Barrenness Ingratitude and Unprofitableness under the influences of Christ's Sermons and Miracles thence severely upbraided by him and threatned with one of his deepest woes Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida c. A woe that it seems stuck close to it for whatever it was at this time one who surveyed it in the last Age tells us that it was shrunk again into a very mean and small Village consisting only of a few cottages of Moores and wild Arabs and later travellers have since assured us that even these are dwindled away into one poor cottage at this day So fatally does sin undermine the greatest the goodliest places so certainly does God's Word take place and not one Iota either of his promises or threatnings fall to the ground Next to the honour that was done it by our Saviour's presence who living most in these parts frequently resorted hither it had nothing greater to recommend it to the notice of posterity than that besides some other of the Apostles it was the birth-Birth-place of S. Peter a person how inconsiderable soever in his private fortunes yet of great note and eminency as one of the prime Embassadors of the Son of God to whom both Sacred and Ecclesiastical stories give though not a superiority a precedency in the Colledge of Apostles 2. THE particular time of his Birth cannot be recovered no probable footsteps or intimations being left of it in the general we may conclude him at least Ten years elder than his Master his married condition and setled course of life at his first coming to Christ and that authority and respect which the gravity of his person procured him amongst the rest of the Apostles can speak him no less but for any thing more particular and positive in this matter I see no reason to affirm Indeed might we trust the account which one who pretends to calculate his Nativity with ostentation enough has given of it we are told that he was born three years before the Blessed Virgin and just XVII before the Incarnation of our Saviour But let us view his account Nat. est An. ab Orbe cond à Diluvio V. C. 4034 2378 734 Ann. Oct. August à 1º ejus consul à pugna Actiae 8 24 12 Ann. Herodis Reg. ante B. Virg. ante Chr. nat 20 3 17 When I met with such a pompous train of Epocha's the least I expected was truth and certainty This computation he grounds upon the date of S. Peter's death placed as elsewhere he tells us by Bellarmine in the LXXXVI year of his Age so that recounting from the year of Christ LXIX when Peter is commonly said to have suffered he runs up his Age to his Birth and spreads it out into so many several dates But alas all is built upon a sandy bottom For besides his mistake about the year of the World few of his dates hold due correspondence But the worst of it is that after all this Bellarmine upon whose single testimony all this fine fabrick is erected says no such thing but only supposes merely for arguments-sake that S. Peter might very well be LXXXVI 't is erroneously printed LXXVI years old at the time of his Martyrdom So far will confidence or ignorance or both carry men aside if it could be a mistake and not rather a bold imposing upon the World But of this enough and perhaps more than it deserves 3. BEING circumcised according to the Rites of the Mosaick Law the name given him at his circumcision was Symon or Symeon a name common amongst the Jews especially in their latter times This was afterwards by our Saviour not abolished but additioned with the title of Cephas which in Syriack the vulgar Language of the Jews at that time signifying a stone or rock was thence derived into the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by us Peter so far was Hesychius out when rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Expounder or Interpreter probably deriving it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to explain and interpret By this new imposition our Lord seemed to denote the firmness and constancy of his Faith and his vigorous activity in building up the Church as a spiritual house upon the the true rock the living and corner-stone chosen of God and precious as S. Peter himself expresses it Nor can our Saviour be understood to have hereby conferred upon him any peculiar Supremacy or Sovereignty above much less over the rest of the Apostles for in respect of the great trusts committed to them and their being sent to plant Christianity in the World they are all equally stiled Foundations nor is it accountable either to Scripture or reason to suppose that by this Name our Lord should design the person of Peter to be that very rock upon which his Church was to be built In a fond imitation of this new name given to S. Peter those who pretend to be his Successors in the See of Rome usually lay by their own and assume a new name upon their advancement to the Apostolick Chair it being one of the first questions which the Cardinals put to the new-elected Pope by what name he will please to be called This custom first began about the Year 844 when Peter di Bocca-Porco or Swines-mouth being chosen Pope changed his name into Sergius the Second probably not so much to avoid the uncomeliness of his own name as if unbefitting the dignity of his place for this being but his Paternal name would after have been no part of his Pontifical stile and title as out of a mighty reverence to S. Peter accounting himself not worthy to bear his name though it was his own baptismal name Certain it is that none of the Bishops of that See ever assumed S. Peter's name and some who have had it as their Christian name before have laid it aside upon their election to the Papacy But to return to our Apostle 4. HIS Father was Jonah probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida for the Sacred story takes no further notice of him than by the bare mention of his Name and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake though Metaphrastes had not told us that it was not Jonas the Prophet who came out of the Belly of the Whale Brother he was to S. Andrew the Apostle and some question there is amongst the Ancients which was the elder Brother Epiphanius probably from some Tradition current in his time clearly adjudges it to S. Andrew herein universally followed by those of the Church of Rome that the precedency given to S. Peter may not seem to be put upon the account of his Seniority But to him we may oppose the authority of S. Chrysostom a Person equal both in time and credit who expresly says that though Andrew came later into life than Peter yet he first brought him to the knowledge of the Gospel which Baronius
the World Nay it was re-established by the Apostles in the infancy of Christianity and observed by the Primitive Christians for several Ages as we have elsewhere observed 5. THE other Precept was concerning Circumcision given to Abraham at the time of God's entring into Covenant with him God said unto Abraham Thou shalt keep my Covenant c. This is my Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy Seed after thee every Man-child among you shall be circumcised and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin and it shall be a token of the Covenant betwixt me and you God had now made a Covenant with Abraham to take his Posterity for his peculiar People and that out of them should arise the promised Messiah and as all federal compacts have some solemn and external rites of ratification so God was pleased to add Circumcision as the sign and seal of this Covenant partly as it had a peculiar fitness in it to denote the promised Seed partly that it might be a discriminating badge of Abraham's Children that part whom God had especially chosen out of the rest of Mankind from all other People On Abraham's part it was a sufficient argument of his hearty compliance with the terms of this Covenant that he would so chearfully submit to so unpleasing and difficult a sign as was imposed upon him For Circumcision could not but be both painful and dangerous in one of his Years as it was afterwards to be to all new-born Infants whence Zipporah complained of Moses commanding her to circumcise her Son that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an husband of blouds a cruel and inhumane Husband And this the Jews tell us was the reason why circumcision was omitted during their Forty Years Journey in the Wilderness it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the trouble and inconvenience of the way God mercifully dispensing with the want of it lest it should hinder their travelling the soreness and weakness of the circumcised Person not comporting with hard and continual Journeys It was to be administred the eight day not sooner the tenderness of the Infant not well till then complying with it besides that the Mother of a Male-child was reckoned legally impure till the seventh Day not later probably because the longer it was deferred the more unwilling would Parents be to put their Children to pain of which they would every Day become more sensible not to say the satisfaction it would be to them to see their Children solemnly entred into Covenant Circumcision was afterwards incorporated into the Body of the Jewish Law and entertained with a mighty Veneration as their great and standing Priviledge relied on as the main Basis and Foundation of their confidence and hopes of acceptance with Heaven and accounted in a manner equivalent to all the other Rites of the Mosaick Law 6. BUT besides these two we find other positive Precepts which though not so clearly expressed are yet sufficiently intimated to us Thus there seems to have been a Law that none of the Holy Line none of the Posterity of Seth should marry with Infidels or those corrupt and idolatrous Nations which God had rejected as appears in that it 's charged as a great part of the sin of the old World that the Sons of God matched with the Daughters of Men as also from the great care which Abraham took that his Son Isaac should not take a Wife of the Daughters of the Canaanites among whom he dwelt There was also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jus Leviratus whereby the next Brother to him who died without Issue was obliged to marry the Widow of the deceased and to raise up seed unto his Brother the contempt whereof cost Onan his Life together with many more particular Laws which the story of those Times might suggest to us But what is of most use and importance to us is to observe what Laws God gave for the administration of his Worship which will be best known by considering what worship generally prevailed in those early Times wherein we shall especially remark the nature of their publick Worship the Places where the Times when and the Persons by whom it was administred 7. IT cannot be doubted but that the Holy Patriarchs of those days were careful to instruct their Children and all that were under their charge their Families being then very vast and numerous in the Duties of Religion to explain and improve the natural Laws written upon their minds and acquaint them with those Divine Traditions and positive Revelations which they themselves had received from God this being part of that great character which God gave of Abraham I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment To this they joyned Prayer and Invocation than which no duty is more natural and necessary more natural because it fitly expresses that great reverence and veneration which we have for the Divine Majesty and that propensity that is in Mankind to make known their wants none more necessary because our whole dependance being upon the continuance and constant returns of the Divine power and goodness 't is most reasonable that we should make our Daily addresses to him in whom we live move and have our being Nor were they wanting in returns of praise and solemn celebrations of the goodness of Heaven both by entertaining high and venerable thoughts of God and by actions suitable to those honourable sentiments which they had of him In these acts of worship they were careful to use gestures of the greatest reverence and submission which commonly was prostration Abraham bowed himself towards the ground and when God sent the Israelites the happy news of their deliverance out of Egypt they bowed their Heads and worshipped A posture which hath ever been the usual mode of adoration in those Eastern Countries unto this day But the greatest instance of the Publick Worship of those times was Sacrifices a very early piece of Devotion in all probability taking its rise from Adam's fall They were either Eucharistical expressions of thankfulness for blessings received or expiatory offered for the remission of sin Whether these Sacrifices were first taken up at Mens arbitrary pleasure or positively instituted and commanded by God might admit of a very large enquiry But to me the case seems plainly this That as to Eucharistical Sacrifices such as first-fruits and the like oblations Mens own reason might suggest and perswade them that it was fit to present them as the most natural significations of a thankful mind And thus far there might be Sacrifices in the state of Innocence for Man being created under such excellent circumstances as he was in Paradise could not but know that he owed to God all possible gratitude and subjection obedience he owed him as his Supreme Lord and Master gratitude as his great
to suffer and Peter again renewed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering and dying with him yea out of an excessive confidence told him That though all the rest should forsake and deny him yet would not he deny him How far will zeal and an indiscreet affection transport even a good man into vanity and presumption Peter questions others but never doubts himself So natural is self-love so apt are we to take the fairest measures of our selves Nay though our Lord had but a little before once and again reproved this vain humour yet does he still not only persist but grow up in it So hardly are we brought to espy our own faults or to be so throughly convinced of them as to correct and reform them This confidence of his inspired all the rest with a mighty courage all the Apostles likewise assuring him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him Our Lord returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before From hence they went down into the Village of Gethsemane where leaving the rest of the Apostles he accompanied with none but Peter James and John retired into a neighbouring Garden whither Eusebius tells us Christians even in his time were wont to come solemnly to offer up their Prayers to Heaven and where as the Arabian Geographer informs us a fair and stately Church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary to enter upon the Ante-scene of the fatal Tragedy that was now approaching it bearing a very fit proportion as some of the Fathers have observed that as the first Adam fell and ruin'd mankind in a Garden so a Garden should be the place where the second Adam should begin his Passion in order to the Redemption of the World Gardens which to us are places of repose and pleasure and scenes of divertisement and delight were to our Lord a school of Temptation a Theatre of great horrors and sufferings and the first approaches of the hour of darkness 4. HERE it was that the Blessed Jesus laboured under the bitterest Agony that could fall upon humane Nature which the holy Story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the highest grief and sorrow he was afraid sorrowful and very heavy yea his Soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding sorrowful and that even unto death he was sore amazed and very heavy he was troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul was shaken with a vehement commotion yea he was in an Agony a word by which the Greeks are wont to represent the greatest conflicts and anxieties The effect of all which was that he prayed more earnestly offering up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears as the Apostle expounds it and sweat as it were great drops of bloud falling to the ground What this bloudy sweat was and how far natural or extraordinary I am not now concerned to enquire Certain it is it was a plain evidence of the most intense grief and sadness for if an extreme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's mind which could force open the pores of his body lock'd up by the coldness of the night and make not drops of sweat but great drops or as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies clods of bloud to issue from them While our Lord was thus contending with these Ante-Passions the three Apostles whom he had left at some distance from him being tired out with watching and disposed by the silence of the Night were fallen fast asleep Our Lord who had made three several addresses unto Heaven that if it might consist with his Father's will this bitter Cup might pass from him expressing herein the harmless and innocent desires of humane Nature which always studies its own preservation between each of them came to visit the Apostles and calling to Peter asked him Whether they could not watch with him one hour advising them to watch and pray that they enter'd not into temptation adding this Argument That the spirit indeed was willing but that the flesh was weak and that therefore there was the more need that they should stand upon their guard Observe here the incomparable sweetness the generous candor of our blessed Saviour to pass so charitable a censure upon an action from whence malice and ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies and have represented it black as the shades of darkness The request which our Lord made to these Apostles was infinitely reasonable to watch with him in this bitter Agony their company at least being some refreshment to one under such sad fatal circumstances and this but for a little time one hour it would soon be over and then they might freely consult their own ease and safety 'T was their dear Lord and Master whom they now were to attend upon ready to lay down his life for them sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings and expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would fall upon him But all these considerations were drown'd in a profound security the men were fast asleep and though often awakened and told of it regarded it not as if nothing but ease and softness had been then to be dream'd of An action that look'd like the most prodigious ingratitude and the highest unconcernedness for their Lord and Master and which one would have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency of affection towards him But he would not set it upon the Tenters nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn to he imputes it not to their unthankfulness or want of affection nor to their carelesness of what became of him but merely to their infirmity and the weakness of their bodily temper himself making the excuse when they could make none for themselves the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Hereby teaching us to put the most candid and favourable construction upon those actions of others which are capable of various interpretations and rather with the Bee to suck honey than with the Spider to draw poison from them His last Prayer being ended he came to them and told them with a gentle rebuke That now they might sleep on if they pleased that the hour was at hand that he should be betrayed and delivered into the hands of men 5. WHILE he was thus discoursing to them a Band of Souldiers sent from the High-Priests with the Traitor Judas to conduct and direct them rush'd into the Garden and seized upon him which when the Apostles saw they asked him whether they should attempt his rescue Peter whose ungovernable zeal put him upon all dangerous undertakings without staying for an answer drew his Sword and espying one more busie than the rest in laying hold upon our Saviour which was Malchus who though carrying Kingship in his name was but Servant to the High-Priest struck at him with an intention to dispatch him
Caesar. Agrippa was very desirous to see and hear him and accordingly the next day the King and his Sister accompanied with Festus the Governour and other persons of Quality came into the Court with a pompous and magnificent retinue where the Prisoner was brought forth before him Festus having acquainted the King and the Assembly how much he had been solicited by the Jews both at Caesarea and Jerusalem concerning the Prisoner at the Bar that as a notorious Malefactor he might be put to death but that having found him guilty of no capital crime and the Prisoner himself having appealed to Caesar he was resolved to send him to Rome but yet was willing to have his case again discussed before Agrippa that so he might be furnished with some material instructions to send along with him since it was very absurd to send a Prisoner without signifying what crimes were charged upon him 6. HEREUPON Agrippa told the Apostle he had liberty to make his own defence To whom after silence made he particularly addressed his speech he tells him in the first place what a happiness he had that he was to plead before one so exactly versed in all the rites and customs the questions and the controversies of the Jewish Law that the Jews themselves knew what had been the course and manner of his life how he had been educated under the Institutions of the Pharisees the strictest Sect of the whole Jewish Religion and had been particularly disquieted and arraigned for what had been the constant belief of all their Fathers what was sufficiently credible in it self and plainly enough revealed in the Scripture the Resurrection of the dead He next gave him an account with what a bitter and implacable zeal he had formerly persecuted Christianity told him the whole story and method of his conversion and that in compliance with a particular Vision from Heaven he had preached repentance and reformation of life first to the Jews and then after to the Gentiles That it was for no other things than these that the Jews apprehended him in the Temple and designed to murder him but being rescued and upheld by a Divine power he continued in this testimony to this day asserting nothing but what was perfectly agreeable to Moses and the Prophets who had plainly foretold that the Messiah should both be put to death and rise again and by his doctrine enlighten both the Jewish and the Gentile World While he was thus discoursing Festus openly cried out that he talked like a mad-man that his over-much study had put him besides himself The Apostle calmly replied he was far from being transported with idle and distracted humours that he spake nothing but what was most true and real in it self and what very well became that grave sober Auditory And then again addressing himself to Agrippa told him that these things having been open and publick he could not but be acquainted with them that he was confident that he believed the Prophets and must needs therefore know that those Prophecies were fulfilled in Christ. Hereat Agrippa replied That he had in some degree perswaded him to embrace the Christian Faith To which the Apostle returned that he heartily prayed that not only he but the whole Auditory were not only in some measure but altogether though not Prisoners yet as much Christians as he himself was This done the King and the Governour and the rest of the Council withdrew a-while to confer privately about this matter And finding by the accusations brought against him that he was not guilty by the Roman Laws of any capital offence no nor of any that deserved so much as imprisonment Agrippa told Festus that he might have been released if he had not appealed unto Caesar. For the Appeal being once made the Judge had then no power either to absolve or condemn the cause being intirely reserved to the cognizance of that Superior to whom the Criminal had appealed 7. IT was now finally resolved that S. Paul should be sent to Rome in order whereunto he was with some other Prisoners of remarque committed to the charge of Julius Commander of a Company belonging to the Legion of Augustus accompanied in this Voyage by S. Luke Aristarchus Trophimus and some others In September Ann. Chr. LVI or as others LVII they went on board a Ship of Adramyttium and sailed to Sidon where the Captain civilly gave the Apostle leave to go a-shoar to visit his Friends and refresh himself Hence to Cyprus till they came to the Fair-Havens a place near Myra a City of Lysia Here Winter growing on and S. Paul foreseeing it would be a dangerous Voyage perswaded them to put in and winter But the Captain preferring the judgment of the Master of the Ship and especially because of the incommodiousness of the Harbour resolved if possible to reach Phoenice a Port of Crete and to winter there But it was not long before they found themselves disappointed of their hopes For the calm southerly Gale that blew before suddainly changed into a stormy and blustring North-East Wind which so bore down all before it that they were forced to let the Ship drive at the pleasure of the Wind but as much as might be to prevent splitting or running a ground they threw out a great part of their Lading and the Tackle of the Ship Fourteen Days they remained in this desperate and uncomfortable condition neither Sun nor Stars appearing for a great part of the time the Apostle putting them in mind how ill advised they were in not taking his counsel Howbeit they should be of good chear for that that God whom he served and worshipped had the last Night purposely sent an Angel from Heaven to let him know that notwithstanding the present danger they were in yet that he should be brought safe before Nero that they should be shipwrack'd indeed and cast upon an Island but that for his sake God had spared all in the Ship not one whereof should miscarry and that he did not doubt but that it would accordingly come to pass On the Fourteenth Night upon sounding they found themselves nigh some Coast and therefore to avoid Rocks thought good to come to an Anchor till the Morning might give them better information In the mean time the Sea-men who best understood the danger were preparing to get into the Skiff to save themselves which S. Paul espying told the Captain that unless they all staid in the Ship none could be safe whereupon the Souldiers cut the Ropes and let the Skiff fall off into the Sea Between this and Day-break the Apostle advised them to eat and refresh themselves having all this time kept no ordinary and regular Meals assuring them they should all escape Himself first taking Bread and having blessed God for it before them all the rest followed his example and chearfully fell to their Meat which done they lightned the Ship of what remained and endeavoured to put into a Creek
hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering not forsaking the assembling of themselves together as the manner of some was nor cast away their confidence which had great recompence of reward that they had need of patience that after they had done the will of God they might receive the promise that they would not be of them who drew back unto perdition but of them that believed to the saving of the Soul that being encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses who with the most unconquerable constancy and resolution had all holden on in the way to Heaven they would lay aside every weight and the sin which did so easily beset them and run with patience the race that was set before them especially looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of their faith who endured the cross and despised the shame that therefore they should consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest they should be wearied and faint in their minds for that they had not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin looking diligently lest any man should fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble them and thereby many be defiled By all which and much more that might be observed to this purpose it is evident what our Apostles great design was in this excellent Epistle 7. OUR Apostle being now after two Years custody perfectly restored to liberty remembred that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and had therefore a larger Diocese than Rome and accordingly prepared himself for a greater Circuit though which way he directed his course is not absolutely certain By some he is said to have returned back into Greece and the parts of Asia upon no other ground that I know of than a few intimations in some of his Epistles that he intended to do so By others he is thought to have preached both in the Eastern and Western parts which is not inconsistent with the time he had after his departure from Rome But of the latter we have better evidence Sure I am an Author beyond all exception Paul's contemporary and Fellow-labourer I mean Clemens in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians expresly tells us that being a Preacher both in the East and West he taught righteousness to the whole world went to the utmost bounds of the West Which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of One otherwise a Man of great parts and learning who so peremptorily denies that ever our Apostle preached in the West merely because there are no Monuments left in Primitive Antiquity of any particular Churches there founded by him As if all the particular passages of his life done at so vast a distance must needs have been recorded or those records have come down to us when it is so notoriously known that almost all the Writings and Monuments of those first Ages of Christianity are long since perished or as if we were not sufficiently assured of the thing in general though not of what particularly he did there Probable it is that he went into Spain a thing which himself tells us he had formerly once and again resolved on Certain it is that the Ancients do generally assert it without seeming in the least to doubt of it Theodoret and others tell us that he preached not only in Spain but that he went to other Nations and brought the Gospel into the Isles of the Sea by which he undoubtedly means Britain and therefore elsewhere reckons the Gauls and Britains among the Nations which the Apostles and particularly the Tent-maker perswaded to embrace the Law of Christ. Nor is he the only Man that has said it others having given in their testimony and suffrage in this case 8. TO what other parts of the World S. Paul preached the Gospel we find no certain foot-steps in Antiquity nor any further mention of him till his return to Rome which probably was about the Eighth or Ninth Year of Nero's Reign Here he met with Peter and was together with him thrown into Prison no doubt in the general Persecution raised against the Christians under the pretence that they had fir'd the City Besides the general we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes of his Imprisonment Some of the Ancients make him engaged with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus and that that derived the Emperor's fury and rage upon him S. Chrysostome gives us this account that having converted one of Nero's Concubines a Woman of whom he was infinitely fond and reduced her to a life of great strictness and chastity so that now she wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces the Emperor stormed hereat calling the Apostle a Villain and Impostor a wretched perverter and debaucher of others giving order that he should be cast into Prison and when he still persisted to perswade the Lady to continue her chast and pious resolutions commanding him to be put to death 9. HOW long he remained in Prison is not certainly known at last his Execution was resolved on what his preparatory treatment was whether scourged as Malefactors were wont to be in order to their death we find not As a Roman Citizen by the Valerian and the Porcian Law he was exempted from it Though by the Law of the XII Tables notorious Malefactors condemned by the Centuriate Assemblies were first to be scourged and then put to death and Baronius tells us that in the Church of S. Mary beyond the Bridge in Rome the Pillars are yet extant to which both Peter and Paul are said to have been bound and scourged As he was led to Execution he is said to have converted three of the Souldiers that were sent to conduct and guard him who within few days after by the Emperours command became Martyrs for the Faith Being come to the place which was the Aquae Salviae three Miles from Rome after some solemn preparation he chearfully gave his Neck to the fatal stroke As a Roman he might not be put upon the Cross too infamous a Death for any but the worst of Slaves and Malefactors and therefore was beheaded accounted a more noble kind of Death among the Romans fit for Persons of better Quality and more ingenuous Education And from this Instrument of his Execution the custom no doubt first arose that in all Pictures and Images of this Apostle he is constantly represented with a Sword in his right hand Tradition reports justified herein by the suffrage of many of the Fathers that when he was beheaded a Liquor more like Milk than Bloud flowed from his Veins and spirted upon the Clothes of his Executioner and had I lift or leisure for such things I might entertain the Reader with the little glosses that are made upon it S. Chrysostom adds that it became a means of converting his Executioner and many more to the Faith and that the
Patrae a City of Achaia where he gave his last and great testimony to it I mean laid down his own Life to ratifie and ensure it in describing whose Martyrdom we shall for the main follow the account that is given us in the Acts of his Passion pretended to have been written by the Presbyters and Deacons of Achaia present at his Martyrdom which though I dare not with some assert to be the genuine work of those persons yet can it not be denied to be of considerable antiquity being mentioned by Philastrius who flourished Ann. 380. and were no doubt written long before his time The summ of it is this 5. AEGEAS Proconsul of Achaia came at this time to Patrae where observing that multitudes were fallen off from Paganism and had embraced Christianity he endeavoured by all arts both of favour and cruelty to reduce the people to their old Idolatries To him the Apostle resolutely makes his address calmly puts him in mind that he being but a judge of men should own and revere him who was the supreme and impartial Judge of all that he should give him that Divine honour that was due to him and leave off the impieties of his false Heathen-worship The Proconsul derided him as an Innovator in Religion a propagator of that superstition whose Author the Jews had infamously put to death upon a Cross. Hereat the Apostle took occasion to discourse to him of the infinite love and kindness of our Lord who came into the World to purchase the Salvation of mankind and for that end did not disdain to die upon the Cross. To whom the Proconsul answered that he might perswade them so that would believe him for his part if he did not comply with him in doing sacrifice to the Gods he would cause him to suffer upon that Cross which he had so much extolled and magnified S. Andrew replied That he did sacrifice every day to God the only true and omnipotent Being not with fumes and bloudy offerings but in the sacrifice of the immaculate Lamb of God The issue was the Apostle was committed to prison whereat the people were so enraged that it had broken out into a mutiny had not the Apostle restrained them perswading them to imitate the mildness and patience of our meek humble Saviour and not to hinder him from that crown of Martyrdom that now waited for him 6. THE next day he was again brought before the Proconsul who perswaded him that he would not foolishly destroy himself but live and enjoy with him the pleasures of this life The Apostle told him that he should have with him eternal joys if renouncing his execrable idolatries he would heartily entertain Christianity which he had hitherto so successfully preached amongst them That answered the Proconsul is the very reason why I am so earnest with you to sacrifice to the Gods that those whom you have every where seduced may by your example be brought to return back to that ancient Religion which they have forsaken Otherwise I 'le cause you with exquisite tortures to be crucified The Apostle replied That now he saw it was in vain any longer to deal with him a person incapable of sober counsels and hardned in his own blindness and folly that as for himself he might do his worst and if he had one torment greater than another he might heap that upon him The greater constancy he shewed in his sufferings for Christ the more acceptable he should be to his Lord and Master Aegeas could now hold no longer but passed the sentence of death upon him and Nicephorus gives us some more particular account of the Proconsul's displeasure and rage against him which was that amongst others he had converted his wife Maximilla and his brother Stratocles to the Christian Faith having cured them of desperate distempers that had seized upon them 7. THE Proconsul first commanded him to be scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked body and seeing his invincible patience and constancy commanded him to be crucified but not to be fastned to the Cross with Nails but Cords that so his death might be more lingring and tedious As he was led to execution to which he went with a chearful and composed mind the people cried out that he was an innocent and good man and unjustly condemned to die Being come within sight of the Cross he saluted it with this kind of address That he had long desired and expected this happy hour that the Cross had been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it and adorned with his members as with so many inestimable Jewels that he came joyful and triumphing to it that it might receive him as a disciple and follower of him who once hung upon it and be the means to carry him safe unto his Master having been the instrument upon which his Master had redeemed him Having prayed and exhorted the people to constancy and perseverance in that Religion which he had delivered to them he was fastned to the Cross whereon he hung two days teaching and instructing the people all the time and when great importunities in the mean while were used to the Proconsul to spare his life he earnestly begged of our Lord that he might at this time depart and seal the truth of his Religion with his bloud God heard his prayer and he immediately expired on the last of November though in what year no certain account can be recovered 8. THERE seems to have been something peculiar in that Cross that was the instrument of his Martyrdom commonly affirmed to have been a Cross decussate two pieces of Timber crossing each other in the middle in the form of the letter X hence usually known by the name of S. Andrew's Cross though there want not those who affirm him to have been crucified upon an Olive Tree His body being taken down and embalmed was decently and honourably interred by Maximilla a Lady of great quality and estate and whom Nicephorus I know not upon what ground makes wife to the Proconsul As for that report of Gregory Bishop of Tours that on the Anniversary day of his Martyrdom there was wont to flow from S. Andrew's Tomb a most fragrant and precious Oil which according to its quantity denoted the scarceness or plenty of the following year and that the sick being anointed with this Oil were restored to their former health I leave to the Readers discretion to believe what he please of it For my part if any ground of truth in the story I believe it no more than that it was an exhalation and sweating forth at some times of those rich costly perfumes and ointments wherewith his Body was embalmed after his crucifixion Though I must confess this conjecture to be impossible if it be true what my Author adds that some years the Oil burst out in such plenty that the stream arose to the middle of the Church His Body was afterwards by Constantine the