mysterious and recondite parts of Learning and Religion and therefore constantly visited by all the more grave and sage Philosophers among the Heathens That he was at a Paraenes ad Graec. p. 14. Alexandria himself assures us where he tells us what account he received from the inhabitants of the Seventy Translators and was shewed the Cells wherein they performed that famous and elaborate work which probably his inquisitive curiosity as a Philosopher and the reports he had heard of it by living among the Jews had more particularly induced him to enquire after Among the several Sects of Philosophers after he had run through and surveyed all the Forms he pitched his Tent among the Platonists whose b Apol. I. revera II. pag. 50. notions were most agreeable to the natural sentiments of his mind and which no doubt particularly disposed him for the entertainment of Christianity c Ibid. pag. 51. himself telling us that the principles of that Philosophy though not in all things alike were yet not alien or contrary to the Doctrines of the Christian Faith But alas he found no satisfaction to his mind either in this or any other till he arrived at a full persuasion of the truth and divinity of that Religion which was so much despised by the Wise and the Learned so much opposed and trampled on by the Grandees and Powers of the World Whereof and of the manner of his conversion to the â—â—ristian Religion he has given us a very large and punctual accou◠〈◊〉 his Discourse with Trypho I know this account is suspected by some to he onely a Prosopopoeïa to represent the grounds of his becoming a Christian after the Platonic mode by way of Dialogue a way familiar with the Philosophers of that Sect. But however it may be granted that some few circumstances might be added to make up the decorum of the Conference yet I see no reason nor is any thing offered to the contrary besides a bare conjecture to question the foundation of the Story whereof the sum is briefly this III. Dialog cum Tryph. p. 218. c. BEING from his Youth acted by an inquisitive Philosophic genius to make researches and enquiries after truth he first betook himself to the Stoics but not satisfied with his Master he left him and went to a Peripatetic Tutor whose sordid covetousness soon made him conclude that truth could not dwell with him accordingly he turned himself over to a Pythagorean who requiring the preparatory knowledge of Music Astronomy and Geometry him he quickly deserted and last of all delivered himself over to the Institution of an eminent Platonist lately come to reside at Neapolis with whose intellectual notions he was greatly taken and resolved for some time to give up himself to solitude and contemplation Walking out therefore into a solitary place by the Sea side there met him a grave ancient man of a venerable aspect who fell into discourse with him The dispute between them was concerning the excellency of Philosophy in general and of Platonism in particular which Justin asserted to be the onely true way to happiness and of knowing and seeing God This the grave person refutes at large and at last comes to shew him who were the most likely persons to set him in the right way He tells him that there were long before his reputed Philosophers certain blessed and holy men lovers of God and divinely inspired called Prophets who foretold things which have since come to pass who alone understood the truth and undesignedly declared it to the World whose Books yet extant would instruct a man in what most became a Philosopher to know the accomplishment of whose predictions did sufficiently attest their faithfulness and integrity and the mighty miracles which
if he but govern himself according to it For the clearer understanding whereof it may not be amiss briefly to enquire in what sense the Primitive Fathers and especially our Justin use this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And their notion was plainly this that Christ was the eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word of the Father the sum and center of all reason and wisdom as the Sun is the Fountain of Light and that from him there was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reason naturally derived into every man as a beam and emanation of Light from that Sun to which purpose they usually bring that of S. John In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Orig. Com. in Joan. p. 25. vid. etiam p. 40. that was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World God says Justin a Dial. cum Tryph. p. 234. p. 285. D. first and before the production of any Creatures begot of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain rational power sometimes stiled in Scripture the glory of God the Son Wisdom an Angel God Lord and Word by all which names he is described both according to the Oeconomy of his Fathers Will and according to his voluntary generation of him And elsewhere b Apol. I. p. 51. We love and worship the Word of the unbegotten and ineffable God which Word for our sakes became Man that by partaking of our sufferings he might work out our cure Hence Christ is called c Ibid. p. 46. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the universal Word and with respect to him reason is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seminal Word that is sown in our natures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Ibid. p. 51. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the internal semination of the implanted Word which he there distinguishes from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the primary and original seed it self from which according to the measure of grace given by it all participation and imitation does proceed This is that which he means by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seeds of truth which he e Apol. l. 2. p. 82. tells us seem to be in all men in the World they are a derivation from Christ who is the root a kind of participation of a divine nature from him Clemens of Alexandria thus deduces the pedigree The image of God says f Admonit ad Gent. p. 62. he is his Word for the divine Word is the genuine off-spring of the mind the Archetypal light of light and the image of the Word is Man The true mind that is in man said therefore to be made after the image and likeness of God as to the frame of the heart is conformed to the divine Word and by that means partakes of the Word or Reason XXI ORIGEN Clemens his Scholar treads exactly in his Masters steps He tells us that as God the Father is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fountain of Deity to the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tom. 1. Comment in Joan. p. 47. Edit Huet Tom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. p. 46. so God the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word or the supreme and eternal Reason is the Fountain and Original that communicates reason to all rational Beings who as such are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the image of the image that is some kind of shadow of the Word who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express image of his person And he further adds that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an article is meant of Christ but without it of that Word or Reason that is derived from him The case then in short is this every man naturally is endued with principles of Reason and lively notices of good and evil as a light kindled from him who is the Word and Wisdom of the Father and may so far be said to partake of Christ the primitive and original Word and that more or less according to their improvement of them so that whatever wise and excellent things either Philosophers or Poets have spoken says Justin the Martyr a Apâ—â—oâ— I. p. 46. 〈◊〉 48. C. it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that seed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word or Reason that implanted in all mankind thus he says that Socrates b Ibid. p. 48. exhorted the Greeks to the knowledge of the Vnknown God by the inquisition of the Word To conclude this he no where affirms that Gentiles might be saved without the entertainment of Christianity nor that their knowledge was of it self sufficient to that end no man more strongly proves Reason and Natural Philosophy to be of themselves insufficient to salvation but that so far as they improved their Reason and internal Word to the great and excellent purposes of Religion so far they were Christians and akin to the eternal and original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Apol. II. p. 56. and that whatever was rightly dictated or reformed by this inward Word either by Socrates among the Greeks or by others among the Barbarians was in effect done by Christ himself the Word made Flesh XXII ANOTHER opinion with which he was charged is Chiliasm or the reign of a thousand years This indeed he expresly asserts c Dialog câ—m Tryph. p. 306 307. vid p. 369. that after the Resurrection of the dead is over Jerusalem should be rebuilt beautified and enlarged where our Saviour with all the holy Patriarchs and Prophets the Saints and Martyrs should visibly reign a thousand years He confesses indeed that there are many sincere and devout Christians that would not subscribe to this opinion but withall affirms that there were abundance of the same mind with him As indeed there were d Apâ—d Iren. l. 5. c. 33. p. 498. vid. Euseb l. 3. c. ult p. 112. Papias Bishop of Hierapolis e Loc. cit ap Euseb ubi 〈◊〉 Irenaeus Bishop of Lions f Ap. Euseb l. 7. c. 24. p. 270. Nepos g Ap. Hiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in Eâ—â—ch c. 36. Tom. 5. p. 507. Apollinaris h 〈…〉 l. 3. c. 23 p. 411. de Resur Carn c. 25 p. 542. Tertullian i Apud Hieron loc supr cit Victorinus k 〈…〉 7. c. 24. p. 722. c. 26. p. 727. seq Lactantius l 〈…〉 vid. etiam de script Eccles in Papia Severus Gallus and many more The first that started this notion among the Orthodox Christians of those early Times seems to have been the fore-mentioned Papias who as m Lib. 3. c. 39. p. 112. Eusebius tells us pretended it to be an Apostolical Tradition misunderstanding the Apostles discourses and too lightly running away with what they meant in a mystical and hidden sense For he was though a good man yet of no great depth of understanding and so easily mistaken and yet as he
observes his mistake imposed upon several Ecclesiastical persons the venerable antiquity of the man recommending the errour to them with great advantage Among which especially were our S. Justin and Irenaeus who held it in an innocent and harmless sense 'T is true n Caius ap Enrest l. 3. c. 28. p. â—20 Dioms Coâ—inth ibid. l. 7. c. 25. p. 273. Cerinthus and his followers mixing it with Jewish Dreams and Fables and pretending divine Revelations to patronize and countenance it improved it to brutish and sensual purposes placing it in a state of eating and drinking and all manner of bodily pleasures and delights And what use Heretics of later times have made of it and how much they have improved and enlarged it is not my present business to enquire XXIII CONCERNING the state of the soul after this life he affirms o Dial. cum Tâ—ph p. 333. that the souls even of the Prophets and righteous men fell under the power of Daemons though how far that power should extend he tells us not grounding his assertion upon no other basis then the single instance of Samuels being summoned up by the inchantments of the Pythoness Nor does he assert it to be necessarily so seeing he grants that by our hearty endeavours and prayers to God our souls at the hour of their departure may escape the seizure of those evil powers To this we may add what he seems a Ibid. p. 223. to maintain That the souls of good men are not received into Heaven till the Resurrection that when they depart the body they remain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Ib. p. 222. C. in a better state where being gathered within it self the soul perpetually enjoys what it loved but that the souls of the unrighteous and the wicked are thrust into a worse condition where they expect the judgment of the great day and he reckons c Ibid. p. 327. it among the errours of some pretended Christians who denied the Resurrection and affirmed that their souls immediately after death were taken into Heaven Nor herein did he stand alone but had the almost unanimous suffrage of primitive Writers voting with him d Adv. Haeres l. 5. c. 31. p. 491. Irenaeus e Apol. c. 47. p. 37. Tertullian f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 12. ful 136. l. 4. c. 2. fol. 154. confer Philoc. c. 1. p. 18. Homil. r. in Levit. fol. 71. Origen g Enarrat in Psal CXX p. 532. Hilary h Cathemer Hymn X. p. 485. Prudentius i Ambros de Cain Ab. lib. 2. pag. 131. T. 4. â—â—bon Mort. c. 10. p. 240. Ambrose k Enckirid c. 109. câ—l 190. Tom. 3. in Psalm 36. Conc. 1. col 281. T. 8. Augustin l Quaest XCI Anastasius Sinaita and indeed who not there being a general concurrence in this matter that the souls of the righteous were not upon the dissolution presently translated into Heaven that is not admitted to a full and perfect fruition of the divine presence but determined to certain secret and unknown Repositories where they enjoyed a state of imperfect blessedness waiting for the accomplishment of it at the general Resurrection which intermediate state they will have described under the notion of Paradise and Abrahams Bosom and which some of them make to be a subterranean Region within the bowels of the Earth XXIV THE like concurrence though not altogether so uncontrolably entertained of the Ancients with our Justin we may observe in his opinion concerning the a Apol. I. p. 44. Angels that God having committed to them the care and superintendency of this sublunary World they abused the power intrusted with them mixing themselves with Women in wanton and sensual embraces of whom they begat a race and posterity of Daemons An assertion not onely intimated by b De Gigant l. 1. p. 221. Philo and c Antiq. l. 1. c. 4. p. 8. Josephus but expresly owned by d Apud Andr. Caesar Comment in Apâ—â— Serm. 12. Papias e Legat. pro Christ pag. 27. Athenagoras f Sâ—romat l. 5. p. 550. Clemens Alexandrinus g De Hab. mul. sen de Cuâ—â— foemin l. 1. c. 2. p. 150. Tertullian h De Disâ—ipl haâ— Virg. p. 166. Cyprian i De Orig. error l. 2. c. 14. p. 216. Lactantius k Sacr. Hist lib. 1. pag. 8. Sulpitius Severus l De No Arc. c. 4. p. 144. T. 4. S. Ambrose and many more That which first gave birth to this opinion easily embraced by those who held Angels to be corporeal was a misunderstanding that place the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them to wife and they bare children to them the same became mighty men men of renown And it more particularly furthered the mistake that many ancient Copies of the Septuagint as is evident from Philo and S. Augustin and the Kings ancient Alexandrian Manuscript at this day in stead of the Sons read the Angels of God which the Fathers who generally understood no Hebrew were not able to correct And I doubt not what gave further patronage to this errour was the Authority of the Book of Enoch highly valued by many in those days wherein this Story was related as appears from the fragments of it still extant XXV I might here also insist upon what some find so much fault with in our Martyr his magnifying the power of mans will which is notoriously known to have been the current doctrin of the Fathers through all the first Ages till the rise of the Pelagian Controversies though still they generally own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mighty assistance of divine grace to raise up and enable the soul for divine and spiritual things a Diaing cum Tryph. p. 319. Justin tells his adversary that 't is in vain for a man to think rightly to understand the mind of the ancient Prophets unless he be assisted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a mighty grace derived from God As well may the dry ground says b Adv. Haeres l. 3. c. 19. p. 280. Irenaeus produce fruit without rain to moisten it as we who at first are like dried sticks be fruitful unto a good life without voluntary showrs from above that is as he adds the laver of the Spirit Clemens of Alexandria affirms expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand. Stromat l. 5. p. 588. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. p. 547. that as there is a free choice in us so all is not placed in our own power but that by grace we are saved though not without good works and that to the doing of what is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we especially need the grace of God a right institution an honest temper of mind and that the Father draws us to him and that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the powers of the will are never able to wing the soul
ea qâ—ae cum Sophiae ratlone sermone disposuerat intrase ipsum primum protulit sermonem Haec est nativitas perfecta sermonis dum ex deo procedit conditus ab eo primum ad cogitatum in nomin Sophiae Dominus condidit me initium viarâ—m Tertul adv Prax. c. 5 6 â— p. 503. ubi plura Fathers used the word for any manner of production and usually understand that place of Solomon of the ineffable Generation of the Son of God His Writings None whereof are now extant De Paschate Libri II. De recta vivendi ratione de Prophetis liber unus De Ecclesia De die Dominica De Natura Hominis De Creatione De obedientia sensuum fidei De Anima corpore mente De Lavacro De Veritate De fide Creatione Generatione Christi De Prophetia De Hospitalitate Liber Clavis dictus De Diabolo De Joannis Apocalypsi De Incarnatione Dei Apologia ad Imp. Antoninum Excerptorum ex libris Veteris Testamenti Libri VI. The End of S. MELITO 's Life THE LIFE OF S. PANTAENUS CATECHIST OF ALEXANDRIA Michael Burghers Delineavit et sculpsit S. PANTAENUS The various conjectures concerning his Original The probabilities of his Jewish descent what Whether born in Sicily or at Alexandria His first institution The famous Platonic School erected by Ammonius at Alexandria The renown of that place for other parts of Learning Pantaenus addicted to the Sect of the Stoics The Principles of that Sect shewed to agree best with the dictates of Christianity His great improvements in the Christian Doctrine The Catechetic School at Alexandria with its antiquity Pantaenus made Regent of it When he first entered upon this Office An Embassy from India to the Bishop of Alexandria for some to preach the Christian Faith Pantaenus sent upon this errand This Countrey where situate His arrival in India and converse with the Brachmans Their temper principles and way of life Their agreement with the Stoics Foot-steps of Christianity formerly planted there S. Matthews Hebrew Gospel found among them and brought by Pantaenus to Alexandria How far and by whom Christianity was propagated in India afterwards Pantaenus his return to Alexandria and resuming his Catechetic Office His Death His great Piety and Learning I. THE silence of Antiquity as to the Countrey and Kindred of this excellent person has administred to variety of conjectures concerning his original Some conceive him to have been born of Jewish Parents and they of note and quality For a Stromat l. 1. p. 274. Clemens Alexandrinus reckoning up his Tutors tells us that one whom he names last was of Palestine an Hebrew of very long descent and then adds that having found the last meaning say some the last of those whom he had reckoned up though he justly deserved to be placed first after he had with infinite diligence and curiosity hunted him out in Egypt where he lay obscure he sate down under his Discipline and Institution This person b H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 11. p. 175 176. Eusebius plainly supposes to have been our Pantaenus and that he intended him in the latter clause there is no cause to doubt the former onely is ambiguous it not being clear whether the latter sentence be necessarily connected and joined to the former or that he designed any more then to intimate the last Master he addressed to as distinct from those he had named before And this I am the rather inclined to think because whoever considerately weighs Clemens his period will find that by his Hebrew or Palestine Master he means one of the two whom he heard in the East whereas Pantaenus was his Master in Egypt whom he both found and heard there c Vales Annot. in Euseb p. 96. Others make him born in Sicily because Clemens in the following words stiles him a truly Sicilian Bee but whether there may not be something proverbial in that expression even as it relates to Sicily I shall not now enquire However it is certain that the Inhabitants of that Island were generally Greeks that many eminent Philosophers were born or resided there and particularly the famous Porphyry who had retired hither for some years and here wrote his virulent Books against the Christians Let this then stand for his Countrey till something more probable offer it self unless we will say that being descended of Sicilian ancestors he was born at Alexandria the place of his education II. HIS younger years were seasoned with all learned and philosophical studies under the best Masters which Alexandria for there I presume to place his education afforded at that time a noted staple place of Learning As Egypt had in all Ages been famous for the choicest parts of literature and the more uncommon speculations of Theology so more especially Alexandria where there were Professors in all Arts and Sciences and public Schools of institution not a little advantaged by that noble Library placed here by Ptolomy Philadelphus and so much celebrated by the Ancients In after-times here was a fixed and setled succession of Philosophers in the Platonic School begun by Ammonius Saccas and carried on by Photinus and Origen and their successors for several Ages a Lib. 22. non longe à sin p. 1638. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that in his time though not so famous as formerly yet in some good degree it still maintained its reputation and that all ingenuous Arts and Methods of recondite Learning and celebrated Professors of all sorts flourished here and that it was enough to recommend a Physician to public notice if he had studied at Alexandria Nay many Ages after him Benjamin the Jew * Itiner p. 121. at his being there found near twenty several Schools of Aristotelians the onely men that then ruled the Chair whither men flocked from all parts of the World to learn the Peripatetic Philosophy III. AMONG all the Sects of Philosophy he principally applied himself b Euseb l. 5. c. 10. p. 175. to the Stoics with whose notions and rules of life he was most enamoured and no wonder c Com. in Esa c. 11. p. 49. Tom. 5. seeing as S. Hierom observes their dogmata in many things come nearest to the doctrines of Christianity As indeed they do especially as to the moral and practic part of their Principles They held that nothing was good but what was just and pious nothing evil but what was vicious and dishonest that a bad man could never be happy nor a good man miserable who was always free generous and dear to Heaven that the deity was perpetually concerned for humane affairs and that there was a wise and powerful providence that particularly superintended the happiness of mankind and was ready to assist men in all lawful and vertuous undertakings that therefore this God was above all things to be admired adored and worshipped prayed to acknowledged obeyed praised and that it is the most comely and reasonable thing in the
his leave he made an Oration before his Master and in a numerous Auditory wherein as he gives Origen his just commendations so he particularly blesses God g Ibid. p. 178 181. for the happy advantages of his instructions and return thanks to his tutelar and guardian Angel which as it had superintended him from his birth so had especially conducted him to so good a Master elegantly bewailing h Ibid. p. 218. 〈◊〉 his departure from that School as a kind of banishment out of Paradise a being turned like the Prodigal out of his Fathers house and a being carried captive as the Jews were into Babylon concluding that of all things upon earth nothing could give so great an ease and consolation to his mind as if his kind and benign Angel would bring him back to that place again V. HE was no sooner returned to Neocaesarea but Origen followed him with a Letter a Extat in Orig. Philoâ—â— c. 13. p. 41. commending his excellent parts able to render him either an eminent Lawyer among the Romans or a great Philosopher among the Greeks but especially persuading him to improve them to the ends of Christianity and the practice of Piety and Vertue For which purpose he lets him know that he instructed him mainly in those Sciences and parts of Philosophy which might be introductory to the Christian Religion acquainting him with those things in Geometry and Astronomy which might be useful for the understanding and explaining the holy Scriptures these things being as previously advantageous to the knowledge of the Christian Doctrin as Geometry Music Grammar Rhetoric and Astronomy are preparatory to the study of Philosophy Advising him before all things to read the Scripture and that with the most profound and diligent attention and not rashly to entertain notions of divine things or to speak of them without solemn premeditation and not onely to seek but knock to pray with faith and fervency it being in vain to think that the door should be opened where prayer is not sent before-hand to unlock it At his return b Gr. Nyss ib. p. 975. all mens eyes were upon him expecting that in public meetings he should shew himself and let them reap some fruit of all his studies and to this he was universally courted and importuned and especially by the wise and great men of the City intreating him to reside among them and by his excellent precepts and rules of life to reform and direct the manners of men But the modest young man knowing how unfit they generally were to entertain the dictates of true Philosophy and fearing lest by a great concourse and applause he might be insensibly ensuared into pride and vain-glory resisted all addresses and withdrew himself into the Wilderness where he resigned up himself to solitude and contemplation conversing with God and his own mind and delighting his thoughts with the pleasant speculations of nature and the curious and admirable works of the great Artificer of the World VI. NEOCAESAREA was a place large and populous but miserably over-grown with Superstition and Idolatry so that it seemed the place where Satans seat was and whither Christianity had as yet scarce made its entrance to the great grief and resentment of all good men who heartily wished that Religion and the fear of God were planted in that place c Id. ib. p. 976. Phaedimus Bishop of Amasea a neighbour City in that Province a man indued with a Prophetic spirit had cast his eye upon our young Philosopher as one whose ripe parts and piety did more then weigh down his want of age and rendred him a person fit to be a Guide of Souls to the place of his Nativity whose relation to the place would more endear the imployment to him The notice hereof being intimated to him he shifted his Quarters and as oft as sought for fled from one Desert and solitary shelter to another so that the good man by all his arts and industry could not lay hold of him the one not being more earnest to find him out then the other was vigilant to decline him Phaedimus at last despairing to meet with him resolved however to go on with his design and being acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a divine and immediate impetus betook himself to this pious stratagem the like president probably not to be met with in the Antiquities of the Church not regarding Gregorius his absence who was at that time no less then three days journy distant from him he made his address and prayer to God and having declared that both himself and Gregory were at that moment equally seen by God as if they were present in stead of imposition of hands he directed a Discourse to S. Gregory wherein he set him apart to God and constituted him Bishop of that place and God who steers the hearts of men inclined him how averse soever before to accept the charge when probably he had a more formal and solemn Consecration VII THE Province he entered upon was difficult the City and parts thereabouts being wholly given to the worship of Daemons a Id. ubi supr p. 977. and enslaved to the observance of Diabolic Rites there not being above seventeen Christians in those parts so that he must found a Church before he could govern it and which was not the least inconvenience Heresies had spread themselves over those Countries and he himself though accomplished with a sufficient furniture of humane Learning yet altogether unexercised in Theological studies and the mysteries of Religion For remedy whereof he is said to have had an immediate assistance from Heaven For while one night he was deeply considering of these things and discussing matters of Faith in his own mind he had a vision wherein two august and venerable persons whom he understood to be S. John the Evangelist and the blessed Virgin appeared in the Chamber where he was and discoursed before him concerning those points of Faith which he had been before debating with himself After whose departure he immediately penned that Canon and rule of Faith which they had declared and which he ever after made the Standard of his Doctrin and bequeathed as an inestimable Legacy and depositum to his Successors the Tenor whereof we shall here insert together with the Original Greek which being very difficult to be exactly rendred into our Language the learned Reader if he likes not mine may translate for himself There is one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of the living Word and of the subsisting Wisdom and Power and of Him who is his Eternal Image the perfect begetter of Him that is perfect the Father of the onely begotten Son There is one Lord the onely Son of the onely Father God of God the Character and Image of the Godhead the powerful Word the comprehensive Wisdom by which all things were made and the Power that gave Being to the whole Creation the true Son of the true
Father the Invisible of the Invisible the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible the Immortal of the Immortal and the Eternal of Him that is Eternal There is one Holy Ghost having its subsistence of God which appeared through the Son to mankind the perfect Image of the perfect Son the Life-giving Life the holy Fountain the Sanctity and the Author of Sanctification by whom God the Father is made manifest who is over all and in all and God the Son who is through all A perfect Trinity which neither in Glory Eternity or Dominion is divided or separated from it self To this Creed he always kept himself the Original whereof written with his own hand my Author assures us was preserved in that Church in his time VIII THUS incomparably furnished he began to apply himself more directly to the charge committed to him in the happy success whereof he was infinitely advantaged by a power of working miracles so much talked of among the Ancients bestowed upon him As he was a Ibid. p. 980. returning home from the Wilderness being benighted and overtaken with a storm he together with his company turned aside to shelter themselves in a Gentile Temple famous for Oracles and Divinations where they spent the night in prayers and hymns to God Early in the morning came the Gentile Priest to pay the accustomed devotions to the Daemons of the place who had told them it seems that they must henceforth relinquish it by reason of him that lodged there he made his lustrations and offered his Sacrifices but all in vain the Daemons being deaf to all importunities and invocations Whereupon he burst out into a rage and passion exclaiming against the holy man and threatning to complain of him to the Magistrates and the Emperour But when he saw him generously despising all his threatnings and invested with a power of commanding Daemons in and out at pleasure he turned his fury into admiration and intreated the Bishop as a further evidence of that divine authority that attended him to bring the Daemons once more back again into the Temple For whose satisfaction he is said to have torn off a piece of Paper and therein to have written these words Gregory to Satan enter Which Schedule was no sooner laid upon the Altar and the usual incense and oblations made but the Daemons appeared again as they were wont to do Whereby he was plainly convinced that it was an Authority superiour to all infernal powers and accordingly resolved to accompany him but being unsatisfied in some parts of the Christian Doctrin was fully brought over after he had seen S. Gregory confirm his discourses by another evident miracle whereupon he freely forsook house and home friends and relations and resigned up himself to the instructions of his divine Wisdom and Philosophy IX THE fame of his strange and miraculous actions had prepared b Id. ibid. p. 983. the People of Neocaesarea to entertain him with a prodigious reverence and regard the people generally flocking out of the City to meet him every one being ambitious to see the person of whom such great things were spoken He unconcerned in the applause and expectations of all the Spectators that were about him without so much as casting his eye on the one side or the other passed directly through the midst of the crowds into the City Whither being come his friends that had accompanied him out of his solitudes were very solicitous where and by whom he should be entertained But he reproving their anxiety asked them whether they thought themselves banished the divine Protection whether Gods providence was not the best and safest refuge and habitation that whatever became of their bodies it was of infinitely more importance to look after their minds as the onely fit and proper habitations which were by the Vertues of a good life to be trimmed and prepared furnished and built up for Heaven But there wanted not many who were ready enough to set open their doors to so welcom a guest among which especially was Musonius a person of greatest honour estate and power in the City who intreated him to honour his house with his presence and to take up his lodging there whose kindness as being first offered he accepted dismissing the rest with a grateful acknowledgment of that civility and respect which they had offered to him X. IT was no little abatement to the good mans joy to think in what a prophane and idolatrous place his lot was fallen and that therefore it concerned him to lose no time Accordingly that very day a Ubi supr p. 985. he fell to preaching and with so good success that before night he had converted a little Church Early the next morning the doors were crowded persons of all ranks ages infirmities and distempers flocking to him upon whom he wrought two cures at once healing both soul and body instructing their minds convincing their errours reclaiming and reforming their manners and that with ease because at the same time strengthening the infirm curing the sick healing the diseased banishing Daemons out of the possessed men greedily embracing the Religion he taught while they beheld such sensible demonstrations of its power and divinity before their eyes and heard nothing reported but what was verified by the testimony of their own senses Having thus prepared a numerous Congregation his next care was to erect a Church where they might assemble for the public solemnities of Religion which by the chearful contributions of some and the industrious labour of others was in a little time both begun and finished And the foundations of it seem to have been laid upon a firmer basis then other buildings seeing it out-stood not onely Earthquakes frequent in those parts but the violent storm of Dioclesian's reign who commanded the Churches of the Christians in all places to be demolished and was still standing in Gregory Nyssen's time who further tells us that when a terrible Earthquake lately happened in that place wherewith almost all the buildings both public and private were destroyed and ruined this Church onely remained entire and not the least stone was shaken to the ground XI S. Gregory Nyssen b Ibid. p. 1007. reports one more memorable passage then the rest which at his first coming to the place made his conversion of the people much more quick and easie There was a public festival held in honour of one of the gods of that Country whereto not onely the Neocaesareans but all the inhabitants of the neighbour-Countrey came in and that in such infinite numbers that the Theater was quickly full and the crowd so great and the noise so confused and loud that the Shews could not begin nor the solemn rites be performed The People hereupon universally cried out to the Daemon Jupiter we beseech thee make us room S. Gregory being told of this sent them this message that their prayer would be granted and that greater room would be quickly made them then they desired
should disbelieve them and count all Fables which were above the standard of their sentiments and apprehensions Indeed as to the main of the thing I might challenge the faith of all Ages ever since who have unanimously believed and conveyed the report of it down to us and upon this account the title of Thaumaturgus the Wonder-worker is constantly and uncontrollably ascribed to him in the Writings of the Church And S. Basil e De Spir. S. c. 2â— p. 360. Tom. 2. assures us that upon this very account the Gentiles were wont to call him a Second Moses and that in his time he was had in such universal admiration among the People of that Countrey and his memory so fresh among them that no time would be able to blot it out XIV IN this faithful and successful management of his place he quietly continued till about the year CCL when the Emperour a Id. ibid. p. 999 Decius vexed to see the Christian Religion so much get the ground of declining Paganism published very severe edicts against the Christians commanding the Governours of Provinces as they valued their heads to put them into a strict and rigorous execution wherein Pontus and Cappadocia shared if not deeper to be sure equal with the rest All other business seemed to give way to this persecuting the Christians was the debate of all public Councils and the great care of Magistrates which did not vent it self in a few threatnings and hard words but in studying methods of cruelty and instruments of torment the very apprehension whereof is dreadful and amazing to humane nature Swords and Axes Fire Wild Beasts Stakes and Engines to stretch and distend the limbs iron Chairs made red hot frames of Timber set up strait in which the bodies of the tormented as they stood were raked with nails that tore off the flesh and innumerable other arts daily invented every great man being careful that another should not seem to be more fierce and cruel then himself Some came in as Informers others as Witnesses some searched all private corners others seized upon them that fled and some who gaped for their Neighbours Estates took hold of the opportunity to accuse and persecute them for being Christians So that there was a general confusion and consternation every man being afraid of his nearest relatives the Father not consulting the safety of his Child nor the Child regarding its duty to its Parents the Gentile Son betraying his Christian Father and the Infidel Father accusing his Son for embracing Christianity and the Brother accounting it a piece of Piety to violate the Laws of Nature in the cause of Religion and to condemn his own Brother because a Christian By this means the Woods became full and the Cities empty and yet no sooner were many houses rid of their proper owners but they were turned into common Goals the public Prisons not being able to contain the multitudes of Christians that were sent to them You could not go into the Markets or places of usual concourse but you might have seen some apprehended others led to trial or execution some weeping others laughing and rejoicing at the common misery no regard had to Age or Sex or Vertue or Merit but as in a City stormed by a proud and potent Conquerour every thing was without mercy exposed to the rage and rudeness of a barbarous and inhumane enemy XV. S. GREGORY beholding the sad and calamitous state of the present time and having considered b Ibid. p. 1001. seriously with himself the frailty and imbecillity of humane nature and how few of his new Converts especially would be able to bear up under those fierce conflicts which the cause of Religion would engage them in timely advised his Church a little to decline the force of the present storms telling them 't was better by flying to save their souls then by abiding those furious trials to hazard their falling from the Faith And to let them see that this might be done and that herein there was no prejudice to their souls he resolved to shew them the way by his example himself first retiring out of danger retreating to a Desert Mountain accompanied with none but the Gentile Priest whom he had converted and who ministred to him in capacity of a Deacon And it was but time he should withdraw the enemy chiefly aiming at him as the head of the Party and laying all possible snares to take him Being informed where he lay concealed they went in vast numbers to hunt him out some besetting round the foot of the Mountain that he might not escape others going up searched every place till they came very near him He persuading his Deacon to a firm confidence of the divine protection presently fell to prayer as the other also did by his example with eyes and hands lift up to Heaven The Persecutors in the mean time pried into all places examined every bush and shrub every crevise of a Rock every nook and hole but finding nothing returned back to their companions at the bottom hoping that by this time he might be fallen into their hands And when the Informer described the very place where he lay they affirmed they saw nothing there but a couple of trees a little distant from each other The company being gone the Informer staid behind and went directly to the place where finding them at their devotions and concluding their escape to be the immediate effect of a divine preservation God having blinded their eyes that they should not see them fell down at the Bishops feet gave up himself to be a Christian and a companion of his solitudes and dangers XVI Ibid. p. 1002. DESPAIRING now of meeting with the Shepherd the Wolves fell with the fiercer rage upon the Flock that staid behind and not there onely but ran up and down all parts of the Province seizing upon Men Women and Children that had but any reverence for the name of Christ dragging them to the City and casting them into Prison where they were sure to be entertained with variety of tortures S. Gregory in the mean time remained in his solitary retirement till God having mercifully commanded the Storm to blow over and the tyranny of the Persecution to cease he quitted his shady and melancholy Walks and came back to Neocaesarea and visiting his Diocess all about established in every place anniversary Festivals and Solemnities to do honour to the memory of the Martyrs that had suffered in the late Persecution A great instance of his wisdom and prudence at that time not onely in doing right to the memory of the Martyrs but by this means training up people to a readier embracing of Religion when they saw that it indulged them a little mirth and freedom in the midst of those severe Yokes that it put upon them He had observed what advantage the idolatry of the Gentiles made by permitting its Votaries liberty indeed licentiousness in their religious solemnities and
and reproaching others he greatly hated as a quality opposite to a state of salvation Envy and Pride were strangers to his innocent and guileless soul Never did he approach the holy Altar till first reconciled to his Brother He severely abominated lies and falshood and all cunning and artificial methods of detraction well knowing that every lie is the spawn and issue of the Devil and that God will destroy all those that speak lies XX. HIS Writings are first particularly mentioned by f De Script in Theodor. S. Hierom who reckons up his Eucharistical Panegyric to Origen his short and as he calls it very useful Metaphrase upon Ecclesiastes several Epistles in which doubtless his Canonical Epistle had the first place and his Creed or short exposition of Faith which though not taken notice of in some is extant in other Editions of S. Hieroms Catalogue All which some of his Epistles excepted are still extant and probably are all he ever wrote For though there are other Tracts commonly ascribed to him yet without any great reason or evidence to warrant their legitimacy whereof their strongest assertors are not very confident It appears from g Ad Doct. Eccleâ— Neocaesar Epist LXIV p. 101. S. Basil that he was by some of old suspected as inclining to Sabellianism which confounded the persons in the holy Trinity and that many sheltered themselves under his authority from an expression of his affirming that the Father and Son are two in the consideration of the mind but one in person For this S. Basil makes a large Apology and shews that it was spoken in the heat of disputation against Aelian a Gentile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not dogmatically as a point of Doctrin but in hast and in the fervency of disputation when judgment and consideration is not at leisure to weigh every thing by nice scruples that his earnest desire to gain the Gentile made him less cautious and solicitous about exactness of words and that he indulged something to the apprehensions of his adversary that so he might get the better advantage upon him in the greater and more important principles that this betraid him into some unwary expressions which the Heretics of after-times improved to bad purposes and strained to another sense then what was originally intended by him that spake them That as to the particular charge of the Sabellian errour a Ibid. p. 99. he was so far from it that it had been chiefly confuted and laid asleep by the evidence of that very doctrin which S. Gregory had preached the memory whereof was preserved fresh among them However nothing can be more true and modest then what b Apol. adv Râ—fin lib. c. p. 21â— Tom. 2. S. Hierom observes in such cases that it 's great rashness and irreverence presently to charge the Ancients with Heresie for a few obnoxious expressions since it may be they erred with a simple and an honest mind or wrote them in another sense or the passages have been since altered by ignorant Transcribers or they took less heed and care to deliver their minds with the utmost accuracy and exactness while as yet men of perverse minds had not sown their tares nor disturbed the Church with the clamour of their disputations nor infected mens minds with their poisonous and corrupt opinions His Writings Gen … 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Origenem Metaphrasis in Ecclesiastem Brevis expositio fidei Epistola Canonica Aliae Epistolae plures quae non extant Supposititious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Capita XII de fide cum Anathematismis In Annunciationem S. Dei Genitricis Sermones III. Sermo in Sancta Theophania Ad Tatianum de Anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End of S. GREGORY Thaumaturgus 's Life THE LIFE OF S. DIONYSIUS BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA S. DIONYSIUS ALEXANDRIN US The place of his nativity His Family and Relations His conversion how His studies under Origen Whether a professed Rhetorician His succeeding Heraclas in the Catechetic School His being constituted Bishop of Alexandria and the time of it A preparatory Persecution at Alexandria how begun The severity of it The Martyrdom of Apollonia and the fond honours done her in the Church of Rome The Persecution continued and promoted by Decius his Edicts The miserable condition of the Christians The sudden Conversion and Martyrdom of a Guard of Souldiers Dionysius apprehended and carried into banishment there to be beheaded A pleasant account of his unexpected deliverance by means of a drunken rout His retirement into the Desarts His return to Alexandria The great number and quality of the Lapsed in the late Persecution The contests about this matter Dionysius his judgment and practice herein The case of Serapion His dealing with Novatian about his Schism and the copy of his Letter to him His being engaged in the controversie about Rebaptization and great moderation in it His Letter to Pope Sixtus about a person baptized by Heretics Valerianus the Emperours kindness to Christians How turned to cruelty Dionysius brought before Aemilian His discourse with him and resolute constancy He is condemned to be banished His transportation into the Desarts of Lybia The success of his Ministry there Innumerable Barbarians converted to the Faith Gallienus his relaxing the Persecution His Letter to Dionysius granting liberty to the Christians Alexandria shut up by the usurpation of Aemilian The Divisions within and Siege without The horrible Pestilence at Alexandria and the singular kindness and compassion of the Christians there above the Heathens Dionysius his confutation of Sabellius His unwary expressions and the charge against him His vindication both by himself and by S. Athanasius His writing against Nepos Nepos who and what his Principles and Followers Dionysius his encounter with the heads of the Party His convincing and reducing them back to the Orthodox Church His engaging in the Controversie against Paulus Samosatenus The loose extravagant and insolent temper and manners of that man Dionysius his Letter to the Synod at Antioch concerning him The success of that affair Dionysius his death His Writings and Epistles The loss of them bewailed I. S DIONYSIVS was in all probability born at Alexandria where his Parents a Vid. Euseb l. 7. c. 11. p. 260. A. seem to have been persons of considerable note and quality and his Father and possibly his Ancestors to have born very honourable Offices and himself to have lived some time in great secular pomp and power He was born and bred a Gentile but by what particular occasion converted to Christianity I know not more then what we learn from a Vision and Voice that spake to him mentioned by b Epist ad Philem ib. c. 7. p. 253. himself that by a diligent reading whatever Books fell into his hand and an impartial examination of the things contained in them he was first brought over to the Faith Having passed his juvenile studies he put himself under the institution of the renowned c Ibid.
his example The answer he returned was short and Apostolical that we must obey God rather then men openly assuring him that he would worship the true God and none but him from which resolution he would never start nor ever cease to be a Christian The Governour told them that both by word and writing he had acquainted them with the great clemency of the Emperours towards them permitting them to be safe if they would but act agreeably to nature and adore the Gods that were Protectors of the Empire and he hoped they would be more grateful then to refuse it The Bishop replied that every one worshipped those whom they thought to be gods that as for themselves they adored and served that one God who is the Creator of the World and who gave that Government to the Emperours and to whom they offered up dayly prayers for the permanency and stability of their Empire To which the other rejoined that if he were a god none hindred them from worshipping him together with them who were truly gods they being enjoined to worship not one but gods and those whom all men owned to be so Dionysius answered We cannot worship any other I see replied Aemilian that you are a company of foolish and ingrateful people and not sensible of the favour of our Lords the Emperours wherefore you shall stay no longer in this City but be sent to Cephro in the parts of Lybia for thither according to the Emperours command I resolve to banish you Nor shall either you or any of your Sect have leave to keep your meetings or to frequent your Coemeteria which if any dare to attempt it shall be at his peril and he shall be punished suitably to his crime Be gone therefore to the place allotted you X. THE sentence was speedily put into execution Dionysius though then sick not being allowed one days respite to recover himself or provide for his journey thither Indeed when he came distinctly to understand the place of his exile he was a little troubled knowing it to be a place destitute of the society of good men and perpetually exposed to the incursions of Thieves and Robbers but was better satisfied when told that it was near a great and populous City whose neighbourhood would furnish him with persons both for Converse and for opportunities of Conversion Cephro was the most rude and barbarous Tract of the Lybian Desart and Colythius which as * Lib. 6. c. 10. p. 402. Nicephorus tells us was that particular part of it to which Dionysius was designed the most uncomfortable it 's like of all the rest Thither therefore was he sent whom great numbers of Christians quickly followed partly from Alexandria and partly out of other parts of Egypt At his first arrival he was treated with rudeness and showrs of stones but had not been long there before he not onely civilized their barbarous manners but reclaimed them from idolatry and brought them to embrace the Christian Faith And as he met with success so he shifted his quarters preaching up and down those wild and disconsolate parts and turning the Wilderness into a Church Nor could all the malice and threatnings of the Governour hinder but that the Christians still assembled at Alexandria notwithstanding that their beloved Bishop was ravished from them and that Aemilian proceeded with the utmost rigour against all that were brought before him killing many with all the arts of cruelty keeping others for the rack and torment loading them with chains and thrusting them into squalid and nasty Dungeons forbidding any of their friends to come near them Though even in the height of these afflictions God supported their spirits and animated others to venture in and to administer comfort and necessaries to them not scrupling though with the peril of their heads to interr the bodies of the Martyrs XI HOW long Dionysius continued in his banishment I find not probably till Valerian was taken captive by the King of Persia Ann. CCLIX when Gallienus his Son ruled alone who from the unhappiness of his Father took the measures of his carriage towards the Christians he saw that while he favoured the Christians Heaven smiled upon his designs and things went on in a smooth and uninterrupted course but when once he began to bear hard upon them the Tide turned and the divine vengeance pursued and overtook them and that therefore nothing could be more prudent and reasonable then to give a check to the present fury and suffer them to go on securely in the exercise of their Religion which he did by this following Edict a Euseb l. 9. c. 13. p. 262. Emperour Caesar P. Licinius GALLIENUS Pius Felix Augustus to Dionysius Pinnas Demetrius and the rest of the Bishops WE have given Order that the Indulgence of our bounty shall be extended throughout the World that all Religious places shall be freed from force and violence Wherefore ye also may freely enjoy the benefit of our Rescript so as no man shall dare to vex or molest you and what you now may lawfully enjoy has been long since granted by Us. And for this end Aurelius Cyrenius Our High Steward shall keep the Copy of this Edict which we have now granted The like Rescript he also sent to other Bishops giving them the free leave of their Coemeteria the places where they bureid their dead and often assembled for their Religious Solemnities especially the memorials of the Martyrs XII SCARCE was Dionysius quietly resetled at home when he was alarum'd by another accident which forced him for a while again if not to retire at least to keep so close that he was not capable to execute his charge a Tr. Poll. in vit Aemil. p. 778. in vit Gall. c. 4. p. 715. Aemilianus the Praefect partly by his own ambition and partly forced by an unhappy accident wherein he was involved took the Empire upon him the Roman Army in Egypt joyning with him partly out of dislike to Gallienus partly out of affection to Aemilian who was a brisk active man Immediately he seized upon the Store-houses that Countrey being the common Granary of the Empire Gallienus being acquainted with the news ordered Theodotus his General to march with an Army into those parts who besieged Alexandria and reduced the City to great extremity For they were not more vigorously assaulted by the enemy from without then undermined b Dionys Epist ad Hierach ib. c. 21. p. 266. by Parties and Factions within the City being divided into two Factions one contending for Gallienus and the other for Aemilian So that there was no converse nor commerce between them Dionysius being compelled in all his private affairs and the public concernment of his Church to transact with his friends by Letters it being safer as he tells us for a man to travel from East to West then to pass from one part of Alexandria to another so barbarous and inhumane were the outrages committed there
The issue was that Gallienus his Party prevailed to let in Theodotus and his Army who seized the Tyrant and sent him to the Emperour who caused him to be strangled in Prison XIII HOW stormy and tempestuous is the Region of this Lower World one Wave perpetually pressing upon the neck of another The Persecution was seconded by a Civil War and a cruel Famine and that no sooner over but a terrible Plague followed close at the heels of it one of the most dreadful and amazing Judgments which God sends upon mankind It over-ran City and Country sweeping away what the fury of the late Wars had left there not having been known saith the Historian a Zosim Histoâ— l. 1. p. 347. in any Age so great a destruction of mankind This Pestilence which some say b Pomp. Lâ—t in vit Galli p.m. 1235. â—utrop H. Rom. l 9. p. 1924. came first out of Aethiopia began in the reign of Gallus and Volusian and ever since more or less straggled over most parts of the Roman Empire and now kept its fatal residence at Alexandria where by an impartial severity it mowed down both Gentiles and Christians and turned the Paschal solemnity it being then the time c Dionys ib. c. 22. p. 268. of Easter into days of weeping and mourning all places were filled with dying groans and sorrows either for friends already dead or those that were ready to depart it being now as formerly under that great Egyptian Plague and something worse there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not an house where there was not only one but many dead In this sad and miserable time how vastly different was the carriage of the Christians and the Heathens The Christians out of the superabundance of their kindness and charity without any regard to their own health and life boldly ventured into the thickest dangers dayly visiting assisting and ministring to their sick and infected brethren chearfully taking their pains and distempers upon them and themselves expiring with them And when many of those whom they thus attended recovered and lived they died themselves as if by a prodigious and unheard of charity they had willingly taken their diseases upon them and died to save them from death And these the most considerable both of Clergy and People chearfully embracing a death that deserved a title little less then that of Martyrdom They embraced the bodies of the dead closed their eyes laid them out washed and dressed them up in their funeral weeds took them upon their shoulders and carried them to their Graves it not being long before others did the same offices for them The Gentiles on the contrary put off all sense of humanity when any began to fall sick they presently cast them out ran from their dearest friends and relations and either left them half dead in the high-ways or threw them out as soon as they were dead dreading to fall under the same infection which yet with all their care and diligence they could not avoid XIV NOR were these the onely troubles the good man was exercised with he had contests of another nature that swallowed up his time and care Sabellius a Libyan born at Ptolemais a City of Pentapolis had lately started d Dion Epist ad Sex ib. c. 6. p. 252. Niâ—â—pb l. 6. c. 26. p 419. dangerous notions and opinions about the doctrin of the holy Trinity affirming the Father Son and Holy Ghost to be but one subsistence one person under three several names which in the time of the Old Testament gave the Law under the notion of the Father in the New was made man in the capacity of the Son and descended afterwards upon the Apostles in the quality of the Holy Ghost Dionysius as became a vigilant Pastor of his Flock presently undertakes the man and while he managed the cause with too much eagerness and fervency of disputation he bent the stick too much the other way asserting not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Basil ad Mâ—gâ— Phiâ—â—â— Epist XLI p 60. a distinction of Persons but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a difference of Essence and an inequality of Power and Glory For which he is severely censured by S. Basil and some of the Ancients as one of those that mainly opened the gap to those Arrian impieties that after broke in upon the World Though S. Ubi sâ—pr Basil could not but so far do him right as to say that it was not any ill meaning but onely an over-vehement desire to oppose his adversary that betrayed him into those unwary and inconsiderate assertions Some Bishops of Pentapolis immediately took hold of this and going over to Rome represented his dangerous errours where the case was discussed in a Synod and Letters written to Dionysius about it who in a set Apology answered for himself and declared his sense more explicitly in this controversie as may be seen at large in a De Sentent Dionys Tom. 1. p. 548. c. vid Phot. Cod. CCXXXII col 901. Athanasius who has with infinite pains vindicated our Dionysius his Predecessor as a man sound and orthodox and who was never condemned by the Governours of the Church for impious opinions or that he held those abominable tenets which Arrius broached afterwards And certainly S. Basil might and would have passed a milder censure had he either perused all Dionysius his Writings or remembred how much he concerned himself to clear S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Dionysius his contemporary from the very same charge for which he could not but confess he had given too just occasion XV. NO sooner was this controversie a little over but he was engaged in another b Euseb ibid. c. 24. p. 270. Nepos an Egyptian Bishop lately dead a man eminent for his constancy in the Faith his industry and skill in the holy Scriptures the many Psalms and Hymns he had composed which the Brethren sung in their public Meetings had not long since fallen into the errour of the Millenaries and had published Books to shew that the promises made in the Scriptures to good men were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the sense and opinion of the Jews to be literally understood and that there was to be a thousand years State upon Earth wherein they were to enjoy sensual pleasures and delights Endeavouring to make good his assertions from some passages in S. John's Revelation stiling his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Confutation of Allegorical Expositors This Book was greedily caught up and read by many and advanced into that esteem and reputation that Law and Prophets and the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles were neglected and thrown aside and the doctrine of this Book cried up as containing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great and extraordinary mystery concealed before from the World the more Simple and Unwary being taught to disband all sublime and magnificent thoughts of our Lords glorious coming the Resurrection and final
Virgins L. Munacius Plancus 14 Tiberius ab Aug. 19. 56 Sex Pompeius Nepos Augustus dies and is interred with great funeral honours Serv. Numerius affirms upon his Oath that he saw him ascend into Heaven 1 Sex Apuleius Nepos 15  1 Drusus J. Caesar  2 C. Norbanus Flaccus 16  2 T. Statil Sesenna The Magicians and Mathematicians banished Rome by Tiberius 3 L. Scribonius Libo 17  3 C. Caelius Rufus  4 L. Pomponius Flaccus 18  4 Cl. Tib. Nero III.  5 D. German Caesar II. 19  5 M. Junius Silanus Josephus called Caiaphas made High-priest of the Jews by the favour of Valerius Gratus the Roman Governour 6 L. Norbanus Balbus  20  6 L. Valerius Messala  7 M. Aurelius Cotta 21  7 Cl. Tib. Nero IV.  8 Drusus J. Caesar II. 22  8 C. Sulpicius Galba  9 D. Haterius Agrippa 23  9 C. Asinius Pollio  10 C. Antistius Vetus 24  10 Sex Cornel. Cethegus  11 L. Vitellius Varro 25 Tiber. 11 Cossus Cornel. Lentulus Towards the end of this year Pontius Pilat is sent to be Procurator of Judaea 12 M. Asinius Agrippa 26  12 Cn. Cornel. Lentulus Gaet Pilat commands the Roman Standards with the Image of Tiberius upon them to be brought into the Temple to the great offence of the Jews 13 C. Calvisius Sabinus 27  13 M. Licinius Crassus Herod Antipas putting away the daughter of Aretas King of Arabia marries Heroidas his brother Philips wife 14 L. Calphurnius Piso 28  14 Ap. Junius Silanus Joseph our Lords reputed Father is by some said to decease this year 15 P. Silius Nerva 29  15 C. Rubellius Gemini John the Baptist begins to preach and to baptize probably about Mid-summer or as B. Usher thinks Octob. 19 16 C. Fusius Gemini 30  16 C. Cassius Longinus Our Lord baptized Jan. 6. having completed the 29. year of his age and 13. days 17 M. Vinucius Quartinus His first Passover April 6. 31  17 Tiber. Nero Caesar V. His second Passover March 28. His cure of the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda His sending out the 12 Apostles 18 L. Aelius Sejanus John the Baptist beheaded 32  18 Cn. Domitius Aenobarbus The third Passover April 14. 4000 fed with 7 loaves Christs Transfiguration The LXX Discriples sent out Zachaeus converted Bartimaeus cured of his blindness 19 A. Vitellius Nepos  Suff. M. Fur. Camillê° Scrib 33  19 Ser. Sulpit. Galba Lazarus raised Our Lords triumphant entry into Jerusalem The Lords Supper instituted The fourth Passover Our Lord apprehended arraigned crucified April 3. rises again and ascends into Heaven 20 L. Cornelius Sylla The 7 Deacons chosen S. Stephen stoned Dec. 25. 34 Tiber. 20 P. Fabius Persicus The Persecution following S. Stephen 's death 21 L. Vitellius Nepos S. Philip 's preaching at Samaria His converting and baptizing the Eunuch  Peter and John return to Jerusalem 35  21 C. Cestius Gallus Camerinus S. Paul converted Jan. 25. 22 M. Servilius Rufus S. Peter visits the Churches Jonathan the son of Annas made High-priest Many favours conferred upon the Jews by Vitellius 36  22 Q. Plautius Plautianus al. Laelianus Peters Vision 23 Sex Papinius Gallienus Cornelius his Conversion Peter accused for his converse with the Gentiles at his return to Jerusalem 37 Caligula à Mart. 16. 23 Cn. Acerronius Proculus S. Paul comes to Jerusalem and after 15 days is by revelation commanded to depart thence He goes for Tarsus 24 1 C. Pontius Nigrinus 38  1 C. Caesar Caligula II. A cruel Persecution raised against the Jews at Alexandria by Flaccus the Praefect of Egypt 2 L. Apronius Caesianus 39  2 M. Aquilius Julianus Pontius Pilat lays violent hands upon himself 3 P. Nonius Asprenas The great increase of the Church of Antioch The Believers first called CHRISTIANS there 40  3 C. Caesar Caligula III. Suff. L. Gellius Publicola Caligula commands Petronius to set up his Statue in the Temple at Jerusalem but at the great instance of the Jews it is deferred 4 M. Cocceius Nerva 41 Claudius à 1 Febr. 4 C. Caefar Caligula IV. S. James the Great the Apostle beheaded by the command of Herod Peter delivered out of Prison 1 Suff. Q. Pompon Secundus Cn. Sentius Saturninus 42  1 Tib. Claudius Imp. II. Barnabas and Paul set forward in their preaching of the Gospel They plant the Christian Faith in Seleucia Cyprus and other places 2 C. Licinius Caecina Largus 43 Claudii 2 T. Claudius Imp. III. Claudius abrogates many of the Roman Festivals 3 L. Vitellius II. Elion is made High-priest of the Jews in the room of Matthias the Son of Ananus deposed 44  3 L. Q. Crispinus II. al. Vibius Priscus Herod dies being immediately struck by an Angel for his pride and ambition 4 T. Statilius Taurus 45  4 M. Vicinius Quartinus The Blessed Virgin said by some to die this year by others three years after 5 M. Statilius Corvinus The Apostles disperse themselves to preach the Gospel to the several Provinces of the Gentile World 46  5 C. Valerius Asiaticus Paul and Barnabas Preach at Lystra Paul stoned there Their return to Antioch 6 M. Valerius Messala al. M. Jun. Silanus 47  6 T. Claudius Imp. IV. 30000 of the Jews raising a tumult in the Feast of Vnleavened Bread slain by Ventidius Cumanus Procurator of Judaea 7 L. Vitellius III. 48  7 A. Vitellius Postea Imp. A Council holden by the Apostles and others at Jerusalem to determine the Controversie about legal Rites The Decrees of the Synod sent to the Churches 8 L. Vipsanius Poplicola 49  8 Cn. Pompeius Gallus Barnabas preaches the Gospel in Cyprus S. Paul in Syria Cilicia c. 9 Q. Verannius Laetus The Jews banished Rome by the edict of Claudius 50  9 C. Antistius Vetus S. Paul having travelled through Macedonia comes to Athens disputes with the Philosophers converts Dionysius the Areopagite and thence passeth to Corinth where he resides 18 moneths 10 M. Suilliê° Rufus Nervilianê° 51  10 T. Claudius Imp. V. S. Paul continues at Corinth where he meets with Aquila and Priscilla not long before banished Rome by the decree of Clandius Hence he writes to the Thessalon 11 Ser. Cornelius Corfitus 52  11 P. Cornelius Sylla Faustus S. Paul departs from Corinth passes to Ephesus thence to Jerusalem and returns back to Ephesus 12 L. Salvius Otho Titianus 53  12 D. Junius Silanus He preaches and disputes daily in the School of Tyrannus convinces the Jews and converts great numbers to the Faith 13 Q. Haterius Antoninus 54 Nero à 13 Oct. 13 M. Asinius Marcellus S. Paul fights with Beasts i.e. men of evil and brutish manners at Ephesus He preaches there still and in the parts thereabouts 14  1 M. Acilius Aviola 55  1 Nero Claudius Imp. S. Pauls departure from Ephesus He passes through Macedonia and Greece and gathers contribution for the Saints