own murtherer l. 2. c. 7. Plinus secundus the Christians great friend l. 3. c. 30. Polycarpus's nobility and Constancy untill death l. 4. c. 15. Pothinus dyed in prison l. 5. c. 1. Polycrates of the death of John and Philip the Apostles l. 3. c. 28. A Proclamation against the Christians l. 6. c. 40. Priests sedition among themselves about Tythes l. 2. c. 20. R. ROman Empire prosperous whâ—…le the Christians injoyed their Liberty in it l. 8. c. 14. S. SAnctus's constancy and Martyrdom l. 5. c. 1 Concerning the Scriptures l. 5. c. 28. Sects among the Jews l. 4. 21. Simeon the Bishops Martyrdom l. 3. 29. Simon Magus the 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 13. The Church of Sâ—…yrna's Epistle to other Churches l. 4. c. 15. A Synod summoned to Rome l. 10. c. 5. T. THaddaeus cured King Agbarus but would receive no money for his cure nor for his preaching l. 1. c. 14. Theodisia a virgins suffering l. 8. c. 25. Theudas the soycerer beheaded l. 2. c. 11. V. VAlerianus was at the first mild and gentle towards the Christians but afterwards he became exceeding cruell l. 7. c. 6. Urbanus a cauel persecutor fell into great misery l. 8. c. 25. Y. YOung and Old were injoynd to Sacrifice unto the Gods of the Heathens l. 8. c. 27. Hoc genus literarum non cum credendi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legendum est This kind of Writings is to be read not with a necessity of believing them but with a liberty to judge of them The First BOOK OF EUSEBIUS PAMPHILUS The Definition of a Christian. EUSEBIUS saith in his first Book of his Ecclesiastical History in the fifth Chapter That he that will express the Name of a Christian must be such a Man as excelleth through the Knowledge of Christ and his Doctrine in modesty and righteousness of Mind in continency i. e. chastity of Life in vertuous Fortitude i. e. Srength and in Confession of sincere Piety i. e. Godliness towards the one and the only universal God Of the Martyrdom of John Baptist and the Testimony of Josephus touching Christ. In the 12th Chap. of the aforesaid Book Euseb. speaking of Iohn Baptist Relates how that when divers flocked together for many greatly delighted in hearing of him Herod fearing least that so forcible a Power of persuading which was with him should lead the People into a certain Rebellion he supposed it far better to bereave him of his Life before any Novelty were by him put in use than that change with danger being come in place he should repent him and say Had I wist Thus Iohn because of Herod's suspicion was sent toward and there beheaded In the same Chapter he repeats what Iosephus wrote of Christ saying there was at that time one Jesus A wise Man if it be lawful to call him a Man a worker of Miracles a Teacher of them that received the Truth with gladness he drew after him many as well of the Jews as Gentiles This same was Christ and though Pilate by the Judgment of the chief Rulers amongst us delivered him to be Crucified yet there wanted not them which from the beginning loved him Of him the Christian People borrow their Name The Epistle of King Agbarus unto Iesus Christ. Agbarus Governour of Edessa unto Jesus the good Saviour shewing himself in Ierusalem sendeth greeting I have heard of thee and thy Cures which thou hast done without Medicines Herbes For as the Report goeth thou makest the Blind to see the Lame to go the Lepers thou cleansest foul Spirits and Devils thou castest out the long diseased thou restorest to Health and raisest the Dead to Life When that I heard these things of thee I imagined with my self one of these two things either that thou art God come from Heaven and dost these things or the Son of God that bringest such things to pass wherefore by these my Letters I beseech thee to take the pains to come unto me and that thou wilt cure this my grievous Malady i. e. Disease or Sickness wherewith I am sore vexed I have heard moreover that the Jews murmur against thee and go about to mischief thee I have here a little City and an Honest which will suffice us both The Epistle of Christ unto Agbarus Agbarus blest art thou because thou hast believed in me when thou sawest me not for it is written of me that they which see me shall not believe in me that they which see me not may believe and be saved Concerning that that thou wrotest unto me that I should come unto thee I let thee understand that all things touching my Message are here to be fulfilled and after the fulfilling thereof I am to return again unto him that sent me but after my Assumption i. e. taking up I will send one of my Disciples unto thee which shall cure thy Malady and restore Life to thee and them that be with thee Unto these Epistles there was a Narration added in the Syrian Tongue which sheweth how that after Jesus Ascention there was one of his Disciples sent to the City where Agbarus resided and when the King heard of him he sent for him and when Thaddaeus the Disciple and one of the 70 heard the Message he said I go for it is for his sake that I am sent thus mightily to work And when he was come to the King he asked him saying Art thou of Truth a Disciple of Jesus the Son of God which made me this Promise I will send unto thee one of my Disciples which shall cure thy Disease and shall shew Life unto thee and all thine To whom Thaddaeus made Answer because thou hast greatly believed in the Lord Jesus which sent me therefore am I sent unto thee but in case that thou believest in him as yet thy hearty Petitions according unto thy Faith thou shalt obtain To whom Agbarus said I have continued so believing in him that I could have found in my Heart mightily to destroy the Jews which Crucified him were not the Roman Empire a lett unto my purpose Thad said again our Lord and God Jesus Christ fulfilled the Will of his Father which being finished he is ascended unto him Agb. Answered and I have believed in him and in his Father To whom Thad replies therefore in the Name of the same Lord â—…esu I lay my Hand upon thee which when he had done he was forthwith cured of his Malady and delivered of the Pain that pressed him sore Agbarus marvelled at this that even as it was reported to him of Jesu so in Truth by his Disciple and Apostle Thad without Apothecary Stuff and vertue of Herbs he was cured with many more So afterwards Agb being desirous to know many things concerning Christ he Commanded his Citizens to be gathered together to hear the Sermon of Thaddaeus which being ended the King charged that Gold coined and uncoined should be given him
of this a litteral knowledge may in part be obtained of the Fruits Doctrines Principles and Practises of the Apostatized Christians after their degeneration of their Synods and Counsels and what they Decreed of the temptations and provocations which they had who retained their integrity both from the Heathen and from the false Christians and how sad and lamentable their conditions were that did not continue faithful which may serve for examples to such among you beloved as are inconstant and of a doubtful mind let them look upon Origen and hear what he saith in his lamentation after his fall and let them consider the Faith and patience of such as chuseth rather to die than they would swear or sacrifice renounce the faith or deny their Lord and Master and therefore were some torn in pieces of wild beasts some Crucified some beheaded some stoned to death some stifled some fryed or Rosted some burned to ashes some hanged some brained some had their eyes pulled out and the empty place seared with a hot Iron some were drowned in the Sea some fettered and famished to death in noysome Prisons and dungeons Oh the torments that they endured are hard to be uttered and that about the exercise of their Conscience and the worship of their God And truly I must tell you O beloved that I was constrained to lay those things before you that if peradventure they might in any wise tend to the Confirming and strengthening of the faith of some to the forewarning of others of shrinking in the time of tryal and to the strengthening of the hands of the weak and feeble against their Persecutors who also hereby may see what judgment and misery came upon sundry of their Persecuting fore-fathers so that in my judgment it may be of use not only to you who are persecuted but also to your oppressors and persecutors who now persist in their wickedness and impiety as if they should never come to judgment for the same well my dearly beloved be not you discomforted and cast down in your spirits because the wicked is set up and the ungodly prospers in his ways and the workers of iniquity they are counted happy yet it was not thus in the beginning neither shall it allways so continue for the Lord our God in his due time will strik the hook into the jaw of the Leviathan so that he shall be Restrained and the pure and upright in heart shall be delivered out of his paw and snare into the glorious liberty of the Children of God wherefore let none be afraid who are called to follow the lamb in this Notable day for I am perswaded that Tribulation nor Persecution Exilment nor Banishment Fire nor Sword things present nor things to come though all these do come shall not be able to seperate us from that love which we are made partakers of in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom I bid you farewel my dearly beloved A GENERAL EPISTLE FOR Young Schoollars and LITTLE CHILDREN Dear Children REmember Your Creator and the end wherefore you were Created now in the day of your Youth before you grow Old in Sin and take rooting in corrupt ground of Unighteousness incline your hearts to Holiness and to the Fear of the Lord that you may abound in wisdom and knowledge learn you to know a tender principle in your hearts to teach and instruct you to withhold and restrain you from Folly and Wantonness from frivolous or vain Gaming and Sporting your selves with idle Toyes and unprofitable Playes which do not only strengthen that which is thereunto addicted in your selves but doth toyle and weary your tender bodies And when you sit down at night some times hungry and often weary consider then what you have reaped by your Playes Sports and Pastimes have you not thereby some time provoked your Tutors to Wrath and Anger against you for neglecting of your Books and Learning have you not also offended and grieved your Parents by your neglect of your business and imployment And then you being sencible of your Fault and Transgression the shew of your Countenance that witnesseth against you and inwardly you are perplexed and terrified partly through fear of your Tutors and partly through fear of your Parents when through your Folly you have procured their Displeasure and then are you afraid of Chastisement now if for the time to come you would be freed from this fear do that which is good by being diligent and keeping in the fear of the Lord and then shall you obtain Praise and Commendation both of your Parents and Tutors Again O Children when you are together whether in Families Schools or else where be not Wild Rude Brutish nor provoke not one another to Folly and Wantonness but be Sober Gentle Meek and Civil and let the Fear of the Lord be before your eyes least you sall into Condemnation And you that are of a Mild Gentle and Tender Nature who seel something in your Hearts restraining you from the Evil which abounds among your fellows if you cannot get dominion over it while you are with them then separate your selves from them at convenient seasons and pertake not with them in their Wantonness in their Folly Plays Sports and Pastimes but rather betake your selves to your Books or in some retired place to wait upon the Lord And if they that be Wild and Wanton through their play and wantonness do get Recreation to their Bodies you through your stillness and waiting upon the Lord shall get Refreshment to their Souls in which you shall have joy and pleasure when they shall be ashamed of their folly and have trouble and sorrow for the same When I was A School boy I was for many years as much inclined to wantonness and play as my Fellows though sometime I was enticed and drawn by them into things which I knew then certainly to be evil and contrary to the tender principle of God in my Conscience yet rather than I would be behind them in their wonton childish follies and thereby have come to have been jeered and derided by them I chused rather at that time to run with them to the same excess of vanity though I knew for certain I ought not to have done it and when for the same I came to be corrected by my Tutor and judged of the Lord I was made to confess that it was just and that I had justly deserved the same Afterwards through the mercy and goodness of the Lord I came to be farther Illuminated or enlightned before I left the School And come to have a perfect sense of true judgment being set up in my heart And then I came to be filled with Sorrow and Heaviness for the loss of my mispent pretious time and the Sins of my Youth even while I was yet a youth were brought exceeding fresh into my remembrance and became in those daies my great burthen and withal in those daies my study and learning became also burthensome and not
of God who am banished from God bewail him who is bereaved of the Holy Ghost bewail me that am thrust out of the Wedding-Chamber of Christ Bewail me who once was thought worthy the Kingdom of God but now altogether unworthy Bewail me that am abhorred of the Angels and severed from the Saints of God Bewail me for that I am condemned to eternal Punishments Bewail me for that I am here on Earth and now tormented with the Prick of Conscience And what shall I do I wot not being thus on every side beset with Misery If there be any Man that can I beseech him now to help me with his earnest Prayers and with his sorrowful Tears for now it behoveth me to shed infinite Tears for me great Sin Who knoweth whether the Lord will have mercy upon me whether he will pity my Fall whether he will tender my Person whether he will be moved with my Desolation whether he will have respect unto my Humility and encline his tender Compassion towards me who have no taste nor relish of him but am as the unsavoury Salt Now let the Elders mourn for that the Staff whereto they leaned is broken Now let the Young Men mourn for that their School-Master is fallen Now let the Virgins mourn for that the Advancer thereof is defiled Now let the Priests mourn for that their Patron i. e. a great Friend and Defender is shamefully fallen Now let all the Clergy i. e. Bishop Priests Deacons c. mourn for that their Priest is fallen from the Faith Wo is me that I sell so lewdly who is me that I fell most dangerously and cannot rise again Now all ye which behold my Wound tremble for fear and take heed that ye slumber not neither fall into the like Crime i. e. Fault or Offence but come jointly which have the same measure of Faith let us assemble together and rend our Hearts and provoke streams of Tears to gush out of the Temples of our Heads I mourn and am sorry from the Heart root O ye my Friends that ever I fell from aloft I have fallen and am bruised there is no Health in me Let the Angels lament over me because of this my dangerous Fall Let the Garlands and Crowns of the Saints lament over me for that I am severed from among their blessed Assemblies Let the Holy-Church lament over me for that I am ruinously decayed Let all the People lament over me for that I have my deaths Wound I was constrained of the Holy Bishops to break out into some Words of Exhortation and taking the Book of Psalms in my hand I prayed and opened and I lighted upon that Sentence the which I am ashamed to repeat yet compelled to pronounce Unto the ungodly said God Why dost thou preach my Laws and takest my Covenant in thy Mouth But bewail me and lament this my bitter Sorrow bewail me who am in like case with the reprobate Jews i. e. Cast-aways for that which was said unto them by the Prophet now soundeth alike in my Ears What shall I do that am thus beset with many Mischief Alas O Death why dost thou linger to wit that thou mayst spite and bear me malice O Satan what mischief hast thou wrought unto me How hast thou pierced my Breast with thy poisonous Dart Thinkest thou that my ruine will avail thee any thing at all thinkest thou to procure unto thy self ease and rest while that I am grievously tormented Who is able to signifie unto me whether my Sins be wiped and done away whether that I have escaped the Pains which greatly I feared Who is able to signifie to me whether again I shall be coupled and made a Companion of the Saints Alas O the Bosom of the Father which I am deprived of Alas that I became Partaker with the rich Man of his Condemnation in the horrible Pit and partner of his Thirst in the bitter place full of sorrow and heaviness why hast thou broke down my hedge and strong hold The wild Boar out of the Wood hath destroyed me and the wild Beast of the field hath eaten me up rid me O Lord from the roaring Lion The whole Assembly of Saints do make intercession unto thee for me which am an unprofitable Servant have me O Lord out of the mouth of the ravenous Wolf and suffer me not to become the Sacrifice of Sin but let down upon me thy Holy Spirit that with his fiery Countenance he might put to flight the crooked Fiend of the Devil that I may be brought home again unto thy Bosom that the Bill of Sin written against me may be blotted out that my Lamentation may cease in the Evening and receive Joy in the Morning Let my Sack-cloth be rent asunder and gird me with Joy and Gladness let me be received again into the Joy of my God let me be thought worthy of his Kingdom through the Prayers and Intercession of the Saints through the earnest Petition of the Church which sorroweth over me and humbleth her self unto Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory and Honour for ever Amen Dionysius professed that he was profited by reading the Books of the Heretick Dionysius writeth thus unto Philemon a Roman Minister I have read over the Traditions and Commentaries i. e. Registers or Records of He eticks not infecting my mind with their impure cogitations i. e. unclean thoughts or thinkings buâ—… profiting my self so much thereby that I reprehend i. e. reprove them with my self and detest i. e. abhor them utterly And when I was brotherly and charitably forbidden by a â—…ertain Minister who feared lest I should wallow in the Puddle of their Maliciour writings whereby my Soul might perish who as I thought said the truth a certain Vision came to me from Heaven above plainly commanding and saying Read all whatsoever cometh into thy hands for thou shalt be able to weigh to prove and try all and by this means at the first thou came unto the Faith Concerning Valerianus the Emperour We have to consider how that above all his Predecessors i. e. those that were in Place or Office before he was disposed at the first gentle before all the men of God meek friendly-minded for there was none of all the Emperours so Courteous and Friendly affected towards them no not they which openly were accounted Christians He at the first embraced our men most Familiarly most Lovingly and that openly so that his Place was replenished with professors of the Faith and accounted for the Church of God Yet afterwards he became so exceeding Cruel and Wicked that he brought to pass Impure Ceremonies i. e. unclean Rites or Customs execrable i. e. Herrible or Wicked Enchantments and abominable Sacrifices He made a Slaughter of miserable Children He Sacrificed the Sons of Unfortunate i. e. unhapy Parents he searched the Bowells of newly born Babes spoyling asunder the shaped Creatures of God as if by such
their whole substance and freely to communicate thereof unto one anothers necessity even as they would have others to communicate unto them in the time of their necessity And that brotherly love which in this particular hath been manifested among the true Christian Quakers hath caused their Adversaries much to admire and wonder even as the Heathen did over that entire love which was among the Antient Christians Tertullian told the Gentiles there was cause to wonder their passion was so irregular i. e. contrary to rule that in prosecuting the Christians they made no difficulty to take away the life of men that were profitable to the Common-wealth farther he said the State received by their injustice an evident damage and important loss and yet no body looks to it said he no body weighes of what consequence the sufferings are of so many persons of good life and the punishment of so great a number of Innocent pag. 153. There hath also been cause to wonder at the rashness and imprudency of many bitter willful Antichristians whose foolish indiscreet behaviour towards the true Christians hath been not a little prejudicial to the Nation in which no great difficulty hath been made of casting thousands of them into prison and they who have done it or have been the cause of it have fought and endeavoured thereby to procure the ruine of their Families and Estates which thing certainly hath brought no honour to the King neither hath it been any profit or advantage to his Kingdom but certain external inconveniencies have been thereby procured to some of his faithful Subjects the true Christians yet few in authority seemed to lay to heart nor yet see seriously to consider of what sad consequence the undeserved sufferings of so many harmless people might be Thus have I briefly stated the suffering condition of the Antient Christians with which I have truly parallelled the true Christians state in this present age And let now the upright in heart judge how far both Papists and Protestants that are accustomed to prosecute about Religion are degenerated from the same and how disagreeing their principles and practises are to the principles and practises of the Antient Christians yet notwithstanding will they glory of their Antiquity and condemn others as New upstart Sects and unheard os Religions that differ from them and Worship God in the Spirit but by these things which I have re-capitulated in this Treatise the wise in heart may see how that the CHRISTIAN-QUAKERS have whereof to glory so well as others if not beyond many others who at this day glory so much of their Antiquity but this I know to be their resolution and determination viz. that they will glory in the Lord and in the fellowship of the sufferings of his dear Son their Lord and Saviour This knowing how that he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit Thus it hath been yea thus it is and thus it will be until he Reign whose right it is A REGISTER OF THE Death Sufferings and Martyrdome of the Prophets and APOSTLES According to the Testimony of the Scripture and other Historical RECORDS ISAIAH was sawn asunder with a woodden saw Ierimiah was often persecuted and imprisoned yea he was thrown into a deep Dungeon where it is said he stood in the mire to the head and at length was stoned to death in Egypt Ezekiel was slain in Babylon by the Duke of the people Daniel was thrown among the hungry Lyons yet the Lord preserved him The three Children were thrown into the Fiery Furnace but the Fire did them no harm Micah was thrown down and his neck broken Amos was smitten with a club on the Temples of the head and so brained Zachariah was stoned to death The Life of Peter PETER was born at Bethsaida formerly an obscure and inconsiderable Village till lately re-edified and inlarger by Philip the Tetrarch Cituate it was upon the banks of Gallile and had a wilderness on the other side called the desert of Bethsada whither our Saviour used often to retire the privacies and solituds of the place advantageously Ministring to Divine Contemplation but Bethsaida was not so remarkable as it self was memorable for a worse sort of barrenness ingratitude and unprofitableness under the influence of four Sermons and Mericles thence severely upbraided by him and threatned till one of his deepest woes Woe unto the Chorarin Woe unto thee Bethsaida c. A Woe that stuck close to it for according to one who surveyed it in the last Age it was sunk again into a very mean and small Village consisting only of a few Cottages of Moors and wild Arabs and Travellers have since assured us that even these are dwindled away into one poor Cottage so fatally does sin undermine the Greatest the goodliest Places so certainly does God's Word take place and not one jot either of his Promise or Threatning fall to the ground the particular time of his Birth cannot be Recorded in General we may conclude him to be at least two 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 the Name given him at his Circumcision was Simon or Symeon a Name common among the Iews our Saviour adds thereunto Cephas signifies a Stone or Rock was hence derived into the Greek and by Us Peter his Father was Ionah probably a Fisherman of Bethsaida for the Sacred Story take no farther notice of him than by the bare mention of of his Name and I believe there had been no great danger of mistake thought Metaphrastes had not told us that it was not Ionas the Prophet who come out of the Belly of the Whale Brother he was to Andrew the Apostle and it was as certain that he was a Fisherman by Trade a very survile course of life as besides the great pain and labour it required exposing him to all the injuries of Wind and Weather to the storm of the Sea the darkness and tempestuousness of the Night and all to make a very small return but meanness is no bar in God's way the Poor if vertuous are as dear to heaven as the wealthy and the honourable equally alike to him with whom there is no respect of persons Nay our Lord seemed to cast a peculiar honour upon this Profession when afterwards calling him and some others of the same Trade from catching of Fish to be as he told them Fishers of Men. And hear we may justly reflect upon the wise and admirable method of divine providence which in planting and propagating the Christian Religion in the world made choice of such mean and unlikely instruments that he should hid these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto Babes Men that had not been Educated at the Accademy and the