Vit. Script Euseb and as Valesius conjectures some years after the Council of Nice though when not long before he expresly affirms that History to have been written before the Nicene Synod how he can herein be excused from a palpable contradiction I cannot imagine 'T is true Eusebius takes no notice of that Council but that might be partly because he designed to end in that joyful and prosperous Scene of things which Constantine restored to the Church as he himself plainly intimates in the beginning of his History which he was not willing to discompose with the controversies and contentions of that Synod according to the humour of all Historians who delight to shut up their Histories with some happy and successful period and partly because he intended to give some account of the affairs of that Council in his Book of the Life of Constantine the Great The Materials wherewith he was furnished for this great undertaking which he complains were very small and inconsiderable were besides Hegesippus his Commentaries then extant Africanus his Chronology the Books and Writings of several Fathers the Records of particular Cities Ecclesiastical Epistles written by the Bishops of those Times and kept in the Archives of their several Churches especially that famous Library at Jerusalem erected by Alexander Bishop of that place but chiefly the Acts of the Martyrs which in those Times were taken at large with great care and accuracy These at least a great many of them Eusebius collected into one Volume under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Collection of the Ancient Martyrdoms which he refers to at every turn besides a particular Narrative which he wrote still extant as an Appendage to the Eighth Book of his Ecclesiastical History concerning the Martyrs that suffered in Palestin A great part of these Acts by the negligence and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times were interpolated and corrupted especially in the darker and more undiscerning Ages when Superstition had overspread the Church and when Ignorance and Interest conspired to fill the World with idle and improbable Stories and men took what liberty they pleased in venting the issue of their own Brains insomuch that some of the more wise and moderate even of the Roman Communion have complained not without a just resentment and indignation that Laertius has written the Lives of Philosophers with more truth and chastness then many have done the Lives of the Saints Upon this account a great and general out-cry has been made against Simeon Metaphrastes as the Father of incredible Legends and one that has notoriously imposed upon the World by the most fabulous reports Nay some to reflect the more disgrace upon him have represented him as a petty Schoolmaster A charge in my mind rash and inconsiderate and in a great measure groundless and uncharitable He was a person of very considerable birth and fortunes advanced to the highest Honours and Offices one of the Primier Ministers of State and as is probable Great Chancellor to the Emperour of Constantinople learned and eloquent above the common standard and who by the persuasions not onely of some great ones of that time he flourished under Leo the Wise about the Year DCCCC but principally wrote under the reign of his successor but of the Emperour himself was prevailed with to reduce the Lives of the Saints into order To which end by his own infinite labour and the no less expences of the Emperour he ransacked the Libraries of the Empire till he had amassed a vast heap of Volumes The more ancient Acts he passed without any considerable alteration more then the correcting them by a collation of several Copies and the enlarging some circumstances to render them more plain and easie as appears by comparing some that are extant at this day Where Lives were confused and immethodical or written in a stile rude and barbarous he digested the history into order and clothed it in more polite and elegant language Others that were defective in neither he left as they were and gave them place amongst his own So that I see no reason for so severe a censure unless it were evident that he took his accounts of things not from the Writings of those that had gone before him but forged them of his own head Not to say that things have been made much worse by Translations seldom appearing in any but the dress of the Latine Church and that many Lives are laid at his door of which he never was the Father it being usual with some when they met with the Life of a Saint the Author whereof they knew not presently to fasten it upon Metaphrastes But to return to Eusebius from whom we have digressed His Ecclesiastical History the almost onely remaining Records of the ancient Church deserves a just esteem and veneration without which those very fragments of Antiquity had been lost which by this means have escaped the common Shipwrack And indeed S. Hierom Nicephorus and the rest do not onely build upon his foundation but almost entirely derive their materials from him As for Socrates Sozomen Theodorit and the later Historians they relate to Times without the limits of my present business generally conveying down little more then the History of their own Times the Church History of those more early Ages being either quite neglected or very negligently managed The first that to any purpose broke the ice after the Reformation were the Centuriators of Magdeburg a combination of learned and industrious men the chief of whom were John Wigandus Matth. Judex Basilius Faber Andreas Corvinus but especially Matth. Flaccius Illyricus who was the very soul of the undertaking They set themselves to traverse the Writings of the Fathers and all the ancient Monuments of the Church collecting whatever made to their purpose which with indefatigable pains they digested into an Ecclesiastic History This they divided into Centuries and each Century into fifteen Chapters into each of which as into its proper Classis and Repository they reduced whatever concerned the propagation of Religion the Peace or Persecutions of the Christians the Doctrines of the Church and the Heresies that arose in it the Rites and Ceremonies the Government Schisms Councils Bishops and persons noted either for Religion or Learning Heretics Martyrs Miracles the state of the Jews the Religion of them that were without and the political revolutions of that Age. A method accurate and useful and which administers to a very distinct and particular understanding the affairs of the Church The four first Centuries were finished in the City of Magdeburg the rest elsewhere A work of prodigious diligence and singular use True it is that it labours under some faults and imperfections and is chargeable with considerable errours and mistakes And no wonder for besides that the Persons themselves may be supposed to have been sometimes betraid into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the heats and contentions of those Times it was the first attempt in this kind and
and solemnity Though indeed it was then but the declining part of the Annus Millesimus which began with the Palilia about April XXI of the foregoing year and ended with the Palilia of this whence in the ancient coins of this Emperour these Secular Sports are sometimes ascribed to his second sometimes to his third Consulship as commencing in the one and being compleated in the other IV. THE entrance upon his Care and Government was calm and peaceable but he had not been long in it before a storm overtook him and upon what occasion I know not he was publicly e Epist 69. p. 117. Ep. 55. p. 80. vid. Pont. de vit Cypr. p. 12. proscribed by the name of Caecilius Cyprian Bishop of the Christians and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods And not satisfied with this they frequently called out that he might be thrown to the Lions So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God as he pleads for himself f Epist 9. p. 22. and least by his resolute defiance of the public sentence he should provoke his adversaries g Epist 14. p. 27 to fall more severely upon the whole Church he thought good at present to withdraw himself hoping that malice would cool and die and the fire go out when the fewel that kindled it was taken away Loc. citat During this recess though absent in body yet was he present in spirit supplying the want of his presence by Letters whereof he wrote no less then XXXVIII by pious counsels grave admonitions frequent reproofs earnest exhortations and especially by hearty prayers to Heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the Church That which created him the greatest trouble was the case of the lapsed whom some Presbyters without the knowledge and consent of the Bishop rashly admitted to the communion of the Church upon very easie terms Cyprian a stiff asserter of Ecclesiastic Discipline and the rights of his place would not brook this but by several Letters not onely complained of it but endeavoured to reform it not sparing the Martyrs themselves who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of Religion took upon them to give Libels of Peace to the lapsed whereby they were again taken into communion sooner then the Rules of the Church did allow V. THIS remissness of Disciplin and easie admission of Penitents gave occasion to Novatus one of the Presbyters of Carthage to start aside and draw a Faction after him denying any place to the lapsed though penitent in the peace and communion of the Church not that they absolutely excluded them the mercy and pardon of God for they left them to the sentence of the divine Tribunal but maintained that the Church had no power to absolve them that once lapsed after Baptism and to receive them again into communion Having sufficiently imbroiled the Church at home where he was in danger to be excommunicated by Cyprian for his scandalous irregular and unpeaceable practices over he goes with some of his party to Rome where by a pretence of uncommon sanctity and severity besides some Consessors lately delivered out of Prison he seduced Novatianus who by the Greek Fathers is almost perpetually confounded with Novatus a Presbyter of the Roman Church a man of an insolent and ambitious temper and who had attempted to thrust himself into that Chair Him the Party procures by clancular Arts and uncanonical means to be consecrated Bishop and then set him up against Cornelius lately ordained Bishop of that See whom they peculiarly charged a Vid. Epist 55. ad Antonian p. 66. with holding a communion with Trophimus and some others of the Thurificati who had done sacrifice in the late Persecution Which though plausibly pretended was yet a false allegation Trophimus and his Party not being taken in till by great humility b Ibid. p. 69. and a public penance they had given satisfaction to the Church nor he then suffered to communicate any otherwise then in a Lay-capacity Being disappointed in their designs they now openly shew themselves in their own colours separate from the Church which they charge with loosness and licentiousness in admitting scandalous offenders and by way of distinction stiling themselves Cathari the pure undefiled Party those who kept themselves from all society with the lapsed or them that communicated with them Hereupon they were on all hands opposed by private persons and condemned by public Synods and cried down by the common Vote of the Church probably not so much upon the account of their different sentiments and opinions in point of pardon of sin and Ecclesiastical penance wherein they stood not at so wide a distance from the doctrin and practice of the early Ages of the Church as for their insolent and domineering temper their proud and surly carriage their rigorous and imperious imposing their way upon other Churches their taking upon them by their own private authority to judge censure and condemn those that joined not with them or opposed them their bold devesting the Governours of the Church of that great power lodged in them of remitting crimes upon repentance which seem to have been the very soul and spirit of the Novatian Sect. VI. IN the mean while the Persecution under Decius raged with an uncontrolled fury over the African Provinces and especially at Carthage concerning which Cyprian every where c Epist 53. p. 75 Epist 7. p. 16. Epist 8. p. 19. lib. ad Demetr p. 200. gives large and sad accounts whereof this the sum They were scourged and beaten and racked and roasted and their flesh pulled off with burning pincers beheaded with swords and run through with spears more instruments of torment being many times imployed about the man at once then there were limbs and members of his body they were spoiled and plundred chained and imprisoned thrown to wild Beasts and burnt at the stake And when they had run over all their old methods of execution they studied for more excogitat novas poenas ingeniosa crudelitas as he complains Nor did they onely vary but repeat the torments and where one ended another began they tortured them without hopes of dying and added this cruelty to all the rest to stop them in their journey to heaven many who were importunately desirous of death were so tortured that they might not die they were purposely kept upon the Rack that they might die by piece-meals that their pains might be lingring and their sense of them without intermission they gave them no intervals or times of respite unless any of them chanced to give them the slip and expire in the midst of torments All which did but render their faith and patience more illustrious and make them more earnestly long for Heaven They tired out their tormentors and overcame the sharpest engins of execution and smiled at the busie Officers that were raking in their wounds and when their flesh was wearied their faith was unconquerable
THE LIVES OF THE Primitive Fathers Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus APOSTOLICI c. Maii 10. 1676. G. JANE R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Domesticis יהוה Hi sunt qui venerunt de tribulatione magna APOSTOLICI or The Lives of the Primitive Fathers for the three first Ages of the Christian Church By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. Caplain in ordinary to his Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non Evangeliz … Hic est patentia et fidei Sanctorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St Pauls Churhyard 1677 engraved title page Micha Burg delinet APOSTOLICI OR THE HISTORY OF THE Lives Acts Death AND MARTYRDOMS OF THOSE Who were Contemporary with or immediately Succeeded the APOSTLES As also the Most Eminent of the Primitive Fathers For the First Three Hundred Years To which is added A CHRONOLOGY OF THE Three First Ages of the CHURCH By WILLIAM CAVE D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 37. p. 109. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by A.C. for Richard Chisâ—â—el at the Rose and Crown in S. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXVII To the Right Honourable And Right Reverend FATHER in GOD NATHANAEL LORD BISHOP of DURHAM Clerk of the Closet And one of His MAJESTIES most Honourable PRIVY-COUNCIL MY LORD THAT I once more presume to give your Lordship the trouble of such an Address is not from any confidence I have in the value of these Papers but partly because I well know that your Lordships candor and charity will be ready to pardon the faults and to cover the weaknesses of the Undertaking partly because I thought it very reasonable and decorous there to offer the Remaining Portions where I had consecrated the First-Fruits MY LORD You will here meet with Persons of your own Quality and Order Men Great and Venerable whose excellent Learning and exemplary Lives whose Piety and Patience Zeal and Charity Sobriety and Contempt of the World rendred them the honour of their Times and recommend them as incomparable Examples to Posterity We may here see in more instances then one the Episcopal Order immediately deriving it self from Apostolic hands whereof were not some men strangely biassed by Passion and Prejudice there could be no shadow of dispute For he that can read the Lives of Timothy and Titus of Ignatius Polycarp c. and yet fancy them to have been no more then meer Parish-Priests that only superintended a little Congregation must needs betray either prodigious Ignorance or unreasonable Partiality Here also we may find what a mighty reverence these First and better Ages had for the Governours of the Church and the Guides of Souls no respects being then thought great enough Wherein they acted agreeably not onely to the Rules of Christianity but to the common sense of mankind And indeed with what Honours and Dignities what Rights and Revenues what Priviledges and Immunities the Sacred Function has been invested in all Ages and Nations as well the rude and barbarous as the more polite and civilized Countries I could abundantly shew were it as proper to this place as it is necessary to the Age we live in For we are fallen into the worst of Times wherein men have been taught by bad Principles and worse Practices to despise the holy Order and to level it with the meanest of the People And this done not onely by profest Enemies for then we could have born it but by pretended friends who seem to have a high zeal for Religion and themselves By which means the hands of evil men have been strengthened and the designs of those sufficiently gratified who 't is like would rejoice at the ruine of us both I confess that the Persons and Credit of the Regular Clergy should by some men be treated with Contempt and Scorn is the less to be wondred at when Religion it self is not secure from the rude and bold railleries of some and the serious attempts of others who gravely design to banish the awe of Religion and the impressions of whatever is Divine and Sacred out of the minds of men But My Lord It is not my design to entertain your Lordship with an invective against the Iniquity of the Times I had rather silently bewail them and heartily pray for their reformation that the best of Churches may prosper and flourish under the best of Princes May Her Peace and Order be preserved inviolable her Liturgy and Divine Offices universally complied with Her Solemn Assemblies duly frequented Her Canons and Constitutions observed and practised May Her Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and able by sound Doctrin both to Exhort and to Convince Gainsayers May they be laborious in their Ministeries and be very highly esteemed in love at least for their relation to God and their Works sake May Her Governours diligently superintend the Flock of God and they that rule well be accounted worthy of double Honour In which number may your Lordship share a double portion May you fill up all the measures of a wise and able Counsellour in the State and of a faithful and vigilant Governour in the Church To all which great and holy ends if the following Papers wherein these things are represented in lively instances may be capable of contributing any assistance and in the least measure serviceable to retrive the Primitive temper and spirit of Religion it will be thought an invaluable compensation of the mean endeavours of MY LORD Your Lordships faithful and affectionate Servant WILLIAM CAVE TO THE READER IT is not the least argument for the spiritual and incorporeal Nature of humane souls and that they are acted by a higher principle then meer Matter and Motion their boundless and inquisitive re-searches after knowledge Our minds naturally grasp at a kind of Omnisciency and not content with the speculations of this or that particular Science hunt over the whole course of Nature nor are they satisfied with the present state of things but pursue the notices of former Ages and are desirous to comprehend whatever transactions have been since Time it self had a Being We endeavour to make up the shortness of our lives by the extent of our knowledge and because we cannot see forwards and spy what lies concealed in the Womb of Futurity we look back and eagerly trace the Footsteps of those Times that went before us Indeed to be ignorant of what happened before we our selves came into the World In Oratorâ— pag. 268. is as Cicero truly observes to be always children and to deprive our selves of what would at once entertain our minds with the highest pleasure and add the greatest authority and advantage to us The knowledge of Antiquity besides that it gratifies one of our noblest curiosities improves our minds by the wisdom of preceding Ages acquaints us with the most remarkable occurrences of the Divine Providence and presents us with the most apt and proper rules and instances that may form us to
a life of true Philosophy and Vertue Ap. Dioâ— Hali◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. â—5 Tem. 2. History says Thucydides being nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy drawn from Examples the one is a more gross and popular Philosophy the other a more subtle and refined History These considerations together with a desire to perpetuate the memory of brave and great Actions gave birth to History and obliged mankind to transmit the more observable passages both of their own and foregoing Times to the notice of Posterity The first in this kind was Moses the great Prince and Legislator of the Jewish Nation who from the Creation of the World conveyed down the Records of above MMDL years the same course being more or less continued through all the periods of the Jewish State Among the Babylonians they had their public Archives which were transcribed by Berosus the Priest of Belus who composed the Chaldean History The Egyptians were wont to record their memorable Acts upon Pillars in Hieroglyphic notes and sacred Characters first begun as they pretend by Thouth or the first of their Mercuries out of which Manethos their Chief Priest collected his three Books of Egyptian Dynasties which he dedicated to Ptolomy Philadelphus second of that line The Phoenician History was first attempted by Sanchoniathon digested partly out of the Annals of Cities partly out of the Books kept in the Temple and communicated to him by Jerombaal Priest of the God Jao this he dedicated to Abibalus King of Berytus which Philo Byblius about the time of the Emperour Adrian translated into Greek The Greeks boast of the Antiquity of Cadmus Archilochus and many others though the most ancient of their Historians now extant are Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon Among the Romans the foundations of History were laid in Annals the public Acts of every year being made up by the Pontifex Maximus who kept them at his own house that the people upon any emergency might resort to them for satisfaction These were the Annales Maximi and afforded excellent materials to those who afterwards wrote the History of that great and powerful Commonwealth But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard both as it more immediately concerns the present enquiry and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests is the History of the Church For herein as in a Glass we have the true face of the Church in its several Ages represented to us Here we find with what infinite care those Divine Records which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us with what a mighty success Religion has triumphed over the greatest oppositions and spread its Banners in the remotest corners of the World With how incomparable a zeal good men have contended earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints with what a bitter and implacable fury the Enemies of Religion have set upon it and how signally the Divine Providence has appeared in its preservation and returned the mischief upon their own heads Here we see the constant succession of Bishops and the Ministers of Religion in their several stations the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs who with the most chearful and composed minds have gone to Heaven through the acutest torments In short we have here the most admirable examples of a divine and religious Life of a real and unfeigned Piety a sincere and universal Charity a strict Temperance and Sobriety an unconquerable Patience and Submission clearly represented to us And the higher we go the more illustrious are the instances of Piety and Vertue For however later Ages may have improved in knowledge Experience daily making new additions to Arts and Sciences yet former Times were most eminent for the practice and vertues of a holy life The Divine Laws while newly published had a stronger influence upon the minds of men and the spirit of Religion was more active and vigorous till men by degrees began to be debauched into that impiety and prophaneness that in these last Times has over-run the World It were altogether needless and improper for me to consider what Records there are of the state of the Church before our Saviours Incarnation it is sufficient to my purpose to enquire by what hands the first affairs of the Christian Church have been transmitted to us As for the Life and Death the Actions and Miracles of our Saviour and some of the first acts of his Apostles they are fully represented by the Evangelical Historians Indeed immediately after them we meet with nothing of this nature H. Eâ—cl l. 3. c. 24. p. 94. the Apostles and their immediate Successors as Eusebius observes not being at leisure to write many Books as being imployed in Ministeries greater and more immediately serviceable to the World The first that engaged in this way was Hegesippus an ancient and Apostolic man as he in Photius stiles him an Hebrew by descent Cod. 232. col 893. and born as is probable in Palestin He flourished principally in the reign of M. Aurelius and came to Rome in the time of Ancietus where he resided till the time of Eleutherius He wrote five Books of Ecclesiastical History which he stiled Commentaries of the Acts of the Church wherein in a plain and familiar stile he described the Apostles Travels and Preachings the remarkable passages of the Church the several Schisms Heresies and Persecutions that infested it from our Lords death till his own time But these alas are long since lost The next that succeeded in this Province though the first that reduced it to any exactness and perfection was Eusebius He was born in Palestin about the later times of the Emperour Gallienus ordained Presbyter by Agapius Bishop of Caesarea who suffering about the end of the Dioclesian Persecution Eusebius succeeded in his See A man of incomparable parts and learning and of no less industry and diligence in searching out the Records and Antiquities of the Church After several other Volumes in defence of the Christian Cause against the assaults both of Jews and Gentiles he set himself to write an Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 3. wherein he designed as himself tells us to recount from the birth of our Lord till his time the most memorable Transactions of the Church the Apostolical successions the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel the Bishops that presided in the most eminent Sees the most noted Errours and Heresies the calamities that befel the Jewish State the attempts and Persecutions made against the Christians by the Powers of the World the torments and sufferings of the Martyrs and the blessed and happy period that was put to them by the conversion of Constantine the Great All this accordingly he digested in Ten Book which he composed in the declining part of his life Praefat. de
which never passed the emendations of a second review an undertaking vast and diffusive and engaged in while Books were yet more scarce and less correct Accordingly they modestly enough confess Praefat. in Hist Eccles praefix Cent. I. that they rather attempted a delineation of Church-History then one that was compleat and absolute desiring onely to minister opportunity to those who were able and willing to furnish out one more intire and perfect And yet take it with all the faults and disadvantages that can be charged upon it and they bear no proportion to the usefulness and excellency of the thing it self No sooner did this work come abroad but it made a loud noise and bustle at Rome as wherein the corruptions and innovations of that Church were sufficiently exposed and laid open to the World Accordingly it was necessary that an Antidote should be provided against it For which purpose Philip Nereus who had lately founded the Oratorian Order at Rome commands Baronius then a very young man and newly entered into the Congregation to undertake it and in order thereunto daily to read nothing but Ecclesiastical Lectures in the Oratory This course he held for thirty years together seven several times going over the History of the Church Thus trained up and abundantly furnished with fit materials he sets upon the Work it self which he disposed by way of Annals comprising the affairs of whole Christian World in the orderly series and succession of every year A method much more Natural and Historical then that of the Centuries A noble design and which it were injustice to defraud of its due praise and commendation as wherein besides whatever occurrences that concern the state of the Church reduced as far as his skill in Chronology could enable him under their proper periods he has brought to light many passages of the Ancients not known before peculiarly advantaged herein by the many noble Libraries that are at Rome A Monument of incredible pains and labour as which besides the difficulties of the thing it self was entirely carried on by his single endeavours and written all with his own hand and that too in the midst of infinite avocations the distractions of a Parish-Cure the private affairs of his own Oratory Preaching hearing Confessions writing other Books not to mention the many troublesom though honourable Offices and Imployments which in the course of the Work were heaped upon him In short a Work it was by which he had infinitely more obliged the World then can be well expressed had he managed it with as much faithfulness and impartiality as he has done with learning and industry But alas too evident it is that he designed not so much the advancement of Truth as the honour and interest of a Cause and therefore drew the face of the ancient Church not as Antiquity truly represents it but according to the present form and complexion of the Church of Rome forcing everything to look that way to justifie the traditions and practises and to exalt the super-eminent power and grandeur of that Church making both the Scepter and the Crosier stoop to the Triple Crown This is that that runs almost through every page and indeed both he * Epist Ded. ad Sixt. V. Tom. 1. Annal. praefix himself and the †Hier. Barnab de vit Baron l. 1. c. 18. p. 40. c. 19. p. 43. Writer of his Life more then once expresly affirms that his design was to defend the Traditions and to preserve the Dignity of that Church against the late Innovators and the labours of the Magdeburgensian Centuriators and that the opposing of them was the occasion of that Work So fatally does partiality and the interest of a Cause spoil the most brave and generous Undertakings What has been hitherto Prefaced the Reader I hope will not censure as an unprofitable digression nor think it altogether unsuitable to the present Work whereof 't is like he will expect some short account Being some time since engaged I know not how in searching after the Antiquities of the Apostolic Age I was then strongly importuned to have carried on the design for some of the succeeding Ages This I then wholly laid aside without any further thoughts of re-assuming it For experience had made me sufficiently sensible of the difficulty of the thing and I well foresaw how almost impossible it was to be managed to any tolerable satisfaction so small and inconsiderable so broken and imperfect are the accounts that are left us of those early times Notwithstanding which I have once more suffered my self to be engaged in it and have endeavoured to hunt out and gather together those Ruines of Primitive Story that yet remain that I might do what honour I was able to the memory of those brave and worthy men who were so instrumental to plant Christianity in the World to seal it with their blood and to oblige Posterity by those excellent Monuments of Learning and Piety which they left behind them I have bounded my account within the first three hundred years notwithstanding the barrenness and obscurity of those Ages of the Church Had I consulted my own ease or credit I should have commenced my design from that time which is the period of my present Undertaking viz. the following Saeculum when Christianity became the Religion of the Empire and the Records of the Church furnish us with large and plentiful materials for such a Work But I confess my humour and inclination led me to the first and best Ages of Religion the Memoires whereof I have picked up and thereby enabled my self to draw the lineaments of as many of those Apostolical persons as concerning whom I could retrive any considerable notices and accounts of things With what success the Reader must judge with whom what entertainment it will find I know not nor am I much sollicitous I have done what I could and am not conscious to my self that I have been wanting in any point either of Fidelity or Care If there be fewer persons here described then the space of almost three hundred years may seem to promise and less said concerning some of them then the Reader does expect he will I presume be more just and charitable then to charge it upon me but rather impute it to the unhappy fate of so many ancient Records as have been lost through the carelessness and unfaithfulness of succeeding Times As far as my mean abilities do reach and the nature of the thing will admit I have endeavoured the Readers satisfaction and though I pretend not to present him an exact Church-History of those Times yet I think I may without vanity assure him that there is scarce any material passage of Church-Antiquity of which in some of these Lives he will not find a competent and reasonable account Nor is the History of those Ages maimed and lame onely in its main limbs and parts but what is greatly to be bewailed purblind and defective in its
Church This was done at his Baptism when the Holy Ghost in a visible shape descended upon him and God by an audible voice testified of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased Accordingly he set himself to declare the Counsels of God Going about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom He particularly explained the Moral Law and restored it to its just authority and dominion over the minds of men redeeming it from those corrupt and perverse interpretations which the Masters of the Jewish Church had put upon it He next insinuated the abrogation of the Mosaic Oeconomy to which he was sent to put a period to enlarge the bounds of salvation and admit both Jew and Gentile to terms of mercy that he came as a Mediator between God and Man to reconcile the World to the favour of Heaven by his death and sufferings and to propound pardon of sin and eternal life to all that by an hearty belief a sincere repentance and an holy life were willing to embrace and entertain it This was the sum of the doctrin which he preached every where as opportunity and occasion led him and which he did not impose upon the World meerly upon the account of his own authority and power or beg a precarious entertainment of it he did not tell men they must believe him because he said he came from God and had his Warrant and Commission to instruct and reform the World but gave them the most satisfactory and convictive evidence by doing such miracles as were beyond all powers and contrivances either of Art or Nature whereby he unanswerably demonstrated that he was a Teacher come from God in that no man could do those miracles which he did except God were with him And because he himself was in a little time to return back to Heaven he ordained twelve whom he called Apostles as his immediate Delegates and Vicegerents to whom he deputed his authority and power furnished them with miraculous gifts and left them to carry on that excellent Religion which he himself had begun to whose assistance he joined LXX Disciples as ordinary coadjutors and companions to them Their Commission for the present was limited to Palestin and they sent out onely to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel III. HOW great the success of our Saviours Ministry was may be guessed from that complaint of the Pharisees John 12.19 Behold the World is gone after him people from all parts in such vast multitudes flocking after him that they gave him not time for necessary solitude and retirement Indeed he went about doing good preaching the word throughout all Judaea and healing all that were possessed of the Devil The seat of his ordinary abode was Galilee residing for the most part says one of the Ancients a â—â—seb Demonstrat Evang. l. 9. p. 439. in Galilee of the Gentiles that he might there sow and reap the first fruits of the calling of the Gentiles We usually find him preaching at Nazareth at Cana at Corazin and Bethsaida and the Cities about the Sea of Tiberias but especially at Capernaum the Metropolis of the Province a place of great commerce and traffique He often visited Judaea and the parts about Jerusalem whither he was wont to go up at the Paschal solemnities and some of the greater festivals that so the general concourse of people at those times might minister the fitter opportunity to spread the net and to communicate and impart his doctrine to them Nor did he who was to be a common Saviour and came to break down the Partition-wall disdain to converse with the Samaritans so contemptible and hateful to the Jews In Sychar not far from Samaria he freely preached and gained most of the inhabitants of that City to be Proselytes to his doctrine He travelled up and down the Towns and Villages of Caesarea Philippi and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis and where he could not come the renown of him spread it self bringing him Disciples and Followers from all quarters Indeed his fame went throughout all Syria and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee Judaea Decapolis Idumaea from beyond Jordan and from Tyre and Sidon Nay might we believe the story so solemnly reported by Eusebius a H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 13. p. 31. and the Ancients and excepting the silence of the Evangelical Historians who recorded onely some of the actions and passages concerning our Saviour I know no wise argument against it Acbarus Prince of Edessa beyond Euphrates having heard of the fame of our Saviours miracles by Letters humbly besought him to come over to him whose Letter together with our Lords answer are extant in Eusebius there being nothing in the Letters themselves that may justly shake their credit and authority with much more to this purpose transcribed as he tells us out of the Records of that City and by him translated out of Syriac into Greek which may give us some account why none of the Ancients before him make any mention of this affair being generally strangers to the Language the Customs and Antiquities of those Eastern Countries IV. OUR Lord having spent somewhat more then three years in the public exercise of his Ministry kept his last Passover with his Apostles which done he instituted the Sacramental Supper consigning it to his Church as the standing memorial of his death and the Seal of the Evangelical Covenant as he appointed Baptism to be the Foederal Rite of Initiation and the public Tessera or Badge of those that should profess his Religion And now the fatal hour was at hand being betrayed by the treachery of one of his own Apostles he was apprehended by the Officers and brought before the public Tribunals Heavy were the crimes charged upon him but as false as spightful the two main Articles of the Charge were Blasphemy against God and Treason against the Emperour and though they were not able to make them good by any tolerable pretence of proof yet did they condemn and execute him upon the Cross several of themselves vindicating his innocency that he was a righteous man and the Son of God The third day after his interment he rose again appeared to and conversed with his Disciples and Followers and having taken care of the affairs of his Church given a larger Commission and fuller instructions to his Apostles he took his leave of them and visibly ascended into Heaven and sate down on the right hand of God as head over all things to the Church Angels Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him V. THE faith of these passages concerning our Saviour are not onely secured to us by the report of the Evangelical Historians and that justified by eye-witnesses the evidence of miracles and the successive and uncontrolled consent of all Ages of the Church but as to the substance
of them by the plain confession of Heathen Writers and the enemies of Christianity a Annal. l. 15. c. 44. p. 319. Tacitus tells us That the Author of this Religion was Christ who under the reign of Tiberius was put to death by Pontius Pilat the Procurator of Judaea whereby though this detestable Superstition was suppressed for the present yet did it break out again spreading it self not onely through Judaea the fountain of the mischief but in the very City of Rome it self where whatever is wicked and shameful meets together and is greedily advanced into reputation b H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 2. p. 40. vid. Oros adv Pag. l. 7. c. 4. fol. 293. Eusebius assures us that after our Lords Ascension Pilat according to custom sent an account of him to the Emperour which Tiberius brought before the Senate but they rejected it under pretence that cognizance had been taken of it before it came to them it being a fundamental Law of the Roman State that no new god could be taken in without the Decree of the Senate but that however Tiberius continued his good thoughts of Christ and kindness to the Christians For this he cites the testimony of Tertullian who in his c Apolog. c. 5. p. 6. c. 21. p. 20. Apology presented to the Roman Powers affirms that Tiberius in whose time the Christian Religion entered into the World having received an account from Pilat out of Palestin in Syria concerning the truth of that Divinity that was there brought it to the Senate with the Prerogative of his own vote but that the Senate because they had not before approved of it would not admit it however the Emperour continued of the same mind and threatned punishment to them that accused the Christians And before Tertullian Justin Martyr d Apolog. II. p. 76. speaking concerning the death and sufferings of our Saviour tells the Emperours that they might satisfie themselves in the truth of these things from the Acts written under Pontius Pilat It being customary not only at Rome to keep the Acts of the Senate and the People but for the Governors of Provinces to keep account of what memorable things happened in their Government the Acts whereof they transmitted to the Emperour And thus did Pilat during the Procuratorship of his Province How long these Acts remained in being I know not but in the controversie about Easter we find the Quartodecimans e Ap. Epiph. Haeres L. p. 182. justifying the day on which they observed it from the Acts of Pilat wherein they gloried that they had found the truth Whether these were the Acts of Pilat to which Justin appealed or rather those Acts of Pilat drawn up and published by the command of f Eâ—seb H. Eccl. l. 9. c. 5. p. 350. Maximinus Dioclesians successor in disparagement of our Lord and his Religion is uncertain but the latter of the two far more probable However Pilats Letter to Tiberius or as he is there called Claudis at this day extant in the Anacephalaeosis g Ad calcem â— de Excid uâ—b Hicros p. 683. of the younger Egesippus is of no great credit though that Author challenges greater antiquity then some allow him being probably contemporary with S. Ambrose and by many from the great conformity of stile and phrase thought to be S. Ambrose himself who with some few additions compiled it out of Josephus But then it is to be considered whether that Anacephalaeosis be done by the same or which is most probable by a much later hand Some other particular passages concerning our Saviour are taken notice of by Gentile Writers the appearance of the Star by Calcidius the murder of the Infants by Macrobius the Eclips at our Saviours Passion by Phlegon Trallianus not to speak of his miracles frequently acknowledged by Celsus Julian and Porphyry which I shall not insist upon VI. IMMEDIATELY after our Lords Ascension from whence we date the next period of the Church the Apostles began to execute the Powers intrusted with them They presently filled up Judas his vacancy by the election of a new Apostle the lot falling upon Matthias and he was numbred with the eleven Apostles Being next endued with power from on high as our Lord had promised them furnished with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost they set themselves to preach in places of the greatest concourse and to the faces of their greatest enemies They who but a while before fled at the first approach of danger now boldly plead the cause of their crucified Master with the immediate hazard of their lives And that nothing might interrupt them in this imployment they instituted the Office of Deacons who might attend the inferiour Services of the Church while they devoted themselves to what was more immediately necessary to the good of souls By which prudent course Religion got ground apace and innumerable Converts were daily added to the Faith till a Persecution arising upon S. Stephen's Martyrdom banished the Church out of Jerusalem though this also proved its advantage in the event and issue Christianity being by this means the sooner spread up and down the neighbour Countries The Apostles notwithstanding the rage of the Persecution remained still at Jerusalem onely now and then dispatching some few of their number to confirm and setle the Plantations and to propagate the Faith as the necessities of the Church required And thus they continued for near twelve years together our Lord himself having commanded them not to depart Jerusalem and the parts thereabouts till twelve years after his Ascension as the ancient Tradition mentioned both by a Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c. 18. p. 186. Apollonius and b Stromat l. 6. p. 636. vid. Life of S. Peter Sect. 11. num 5. Clemens Alexandrinus informs us And now they thought it high time to apply themselves to the full execution of that Commission which Christ had given them to go teach and baptize all Nations Accordingly having setled the general affairs and concernments of the Church they betook themselves to the several Provinces of the Gentile World preaching the Gospel to every Nation under Heaven so that even in a literal sense their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the World Infinite multitudes of people in all Cities and Countries says c Lib. 2. c. 3. p. 4â— Eusebius like Corn into a well-filled Granary being brought in by that grace of God that brings salvation And they whose minds were heretofore distempered and over-run with the errour and idolatry of their Ancestors were cured by the Sermons and Miracles of our Lords Disciples and shaking off those chains of Darkness and Slavery which the merciless Daemons had put upon them freely embraced and entertained the knowledge and service of the onely true God the great Creator of the World whom they worshiped according to the holy Rites and Rules of that divine and wisely contrived
Religion which our Saviour had introduced into the World But concerning the Apostles travels the success of their Ministry the Places and Countries to which they went the Churches they planted their Acts and Martyrdoms for the Faith we have given an account in a Work peculiar to that Subject so far as the Records of those times have conveyed any material notices of things to us It may suffice to observe that God was pleased to continue S. John to a very great age beyond any of the rest that he might superintend and cultivate confirm and establish what they had planted and be as a standing and lively Oracle to which they might from all parts have recourse in any considerable doubts and exigences of the Church and that he might seal and attest the truth of those things which men of corrupt and perverse minds even then began to call in question VII HENCE then we pass on to survey the state of the Church from the Apostolic Age till the times of Constantine for the space of at least two hundred years And under this period we shall principally remarque two things What progress the Christian Religion made in the World Secondly What it was that contributed to so vast a growth and increase of it That Christianity from the nature of its precepts the sublimeness of its principles its contrariety to the established Rites and Religions of the World was likely to find bad entertainment and the fiercest opposition could not but be obvious to every impartial considerer of things which accordingly came to pass For it met with all the discouragement the secret undermining and open assaults which malice and prejudice wit and parts learning and power were able to make upon it Notwithstanding all which it lift up its head and prospered under the greatest oppositions And the triumph of the Christian Faith will appear the more considerable whether we regard the number and quality of its Converts or the vast circumference to which it did extend and diffuse it self Though it appeared under all manner of disadvantages to recommend it self yet no sooner did it set up its Standard but persons from all parts and of all kind of principles and educations began to flock to it so admirably affecting very many both of the Greeks and Barbarians as Origen a Contr. Cels l. 1. p. 21 22. tells Celsus and they both wise and unwise that they contended for the truth of their Religion even to the laying down their lives a thing not known in any other Profession in the World And b Ibid. l. 3. p. 124. elsewhere he challenges him to shew such an unspeakable multitude of Greeks and Barbarians reposing such a confidence in Aesculapius as he could of those that had embraced the Faith of the holy Jesus And when c Ib. l. 1. p. 7. Celsus objected that Christianity was a clandestin Religion that sculked and crept up and down in corners Origen answers That the Religion of the Christians was better known throughout the whole World then the dictates of their best Philosophers Nor were they onely mean and ignorant persons that thus came over but as d Adv. Gent. l. 2. p. 21. Arnobius observes men of the acutest parts and learning Orators Grammarians Rhetoricians Lawyers Physicians Philosophers despising their formerlybeloved sentiments sate down here e Apol. c. 37. p. 30. Tertullian addressing himself to the Roman Governours in behalf of the Christians assures them that although they were of no long standing yet that they had filled all places of their Dominions their Cities Islands Castles Corporations Councils Armies Tribes Companies the Palace Senate and Courts of Judicature that if they had a mind to revenge themselves they need not betake themselves to clancular and sculking Arts their numbers were great enough to appear in open Arms having a Party not in this or that Province but in all quarters of the World nay that naked as they were they could be sufficiently revenged upon them for should they but all agree to retire out of the Roman Empire the World would stand amazed at that solitude and desolation that would ensue upon it and they would have more Enemies then Friends or Citizens left among them And he f Ad Sâ—apâ—â— c. 4. p. 71. bids the President Scapula consider that if he went on with the Persecution what he would do with those many thousands both of men and women of all ranks and ages that would readily offer themselves what Fires and Swords he must have to dispatch them Nor is this any more then what a Ad Traj lib. 10. Epist 97. Pliny himself confesses to the Emperour that the case of the Christians was a matter worthy of deliberation especially by reason of the multitudes that were concerned for that many of each Sex of every age and quality were and must be called in question this Superstition having infected and over-run not the City onely but Towns and Countries the Temples and Sacrifices being generally desolate and forsaken VIII NOR was it thus onely in some Parts and Provinces of the Roman Empire but in most Nations and Countries b Dial. cum Tâ—yph p. 345. Justin Martyr tells the Jew that whatever they might boast of the universality of their Religion there were many places of the World whither neither they nor it ever came whereas there was no part of mankind whether Greeks or Barbarians or by what name soever they were called even the most rude and unpolished Nations where Prayers and Thanksgivings were not made to the great Creator of the World through the name of the crucified Jesus The same Bardesanes c Lib. de Fat. ap Euseb praep Evang. l. 6. c. 10. p. 279. the Syrian Justins contemporary affirms that the followers of the Christian Institution though living in different parts of the World and being very numerous in every Climat and Countrey were yet all called by the name of Christians So d De Justit l. 5. c. 13. p. 494. Lactantius the Christian Law says he is entertained from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof where every Sex and Age and Nation and Countrey does with one heart and soul worship God If from generals we descend to particular Places and Countries e Adv. Haeres l. 1. c. 3. p. 52. Irenaeus who entered upon the See of Lyons Ann. Chr. CLXXIX affirms that though there were different languages in the World yet that the force of Tradition or that Doctrin that had been delivered to the Church was but one and the same that there were Churches setled in Germany Spain France in the East in Egypt and Lybia as well as in the middle of the World f Adv. Judaeos c. â— â— 189. Tertullian who probably wrote not above twenty years after Irenaeus gives us in a larger account Their sound says he went through all the Earth and their words to the ends of the World For in whom but
help or benefit by the gods A great argument as Eusebius well urges of our Saviours Divine authority and the truth of his Doctrine For when says he a little before such numbers of fictitious deities fled at our Lords aprearance who would not with admiration behold it as an uncontroulable demonstration of his truly saving and excellent Religion whereby so many Churches and Oratories through all the world both in Cities and Villages and even in the Desarts and Solitudes of the most barbarous Nations have been erected and consecrated to the great Creator and the only Sovereign of the World when such multitudes of Books have been written containing the most incomparable rules and institutions to form mankind to a life of the most perfect Virtue and Religion precepts accommodate not to men only but to women and children when he shall see that the Oracles and Divinations of the Daemons are ceased and gone and that the Divine and Evangelical virtue of our Saviour no sooner visited mankind but they began to leave off their wild and frantic ways of worship and to abhor those humane sacrifices many times of their dearest relations wherewith they had been wont to propitiate and atone their bloody and merciless Daemons and into which their wisest and greatest men had been bewitched and seduced I add no more but S. Chrysostoms b Orat. III. adv Judaeos p. 420. Tom. 1. challenge Judge now with me O thou incredulous Jew and learn the excellency of the truth what Impostor ever gathered to himself so many Churches throughout the world and propagated his worship from one end of it to the other and subdued so many Subjects to his Crown even when thousands of impediments lay in the way to hinder him certainly no man a plain evidence that Christ was no Impostor but a Saviour and Benefactor and the Author of our life and happiness XII WE have seen with what a mighty success Christianity displayed its banners over the world let us next consider what it was that contributed to so vast an increase and propagation of it And here not to insist upon the blessing of the Divine Providence which did immediately superintend its prosperity and welfare nor upon the intrinsic excellency of the Religion it self which carried essential characters of Divinity upon it sufficient to recommend it to every wise and good man there were five things among others that did especially conduce to make way for it the miraculous powers then resident in the Church the great learning and abilities of its champions and defenders the indefatigable industry used in propagating of it the incomparable lives of its professors and their patience and constancy under sufferings It was not the least means that procured the Christian Religion a just veneration from the world the miraculous attestations that were given to it I shall not here concern my self to shew that miracles truly and publicly wrought are the highest external evidence that can be given to the truth of that Religion which they are brought to confirm the force of the argument is sufficiently pleaded by the Christian Apologists That such miraculous powers were then ordinary in the Church we have the concurrent testimonies of all the first Writers of it Justin Martyr a Apol. I. p. 45. tells the Emperor and the Senate that our Lord was born for the subversion of the Daemons which they might know from the very things done in their sight for that very many who had been vexed and possessed by Daemons throughout the world and in this very City of theirs whom all their exorcists and conjurers were not able to relieve had been cured by several Christians through the name of Jesus that was crucified under Pontius Pilate and that at this very time they still cur'd them disarming and expelling the Daemons out of those whom they had possess'd The same he affirms in his discourse with Trypho b Dial. cum Tryph. p. 24â— p. 302. the Jew more than once that the Devils trembled and stood in awe of the power of Christ and to this day being adjured by the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilat the Procurator of Judaea they were obedient to Christians Irenaeus c Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 56. p. 215. c. 57. p. 218. assures us that in his time the Christians enabled by the Grace of Christ raised the dead ejected Daemons and unclean spirits the persons so dispossessed coming over to the Church others had Visions and the gift of Prophesie others by Imposition of hands healed the Sick and restored them to perfect health But I am not able says he to reckon up the number of those gifts which the Church throughout the world receiving from God does every day freely exercise in the name of Jesus Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate to the benefit of the world Tertullian d Apol. c. 23. p. 22. challenges the Roman Governors to let any possessed person be brought before their own Tribunals and they should see that the spirit being commanded to speak by any Christian should as truly confess himself to be a Devil as at other times he falsly boasted himself to be a God And he tells Scapula e Ad Scap. c. 2. p. 6â— that they rejected disgraced and expelled Daemons every day as most could bear them witness Origen f Contr. Cels l. 2. p. 80. bids Celsus take notice that whatever he might think of the reports which the Gospel makes concerning our Saviour yet that it was the great and magnificent work of Jesus by his name to heal even to this day whom God pleased that he a Ib. l. 3. p. 124. himself had seen many who by having the name of God and Christ called over them had been delivered from the greatest evils frenzy and madness and infinite other distempers which neither men nor devils had been able to cure What influence these miraculous effects had upon the world he lets us know elsewhere The Apostles of our Lord says b Lib. 1. p. 34. he without these miraculous powers would never have been able to have moved their Auditors nor perswaded them to desert the institutions of their Country and to embrace their new Doctrine and having once embraced it to defend it even to death in defiance of the greatest dangers Yea even to this day the foot-steps of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the shape of a Dove are preserved among the Christians they exorcize Daemons perform many cures and according to the will of God foresee and foretel things to come At which though Celsus and his personated Jew may laugh yet I affirm further that many even against their inclinations have been brought over to the Christian Religion their former opposition of it being suddenly changed into a resolute maintaining of it unto death after they have had Visions communicated to them several of which nature we our selves have seen And should we only reckon up those at which we
as whom they judged the best of all their Princes He conversed freely and innocently with all men being desirous rather to be beloved than than either fear'd or honour'd by the people The glory of all which is exceedingly stain'd in the Records of the Church by his severe proceedings against the Christians He looked upon the Religion of the Empire as daily undermin'd by this new way of Worship that the numbers of Christians grew formidable and might possibly endanger the peace and tranquillity of the Roman State and that there was no better way to secure to himself the favour of the gods especially in his Wars than to vindicate their cause against the Christians Accordingly therefore he issued out orders to proceed against them as illegal Societies crected and acting contrary to the Laws in which number all Colleges and Corporations were accounted that were not a L. 1. 3. ss de Colleg. corp Lib. 47. tit 22. settled either by the Emperors constitution or the Decree of the Senate and the persons b Ulplan de off procons l. 6. ib. l. 2. frequenting them adjudged guilty of High Treason Indeed the Emperors as we have elsewhere observed were infinitely suspicious of such meetings as which might easily conspire into Faction and Treason and therefore when Pliny c Lib. 10. Epist 42 43. interceded with Trajan in behalf of the City of Nicomedia that being so subject to fires he would constitute a corporation of Smiths though but a small number which might be easily kept in order and which he promised to keep a particular eye upon The Emperor answered By no means for we ought to remember says he that that Province and especially those Cities are greatly disturbed by such kind of Factions and whatever the title or the occasion be if they meet together they will be Heteriae though less numerous than the rest That they look'd upon the Christian Assemblies as in the number of these unlawful Corporations and that under this pretence Trajan endeavoured to suppress them will appear from Pliny's Letter to him In the mean time he commanded them either to offer sacrifice to the gods or to be punished as contemners of them The people also in several places by popular tumults falling foul upon them The chief of those who obtained the Crown of Martyrdom under him were S. Clemens Bishop of Rome S. Simeon Bishop of Jerusalem and S. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch whom Trajan himself condemned and sent to Rome there to be thrown to wild Beasts XXI THE Persecution rag'd as in the other parts of the Empire so especially in the Provinces of Pontus and Bithynia where Pliny the younger who had some time since been Consul then governed as Pro-Praetor with Consular power and dignity Who seeing vast multitudes of Christians indicted by others and pressing on of themselves to execution and that to proceed severely against all that came would be in a manner to lay waste those Provinces he thought good to write to the Emperor about this matter to know his pleasure in the case His Letter because acquainting us so exactly with the state of the Christians and the manner of proceeding against them and giving so eminent a testimony to their innocency and integrity we shall here insert C. PLINIUS to the Emperor TRAJAN IT is my custom Sir in all affairs wherein I doubt to have recourse to you For who can better either sway my irresolution or instruct my ignorance I have never been heretofore present at the examination and trial of Christians and therefore know not what the crime is and how far it is wont to be punished or how to proceed in these enquiries Nor was I a little at a loss whether regard be to be had to difference of age whether the young and the weak be to be distinguished from the more strong and aged whether place may be allowed to repentance and it may be of any advantage to him who once was a Christian to cease to be so Whether the name alone without other offences or the offences that go along with the name ought to be punished In the mean time towards those who as Christians have been brought before me I have taken this course I asked them whether they were Christians if they confessed it I asked them once and again threatning punishment if they persisted I commanded them to be executed For I did not at all doubt but that whatever their confession was their stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished Others there were guilty of the like madness whom because they were Roman Citizens I adjudged to be transmitted to Rome While things thus proceeded the error as is usual spreading farther more cases did ensue A nameless Libel was presented containing the names of many who denied themselves to to be or to have been Christians These when after my example they invocated the gods and offered Wine and Incense to your Statue which for that purpose I had commanded to be brought together with the images of the gods and had moreover blasphemed Christ which its said none that are true Christians can be compelled to do I dismiss'd others mentioned in the Libel confessed themselves Christians but presently denied it that they had indeed been such but had renounced it some by the space of three years others many years since and one five and twenty years ago All which paid their reverence and veneration to your Statue and the images of the gods and blasphemed Christ They affirmed that the whole sum of that Sect or error lay in this that they were wont upon a set solemn day to meet together before Sun-rise and to sing among themselves a Hymn to Christ as the God whom they worshipped and oblige themselves by an Oath not to commit any wickedness but to abstain from Theft Robbery Adultery to keep Faith and when required to restore any pledge intrusted with them Which done then to depart for that time and to meet again at a common meal to partake of a promiscuous and harmless food which yet they laid aside after I had published an Edict forbidding according to your order the Heteriae or unlawful Assemblies to be kept To satisfie my self in the truth hereof I commanded two Maidens called Deaconesses to be examined upon the Wrack But I perceived nothing but a lewd and immoderate Superstition and therefore surceasing any farther process I have sent to pray your advice For the case seemed to me very worthy to be consulted about especially considering the great numbers that are in danger for very many of all ages and ranks both men and women are and will be called in question the contagion of this Superstition having over-spreâ—d not only Cities but Towns and Country Villages which yet seems possible to be stopt and cur'd It 's very evident that the Temples which were almost quite forsaken begin to be frequented that the holy Rites and Solemnities of a long time neglected are set
it if they would but voluntarily because they trust in God This is true virtue which Philosophers in vain only talk of when they tell us that nothing is so suitable to the gravity and constancy of a wise man as not by any terrors to be driven from his sentiments and opinions but that it is vertuous and great indeed to be tortur'd and die rather than betray ones Faith or be wanting in his duty or do any thing that 's unjust or dishonest though for fear of death or the acutest torment unless they thought their own Poet rav'd when he said Horat. Carm. l. 3. Od. 3 p. 154. Justum tenacem propositi virum Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quaâ—it solida The Just man that resolved stands Not Tyrants frowns nor fierce commands Nor all the peoples rage combin'd Can shake the firmness of his mind Than which nothing can be more truly said if meant of those who refuse no tortures nor death it self that they may preserve fidelity and justice who regard not the command of Tyrants nor the Swords of the Governors that they may with a constant mind preserve real and solid liberty wherein true Wisdom alone is to be maintained Thus far that elegant Apologist And certainly the truth of his reasonings was abundantly verified by the experience of the World Christians getting ground and conquering opposition by nothing more than their patience and their constancy till they had subdued the Empire it self to the acknowledgment of the truth And when once the great Constantine had entertained Christianity it went along with wind and tide and bore down all before it And surely it might be no unpleasant survey to consider what was the true state of Paganism under the first Christian Emperors and how and by what degrees that Religion which for so many ages had governed the world slunk away into obscurity and silence But this is a business without the bounds of my present enquiry to search into The end of the INTRODUCTION THE LIFE OF S. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR Act. Vii LIX And they stoned STEPHEN calling vpon God and saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit M. Burghers sculpsit The violent opposition that Christianity at its first appearance met with both from Jews and Gentiles St. Stephens Kindred unknown One of the Seventy The great Charity of the Primitive Believers Dissention between the Hebrews and Grecians Hellenists who The Original of Deacons in the Christian Church The nature of their Office the number and qualification of the Persons Stephens eminent accomplishments for the place The envy and opposition of the Jews against him The Synagogue of the Libertines what Of the Cyrenians Alexandrians c. Their disputation with St. Stephen and the success of it False Witnesses suborned to depose against him The several parts of their charge considered The mighty veneration of the Jews for their Temple and the Mosaic Institutions It s destruction by Titus and their attempts to rebuild it under Julian frustrated by a miracle Stephens Apology before the Sanhedrin The Jews rage against him He is encouraged by a vision Stoning to death what kind of punishment the manner of it among the Jews St. Stephens Martyrdom His Character and excellent vertues The time and place of his suffering The place and manner of his burial His body first discovered when and how The Story of its translation to Constantinople The miracles said to be done by his Reliques and at his Memoriae Several reported by St. Augustin What credit to be given to them Miracles how long and why continued in the Church The vain pretences of the Church of Rome I. THe Christian Religion being designed by God for the reformation of Mankind and the rooting out that Barbarism and Idolatry wherewith the World was so over-grown could not but meet with opposition all corrupt Interests conspiring to give it no very welcom entertainment Vice and Errour had too long usurped the Throne to part with it by a tame and easie resignation but would rather summon all their Forces against a Doctrin that openly proclaimed the subversion and ruine of their Empire Hence this Sect was every where spoken against equally opposed both by Jew and Gentile The Gentiles despised it for its lateness and novelty as having no antiquity to recommend it nor could they endure that their Philosophy which then every where ruled the Chair should be controlled by a plain simple Doctrine that pretended to no elaborate Schemes no insinuative strains of Eloquence no nice and subtile arts of Reasoning no abstruse and sublime Speculations The Jews were vexed to see their expectations of a mighty Prince who should greatly exalt their State and redeem it from that oppression and slavery under which it groaned frustrated by the coming of a Messiah who appeared under all the circumstances of meanness and disgrace and who was so far from rescuing them from the power of the Roman Yoke that for their obstinacy and unbelief he threatned the final and irrevocable ruine of their Countrey and by the Doctrine he published plainly told them he intended to abolish those ancient Mosaick Institutions for which they had such dear regards and so solemn a Veneration Accordingly when he came amongst them they entertained him with all the instances of cruelty and contempt and whatever might expose him to the scorn and odium of the People they vilified and reproached his person as but the son of a Carpenter a Glutton and a Drunkard a Traitor and an Enemy unto Caesar they sleighted his Doctrine as the talk onely of a rude and illiterate person traduced his Miracles as tricks of Imposture and the effects of a black Confederacy with the infernal Powers And when all this would not do they violently laid hands upon him and took away his life And now one would have thought their spite and fury should have cooled and died but malice and revenge are too fierce and hot to stop at the first attempt On they resolve to go in these bloody methods and to let the World see that the Disciples and Followers must expect no better then their Master it was not many Moneths before they took occasion to refresh their rage in St. Stephens Martyrdom the History of whose Life and Death we now come to relate and to make some brief Remarks upon it II. THE sacred Story gives us no particular account either of the Countrey or Kindred of this Holy man That he was a Jew is unquestionable himself sufficiently owns the relation in his Apology to the People but whether originally descended of the stock of Abraham or of Parents incorporated and brought in by the gate of Proselytism whether born at Jerusalem or among the dispersed in the Gentile Provinces is impossible to determine Ad Ann. XXXIV n. 275 298. Baronius grounding his conjecture upon an Epistle of Lucian of which more afterwards makes him to have been one of Gamaliels Disciples
and fellow-Pupil with St. Paul who proved afterwards his mortal enemy but I must confess I find not in all that Epistle the least shadow of probability to countenance that conjecture Antiquity * Epiph. Haerâ—â— XX. p. 27. Doroth Synops de Vit. App. in Bibl. PP Tom. 3. p. makes him probably enough to have been one of the LXX Disciples chosen by our Lord as Co-adjutors to the Apostles in the Ministry of the Gospel and indeed his admirable knowledge in the Christian Doctrine his singular ability to defend the cause of Christs Messiaship against its most acute opposers plainly argue him to have been some considerable time trained up under our Saviours immediate institutions Certain it is that he was a man of great zeal and piety endowed with extraordinary measures of that divine Spirit that was lately shed upon the Church and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers which peculiarly qualified him for a place of honour and usefulness in the Church whereto he was advanced upon this occasion III. THE Primitive Church among the many instances of Religion for which it was famous and venerable was for none more remarkable then their Charity they lived and loved as Brethren were of one heart and one soul and continued together with one accord Love and Charity were the common soul that animated the whole body of Believers and conveyed heat and vital spirits to every part They prayed and worshipped God in the same place and fed together at the same table None could want for they had all in common The rich sold their estates to minister to the necessiâ—ies of the poor and deposited the money into one common Treasury the care whereof was committed to the Apostles to see distribution made as every ones case and exigency did require But in the exactest harmony there will be some jars and discord heaven onely is free from quarrels and the occasions of offence The Church increasing every day by vast numbers of Converts to the Faith the Apostles could not exactly superintend the disposure of the Churches stock and the making provision for every part and were therefore probably forced to take in the help of others sometimes more and sometimes less to assist in this affair By which means a due equality and proportion was not observed but either through favour and partiality or the oversight of those that managed the matter some had larger portions others less relief then their just necessities called for This begat some present heats and animosities in the first and purest Church that ever was Act. 6.1 the Grecians murmuring against the Hebrews because their Widows were neglected in the daily ministration IV. WHO these Grecians or Hellenists were opposed here to the Hebrews however a matter of some difficulty and dispute it may not be unuseful to enquire The opinion that has most generally obtained is that they were originally Jews born and bred in Grecian or Heathen Countries Joh. 7.35 of the dispersed among the Gentiles the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the stile of the New Testament as also in the Writings of the Fathers being commonly used for the Gentile World who accommodated themselves to their manner of living spake the Greek Language but altogether mixed with Hebraisms and Jewish forms of speech and this called Lingua Hellenistica and used no other Bible but the Greek Translation of the Septuagint Comment de Hellenist Qu. 1 2 3 4 5. praecipue pag. 232. c. vid. etiam inter alios Bez. Camer in loc A notion which Salmasius has taken a great deal of pains to confute by shewing that never any People went under that notion and character that the Jews in what parts of the World soever they were were not a distinct Nation from those that lived in Palestine that there never was any such peculiar distinct Hellenistic Dialect nor any such ever mentioned by any ancient Writer that the Phrase is very improper to express such a mixt Language yea rather that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies one that expresseth himself in better Greek then ordinary as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes one that studies to speak pure Attic Greek Probable therefore it is that they were not of the Hebrew race but Greek or Gentile Proselytes who had either themselves or in their Ancestors deserted the Pagan Superstitions and imbodied themselves into the Jewish Church taking upon them Circumcision and the observation of the Rites of the Mosaic Laws which kind the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes of Justice and were now converted to Christianity That there were at this time great numbers of these Proselytes at Jerusalem is evident and strange it were if when at other times they were desirous to have the Gospel preached to them none of them should have been brought over to the Faith Even among the seven made choice of to be Deacons most if not all of whom we may reasonably conclude to have been taken out of these Grecians we find one expresly said to have been a Proselyte of Antioch as in all likelihood some if not all the other might be Proselytes of Jerusalem And thus where ever we meet with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Grecians in the History of the Apostolic Acts as 't is to be met with in two places more we may Act. 9.29.11.20 and in reason are to understand it So that these Hellenists who spake Greek and used the Translation of the LXX were Jews by Religion and Gentiles by descent with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gentiles they had the same common Original with the Jews the same common Profession and therefore are not here opposed to Jews which all those might be stiled who embrace Judaism and the Rites of Moses though they were not born of Jewish Ancestors but to the Hebrews who were Jews both by their Religion and their Nation And this may give us some probable account why the Widows of these Hellenists had not so much care taken of them as those of the Hebrews the persons with whom the Apostles in a great measure intrusted the ministration being kinder to those of their own Nation their Neighbours and it may be Kindred then to those who onely agreed with them in the profession of the same Religion and who indeed were not generally so capable of contributing to the Churches Stock as the native Jews who had Lands and Possessions which they sold and laid at the Apostles feet V. THE peace and quiet of the Church being by this means a little ruffled and discomposed the Apostles who well understood how much Order and Unity conduced to the ends of Religion presently called the Church together and told them that the disposing of the Common Stock and the daily providing for the necessities of the Poor however convenient and necessary was yet a matter of too much trouble and distraction to consist with a faithful discharge of the other
been embraced by some of the most early Writers of the Church But whoever considers that the one was an Apostle and one of the Twelve the other a Deacon onely and one of the Seven chosen out of the People and set apart by the Apostles that they themselves might attend the more immediate Ministeries of their Office that the one was dispersed up and down the Countrey while the other remained with the Apostolical Colledge at Jerusalem that the one though commissionated to Preach and to Baptize could not impart the Holy Ghost the peculiar prerogative of the Apostolical Office will see just reason to force him to acknowledge a vast difference between them Our S. Philip was one of the Seventy Disciples and S. Stephens next Colleague in the Deacons Office erected for the conveniency of the Poor and assisting the Apostles in some inferiour Services and Ministrations which shews him to have been a person of great esteem and reputation in the Church endowed with miraculous powers full of Wisdom and of the Holy Ghost which were the qualifications required by the Apostles in those who were to be constituted to this place In the discharge of this Ministery he continued at Jerusalem for some moneths after his election till the Church being scattered up and down he was forced to quit his station as what wonder if the Stewards be dismissed when the Houshold is broken up II. THE Protomartyr had been lately sacrificed to the rage and fury of his Enemies but the bloudy Cloud did not so blow over but increased into a blacker tempest Cruelty and revenge never say it is enough like the temper of the Devil whose malice is insatiable and eternal Stephens death would not suffice the whole Church is now shot at and they resolve if possible to extirpate the Religion it self The great Engineer in this Persecution was Saul whose active and fiery genius and passionate concern for the Traditions of the Fathers made him pursue the design with the Spirit of a Zealot and the rage of a Mad-man Having furnished himself with a Commission from the Sanhedrim he quickly put it in execution broke open Houses seized whoever he met with that looked but like a Disciple of the crucified Jesus and without any regard to Sex or Age beat and haled them unto prison plucking the Husband from the bosom of his Wife and the Mother from the embraces of her Children blaspheming God prosecuting and being injurious unto men breathing out nothing but slaughter and threatnings where-ever he came H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 39. whence Eusebius calls it the first and most grievous Persecution of the Church The Church by this means was forced to retire the Apostles onely remaining privately at Jerusalem that they might the better superintend and steer the affairs of the Church while the rest were dispersed up and down the neighbouring Countries publishing the glad tidings of the Gospel and declaring the nature and design of it in all places where they came so that what their Enemies intended as the way to ruine them by breaking the knot of their Fellowship and Society proved an effectual means to enlarge the bounds of Christianity Thus excellent perfumes while kept close in a box few are the better for them whereas being once whether casually or maliciously spilt upon the ground the fragrant scent presently fills all corners of the house III. AMONG them that were thus dispersed was our Evangelist so stiled not from his Writing but preaching of the Gospel He directed his journey towards the Province of Samaria and came into a City of Samaria as those words may be read probably Gitton the birth-place of Simon Magus though it's safest to understand it of Samaria it self This was the Metropolis of the Province had been for some Ages the Royal Seat of the Kings of Israel but being utterly destroyed by Hyrcanus had been lately re-edified by Herod the Great and in honour of Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him stiled Sebaste The Samaritans were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles made up of the remains that were left of the Ten Tribes which were carried away captive and those Heathen Colonies which the King of Babylon brought into their room and their Religion accordingly was nothing but Judaism blended with Pagan Rites though so highly prized and valued by them that they made no scruple to dispute place and to vie with the Worship of the Temple at Jerusalem Upon this account there had been an ancient and inveterate pique and quarrel between the Jews and them so as utterly to refuse all mutual intercourse with each other Joh. 4.9 Hence the Samaritan Woman wondred that our Lord being a Jew should ask drink of her who was a Woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans They despised them at the rate of Heathens devoted them under the most solemn execrations allowed them not to become Proselytes nor to have any Portion in the Resurrection of the Just suffered not an Israelite to eat with them no nor to say Amen to their Blessing nor did they think they could fasten upon our Saviour a greater Character of reproach then to say that he was a Samaritan and had a Devil But God regards not the prejudices of men nor always with-holds his kindness from them whom we are ready to banish the Lines of Love and Friendship 'T is true the Apostles at their first mission were charged not to go in the way of the Gentiles Matth. 1◠5 nor to enter into any City of the Samaritans But when Christ by his death had broken down the partition wall Eph. 2.14 15. seq and abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments contained in ordinances then the Gospel came and preached peace as well to them that were afar off as to them that were nigh Philip therefore freely preached the Gospel to these Samaritans so odious so distastful to the Jews to which he effectually prepared his way by many great and uncontrollable miracles which being arguments fitted to the capacities and accommodate to the senses of the meanest do easiliest convey the truth into the minds of men And the success here was accordingly the people generally embracing the Christian Doctrine while they beheld him curing all manner of diseases and powerfully dispossessing daemons who with great horror and regret were forced to quit their residence to the equal joy and wonder of that place IV. IN this City was one Simon born at a Town not far off who by Sorcery and Magic Arts had strangely insinuated himself into the reverence and veneration of the People A man crafty and ambitious daring and insolent whose Diabolical sophistries and devices had for a long time so amazed the eyes of the Vulgar that they really thought him and for such no doubt he gave out himself to be the supreme Divinity probably magnifying himself as that divine Power that was to visit the Jews
as the Messia or the Son of God among the Samaritans giving out himself to be the Father as a Lib. 1. c. 20. p. 115. Irenaeus assures us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Countryman b Apol. II. p. 69. vid. Tert. de praeser Haeret. c. 46. p. 219. Justin Martyr tells us the People worshipped him as the first and chiefest Deity as afterwards among the Gentiles he stiled himself the Holy Ghost And what wonder if by this train of Artifices the People were tempted and seduced to admire and adore him And in this case things stood at S. Philips arrival whose greater and more unquestionable miracles quickly turned the Scale Imposture cannot bear the too near approach of Truth but flies before it as darkness vanishes at the presence of the Sun The People sensible of their errour universally flocked to S. Philips Sermons and convinced by the efficacy of his Doctrine and the power of his Miracles gave up themselves his Converts and were by Baptism initiated into the Christian Faith Yea the Magician himself astonished at those mighty things which he saw done by Philip professed himself his Proselyte and Disciple and was baptized by him being either really persuaded by the convictive evidence of Truth or else for some sinister designs craftily dissembling his Belief and Profession of Christianity A piece of Artifice which c H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 1. p. 39. Eusebius tells us his Disciples and Followers still observed in his time who in imitation of their Father like a Pest or a Leprosie were wont to creep in among the Christian Societies that so they might with the more advantage poison and infect the rest many of whom having been discovered had with shame been ejected and cast out of the Church V. THE fame of S. Philips success at Samaria quickly flew to Jerusalem where the Apostles immediately took care to dispatch some of their own number to confirm these new Converts in the Faith Peter and John were sent upon this errand who being come prayed for them and laid their hands upon them ordaining probably some to be Governors of the Church and Ministers of Religion which was no sooner done but the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost fell upon them A plain evidence of the Apostolic Power Philip had converted and baptised them but being onely a Deacon as d Eplph. Haeres XXI p. 29. Epiphanius and e Christ Horâ—â— 18. in 〈◊〉 p. â—â— Chrysostom truely observe could not conser the Holy Ghost this being a faculty bestowed onely upon the Apostles Simon the Magician observing this that a power of working miracles was conveyed by the imposition of the Apostles hands hoped by obtaining it to recover his credit and reputation with the people to which end he sought by such methods as were most apt to prevail upon himself to corrupt the Apostles by a sum of money to confer this power upon him Peter resented the motion with that sharpness and severity that became him told the Wretch of the iniquity of his offer and the evil state and condition he was in advised him by repentance to make his Peace with Heaven that if possible he might prevent the miserable fate that otherwise did attend him But what passed between Peter and this Magician both here and in their memorable encounter at Rome so much spoken of by the Ancients we have related more at large in another place a Antiquit. App. Life of S. Pâ—t Sect. 8. v. 1 Sect. 9. 〈◊〉 4. VI. WHETHER S. Philip returned with the Apostles to Jerusalem or as b Hâ—â—il 19. in Act. App p. 585. Chrysostom thinks staid at Samaria and the parts thereabouts we have no intimations left upon Record 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ibid. p. 586. But where-ever he was an Angel was sent to him with a message from God to go and instruct a Stranger in the Faith The Angel one would have thought had been most likely himself to have managed this business with success But the wise God keeps Method and Order and will not suffer an Angel to take that Work which he has put into the hands of his Ministers The sum of his Commission was to go toward the South unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza which is desart A circumstance which whether it relate to the way or the City is not easie to decide it being probably true of both Gaza was a City anciently famous for the strange efforts of Sampsons strength for his captivity his death and the burial of himself and his enemies in the same Ruine It was afterwards sacked and laid wast by Alexander the Great and as c Geograph l. 16. p. 759. Zach. 2.4 Jer. 47.5 Strabo notes remained wast and desart in his time the Prophetical curse being truly accomplished in it Gaza shall be forsaken a Fate which the Prophet Jeremy had foretold to be as certain as if he had seen it already done baldness is come upon Gaza So certainly do the divine threatnings arrest and take hold of a proud and impenitent People so easily do they set open the Gates for ruine to enter into the strongest and best fortified Cities where Sin has once undermined and stript them naked of the divine protection VII NO sooner had S. Philip received his Orders though he knew not as yet the intent of his journey but he addressed himself to it he arose and went he did not reason with himself whether he might not be mistaken and that be a false and deluding Vision that sent him upon such an unaccountable errand and into a Desart and a Wilderness where he was more likely to meet with Trees and Rocks and wild Beasts then Men to preach to but went however well knowing God never sends any upon a vain or a foolish errand An excellent instance of obedience as 't is also recorded to Abrahams eternal honour and commendation that when God sent his Warrant he obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went As he was on his journey he espied coming towards him a man of Aethiopia an Eunuch of great authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem to worship though in what part of the World the Countrey here spoken of was situate the word being variously used in Scripture has been some dispute a Doroâ—h Synops p. 148. Dorotheus and b Sopiâ— ap Hier. de Strip Eccl. in Crescent Sophronius of old and some later Writers place it in Arabia the Happy not far from the Persian Gulf but it 's most generally conceived to be meant of the African Aethiopia lying under or near the torrid Zone the People whereof are described by Homer to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remotest part of mankind and accordingly a Hier. ad Paul Tom. 3. p. 7. S. Hierom says of this Eunuch that he came from Aethiopia that is ab extremis mundi
to his discipline and institutions and as the nature of true goodness is ever communicative he presently went and acquainted his Sister Mary with the notice of the Messia who hastned to come to him and importuned him to come home to her house where our Lord afterwards as the Church continued to do after his decease was wont to assemble with his Disciples and that her Son Mark was that young man Mark 14 1â— who bore the Pitcher of Water whom our Lord commanded the two Disciples to follow home and there prepare for the celebration of the Passover III. BUT however that was he doubtless continued with our Lord to the last and after his Ascension stood fair to be chosen one of the twelve if it be true what is generally taken for granted though I think without any reason b Loc. supr citat Chrysostom I am sure enters his dissent that he is the same with Joseph called Barsabas who was put candidate with Matthias for the Apostolate in the room of Judas However that he was one of the LXX c Strâ—â— l. 2. P. 412. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 2. c. 1. p. 38. ex â—lâ—m Hâ—â—ot l. 7. 〈◊〉 Alex. pag. 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandrinus expresly affirms as others do after him And when the necessities of the Church dayly increasing required more then ordinary supplies he according to the free and noble spirit of those Times having Lands of good value sold them and laid the money at the Apostles feet If it be enquired how a Levite came by Lands and Possessions when the Mosaick Law allowed them no particular portions but what were made by public provision it needs no other answer then to suppose that this Estate was his Patrimonial Inheritance in Cyprus where the Jewish Constitutions did not take place and surely an Estate it was of very considerable value and the parting with it a greater charity then ordinary otherwise the sacred Historian would not have made such a particular remark concerning it IV. THE Church being dispersed up and down after S. Stephens Martyrdom we have no certain account what became of him in all probability he staid with the Apostles at Jerusalem where we find him not long after S. Pauls Conversion For that fierce and active Zealot being miraculously taken off in the height of his rage and fury and putting on now the innocent and inoffensive temper of a Lamb came after some little time to Jerusalem and addressed himself to the Church But they not satisfied in the reality of his change and fearing it might be nothing but a subtle artifice to betray them universally shunned his company and what wonder if the harmless Sheep fled at the sight of the Wolf that had made such havock of the Flock till Barnabas presuming probably upon his former acquaintance entered into a more familiar converse with him introduced him to the Apostles and declared to them the manner of his Conversion and what signal evidences he had given of it at Damascus in his bold and resolute Disputations with the Jews V. THERE is that scattereth and yet increaseth the dispersion of the Church by Sauls Persecution proved the means of a more plentiful harvest the Christian Religion being hereby on all hands conveyed both to Jews and Gentiles Act. 11.20 Among the rest some Cyprian and Cyrenean Converts went to Antioch where they preached the Gospel with mighty success great numbers both of Jews and Proselytes wherewith that City did abound heartily embracing the Christian Faith The news whereof coming to the Apostles at Jerusalem they sent down Barnabas to take an account of it and to setle this new Plantation Being come he rejoiced to see that Christianity had made so fair a progress in that great City earnestly pressing them cordially and constantly to persevere in that excellent Religion which they had entertained himself like a pious and a good man undergoing any labours and difficulties which God was pleased to crown with answerable success the addition of multitudes of new Converts to the Faith But the work was too great to be managed by a single hand to furnish himself therefore with suitable assistance he went to Tarsus to enquire for S. Paul lately come thither Him he brings back with him to Antioch where both of them continued industriously ministring to the increase and establishment of the Church for a whole year together and then and there it was that the Disciples of the Holy Jesus had the honourable name of Christians first solemnly fixed upon them VI. IT hapned about this time or not long after that a severe famine foretold by Agabus a Christian Prophet that came down to Antioch pressed upon the Provinces of the Roman Empire and especially Judaea whereby the Christians whose estates were exhausted by their continual contributions for the maintenance of the Poor were reduced to great extremities The Church of Antioch compassionating their miserable case agreed upon a liberal and charitable supply for their relief which they intrusted with Barnabas and Paul whom they sent along with it to the Governours of the Churches that they might dispose it as necessity did require Ritual Graecor in promot Oeconom p. 281. This charitable Embassie the Greek Rituals no doubt respect when in the Office at the Promotion of the Magnus Oeconomus or High Steward of the Church whose place it was to manage and dispose the Churches Revenues they make particular mention of the Holy and most famous Barnabas the Apostle and generous Martyr Having discharged their trust Act. 12.25 they returned back from Jerusalem to Antioch bringing along with them John sirnamed Mark the son of Mary sister to Barnabas whose house was the sanctuary where the Church found both shelter for their persons and conveniency for the solemnities of their Worship VII THE Church of Antioch being now sufficiently provided of spiritual Guides our two Apostles might be the better spared for the conversion of the Gentile World As they were therefore engaged in the duties of Fasting and Prayer and other public exercises of their Religion the Spirit of God by some prophetic afflatus or revelation made to some of the Prophets there present commanded that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart to that peculiar Ministry to which God had designed them Accordingly having fasted and prayed hands were solemnly laid upon them to denote their particular designation to that service Imposition of hands had been a ceremony of ancient date Even among the Gentiles they were wont to design persons to public Functions and Offices by lifting up or stretching out the hand whereby they gave their Votes and Suffrages for those imployments But herein though they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stretch forth they did not lay on their hands which was the proper Ceremony in use and of far greater standing in the Jewish Church When Moses made choice of the seventy Elders to be his Co-adjutors in the Government it was say the Jews
by laying his hands upon them and when he constituted Joshua to be his Successor he laid his hands on him and gave him the charge before all the Congregation This custom they constantly kept in appointing both Civil and Ecclesiastical Officers and that not onely while their Temple and Polity stood but long after the fall of their Church and State For so a Itinerar p. 73. Benjamin the Jew tells us that in his time all the Israelites of the East when they wanted a Rabbin or Teacher in their Synagogues were wont to bring him to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they call him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Head of the Captivity residing at Babylon at that time R. Daniel the son of Hasdai that he might receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power by imposition of hands to become Preacher to them From the Jews it was together with some other Rites transferred into the Christian Church in ordaining Guides and Ministers of Religion and has been so used through all Ages and Periods to this day Though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not of equal extent in the writings and practice of the Church the one implying the bare Rite of laying on of hands while the other denotes Ordination it self and the intire solemnity of the action Whence the b Lib. 8. c. 28. col 494. Apostolical Constitutor speaking of the Presbyters interest in this affair says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he lays on his hands but he does not ordain meaning it of the Custom then and ever since of Presbyters laying on their hands together with the Bishop in that solemn action VIII BARNABAS and Paul having thus received a divine Commission for the Apostleship of the Gentiles and taking Mark along with them as their Minister and attendant immediately entered upon the Province And first they betook themselves to Seleucia a neighbour City seated upon the influx of the River Orontes into the Mediterranean Sea hence they set sail for Cyprus Barnabas's Native Country and arrived at Salamis a City heretofore of great account the ruines whereof are two miles distant from the present Famagusta where they undantedly preached in the Jewish Synagogues From Salamis they travelled up the Island to Paphos a City remarkable of old for the Worship of Venus Divapotens Cypri the tutelar Goddess of the Island who was here worshipped with the most wanton and immodest Rites and had a famous Temple dedicated to her for that purpose concerning which the Inhabitants have a c Cotovic Itin. l. 1. c. 16. p. 100. Tradition that at S. Barnabas his Prayers it fell flat to the ground and the ruines of an ancient Church are still shewed to Travellers and under it an Arch where Paul and Barnabas were shut up in Prison At this place was the Court or Residence of the Praetor or President of the Island not properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Proconsul for Cyprus was not a Proconsular but a Praetorian Province who being altogether guided by the counsels and sorceries of Bar-Jesus an eminent Magician stood off from the Proposals of Christianity till the Magician being struck by S. Paul with immediate blindness for his malicious opposition of the Gospel this quickly determined the Governours belief and brought him over a Convert to that Religion which as it made the best offers so he could not but see had the strongest evidences to attend it IX Act. 13.13 LEAVING Cyprus they sailed over to Perga in Pamphilia famous for a Temple of Diana here Mark weary it seems of this itinerant course of life and the unavoidable dangers that attended it took his leave and returned to Jerusalem which laid the foundation of an unhappy difference that broke out between these two Apostles afterwards The next place they came to was Antioch in Pisidia where in the Jewish Synagogue S. Paul by an elegant Oration converted great numbers both of Jews and Proselytes but a persecution being raised by others they were forced to desert the place Thence they passed to Iconium a noted City of Lycaonia where in the Synagogues they preached a long time with good success till a conspiracy being made against them they withdrew to Lystra the inhabitants whereof upon a miraculous cure done by S. Paul treated them as gods come down from Heaven in humane shape S. Paul as being principal Speaker they termed Mercury the interpreter of the gods Barnabas they looked upon as Jupiter their soveraign deity either because of his Age or as a Homil. XXX in Act. App. p. 361. Chrysostom thinks because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the gravity and comeliness of his person being as antiquity represents him a very goodly man and of a venerable aspect wherein he had infinitely the advantage of S. Paul who was of a very mean and contemptible presence But the malice of the Jews pursued them hither and prevailed with the People to stone S. Paul who presently recovering he and Barnabas went to Derbe where when they had converted many to the Faith they returned back to Lystra Iconium and Antioch and so through Pisidia to Pamphylia thence from Perga to Attalia confirming as they came back the Churches which they had planted at their first going out At Attalia they took Ship and sailed to Antioch in Syria the place whence they had first set out where they gave the Church an account of the whole success of their travels and what way was made for the propagation of Christianity in the Gentile World X. THE restless enemy of all goodness was vexed to see so fair and smooth a progress of the Gospel and therefore resolved to attempt it by the old subtle arts of intestine divisions and animosities what the envious man could not stifle by open violence he sought to choke by sowing tares Act. 15.1 Some zealous Converts coming down from Jerusalem to Antioch started this notion which they asserted with all possible zeal and stiffness that unless together with the Christian Religion they joined the observance of the Mosaic Rites there could be no hopes of salvation for them Paul and Barnabas opposed themselves against this heterodox opinion with all vigour and smartness but not able to beat it down were dispatched by the Church to advise with the Apostles and Brethren at Jerusalem about this matter Whither they were no sooner come but they were kindly and courteously entertained and the right hand of fellowship given them by the three great Apostles Peter James and John and an agreement made between them that where-ever they came they should betake themselves to the Jews while Paul and Barnabas applied themselves unto the Gentiles And here probably it was that Mark reconciled himself to his Uncle Barnabas which a Alexand. Monach ubi supr n. XV. one tells us he did with tears and great importunity earnestly begging him to forgive his weakness and cowardice and promising for the future a
fixed at Ephesus did yet accompany S. Paul some part of his journey into Greece at least went to him thither upon some urgent affairs of the Church and then returned to his charge Not long after which S. Paul wrote his first Epistle to him to encourage him in his duty and direct him how to behave himself in that eminent Station wherein he had set him And because the success of the Ministry does in a great measure depend upon the persons imployed in it he gives him more particular rules how to proceed in this matter and how the persons ought to be qualified whom he admitted to that honourable and important Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 34. p. 189. Nicephorus speaks excellently representing in that Epistle as in a short draught the life and conversation of the sacred Governours of the Church describing the tempers and manners of those who are appointed to be the Guides and Ministers of Religion Well he knew also that crafty Teachers and false Apostles were creeping into the Church whose principles and practices he remarks warning him to beware of them and to stand continually upon his guard against them The holy man followed his instructions and was no doubt faithful to his trust which he managed with all care and diligence About six years after S. Paul being then a Prisoner at Rome wrote a second Epistle to him for that this Epistle was written at his first coming to Rome we have shewed elsewhere b Antiq. Apost Life of S. Paul Sect. 7. n. 5. 2 Tim. 4.9 to excite him to a mighty care and fidelity in his business and in undermining the false and subtle insinuations of Seducers In it he orders Timothy to come to him with all speed to Rome who accordingly came and joined with him in the several Epistles written thence to the Philippians Colossians and to Philemon as his name in the front of those Epistles does abundantly declare During his stay at Rome he was upon some occasion cast into prison and thence released and set at liberty about the time of S. Pauls enlargement as he clearly intimates in the close of his Epistle to the Hebrews Hebr. 13.23 24. after which he came back to Ephesus nor is it probable that he any more removed from thence till his translation into Heaven And here it was that he became acquainted with S. John whose Apostolical Province mainly lay in Asia and the parts about Ephesus and so the c Ap. Bolland Januar. XXIV Acts under the name of Polycrates one of his successors doubtless of good antiquity being those mentioned and made use of by Photius report that he conversed with and was an auditor of S. John the Divine who lay in the bosom of our Lord. VIII THE Ephesians were a people of great looseness and impiety their manners were wanton and effeminate prophane and prodigal they banished Hermodorus onely because he was more sober and thrifty then the rest Strab. Geogr. lib. 14. enacting a Decree Let none of ours be thrifty They were strangely bewitched with the study of Magic and the Arts of Sorcery and Divination miserably over-run with with Idolatry especially the Temple and Worship of Diana for which they were famous through the whole World Among their many Idolatrous Festivals they had one called a Martyr Timoth. Apost ap Phot. Cod. 254. col 1401 1404. Com. de S. Timoth. S. Metaphr apud Sur. ad Jan. XXIV n. 9 10. Fragment vit S. Timoth. Graece ap P. Halloix in vit Polycarp p. 558. forsan ex Act. S. Timoth. à Polycrat uti alunt scriptis quae eadem habent ap Bolland ad Januar. XXIV p. 566. ΚΑΤΑΓΩΓΙΟΠwhich was celebrated after this manner Habiting themselves in an antic dress and covering their faces with ugly Vizors that they might not be known with Clubs in their hands they carried Idols in a wild and a frantic manner up and down the more eminent places of the City singing certain Songs and Verses to them and without any compassion or respect either to Age or Sex setting upon all persons that they met they beat out their brains glorying in it as a brave atchievement and a great honour to their gods This cursed and execrable custom gave just offence to all pious and good men especially S. Timothy whose spirit was grieved to see God so openly dishonoured humane nature sunk into such a deep degeneracy and so arbitrarily transported to the most savage barbarities by the great murderer of souls The good man oft endeavoured to reclaim them by lenitive and mild intreaties but alas gentle Physic works little upon a stubborn constitution When that would not do out he comes to them into the midst of the street upon one of these fatal solemnities and reproves them with some necessary sharpness and severity But cruelty and licentiousness are too headstrong to brook opposition impatient of being controlled in their wild extravagancies they fall upon him with their Clubs beat and drag him up and down and then leave him for dead whom some Christians finding yet to breath took up and lodged him without the Gate of the City where the third day after he expired He suffered martyrdom on the thirtieth day of the fourth moneth according to the Asian computation or in the Roman account on the XXII of January as the Greek Church celebrates his memory or the XXIV according to the Latine It happened as some will have it in the time of Nerva while others more probably refer it to the reign of Domitian it being done before S. John's return from his banishment in Patmos which was about the beginning of Nerva's reign Being dead the Christians of Ephesus took his body and decently interred it in a place called Pien Piron says b De Vit. Obit SS c. 86. p. 542. Isidore who adds that 't was a Mountain where it securely rested for some Ages till c Hieron adv Vigil p. 122. Tom. 2. Niceph. Eccl. H. l. 2. c. 43. p. 210. Metaphr ubi supr n. X. Constantine the Great or as others his son Constantius caused it to be translated to Constantinople and laid up together with those or S. Andrew and S. Luke in the great Church erected by Constantine to the holy Apostles IX HE was a man of no very firm and healthful constitution frequent distempers assaulting him besides the constant infirmities that hung upon him Which S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Homil. I. ad Pop. Antioch Tom. 1. p. 5. Chrysostom conceives were in a great measure owing to his extraordinary temperance and too frequent fastings An effectual course to subdue those youthful lusts which S. Paul cautioned him to shun there being no such way to extinguish the fire as to withdraw the fewel he allowed himself no delicious Meats no generous Wines Bread and Water was his usual Bill of Fare till by excessive abstinence and the meaness and courseness
of Jerusalem till the destruction of the Temple none were admitted but Jewish Converts and so it might be at first at Rome where infinite numbers of Jews then resided they might keep themselves for some time in distinct assemblies the one under S. Paul the other under Peter And some foundation for such a conjecture there seems to be even in the Apostolic History Act. 28.23 24 25 28 39 31. where S. Luke tells us that S. Paul at his first coming to Rome being rejected by the Jews turned to the Gentiles declaring to them the salvation of God who gladly heard and entertained it and that he continued thus preaching the Kingdom of God and receiving all that came in unto him for two years together This I look upon as the first setled foundation of a Gentile Church at Rome the further care and presidency whereof S. Paul might devolve upon Linus whom the interpolated Ignatius makes his Deacon or Minister as S. Peter having established a Church of Jewish Converts might turn it over to S. Clemens of whom e De Praescript Haeret. c. 32. p. 213. Tertullian expresly says that Peter ordained him Bishop of Rome Accordingly the Compiler of the f Lib. 7. c. 47. col 451. Apostolic Constitutions makes Linus to be ordained Bishop of Rome by S. Paul and Clemens by S. Peter He says indeed that Linus was the first and so he might very well be seeing S. Paul whatever the Modern Writers of that Church say to the contrary was some considerable time at Rome before S. Peter came hither Linus dying was probably succeeded by Cletus or Anacletus for the Greeks and doubtless most truly generally make him the same person in his distinct capacity At which time Clemens whom S. Peter had ordained to be his Successor continued to act as President over the Church of Jewish Converts and thus things remained till the death of Cletus when the difference between Jew and Gentile being quite worn off the entire Presidency and Government of the whole Church of Rome might devolve upon S. Clemens as the surviver and from this period of time the years of his Episcopacy according to the common computation are to begin their date By this account not onely that of g De Schism Donat. lib. 2. p. 38. Optatus and the h A Bucher edit comment in Vict. Can. Pasch c. 15. p. 269. Bucherian Catalogue may be true who make Clemens to follow Linus but also that of Baronius and many of the Ancients who make both Linus and Cletus to go before him as we can allow they did as Bishops and Pastors of the Gentile Church As for a more distinct and particular account of the Times I thus compute them Peter and Paul suffered Martyrdom in the Neronian persecution as we have elsewhere probably shewed Ann. LXV After which Linus sate twelve years four moneths and twelve days Cletus twelve years one but as Baronius seven moneths and eleven days which between them make XXV years and extend to Ann. Chr. XC after which if we add the nine years eleven moneths and twelve days wherein Clemens sate sole Bishop over that whole Church they fall in exactly with the third year of Trajan the time assigned for his Martyrdom by Eusebius Hierom Damasus and many others Or if with Petavius Ricciolus and some others we assign the Martyrdom of Peter and Paul Ann. LXVII two years later the computation will still run more smooth and easie and there will be time enough to be allowed for the odd moneths and days assigned by the different accounts and to make the years of their Pontificat compleat and full Nor can I think of any way considering the great intricacy and perplexity of the thing that can bid fairer for an easie solution of this matter For granting Clemens to have been ordained by S. Peter for his successor as several of the Ancients expresly affirm and yet withall what is evident enough that he died not till Ann. Chr. C. Traj III. it will be very difficult to find any way so proper to reconcile it As for that fansie of a Contr. Carpocrat Haeres XXVII p. 51. vid. Clem. Epist ad Corinth p. 69. Epiphanius that Clemens might receive imposition of hands from Peter but refused the actual exercise of the Episcopal Office so long as Linus and Cletus lived he onely proposes it as a conjecture founded meerly upon a mistaken passage of Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians and confesses 't is a thing wherein he dare not be positive not being confident whether it were so or no. V. MIGHT the ancient b Extat Grace Lat. inter PP Apost à Coteler â—dit Epistle written to S. James the Brother of our Lord under the name of our S. Clemens be admitted as a competent evidence there we find not onely that Clemens was constituted Bishop by S. Peter but with what formality the whole affair was transacted It tells us that the Apostle sensible of his approaching dissolution presented Clemens before the Church as a fit person to be his Successor the good man with all imaginable modesty declined the honour which S. Peter in a long discourse urged upon him and set out at large the particular duties both of Ministers in their respective Orders and Capacities as also of the people which done he laid his hands upon him and compelled him to take his seat How he administred this great but difficult Province the Ecclesiastical Records give us very little account The Author of the c Lib. Pontif. in vit Clem. Conc. T. 1. col 74. Pontifical that fathers himself upon Pope Damasus tells us that he divided Rome into seven Regions in each of which he appointed a Notary who should diligently enquire after all the Martyrs that suffered within his division and faithfully record the Acts of their Martyrdom I confess the credit of this Author is not good enough absolutely to rely upon his single testimony in matters so remote and distant though we are otherwise sufficiently assured that the custom of Notaries taking the Speeches Acts and Sufferings of the Martyrs did obtain in the early ages of the Church Besides this we are told by others that he dispatched away several persons to preach and propagate the Christian Religion in those Countries whither the sound of the Gospel had not yet arrived Nor did he onely concern himself to propagate Christianity where it wanted Hegesip ap Exseb l. 3. c. 16. p. 88. but to preserve the peace of those Churches where it was already planted For an unhappy Schism having broken out in the Church of Corinth they sent to Rome to require his advice and assistance in it who in the name of the Church whereof he was Governour wrote back an incomparable Epistle to them to compose and quel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d Epist ad Corinth p. 2. he calls it that impious and abominable Sedition that was arisen
a Joseph Antiq. Jad l. 13. c. 23. p. 462. Jews under Alexander Jannaeus their King sacked it because they would not receive the Rites of their Religion And God 't is like on purpose directed the Christians hither that they might be out of the reach of the Besom of Destruction that was to sweep away the Jews where-ever it came Nor was it a less remarkable instance of the care and tenderness of the Divine Providence over them that when Cestius Gallus had besieged Jerusalem on a sudden he should unexpectedly break up the Siege at once giving them warning of their danger and an opportunity to escape How long Simeon and the Church continued in this little Sanctuary and when they returned to Jerusalem appears not If I might conjecture I should place their return about the beginning of Trajans reign when the fright being sufficiently over and the hatred and severity of the Romans asswaged they might come back with more safety Certain it is that they returned before b Epiph. de Pond Mens ibid. Adrians time who forty seven years after the devastation coming to Jerusalem in order to its reparation found there a few houses and a little Church of Christians built upon Mount Sion in that very place where that Vpper Room was into which the Disciples went up when they returned from our Lords Ascension Here the Christians who were returned from Pella kept their solemn Assemblies and were so renowned for the flourishing state of their Religion and the eminency of their Miracles that Aquila the Emperours Kinsman and whom he had made Governour and Overseer of the rebuilding of the City being convinced embraced Christianity But still pursuing his old Magic and Astrological studies notwithstanding the frequent admonitions that were given him he was cast out of the Church Which he resented as so great an affront that he apostatized to Judaism and afterwards translated the Bible into Greek But to return back to Simâ—on confident we may be that he administred his Province with all diligence and fidelity in the discharge whereof God was pleased to preserve him as a person highly useful to his Church to a very great Age till the middle of Trajans reign when he was brought to give his last testimony to his Religion and that upon a very slight pretence X. THE Roman Emperors were infinitely jealous of their new established Sovereignty and of any that might seem to be Corrivals with them especially in Palestine and the Eastern parts For an ancient and constant tradition as appears besides Josephus both from Suetonius and Tacitus had been entertained throughout the Eust that out of Judaea should arise a Prince that should be the great Monarch of the World Which though Josephus to ingratiate himself with the Romans flatteringly applied to Vespasian yet did not this quiet their minds but that still they beheld all that were of the line of David with a jealous eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chron. Alexandr ad Ann. 1. Olympiad CCXIII. Indict XV. Vespas V. p. 586. eadem habet de Domitian ad An. 1. Olymp. CCXVIII Ind. V. Domit. XIII p. 590. This made Domitian Vespasians son resolve to destroy all that were of the blood royal of the house of Judah upon which account two Nephews of S. Jude one of the brothers of our Lord were brought before him and despised by him for their poverty and meanness as persons very unlikely to stand competitors for a Crown The very same Indictment was brought against our aged Bishop for some of the Sects of the a Euseb l. 3. c. 32. p. 103. 104. Jews not able to bear his activity and zeal in the cause of his Religion and finding nothing else to charge upon him accused him to Atticus at that time Consular Legat of Syria for being of the Posterity of the Kings of Judah and withall a Christian Hereupon he was apprehended and brought before the Proconsul who commanded him for several days together to be wracked with the most exquisit torments All which he underwent with so composed a mind so unconquerable a patience that the Proconsul and all that were present were amazed to see a person of so great age able to endure such and so many tortures at last he was commanded to be crucified He suffered in CXX year of his age and in the X. year of Trajans reign Ann. Chr. CVII the Alexandrin Chronicon b An. 4. Olymp. CCXX Ind. â— p. 594. places it Traj VII Ann. Chr. as appears by the Consuls CIV though as doubtful of that he places it again in the following year after he had sate Bishop of Jerusalem computing his succession from S. James his Martyrdom XLIII or XLIV years c Animadv ad Epiph. Haeres LXVI p. 266 Petavius makes it no less then XLVII though Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople probably by a mistake of the figure assign him but XXIII A longer proportion of time then a dozen of his immediate successors were able to make up God probably lengthening out his life that as a skilful and faithful Pilot he might steer and conduct the Affairs of that Church in those dismal and stormy days The End of S. SIMEON'S Life THE LIFE OF S. IGNATIUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Michael Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. IGNATIUS ANTIOCHENUS His Originals unknown Called Theophorus and why The Story of his being taken up into our Saviours arms refuted His Apostolic education S. Johns Disciple His being made Bishop of Antioch The eminency of that See The order of his succession stated His prudent Government of that Church The tradition of his appointing Antiphonal hymns by revelation Trajans persecuting the Church at Antioch His discourse with Ignatius Ignatius his cruel usage His sentence passed His being transmitted to Rome and why sent so far to his execution His arrival at Smyrna and meeting with S. Polycarp His Epistles to several Churches His coming to Troas and Epistles thence His arrival at Porto Romano Met on the way by the Christians at Rome His earnest desire of martyrdom His praying for the prosperity of the Church The time of his Passion His being thrown to wild Beasts What kind of punishment that among the Romans The collection of his Remains and their transportation to Antioch and the great honours done to them The great plenty of them in the Church of Rome Trajans surceasing the Persecution against the Christians The dreadful Earthquakes happening at Antioch Ignatius his admirable Piety His general solicitude for the preservation and propagation of the Christian Doctrine as an Apostle His care diligence and fidelity as a Bishop His patience and fortitude as a Martyr His Epistles Polycarps commendation of them I. FINDING nothing recorded concerning the Countrey or Parentage of this Holy Man I shall not build upon meer fansie and conjecture He is ordinarily stiled both by himself and others Theophorus which though like Justus it be oft no more then a
the Christian Faith Some not improbably conceive that the severe judgments which hapned not long after might have a peculiar influence to dispose the Emperours mind to more tenderness and pity for the remainder of his life For during his abode at Antioch there were dreadful and unusual d Dio. Cass Hist Rom. l. 68. Xiphil in vit Traj p. 249 250 251. Jo. Malel Chro. l. 10. ubi supr Earthquakes fatal to other places but which fell most heavy upon Antioch at that time filled more then ordinary with a vast Army and confluence of People from all parts of the World Among thousands that died and far greater numbers that were maimed and wounded Pedo the Consul lost his life and Trajan himself had he not escaped out at a window had undergone the same fate Accidents which I doubt not prepared his mind to a more serious consideration and regard of things Though these calamities happened not till some years after Ignatius his death XI WHETHER these judgments were immediate instances of the divine displeasure for the severity used against the Christians and particularly for their cruelty to Ignatius I will not say Certain it is that the Christian Church had a mighty loss in so useful and excellent a person For he was a good man one in whose brest the true spirit of Religion did eminently dwell a man of very moderate and mortified affections in which sense he doubtless intended that famous saving so much celebrated by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Love is crucified that is for to that purpose he explains it in the very words that follow his appetites and desires were crucified to the World and all the lusts and pleasures of it We may with a Orat. supr laud. p. 499. S. Chrysostom consider him in a threefold capacity as an Apostle a Bishop and a Martyr As an Apostle in the larger acception of the word he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the b Men. Graet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greek Offices stile him the immediate successor of the Apostles in their See he was careful to diffuse and propagate the genuine Doctrine which he had received of the Apostles and took a kind of Oecumenical care of all the Churches even in his passage to Rome he surveyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as c H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 36. p. 106. Eusebius tells us the Diocesses or Churches that belonged to all the Cities whither he came confirming them by his Sermons and Exhortations and directing Epistles to several of the principal for their further order and establishment in the Faith As a Bishop he was a diligent faithful and industrious Pastor infinitely careful of his charge which though so exceedingly vast and numerous he prudently instructed governed and superintended and that in the midst of ticklish and troublesome times above forty years together He had a true and unchangeable love for his People and when ravished from them in order to his Martyrdom there was not any Church to whom he d Epist ad Eph. p. 9. ad Magnes p. 15. ad Trallian p. 20. ad Rom. p. 25. ad Philaâ—elph p. 31 ad Smyrn p. 37. wrote but he particularly begged their prayers to God for his Church at Antioch and of some of them desired that they would send 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine Embassador thither on purpose to comfort them and to congratulate their happy deliverance from the Persecution And because he knew that the prosperity of the Church and the good of Souls were no less undermined by Heresie from within then assaluted by Violence and Persecution from without he had a peculiar eye to that and took all occasions of warning the Church to beware of Hereticks and Seducers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he stiles e Epist ad Smyrn p 34. Easeb ubi supr them those beasts in the shape of men whose wild notions and brutish manners began even then to embase Religion and corrupt the simplicity of the Faith Indeed he duly filled up all the measures of a wise Governour and an excellent Guide of Souls and f Ubi supr p. 500. c. S. Chrysostom runs through the particular characters of the Bishop delineated by S. Paul and finds them all accomplished and made good in him with so generous a care says he g Ibid. p. 499. so exact a diligence did he preside over the flock of Christ even to the making good what our Lord describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the utmost pitch and line of Episcopal fidelity to lay down his life for the sheep and this he did with all courage and fortitude which is the last consideration we shall remarque concerning him XII AS a Martyr he gave the highest testimony to his fidelity and to the truth of that Religion which he both preached and practised He gloried in his sufferings as his honour and his priviledge and looked upon his chains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls h Epist ad Eph. p. 6. them as his Jewels and his Ornaments he was raised above either the love or fear of the present state and could with as much ease and freedom says i Loâ— landat Chrysostom lay down his life as another man could put off his clothes The truth is his soul was strangely inflamed with a desire of Martyrdom he wished every step of his Journey to meet with the wild Beasts that were prepared for him and tells the k Epistaâ— Rom. 2.23 apud 〈…〉 Romans he desired nothing more then they might presently do his Work that he would invite and court them speedily to devour him and if he found them backward as they had been towards others he would provoke and force them And though the death he was to undergo was most savage and barbarous and dressed up in the most horrid and frightful shapes enough to startle the firmest resolution yet could they make no impression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the a Men. Graec ubi supr Greeks say of him upon his impregnable adamantine mind any more then the dashes of a Waye upon a Rock of Marble Let the fire said he * Epist ad Rom. p. 24. ap Eâ—seb ubi supr and the Cross the assaults of wild Beasts the breaking of bones cutting of limbs battering the whole body in pieces yea and all the torments which the Devil can invent come upon me so I may but attain to be with Jesus Christ professing he thought it much better to die for Christ then to live and reign the sole Monarch of the World Expressions certainly of a mighty Zeal and a divine Passion wound up to its highest note And yet after all this excellent person was humble to the lowest step of abasure he oft b Epist ad Eph. p. 9. ad Rom. p. 25. Epist ad Trall p. 17. professes that he looked upon himself as an Abortive and the very least of the
Faithful in the whole Church of Antioch and that though it was his utmost ambition yet he did not know whether he was worthy to suffer for Religion I might in the last place enter into a discourse concerning his Epistles the true Indices of the piety and divine temper of his mind those seven I mean enumerated and quoted by Eusebius and collected by S. Polycarp as c Epist Polycar p. 23. edit Usser ap Euseb loc cit p. 108. himself expresly testifies but shall forbear despairing to offer any thing confiderable after so much as has been said by learned men about them onely observing that in the exceptions to the argument from S. Polycarps testimony little more is said even by those who have managed it to the best advantage then what might be urged against the most genuine writing in the World I add S. Polycarps character of these Epistles whereby he recommends them as highly useful and advantagious that they contain in them Instructions and Exhortations to Faith and Patience and whatever is necessary to build us up in the Religion of our Lord and Saviour His Writings Genuine Ad Ephesios Epistola I. Ad Magnesianos I. Ad Trallianos I. Ad Romanos I. Ad Philadelphenos I. Ad Smyrnaeos I. Doubtful Epistola ad Polycarpum Spurious Ad Mariam Cassobolitam I. Ad Tarsenses I. Ad Antiochenos I. Ad Philippenses I. Ad Heronem I. Ad B. Virg. Mariam I. Ad Joannem Apostolum II. The End of S. IGNATIUS'S Life THE LIFE OF S. POLYCARP BISHOP of SMYRNA Miachel Burghers delineavit et sculpsit S. POLYCARPUS The place of his Nativity The honour and eminency of Smyrna His education under S. John By him constituted Bishop of Smyrna Whether the same with the Bishop to whom S. John committed the young man S. Polycarp the Angel of the Church of Symyrna mentioned in the Apocalyps Ignatius his arrival at Smyrna His Letters to that Church and to S. Polycarp His Journey to Rome about the Quartodeciman Controversie The time of it enquired into Anicetus his succession to the See of Rome His reception there by Anicetus Their mutual kindness notwithstanding the difference His stout opposing Heretics at Rome His sharp treatment of Marcion and mighty zeal against those early corrupters of the Christian Doctrinâ— Irenaeus his particular remarques of S. Polycarps actions The Persecution under M. Antoninus The time of Polycarps Martyrdom noted The acts of it written by the Church of Smyrna their great esteem and value S. Polycarp sought for His Martyrdom foretold by a dream His apprehension Conducted to Smyrna Irenarchae who Polycarps rude treatment by Herodes His being brought before the Proconsul Christians refused to swear by the Emperours genius and why His pious and resolute answers His slightings the Proconsuls threatnings His sentence proclaimed Asiarchae who Preparation for his burning His Prayer before his death Miraculously preserved in the fire Dispatched with a Sword The care of the Christians about his Remains this far from a superstitious veneration Their annual meeting at the place of his Martyrdom His great Age at his death The day of his Passion His Tomb how honoured at this day The judgments happening to Smyrna after his death The Faith and Patience of the Primitive Christians noted out of the Preface to the Acts of his Martyrdom His Epistle to the Philippians It s usefulness Highly valued and publicly read in the ancient Church The Epistle it self I. S POLYCARP was born towards the latter end of Nero's reign or it may be a little sooner his great Age at the time of his death with some other circumstances rendring it highly probable if not certain Uncertain it is where he was born and I see no sufficient reason to the contrary why we may not fix his Nativity at Smyrna an eminent City of Ionia in the lesser Asia the first of the seven that entered their claim of being the birth-place of the famous a Strab. Geograph l. 14. p. 646. Homer in memory whereof they had a Library and a four-square Portico called Homereum with a Temple and the Statue of Homer adjoining to it and used a sort of brass Coin which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his name and probably with his Image stampt upon it A place it was of great honour and renown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oxon. II. p 47. Evdem habâ—t Marm. â—XXVIII p. 129. CXLIII p. 277. Append. XV. p. 296. and has not onely very magnificent titles heaped upon it by the Writers of those Times but in several ancient Inscriptions set up by the public Order of the Senate not long after the time of Adrian it is stiled The chief City of Asia both for beauty and greatness the most splendid the Metropolis of Asia and the Ornament of Ionia But it had a far greater and more honourable Privilege to glory in if it was as we suppose the place of S. Polycarp's Nativity however of his Education the seat of his Episcopal care and charge and the Scene of his Tragoedy and Martyrdom The b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greeks in their Menaeon report that he was educated at the charge of a certain noble Matron whose name we are told was Callisto a woman of great Piety and Charity who when she had exhausted all her Cranaries in relieving the Poor had them suddenly filled again by S. Polycarps prayers The circumstances whereof are more particularly related by Pionius who suffered if which I much question it was the same under the Decian Persecution to this a Pion. vit S. Polycarp ex MS. Graec. apud Bolland Januar XXVI p. 696. effect Callisto warned by an Angel in a dream sent and redeemed Polycarp then but a child of some who sold him brought him home took care of his education and finding him a Youth of ripe and pregnant parts as he grew up made him the Major-domo and Steward of her house whose charity it seems he dispenced with a very liberal hand insomuch that during her absence he had emptied all her Barns and Store-houses to the uses of the Poor For which being charged by his Fellow-Servants at her return she not knowing then to what purpose he had imployed them called for the Keys and commanded him to resign his trust which was no sooner done but at her entrance in she found all places full and in as good condition as she had left them which his prayers and intercession with Heaven had again replenished As indeed Heaven can be sometimes content rather to work a Miracle then Charity shall suffer and fare the worse for its kindness and bounty In his younger years he is said to have been instructed in the Christian Faith by Bucolus whom the same b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menaeon elsewhere informs us S. John had consecrated Bishop of Smyrna however c Act. Ignat. p. 5. Hieron de Script in Polycarp E. sib 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 81 Authors of
and their false doctrines let us return to that doctrine that from the beginning was delivered to us let us be watchful in Prayers persevering in Fasting and Supplications beseeching the All-seeing God that he would not lead us into temptation Matt. 26.41 as the Lord has said the Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Let us unweariedly and constantly adhere to Jesus Christ who is our hope and the pledge of our righteousness 1 Pet. 2.22 24. who bare our sins in his own body on the Tree who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth but endured all things for our sakes that we might live through him Let us then imitate his patience and if we suffer for his Name we glorifie him for such a pattern he set us in himself and this we have believed and entertained VI. I exhort you therefore all that ye be obedient to the word of righteousness and that you exercise all manner of patience as you have seen it set forth before your eyes not onely in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus but in others also among you and in Paul himself and the rest of the Apostles being assured that all these have not run in vain but in faith and righteousness and are arrived at the place due and promised to them by the Lord of whose sufferings they were made partakers For they loved not this present world but him who both died and was raised up again by God for us Stand fast therefore in these things and follow the example of the Lord being firm and immutable in the faith lovers of the brethren and kindly affectionate one towards another united in the truth carrying your selves meekly to each other despising no man When it is in your power to do good defer it not for Alms delivereth from death Be all of you subject one to another having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that both you your selves may receive praise by your good works and that God be not blasphemed through you For wo unto him by whom the Name of the Lord is blasphemed Wherefore teach all men sobriety and be your selves conversant in it VII I am exceedingly troubled for Valens who was sometimes ordained a Presbyter among you that he so little understands the place wherein he was set I therefore warn you that you abstain from covetousness and that ye be chast and true Keep your selves from every evil work But he that in these things cannot govern himself how shall he preach it to another If a man refrain not from covetousness he will be defiled with Idolatry and shall be judged among the Heathen 1 Cor. 6.2 Who is ignorant of the judgment of the Lord Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World as Paul teaches But I have neither found any such thing in you nor heard any such thing of you among whom the blessed Paul laboured and who are in the beginning of his Epistle For of you he boasts in all those Churches which onely knew God at that time whom as yet we had not known I am therefore Brethren greatly troubled for him and for his Wife the Lord give them true repentance Be ye also sober as to this matter and account not such as enemies but restore them as weak and erring members that the whole body of you may be saved for in so doing ye build up your selves VIII I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy Scriptures and that nothing is hid from you a thing as yet not granted to me As it is said in these places be angry and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Blessed is he that is mindful of these things which I believe you are The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus the eternal High-priest and Son of God build you up in faith and truth and in all meekness that you may be without anger in patience forbearance long-suffering and chastity and give you a portion and inheritance amongst his Saints and to us together with you and to all under Heaven who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead Pray for all Saints Pray also for Kings Magistrates and Princes and even for them that hate and persecute you and for the Enemies of the Cross that your fruit may be manifest in all that you may be compleat in him IX YE wrote unto me both ye and Ignatius that if any one go into Syria he might carry your Letters along with him which I will do so soon as I shall have a convenient opportunity either my self or by some other whom I will send upon your errand According to your request we have sent you those Epistles of Ignatius which he wrote to us and as many others of his as we had by us which are annexed to this Epistle by which ye may be greatly profited For they contain in them faith and patience and whatever else is necessary to build you up in our Lord. Send us word what you certainly know both concerning Ignatius himself and his companions These things have I written unto you by Crescens whom I have hitherto commended to you and do still recommend For he has unblamably conversed among us as also I believe amongst you His sister also ye shall have recommended when she shall come unto you Be ye safe in the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with you all Amen The End of S. POLYCARP'S Life THE LIFE OF S. QUADRATUS BISHOP of ATHENS Michael Burghers Dilineavit et sculpsit S. QUADRATUS His Birth-place enquired into His Learning His Education under the Apostles Publius Bishop of Athens Quadratus his succession in that See The degenerate state of that Church at his coming to it His indefatigable zeal and industry in its reformation It s purity and flourishing condition noted by Origen Quadratus his being endowed with a spirit of Prophecy and a power of miracles This person proved to be the same with our Athenian Bishop The troubles raised against the Christians under the reign of Hadrian Hadrians Character His disposition towards Religion and base thoughts of the Christians His fondness for the Learning and Religion of Greece His coming to Athens and kindness to that City His being initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries These mysteries what and the degrees of initiation Several addresses made to the Emperour in behalf of the Christians Quadratus his Apologetic Ser. Granianus his Letter to Hadrian concerning the Christians The Emperours Rescript His good opinion afterwards of Christ and his Religion Quadratus driven from his charge His Martyrdom and place of Burial I. WHETHER S. Quadratus was born at Athens no notices of Church-Antiquity enable us to determine though the thing it self be not improbable his Education and Residence there and the Government of that Church seeming to give some colour to it And as Nature had furnished him with incomparable parts
and such like mischievous passions do proceed which being once driven out the soul presently enjoys a pleasant calmness and tranquillity And being delivered from that yoke of evils that before lay upon its neck it aspires and mounts up to its Creator it being but suitable that it should return to that place from whence it borrowed its original VI. BUT though he laid aside his former Profession he still retained his ancient Garb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Lib. 4. c. 11. p. 125. Eusebius and after him * De script in Justin S. Hierom reports preaching and defending the Christian Religion under his old Philosophic habit which was the Pallium or Cloak the usual badge of the Greek Philosophers different from that which was worn by the ordinary Greeks and which those Christians still kept to who before their conversion had been professed Philosophers So b De Script in Aristid S. Hierom tells us of Aristides the Athenian Philosopher contemporary with Quadratus that under his former habit he became Christs Disciple and c Ap. Euseb l. 6. c. 19. p. 221. Origen of Heraclas afterwards Bishop of Alexandria that giving up himself to the more strict study of Philosophy he put on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophic Habit which he constantly wore even after he became Presbyter of that Church This custom continued long in the Christian Church that those who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as d H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 37. Socrates speaks enter upon an Ascetic course of life and a more severe profession of Religion always wore the Philosophers Cloak and he tells us of Silvanus the Rhetorician that when he became Christian and professed this Ascetic life he was the first that laid aside the Cloak and contrary to custom put on the common Garb. Indeed it was so common that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became proverbial among the Heathens when any Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passed by there goes a Greek Impostor because of their being clad after the same manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dion Chrys Orat. LXXI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 627. and professing a severer life then ordinary like the Philosophers among the Grecians many of whom notwithstanding were meer cheats and hypocrites and e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. S. Hierom notes of his time that if such a Christian were not so fine and spruce in his Garb as others presently the common saying was clapt upon him he is an Impostor and a Greek This habit it seems was generally black and sordid enough Whence the Monks who succeeded in this strict and regular course of life are severely noted by the Gentile Writers of those Times under this character * Orat. de Templ p. 10. e Epist ad Marcel p. 115. Tom. 1. Libanius calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 black-coat Monks and says f Ibid. p. 28. of them that the greatest demonstration of their vertue was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to walk about in mourning garments Much at the same rate g In vit Aedâ—f p. 65. Eunapius describes the Monks of Egypt that they were clad in black and were ambitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to go abroad in the most flovenly and sordid Garb. But it is time to return to our S. Justin who as h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. 125 col 304. Photius and i Haeres 46. p. 1â—1 Epiphanius note shewed himself in his words and actions as well as in his habit to be a true Philosopher VII HE came to Rome upon what occasion is uncertain probably about the beginning of Antoninus Pius his reign where he fixed his habitation dwelling as appears from the acts of his Martyrdom about the Timothine Baths which were upon the Viminal Mount Here he strenously imployed himself to defend and promote the cause of Christianity and particularly to confute and beat down the Heresies that then mainly infested and disturbed the Church writing a Book a Apol. II. p. 70. against all sorts of Heresies but more especially opposed himself to Marcion who was the son of a Bishop born in Pontus and for his deflowering a Virgin had been cast out of the Church whereupon he fled to Rome where he broached many damnable errours and among the rest that there were two Gods one the Creator of the World whom he made to be the God of the Old Testament and the Author of Evil the other a more Sovereign and Supreme Being Creator of more excellent things the Father of Christ whom he sent into the World to dissolve the Law and the Prophets and to destroy the works of the other deity whom he stiled the God of the Jews Others and among them especially b Haeres XLII p. 135. Epiphanius and a more ancient Author c Dial. contr Marcion p. 3 4 Basil edit 1674. 4. of the Dialogues against the Marcionites under the name of Origen for that it was Origen himself I much question make him to have established three differing Principles or Beings an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or good Principle the Father of Christ and this was the God of the Christians an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Creating Principle that made the visible frame of things which presided over the Jews and an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evil Principle which was the Devil and ruled over the Gentiles With him Justin encountered both by Word and Writing particularly publishing a Book which he had composed against him and his pernicious principles VIII ABOUT the Year of our Lord CXL the Christians seem to have been more severely dealt with for though Antoninus the Emperour was a mild and excellent Prince and who put out no Edicts that we know of to the prejudice of Christianity yet the Christians being generally traduced and defamed as a wicked and barbarous generation had a hard hand born upon them in all places and were persecuted by virtue of the particular Edicts of former Emperours and the general standing Laws of the Roman Empire To vindicate them from the aspersions cast upon them and to mitigate the severities used towards them Justin about this time published his first Apology for though in all Editions it be set in the second place it was unquestionably the first Vid. Euseb l. 4. c. 18. p. 139. presenting it as appears from the Inscription to Antoninus Pius the Emperour and to his two sons Verus and Lucius to the Senate and by them to the whole People of Rome wherein with great strength and evidence of reason he defends the Christians from the common objections of their enemies proves the divinity of the Christian Faith and shews how unjust and unreasonable it was to proceed against them without due conviction and form of Law acquaints them with the innocent Rites and Usages of the Christian Assemblies and lastly puts the Emperour in mind of the course which Adrian his predecessor had taken in this matter who
had personally encountred and read the Books of others which gave him occasion what the desires of many had importuned him to undertake to set upon that elaborate Work against Heresies wherein he has fully displayed their wild and phantastic principles their brutish and abominable practises and with such infinite pains endeavoured to refute them though indeed so prodigiously extravagant so utterly irreconcileable were they to any principles of sober reason that as he himself d Lib. 1. c. ult p. 139. observes it was Victory enough over them onely to discover and detect them This Work he composed in the time of Eleutherus Bishop of Rome as is evident from his Catalogue e Lib. 3. c. 3. p. 233. ap Eus l. 5. c. 6. p. 171. of the Bishops of that See ending in Eleutherus the twelfth successive Bishop who did then possess the place VI. AND indeed it was but time for Irenaeus and the rest of the wise and holy Bishops of those days to bestir themselves grievous Wolves having entered in and made havock of the flock The field of the Church was miserably over-run with taâ—es which did not onely endanger the choaking of Religion within the Church but obstruct the planting and propagating the Faith among them that were without Nothing being more commonly objected against the truth and divinity of the Christian Religion then that they were rent and torn into so many Schisms and Heresies a Stromat l. p. 753. S. Clemens of Alexandria particularly encounters this exception some of whose excellent reasonings are to this effect The first thing says he they charge upon us and pretend why they cannot embrace the Faith is the diversity of Sects that are among us truth being delayed and neglected while some assert one thing and some another To which he answers that there were various Sects and Parties both among the Jews and the Philosophers of the Gentiles and yet no man thought this a sufficient reason why they should cease to study Philosophy or adhere to the Jewish Rites and Discipline that our Lord had foretold that Errours would spring up with Truth like Tares growing up with the Wheat and that therefore 't was no wonder if it accordingly came to pass and that we ought not to be wanting to our duty because others cast off theirs but rather stick closer to them who continue constant in the profession of the Truth that a mind diseased and distempered with Errour and Idolatry ought no more to be discouraged from complying with an Institution that will cure it by reason of some differences and divisions that are in it then a sick man would refuse to take any Medicines because of the different opinions that are among Physitians and that they do not all use the same Prescriptions that the Apostle hath told us that there must be heresies that they that are approved may be made manifest that they heartily entertain the Christian Doctrin improve and persevere in Faith and a holy Life that if Truth be difficult to be discerned yet the finding it out will abundantly recompence the trouble and the labour that a wise man would not refuse to eat of fruit because he must take a little pains to discover what is ripe and real from that which is only painted and counterfeit Shall the Traveller resolve not to go his journey because there are a great many ways that cross and thwart the common Road and not rather enquire which is the plain and Kings High-way or the Husbandman refuse to till his ground because Weeds grow up together with the Plants We ought rather to make these differences an argument and incentive the more accurately to examine Truth from Falshood and Realities from Pretences that escaping the snares that are plausibly laid we may attain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the knowledge of that which is really truth indeed and which is not hard to find of them that sincerely seek it But to return back to Irenaeus VII HAVING passed over the times of the Emperour Commodus the onely honour of whose Reign was that he created no great disturbance to the Christians being otherwise a most debauched and dissolute Prince in whom the Vices of all his Predecessors seemed to meet as in one Common-Sewer Eleutherus died and Victor succeeded in the See of Rome A man furious and intemperate impatient of contradiction and who let loose the Reins to an impotent and ungovernable Passion He revived the Controversie about the celebration of Easter and endeavoured imperiously to impose the Roman Custom of keeping it on the next Lords day after the Jewish Passover upon the Churches of the Lesser Asia and those who observed the contrary usage and because they would not yield rashly thundred out an Excommunication against them not onely endeavouring but as a Lib. 5. c. 24. p. 192. Eusebius explains it in the following words actually proscribing and pronouncing them cut off from the Communion of the Church The Asiatics little regarding the fierce threatnings from Rome under the conduct of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus stood their ground justifying their observing it upon the fourteenth day after the appearance of the Moon let it fall upon what day of the Week it would after the rule of the Jewish Passover and this by constant Tradition and uninterrupted usage derived from S. John and S. Philip the Apostles S. Polycarp and several others to that very day All which he told Pope Victor but prevailed nothing as what will satisfie a wilful and passionate mind to prevent his rending the Church in sunder For the composure of this unhappy Schism b Euseb ibid. c. 23. p. 190. Synods were called in several places as besides one at Rome one in Palestine under Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Palestina and Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem another in Pontus under Palmas and many more in other places who were willing to lend their hands toward the quenching of the common Flame c Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. who all wrote to Victor sharply reproving him and advising him rather to mind what concerned the Peace of the Church and the love and unity of Christians among one another And among the rest our Irenaeus who as Eusebius observes truly answered his name in his peaceable and peace-making temper convened a d Ibid. c. 23. p. 191. Synod of the Churches of France under his jurisdiction where with thirteen Bishops besides himself says the fore-mentioned e Ubi supr p. 7. Synodicon he considered and determined of this matter In whose name he wrote a Synodical Epistle to Pope f Ibid. c. 24. p. 192. Victor wherein he told him that they agreed with him in the main of the Controversie but withall duly and gravely advised him to take heed how he excommunicated whole Churches for observing the ancient Customs derived down to them from their Ancestors that there was as little agreement in the manner of the Preparatory Fast before Easter as in the
Justin Martyr the rest are of an inferiour and more inconsiderable notice As for his affirming that our Lord was near d Adv. Haeres l. 2 c. 39. p. 192. c. 40. ibid. fifty years of age at the time of his public Ministry it was an errour into which he was betrayed partly from a false supposition that our Lord must be of a more mature and elderly Age that so he might deliver his doctrine with the greater authority partly from a mistaken report which he had somewhere picked up and it may be from his Master Papias that S. John and the rest of the Apostles had so affirmed and taught it and partly out of opposition to his adversaries who maintained that our Saviour staid no longer upon earth then till the thirty first year of his age against whom the eagerness of disputation tempted him to make good his assertion from any plausible pretence and to take the hint though his impetus and the desire of prosecuting his Argument would not give his thoughts leave to cool and take the place into sober consideration from that question of the Jews to Christ thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham whence in transitu he took it for granted that the Jews had some ground for what they said and that he must be near that age XI HIS care to have his Writings derived pure and uncorrupted to posterity was great and admirable adding to his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this solemn and religious obtestation e Ap. Euseb H. Eccl. l. 5. c 20. p. 187. I adjure thee whoever thou art that shalt transcribe this Book by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his glorious coming wherein he shall judge the quick and the dead that thou compare what thou transcribest and diligently correct it by the Copy from whence thou transcribest it and that thou likewise transcribe this adjuration and annex it to thy Copy And well had it been with the ancient Writers of the Church had their Books been treated with this care and reverence more of them had been conveyed down to us at least those few that are had arrived more sound and unpolluted I note no more and it is what Eusebius long since thought worth taking notice of then that in his time miraculous gifts and powers were very common in the Church For so he f Adv. Haeres l. 2. c. 57. p. 218. ap Eusch l. 5. c. 7. p. 171. tells us that some expelled and cast out Devils the persons often embracing Christianity upon it others had Visions and Revelations and foretold things to come some spake all manner of Languages and as occasion was discovered mens thoughts and secret purposes and expounded the mysteries and deep things of God others miraculously healed the sick and by laying their hands upon them restored their health and many who raised the dead the persons so raised living among them many years after The Gifts as he speaks which God in the name of our crucified Lord then bestowed upon the Church being innumerable all which they sincerely and freely improved to the great advantage and benefit of the World Whence with just reason he urges the truth of our Religion in general and how much advantage true Christians had to triumph over all those Impostors and Seducers who sheltered themselves under the venerable Title of being Christians His Writings Extant Adversus Haereses seu De refutatione eversione falsae scientiae Libri V. Not extant Libellus de Scientia adversus Gentes Demonstratio Apostolicae praedicationis ad Marcianum fratrem Liber de Ogdoade Epistola ad Blastum de Schismate Ad Florinum de Monarchia seu Quod Deus non sit conditor mali Epistola Ad Victorem Episcopum Romanum de Paschate Epistola Ad varios Episcopos de eadem re Epistolae plures Variorum Tractatuum Liber The End of S. IRENAEUS 's Life THE LIFE OF S. THEOPHILUS BISHOP of ANTIOCH Micha Burg Dili et sculpsit S. THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS The great obscurity of his Originals His learned and ingenuous Education and natural parts An account of his Conversion to Christianity and the reasons inducing him thereunto collected out of his own Writings His scrupling the Doctrine of the Resurrection The great difficulty of entertaining that Principle Synesius his case Theophilus his conquering this objection His great satisfaction in the Christian Religion His election to the Bishoprick of Antioch His desire to convert Autolycus Autolycus who His mighty prejudice against Christianity Theophilus his undertaking him and his free and impartial debating the case with him His excellent merage of the controversie His vigorous opposing the Heresies of those times His Books against Marcion and Hermogenes His death and the time of it S. Hieroms Character of his Works His Writings I. THOUGH the Ancients furnish us with very few notices concerning this venerable Bishop yet perhaps it may not be unacceptable to the Reader to pick up that little which may be found The mistake is not worth confuting and scarce deserves mentioning that makes him the same with that Theophilus of Antioch to whom S. Luke dedicates his Evangelical Writings so great the distance of time if there were nothing more between them Whether he was born at Antioch is uncertain but where-ever he was born his Parents were Gentiles by whom he was brought up in the common Rites of that Religion that then governed the World They gave him all the accomplishments of a learned and liberal Education and vast improvements he made in the progress of his Studies so that he was throughly versed in the Writings of all the great Masters of Learning and Philosophy in the Heathen World which being set off with a quick and a pleasant wit as appears from his Disputes against the Gentiles rendred him a man of no inconsiderable note and account among them II. WHEN or by what means converted to Christianity is impossible particularly to determine thus much onely may be gathered from the Discourses which he left behind him Being a man of an inquisitive temper and doubtless of a very honest mind he gave up himself to a more free and impartial search into the nature and state of things He found that the account of things which that Religion gave wherein he was then engaged was altogether unsatisfactory that the stories of their gods were absurd and frivolous and some of them prophane and impious that their Rites of Worship were trifling and ridiculous he considered the several parts of the Creation and that excellent providence that governed the World wherein he easily discerned the plain notices of a wise and omnipotent Being and that God had purposely disposed things thus that his Grandeur and Majesty might appear to all Accordingly he directs his friend to this method of conviction as that which doubtless he had found most successful and satisfactory to himself He bids a Ad Autolyc l. 1. p. 72. him
the Metropolis of Lydia a great and ancient City the Seat of the Lydian Kings it was one of the Seven Churches to which S. John wrote Epistles and wherein he takes notice of some that durst own and stand up for God and Religion in that great degeneracy that was come upon it He was a man of admirable parts enriched with the furniture of all useful Learning acute and eloquent but especially conversant in the paths of Divine Knowledge having made deep enquiries into all the more uncommon parts and speculations of the Christian Doctrine He was for his singular eminency and usefulness chosen Bishop of Sardis though we cannot exactly define the time which were I to conjecture I should guess it about the latter end of Antoninus Pius his reign or the begining of his Successors He filled up all the parts of a very excellent Governour and Guide of Souls whose good he was careful to advance both by Word and Writing Which that he might attend with less solicitude and distraction he not onely kept himself within the compass of a single life but was more then ordinarily exemplary for his Chastity and Sobriety his self-denial and contempt of the World upon which account he is by Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus a Ap. Euseb l. 5. c. 24. p. 191. stiled an Eunuch that is in our Saviours explication one of those who make themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake who for the service of Religion and the hopes of a better life are content to deny themselves the comforts of a married state and to renounce even the lawful pleasures of this World And God who delights to multiply his Grace upon pious and holy souls crowned his other Vertues with the gift of Prophesie for so b Ap. Hieron de Script in Melit Tertullian tells us that he was accounted by the Orthodox Christians as a Prophet and Polycrates says c Loc. supr citat of him that he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in all things governed and directed by the afflatus and suggestion of the Holy Ghost Accordingly in the Catalogue d Ap Eâ—seb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. of his Writings we find one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the right way of living and concerning Prophets and another concerning Prophesie II. IT was about the year CLXX and the tenth e Eâ—sâ—b Chron. ad Ann. CLXXI. of M. Antoninus his Brother L. Verus having died the year before of an Apoplexy as he sate in his Chariot when the Persecution grew high against the Christians greedy and malicious men taking occasion from the Imperial Edicts lately published by all the methods of cruelty and rapine to oppress and spoil innocent Christians Whereupon as others so especially f Eâ—seb H. Eccl. loc supr citat S. Melito presents an Apology and humble Supplication in their behalf to the Emperour wherein among other things he thus bespeaks him If these things Sir be done by your Order let them be thought well done For a righteous Prince will not at any time command what is unjust and we shall not think much to undergo the award of such a death This onely request we beg that your self would please first to examine the case of these resolute persons and then impartially determine whether they deserve punishment and death or safety and protection But if this new Edict and Decree which ought not to have been proclaimed against the most barbarous Enemies did not come out with your cognizance and consent we humbly pray and that with the greater importunity that you would not suffer us to be any longer exposed to this public rapine III. AFTER this he put him in mind how much the Empire had prospered since the rise of Christianity and that none but the worst of his Predecessors had entertained an implacable spight against the Christians This new Sect of Philosophy says he which we profess heretofore flourished among the Barbarians by which probably he means the Jews Afterwards under the reign of Augustus your Predecessor it spread it self over the Provinces of your Empire commencing with a happy omen to it since which time the Majesty and Greatness of the Roman Empire hath mightily increased whereof you are the wished-for Heir and Successor and together with your Son shall so continue especially while you protect that Religion which begun with Augustus and grew up together with the Empire and for which your Predecessors had together with other Rites of Worship some kind of reverence and regard And that our Religion which was bred up with the prosperity of the Empire was born for public good there is this great Argument to convince you that since the reign of Augustus there has no considerable mischief happened but on the contrary all things according to every ones desire have fallen out glorious and successful None but Nero and Domitian instigated by cruel and ill-minded men have attempted to reproach and calumniate our Religion whence sprang the common slanders concerning us the injudicious Vulgar greedily entertaining such reports without any strict examination But your Parents of Religious Memory gave a check to this Ignorance and injustice by frequent Rescripts reproving those who made any new attempts in this matter Among whom was your Grandfather Adrian who wrote as to several others so to Fundanus the Proconsul of Asia and your Father at what time your self was Colleague with him in the Empire wrote to several Cities particularly to Larissaea Thessalonica Athens and all the Cities of Greece that they should not create any new disturbance about this affair And for your self who have the same opinion of us which they had and a great deal better more becoming a good man and a Philosopher we promise our selves that you will grant all our Petitions and Requests An Address managed with great prudence and ingenuous freedom and which striking in with other Apologies presented about the same time did not a little contribute to the general quiet and prosperity of Christians IV. NOR was he so wholly swallowed up with care for the general Peace of Christians as to neglect the particular good of his own or neighbour Churches During the Government of Servilius Paulus Proconsul of Asia Sagaris Bishop of Laodicea had suffered Martyrdom in the late persecution a Ipse Milet. ap Euseb l. 4. c. 26. p. 147. at what time the controversie about the Paschal solemnity was hotly ventilated in that Church some strangers probably urging the observation of the Festival according to the Roman usage celebrating it upon the Lords-day contrary to the custom of those Churches who had ever kept it upon the fourteenth day of the Moon according to the manner of the Jews For the quieting of which contention Melito presently wrote two Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the Passover wherein no doubt he treated at large of the celebration of Easter according to the observation of the Asian Churches and therefore Polycrates
World that we should universally submit to his will and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chearfully embrace with all our souls all the issues and determinations of his providence that we ought not to think it enough to be happy alone but that 't is our duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to love men from the very heart to relieve and help them advise and assist them and contribute what is in our power to their welfare and safety and this not once or twice but throughout the whole life and that unbiassedly without any little designs of applause or advantage to our selves that nothing should be equally dear to a man as honesty and vertue and that this is the first thing he should look at whether the thing he is going about be good or bad and the part of a good or a wicked man and if excellent and vertuous that he ought not to let any loss or damage torment or death it self deter him from it And whoever runs over the Writings of Seneca Antoninus Epictetus Arrian c. will find these and a great many more claiming a very near kindred with the main rules of life prescribed in the Christian Faith And what wonder if Pantaenus was in love with such generous and manly principles which he liked so well that as he always retained the title of the Stoic Philosopher so for the main he owned the profession of that Sect even after his being admitted to eminent Offices and Imployments in the Christian Church IV. BY whom he was instructed in the Principles of the Christian Religion I find not a Cod. CXVIII col 297. Photius tells us that he was Scholar to those who had seen the Apostles though I cannot allow of what he adds that he had been an Auditor of some of the Apostles themselves his great distance from their times rendring it next door to impossible But whoever were his Tutors he made such vast proficiences in his Learning that his singular eminency quickly recommended him to a place of great trust and honour in the Church to be Master of the Catechetic School at Alexandria For there were not onely Academies and Schools of Humane Literature but an Ecclesiastical School for the training persons up in divine knowledge and the first principles of Christianity and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says b Loc. supr citat Eusebius of very ancient custom from the very times of S. Mark says c Descript in Pantaen S. Hierom the first Planter of Christianity and Bishop of that place From whose time there had been a constant succession of Catechists in that School which Eusebius tells us continued in his time and was managed by men famous for eloquence and the study of divine things The fame and glory of Pantaenus did above all others at that time design him for this place in which he accordingly succeeded and that as d Cap. 9 10. ut supr Eusebius intimates about the beginning of Commodus his reign when Julian entered upon the See of Alexandria for about that time says he he became Governour of the School of the Faithful there And whereas others before him had discharged the place in a more private way he made the School more open and public freely teaching all that addressed themselves to him In this imployment he continued without intermission the whole time of Julian who sate ten years till under his Successor he was dispatched upon a long and dangerous journey whereof this the occasion V. ALEXANDRIA was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Orator e Dion Chrysost Orat. XXXII p. 375. vid. p. 373. stiles it one of the most populous and frequented Cities in the World whither there was a constant resort not onely of neighbour Nations but of the most remote and distant Countries Aethiopians Arabians Bactrians Scythians Persians and even Indians themselves It happened that some Indian Embassadors whether sent for this particular purpose is not certain intreated f Hieron de Script ubi supr Demetrius then Bishop of Alexandria to send some worthy and excellent person along with them to preach the Faith in those Countries None appeared qualified for this errand like Pantaenus a grave man and a great Philosopher incomparably furnished both with divine and secular Learning Him Demetrius persuades to undertake the Embassy and though he could not but be sufficiently apprehensive that he quitted a pleasant and delightful Country a place where he was beloved and honoured by all with a just esteem and reverence and that he ventured upon a journey where he must expect to encounter with dangers and hardships and the greatest difficulties and oppositions yet were all these easily conquered by his insatiable desire to propagate the Christian Religion even to the remotest corners of the World For there were many Evangelical Preachers even at that time as g Loc. citat Eusebius adds upon this occasion who inflamed with a divine and holy zeal in imitation of the Apostles were willing to travel up and down the World for enlarging the bounds of Christianity and building men up on the most holy Faith What India this was to which Pantaenus and after him Frumentius for that they both went to the same Countrey is highly probable was dispatched is not easie to determine There are and they men of no inconsiderable note that conceive it was not the Oriental but African India conterminous to Aethiopia or rather a part of it These Indians were a Colony and Plantation derived at first out of the East For so a Chron. ad An. Abrah CCCCIV Eusebius tells us that in the more early Ages the Aethiopians quitting the parts about the River Indus sate down near Egypt Whence b Vit. Apolion l. 6. c. 8. p. 287. Philostratus expresly stiles the Aethiopians a Colony of Indians as c Ibid. l. 3. c. 6. p. 125. elsewhere he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Indian generation The Metropolis of this Countrey was Axumis of which Frumentius is afterwards said to be ordained Bishop by Athanasius An opinion which I confess my self very inclinable to embrace and should without any scruple comply with did not d Hist Eccl. ubi supr Eusebius expresly say that Pantaenus preached the Gospel to the Eastern Nations and came as far as to India it self A passage which how it can suit with the African India and the Countries that lie so directly South of Egypt I am not able to imagine For which reason we have elsewhere fixed it in the East Nor is there any need to send them as far as India intra Gangem there are places in Asia nearer hand and particularly some parts of Arabia that anciently passed under that name whence the Persian Gulf is sometimes called the Indian Sea But let the judicious Reader determine as he please in this matter VI. BEING arrived in India he set himself to plant the Christian Faith in those parts especially conversing with the
of the Empire he is as little to be credited and guilty of as notorious a falshood as Eusebius observes as when he affirms that Origen was born and bred up a Gentile and then turned off to Christianity when as nothing was more evident then that Origen was born of Christian Parents and that Ammonius retained his Christian and divine Philosophy to the very last minute of his life whereof the Books which he left behind him were a standing evidence Indeed e Annal. p. 332. Edit Poâ—ock vid. 〈◊〉 Selden retan Eutyâ—â— Sect. 23. p. 147. Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria if he means the same seems to give some countenance to Porphyries report and further adds that Ammonius was one of the twenty Bishops which Heraclas then Bishop of Alexandria constituted over the Egyptian Churches but that he deserted his Religion Which Heraclas no sooner heard of but he convened a Synod of Bishops and went to the City where Ammonius was Bishop where having throughly scanned and discussed the matter he reduced him back again to the truth Whether he found this among the Records of that Church or took it from the mouth of Tradition and Report is uncertain the thing not being mentioned by any other Writer But however it was 't is plain that Ammonius was a man of incomparable parts and learning a Lib. de Provid fat ubi supr Hierocles himself stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one taught of God and when Plotinus the great Platonist had found him out he b Porphyr in vit Plotin p. â— Plot. n. Opâ—â— Praf Porphyr ap Eâ— seb ubi supr told his friend in a kind of triumph that this was the man whom he had sought after Under him Origen made himself perfect Master of the Platonic Notions being daily conversant in the Writings of Plato Numenius Cronius Apollophanes Longinus Moderatus Nicomachus and the most principal among the Pythagoreans as also of Chaeremon and Cornatus Stoics from whom as Porphyry truly enough observes he learned that allegorical and mystical way of interpretation which he introduced into the Christian Doctrin IV. BESIDES our Adamantius there was another Origen his Contemporary a Gentile Philosopher honourably mentioned by c Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apâ—d Porphyr in vit Plotin Longinus d Ibid. Porphyry e Lib. de Fat ubi supr Hierocles f In vit Porphyr p. 19. Eunapius g In Plat. Tâ—eol l. 2. c. 4. p. 90. Proclus and others a person of that learning and accurate judgment that coming h Ap. Porphyr loc cit one day into Plotinus his School the grave Philosopher was ashamed and would have given place and when intreated by Origen to go on with his Lecture he answered with a complement that a man could have but little mind to speak there where he was to discourse to them who understood things as well as himself and so after a very short discourse broke up the meeting I am not ignorant that most learned men have carelesly confounded this person with our Origen Whence i De Vit. Script Porphyr c. 2. p. 11. Holstenius wonders why Eunapius should make him School-fellow with Porphyry who was much his junior whom Porphyry says indeed he knew being himself then very young and this probably not at Alexandria but at Tyre where he was born and where Origen a long time resided So that his wonder would have ceased had he considered what is plain enough that Eunapius meant it of this other Origen Porphyries fellow-Pupil not under Ammonius at Alexandria but under Plotinus at Rome Indeed were there nothing else this were enough to distinguish them that the account given of Origen and what he wrote by Longinus by Porphyry in the life of Plotinus and others does no ways agree to our Christian Writer V. THE Persecution under Severus in the tenth year of his reign was now grown hot at Alexandria Laetus the Governour daily adding fewel to the flames where among the great numbers of Martyrs k Euseb ib. c. 1. p 201. Leonides Origens Father was first imprisoned then beheaded and his estate confiscate and reduced into the public Exchequer During his imprisonment l Id. c. 2 p. 2â—â— Origen began to discover a most impatient desire of Martyrdom from which scarce any intreaties or considerations could restrain him He knew the deplorable estate wherein he was like to leave his wife and children could not but have a sad influence upon his Fathers mind whom therefore by Letters he passionately exhorted to persevere unto Martyrdom adding this clause among the rest Take heed Sir that for our sakes you do not change your mind And himself had gone not onely to prison but to the very block with his Father if the divine Providence had not interposed His Mother perceiving his resolutions treated him with all the charms and endearments of so affectionate a relation attempted him with prayers and tears intreating him if not for his own that at least for her sake and his nearest relatives he would spare himself All which not prevailing especially after his Fathers apprehension she was forced to betake her self to little Arts hiding all his cloths that meer shame might confine him to the house A mighty instance as the Historian notes of a juvenile forwardness and maturity and a most hearty affection for the true Religion VI. HIS Father being dead and the a Eâ—seb ibid. p. 203. Estate seized for the Emperours use he and the Family were reduced to great streights When behold the providence of God who peculiarly takes care of Widows and Orphans and especially the relicts of those that suffer for him made way for their relief A rich and honourable Matron of Alexandria pitying his miserable case liberally contributed to his necessities as she did to others and among them maintained one Paul of Antioch a ringleader of all the Heretics at Alexandria who by subtle artifices had so far insinuated himself into her that she had adopted him to be her Son Origen though he held his livelihood purely at her bounty would not yet comply with this Favourite not so much as to join in prayer with him no not when an innumerable multitude not onely of Heretics but of Orthodox daily flocked to him taken with the eloquence of his discourses For from his childhood he had religiously observed the Rule and Canon of the Church and abominated as himself expresses it all heretical Doctrines Whether this noble Lady upon this occasion withdrew her charity or whether he thought it more agreeable to the Christian Rule to live by his own labour then to depend wholly upon anothers bounty I know not but having perfected those Studies of Foreign Learning the foundations whereof he had laid under the Discipline of his Father he now began to set up for himself opening a School for the profession of the learned Arts where besides the good he did to others he raised a
renown and accordingly came thither while Pope Zephyrin sate Bishop of that See where he staid not long but returned back to Alexandria and to his accustomed Catechetic office Demetrius earnestly importuning him to resume it But finding the imployment c Ibid. c. 15. p. 217. grow upon him and so wholly to engross his time as not to allow him the least leisure for retirement and contemplation and the study of the Scriptures so fast did auditors press in upon him from morning to night he took in Heraclas who had been his Scholar a man versed both in divine and humane Studies to be his Partner dividing the work between them the younger and more untutored Catechumens he committed to him the maturer and those who had been of a longer standing he reserved to be instructed by himself And now he gave up himself to a closer and more accurate Study of the holy Scriptures which that he might manage with the better success he set himself to learn the Hebrew Tongue the true Key to unlock the Door wherein as d Apolog. adv Ruffin Tom. 2. p. 201. S. Hierom probably intimates he was assisted by the help of Huillus the Jewish Patriarch at that time at least in the Rabbinic Exposition of the Scripture a thing little understood in those times and the place he lived in and to him who was now in the prime of his age and the Flower of more pleasing and delightful Studies no doubt very difficult and uneasie But nothing is hard to an industrious diligence and a willing mind X. NOR did his pains in this interrupt his activity in his other imployments where he perceived e Eus ib. c. 18. p. 218. any of his Scholars of more smart and acute understandings he first instructed them in Geometry Arithmetic and other preparatory Institutions and then brought them through a course of Philosophy discovering the Principles of each Sect and explaining the Books of the Ancients and sometimes himself writing Comments upon them so that the very Gentiles cried him up for an eminent Philosopher The ruder and more unpolished part of his auditory he would often exhort to the Study of humane Arts assuring them that they would not a little conduce to the right understanding of the holy Scriptures Many flocked to him to make trial of his famed Skill and Learning others to be instructed in the Precepts both of Philosophy and Christianity Great numbers of Heretics were his Auditors some of whom he converted from the errour of their way and among the rest * Euseb ib. Hieron de Scrip. in Ambros Suid. in Voc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph ubi supr p. 228. Ambrosius a man of Nobility and Estate at Alexandria having been seduced into the Errours of Marcion and Valentinus being convinced by Origen's Discourses renounced his former Heresies and returned to the Catholic Doctrin of the Church and ever after became his intimate Friend his great Patron and Benefactor He was a man of neat elegant parts and was continually prompting Origen to explain and interpret some part of the Scripture as oft as they were together as a Epist ap Suid. ubi supr p. 390 vid. Hieron Ep. ad Marcell p. 129. Tom. 1. Origen himself informs us he suffered not a Supper time to pass without discourses to this purpose nor their very walks and recreations to be without them a great part of the night besides their morning studies were spent upon these pious exercises their meals and their rest were ushered in with continual Lectures and both night and day where Prayer ended Reading began as after reading they again betook themselves to Prayer Indeed this Ambrose was a pious and good man and though so great a person did not disdain to take upon him the Office of a Deacon in the Church nay to undergo great hardships and sufferings becoming an eminent Confessor for the Faith And there is onely this blot b Hieron de Script in Ambrof that I know of that sticks upon his memory that when he died rich he remembred not his dear and ancient Friend whose low and mean condition might well have admitted as his pains and intimacy might deservedly have challenged a bountiful legacy to have been bequeathed to him XI ABOUT this time came a c Euseb ibid. c. 19. p. 221. Messenger from the Governour of Arabia with Letters to Demetrius the Bishop and to the Praefect of Egypt desiring that with all speed Origen might be sent to impart the Christian Doctrin to him so considerable had the fame of this great man rendred him abroad in foreign Nations Accordingly he went into Arabia where having dispatched his errand he came back to Alexandria Not long after whose return the Emperour Caracalla drew his Army into those parts intending to fall severely upon that City To avoid whose rage and cruelty Origen thought good to withdraw himself and not knowing any place in Egypt that could afford him shelter he retired into Palestin and fixed his residence at Caesarea Where his excellent abilities being soon taken notice of he was requested by the Bishops of those parts though but then in the capacity of a Laic publicly in the Church and before themselves to expound the Scriptures to the People The news hereof was presently carried to Alexandria and highly resented by Demetrius who by Letters expostulated the case with Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem as a thing never heard of before in the Christian Church who in their answer put him in mind that this had been no such unusual thing whereof they give him particular instances All which satisfied not Demetrius who by Letters commanded Origen to return and sent Deacons on purpose to urge him to it whereupon he came back and applied himself to his wonted charge XII ALEXANDER SEVERVS the present Emperour in order to his expedition against the Persians was come to Antioch attended with his mother Mammaea a wise and prudent and says d Ibid. c. 21. p. 223. vid. excerpt ex Jo. Antioch p. 830. Eusebius a most pious and religious Princess a great influence she had upon her Son whom she engaged in a most strict and constant administration of Justice and the affairs of the Empire that he might have no leisure to be debauched by Vice and Luxury Indeed he was a Prince of incomparable Vertues Historians representing him as mild and gentle compassionate and charitable sober and temperate just and impartial devout and pious one advanced to the Empire for the recovery and happiness of mankind He was no enemy to Christians whom he did not onely not persecute but favour at every turn and in his private Oratory he had among other Heroes the Images of Abraham and of Christ and was once minded to have built a Temple to him and publicly admitted him into the number of their gods He highly admired some precepts of the Christian Religion and from their Discipline learned some Rites
these more predominant then in those Times and parts of the World wherein this good man lived II. ANN. Chr. CCXXXIX Gordian Imper. I. died a Fâ—seb H. Eccl. lâ— 16. c. 29. p. 229. Zebinus Bishop of Antioch in whose room Babylas succeeded He was a stout and prudent Pilot who as S. Chrysostom b Homil. de S. Bâ—byl p. 641. Tem. 1. says of him guided the holy Vessel of that Church in the midst of Storms and Tempests and the many Waves that beat upon it Indeed in the beginning of his Presidency over that Church he met not with much trouble from the Roman Powers the old Enemies of Christianity but a fierce storm blew from another quarter For Sapor King of c Capitol in Gâ—â—â—diâ—a III. 〈◊〉 26. p. 〈◊〉 Persia had lately invaded the Roman Empire and having over-run all Syria had besieged and taken Antioch and so great a dread did his Conquests strike into all parts that the terrour of them flew into Italy and startled them even at Rome it self He grievously oppressed the People of Antioch and what treatment the Christians there must needs find under so merciless and insolent an Enemy at no time favourable to Christians is no hard matter to imagine But it was not long before God broke this yoke from off their necks For Gordian the Emperour raising a mighty Army marched into the East and having cleared the Countries as he went along came into Syria and went directly for Antioch where he totally routed the Persian Army recovered Antioch and the conquered Cities and gained some considerable places belonging to Sapor whom he forced to retire back into his own Countrey of all which he gives an account in a * Ibid. c. 27. p. 670. Letter to the Senate who joyfully received the news and decreed him a triumph at his return to Rome III. THE Church of Antioch being thus restored to its former tranquillity Babylas attended his charge with all diligence and fidelity instructing feeding and governing his Flock preparing both young and old to undergo the hardest things which their Religion might expose them to as if he had particularly foreseen that black and dismal Persecution that was shortly to overtake them Having quietly passed through the reign of Philip who was so far from creating any disturbance to the Christians that he is generally though groundlesly supposed to have been a Christian himself he fell into the troublesome and stormy times of Decius who was unexpectedly advanced and in a manner forced upon the Empire One whose character might have passed among none of the worst of Princes if he had not so indelebly stained his memory with his outragious violence against the Christians The main cause whereof the generality of Writers taking the hint from Eusebius a H. Eccl. l. 6. c. 39. p. 234. make to have been hatred to his Predecessor Philip a Christian as they account him and whom he resolved to punish in his spleen and malice against them But methinks much more probable is the account which Gregory Nyssen b De vit Greg. Thaum p. 999. Tom. 2. gives of this matter viz. the large spread and triumphant prevalency of the Christian Faith which had diffused it self over all parts and planted every corner and filled not Cities onely but Countrey Villages the Temples were forsaken and Churches frequented Altars overthrown and Sacrifices turned out of doors This vast increase of Christianity and great declension of Paganism awakened Decius to look about him he was vexed to see the Religion of the Empire trodden under foot and the worship of the gods every where slighted and neglected opposed and undermined by a novel and upstart Sect of Christians which daily multiplied into greater numbers This made him resolve with all possible force to check and control this growing Sect and to try by methods of cruelty to weary Christians out of their Profession and to reduce the People to the Religion of their Ancestors Whereupon he issued out Edicts to the Governours of Provinces strictly commanding them to proceed with all severity against Christians and to spare no manner of torments unless they returned to the obedience and worship of the gods Though I doubt not but this was the main Spring that set the rage and malice of their enemies on work yet Cyprian c Epist VII p. 16. like a man of great piety and modesty seeks a cause nearer home ingenuously confessing that their own sins had set open the Flood-gates for the divine displeasure to break in upon them while Pride and Self-seeking Schism and Faction reigned so much among them the very Martyrs themselves who should have been a good example unto others casting off the order and discipline of the Church and being swelled with so vain and immoderate a tumor it was time God should send them a thorn in the flesh to cure it IV. THE Provincial Governours forward enough to run of themselves upon such an errand made much more haste when they were not onely encouraged but threatned into it by the Imperial Edicts so that the Persecution was carried on in all parts with a quick and a high hand concerning the severity whereof we shall speak more elsewhere At present it may suffice to remarque that it swept away many of the most eminent Bishops of the Church Fabian Bishop of Rome Alexander Bishop of Hierusalem and several others Nor was it long before it came to S. Babylas his door For Decius probably about the middle of his reign or some time before his Thracian expedition wherein he lost his life came into Syria and so to Antioch to take order about his affairs that concerned the Persian War I confess his coming into these parts is not mentioned in the Roman Histories and no wonder the accounts of his life either not having been written by the Historiae Augustae Scriptores or if they were having long since perished and few of his Acts are taken notice of in those Historians that yet remain However the thing is plainly enough owned by Ecclesiastical Writers While * Chrysost lib. de S. Babyl Tom. 6. pag. 658. passim Philost H. Eccl. l. 7. c. 8. p. 94. Suid. in voc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. H. Eccl. l. 10. c. 28. p. 63. he continued here either out of curiosity or a design to take some more plausible advantage to fall upon them he would needs go into the Christian Congregation when the public Assembly was met together This Babylas would by no means give way to but standing in the Church Porch with an undanted courage and resolution opposed him telling him that as much as lay in his power he would never endure that a Wolf should break in upon Christs Sheepfold The Emperour urged it no further at present either being unwilling to exasperate the rage and fury of the People or designing to effect it some other way This passage there are and Nicephorus among the rest with whom
his leave he made an Oration before his Master and in a numerous Auditory wherein as he gives Origen his just commendations so he particularly blesses God g Ibid. p. 178 181. for the happy advantages of his instructions and return thanks to his tutelar and guardian Angel which as it had superintended him from his birth so had especially conducted him to so good a Master elegantly bewailing h Ibid. p. 218. 〈◊〉 his departure from that School as a kind of banishment out of Paradise a being turned like the Prodigal out of his Fathers house and a being carried captive as the Jews were into Babylon concluding that of all things upon earth nothing could give so great an ease and consolation to his mind as if his kind and benign Angel would bring him back to that place again V. HE was no sooner returned to Neocaesarea but Origen followed him with a Letter a Extat in Orig. Philoâ—â— c. 13. p. 41. commending his excellent parts able to render him either an eminent Lawyer among the Romans or a great Philosopher among the Greeks but especially persuading him to improve them to the ends of Christianity and the practice of Piety and Vertue For which purpose he lets him know that he instructed him mainly in those Sciences and parts of Philosophy which might be introductory to the Christian Religion acquainting him with those things in Geometry and Astronomy which might be useful for the understanding and explaining the holy Scriptures these things being as previously advantageous to the knowledge of the Christian Doctrin as Geometry Music Grammar Rhetoric and Astronomy are preparatory to the study of Philosophy Advising him before all things to read the Scripture and that with the most profound and diligent attention and not rashly to entertain notions of divine things or to speak of them without solemn premeditation and not onely to seek but knock to pray with faith and fervency it being in vain to think that the door should be opened where prayer is not sent before-hand to unlock it At his return b Gr. Nyss ib. p. 975. all mens eyes were upon him expecting that in public meetings he should shew himself and let them reap some fruit of all his studies and to this he was universally courted and importuned and especially by the wise and great men of the City intreating him to reside among them and by his excellent precepts and rules of life to reform and direct the manners of men But the modest young man knowing how unfit they generally were to entertain the dictates of true Philosophy and fearing lest by a great concourse and applause he might be insensibly ensuared into pride and vain-glory resisted all addresses and withdrew himself into the Wilderness where he resigned up himself to solitude and contemplation conversing with God and his own mind and delighting his thoughts with the pleasant speculations of nature and the curious and admirable works of the great Artificer of the World VI. NEOCAESAREA was a place large and populous but miserably over-grown with Superstition and Idolatry so that it seemed the place where Satans seat was and whither Christianity had as yet scarce made its entrance to the great grief and resentment of all good men who heartily wished that Religion and the fear of God were planted in that place c Id. ib. p. 976. Phaedimus Bishop of Amasea a neighbour City in that Province a man indued with a Prophetic spirit had cast his eye upon our young Philosopher as one whose ripe parts and piety did more then weigh down his want of age and rendred him a person fit to be a Guide of Souls to the place of his Nativity whose relation to the place would more endear the imployment to him The notice hereof being intimated to him he shifted his Quarters and as oft as sought for fled from one Desert and solitary shelter to another so that the good man by all his arts and industry could not lay hold of him the one not being more earnest to find him out then the other was vigilant to decline him Phaedimus at last despairing to meet with him resolved however to go on with his design and being acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a divine and immediate impetus betook himself to this pious stratagem the like president probably not to be met with in the Antiquities of the Church not regarding Gregorius his absence who was at that time no less then three days journy distant from him he made his address and prayer to God and having declared that both himself and Gregory were at that moment equally seen by God as if they were present in stead of imposition of hands he directed a Discourse to S. Gregory wherein he set him apart to God and constituted him Bishop of that place and God who steers the hearts of men inclined him how averse soever before to accept the charge when probably he had a more formal and solemn Consecration VII THE Province he entered upon was difficult the City and parts thereabouts being wholly given to the worship of Daemons a Id. ubi supr p. 977. and enslaved to the observance of Diabolic Rites there not being above seventeen Christians in those parts so that he must found a Church before he could govern it and which was not the least inconvenience Heresies had spread themselves over those Countries and he himself though accomplished with a sufficient furniture of humane Learning yet altogether unexercised in Theological studies and the mysteries of Religion For remedy whereof he is said to have had an immediate assistance from Heaven For while one night he was deeply considering of these things and discussing matters of Faith in his own mind he had a vision wherein two august and venerable persons whom he understood to be S. John the Evangelist and the blessed Virgin appeared in the Chamber where he was and discoursed before him concerning those points of Faith which he had been before debating with himself After whose departure he immediately penned that Canon and rule of Faith which they had declared and which he ever after made the Standard of his Doctrin and bequeathed as an inestimable Legacy and depositum to his Successors the Tenor whereof we shall here insert together with the Original Greek which being very difficult to be exactly rendred into our Language the learned Reader if he likes not mine may translate for himself There is one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of the living Word and of the subsisting Wisdom and Power and of Him who is his Eternal Image the perfect begetter of Him that is perfect the Father of the onely begotten Son There is one Lord the onely Son of the onely Father God of God the Character and Image of the Godhead the powerful Word the comprehensive Wisdom by which all things were made and the Power that gave Being to the whole Creation the true Son of the true
Father the Invisible of the Invisible the Incorruptible of the Incorruptible the Immortal of the Immortal and the Eternal of Him that is Eternal There is one Holy Ghost having its subsistence of God which appeared through the Son to mankind the perfect Image of the perfect Son the Life-giving Life the holy Fountain the Sanctity and the Author of Sanctification by whom God the Father is made manifest who is over all and in all and God the Son who is through all A perfect Trinity which neither in Glory Eternity or Dominion is divided or separated from it self To this Creed he always kept himself the Original whereof written with his own hand my Author assures us was preserved in that Church in his time VIII THUS incomparably furnished he began to apply himself more directly to the charge committed to him in the happy success whereof he was infinitely advantaged by a power of working miracles so much talked of among the Ancients bestowed upon him As he was a Ibid. p. 980. returning home from the Wilderness being benighted and overtaken with a storm he together with his company turned aside to shelter themselves in a Gentile Temple famous for Oracles and Divinations where they spent the night in prayers and hymns to God Early in the morning came the Gentile Priest to pay the accustomed devotions to the Daemons of the place who had told them it seems that they must henceforth relinquish it by reason of him that lodged there he made his lustrations and offered his Sacrifices but all in vain the Daemons being deaf to all importunities and invocations Whereupon he burst out into a rage and passion exclaiming against the holy man and threatning to complain of him to the Magistrates and the Emperour But when he saw him generously despising all his threatnings and invested with a power of commanding Daemons in and out at pleasure he turned his fury into admiration and intreated the Bishop as a further evidence of that divine authority that attended him to bring the Daemons once more back again into the Temple For whose satisfaction he is said to have torn off a piece of Paper and therein to have written these words Gregory to Satan enter Which Schedule was no sooner laid upon the Altar and the usual incense and oblations made but the Daemons appeared again as they were wont to do Whereby he was plainly convinced that it was an Authority superiour to all infernal powers and accordingly resolved to accompany him but being unsatisfied in some parts of the Christian Doctrin was fully brought over after he had seen S. Gregory confirm his discourses by another evident miracle whereupon he freely forsook house and home friends and relations and resigned up himself to the instructions of his divine Wisdom and Philosophy IX THE fame of his strange and miraculous actions had prepared b Id. ibid. p. 983. the People of Neocaesarea to entertain him with a prodigious reverence and regard the people generally flocking out of the City to meet him every one being ambitious to see the person of whom such great things were spoken He unconcerned in the applause and expectations of all the Spectators that were about him without so much as casting his eye on the one side or the other passed directly through the midst of the crowds into the City Whither being come his friends that had accompanied him out of his solitudes were very solicitous where and by whom he should be entertained But he reproving their anxiety asked them whether they thought themselves banished the divine Protection whether Gods providence was not the best and safest refuge and habitation that whatever became of their bodies it was of infinitely more importance to look after their minds as the onely fit and proper habitations which were by the Vertues of a good life to be trimmed and prepared furnished and built up for Heaven But there wanted not many who were ready enough to set open their doors to so welcom a guest among which especially was Musonius a person of greatest honour estate and power in the City who intreated him to honour his house with his presence and to take up his lodging there whose kindness as being first offered he accepted dismissing the rest with a grateful acknowledgment of that civility and respect which they had offered to him X. IT was no little abatement to the good mans joy to think in what a prophane and idolatrous place his lot was fallen and that therefore it concerned him to lose no time Accordingly that very day a Ubi supr p. 985. he fell to preaching and with so good success that before night he had converted a little Church Early the next morning the doors were crowded persons of all ranks ages infirmities and distempers flocking to him upon whom he wrought two cures at once healing both soul and body instructing their minds convincing their errours reclaiming and reforming their manners and that with ease because at the same time strengthening the infirm curing the sick healing the diseased banishing Daemons out of the possessed men greedily embracing the Religion he taught while they beheld such sensible demonstrations of its power and divinity before their eyes and heard nothing reported but what was verified by the testimony of their own senses Having thus prepared a numerous Congregation his next care was to erect a Church where they might assemble for the public solemnities of Religion which by the chearful contributions of some and the industrious labour of others was in a little time both begun and finished And the foundations of it seem to have been laid upon a firmer basis then other buildings seeing it out-stood not onely Earthquakes frequent in those parts but the violent storm of Dioclesian's reign who commanded the Churches of the Christians in all places to be demolished and was still standing in Gregory Nyssen's time who further tells us that when a terrible Earthquake lately happened in that place wherewith almost all the buildings both public and private were destroyed and ruined this Church onely remained entire and not the least stone was shaken to the ground XI S. Gregory Nyssen b Ibid. p. 1007. reports one more memorable passage then the rest which at his first coming to the place made his conversion of the people much more quick and easie There was a public festival held in honour of one of the gods of that Country whereto not onely the Neocaesareans but all the inhabitants of the neighbour-Countrey came in and that in such infinite numbers that the Theater was quickly full and the crowd so great and the noise so confused and loud that the Shews could not begin nor the solemn rites be performed The People hereupon universally cried out to the Daemon Jupiter we beseech thee make us room S. Gregory being told of this sent them this message that their prayer would be granted and that greater room would be quickly made them then they desired
judgment and our conformity to him in glory and to hope for a state in the Kingdom of God wherein they should be entertained with such little and trifling such fading and transitory things as this World does afford Dionysius being then in the Province of the Arsenoitae where this Opinion had prevailed so far as to draw whole Churches into Schism and Separation summoned the Presbyters and Teachers who preached in the Country Villages and as many of the People as had a mind to come advising them that in their Sermons they would publicly examine this Doctrin They presently defended themselves with this Book whereupon he began more closely to join issue with them continuing with them three days together from morning to night weighing and discussing the doctrins contained in it In all which time he admired their constancy and love to truth their great quickness and readiness of understanding with so much order and decency so much modesty and moderation were the Discourses managed on both sides doubts propounded and assent yielded For they took an especial care not pertinaciously to defend their former opinions when once they found them to be erroneous nor to shun any objections which on either part were made against them As near as might be they kept to the present question which they endeavoured to make good but if convinced by argument that they were in the wrong made no scruple to change their minds and go over to the other side with honest minds and sincere intentions and hearts truly devoted to God embracing whatever was demonstrated by the holy Scriptures The issue was that Coracion the Commander and Champion of the other Party publicly promised and protested before them all that he would not henceforth either entertain or dispute or discourse or preach these opinions being sufficiently convinced by the arguments which the other side had offered to him all the Brethren departing with mutual love unanimity and satisfaction Such was the peaceable conclusion of this Meeting and less could not be expected from such pious and honest souls such wise and regular Disputers And happy had it been for the Christian World had all those controversies that have disturbed the Church been managed by such prudent and orderly debates which as usually conducted rather widen the breach then heal and mend it Dionysius to strike the controversie dead while his hand was in wrote a Book concerning the Promises which S. Hierom forgetting what he had truly said a De script in Dionys elsewhere that it was written against Nepos tells b Praef at in l. 18. Com. in Esa p. 242. T. 5. us was written against Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mistaking the person probably for his opinion in the first part whereof he stated the question laid down his sense concerning it in the second he treated concerning the Revelation of S. John the main Pillar and Buttress of this Opinion where both by reason and the testimony of others he contends that it was not written by S. John the Apostle and Evangelist but by another of that name an account of whose judgment herein we have represented in another place c Antiq. Apost Life of S. John n. 14. XVI THE last controversie wherein he was concerned was that against Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch who had d Euseb ubi sup c. 27. p. 277 281. Epiph. Haeres LXV p. 262. Athanas de Syn d. Arim. Seleuc. p. 920. Niceph. l. 6. c. 27. p. 420. confidently vented these and such like impious dogmata that there is but one person in the Godhead that our blessed Saviour was though a holy yet a meer man who came not down from Heaven but was of a meer earthly extract and original in whom the word which he made not any thing distinct from the Father did sometimes reside and sometimes depart from him with abundance of the like wicked and sensless propositions Besides all which he was infinitely obnoxious in his e Epist Synod II. Antioch ap Euseb ib. c. 30. p. 280. c. morals as few men but serve the design of some lust by Schism and bad opinions covetous without any bounds heaping up a vast estate though born a poor mans son partly by fraud and sacriledge partly by cruel and unjust vexations of his brethren partly by fomenting differences and taking bribes to assist the weaker party Proud and vain-glorious he was beyond all measure affecting Pomp and Train and secular Power and rather to be stiled a temporal Prince then a Bishop going through the streets and all public places in solemn state with persons walking before him and crouds of people following after him In the Church he caused to be erected a Throne higher then ordinary and a place which he called Secretum after the manner of Civil Magistrates who in the inner part of the Praetorium had a place railed in with Curtains hung before it where they sate to hear Causes He was wont to clap his hand upon his thigh and to stamp with his feet upon the Bench frowning upon and reproaching those who did not Theatrically shout and make a noise while he was discoursing to them wherein he used also to reflect upon his predecessors and the most eminent persons that had been before him with all imaginable scorn and petulancy magnifying himself as far beyond them The Hymns that were ordinarily sung in honour of our Lord he abolished as late and novel and in stead thereof taught some of his proselyted Females upon the Easter solemnity to chaunt out some which he had composed in his own commendation to the horrour and astonishment of all that heard them procuring the Bishops and Presbyters of the neighbouring parts to publish the same things of him in their Sermons to the People some of his Proselytes not sticking to affirm that he was an Angel come down from Heaven All which he was so far from controlling that he highly encouraged them and heard them himself not onely with patience but delight He was moreover vehemently suspected of incontinency maintaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subintroduced Women in his house and some of them persons of exquisit beauty contrary to the Canons of the Church and to the great scandal of Religion And that he might not be muh reproached by those that were about him he endeavoured to debauch his Clergy conniving at their Vices and Irregularities and corrupting others with Pensions and whom he could not prevail with by evil arts he awed by power and his mighty interest in the Princes and great ones of those parts so that they were forced with sadness to bewail at home what they durst not publish and declare abroad XVII TO rectifie these enormities most of the chief Bishops of the East resolved to meet in a Synod at Antioch a Euseb ib. c. 27. p. 277. c. 30. p. 279. to which they earnestly invited our Dionysius But alas age and infirmities had rendred him incapable of such a journey
16. 19 Bruttius Praesens II. Julianus created Bishop of Alexandria  1 Sex Quinctiliâ— Gordianus Pantaenus a Christian Philosopher opens the Catechetic School at Alexandria  181  1 Imp. Commodus III. The Persecution against the Christians much abated  2 Antistius Burrhus  182  2 Petronius Mamertinus Theodotion of Pontus first a Marcionite then a Jew translates the Old Testament into Greek  3 Trebellius Rufus The Temple of Serapis at Alexandria burnt down  183  3 Imp. Commodus IV.  4 M. Aufidius Victorinus  184  4 M. Eggius Marullus seu Marcellus Commodus introduces the worship of Isis formerly prohibited into Rome  5 M. Papirius Aelianus  185 Commodi 5 Triarius Maternus  6 M. Atilius Metilius Bradua  186  6 Imp. Commodus V. About this time Lucius a Prince of Britain is said to have sent Letters to Pope Eleutherius to furnish him with Preachers to publish the Christian Faith in these parts  7 M. Acilius Glabrio Origen born  187  7 Tullius seu Clodius Crispinus Apollonius a great Philosopher and as S. Hierom affirms a Senator pleads his own and the cause of the Christian Religion before the Senate for which he suffers Martyrdom  8 Papirius Aelianus  188  8 C. Allius Fuscianus The Capitol burnt by Lightning which destroyed the adjacent buildings especially the famous Libraries  9 Duillius Silanus  189  9 Junius Silanus Demetrius ordained Bishop of Alexandria who sate 43 years  10 Q. Servilius Silanus Serapion made Bishop of Antioch this or as others the following year  190  10 Imp. Commodus VI. Commodus will have himself accounted Hercules the son of Jupiter and accordingly habits himself with other extravagant instances of folly  11 Petronius Septimianus  191  11 Cassius Apronianus Julian a Senator and many others said to be martyred about this time  12 M. Attilius Metilius Bradua II.  192  12 Imp. Commodus VII Pope Eleutherius having sate 15 years and 23 days dies in whose room Victor an African succeeds  13 P. Helvius Pertinax  193 Pertinax à 1 Januar.  Q. Sosius Falco  Did. Julianê° Ã Mart. 28.  Severus à Maii 11. 1 C. Julius Clarus  194 Severi 1 Imp. Severus II. Clemens Alexandrinus Pantaenus his Scholar and successor in the Catechetic School was famous about this time 2 Clodius Albinus Caesar II. Pope Victor excommunicates Theodorus the Heretic 195  2 Q. Fl. Tertullus Narcissus made Bishop of Jerusalem He is famous for miracles and an holy life 3 T. Fl. Clemens 196  3 Cn. Domitius Dexter Pope Victor revives the controversie about the celebration of Easter threatens to excommunicate the Asiatic Churches for which he is severely reproved by many and especially by Irenaeus 4 L. Valeriê° Messala Priscus Several Synods holden to this Purpose 197  4 Ap. Claudius Lateranus The Jews and Samaritans rebel and are overcome and their Religion strictly forbidden Severus triumphs for that Victory 5 M. Marius Rufinus  198  5 Tib. Aterius Saturninus  6 C. Annius Treboni Gallus 199  6 P. Cornelius Anulinus Severus creates his son Antoninus Emperour his son Geta Caesar and bestows a large Donative upon the Souldiers which gave occasion to Tertullian to write his Book De Corona 7 M. Aufidius Fronto 200 Severi 7 Tib. Claudius Severus The Christians at Rome severely treated by Plautianus Praefect of the City and in Afric by Saturninus the Proconsul 8 C. Aufidius Victorinus Tertullian writes his Apologetic either this or the following year 201  8 L. Annius Fabianus Pope Victor after 9 years and 2 moneths being martyred leaves the place to Zephyrinus 9 M. Nonius Mucianus Tertullian presents his Discourse to the President Scapula 202  9 Imp. Severus III. The Sixth Persecution wherein Leonidas Origens Father suffers Martyrdom at Alexandria Irenaeus at Lyons in France 10 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla 203  10 P. Septimius Geta. Origen a very Youth sets up a Grammar School at Alexandria and becomes famous 11 L. Septimius Plautianus At 18 years of Age he is preferred by Demetrius the Bishop to be Instructor of the Catechumens 204  11 L. Fabius Chilo Septimius The Secular Games celebrated at Rome upon which occasion probably Tertullian wrote his Book De Spectaculis and it may be that De Idololatria 12 M. Annius Libo 205  12 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla II.  13 P. Septimius Geta Caesar 206  13 M. Nummiê° Annius Albinê° Origen makes the famous attempt upon himself in making himself an Eunuch 14 Fulvius Aemilianus 207 Severi 14 M. Flavius Aper Tertullian writes against the Marcionites and his Book De Pallio and was then probably made Presbyter of Carthage 15 Q. Allius Maximus About this time Minucius Felix is supposed to publish his Dialogue called Octavius 208  15 Imp. Antoninus Caracalla III.  16 P. Septimius Geta Caesar II. 209  16 T. Claudius Pompeianus  17 Lollianus Avitus 210  17 M. Acilius Faustinus  18 C. Caesonius Macer Rufinianus 211  18 Q. Epidius Rufus Lollianus Gentianus  Antoninus Caracalla à 4 Febr. 1 Pomponius Bassus 212  1 M. Pompeius Asper Alexander a Cappadocian Bishop made Bishop of Jerusalem 2 P. Asper 213  2 Imp. Caracalla IV.  3 P. Caelius Balbinus 214  3 Silius Messala A disputation held at Rome between Caius and Proclus one of Montanus his Disciples whereupon Pope Zephyrin excluded Proclus and Tertullian communion with the Church of Rome which occasioned Tertullians starting aside to Montanus his Party 4 Q. Aquilius Sabinus 215 Antonini 4 Aemilius Laetus Tertullian writes against the Orthodox against whom he inveighs under the name of Psychici 5 Anicius Cerealis 216  5 Q. Aquilius Sabinus II.  6 Sex Corn. Anulinus 217  6  A Greek Translation of the Bible called the Fifth Edition found in a Hogs-head at Jericho inserted by Origen into his Octapla 7 Bruttius Praesens Macrinus Diadumen F à 10. April 1 Extricatus 218  2 Anton. Diadumenus Caesar  Antoninus Elagabalus à 7 Jun. 1 Adventus 219  1 Imp. Elagabalus II. Pope Zephyrin dies He sate 22 years and so many days Succeeded by Callistus 2 Licinius Sacerdos 220  2 Imp. Elagabalus III. Julius Africanus a famous Christian Writer sent upon an Embassie to the Emperour for the rebuilding of Nicopolis anciently Emmaus a City in Palestin 3 M. Aurelius Eutychianus Comazon 221  3 Annius Gratus  4 Claudius Seleucus 222  4 Imp. Elagabalus IV. Hippolytus Bishop of Portus composes his Paschal Canon Alexander Mam. à Martii 6. 1 M. Aurelius Severus Alexander Caesar 223 Alexandri 1 Maximus Among the famous men of this time was Ulpian the Lawyer who collected all the Imperial Edicts formerly published against the Christians 2 Papirius Aelianus 224  2 Claudius Julianus The Christians cruelly persecuted at Rome at the instigation of Ulpian the great Lawyer 3
which he made use of in the Government of the Empire But to return to Mammaea Being a Syrian born she could not be unacquainted with the affairs both of Jews and Christians and having heard of the great fame of a Euseb loc cit Origen was very desirous to see him and hear him discourse concerning Religion that she might know what it was for which the whole World had him in such veneration And for this purpose she sent for him ordering a military guard to conduct him to Antioch where he staid some considerable time and having fully opened the Doctrines of our Religion and given her many demonstrations of the Faith of Christians to the great honour of God and of Religion he was dismissed and permitted to return to his old charge at Alexandria XIII HENCEFORWARD he set upon writing b Ibid. c. 23. p. 224. Commentaries on the Holy Scripture at the instigation of his dear friend Ambrosius who did not onely earnestly importune him to it but furnish him with all conveniences necessary for it allowing him besides his maintenance seven and as occasion was more Notaries to attend upon him who by turns might take from his mouth what he dictated to them and as many Transcribers besides Virgins imployed for that purpose who copied out fair what the others had hastily taken from his mouth These Notaries were very common both among the Greeks and Romans making use of certain peculiar notes and signs either by way of occult or short-writing being able by the dexterity of their Art to take not words onely but entire sentences The original of it is by some ascribed to Tyro Cicero's servant by others to Aquila servant to Mecaenas by others to Ennius and that it was polished and enlarged afterwards first by Tyro then by Aquila and some others It may be in its first rudeness it was much more ancient and improved and perfected by degrees every new addition entitling it self to the first invention till it arrived to that accuracy and perfection that as appears from what c Lib. 14. Epigr. 208. Martial says in the case and Ausonius d Epigram 36. reports of his Amanuensis they were able not onely to keep pace with but many times to out-run the speaker That they were of frequent use in the Primitive Church is without all doubt being chiefly imployed to write the Acts of the Martyrs for which end they were wont to frequent the Prisons to be present at all Trials and Examinations and if the thing was done intra Velum within the Secretarium they used by bribes to procure Copies of the Examinations and Answers from the Proconsul's Register thence they followed the Martyrs to the place of Execution there to remarque their sayings and their sufferings This was done in the most early Ages as is evident from e De Coron c. 13. p. 109. Tertullians mentioning the Fasti Ecclesiae and from what f Epist XXXVII p. 51 S. Cyprian says in his Epistle to the Clergy of his Church and g In vit Cypr non long ab init Pontius the Deacon in his life where he tells us that their Fore-fathers were wont to register whatever concerned the Martyrdom of the meanest Christian the Acts whereof descended down to his time Thus h H. Eccl. l. 5. c. c. 21. p. 189. Eusebius speaking of the Martyrdom of Apollonius in the reign of Commodus tells us that all his Answers and Discourses before the President 's Tribunal and his brave Apology before the Senate were contained in the Acts of his Martyrdom which together with others he had collected into one Volume So that the Original of the Institution is not without probability referred to the times of S. Clemens Bishop of Rome All which I the rather note because it gives us a reasonable account how the Answers and Speeches of the Martyrs the Arguments and Discourses of Synods and Councils and the Extempore Homilies of the Fathers came to be transmitted so intire and perfect to us But I return to Origen whom we left dictating to his Notaries and they delivering it to those many Transcribers that were allowed him all which were maintained at Ambrosius's sole expence a Cod. CXXI col 301. Photius indeed makes this charge to have been allowed by Hippolytus deriving his mistake it 's plain from the Greek Interpreter of b Vid. Hieron de Script in Hippol. S. Hieroms Catalogue who did not rightly apprehend S. Hieroms meaning and who himself speaking of Hippolytus inserts this passage concerning Ambrose I know not how and for no other reason that I can imagin but because in Eusebius his History he found it immediately following the account that was given of Hippolytus his Works d Haeres LXIV p. 228. Epiphanius will have these Commentaries written and the expences allowed to that purpose by Ambrosius at Tyre and that for that end he resided there XXVIII years together An intolerable mistake not onely disagreeing with Eusebius his account but plainly inconsistent with the course of Origen's life And indeed Epiphanius alledges no better an Author then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having picked up the Story from some vulgar tradition and report His industry and diligence in these Studies was incredible few parts of the Bible escaping his narrow and critical researches wherein he attained to so admirable an accuracy and perfection that e Hoc unum dico quod vellem cum invidia nominis ejus habere etiam scientiam Scripturarum floccipendens imagines umbrasque larvarum quarum natura esse dicitur terrere parvulos in angulis garrire tenebrosis Hieron Praef. in Quaest in Genes Tom. 3. p. 201. S. Hierom himself not always over-civil to him professes he could be content to bear that load of envy that was cast upon his name so that he had but withall his skill and knowledge in the Scriptures A passage which f Invectiv II. in Hieron inter oper Hier. Tom. 4. p. 225. Ruffinus afterwards smartly enough returns upon him XIV BUT a stop for the present was put to this work by some affairs of the Church which called him into Achaia then disturbed with divers Heresies that over-ran those Churches And at this time doubtless it was that he staid a while at Athens where as g Ubi supr p. 227. Epiphanius tells us he frequented the Schools of the Philosophers and conversed with the Sages of that place In his journey to Achaia he went through h Euseb loc cit Hier. de Script in Alex. Palestin and took Caesarea in his way where producing his Letters of recommendation from Demetrius he was ordained Presbyter by Alexander of Jerusalem and Theoctistus Bishop of Caesarea Not that this was done by any sinister Arts or the ambitious procurement of Origen himself but was intirely the act of those two excellent persons who designed by this means to furnish him with a greater authority for the management of his