important and concerning an Article so vital and essential to the constitution of that Church As when he argues Peter's superiority from the meer changing of his name for what 's this to supremacy besides that it was not done to him alone the same being done to James and John from his being first reckoned up in the Catalogue of Apostles his walking with Christ upon the water his paying tribute for his Master and himself his being commanded to let down the Net and Christ's teaching in Peter's ship and this ship must denote the Church and Peter's being owner of it entitle him to be supreme Ruler and Governour of the Church so Bellarmine in terms as plain as he could well express it from Christ's first washing Peter's feet though the story recorded by the Evangelist says no such thing and his foretelling only his death all which and many more prerogatives of S. Peter to the number of no less than XXVIII are summoned in to give in evidence in this cause and many of these two drawn out of Apocryphal and supposititious Authors and not only uncertain but absurd and fabulous and yet upon such arguments as these do they found his paramount authority A plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause when such twigs must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water Had they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of Order which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him no wise and peaceable man would have denied it as being a thing ordinarily practised among equals and necessary to the well governing a society but when nothing but a primacy of Power will serve the turn as if the rest of the Apostles had been inferiour to him this may by no means be granted as being expresly contrary to the positive determination of our Saviour when the Apostles were contending about this very thing which of them should be accounted the greatest he thus quickly decides the case The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them But ye shall not be so but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant Than which nothing could have been more peremptorily spoken to rebuke this naughty spirit of preheminence Nor do we ever find S. Peter himself laying claim to any such power or the Apostles giving him the least shadow of it In the whole course of his affairs there are no intimations of this matter in his Epistle he styles himself but their fellow-Presbyter and expresly forbids the Governours of the Church to Lord it over God's heritage When dispatched by the rest of the Apostles upon a message to Samaria he never disputes their authority to do it when accused by them for going in unto the Gentiles does he stand upon his prerogative no but submissively apologizes for himself nay when smartly reprov'd by S. Paul at Antioch when if ever his credit lay at stake do we find him excepting against it as an affront to his supremacy and a sawcy controlling his superiour surely the quite contrary he quietly submitted to the reproof as one that was sensible how justly he had deserved it Nor can it be supposed but that S. Paul would have carried it towards him with a greater reverence had any such peculiar soveraignty been then known to the World How confidently does S. Paul assert himself to be no whit inferiour to the chiefest Apostles not to Peter himself the Gospel of the uncircumcision being committed to him as that of the circumcision was to Peter Is Peter oft named first among the Apostles elsewhere others sometimes James sometimes Paul and Apollos are placed before him Did Christ honour him with some singular commendations an honourable elogium conveys no super-eminent power and soveraignty Was he dear to Christ we know another that was the beloved Disciple So little warrant is there to exalt one above the rest where Christ made all alike If from Scripture we descend to the ancient Writers of the Church we shall find that though the Fathers bestow very great and honourable Titles upon Peter yet they give the same or what are equivalent to others of the Apostles Hesychius stiles S. James the Great the Brother of our Lord the Commander of the new Jerusalem the Prince of Priests the Exarch or chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top or crown amongst the heads the great light amongst the Lamps the most illustrious and resplendent amongst the stars 't was Peter that preach'd but 't was James that made the determination c. Of S. Andrew he gives this encomium that he was the sacerdotal Trumpet the first born of the Apostolick Quire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prime and firm Pillar of the Church Peter before Peter the foundation of the foundation the first fruits of the beginning Peter and John are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equally honourable by S. Cyril with his whole Synod of Alexandria S. John says Chrysostom was Christ's beloved the Pillar of all the Churches in the World who had the Keys of Heaven drank of his Lord's cup was wash'd with his Baptism and with confidence lay in his bosome And of S. Paul he tells us that he was the most excellent of all men the Teacher of the World the Bridegroom of Christ the Planter of the Church the wise Master-builder greater than the Apostles and much more to the same purpose Elsewhere he says that the care of the whole World was committed to him that nothing could be more noble or illustrious yea that his Miracles considered he was more excellent than Kings themselves And a little after he calls him the tongue of the Earth the light of the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the faith the pillar and ground of truth And in a discourse on purpose wherein he compares Peter and Paul together he makes them of equal esteem and vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What greater than Peter What equal to Paul a Blessed pair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who had the Souls of the whole World committed to their charge But instances of this nature were endless and infinite If the Fathers at any time style Peter Prince of the Apostles they mean no more by it than the best and purest Latine writers mean by princeps the first or chief person of the number more considerable than the rest either for his age or zeal Thus Eusebius tells us Peter was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the prolocutor of all the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the greatness and generosity of his mind that is in Chrysostome's language he was the mouth and chief of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because eager and forward at every turn and ready to answer those questions which were put to others In
But notwithstanding this fair and plausible testimony he tells them that they were not all of this mind that there was a Satan amongst them one that was moved by the spirit and impulse and that acted according to the rules and interest of the Devil intimating Judas who should betray him So hard is it to meet with a body of so just and pure a constitution wherein some rotten member or distempered part is not to be found SECT IV. Of S. Peter from the time of his Confession till our Lord's last Passover Our Saviour's Journy with his Apostles to Caesarea The Opinions of the People concerning Him Peter ' s eminent Confession of Christ and our Lord 's great commendation of it Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven how given The advantage the Church of Rome makes of these passages This confession made by Peter in the name of the rest and by others before him No personal priviledge intended to S. Peter the same things elsewhere promised to the other Apostles Our Lord's discourse concerning his Passion Peter ' s unseasonable Zeal in disswading him from it and our Lord 's severe rebuking him Christ's Transfiguration and the glory of it Peter how affected with it Peter ' s paying Tribute for Christ and himself This Tribute what Our Saviour's discourse upon it Offending brethren how oft to be forgiven The young man commanded to sell all What compensation made to the followers of Christ. Our Lord 's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem Preparation made to keep the Passover 1. IT was some time since our Saviour had kept his third Passover at Jerusalem when he directed his Journy towards Caesarea Philippi where by the way having like a careful Master of his Family first prayed with his Apostles he began to ask them having been more than two Years publickly conversant amongst them what the world thought concerning him They answered that the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jews had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into Zacharias Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not sufficing our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of S. Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preferred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea before he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is erected and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and
almost in the very same terms and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely encouraged and endeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his passions ready to over-run the banks not able to endure a thought that so much evil should befall his Master broke out into an over-confident and unseasonable interruption of him He took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee Besides his great kindness and affection to his Master the minds of the Apostles were not yet throughly purged from the hopes and expectations of a glorious reign of the Messiah so that Peter could not but look upon these sufferings as unbecoming and inconsistent with the state and dignity of the Son of God And therefore thought good to advise his Lord to take care of himself and while there was time to prevent and avoid them This our Lord who valued the redemption of Mankind infinitely before his own ease and safety resented at so high a rate that he returned upon him with this tart and stinging reproof Get thee behind me Satan The very same treatment which he once gave to the Devil himself when he made that insolent proposal to him To fall down and worship him though in Satan it was the result of pure malice and hatred in Peter only an error of love and great regard However our Lord could not but look upon it as mischievous and diabolical counsel prompted and promoted by the great Adversary of Mankind A way therefore says Christ with thy hellish and pernicious counsel Thou art an offence unto me in seeking to oppose and undermine that great design for which I purposely came down from Heaven In this thou savourest not the things of God but those that be of men in suggesting to me those little shifts and arts of safety and self-preservation which humane prudence and the love of mens own selves are wont to dictate to them By which though we may learn Peter's mighty kindness to our Saviour yet that herein he did not take his measures right A plain evidence that his infallibility had not yet taken place 5. ABOUT a week after this our Saviour being to receive a Type and Specimen of his future glorification took with him his three more intimate Apostles Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and went up into a very high Mountain which the Ancients generally conceive to have been Mount Thabor a round and very high Mountain situate in the Plains of Galilee And now was even literally fulfilled what the Psalmist had spoken Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name for what greater joy and triumph than to be peculiarly chosen to be the holy Mount whereon our Lord in so eminent a manner received from God the Father honour and glory and made such magnificent displays of his Divine power and Majesty For while they were here earnestly imployed in Prayer as seldom did our Lord enter upon any eminent action but he first made his address to Heaven he was suddenly transformed into another manner of appearance such a lustre and radiancy darted from his face that the Sun it self shines not brighter at Noon-day such beams of light reflected from his garments as out-did the light it self that was round about them so exceeding pure and white that the Snow might blush to compare with it nor could the Fullers art purifie any thing into half that whiteness an evident and sensible representation of the glory of that state wherein the just shall walk in white and shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father During this Heavenly scene there appeared Moses and Elias who as the Jews say shall come together clothed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state familiarly conversing with him and discoursing of the death and sufferings which he was shortly to undergo and his departure into Heaven Behold here together the three greatest persons that ever were the Ministers of Heaven Moses under God the Instituter and promulgator of the Law Elias the great reformer of it when under its deepest degeneracy and corruption and the blessed Jesus the Son of God who came to take away what was weak and imperfect and to introduce a more manly and rational institution and to communicate the last Revelation which God would make of his mind to the World Peter and the two Apostles that were with him were in the mean time fallen asleep heavy through want of natural rest it being probably night when this was done or else over powred with these extraordinary appearances which the frailty and weakness of their present stare could not bear were fallen into a Trance But now awaking were strangely surprised to behold our Lord surrounded with so much glory and those two great persons conversing with him knowing who they were probably by some particular marks and signatures that were upon them or else by immediate revelation or from the discourse which passed betwixt Christ and them or possibly from some communication which they themselves might have with them While these Heavenly guests were about to depart Peter in a great rapture and ecstasie of mind addressed himself to our
away rejoycing But what the carriage of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the Gospel we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the World We may not withhold our obedience till the Magistrate invades God's Throne and countermands his authority and may then appeal to the sence of Mankind whether it be not most reasonable that God's authority should first take place as the Apostles here appealed to their very Judges themselves Nor do we find that the Sanhedrim did except against the Plea At least whatever they thought yet not daring to punish them for fear of the People they only threatned them and let them go who thereupon presently return'd to the rest of the Apostles and Believers 8. The Church exceedingly multiplied by these means And that so great a Company most whereof were poor might be maintained they generally sold their Estates and brought the Money to the Apostles to be by them deposited in one common Treasury and thence distributed according to the several exigences of the Church which gave occasion to this dreadful Instance Ananias and his Wife Saphira having taken upon them the profession of the Gospel according to the free and generous spirit of those times had consecrated and devoted their Estate to the honour of God and the necessities of the Church And accordingly sold their Possessions and turned them into Money But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable Persons so were they loth wholly to cast themselves upon the Divine Providence by letting go all at once and therefore privately withheld part of what they had devoted and bringing the rest laid it at the Apostles feet hoping herein they might deceive the Apostles though immediately guided by the Spirit of God But Peter at his first coming in treated Ananias with these sharp enquiries Why he would suffer Satan to fill his heart with so big a wickedness as by keeping back part of his estate to think to deceive the Holy Ghost That before it was sold it was wholly at his own disposure and after it was perfectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow So that it was capable of no other interpretation than that herein he had not only abused and injured men but mocked God and what in him lay lyed to and cheated the Holy Ghost who he knew was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his heart This was no sooner said but suddenly to the great terror and amazement of all that were present Ananias was arrested with a stroke from Heaven and fell down dead to the ground Not long after his Wise came in whom Peter entertained with the same severe reproofs wherewith he had done her Husband adding that the like sad fate and doom should immediately seize upon her who thereupon dropt down dead As she had been Copartner with him in the Sin becoming sharer with him in the punishment An instance of great severity filling all that heard of it with fear and terror and became a seasonable prevention of that hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith many might possibly think to have imposed upon the Church 9. THIS severe Case being extraordinary the Apostles usually exerted their power in such Miracles as were more useful and beneficial to the World Curing all manner of Diseases and dispossessing Devils In so much that they brought the Sick into the Streets and laid them upon Beds and Couches that at least Peter's shadow as he passed by might come upon them These astonishing Miracles could not but mightily contribute to the propagation of the Gospel and convince the World that the Apostles were more considerable Persons than they took them for poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness And methinks Erasmus his reflection here is not unseasonable that no honour or soveraignty no power or dignity was comparable to this glory of the Apostle that the things of Christ though in another way were more noble and excellent than any thing that this World could afford And therefore he tells us that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith Pope Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia and then at Rome equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar he could not but think how much all this was below the greatness and majesty of S. Peter who converted the World not by Power or Armies not by Engines or artifices of pomp and grandeur but by Faith in the power of Christ and drew it to the admiration of himself and the same state says he would no doubt attend the Apostles Successors were they Men of the same temper and holiness of life The Jewish Rulers alarm'd with this News and awakened with the growing numbers of the Church sent to apprehend the Apostles and cast them into Prison But God who is never wanting to his own cause sent that Night an Angel from Heaven to open the Prison doors commanding them to repair to the Temple and to the exercise of their Ministery Which they did early in the Morning and there taught the People How unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest Statesmen when God frowns upon them how little do any counsels against Heaven prosper In vain is it to shut the doors where God is resolved to open them the firmest Bars the strongest Chains cannot hold where once God has designed and decreed our liberty The Officers returning the next Morning found the Prison shut and guarded but the Prisoners gone Wherewith they acquainted the Council who much wondred at it but being told where the Apostles were they sent to bring them without any noise or violence before the Sanhedrim where the High-Priest asked them how they durst go on to propagate that Doctrine which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach Peter in the name of the rest told them That they must in this case obey God rather than men That though they had so barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus yet that God had raised him up and exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour to give both repentance and remission of sins That they were witnesses of these things and so were those Miraculous Powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Christians Vexed was the Council with this Answer and began to consider how to cut them off But Gamaliel a grave and learned Senator having commanded the Apostles to withdraw bad the Council take heed what they did to them putting them in mind that several persons had heretofore raised parties and factions and drawn vast Numbers after them but that they had miscarried and they and their designs come to nought that therefore they should do well to let these men alone that if their doctrines and designs were merely humane they would in time of themselves fall to the ground but if they were of God it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat and overturn them and that
offending and displeasing them he withdrew his converse with the Gentiles as if it had been unlawful for him to hold Communion with uncircumcised persons when yet he knew and was fully satisfied that our Lord had wholly removed all difference and broken down the Wall of separation between Jew and Gentile In which affair as he himself acted against the light of his own mind and judgment condemning what he had approved and destroying what he had before built up so hereby he confirmed the Jewish zealots in their inveterate error cast infinite scruples into the minds of the Gentiles filling their Consciences with fears and dissatisfactions reviving the old feuds and prejudices between Jew and Gentile by which means many others were ensnared yea the whole number of Jewish Converts followed his example separating themselves from the company of the Gentile Christians Yea so far did it spread that Barnabas himself was carried away with the stream and torrent of this unwarrantable practice S. Paul who was at this time come to Antioch unto whom Peter gave the right hand of fellowship acknowledging his Apostleship of the Circumcision observing these evil and unevangelical actings resolutely withstood Peter to the face and publickly reproved him as a person worthy to be blamed for his gross prevarication in this matter severely expostulating and reasoning with him that he who was himself a Jew and thereby under a more immediate obligation to the Mosaick Law should cast off that Yoke himself and yet endeavour to impose it upon the Gentiles who were not in the least under any obligation to it A smart but an impartial charge and indeed so remarkable was this carriage of S. Paul towards our Apostle that though it set things right for the present yet it made some noise abroad in the World Yea Porphyry himself that acute and subtil enemy of Christianity makes use of it as an argument against them both charging the one with error and falshood and the other with rudeness and incivility and that the whole was but a compact of forgery and deceit while the Princes of the Church did thus fall out among themselves And so sensible were some of this in the first Ages of Christianity that rather than such a dishonour and disgrace as they accounted it should be reflected upon Peter they tell us of two several Cephas's one the Apostle the other one of the seventy Disciples and that it was the last of these that was guilty of this prevarication and whom S. Paul so vigorously resisted and reproved at Antioch But for this plausible and well-meant Evasion the Champions of the Romish Church conn them no great thanks at this day Nay S. Hierom long since fully confuted it in his Notes upon this place SECT IX Of S. Peter's Acts from the End of the Sacred Story till his Martyrdom Peter's story prosecuted out of Ecclesiastical Writers His planting of a Church and an Episcopal See at Antioch when said to be His first Journey to Rome and the happiness it brought to the Roman Empire His preaching in other places and return to Rome His encounter with Simon Magus The impostures of the Magician His familiarity with the Emperours and the great honours said to be done to him His Statue and Inscription at Peter's victory over him by raising one from the Dead Simon attempting to fly is by Peter's Prayers hindred falls down and dies Nero's displeasure against Peter whence His being cast into Prison His flight thence and being brought back by Christ appearing to him Crucified with his head downwards and why The place of his Martyrdom and Burial The original and greatness of S. Peter's Church in Rome His Episcopal Chair pretended to be still kept there HITHERTO in drawing up the Life of this great Apostle we have had an infallible Guide to conduct and lead us But the sacred Story breaking off here forces us to look abroad and to pick up what Memoires the Ancients have left us in this matter which we shall for the main digest according to the order wherein Baronius and other Ecclesiastick Writers have disposed the series of S. Peter's Life Reserving what is justly questionable to a more particular examination afterward And that we may present the account more entire and perfect we must step back a little in point of time that so we may go forward with greater advantage We are to know therefore that during the time of peace and calmness which the Church enjoyed after Saul's Persecution when S. Peter went down to visit the Churches he is said to have gone to Antioch where great Numbers of Jews inhabited and there to have planted the Christian Faith That he founded a Church here Eusebius expresly tells us and by others it is said that he himself was the first Bishop of this See Sure I am that S. Chrysostom reckons it one of the greatest honours of that City that S. Peter staid so long there and that the Bishops of it succeeded him in that See The care and precedency of this Church he had between Six and Seven Years Not that he staid there all that time but that having ordered and disposed things to the best advantage he returned to other affairs and exigencies of the Church confirming the new Plantations bringing in Cornelius and his Family and in him the first fruits of the Gentiles conversion to the faith of Christ. After which he returned unto Jerusalem where he was imprisoned by Herod and miraculously delivered by an Angel sent from Heaven 2. WHAT became of Peter after his deliverance out of Prison is not certainly known probably he might preach in some parts a little further distant from Judaea as we are told he did at Byzantium and in the Countries thereabouts though I confess the evidence to me is not convincing After this he resolved upon a Journey to Rome where most agree he arrived about the Second Year of the Emperor Claudius Orosius tells us that coming to Rome he brought prosperity along with him to that City For besides several other extraordinary advantages which at that time hapned to it this was not the least observable that Camillus Scribonianus Governor of Dalmatia soliciting the Army to rebell against the Emperor the Eagles their Military Standard remained so fast in the Ground that no power nor strength was able to pluck them up With which unusual accident the minds of the Souldiers were surprized and startled and turning their Swords against the Author of the sedition continued firm and loyal in their obedience Whereby a dangerous Rebellion was prevented likely enough otherwise to have broken out This he ascribes to Saint Peter's coming to Rome and the first Plantation of the Christian Faith in that City Heaven beginning more particularly to smile upon that place at his first coming thither 'T is not to be doubted but that at his first arrival he disposed himself amongst the Jews his Country-men who ever since the
themselves to the Provinces of the Gentile-World to make known to them the glad tidings of Salvation exactly answerable to the Tradition mentioned by Apollonius Besides the Chronicon Alexandrinum tells us that Peter came not to Rome till the Seventh Year of Claudius Ann. Christi XLIX So little certainty can there be of any matter wherein there is no truth Nay the same excellent Man before mentioned does not stick elsewhere to profess he wonders at Baronius that he should make Peter come from Rome banished thence by Claudius his Edict to the Synod at Jerusalem the same Year viz. Ann. Claudii IX a thing absolutely inconsistent with that story of the Apostles Acts recorded by S. Luke wherein there is the space of no less than Three Years from the time of that Synod to the Decree of Claudius It being evident what he observes that after the celebration of that Council S. Paul went back to Antioch afterwards into Syria and Cilicia to Preach the Gospel thence into Phrygia Galatia and Mysia from whence he went into Macedonia and first Preached at Philippi then at Thessalonica and Beroea afterwards stay'd some considerable time at Athens and last of all went to Corinth where he met with Aquila and Priscilla lately come from Italy banished Rome with the rest of the Jews by the Decree of Claudius all which by an easie and reasonable computation can take up no less than Three Years at least 6. THAT which caused Baronius to split upon so many Rocks was not so much want of seeing them which a Man of his parts and industry could not but in a great measure see as the unhappy necessity of defending those unsound principles which he had undertaken to maintain For being to make good Peter's five and twenty years presidency over the Church of Rome he was forced to confound times and dislocate stories that he might bring all his ends together What foundation this story of Peter's being five and twenty years Bishop of Rome has in antiquity I find not unless it sprang from hence that Eusebius places Peter's coming to Rome in the Second Year of Claudius and his Martyrdom in the Fourteenth of Nero between which there is the just space of five and twenty years Whence those that came after concluded that he sate Bishop there all that time It cannot be denied but that in S. Hierom's Translation it is expresly said that he continued five and twenty years Bishop of that City But then it is as evident that this was his own addition who probably set things down as the report went in his time no such thing being to be found in the Greek Copy of Eusebius Nor indeed does he ever there or elsewhere positively affirm S. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome but only that he preached the Gospel there And expresly affirms that he and S. Paul being dead Linus was the first Bishop of Rome To which I may add that when the Ancients speak of the Bishops of Rome and the first Originals of that Church they equally attribute the founding and the Episcopacy and Government of it to Peter and Paul making the one as much concerned in it as the other Thus Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of that See places Peter and Paul in the front as the first Bishops of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peter and Paul Apostles became the first Bishops of Rome then Linus c. And again a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the succession of the Bishops of Rome was in this manner Peter and Paul Linus Cletus c. And Egesippus speaking of their coming to Rome equally says of them that they were Doctores Christianorum sublimes operibus clari magisterio the Instructors of the Christians admirable for miracles and renowned for their authority However granting not only that he was there but that he was Bishop and that for five and twenty years together yet what would this make for the unlimited Soveraignty and Universality of that Church unless a better evidence than Feed my sheep could be produced for its uncontroulable Supremacy and Dominion over the whole Christian World 7. THE summ is this granting what none that has any reverence for Antiquity will deny that S. Peter was at Rome he probably came thither some few Years before his death joyned with and assisted S. Paul in Preaching of the Gospel and then both sealed the Testimony of it with their Bloud The date of his Death is differently assigned by the Ancients Eusebius places it Ann. LXIX in the Fourteenth of Nero Epiphanius in the Twelfth That which seems to me most probable is that it was in the Tenth or the Year LXV which I thus compute Nero's burning of Rome is placed by Tacitus under the Consulship of C. Lecanius and M. Licinius about the Month of July that is Ann. Chr. LXIV This act procured him the infinite hatred and clamours of the People which having in vain endeavoured several ways to remove and pacifie he at last resolved upon this project to derive the Odium upon the Christians whom therefore both to appease the Gods and please the People he condemned as guilty of the fact and caused to be executed with all manner of acute and exquisite Tortures This Persecution we may suppose began about the end of that or the beginning of the following Year And under this Persecution I doubt not it was that S. Peter suffered and changed Earth for Heaven The End of S. Peter ' s Life THE LIFE OF S. PAUL S. PAUL He was beheaded by the command of Nero the Roman Emperour Place this to the Epistle for the Conversion of S. Paul St Paul's Conversion Act. 9.3.4 And as he journied he came near to Damascus suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven he fell to the earth heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul c. Ver. 7 And the men which journied with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man SECT I. Of S. PAVL from his Birth till his Conversion S. Paul why placed next Peter Tarsus the place of his Birth an University and a Roman Corporation His Parents of the old stock of Israel descended of the Tribe of Benjamin Jacob ' s Prophecy applied to him by the Ancients His Names Saul whence Paul when assumed and why His Education in the Schools of Tarsus and in the Trade of Tent-making The Custom of the Jews in bringing up their Youth to Manual Trades His study of the Law under the Tutorage of Gamaliel This Gamaliel who Why said to have been a Christian. Sitting at the feet of their Masters the posture of learners His joyning himself to the Sect of the Pharisees An Enquiry into the Temper and Manners of that Sect. The fiery Zeal and Activity of his Temper His being engaged in Stephen ' s Martyrdom His violent persecution of the Church His journey to Damascus His Conversion by the way and the
a mere pretender to Divine revelation but that he really had an immediate commission from Heaven God was pleased to furnish him with extraordinary Credentials and to seal his Commission with a power of working Miracles beyond all the Arts of Magick and those tricks for which the Egyptian Sorcerers were so famous in the World But Pharaoh unwilling to part with such useful Vassals and having oppressed them beyond possibility of reconcilement would not hearken to the proposal but sometimes downright rejected it otherwhiles sought by subtil and plausible pretences to evade and shift it off till by many astonishing Miracles and severe Judgments God extorted at length a grant from him Under the conduct of Moses they set forwards after at least two hundred years servitude under the Egyptian yoke and though Pharaoh sensible of his error with a great Army pursued them either to cut them off or bring them back God made way for them through the midst of the Sea the waters becoming like a wall of Brass on each side of them till being all passed to the other shore those invisible cords which had hitherto tied up that liquid Element bursting in sunder the waters returned and overwhelmed their enemies that pursued them Thus God by the same stroke can protect his friends and punish his enemies Nor did the Divine Providence here take its leave of them but became their constant guard and defence in all their journeys waiting upon them through their several stations in the wilderness the most memorable whereof was that at Mount Sinai in Arabia The place where God delivered them the pattern in the Mount according to which the form both of their Church and State was to be framed and modelled In order hereunto Moses is called up into the Mount where by Fasting and Prayer he conversed with Heaven and received the body of their Laws Three days the people were by a pious and devout care to sanctifie and prepare themselves for the promulgation of the Law they might not come near their Wives were commanded to wash their clothes as an embleme and representation of that cleansing of the heart and that inward purity of mind wherewith they were to entertain the Divine will On the third day in the morning God descended from Heaven with great appearances of Majesty and terror with thunders and lightnings with black clouds and tempests with shouts and the loud noise of a trumpet which trumpet say the Jews was made of the horn of that Ram that was offered in the room of Isaac with fire and smoke on the top of the Mount ascending up like the smoke of a Furnace the Mountain it self greatly quaking the people trembling nay so terrible was the sight that Moses who had so frequently so familiarly conversed with God said I exceedingly fear and quake All which pompous trains of terror and magnificence God made use of at this time to excite the more solemn attention to his Laws and to beget a greater reverence and veneration for them in the minds of the people and to let them see how able he was to call them to account and by the severest penalties to vindicate the violation of his Law 4. THE Code and Digest of those Laws which God now gave to the Jews as the terms of that National Covenant that he made with them consisted of three sorts of Precepts Moral Ecclesiastical and Political which the Jews will have intimated by those three words that so frequently occur in the writings of Moses Laws Statutes and Judgments By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laws they understand the Moral Law the notices of good and evil naturally implanted in mens minds By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Statutes Ceremonial Precepts instituted by God with peculiar reference to his Church By 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judgments Political Laws concerning Justice and Equity the order of humane society and the prudent and peaceable managery of the Commonwealth The Moral Laws inserted into this Code are those contained in the Decalogue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they are called the ten words that were written upon two Tables of Stone These were nothing else but a summary Comprehension of the great Laws of Nature engraven at first upon the minds of all men in the World the most material part whereof was now consigned to writing and incorporated into the body of the Jewish Law I know the Decalogue is generally taken to be a complete System of all natural Laws But whoever impartially considers the matter will find that there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded in it that they are not reducible to any part of it unless hook'd in by subtilties of wit and drawn thither by forc'd and unnatural inferences What provision except in one case or two do any of those Commandments make against neglects of duty Where do they oblige us to do good to others to love assist relieve our enemies Gratitude and thankfulness to benefactors is one of the prime and essential Laws of Nature and yet no where that I know of unless we will have it implied in the Preface to the Law commanded or intimated in the Decalogue With many other cases which 'tis naturally evident are our duty whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this Compendium unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings and made out by a long train of consequences never originally intended in the Commandment and which not one in a thousand are capable of deducing from it It is probable therefore that God reduc'd only so many of the Laws of Nature into writing as were proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom they were given super-adding some and explaining others by the Preaching and Ministery of the Prophets who in their several Ages endeavoured to bring men out of the Shades and Thickets into clear light and Noon-day by clearing up mens obligations to those natural and essential duties in the practice whereof humane nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment and perfection Hence it was that our Lord who came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil and perfect it has explained the obligations of the natural Law more fully and clearly more plainly and intelligibly rendred our duty more fixed and certain and extended many instances of obedience to higher measures to a greater exactness and perfection than ever they were understood to have before Thus he commands a free and universal charity not only that we love our friends and relations but that we love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute us He hath forbidden malice and revenge with more plainness and smartness obliged us not only to live according to the measures of sobriety but extended it to self-denial and taking up the Cross and laying down our lives whenever the honour of God and the interest of Religion calls for
initiating proselytes by Baptism Baptism in use in the Jewish Church It s Original whence His resolution and impartiality His Martyrdom The character given him by Josephus and the Jews The Evangelical Dispensation wherein it exceeds that of Moses It s perspicuity and perfection It s agreeableness to humane nature The Evangelical promises better than those of the Law and in what respects The aids of the Spirit plentifully afforded under the Gospel The admirable confirmation of this Oeconomy The great extent and latitude of it Judaism not capable of being communicated to all mankind The comprehensiveness of the Gospel The Duration of the Evangelical Covenant The Mosaical Statutes in what sence said to be for ever The Typical and transient nature of that State The great happiness of Christians under the Oeconomy of the Gospel 1. GOD having from the very infancy of the World promised the Messiah as the great Redeemer of Mankind was accordingly pleased in all Ages to make gradual discoveries and manifestations of him the revelations concerning him in every Dispensation of the Church still shining with a bigger and more particular light the nearer this Sun of Righteousness was to his rising The first Gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the fall of Adam God out of infinite tenderness and commiseration promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindicate and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their Enemies and that he should do this by taking the humane nature upon him and being born of the seed of the Woman No further account is given of him till the times of Abraham to whom it was revealed that he should proceed out of his loins and arise out of the Jewish Nation though both Jew and Gentile should be made happy by him To his Grandchild Jacob God made known out of what Tribe of that Nation he should rise the Tribe of Judah and what would be the time of his appearing viz. the departure of the Scepter from Judah the abrogation of the Civil and Legislative power of that Tribe and People accomplished in Herod the Idumaean set over them by the Roman power And this is all we find concerning him under that Oeconomy Under the Legal Dispensation we find Moses foretelling one main errand of his coming which was to be the great Prophet of the Church to whom all were to hearken as an extraordinary person sent from God to acquaint the World with the Counsels and the Laws of Heaven The next news we hear of him is from David who was told that he should spring out of his house and family and who frequently speaks of his sufferings and the particular manner of his death by piercing his hands and his feet of his powerful Resurrection that God would not leave his Soul in Hell nor suffer his holy one to see corruption of his triumphant Ascension into Heaven and glorious session at God's right hand From the Prophet Isaiah we have an account of the extraordinary and miraculous manner of his Birth that he should be born of a Virgin and his name be Immanuel of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces for the execution of his office of the entertainment he was to meet with in the World and of the nature and design of those sufferings which he was to undergo The place of his Birth was foretold by Micah which was to be Bethlehem-Ephratah the least of the Cities of Judah but honoured above all the rest with the nativity of a Prince who was to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth had been from everlasting Lastly the Prophet Daniel fixes the particular period of his coming expresly affirming That the Messiah should appear in the World and be cut off as a Victim and Expiation for the sins of the people at the expiration of LXX prophetical weeks or CCCCXC years which accordingly punctually came to pass 2. FOR the date of the prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of the Messiah's coming being now run out In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law This being the truth of which God spake by the mouth of all his holy Prophets which have been since the World began But because it was not fit that so great a Person should come into the World without an eminent Harbinger to introduce and usher in his Arrival God had promised that he would send his Messenger who should prepare his way before him even Elijah the Prophet whom he would send before the coming of that great day of the Lord who should turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist who came in the power and spirit of Elias He was the Morning star to the Son of Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Cyril says of him the great and eminent Fore-runner a Person remarkable upon several accounts First for the extraordinary circumstances of his Nativity his Birth foretold by an Angel sent on purpose to deliver this joyful Message a sign God intended him for great undertakings this being never done but where God designed the Person for some uncommon services his Parents aged and though both righteous before God yet hitherto Childless Heaven does not dispence all its bounty to the same Person Children though great and desirable blessings are yet often denied to those for whom God has otherwise very dear regards Elizabeth was barren and they were both well stricken in years But is any thing too hard for the Lord said God to Abraham in the same case God has the Key of the Womb in his own keeping it is one of the Divine Prerogatives that he makes the barren Woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children A Son is promised and mighty things said of him a promise which old Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest and therefore had the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness imposed upon him till it was made good the same Miracle at once confirming his faith and punishing his infidelity Accordingly his Mother conceived with Child and as if he would do part of his errand before he was born he leaped in her Womb at her salutation of the Virgin Mary then newly conceived with Child of our Blessed Saviour a piece of homage paid by one to one yet unborn 3. THESE presages were not vain and fallible but produced a Person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and austerity of his life For having escaped Herod's butcherly and merciless Executioners the Divine providence being a shelter and a cover to him and been educated among the rudenesses and solitudes of the Wilderness his manners and way of life were very agreeable to his Education His Garments borrowed from no other Wardrobe than the backs of his Neighbour-creatures the skins of Beasts Camels hair and a Leathern girdle and
a moment restored her to perfect health and ability to return to the business of her Family all cures being equally easie to Omnipotence SECT III. Of S. Peter from his Election to the Apostolate till the Confession which he made of Christ. The Election of the Apostles and our Lord 's solemn preparation for it The powers and Commission given to them Why Twelve chosen Peter the first in order not power The Apostles when and by whom Baptized The Tradition of Euodius of Peter ' s being immediately Baptized by Christ rejected and its authorities proved insufficient Three of the Apostles more intimately conversant with our Saviour Peter ' s being with Christ at the raising Jairus his Daughter His walking with Christ upon the Sea The creatures at God's command act contrary to their natural Inclinations The weakness of Peter ' s Faith Christ ' s power in commanding down the storm an evidence of his Divinity Many Disciples desert our Saviour's preaching Peter ' s profession of constancy in the name of the rest of the Apostles 1. OUR Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons as his immediate Vicegerents upon Earth to whose care and trust he might commit the building up of his Church and the planting that Religion in the World for which he himself came down from Heaven In order to it he privately over-night withdrew himself into a solitary Mountain commonly called the Mount of Christ from his frequent repairing thither though some of the Ancients will have it to be Mount Tabor there to make his solemn address to Heaven for a prosperous success on so great a work Herein leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the Governours of his Church how to proceed in setting apart persons to so weighty and difficult an employment Upon this Mountain we may conceive there was an Oratory or place of prayer probably intimated by S. Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such Profeucha's or houses of Prayer usually uncovered and standing in the fields the Jews had in several places wherein our Lord continued all night not in one continued and intire act of devotion but probably by intervals and repeated returns of duty 2. EARLY the next morning his Disciples came to him out of whom he made choice of Twelve to be his Apostles that they might be the constant attendants upon his person to hear his Discourses and be Eye-witnesses of his Miracles to be always conversant with him while he was upon Earth and afterwards to be sent abroad up and down the World to carry on that work which he himself had begun whom therefore he invested with the power of working Miracles which was more completely conferr'd upon them after his Ascension into Heaven Passing by the several fancies and conjectures of the Ancients why our Saviour pitch'd upon the just number of Twelve whereof before it may deserve to be considered whether our Lord being now to appoint the Supreme Officers and Governours of his Church which the Apostle styles the Commonwealth of Israel might not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve Patriarchs as founders of their several Tribes or to the constant Heads and Rulers of those twelve Tribes of which the body of the Jewish Nation did consist Especially since he himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it when he tells the Apostles that when the Son of man shall fit on the Throne of his Glory that is be gone back to Heaven and have taken full possession of his Evangelical Kingdom which principally commenc'd from his Resurrection that then they also should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel that is they should have great powers and authorities in the Church such as the power of the Keys and other Rights of Spiritual Judicature and Sovereignty answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which the Heads and Rulers of the twelve Tribes of Israel did enjoy 3. IN the enumeration of these twelve Apostles all the Evangelists constantly place S. Peter in the front and S. Matthew expresly tells us that he was the first that is he was the first that was called to be an Apostle his Age also and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a Primacy of Order amongst the rest of the Apostles as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained Less than this as none will deny him so more than this neither Scripture nor Primitive antiquity do allow him And now it was that our Lord actually conferr'd that name upon him which before he had promised him Simon he surnamed Peter It may here be enquired when and by whom the Apostles were baptized That they were is unquestionable being themselves appointed to confer it upon others but when or how the Scripture is altogether silent Nicephorus from no worse an Author as he pretends than Euodius S. Peter's immediate successor in the See of Antioch tells us That of all the Apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands that Peter baptized Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee and they the rest of the Apostles This if so would greatly make for the honour of S. Peter But alas his authority is not only suspicious but supposititious in a manner deserted by S. Peter's best friends and the strongest champions of his cause Baronius himself however sometimes willing to make use of him elsewhere confessing that this Epistle of Euodius is altogether unknown to any of the Ancients As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius though not Sophronius but Johannes Moschus as is notoriously known be the Author of that Book besides that it is delivered upon an uncertain report pretended to have been alledged in a discourse between one Dionysius Bishop of Ascalon and his Clergy out of a Book of Clemens not now extant his Authors are much alike that is of no great value and authority 4. AMONGST these Apostles our Lord chose a Triumvirate Peter and the two sons of Zebedee to be his more intimate companions whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his Life The first instance of which was on this occasion Jairus a Ruler of the Synagogue had a daughter desperately sick whose disease having baffled all the arts of Physick was only curable by the immediate agency of the God of Nature He therefore in all humility addresses himself to our Saviour which he had no sooner done but servants came post to tell him that it was in vain to trouble our Lord for that his daughter was dead Christ bids him not despond if his Faith held out there was no danger And suffering none to follow him but Peter James and John goes along with him to the house where he was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours for telling them that she was not perfectly dead
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
but God over-ruling the stroak it only cut off his right Ear. Our Lord liked not this wild and unwarrantable zeal and therefore intreated their patience whilest he miraculously healed the Wound And turning to Peter bad him put up his Sword again told him that they who unwarrantably use the Sword should themselves perish by it that there was no need of these violent and extravagant courses that if he had a mind to be rid of his Keepers he could ask his Father who would presently send more than twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue and deliverance But he must drink the Cup which his Father had put into his hand for how else should the Scriptures be fulfilled which had expresly foretold That these things must be Whereupon all the Apostles forsook him and fled from him and they who before in their promises were as bold as Lions now it came to it like fearful and timorous Hares ran away from him Peter and John though staying last with him yet followed the same way with the rest preferring their own safety before the concernments of their Master 6. NO sooner was he apprehended by the Souldiers and brought out of the Garden but he was immediately posted from one Tribunal to another brought first to Annas then carried to Caiaphas where the Jewish Sanhedrim met together in order to his Trial and Condemnation Peter having a little recovered himself and gotten loose from his fears probably encouraged by his Companion S. John returns back to seek his Master And finding them leading him to the High-Priests Hall followed afar off to see what would be the event and issue But coming to the Door could get no admittance till one of the Disciples who was acquainted there went out and perswaded the Servant who kept the Door to let him in Being let into the Hall where the Servants and Officers stood round the Fire Peter also came thither to warm himself where being espied by the Servant-maid that let him in she earnestly looking upon him charged him with being one of Christ's Disciples which Peter publickly denied before all the Company positively affirming that he knew him not And presently withdrew himself into the Porch where he heard the Cock crow An intimation which one would have thought should have awakened his Conscience into a quick sense of his duty and the promise he had made unto his Master In the Porch another of the Maids set upon him charging him that he also was one of them that had been with Jesus of Nazareth which Peter stoutly denied saying that he knew not Christ and the better to gain their belief to what he said ratified it with an Oath So natural is it for one sin to draw on another 7. ABOUT an Hour after he was a third time set upon by a Servant of the High-Priest Malchus his Kinsman whose Ear Peter had lately cut off By him he was charged to be one of Christ's Disciples Yea that his very speech betrayed him to be a Galilean For the Galileans though they did not speak a different language had yet a different Dialect using a more confused and barbarous a broader and more unpolished way of pronunciation than the rest of the Jews whereby they were easily distinguishable in their speaking from other men abundant instances whereof there are extant in the Talmad at this day Nay not only gave this evidence but added that he himself had seen him with Jesus in the Garden Peter still resolutely denied the matter and to add the highest accomplishment to his sin ratified it not only with an Oath but a solemn Curse and execration that he was not the person that he knew not the man 'T is but a very weak excuse which S. Ambrose and some others make for this Act of Peter's in saying I knew not the Man He did well says he to deny him to be Man whom he knew to be God S. Hierom takes notice of this pious and well-meant excuse made for Peter though out of modesty he conceals the name of its Authors but yet justly censures it as trifling and frivolous and which to excuse Man from folly would charge God with falshood for if he did not deny him then our Lord was out when he said that that Night he should thrice deny him that is his Person and not only his humanity Certainly the best Apology that can be made for Peter is that he quickly repented of this great sin for no sooner had he done it but the Cock crew again at which intimation our Saviour turn'd about and earnestly looked upon him a glance that quickly pierced him to the Heart and brought to his remembrance what our Lord had once and again foretold him of how foully and shamefully he should deny him whereupon not being able to contain his sorrow he ran out of Doors to give it vent and wept bitterly passionately bewailing his folly and the aggravations of his sin thereby endeavouring to make some reparation for his fault and recover himself into the favour of Heaven and to prevent the execution of Divine Justice by taking a severe revenge upon himself by these penitential tears he endeavoured to wash off his guilt as indeed Repentance is the next step to Innocence SECT VI. Of S. Peter from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension Our Lord's care to acquaint Peter with his Resurrection His going to the Sepulchre Christ's appearance to Peter when and the Reasons of it The Apostles Journey into Christ's appearing to them at the Sea of Tiberias His being discovered by the great draught of Fishes Christ's questioning Peter's love and why Feed my Sheep commended to Peter imports no peculiar supereminent power and soveraignty Peter's death and sufferings foretold Our Lord takes his last leave of the Apostles at Bethany His Ascension into Heaven The Chappel of the Ascension The Apostles joy at their Lord's Exaltation 1. WHAT became of Peter after his late Prevarication whether he followed our Saviour through the several stages of his Trial and personally attended as a Mourner at the Funerals of his Master we have no account left upon Record No doubt he stayed at Jerusalem and probably with S. John together with whom we first find him mentioned when both setting forwards to the Sepulchre which was in this manner Early on that Morning whereon our Lord was to return from the Grave Mary Magdalen and some other devout and pious Women brought Spices and Ointments with a design to Imbalm the Body of our crucified Lord. Coming to the Sepulchre at Sun-rising and finding the Door open they entred in where they were suddenly saluted by an Angel who told them that Jesus was risen and bad them go and acquaint his Apostles and particularly Peter that he was returned from the dead and that he would go before them into Galilee where they should meet with him Hereupon they returned back and acquainted the Apostles with what had passed who beheld the story as the
threefold denial had given so much cause to question should now by a threefold confession give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his Master Peter was a little troubled at this frequent questioning of his love and therefore more expresly appeals to our Lord's omnisciency that He who knew all things must needs know that he loved him To each of these confessions our Lord added this signal trial of his affection then Feed my sheep that is faithfully instruct and teach them carefully rule and guide them perswade not compel them feed not fleece nor kill them And so 't is plain S. Peter himself understood it by the charge which he gives to the Guides and Rulers of the Church that they should feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but as examples to the flock But that by feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs here commended to S. Peter should be meant an universal and uncontrollable Monarchy and Dominion over the whole Christian Church and that over the Apostles themselves and their Successors in ordinary and this power and supremacy solely invested in S. Peter and those who were to succeed him in the See of Rome is so wild an inference and such a melting down words to run into any shape as could never with any face have been offered or been possible to have been imposed upon the belief of mankind if men had not first subdued their reason to their interest and captivated both to an implicite faith and a blind obedience For granting that our Lord here addressed his speech only unto Peter yet the very same power in equivalent terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the Apostles and in some measure to the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church As when our Lord told them That all power was given him in Heaven and in Earth by vertue whereof they should go teach and baptize all Nations and preach the Gospel to every Creature That they should feed God's flock Rule well inspect and watch over those over whom they had the Authority and the Rule Words of as large and more express signification than those which were here spoken to S. Peter 5. OUR Lord having thus engaged Peter to a chearful compliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and execution of his Office now particularly intimates to him what that fate was that should attend him telling him that though when he was young he girt himself lived at his own pleasure and went whither he pleased yet when he was old he should stretch forth his hands and another should gird and bind him and lead him whither he had no mind to go intimating as the Evangelist tells us by what death he should glorifie God that is by Crucifixion the Martyrdom which he afterward underwent And then rising up commanded him to follow him by this bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the death of Christ that he should follow him in dying for the truth and testimony of the Gospel It was not long after that our Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them when leading them out unto Bethany a little Village upon the Mount of Olives he briefly told them That they were the persons whom he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his Death and Resurrection a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts of the World In order to which he would after his Ascension pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had hitherto received that they might be the better fortified to grapple with that violent rage and fury wherewith both Men and Devils would endeavour to oppose them and that in the mean time they should return to Jerusalem and stay till these miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them His discourse being ended laying his hands upon them he gave them his solemn blessing which done he was immediately taken from them and being attended with a glorious guard and train of Angels was received up into Heaven Antiquity tells us that in the place where he last trod upon the rock the impression of his feet did remain which could never afterwards be fill'd up or impaired over which Helena Mother of the Great Constantine afterwards built a little Chappel called the Chappel of the Ascension in the floor whereof upon a whitish kind of stone modern Travellers tell us that the impression of his Foot is shewed at this day but 't is that of his right foot only the other being taken away by the Turks and as 't is said kept in the Temple at Jerusalem Our Lord being thus taken from them the Apostles were filled with a greater sense of his glory and majesty than while he was wont familiarly to converse with them and having performed their solemn adorations to him returned back to Jerusalem waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost which was shortly after conferred upon them They worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy They who lately were overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord's departure from them entertained it now with joy and triumph being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right hand and of that particular care and providence which they were sure he would exercise towards them in pursuance of those great trusts he had committed to them SECT VII S. Peter's Acts from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion of the Church The Apostles return to Jerusalem The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or upper-room where they assembled what Peter declares the necessity of a new Apostles being chosen in the room of Judas The promise of the Holy Ghost made good upon the day of Pentecost The Spirit descended in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and why The greatness of the Miracle Peter's vindication of the Apostles from the slanders of the Jews and proving Christ to be the promised Messiah Great numbers converted by his Sermon His going up to the Temple What their stated hours of Prayer His curing the impotent Gripple there and discourse to the Jews upon it What numbers converted by him Peter and John seised and cast into Prison Brought before the Sanhedrim and their resolute carriage there Their refusing to obey when commanded not to preach Christ. The great security the Christian Religion provides for subjection to Magistrates in all lawful instances of Obedience The severity used by Peter towards Ananias and Saphirak The great Miracles wrought by him Again cast into Prison and delivered by an Angel Their appearing before the Sanhedrim and deliverance by the prudent counsels of Gamaliel 1. THE Holy Jesus being gone to Heaven the Apostles began to act according to the Power and Commission he had left with them In order whereunto the first thing they did after his Ascension was to fill up the
the body commanded her to arise and lifting her up by the hand presented her in perfect health to her friends and those that were about her by which he confirmed many and converted more to the Faith After which he staid some considerable time at Joppa lodging in the house of Simon a Tanner 3. WHILE he abode in this City retiring one morning to the house-top to pray as the Jews frequently did having thence a free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the Temple it being now near Noon which was the conclusion of one of their stated times of Prayer he found himself hungry and called for meat but while it was preparing he himself fell into a Trance wherein was presented to him a large sheet let down from Heaven containing all sorts of Creatures clean and unclean a voice at the same time calling to him that he should rise kill freely and indifferently feed upon them Peter tenacious as yet of the Rites and Institutions of the Mosaick Law rejoyn'd That he could not do it having never eaten any thing that was common or unclean To which the voice replied That what God had cleansed he should not account or call common Which being done thrice the Vessel was again taken up into Heaven and the Vision presently disappeared By this symbolick representment though Peter at present knew not what to make of it God was teaching him a new lesson and preparing him to go upon an Errand and Embassy which the Spirit at the same time expresly commanded him to undertake While he was in this doubtful posture of mind three messengers knock'd at the door enquiring for him from whom he received this account That Cornelius a Roman Captain of a Band of Italian Souldiers at Caesarea a person of great Piety and Religion being a Proselyte of the Gate who though not observing an exact conformity to the Rites of the Mosaick Law did yet maintain some general correspondence with it and lived under the obligation of the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah had by an immediate command from God sent for him The next day Peter accompanied with some of the Brethren went along with them and the day after they came to Caesarea Against whose arrival Cornelius had summoned his friends and kindred to his house Peter arriving Cornelius who was affected with a mighty reverence for so great a Person fell at his Feet and worshipped him a way of address frequent in those Eastern Countries towards Princes and great men but by the Greeks and Romans appropriated as a peculiar honour to the Gods Peter rejecting the honour as due only to God entred into the house where he first made his Apology to the Company that though they could not but know that it was not lawful for a Jew to converse in the duties of Religion with those of another Nation yet that now God had taught him another lesson And then proceeded particularly to enquire the reason of Cornelius his sending for him Whereupon Cornelius told him That four days since being conversant in the duties of Fasting and Prayer an Angel had appeared to him and told him that his Prayers and Alms were come up for a memorial before God that he should send to Joppa for one Simon Peter who lodged in a Tanner's house by the Sea side who should further make known his mind to him that accordingly he had sent and being now come they were there met to hear what he had to say to them Where we see that though God sent an Angel to Cornelius to acquaint him with his will yet the Angel was only to direct him to the Apostle for instruction in the Faith which no doubt was done partly that God might put the greater honour upon an institution that was likely to meet with contempt and scorn enough from the World partly to let us see that we are not to expect extraordinary and miraculous ways of teaching and information where God affords ordinary means 4. HEREUPON Peter began this discourse that by comparing things it was now plain and evident that the partition-wall was broken down that God had no longer a particular kindness for Nations or Persons that it was not the Nation but the Religion not the outward quality of the man but the inward temper of the mind that recommends men to God that the devout and the pious the righteous and the good man where-ever he be is equally dear to Heaven that God has as much respect for a just and a virtuous person in the Wilds of Scythia as upon Mount Sion that the reconciling and making peace between God and Man by Jesus Christ was the Doctrine published by the Prophets of old and of late since the times of John preached through Galilee and Judaea viz. that God had anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with Divine Powers and Graces in the exercise whereof he constantly went about to do good to men that they had seen all he had done amongst the Jews whom though they had slain and crucified yet that God had raised him again the third day and had openly show'd him to his Apostles and followers whom he had chosen to be his peculiar witnesses and whom to that end he had admitted to eat and drink with him after his Resurrection commanding them to preach the Gospel to Mankind and to testifie that he was the person whom God had ordained to be the great Judge of the World that all the Prophets with one consent bore witness of him that this Jesus is he in whose Name whosoever believes should certainly receive remission of sins While Peter was thus preaching to them the Holy Ghost fell upon a great part of his Auditory enabling them to speak several Languages and therein to magnifie the giver of them Whereat the Jews who came along with Peter did sufficiently wonder to see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost should be poured upon the Gentiles Peter seeing this told the Company that he knew no reason why these persons should not be baptized having received the Holy Ghost as well as they and accordingly commanded them to be baptized For whose further confirmation he staid some time longer with them This act of Peter's made a great noise among the Apostles and Brethren at Jerusalem who being lately converted from their Judaism were as yet zealous for the Religion of their Country and therefore severely charged Peter at his return for his too familiar conversing with the Gentiles See here the powerful prejudice of education The Jews had for several Ages conceived a radicated and inveterate prejudice against the Gentiles Indeed the Law of Moses commanded them to be peculiarly kind to their own Nation and the Rites and Institutions of their Religion and the peculiar form of their Commonwealth made them different from the fashion of other Countries a separation which in after-times they drew into a narrower compass Besides they were mightily puffed up with their external priviledges that
they were the seed of Abraham the People whom God had peculiarly chosen for himself above all other Nations of the World and therefore with a lofty scorn proudly rejected the Gentiles as Dogs and Reprobates utterly refusing to shew them any office of common kindness and converse We find the Heathens frequently charging them with this rudeness and inhumanity Juvenal accuses them that they would not shew a Traveller the right way nor give him a draught of Water if he were not of their Religion Tacitus tells us that they had adversus omnes alios hostile odium a bitter hatred of all other People Haman represented them to Ahasuerus as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A people that would never kindly mix and correspond with any other as different in their Manners as in their Laws and Religion from other Nations The friends of Antiochus as the Historian reports charged them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they alone of all others were the most unsociable people under Heaven that they held no converse or correspondence with any other but accounted them as their mortal enemies that they would not eat or drink with men of another Nation no nor so much as wish well to them their Ancestors having leavened them with an hatred of all mankind This was their humour and that the Gentiles herein did not wrong them is sufficiently evident from their ordinary practice and is openly avowed by their own Writings Nay at their first coming over to Christianity though one great design of it was to soften the manners of men and to oblige them to a more extensive and universal charity yet could they hardly quit this common prejudice quarrelling with Peter for no other reason but that he had eaten and drunken with the Gentiles insomuch that he was forced to Apologize for himself and to justifie his actions as immediately done by Divine warrant and authority And then no sooner had he given them a naked and impartial account of the whole transaction from first to last but they presently turned their displeasure against him into thanks to God that he had granted to the Gentiles also Repentance unto life 5. IT was now about the end of Caligula's Reign when Peter having finished his visitation of the new planted Churches was returned unto Jerusalem Not long after Herod Agrippa Grand-child to Herod the great having attained the Kingdom the better to ingratiate himself with the People had lately put S. James to death And finding that this gratified the Vulgar resolved to send Peter the same way after him In order whereunto he apprehended him cast him into Prison and set strong guards to watch him the Church in the mean time being very instant and importunate with Heaven for his life and safety The Night before his intended execution God purposely sent an Angel from Heaven who coming to the Prison found him fast asleep between two of his Keepers So soft and secure a Pillow is a good Conscience even in the confines of Death and the greatest danger The Angel raised him up knock'd off his Chains bad him gird on his Garments and follow him He did so and having passed the first and second Watch and entred through the Iron-Gate into the City which opened to them of its own accord after having passed through one Street more the Angel departed from him By this time Peter came to himself and perceived that it was no Vision but a reality that had hapned to him Whereupon he came to Mary's house where the Church were met together at Prayer for him Knocking at the Door the Maid who came to let him in perceiving 't was his voice ran back to tell them that Peter was at the Door Which they at first looked upon as nothing but the effect of fright or fancy but she still affirming it they concluded that it was his Angel or some peculiar messenger sent from him The Door being open they were strangely amazed at the sight of him but he briefly told them the manner of his deliverance and charging them to acquaint the Brethren with it presently withdrew into another place 'T is easie to imagine what a bustle and a stir there was the next Morning among the Keepers of the Prison with whom Herod was so much displeased that he commanded them to be put to Death 6. SOME time after this it hapned that a controversie arising between the Jewish and the Gentile Converts about the observation of the Mosaick Law the minds of men were exceedingly disquieted and disturbed with it the Jews zealously contending for Circumcision and the observance of the Ceremonial Law to be joyn'd with the belief profession of the Gospel as equally necessary to Salvation To compose this difference the best expedient that could be thought on was to call a General Council of the Apostles and Brethren to meet together at Jerusalem which was done accordingly and the case throughly scanned and canvassed At last Peter stood up and acquainted the Synod that God having made choice of him among all the Apostles to be the first that preached the Gospel to the Gentiles God who was best able to judge of the hearts of men had born witness to them that they were accepted of him by giving them his Holy Spirit as well as he had done to the Jews having put no difference between the one and the other That therefore it was a tempting and a provoking God to put a Yoke upon the necks of the Disciples which neither they themselves nor their Fathers were able to bear there being ground enough to believe that the Gentiles as well as the Jews should be saved by the grace of the Gospel After some other of the Apostles had declared their judgments in the case it was unanimously decreed that except the temporary observance of some few particular things equally convenient both for Jew and Gentile no other burden should be imposed upon them And so the decrees of the Council being drawn up into a Synodical Epistle were sent abroad to the several Churches for allaying the heats and controversies that had been raised about this matter 7. PETER a while after the celebration of this Council left Jerusalem and came down to Antioch where using the liberty which the Gospel had given him he familiarly ate and conversed with the Gentile Converts accounting them now that the partition-wall was broken down no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God This he had been taught by the Vision of the sheet let down from Heaven this had been lately decreed and he himself had promoted and subscribed it in the Synod at Jerusalem this he had before practised towards Cornelius and his Family and justified the action to the satisfaction of his accusers and this he had here freely and innocently done at Antioch till some of the Jewish Brethren coming thither for fear of
time of Augustus had dwelt in the Region beyond Tybur But when afterwards he began to preach to the Gentiles he was forced to change his Lodging and was taken in by one Pudens a Senator lately converted to the Faith Here he closely plyed his main office and employment to establish Christianity in that place Here we are told he met with Philo the Jew lately come on his second Embassy unto Rome in the behalf of his Countrymen at Alexandria and to have contracted an intimate friendship and acquaintance with him And now it was says Baronius that Peter being mindful of the Churches which he had founded in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Bithynia and Asia the less wrote his first Epistle to them which he probably infers hence that Saint Mark being yet with him at the time of the date of this Epistle it must be written at least some time this Year for that now it was that S. Mark was sent to preach and propagate the Faith in Egypt Next to the planting Religion at Rome he took care to propagate it in the Western parts And to that end if we may believe one of those that pretend to be his Successors he sent abroad Disciples into several Provinces That so their sound might go into all the Earth and their words into the ends of the World 3. IT hapned that after S. Peter had been several Years at Rome Claudius the Emperor taking advantage of some seditions and tumults raised by the Jews by a publick Edict banished them out of Rome In the Number of whom S. Peter they say departed thence and returned back to Jerusalem where he was present at that great Apostolical Synod of which before After this we are left under great uncertainties how he disposed of himself for many Years Confident we may be that he was not idle but spent his time sometimes in preaching in the Eastern parts sometimes in other parts of the World as in Africk Sicily Italy and other places And here it may not be amiss to insert a claim in behalf of our own Country Eusebius telling us as Metaphrastes reports it that Peter was not only in these Western parts but particularly that he was a long time in Britain where he converted many Nations to the Faith But we had better be without the honour of Saint Peter's company than build the story upon so sandy a foundation Metaphrastes his Authority being of so little value in this case that it is slighted by the more learned and moderate Writers of the Church of Rome But where-ever it was that Saint Peter employed his time towards the latter part of Nero's Reign he returned to Rome where he found the minds of People strangely bewitched and hardned against the embracing of the Christian Religion by the subtilties and Magick arts of Simon Magus whom as we have before related he had formerly baffled at Samaria This Simon was born at Gitton a Village of Samaria bred up in the Arts of Sorcery and Divination and by the help of the Diabolical powers performed many strange feats of wonder and activity Insomuch that People generally looked upon him as some great Deity come down from Heaven But being discovered and confounded by Peter at Samaria he left the East and fled to Rome Where by Witchcraft and Sorceries he insinuated himself into the favour of the People and at last became very acceptable to the Emperours themselves insomuch that no honour and veneration was too great for him Justin Martyr assures us that he was honoured as a Deity that a Statue was erected to him in the Insula Tyberina between two Bridges with this Inscription SIMONI DEO SANCTO To Simon the holy God that the Samaritans generally and very many of other Nations did own and worship him as the chief principal Deity I know the credit of this Inscription is shrewdly shaken by some later Antiquaries who tell us that the good Father being a Greek might easily mistake in a Latin Inscription or be imposed upon by others and that the true Inscription was SEMONI SANGO DEO FIDIO c. such an Inscription being in the last Age dug up in the Tyberine Island and there preserved to this day It is not impossible but this might be the foundation of the story But sure I am that it is not only reported by the Martyr who was himself a Samaritan and lived but in the next Age but by others almost of the same time Irenaeus Tertullian and by others after them It further deserves to be considered that J. Martyr was a person of great learning and gravity inquisitive about matters of this nature at this time at Rome where he was capable fully to satisfie himself in the truth of things that he presented this Apology to the Emperor and the Senate of Rome to whom he would be careful what he said and who as they knew whether it was true or no so if false could not but ill resent to be so boldly imposed upon by so notorious a fable But be it as it will he was highly in favour both with the People and their Emperors especially Nero who was the Great Patron of Magicians and all who maintained secret ways of commerce with the infernal powers With him S. Peter thought fit in the first place to encounter and to undeceive the People by discovering the impostures and delusions of that wretched man 4. THAT he did so is generally affirmed by the Ancient Fathers who tell us of some particular Instances wherein he baffled and confounded him But because the matter is more intirely drawn up by Hegesippus the younger an Author contemporary with S. Ambrose if not which is most probable S. Ambrose himself we shall from him represent the summary of the story There was at this time at Rome an eminent young Gentleman and a Kinsman of the Emperors lately dead The fame which Peter had for raising persons to life perswaded his friends that he might be called Others also prevailing that Simon the Magician might be sent for Simon glad of the occasion to magnifie himself before the People propounded to Peter that if he raised the Gentleman unto life then Peter who had so injuriously provoked the great power of God as he stiled himself should lose his life But if Peter prevailed he himself would submit to the same fate and sentence Peter accepted the termes and Simon began his Charmes and Inchantments Whereat the dead Gentleman seemed to move his hand The People that stood by presently cryed out that he was alive and that he talked with Simon and began to fall foul upon Peter for daring to oppose himself against so great a power The Apostle entreated their patience told them that all this was but a phantasm and appearance that if Simon was but taken from the Bed-side all this pageantry would quickly vanish Who being accordingly removed the Body remained without the
least sign of motion Peter standing at a good distance from the Bed silently made his address to Heaven and then before them all commanded the young Gentleman in the Name of the Lord Jesus to arise who immediately did so spoke walked and ate and was by Peter restored to his Mother The People who saw this suddenly changed their opinions and fell upon the Magician with an intent to stone him But Peter begged his life and told them that it would be a sufficient punishment to him to live and see that in despite of all his power and malice the Kingdom of Christ should increase and flourish The Magician was inwardly tormented with this defeat and vext to see the triumph of the Apostle and therefore mustering up all his powers summoned the People told them that he was offended at the Galileans whose Protector and Guardian he had been and therefore set them a Day when he promised that they should see him fly-up into Heaven At the time appointed he went up to the Mount of the Capitol and throwing himself from the top of the Rock began his flight A sight which the People entertained with great wonder and veneration affirming that this must be the power of God and not of man Peter standing in the Croud prayed to our Lord that the People might be undeceived and that the vanity of the Impostor might be discovered in such a way that he himself might be sensible of it Immediately the Wings which he had made himself began to fail him and he fell to the ground miserably bruised and wounded with the fall Whence being carried into a neighbouring Village he soon after dyed This is the story for the particular circumstances whereof the Reader must rely upon the credit of my Author the thing in general being sufficiently acknowledged by most ancient Writers This contest of Peter's with Simon Magus is placed by Eusebius under the Reign of Claudius but by the generality both of ancient and later Authors it is referred to the Reign of Nero. 5. SUCH was the end of this miserable and unhappy Man Which no sooner came to the ears of the Emperor to whom by wicked artifices he had indeared himself but it became an occasion of hastning Peter's ruine The Emperor probably had before been displeased with Peter not only upon the acount of the general disagreement and inconformity of his Religion but because he had so strictly pressed temperance and chastity and reclaimed so many Women in Rome from a dissolute and vicious life thereby crossing that wanton and lascivious temper to which that Prince was so immoderate a slave and vassal And being now by his means robbed of his dear favourite and companion he resolved upon revenge commanded Peter as also S. Paul who was at this time at Rome to be apprehended and cast into the Mamertine Prison where they spent their time in the exercises of Religion and especially in Preaching to the Prisoners and those who resorted to them And here we may suppose it was if not a little before that Peter wrote his second Epistle to the dispersed Jews wherein he endeavours to confirm them in the belief and practice of Christianity and to fortifie them against those poysonous and pernicious principles and practices which even then began to break in upon the Christian Church 6. NERO returning from Achaia and entring Rome with a great deal of pomp and triumph resolved now the Apostles should fall as a Victim and Sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge While the fatal stroke was daily expected the Christians in Rome did by daily prayers and importunities solicite S. Peter to make an escape and to reserve himself to the uses and services of the Church This at first he rejected as what would ill reflect upon his courage and constancy and argue him to be afraid of those sufferings for Christ to which he himself had so often perswaded others but the prayers and the tears of the People overcame him and made him yield Accordingly the next Night having prayed with and taken his farewell of the Brethren he got over the Prison-wall and coming to the City-gate he is there said to have met with our Lord who was just entring into the City Peter asked him Lord whither art thou going from whom he presently received this answer I am come to Rome to be crucified a second time By which answer Peter apprehended himself to be reproved and that our Lord meant it of his death that he was to be crucified in his Servant Whereupon he went back to the Prison and delivered himself into the hands of his Keepers shewing himself most ready and chearful to acquiesce in the will of God And we are told that in the stone whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Peter he left the impression of his Feet which stone has been ever since preserved as a very sacred Relique and after several translations was at length fixed in the Church of S. Sebastian the Martyr where it is kept and visited with great expressions of reverence and devotion at this day Before his suffering he was no question scourged according to the manner of the Romans who were wont first to whip those Malefactors who were adjudged to the most severe and capital punishments Having saluted his Brethren and especially having taken his last farewell of S. Paul he was brought out of the Prison and led to the top of the Vatican Mount near to Tybur the place designed for his Execution The death he was adjudged to was crucifixion as of all others accounted the most shameful so the most severe and terrible But he intreated the favour of the Officers that he might not be crucified in the ordinary way but might suffer with his Head downwards and his Feet up to Heaven affirming that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his Lord had suffered before him Happy man as Chrysostom glosses to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from Earth to Heaven His Body being taken from the Cross is said to have been imbalmed by Marcellinus the Presbyter after the Jewish manner and was then buried in the Vatican near the Triumphal way Over his Grave a small Church was soon after erected which being destroyed by Heliogabalus his Body was removed to the Cemetery in the Appian way two Miles from Rome where it remained till the time of Pope Cornelius who re-conveyed it to the Vatican where it rested somewhat obscurely until the Reign of Constantine who out of the mighty reverence which he had for the Christian Religion caused many Churches to be built at Rome but especially rebuilt and enlarged the Vatican to the honour of S. Peter In the doing whereof Himself is said to have been the first that began to dig the Foundation and to have carried thence twelve Baskets of Rubbish with his own hands in honour as it should seem of the twelve Apostles He infinitely
the time of writing or the care that is used in doing it Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremie's writing in his Prophecy and in his Book of Lamentations between S. John's in his Gospel his Epistles and Apocalypse How oft does S. Paul alter his style in several of his Epistles in some more lofty and elegant in others more rough and harsh Besides hundreds of instances that might be given both in Ecclesiastical and Foreign Writers too obvious to need insisting on in this place The learned Grotius will have this Epistle to have been written by Symeon S. James his immediate Successor in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem and that the word Peter was inserted into the Title by another hand But as a Judicious person of our own observes these were but his Posthume Annotations published by others and no doubt never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's Judgment especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges that all Copies extant at this day read the Title and Inscription as it is in our Books And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances to prove S. Peter to be the Author of it It bears his name in the Front and Title yea somewhat more expresly than the former which has only one this both his Names There 's a passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him When he tells us that he was present with Christ in the holy Mount When he received from God the Father honour and glory Where he heard the voice which came from Heaven from the excellent glory This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased This evidently refers to Christs Transfiguration where none were present but Peter and the two Sons of Zebedee neither of which were ever thought of to be the Author of this Epistle Besides that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many passages between these two Epistles as it were easie to show in particular instances Add to this that S. Jude speaking of the Scoffers who should come in the last time walking after their own ungodly lusts cites this as that which had been before spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein he plainly quotes the words of this Second Epistle of Peter affirming That there should come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts And that this does agree to Peter will further appear by this that he tells us of these Scoffers that should come in the last days that is before the destruction of Jerusalem as that phrase is often used in the New Testament that they should say Where is the promise of his coming Which clearly respects their making light of those threatnings of our Lord whereby he had foretold that he would shortly come in Judgment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation This he now puts them in mind of as what probably he had before told them of Vivâ voce when he was amongst them For so we find he did elsewhere Lactantiusassuring us That amongst many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul preached at Rome and left upon Record this was one That within a short time God would send a Prince who should destroy the Jews and lay their Cities level with the ground straitly besiege them destroy them with Famine so that they should feed upon one another That their Wives and Daughters should be ravished and their Childrens brains dasht out before their faces that all things should be laid waste by Fire and Sword and themselves perpetually banished from their own Country and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent and dear Son of God All which as he observes came to pass soon after their death when Vespasian came upon the Jews and extinguished both their Name and Nation And what Peter here foretold at Rome we need not question but he had done before to those Jews to whom he wrote this Epistle Wherein he especially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous principles wherewith many and especially the followers of Simon Magus began to infect the Church of Christ. And this but a little time before his death as appears from that passage in it where he tells them That he knew he must shortly put off his earthly Tabernacle 7. BESIDES these Divine Epistles there were other supposititious writings which in the first Ages were fathered upon S. Peter Such was the Book called his Acts mentioned by Origen Eusebius and others but rejected by them Such was his Gospel which probably at first was nothing else but the Gospel written by S. Mark dictated to him as is generally thought by S. Peter and therefore as S. Hierom tells us said to be his Though in the next Age there appeared a Book under that Title mentioned by Serapion Bishop of Antioch and by him at first suffered to be read in the Church but afterwards upon a more careful perusal of it he rejected it as Apocryphal as it was by others after him Another was the Book stiled His Preaching mentioned and quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Origen but not acknowledged by them to be Genuine Nay expresly said to have been forged by Hereticks by an ancient Author contemporary with S. Cyprian The next was his Apocalypse or Revelation rejected as Sozomen tells us by the Ancients as Spurious but yet read in some Churches in Palestine in his time The last was the Book called His Judgment which probably was the same with that called Hermes or Pastor a Book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity and which as Eusebius tells us was not only frequently cited by the Ancients but also publickly read in Churches 8. WE shall conclude this Section by considering Peter with respect to his several Relations That he was married is unquestionable the Sacred History mentioning his Wifes Mother his Wife might we believe Metaphrastes being the Daughter of Aristobulus Brother to Barnabas the Apostle And though S. Hierom would perswade us that he left her behind him together with his Nets when he forsook all to follow Christ yet we know that Father too well to be over-confident upon his word in a case of Marriage or Single life wherein he is not over-scrupulous sometimes to strain a point to make his opinion more fair and plausible The best is we have an infallible Authority which plainly intimates the contrary the testimony of S. Paul who tells us of Cephas that he led about a Wife a Sister along with him who for the most part mutually cohabited and lived together for ought that can be proved to the contrary Clemens Alexandrinus gives us this account though he tells us not the time or place That Peter seeing his Wife going towards Martyrdom exceedingly rejoyced that she was called to so great an honour and that she was now returning home encouraging and
manner of it His blindness His rapture into the third Heaven when probably His sight restored His being Baptized and preaching Christ. THOUGH S. Paul was none of the Twelve Apostles yet had he the honour of being an Apostle extraordinary and to be immediately called in a way peculiar to himself He justly deserves a place next S. Peter for as in their lives they were pleasant and lovely so in their death they were not divided especially if it be true that they both suffered not only for the same cause but at the same time as well as place S. Paul was born at Tarsus the Metropolis of Cilicia a City infinitely rich and populous and what contributed more to the fame and honour of it an Academy furnished with Schools of Learning where the Scholars so closely plied their Studies that as Strabo informs us they excelled in all Arts of polite Learning and Philosophy those of other places yea even of Alexandria and Athens it self and that even Rome was beholden to it for many of its best Professors It was a Roman Municipium or free Corporation invested with many Franchises and Priviledges by Julius Caesar and Augustus who granted to the Inhabitants of it the honours and immunities of Citizens of Rome In which respect S. Paul owned and asserted it as the priviledge of his Birth-right that he was a Roman and thereby free from being bound or beaten True it is that S. Hierom followed herein by one who himself travelled in these parts makes him born at Gischalis a well fortified Town in Judaea which being besieged and taken by the Roman Army his Parents fled away with him and dwelt at Tarsus But besides that this contradicts S. Paul who expresly affirms that he was born at Tarsus there needs no more to confute this opinion than that S. Hierom elsewhere slights it as a fabulous report 2. HIS Parents were Jews and that of the Ancient stock not entring in by the Gate of proselytism but originally descended from that Nation which surely he means when he says That he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews either because both his Parents were Jews or rather that all his Ancestors had been so They belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin whose Founder was the youngest son of the old Patriarch Jacob who thus prophesied of him Benjamin shall raven as a Wolf in the morning he shall devour the prey and at night he shall divide the spoil This prophetical character Tertullian and others after him will have to be accomplished in our Apostle As a ravening Wolf in the morning devouring the prey that is as a persecutor of the Churches in the first part of his life destroying the flock of God In the evening dividing the spoil that is in his declining and reduced age as Doctor of the Nations feeding and distributing to Christ's sheep 3. WE find him described by two names in Scripture one Hebrew and the other Latin probably referring both to his Jewish and Roman capacity and relation The one Saul a name frequent and common in the Tribe of Benjamin ever since the first King of Israel who was of that name was chosen out of that Tribe In memory whereof they were wont to give their Children this name at their Circumcision His other was Paul assumed by him as some think at his Conversion to denote his humility as others in memory of his converting Sergius Paulus the Roman Governour in imitation of the Generals and Emperors of Rome who were wont from the places and Nations that they conquered to assume the name as an additional honour and title to themselves as Scipio Africanus Caesar Germanicus Parthicus Sarmaticus c. But this seems no way consistent with the great humility of this Apostle More probable therefore it is what Origen thinks That he had a double name given him at his Circumcision Saul relating to his Jewish original and Paul referring to the Roman Corporation where he was born And this the Scripture seems to favour when it says Saul who also is called Paul Or if it was taken up by him afterwards it was probably done at his Conversion according to the custom and manner of the Hebrews who used many times upon solemn and eminent occasions especially upon their entering upon a more strict and religious course of life to change their names and assume one which they had not before 4. IN his Youth he was brought up in the Schools of Tarsus fully instructed in all the liberal Arts and Sciences whereby he became admirably acquainted with foreign and external Authors Together with which he was brought up to a particular Trade and course of life according to the great Maxim and principle of the Jews That He who teaches not his son a Trade teaches him to be a Thief They thought it not only fit but a necessary part of Education for their wisest and most learned Rabbins to be brought up to a manual Trade whereby if occasion was they might be able to maintain themselves Hence as Drusius observes nothing more common in their writings than to have them denominated from their callings Rabbi Jose the Tanner Rabbi Jochanan the Shoomaker Rabbi Juda the Baker c. A custom taken up by the Christians especially the Monks and Asceticks of the Primitive times who together with their strict profession and almost incredible exercises of devotion each took upon him a particular Trade whereat he daily wrought and by his own hand-labour maintained himself And this course of life the Jews were very careful should be free from all suspicion of scandal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call it a clean that is honest Trade being wont to say That he was happy that had his Parents employed in an honest and commendable Calling as he was miserable who saw them conversant in any sordid and dishonest course of life The Trade our Apostle was put to was that of Tent-making whereat he wrought for some particular reasons even after his calling to the Apostolate An honest but mean course of life and as Chrysostom observes an argument that his Parents were not of the nobler and better rank however it was an useful and gainful Trade especially in those war-like Countries where Armies had such frequent use of Tents 5. HAVING run through the whole circle of the Sciences and laid the sure foundations of humane Learning at Tarsus he was by his Parents sent to Jerusalem to be perfected in the study of the Law and put under the Tutorage of Rabban Gamaliel This Gamaliel was the son of Rabban Symeon probably presumed to be the same Symeon that came into the Temple and took Christ into his arms President of the Court of the Sanhedrim he was a Doctor of the Law a Person of great wisdom and prudence and head at that time of one of the Families of the Schools at Jerusalem A man of chief eminency and authority in the
and procuring them to be put to death Indeed he was a kind of Inquisitor Haereticae pravitatis to the High-Priest by whom he was employed to hunt and find out these upstart Hereticks who preached against the Law of Moses and the Traditions of the Fathers Accordingly having made strange havock at Jerusalem he addressed himself to the Sanhedrim and there took out a Warrant and Commission to go down and ransack the Synagogues at Damascus How eternally insatiable is fury and a misguided zeal how restless and unwearied in its designs of cruelty it had already sufficiently harassed the poor Christians at Jerusalem but not content to have vexed them there and to have driven them thence it persecuted them unto strange Cities following them even to Damascus it self whither many of these persecuted Christians had fled for shelter resolving to bring up those whom he found there to Jerusalem in order to their punishment and execution For the Jewish Sanhedrim had not only power of seizing and scourging offenders against their Law within the bounds of their own Country but by the connivence and favour of the Romans might send into other Countries where there were any Synagogues that acknowledged a dependence in Religious matters upon the Council at Jerusalem to apprehend them as here they sent Paul to Damascus to fetch up what Christians he could find to be arraigned and sentenced at Jerusalem 8. BUT God who had designed him for work of another nature and separated him from his Mothers womb to the preaching of the Gospel stopt him in his journey For while he was together with his company travelling on the Road not far from Damascus on a sudden a gleam of light beyond the splendor and brightness of the Sun was darted from Heaven upon them whereat being strangely amazed and confounded they all fell to the ground a Voice calling to him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me To which he replied Lord who art thou Who told him That he was Jesus whom he persecuted that what was done to the members was done to the head that it was hard for him to kick against the pricks that he now appeared to him to make choice of him for a Minister and a Witness of what he had now seen and should after hear that he would stand by him and preserve him and make him a great instrument in the conversion of the Gentile World This said He asked our Lord what he would have him to do who bad him go into the City where he should receive his Answer S. Paul's companions who had been present at this transaction heard the voice but saw not him that spoke to him though elsewhere the Apostle himself affirms that they saw the light but heard not the voice of him that spake that is they heard a confused sound but not a distinct and articulate voice or more probably being ignorant of the Hebrew Language wherein our Lord spake to Saint Paul they heard the words but knew not the sence and the meaning of them 9. S. PAUL by this time was gotten up but though he found his feet yet he had lost his eyes being stricken blind with the Extraordinary brightness of the light and was accordingly led by his companions into Damascus In which condition he there remained fasting three days together At this time we may probably suppose it was that he had that vision and ecstasie wherein he was taken up into the third Heaven where he saw and heard things great and unutterable and was fully instructed in the mysteries of the Gospel and hence expresly affirms that he was not taught the Gospel which he preached by man but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ. There was at this time at Damascus one Ananias a very devout and religious man one of the seventy Disciples as the Ancients inform us and probably the first planter of the Christian Church in this City and though a Christian yet of great reputation amongst all the Jews To him our Lord appeared commanding him to go into such a street and to such an house and there enquire for one Saul of Tarsus who was now at Prayer and had seen him in a Vision coming to him to lay his hands upon him that he might receive his sight Ananias startled at the name of the man having heard of his bloudy temper and practices and upon what errand he was now come down to the City But our Lord to take off his fears told him that he mistook the man that he had now taken him to be a chosen vessel to preach the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles and before the greatest Potentates upon Earth acquainting him with what great things he should both do and suffer for his sake what chains and imprisonments what racks and scourges what hunger and thirst what shipwracks and death he should undergo Upon this Ananias went laid his hands upon him told him that our Lord had sent him to him that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost which was no sooner done but thick films like scales fell from his eyes and his sight returned And the next thing he did was to be baptized and solemnly initiated into the Christian Faith After which he joyned himself to the Disciples of that place to the equal joy and wonder of the Church that the Wolf should so soon lay down its fierceness and put on the meek nature of a Lamb that he who had lately been so violent a persecutor should now become not a professor only but a preacher of that Faith which before he had routed and destroyed SECT II. Of S. Paul from his Conversion till the Council at Jerusalem S. Paul ' s leaving Damascus and why His Three Years Ministry in Arabia His return to Damascus The greatness of that City The design of the Jews to surprize S. Paul and the manner of his escape His coming to Jerusalem and converse with Peter and James His departure thence The Disciples first stiled Christians at Antioch This when done and by whom The solemnity of it The importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what S. Paul ' s Journey to Jerusalem with contributions His voyage to Cyprus and planting Christianity there The opposition made by Elymas and his severe punishment The Proconsuls conversion His preaching to the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia His curing a Cripple at Lystra and discourse to the people about their Idolatry The Apostles way of arguing noted and his discourse concerning the Being and Providence of God illustrated His confirming the Churches in the Faith The controversie at Antioch and S. Paul ' s account of it in the Synod at Jerusalem SAINT Paul staid not long at Damascus after his Conversion but having received an immediate intimation from Heaven probably in the Ecstasie wherein he was caught up thither he waited for no other counsel or direction in the case lest he should seem to derive his Mission and Authority from
so for though he was the first of the Disciples that came to Christ yet was he not called till afterwards After some converse with him Andrew goes to acquaint his Brother Simon and both together came to Christ. Long they stayed not with him but returned to their own home and to the exercise of their calling wherein they were employed when somewhat more than a Year after our Lord passing through Galilee found them fishing upon the Sea of Tiberias where he fully satisfied them of the Greatness and Divinity of his Person by the convictive evidence of that miraculous draught of Fishes which they took at his command And now he told them he had other work for them to do that they should no longer deal in Fish but with Men whom they should catch with the efficacy and influence of that Doctrine that he was come to deliver to the World commanding them to follow him as his immediate Disciples and Attendants who accordingly left all and followed him Shortly after S. Andrew together with the rest was called to the Office and Honour of the Apostolate made choice of to be one of those that were to be Christ's immediate Vicegerents for planting and propagating the Christian Church Little else is particularly recorded of him in the Sacred story being comprehended in the general account of the rest of the Apostles 3. AFTER our Lord's Ascension into Heaven and that the Holy Ghost had in its miraculous powers been plentifully shed upon the Apostles to fit them for the great errand they were to go upon to root out prophaneness and idolatry and to subdue the World to the Doctrine of the Gospel it is generally affirmed by the Ancients that the Apostles agreed among themselves by lot say some probably not without the special guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost what parts of the World they should severally take In this division S. Andrew had Scythia and the Neighbouring Conntries primarily allotted him for his Province First then he travelled through Cappadocia Galatia and Bithynia and instructed them in the Faith of Christ passing all along the Euxine Sea formerly called Axenus from the barbarous and inhospitable temper of the People thereabouts who were wont to sacrifice strangers and of their skulls to make Cups to drink in at their Feasts and Banquets and so into the solitudes of Scythia An ancient Author though whence deriving his intelligence I know not gives us a more particular account of his travels and transactions in these parts He tells us that he first came to Amynsus where being entertained by a Jew he went into the Synagogue discoursed to them concerning Christ and from the prophecies of the Old Testament proved him to be the Messiah and the Saviour of the World Having here converted and baptized many ordered their publick Meeting and ordained them Priests he went next to Trapezus a maritime City upon the Euxine Sea whence after many other places he came to Nice where he staid two Years Preaching and working Miracles with great success thence to Nicomedia and so to Chalcedon whence sailing through the Propontis he came by the Euxine Sea to Heraclea and from thence to Amastris in all which places he met with great difficulties and discouragements but overcame all with an invincible patience and resolution He next came to Sinope a City situate upon the same Sea a place famous both for the birth and burial of the great King Mithridates here as my Author reports from the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he met with his Brother Peter with whom he staid a considerable time at this place as a Monument whereof he tells us that the Chairs made of white stone wherein they were wont to sit while they taught the People were still extant and commonly the wed in his time The Inhabitants of this City were most Jews who partly through zeal for their Religion partly through the barbarousness of their manners were quickly exasperated against the Apostle and contriving together attempted to burn the House wherein he sojourned however they treated him with all the instances of savage cruelty throwing him to the ground stamping upon him with their Feet pulling and dragging him from place to place some beating him with Clubs others pelting him with stones and some the better to satisfie their revenge biting off his Flesh with their Teeth till apprehending they had fully dispatched him they cast him out of the City But he miraculously recovered and publickly returned into the City whereby and by some other Miracles which he wrought amongst them he reduced many to a better mind converting them to the Faith Departing hence he went again to Amynsus and then to Trapezus thence to Neocaesarea and to Samosata the birth-place of the witty but impious Lucian where having baffled the acute and wise Philosophers he purposed to return to Jerusalem Whence after some time he betook himself to his former Provinces travelling to the Country of the Abasgi where at Sebastople situate upon the Eastern shore of the Euxine Sea between the influx of the Rivers Phasis and Apsarus he successfully Preached the Gospel to the Inhabitants of that City Hence he removed into the Country of the Zecchi and the Bosphorani part of the Asiatick Scythia or Sarmatia but finding the Inhabitants very barbarous and intractable he staid not long among them only at Cherson or Chersonesus a great and populous City within the Bosphorus he continued some time instructing and confirming them in the Faith Hence taking Ship he sailed cross the Sea to Sinope to encourage and confirm the Churches which he had lately planted in those parts and here he ordained Philologus formerly one of S. Paul's Disciples Bishop of that City 4. HENCE he came to Byzantium since called Constantinople where he instructed them in the knowledge of the Christian Religion founded a Church for Divine worship and ordained Stachys whom S. Paul calls his beloved Stachys first Bishop of that place Baronius indeed is unwilling to believe this desirous to engross the honour of it to S. Peter whom he will have to have been the first Planter of Christianity in these parts But besides that Baronius his authority is very slight and insignificant in this case as we have before noted in S. Peter's Life this matter is expresly asserted not only by Nicephorus Callistus but by another Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople and who therefore may be presumed knowing in his Predecessors in that See Banished out of the City by him who at that time usurped the Government he fled to Argyropolis a place near at hand where he preached the Gospel for two Years together with good success converting great Numbers to the Faith After this he travelled over Thrace Macedonia Thessaly Achaia Nazianzen adds Epyrus in all which places for many Years he preached and propagated Christianity and confirmed the Doctrine that he taught with great signs and miracles at last he came to
It succeeded in the room of that ancient punishment Aqua igni inter dicere to interdict a Person the use of Fire and Water the two great and necessary conveniences of Man's life whereby was tacitly implied that he must for his own defence betake himself into banishment it being unlawful for any to accommodate him with Lodging or Diet or any thing necessary to the support of life This banishing into Islands was properly called Deportatio and was the worst and severest kind of exile whereby the criminal forfeited his Estate and being bound and put on Ship-board was by publick Officers transported into some certain Island which none but the Emperor himself might assign there to be confined to perpetual banishment The place of our S. John's banishment was not Ephesus as Chrysostome by a great mistake makes it but Patmos a disconsolate Island in the Archipelago where he remained several Years instructing the Inhabitants in the Faith of Christ. Here it was about the latter end of Domitian's Reign as Irenaeus tells us that he wrote his Apocalypse or Book of Revelations wherein by frequent Visions and Prophetical representments he had a clear Scheme and Prospect of the state and condition of Christianity in the future Periods and Ages of the Church Which certainly was not the least instance of that kindness and favour which our Lord particularly shew'd to this Apostle and it seemed very suitable at this time that the goodness of God should over-power the malice of Men and that he should be entertained with the more immediate converses of Heaven who was now cut off from all ordinary conversation and society with Men. In a Monastery of Caloires or Greek Monks in this Island they shew a dead Man's hand at this day the Nails of whose Fingers grow again as oft as they are paired which the Turks will have to be the hand of one of their Prophets while the Greeks constantly affirm it to have been the hand of S. John wherewith he wrote the Revelations and probably both true alike 6. DOMITIAN whose prodigious wickednesses had rendred him infamous and burdensome to the World being taken out of the way Cocceius Nerva succeeded in the Empire a prudent Man and of a milder and more sober temper He rescinded the odious Acts of his Predecessor and by publick Edict recalled those from banishment whom the fury of Domitian had sent thither S. John taking the advantage of this general Indulgence left Patmos and returned into Asia his ancient charge but chiefly fixed his Seat at Ephesus the care and presidency whereof Timothy their Bishop having been lately martyr'd by the People for perswading them against their Heathen-Feasts and Sports especially one called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein was a mixture of debauchery and idolatry he took upon him and by the assistance of seven Bishops governed that large spacious Diocese Nicephorus adds that he not only managed the affairs of the Church ordered and disposed the Clergy but erected Churches which surely must be meant of Oratories and little places for their solemn conventions building Churches in the modern notion not being consistent with the poverty and persecution of Christians in those early times Here at the request of the Bishops of Asia he wrote his Gospel they are Authors of no credit and value that make it written during his confinement in the Isle of Patmos with very solemn preparation whereof more when we come to consider the Writings which he left behind him 7. HE lived till the time of Trajan about the beginning of whose Reign he departed this Life very Aged about the Ninety-eighth or Ninety-ninth Year of his Life as is generally thought Chrysostome is very positive that he was an Hundred years old when he wrote his Gospel and that he liv'd full Twenty years after The same is affirmed by Dorotheus that he lived CXX Years which to me seems altogether improbable seeing by this account he must be Fifty Years of Age when called to be an Apostle a thing directly contrary to the whole consent and testimony of Antiquity which makes him very young at the time of his calling to the Apostolick Office He died says the Arabian in the expectation of his blessedness by which he means his quiet and peaceable departure in opposition to a violent and bloody death Indeed Theophylact and others before him conceive him to have died a Martyr upon no other ground than what our Saviour told him and his Brother that they should drink of the Cup and be baptized with the Baptism wherewith he was baptized which Chrysostom strictly understands of Martyrdom and a bloudy death It was indeed literally verified of his Brother James and for him though as S. Hierom observes he was not put to death yet may he be truly stiled a Martyr his being put into a Vessel of boiling Oil his many Years banishment and other sufferings in the cause of Christ justly challenging that honourable title though he did not actually lay down his life for the testimony of the Gospel it being not want of good will either in him or his enemies but the Divine Providence immediately over-ruling the powers of Nature that kept the malice of his enemies from its full execution 8. OTHERS on the contrary are so far from admitting him to die a Martyr that they question nay peremptorily deny that he ever died at all The first Assertor and that but obliquely that I find of this opinion was Hippolytus Bishop of Porto and Scholar to Clemens of Alexandria who ranks him in the same capacity with Enoch and Elias for speaking of the twofold coming of Christ he tells us that his first coming in the flesh had John the Baptist for its forerunner and his second to Judgment shall have Enoch Elias and S. John Ephrem Patriarch of Antioch is more express he tells us there are three Persons answerable to the three dispensations of the word yet in the body Enoch Elias and S. John Enoch before the Law Elias under the Law and S. John under the Gospel concerning which last that he never died he confirms both from Scripture and Tradition and quotes S. Cyrill I suppose he means him of Alexandria as of the same opinion The whole foundation upon which this Error is built was that discourse that passed between our Lord and Peter concerning this Apostle For Christ having told Peter what was to be his own fate Peter enquires what should become of S. John knowing him to be the Disciple whom Jesus loved Our Lord rebukes his curiosity by asking him what that concerned him If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee This the Apostles misunderstood and a report presently went out amongst them That that Disciple should not die Though S. John who himself records the passage inserts a caution That Jesus did not say he should not die but only what if I will
Patmos It was of old not only rejected by Hereticks but controverted by many of the Fathers themselves Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria has a very large discourse concerning it he tells us that many plainly disowned this Book not only for the matter but the Author of it as being neither Apostle no nor any Holy or Ecclesiastical Person that Cerinthus prefixed John's name to it to give the more plausible title to his Dream of Christ's Reign upon Earth and that sensual and carnal state that should attend it that for his part he durst not reject it looking upon it as containing wise and admirable mysteries though he could not fathom and comprehend them that he did not measure them by his own line nor condemn but rather admire what he could not understand that he owned the Author to have been an holy and divinely-inspired Person but could not believe it to be S. John the Apostle and Evangelist neither stile matter nor method agreeing with his other Writings that in this he frequently names himself which he never does in any other that there were several Johns at that time and two buried at Ephesus the Apostle and another one of the Disciples that dwelt in Asia but which the Author of this Book he leaves uncertain But though doubted of by some it was entertained by the far greater part of the Ancients as the genuine work of our S. John Nor could the setting down his Name be any reasonable exception for whatever he might do in his other Writings especially his Gospel where it was less necessary Historical matters depending not so much upon his authority yet it was otherwise in Prophetick Revelations where the Person of the Revealer adds great weight and moment the reason why some of the Prophets under the Old Testament did so frequently set down their own Names The diversity of the stile is of no considerable value in this case it being no wonder if in arguments so vastly different the same Person did not always observe the same tenor and way of writing whereof there want not instances in some others of the Apostolick Order The truth is all circumstances concur to intitle our Apostle to be the Author of it his name frequently expressed its being written in the Island of Patmos a circumstance not competible to any but S. John his stiling himself their Brother and Companion in Tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ his writing particular Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia all planted or at least cultivated by him the doctrine in it suitable to the Apostolick spirit and temper evidently bearing witness in this case That which seems to have given ground to doubt concerning both its Author and authority was its being long before it was usually joyned with the other Books of the holy Canon for containing in it some passages directly levell'd at Rome the Seat of the Roman Empire others which might be thought to symbolize with some Jewish dreams and figments it might possibly seem fit to the prudence of those Times for a while to suppress it Nor is the conjecture of a learned Man to be despised who thinks that it might be entrusted in the keeping of John the Presbyter Scholar to our Apostle whence probably the report might arise that he who was only the Keeper was the Author of it 15. HIS Gospel succeeds written say some in Patmos and published at Ephesus but as Irenaeus and others more truly written by him after his return to Ephesus composed at the earnest intreaty and solicitation of the Asian Bishops and Ambassadors from several Churches in order whereunto he first caused them to proclaim a general Fast to seek the blessing of Heaven on so great and solemn an undertaking which being done he set about it And if we may believe the report of Gregory Bishop of Tours he tells us that upon a Hill near Ephesus there was a Proseucha or uncovered Oratory whither our Apostle used often to retire for Prayer and Contemplation and where he obtained of God that it might not Rain in that Place till he had finished his Gospel Nay he adds that even in his time no shower or storm ever came upon it Two causes especially contributed to the writing of it the one that he might obviate the early heresies of those times especially of Ebion Cerinthus and the rest of that crew who began openly to deny Christ's Divinity and that he had any existence before his Incarnation the reason why our Evangelist is so express and copious in that subject The other was that he might supply those passages of the Evangelical History which the rest of the Sacred Writers had omitted Collecting therefore the other three Evangelists he first set to his Seal ratifying the truth of them with his approbation and consent and then added his own Gospel to the rest principally insisting upon the Acts of Christ from the first commencing of his Ministery to the Death of John the Baptist wherein the others are most defective giving scarce any account of the first Year of our Saviour's Ministry which therefore he made up in very large and particular Narrations He largely records as Nazianzen observes our Saviour's discourses but takes little notice of his Miracles probably because so fully and particularly related by the rest The subject of his writing is very sublime and mysterious mainly designing to prove Christ's Divinity eternal pre-existence creating of the World c. Upon which account Theodoret stiles his Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Theology which humane understandings can never fully penetrate and find out Thence generally by the Ancients he is resembled to an Eagle soaring aloft within the Clouds whither the weak eye of Man was unable to follow him hence peculiarly honoured with the Title of The Divine as if due to none but him at least to him in a more eminent and extraordinary manner Nay the very Gentile-Philosophers themselves could not but admire his Writings Witness Amelius the famous Platonist and Regent of Porphyries School at Alexandria who quoting a passage out of the beginning of John's Gospel sware by Jupiter that this Barbarian so the proud Greeks counted and called all that differed from them had hit upon the right notion when he affirmed that the Word that made all things was in the beginning and in place of prime dignity and authority with God and was that God that created all things in whom every thing that was made had according to its nature its life and being that he was incarnate and clothed with a body wherein he manifested the glory and magnificence of his nature that after his death he returned to the repossession of Divinity and became the same God which he was before his assuming a body and taking the humane nature and flesh upon him I have no more to observe but that his Gospel was afterwards translated into Hebrew and kept by
two foregoing appearances were made to none but the Apostles 2. HAD he been no more than an ordinary Disciple I think no tolerable reason can be given why in filling up the vacancy made by the death of Judas he being so eminently qualified for the place should not have been propounded as well as either Barsabas or Matthias but that he was one of the Twelve already Nor indeed is it reasonable to suppose that Bartholomew should be his proper name any more than Bar-Jona the proper name of Peter importing no more than his relative capacity either as a Son or a Scholar As a Son it notes no more than his being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of Tholmai a name not uncommon amongst the Jews it being customary among them for the son thus to derive his name so Bar-Jona Bartimeus the son of Timeus c. and to be usually called rather by this relative than his own proper name thus Joseph was called Barsabas thus Barnabas constantly so stiled though his right name was Joses Or else it may relate to him as a Disciple of some particular Sect and Institution among the Jews it being a custom for Scholars out of a great reverence for their Masters or first Institutors of that way to adopt their names as Ben-Ezra Ben-Uziel c. And this will be much more evident if the observation which one makes be true which yet I will not contend for that as several Sects in the Jewish Church denominated themselves from some famous person of that Nation the Essenes from Enosh the Sadducees from Sadock so there were others that called themselves Tholmaeans from Thalmai Scholar to Heber the ancient Master of the Hebrews who was of the race or institution of the Enakim who flourished in Debir and Hebron with whom Abraham was confederate that is joyned himself to their society And of this Order and Institution he tells us Nathanael seems to have been hence called Bartholomew the Son or Scholar of the Tholmaeans hence said to be an Israelite indeed that is one of the ancient race of the Schools and Societies of Israel This if so would give us an account of his skill and ability in the Jewish Law wherein he is generally supposed to have been a Doctor or Teacher But which soever of these two accounts of his denomination shall find most favour with the Reader either of them will serve my purpose and reconcile the difference that seems to be between S. John and the other Evangelists about his name the one stiling him by his proper name the other by his relative and paternal title To all this if necessary I might add the consent of Learned men who have given in their suffrages in this matter that it is but the same person under several names But hints of this may suffice These arguments I confess are not so forcible and convictive as to command assent but with all their circumstances considered are sufficient to incline and sway any mans belief The great and indeed only reason brought against it is what S. Augustine objected of old that it is not probable that our Lord would chuse Nathanael a Doctor of the Law to be one of his Apostles as designing to confound the wisdom of the World by the preaching of the Ideot and the unlearned But this is no reason to him that considers that this objection equally lies against S. Philip for whose skill in the Law and Prophets there is as much evidence in the History of the Gospel as for Nathanael's and much stronglier against S. Paul than whom besides his abilities in all humane Learning there were few greater Masters in the Jewish Law 3. THIS difficulty being cleared we proceed to a more particular account of our Apostle By some he is thought to have been a Syrian of a noble extract and to have derived his pedigree from the Ptolomies of Egypt upon no other ground I believe than the mere analogy and sound of the name 'T is plain that he as the rest of the Apostles was a Galilean and of Nathanael we know it is particularly said that he was of Cana in Galilee The Scripture takes no notice of his Trade or way of life though some circumstances might seem to intimate that he was a Fisherman which Theodoret affirms of the Apostles in general and another particularly reports of our Apostle At his first coming to Christ supposing him still the same with Nathanael he was conducted by Philip who told him that now they had found the long-look'd for Messiah so oft foretold by Moses and the Prophets Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph And when he objected that the Messiah could not be born at Nazareth Philip bids him come and satisfie himself At his first approach our Lord entertains him with this honourable character that he was an Israelite indeed a man of true simplicity and integrity as indeed his simplicity particularly appears in this that when told of Jesus he did not object against the meanness of his Original the low condition of his Parents the narrowness of their fortunes but only against the place of his birth which could not be Nazareth the Prophets having peremptorily foretold that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem By this therefore he appeared to be a true Israelite one that waited for redemption in Israel which from the date of the Scripture-predictions he was assured did now draw nigh Surprized he was at our Lord's salutation wondring how he should know him so well at first sight whose face he had never seen before But he was answered that he had seen him while he was yet under the Fig-tree before Philip called him Convinc'd with this instance of our Lord's Divinity he presently made this confession That now he was sure that Jesus was the promised Messiah the Son of God whom he had appointed to be the King and Governour of his Church Our Saviour told him that if upon this inducement he could believe him to be the Messiah he should have far greater arguments to confirm his faith yea that ere long he should behold the Heavens opened to receive him thither and the Angels visibly appearing to wait and attend upon him 4. CONCERNING our Apostles travels up and down the World to propagate the Christian Faith we shall present the Reader with a brief account though we cannot warrant the exact order of them That he went as far as India is owned by all which surely is meant of the hither India or the part of it lying next to Asia Socrates tells us 't was the India bordering upon Aethiopia meaning no doubt the Asian Aethiopia whereof we shall speak in the life of S. Thomas Sophronius calls it the Fortunate India and tells us that here he left behind him S. Matthew's Gospel whereof Eusebius gives a more particular relation That when Pantaenus a man famous for his skill in Philosophy and especially the Institutions of the