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THE
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES,
AND THE TWO EVANGELISTS
SAINT MARK AND SAINT LUKE;
WITH
AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE
PATRIARCHAL, MOSAICAL, AND EVANGELICAL DISPENSATIONS.
BY
WILLIAM C AVE, D. D.
A NEW EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED,
BV
HENRY CARY, M.A.
WORCESTER COLLEGE, AND PERPETUAL CURATE OP ST. PAUL'S, OXFORD.
OXFORD,
PRINTED BY J. VINCENT,
FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
1840.
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ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
The Editor of the work now presented to the public has only
had to continue the labour bestowed on Cave's Lives of the
Fathers of the First Four Centuries; which, as he stated in the
Advertisement prefixed to that work, has consisted in a careful
revision of the text, *nd collation and examination of passages
quoted and referred to.
TABLE OF EDITIONS REFERRED TO.
Ambrosius, Par. 1686-90.
Ammianus Marcellinus, Lttgd. Bat. 1693.
Arnobius, Lugd, Bat. 1651.
Athanasius, Par. ] 698.
Augustinus, Par. 1683.
Baronius AnnaL Mogunt. 1601-8.
MartyroL Aniv. 1589.
Basilius Magnus, Par. 1721.
Beda, Basil. 1563.
Benjamin. I tin. Aniv. 1575.
Burton, comm. on Antoninus's Itinerary,
Land. 1658.
Buxtorfius, Recens. opp. Talmud. BasiL
1640.
Chemnitius, Exam. Genev. 1634.
Chronicon Alexandrin. seu Paschale, per du
. Fresne, Par. 1688.
Chrysostomus, Par. 1718.
Clemens Alexandrinus, Oxon. 1715.
ClemensRomanus, inter Patrks Apostolicos.
Cyp nanus, Oxon. 1682.
Cyril, Alexandrinus, Lutet. 1638.
Cyril, HierosoL Oxon. 1703.
Dexter, Chronicon. Lugd. 1627.
Dionysius, Areopag. Aniv. 1634.
Dorotheus, Synopa. in voL ii. bibl. patrum
ed.1575.
Epiphanius, Colon. 1682.
Eusebius, Hist Eccl. Cantab. 1720.
De vita Constantini, ibid.
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IV
TABLE OF EDITIONS REFERRED TO.
Eusebius, Chronicon, Amst. 1658.
De locis Hebraicis. Par. 1631.
Demonstr. Eyang. Par. 1628.
Praepar. Evang. Par. 1628.
Finnicus, Matern. de error prof, relig. cum
Minuc. Felic. per J. a Wower, Oxon. 1 662.
Gregorius Nazianzen, Ltd. Par. 1609.
Gregorius Nyssen, Par. 1615.
et Par. 3623.
Gregorius Thaumaturgus, Par. 1621.
Hieronymus, Par. 1706.
Hilarius, Pictav. Par. 1693.
Idatius, Fasti consulares, inter opera Sir-
mondi, Par. 1696.
Ignatius, inter Patres Apostolicos.
Josephus, Oxon. 1720.
Irenaeus, Par. 1710.
Isidorus Peleus, Par. 1638.
Julianus, Lips. 1696.
Julius Firmicus, Par. 1668.
Justinus Martyr, Par. 1742.
Lactantius, Ltd. Par. 1748.
Libanius, Lips. etLutet. 1616-27.
Nicephorus, Hist. EccL Par. 1630.
Oecumenius, Par. 1631,
Origen, Par, 1733.
Orosius, Lugd. Bat. 1738.
Patres Apostolici, per Cotelerium, 1724.
Philo Judaeus, Ltd. Par. 1640.
Philostorgius cum Eusebu Hist EccL
Photius, Myriabiblion sive Bibliotheca,
1611.
Epistt. Lond. 1651.
Polycarpus, inter Patres Apostolicos.
Pontius Diac. vit. Cypriani, cum Cypriano.
Procopius, Par. 1 662.
Socrates, Hist Eccl. cum Eusebii Hist.
Eccl.
Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. cum Eusebu Hist
Eccl.
Strabo, Geograph. Amst. 1707.
Suidas, Genev. Hi 8.
Sulpicius Severus, Verona, 1754.
Surius, Col. Ayr. 1576.
Tertullian, Ltd. Par. 1664.
Theodor. Lect. cum Eusebu Hist Eccl.
Theodoretus, Opera. Hala, 1770.
Hist EccL cum Eusebu Hist
Eccl.
Vincentius Lirinensis, Cantab. 1687.
Zonaras, Par. 1687.
Zosimus, Lips. 1784,
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TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD
NATHANAEL LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM,
AND CLERK OF THE CLOSET TO HIS MAJESTY.
My Lord,
Nothing but a great experience of your Lordship's
candour could warrant the laying what concernment I have in
these papers at your Lordship's feet. Not but that the subject
is in itself great and venerable, and a considerable part of it built
upon that authority that needs no patronage to defend it ; but
to prefix your Lordship's name to a subject so thinly and meanly
managed, may, perhaps, deserve a bigger apology than I can
make. I have only brought some few scattered handfuls of
primitive story, contenting myself to glean where I could not
reap. And I am well assured, that your Lordship's wisdom and
love to truth would neither allow me to make my materials, nor
to trade in legends and fabulous reports. And yet, alas ! how
little solid foundation is left to build upon in these matters ! So
fatally mischievous was the carelessness of those who ought to
have been the guardians of books and learning in their several
ages, in suffering the records of the ancient church to perish.
Unfaithful trustees, to look no better after such divine and
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vi
THE EPISTLE.
inestimable treasures committed to them. Not to mention those
infinite devastations that, in all ages, have been made by wars
and flames, which certainly have proved the most severe and
merciless plagues and enemies to books.
By such unhappy accidents as these, we have been robbed of
the treasures of the wiser and better ages of the world, and
especially the records of the first times of Christianity, whereof
scarce any footsteps do remain. So that in this inquiry I have
been forced to traverse remote and desert paths, ways that
afford but little fruit to the weary passenger : but the considera-
tion that it was primitive and apostolical, sweetened my journey,
and rendered it pleasant and delightful. Our inbred thirst after
knowledge naturally obliges us to pursue the notices of former
times, which are recommended to us with this peculiar advantage,
that the stream must needs be purer and clearer, the nearer it
comes to the fountain : for the ancients (as Plato speaks 11 ) were
KpelrToves rjfi&Vy seal iyyvrepa Oe&v oi/coOvres, " better than we,
and dwelt nearer to the gods." And though, it is true, the state
of those times is v.ery obscure and dark, and truth oft covered
over with heaps of idle and improbable traditions, yet may it be
worth our labour to seek for a few jewels, though under a whole
heap of rubbish. " Is not the gleanings of the ancients (say the
Jews) better than the vintage of latter times? 1 ' The very frag-
ments of antiquity are venerable, and at once instruct our minds
and gratify our curiosity. Besides, I was somewhat the more
inclinable to retire again into these studies, that I might get as
far as I could from the crowd and the noise of a quarrelsome
and contentious age.
» In Phileb.
THE EPISTLE.
vii
My Lprd — We live in times wherein religion is almost wholly
disputed into talk and clamour ; men wrangle eternally about
useless and insignificant notions, and which have no tendency to
make a man either wiser or better : and in these quarrels the
laws of charity are violated, and men persecute one another with
hard names and characters of reproach, and, after all, consecrate
their fierceness with the honourable title of zeal for truth. And
what is yet a much sorer evil, the peace and order of an excellent
church, incomparably the best that ever was since the first ages
of the gospel, is broken down, her holy offices derided, her
solemn assemblies deserted, her laws and constitutions slighted,
the guides and ministers of religion despised, and reduced to
their primitive character, " the scum and ofiscouring of the
world." How much these evils have contributed to the atheism
and impiety of the present age, I shall not take upon me to
determine ; sure I am, the thing itself is too sadly visible ; men
are not content to be modest and retired atheists, and, with the
fool, to say only in their hearts, " there is no God but impiety
appears with an open forehead, and disputes its place in every
company ; and without any regard to the voice of nature, the
dictates of conscience, and the common sense of mankind, men
peremptorily determine against a Supreme Being, account it a
pleasant divertisement to droll upon religion, and a piece of wit
to plead for atheism. To avoid the press and troublesome im-
portunity of such uncomfortable reflections, I find no better way,
than to retire into those primitive and better times, those first
purest ages of the gospel, when men really were what they pre-
tended to be, when a solid piety and devotion, a strict tem-
perance and sobriety, a catholic and unbounded charity, an ex-
emplary honesty and integrity, a great reverence for every thing
viii
THE EPISTLE.
that was divine and sacred, rendered Christianity venerable to
the world, and led not only the rude and the barbarous, but the
learned and politer part of mankind in triumph after it.
But, my Lord, I must remlmber that the minutes of great
men are sacred, and not to be invaded by every tedious imperti-
nent address. I have done, when I have begged leave to ac-
quaint your Lordship, that had it not been more through other
men's fault than my own, these papers had many months since
waited upon you in the number of those public congratulations
which gave you joy of that great place which you worthily
sustain in the church. Which , that you may long and pros-
perously enjoy, happily adorn, and successfully discharge, to
the honour of God, the benefit of the church, and the endearing
your Lordship's memory to posterity, is the hearty prayer of,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's faithfully devoted servant,
WILLIAM CAVE.
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TO THE READER.
The design of the following Apparatus is only to present the
reader with a short scheme of the state of things in the preceding
periods of the church, to let him see by what degrees and
measures the evangelical state was introduced, and what methods
God in all ages made use of to conduct mankind in the paths of
piety and virtue. In the infancy of the world he taught men
by the dictates of nature, and the common notices of good and
evil, (to irpeafivTaTov vofiijiov, as Philo calls them, a " the most
ancient law,"), by lively oracles, and great examples of piety.
He set forth the holy patriarchs (as Chrysostom observes b ) as
tutors to the rest of mankind ; who by their religious lives might
train up others to the practice of virtue, and, as physicians, be
able to cure the minds of those who were infected and overrun
with vice. Afterwards, (says he,) having sufficiently testified
his care of their welfare and happiness by many instances of a
wise and benign providence towards them, both in the land of
Canaan and in Egypt, he gave them prophets, and by them
wrought signs and wonders, together with innumerable other
expressions of his bounty. At last, finding that none of these
methods did succeed, not patriarchs, not prophets, not miracles,
not daily warnings and chastisements brought upon the world,
he gave the last and highest instance of his love and goodness
to mankind : he sent his only begotten Son out of his own bosom,
* Lib. de Abrah. p. 350. b HomiL xxvii. in Genes, s. 1. vol. iv. p. 256.
b
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x ' TO THE READER.
t&v yfrv^cov zeal t&v o-wfjLaTwv iarpbv, " the great physician both
of soul and body who taking upon him the form of a servant,
and being born of a virgin, conversed in the world, and bore our
sorrows and infirmities, that by rescuing human nature from
under the weight and burden of sin, he might exalt it to eternal
life. A brief account of these things is the main intent of the
following discourse ; wherein the reader will easily see, that I
considered not what might, but what was fit to be said, with
respect to the end I designed it for. It was drawn up under
some more disadvantageous circumstances than a matter of this
nature did require ; which, were it worth the while to represent
to the reader, might possibly plead for a softer censure. How-
ever, such as it is, it is submitted to the reader's ingenuity and
candour.
w. a
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
An Apparatus, or Discourse Introductory to the whole Work, concerning the three
great Dispensations of the Church, Patriarchal, Mosaical, and Evangelical.
Section I. — Of the Patriarchal Dispensation I
Section II. — Of the Mosaical Dispensation 42
Section III. — Of the Evangelical Dispensation 86
Introduction to the Lives of the Apostles - 107
The Life of St Peter.
Section I.— Of St. Peter, from his Birth till his first coming to Christ - - 135
Section II. — Of St. Peter, from his first coming to Christ till his being called
to be a Disciple - - 144
Section III. — Of St. Peter, from his Election to the Apostolate till the Conr
fession which he made of Christ 148
Section IV. — Of St Peter, from the Time of his Confession till our Lord's
last Passover - - -154
Section V.— Of St. Peter, from the last Passover till the Death of Christ - 163
Section VI. — Of St. Peter, from Christ's Resurrection till his Ascension - 170
Section VII. — St. Peter's Acts, from our Lord's Ascension till the Dispersion
of the Church - 176
Section VIII. — Of St Peter's Acts, from the Dispersion of the Church at
Jerusalem till his Contest with St Paul at Antioch 189
Section IX. — Of St Peter's Acts, from the end of the sacred Story till his
Martyrdom 199
Section X. — The Character of his Person and Temper, and an Account of his
Writings - 207
Section XI. — An Inquiry into St. Peter's going to Rome - - - - 216
An Appendix to the preceding Section, containing a Vindication of St. Peter's being
at Rome - - - - - - - - - - - * * 223
The Life of St. Paul.
Section 1.— Of St. Paul, from his Birth till his Conversion - - - - 233
Section II. — Of St. Paul, from his Conversion till the Council of Jerusalem - 242
Section III. — Of St. Paul, from the Time of the Synod at Jerusalem till his
% Departure from Athens - - - -251
Section IV. — Of St. Paul's Acts at Corinth and Ephesus - 263
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PAGE
The Life of St. Paul.
Section V. — St. Paul's Acts, from his Departure till his Arraignment before
Felix 273
Section VI. — Of St Paul, from his first Trial before Felix till his coming to
Rome 283
Section VII. — St. Paul's Acts, from his coming to Rome till his Martyrdom - 292
Section VIII. — The Description of his Person and Temper, together with an
Account of his Writings - 303
Section IX. — The principal Controversies that exercised the Church in his
Time - 315
The Life of St. Andrew 339
The Life of St. James the Great 348
The Life of St. John 360
The Life of St Philip - - - • 381
The Life of St Bartholomew - - 387
The Life of St Matthew 393
The Life of St Thomas 403
The Life of St James the Less 411
The Life of St Simon the Zealot - - - - 422
The Life of St Jude 426
The Life of St Matthias 433
The Life of St Mark the Evangelist 439
The Life of St Luke the Evangelist 448
Dyptycha Apostolica : or, a brief Enumeration and Account of the Apostles and
their Successors, for the first three hundred Years in the five great Churches,
said to have been founded by them, thence called by the Ancients, Apostolical
Churches, vis.. Antioch, Rome, Jerusalem, Byzantium or Constantinople, and
Alexandria 455
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AN
APPARATUS,
OR
DISCOURSE INTRODUCTORY TO THE WHOLE WORK,
CONCERNING THE- THREE GREAT
DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH,
PATRIARCHAL, MOSAICAL, AND EVANGELICAL.
SECTION I.
OP THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
The tradition of Elias. The three great periods of the church. The patriarchal age.
The laws then in force natural or positive. Natural laws, what, evinced from the
testimony of natural conscience. The seven precepts of the sons of Noah. Their
respect to the law of nature. Positive laws under that dispensation. Eating blood
why prohibited. The mystery and signification of it. Circumcision, when commanded,
and why. The laws concerning religion. Their public worship, what Sacrifices, in
what sense natural, and how far instituted. The manner of God's testifying his accept-
ance. What the place of their public worship. Altars and groves, whence. Abraham's
Oak, its long continuance, and destruction by Constantine. The original of the Druids.
The times of their religious assemblies. " In process of time,*' Genes, iv. what meant by
it The seventh day, whether kept from the beginning. The ministers of religion,
who. The priesthood of the first-born. In what cases exercised by younger sons.
The state of religion successively under the several patriarchs. The condition of it in
Adam's family. The sacrifices of Cain and Abel, and their different success, whence.
Seth, his great learning and piety. The foce of the church in the time of Enos. What
meant by M Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." No idolatry before
the flood. The sons of God, who. The great corruption of religion in the time of
Jared. Enoch's piety, and walking with God. His translation, what The incom-
parable sanctity of Noah, and his strictness in an evil age. The character of the men
of that time. His preservation from the deluge. God's covenant with him. Shem or
Japhet, whether the elder brother. The confusion of languages, when, and why.
Abraham's idolatry and conversion. His eminency for religion noted in the several
instances of it God's covenant with him concerning the Messiah. The piety of
Isaac and Jacob. Jacob's blessing the twelve tribes, and foretelling the 'Messiah.
✓ B
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2 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
Patriarchs extraordinary under this dispensation, Melchisedek, who : wherein a type
of Christ. Job, his name, country, kindred, quality, religion, sufferings ; when he
lived. A reflection upon the religion of the old world, and its agreement with
Christianity.
" God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
nnto us by his Son."* For having created man for the noblest
purposes, to love, serve, and enjoy his Maker, he was careful in
all ages, by various revelations of his will, to acquaint him with
the notices of his duty, and to 44 shew him what was good, and
what the Lord did require of him till all other methods proving
weak and ineffectual for the recovery and the happiness of human
nature, God was pleased to crown all the former dispensations
with the revelation of his Son. There is among the Jews an
ancient tradition of the house of Elias, b that the world should
last six thousand years, which they thus compute, Cd*Ak w nnfron
nw oe&h w» rmn w inn, 44 two thousand years empty,
(little being recorded of those first ages of the world,) two thou-
sand years the Law, and two thousand the days of the Messiah
a tradition which, if it minister to no other purposes, does yet
afford us a very convenient division of the several ages and
periods of the church, which may be considered under a three-
fold economy, the Patriarchal, Mosaical, and Evangelical dis-
pensation. A short view of the two former will give us great
advantage to survey the latter, that new and better dispensation
which God has made to the world.
II. The Patriarchal age, inn ny, as the Jews call it, 44 the days
of emptiness," commenced from the beginning of the world, and
lasted till the delivery of the law upon mount Sinai. And under
this state the laws which God gave for the exercise of religion
and the government of his church, were either natural or positive.
Natural laws are those innate notions and principles, whether
speculative or practical, with which every man is born into the
world, those common sentiments of virtue and religion, those
prvncipia justi et decori, principles of fit and right, that naturally
are upon the minds of men, and are obvious to their reason at first
sight, commanding what is just and honest, and forbidding what
• Heb. i. 1, 2.
b Talm. Tract Sanhedr. cap. Halec et alibi. Vide Manass. Ben. Isr. de Resurect L iii.
c 3. et Concil. Quaest 30. in Genes.
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. ' 3
is evil and uncomely ; and that not only in the general, that what
is good is to be embraced, and what is evil to be avoided ; but in
the particular instances of duty^ according to their conformity or
repugnancy to natural light, being conversant about those things
that do not derive their value and authority from any arbitrary
constitutions, but from the moral and intrinsic nature of the
things themselves. These laws, as being the results and dictates
of right reason, are, especially as to their first and more imme-
diate emanations, the same in all men in the world, and in all
times and places, rmron moiw htt iDDianam, as the Jews call
them, " precepts that are evident among all nations indeed they
are interwoven into men^s nature, inserted into the texture
and constitution of their minds, and do discover themselves as
soon as ever they arrive to the free use and exercise of their
reason. That there are such laws and principles naturally planted
in men's breasts, is evident from the consent of mankind, and the
common experience of the world. Whence else comes it to pass,
that all wicked men, even among the heathens themselves, after
the commission of gross sins, such as do more sensibly rouse and
awaken conscience, are filled with horrors and fears of punish-
ment ? but because they are conscious to themselves of having
violated some law and rule of duty. Now what law can this
be ? Not the written and revealed law, for this the heathens
never had ; it must be, therefore, the inbred law of nature that is
born with them, and fixed in their minds antecedently to any
external revelation. " For when the Gentiles, which have not
the law, do by nature 11 c (by the light and evidence, by the force
and tendency of their natural notions and dictates) " the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
themselves, which shew the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, 11
\oyi<rfiol, the reasonings of their minds, " in the meanwhile 11
(fieragv aXX^Xwv, by turns) " accusing or else excusing one
another; 11 that is, although they had not a written law, as the
Jews had of old, and we Christians have at this day, yet by the
help of their natural principles they performed the same actions,
and discharged the same duties that are contained in and com-^
manded by the written and external law, shewing by their
practices that they had a law (some common notions of good and
evil) written in their hearts. And to this their very consciences
0 Rom. ii. 14, 15.
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4 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
bear witness, for according as they either observe or break these
natural laws, their consciences do either acquit or condemn them.
Hence we find God, in the very infancy of the world, appealing
to Cain for the truth of this, as a thing sufficiently plain and
obvious, " Why art thou wrath, and why is thy countenance
fallen : d if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted," J1*W?*
" be lift up r able to walk with a pleased and cheerful coun-
tenance, the great indication of a mind satisfied in the conscience
of its duty : " but if thou doest not well, sin lies at the door ;"
the punishments of sin will be ready to follow thee, and con-
science, as a minister of vengeance, will perpetually pursue
and haunt thee. By these laws mankind was principally
governed in the first ages of the world, there being for near two
thousand years no other fixed and standing rule of duty than the
dictates of this law of nature ; those principles of vice and
virtue, of justice and honesty, that are written in the heart of
every man.
HI, The Jews very frequently tell us of some particular com-
mands to the number of seven, which they call m mvn, e
" the precepts of the sons of Noah," six whereof were given to
Adam and his children, and the seventh given to Noah, which
they thus reckon up. The first was mi rmsy Sy, " concerning
strange worship," that they should not give divine honour to
idols, or the gods of the heathens, answerable to the two first
commands of the decalogue, " Thou shalt have no other gods
but me ; thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor
the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth
beneath, or in the water under the earth ; thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, or serve them: for," &c. From the vio-
lation of this law it was that Job, one of the patriarchs that lived
under this dispensation, solemnly purges himself, when speaking
concerning the worship of the celestial lights, the great, if not
only, idolatry of those early ages, says he, f " If I beheld the
sun when it shined, or the moon walking in her brightness, and
my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my
hand, this also were iniquity to be punished by the judge, for I
should have denied the God that is above." The second, town
d Gen. iv. 6, 7.
• Gem. Babyl. Tit Sanhedr. c. vii. foL 56. Maimon. Tr. Melak. c. ix. et alibi passim
apud Judaeos. Vid. Selden. de Jur. nat et gent Lie 10. et de Synedr. vol. i. c 2.
' Job xxxi. 26, 27, 28.
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 5
I-DIS hy, " concerning blessing," or worshipping, that they should
not blaspheme the name of God. This law Job also had respect
to, when he was careful to sanctify his children, and to propitiate
the Divine Majesty for them every morning, " for it may be
(said he 8 ) that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their
hearts." The third was cdw rvoiBttf hy, " concerning the shed-
ding of blood," forbidding manslaughter ; a law expressly renewed
to Noah after the flood, and which possibly Job aimed at when
he vindicates himself,* 1 that " he had not rejoiced at the destruc-
tion of him that hated him, or lift up himself when evil found
him." Nor was all effusion of human blood forbidden by this
law, capital punishments being in some cases necessary for the
preservation of human society, but only that no man should shed
the blood of an innocent person, or pursue a private revenge
without the warrant of public authority. The fourth was w *bi
by, " concerning the disclosing of uncleanness," against filthiness
and adultery, unlawful marriages and incestuous mixtures : " If
mine heart (says Job in his apology 1 ) hath been deceived by a
woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; then let my
wife grind, &c: for this is an heinous crime, yea it is an iniquity
to be punished by the judges." The fifth was bnn by, " concern-
ing theft" and rapine, the invading another man's right and
property, the violation of bargains and compacts, the falsifying
a man's word and promise, the deceiving of another by fraud,
lying, or any evil arts. From all which Job justifies himself,*
that " he had not walked with vanity, nor had his foot hasted
to deceit ; that his step had not turned out of the way, nor his
heart walked after his eyes, nor any blot cleaved to his hands."
And elsewhere he bewails it as the great iniquity of the times, 1
that " there were 'some that removed the land-marks ; that
violently took away the flocks, and fed thereof ; that drove away
the ass of the fatherless, and took the widow's ox for a pledge ;
that turned the needy out of the way, and made the poor of the
earth hide themselves together," &c. The sixth was tDWi hy,
" concerning judgments," or the administration of justice, that
judges and magistrates should be appointed in every place for
the order and government of civil societies, the determination of
causes, and executing of justice between man and man. And
« Job i. 6. * Ibid, xxxl 29. 1 Ibid. 0, 10, 1 1,
k Ibid. 5. 7. 1 Ibid. xxiv. 2, 3, 4, &c.
Digitized by
6 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
that such there then were, seems evident from the >W>s p#, which
Job twice speaks of in one chapter,™ " the judged iniquity,"
which the Jews expound, and we truly render, " an iniquity to
be punished by the judges." The seventh, Tin po inn h>, " con-
cerning the member of any live creature ;" that is, as God ex-
presses it in the precept to Noah, n they might not " eat the
blood, or the flesh with the life thereof." Whether these pre-
cepts were by any solemn and external promulgation particularly
delivered to the antediluvian patriarchs, (as the Jews seem to
contend,) I will not say : for my part, I cannot but look upon
them (the last only excepted) as a considerable part of nature's
statute-law, as comprising the great strokes and lineaments of
those natural dictates that are imprinted upon the souls of men.
For what more comely and reasonable, and more agreeable to
the first notions of our minds, than that we should worship and
adore God alone, as the author of our beings, and the fountain
of our happiness, and not derive the lustre of his incommunicable
perfections upon any creature ; that we should entertain great
and honourable thoughts of God, and such as become the
grandeur and majesty of his being ; that we should abstain from
doing any wrong or injury to another, from invading his right,
violating his privileges, and much more from making any
attempt upon his life, the dearest blessing in this world ; that
we should be just and fair in our transactions, and " do to all
men as we would they should do to us ;" that we should live
chastely and temperately, and not by wild and extravagant
lusts and sensualities offend against the natural modesty of our
minds ; that order and government should be maintained in the
world, justice advanced, and every man secured in his just
possessions I " And so suitable did these laws seem to the reason
and understandings of men, that the Jews, though the most
zealous people under heaven of their legal institutions, received
those Gentiles who observed them as proselytes into their
church, though they did not oblige themselves to circumcision,
and the rest of the Mosaic rites. Nay, in the first age of Chris-
tianity, when the great controversy arose between the Jewish
and Gentile converts about the obligation of the law of Moses
as necessary to salvation, the observation only of these precepts,
at least a great part of them, was imposed upon the Gentile
«" Chap. xxxi. 11. 28.
n Gen. ix. 4.
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 7
converts, as the best expedient to end the difference, by the
apostolical synod at Jerusalem.
IV. But though the law of nature was the common law by
which God then principally governed the world, yet was not he
wanting, by methods extraordinary, to supply, as occasion was,
the exigencies and necessities of his church, communicating his
mind to them by dreams and visions, and other ways of revela-
tion, which we shall more particularly remark when we come to
the Mosaical economy. Hence arose those positive laws which
we meet with in this period of the church, some whereof are more
expressly recorded, others more obscurely intimated. Among
those that are more plain and obvious, two are especially con-
siderable, the prohibition for not eating blood, and the precept
of circumcision; the one given to Noah, the other to Abraham.
The prohibition concerning blood is thus recorded : " Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you : but flesh with
the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat."°
The blood is the vehiculum to carry the spirits, as the veins are
the channels to convey the blood ; now the animal spirits give
vital heat and activity to every part, and being let out, the
blood presently cools, and the creature dies. " Not flesh with
the blood, which is the life thereof that is, not flesh while it is
alive, while the blood and the spirits are yet in it. The mystery
and signification whereof was no other than this! that God would
not have men trained to arts of cruelty, or whatever did but
carry the colour and aspect of a merciless and a savage temper,
lest severity towards beasts should degenerate into fierceness
towards men. It is good to defend the out-guards, and to Stop
the remotest ways that lead towards sin, especially considering
the violent propensions of human nature to passion and revenge.
Men commence bloody and inhuman by degrees, and little ap-
proaches in time render a thing, in itself abhorrent, not only
familiar, but delightful. The Romans, who at first entertained
the people in the amphitheatre only with wild beasts killing one
another, came afterwards wantonly to sport away the lives of
the gladiators, yea, to cast persons to be devoured by bears and
lions, for no other end than the divertisement and pleasure of
the people. He who can please himself in tearing and eating
the parts of a living creature, may in short time make no scruple
° Gen. ix. 3. 4*
8 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
to do violence to the life of man. p Besides, eating blood
naturally begets a savage temper, makes the spirits rank and
fiery, and apt to be easily inflamed and blown up into choler
and fierceness. And that hereby God did design to bar out
ferity, and to secure mercy and gentleness, is evident from what
follows after : q " And surely your blood of your lives will I
require ; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at
the hand of man ; at the hand of every man's brother will I
require the life of man : whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed." The life of a beast might not be wan-
tonly sacrificed to men's humours, therefore not man's ; the life
of man being so sacred and dear to God, that if killed by a
beast, the beast itself was to die for it ; if by man, that man's
life was to go for retaliation, " by man shall his blood be shed ;"
where, by "man," we must necessarily understand the ordinary
judge and magistrate, or tno hw xn rrn, as the Jews call it,
"the lower judicature," with respect to that divine and superior
court, the immediate judgment of God himself: by which means
God admirably provided for the safety and security of man's
life, and for the order and welfare of human society : and it was
no more than necessary, the remembrance of the violence and
oppression of the Nephilim, or giants, before the flood, being yet *
fresh in memory, and there was no doubt but such " mighty
hunters," men of robust bodies, of barbarous and inhuman tempers,
would afterwards arise. This law against eating blood was af-
terwards renewed under the Mosaic institution, but with this
peculiar signification/ " For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement
for yonr souls ; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement
for the soul :" that is, the blood might not be eaten, not only
for the former reason, but because God had designed it for par-
ticular purposes, to be the great instrument of expiation, and an
eminent type of the blood of the Son of God, who was to die
as the great expiatory sacrifice for the world: nay, it was re-
established by the apostles in the infancy of Christianity, and
observed by the primitive Christians for several ages, as we have
elsewhere observed.
V. The other precept was concerning circumcision, given to
Abraham at the time of God's entering into covenant with him.
P Vid, Porphyr. de Abetin, lib. i. s. 47. * Gen. ix. 5, 6. r Levit xrii 11.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 9
" God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, &c.
This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you,
and thy seed after thee ; every man-child among you shall be
circumcised : and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin,
and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you." *
God had now made a covenant with Abraham to take his pos-
terity for his peculiar people, and that out of them should arise
the promised Messiah : and as all federal compacts have some
solemn and external rites of ratification, so God was pleased to
add circumcision as the sign and seal of this covenant, partly as
it had a peculiar fitness in it to denote the promised seed, partly
that it might be a discriminating badge of Abraham's children
(that part whom God had especially chosen out of the rest of
mankind) from all other people. On Abraham's part, it was a
sufficient argument of his hearty compliance with the terms of
this covenant, that he would so cheerfully submit to so unpleasing
and difficult a sign as was imposed upon him. For circumcision
could not but be both painful and dangerous in one of his years,
as it was afterwards to be to all new-born infants: whence
Zipporah complained of Moses commanding her to circumcise
her son, that he was t=>w fnn, " an husband of blood," a cruel and
inhuman husband. And this, the Jews tell us,* was the reason
why circumcision was omitted during their forty years' journey
in the wilderness, it was wmiwi fc-m&m town, " by reason of the
trouble and inconvenience of the way," God mercifully dispensing
with the want of it, lest it should hinder their travelling, the
soreness and weakness of the circumcised person not comporting
with hard and continual journies. It was to be administered
the eighth day ; u not sooner, the tenderness of the infant not
well till then complying with it, besides that the mother of a
male child was reckoned legally impure till the seventh day :
not later, probably because the longer it was deferred, the more
unwilling would parents be to put their children to pain, of
which they would every day become more sensible, not to say
the satisfaction it would be to them to see their children
solemnly entered into covenant. Circumcision was afterwards
incorporated into the body of the Jewish law, and entertained
with a mighty veneration, as their great and standing privilege,
» Gen. xvil 9, 10, 11. « Talm. Tract. Job. c. 8,
u Vicl Maimon. Mor. Nevoch. par. iii. c. 49.
10 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
relied on as the main basis and foundation of their confidence,
and hopes of acceptance with heaven, and accounted in a
manner equivalent to all the other rites of the Mosaic law.
VI. But besides these two, we find other positive precepts,
which, though not so clearly expressed, are yet sufficiently in-
timated to us. Thus there seems to have been a law, that none
of the holy line, none of the posterity of Seth, should marry with
infidels, or those corrupt and idolatrous nations which God had
rejected, as appears in that it is charged as a great part of the
sin of the old world, w that the sons of God matched with the
daughters of men, as also from the great care which Abraham
took that his son Isaac should not take a wife of the daughters
of the Oanaanites among whom he dwelt. There was also
trD* mvD, Jus Leviratus, whereby the next brother to him who
died without issue was obliged to marry the widow of the de-
ceased, and " to raise up seed unto his brother," the contempt
whereof cost Onan his life : together with many more particular
laws which the story of those times might suggest to us. But
what is of most use and importance to us, is to observe what
laws God gave for the administration of his worship, which will
be best known by considering what worship generally prevailed
in those early times; wherein we shall especially remark the
nature of their public worship, the places where, the times
when, and the persons by whom it was administered.
VII. It cannot be doubted, but that the holy patriarchs of those
days were careful to instruct their children, and all that were
under their charge, (their families being then very vast and
numerous,) in the duties of religion, to explain and improve the
natural laws written upon their minds, and acquaint them with
those divine traditions and positive revelations which they them-
selves had received from God : this being part of that great
character which God gave of Abraham,* " I know him, that he
will command his children and his household after him; and
they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment."
To this they joined prayer and invocation, than which no duty
is more natural and necessary ; more natural, because it fitly
expresses that great reverence and veneration which we have for
the Divine Majesty, and that propensity that is in mankind
to make known their wants : none more necessary, because our
w Gen. vi. 2, 3. * Gen. xviii. 19.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 11
whole dependence being upon the continuance and constant re-
turns of the divine power and goodness, it is most reasonable
that we should make our daily addresses to him, " in whom we
live, move, and have our being." Nor were they wanting in
returns of praise and solemn celebrations of the goodness of
heaven, both by entertaining high and venerable thoughts of
God, and by actions suitable to those honourable sentiments
which they had of him. In these acts of worship they were
careful to use gestures of the greatest reverence and submission,
which commonly was prostration. " Abraham bowed himself
towards the ground and when God sent the Israelites the
happy news of their deliverance out of Egypt, " they bowed
their heads and worshipped :" z a posture which hath ever been
the usual mode of adoration in those Eastern countries unto this
day. But the greatest instance of the public worship in those
times was sacrifices: a very early piece of devotion, in all
probability taking its rise from Adam's fall. They were either
eucharistical, expressions of thankfulness for blessings received,
or expiatory, offered for the remission of sin. Whether these
sacrifices were first taken up at men's arbitrary pleasure, or
positively instituted and commanded by God, might admit of a
very large inquiry. But to me the case seems plainly this:*
that as to eucharistical sacrifices, such as first-fruits, and the
like oblations, men's own reason might suggest and persuade
tnem, that it was fit to present them as the most natural signifi-
cations of a thankful mind. And thus far there might be sacri-
fices in the state of innocence : for man being created under
duch excellent circumstances as he was in Paradise, could not
but know that he owed to God all possible gratitude and subjec-
tion ; obedience he owed him as his supreme Lord and Master,
gratitude, as his great Patron and Benefactor, and was therefore
obliged to pay to him some eucharistical sacrifices, as a testimony
of his grateful acknowledgment, that he had both his being and
preservation from him. But when sin had changed the scene,
and mankind was sunk under a state of guilt, he was then to
seek for a way how to pacify God's anger : and this was done
by bloody and expiatory sacrifices, which God accepted in the
sinner's stead. And as to these, it seems reasonable to suppose
y Gen. xviii. 2. 1 Exod. iv. 31.
a Vid. Chrysost Horn, xviii. in Gen. s. 4. vol. iv. p. 156.
12 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
that they should be founded upon a positive institution, because
pardon of sin being a matter of pure grace and favour, whatever
was a means to signify and convey that, must be appointed by
God himself, first revealed to Adam, and by him communicated
to' his children. The Deity, propitiated by these atonements,
was wont to testify his acceptance of them by some external
and visible sign : thus Cain sensibly perceived that God had
respect to AbeFs sacrifice, and not to his ; though what this sign
was, it is not easy to determine. Most probably it was fire
from heaven coming down upon the oblation, and consuming it :
for so it frequently was in the sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensa-
tion, and so we find it was in that famous sacrifice of Abraham, 1 *
" a lamp of fire passed between the parts of the sacrifice.'" Thus
when it is said, " God had respect to Abel and to his offering,"
Theodotion renders it iveirvpiaev^ " he burnt it ;" and to this
custom the psalmist alludes in that petition, 0 " Remember all
thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice," in^un ruurv, " let
thy burnt-offering be reduced into ashes."
VIII. Where it was that this public worship was performed,
is next to be inquired into. That they had fixed and determinate
places for the discharge of their religious duties, those especially
that were done in common, is greatly probable ; nature and the
reason of things would put them upon it. And this most think
is intended in that phrase, where it is said of Cain and Abel,
that "they brought their oblations," that is, (as Aben Ezra d
and others expound it,) irfenb fypm CDipD S«, 44 to the place set
apart for divine worship.*" And this probably was the reason
why Cain, though vexed to the heart to see his brother preferred
before him, did not presently set upon him, the solemnity ^and
religion of the place, and the sensible appearances of the Divine
Majesty having struck an awe into him, but deferred his mur-
derous intentions till they came into the field, and there fell
upon him. For their sacrifices they had altars, whereon they
offered them, contemporary no doubt with sacrifices themselves,
though we read not of them till after the flood, when Noah built
an altar unto the Lord, 6 and offered burnt-offerings upon it : so
Abraham/ immediately after his being called to the worship of
the true God, in Sichem built an altar unto the Lord, who ap-
b Gen. xv. 17. c Psalm xx. 3. d Apud. P. Fag. in Gen. iv.
e Gen. viii. 20. 1 Gen. xii. 7, 8. vide cap. xiii. 4. 18.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 13
peared unto him ; and removing thence to a mountain eastward,
he built another altar, and called on the name of the Lord, as
indeed he did almost in every place where he came. Thus also
when he dwelt at Beersheba in the plains of Mamre, g he
" planted a grove there, and called on the name of the Lord,
the everlasting God." This no doubt was the common chapel
or oratory, whither Abraham and his numerous family, and pro-
bably those whom he gained to be proselytes to his religion, were
wont to retire for their public adorations, as a place infinitely
advantageous for such religious purposes. And indeed the
ancient devotion of the world much delighted in groves, in
woods, and mountains, partly for the convenience of such places,
as better composing the thoughts for divine contemplations, and
resounding their joint-praises of God to the best advantage,
partly because the silence and retiredness of the place was apt
to beget a kind of sacred dread and horror in the mind of the
worshipper. Hence we find in Ophrah, h where Gideon's father
dwelt, an altar to Baal, and a grove that was by it ; and how
common the Superstitions and idolatries of the heathen world
were in groves and high places, no man can fie ignorant, that is
never so little conversant either in profane or sacred stories.
For this reason, that they were so much abused to idolatry, God
commanded the Israelites to " destroy their altars, break down
their images, and cut down their groves:"* and that "they
should not plant a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the
Lord," j lest he should seem to countenance what was so uni-
versally prostituted to false worship and idolatry. But to re-
turn to Abraham. He " planted a grove," Sum, " a tree," which
the ancients generally make to have been a large spreading
oak ; and some foundation there is for it in the sacred text ;
for the place where Abraham planted it is called " the plain of
Mamre ;" k or, as in the Hebrew, he dwelt kidd uhe, " among
the oaks of Mamre; 1 and so the Syriac renders it, "the house of
the oak:" the name whereof, Josephus tells us, m was Ogyges;
and it is not a conjecture to be despised," that Noah might pro-
s' Gen. xxi. 33. h Judg. vi. 25. 1 Exod. xxxiv. 13.
J Deut xvi. 21. k Gen. xiii. 18.
1 Tlapk tV tybv t^V Map&frij. LXX. Ita Vers. Samaritana : nec aliter Arabs in
Genes, xviii. 1.
m Antiq. Jud. L i. c. 11.
n Vid. Dick. Delph. Phcwiic c. 12. p. 137. et Append, p. 38.
Digitized by
14 * THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
bably inhabit in this place, and either give the name to it, or at
least derive his from it, Ogyges being the name by which he is
usually described in foreign writers. This very oak, St. Jerome
assures us, 0 and Eusebius intimates as much, p was yet standing
till the time of Oonstantine, and worshipped with great super-
stition. And Sozomen tells us more particularly, 0 - that there
was a famous mart held there every summer, and a feast cele-
brated by a general confluence of the neighbouring countries,
and persons of all religions, both Christians, Jews, and Gentiles,
7Tpo<r<f>6p<o<i Bk rals Ofyqaiceiais rifi&ai tovtov tov %g>/>ov, every
one doing honour to this place according to the different prin-
ciples of their religion but that Constantine, being offended that
the place should be profaned with the superstitions of the Jews
and the idolatry of the Gentiles, wrote with some severity to
Macarius the bishop of Jerusalem, and the bishops of Palestine,
that they should destroy the altars and images, and deface all
monuments of idolatry, and restore the place to its ancient
sanctity : which was accordingly done, and a church erected in
the place, where God was purely and sincerely worshipped.
From this oak, th*e ordinary place of Abraham's worship and
devotion, the religion of the Gentiles doubtless derived its oaks
and groves ; and particularly the Druids, the great and almost
only masters and directors of all learning and religion among the
ancient Britons, hence borrowed their original ; who are so no-
toriously known to have lived wholly under oaks and in groves,
and there to have delivered their doctrines and precepts, and to
have exercised their religious and mysterious rites, that hence
they fetched their denomination, either from Apvs, (as the an-
cients generally thought,) or, more probably, from the old Celtic
word Deru, both signifying " an oak," and which the Welch, the
descendants of the ancient Britons, still call Derw at this day.
But of this enough.
IX. From the place where, we proceed to the times when
they usually paid their devotions. And seeing order is neces-
sary in all undertakings, and much more in the actions of reli-
gion, we cannot think that mankind was left at a roving uncer-
tainty in a matter of so great importance, but that they had
their stated and solemn times of worship : especially when we
° De loc Hebr. in voce Arboch. p Euseb. xep, tottik. dvofu in voc. 'A/w<£.
«• Hist. EccL 1. ii. c. 4.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 15
find among all nations, even the most rude and unpolished
heathens, times peculiarly set apart for the honour of their gods, *
and the public solemnities of religion. And so, no question, it
was in the more early ages of the world ; they had fixed and ap-
propriate seasons, when they met together to do homage unto
God, and to offer up their joint acknowledgments to heaven.
Thus we read of Cain, that he brought his oblation " in process
of time," r fpD w, "at the end of days," at one of those fixed
and periodical returns, when they used to meet in the religious
assemblies, the word fp denoting not simply an end, but a
determinate and an appointed end. I know many with great
zeal and eagerness contend, that the sabbath, or seventh day
from the creation, was set apart, and universally observed as the
time of public worship, and that from the beginning of the world.
But, alas, the foundation upon which this opinion is built, is very
weak and sandy, having nothing to rely on, but one place, where
it is said, that " God resting the seventh day from all his works,
blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it :" 4 which words are rea-
sonably thought to have been set down by Moses by way of pro-
lepsis, as it was in his time, if they relate at all to the sabbath, and
are not rather to be understood of God's blessing and sanctifying
the seventh day, as having then completed all his works in the
creating of man, and in whom, as in the crown and glory of the
creation, he would sanctify himself. For that it should be meant
of a weekly sabbath, hath* as little countenance from this text,
as it hath from the practice of those ^imes, there being no foot-
steps or shadow of any such sabbath kept through all the pa-
triarchal periods of the church, till the times of Moses, which,
besides the evidence of the story, is universally owned by the an-
cient Jews, and very many of the fathers do expressly assert it.
X. The last circumstance concerns the persons by whom the
public worship was administered. Impossible it is that any so-
ciety should be regularly managed, where there are not some
peculiar persons to superintend, direct, and govern the affairs of
it. And God, who in all other things is a God of order, is much
more so in matters of religion ; and therefore, no doubt, from the
beginning appointed those, whose care and business it should be
to discharge the public parts of piety and devotion in the name
of the rest. Now the priesthood in those times was vested in
r Gen. iv. 3.
8 Gen. ii. 3.
16 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
the heads of tribes, and in the first-born of every family. To
* the patriarch, or head of every tribe, it belonged to bless the
family, to offer sacrifice, to intercede for them by prayer, and to
minister in other solemn acts of religion. And this office he-
reditarily descended to the first-born, who had power to dis-
charge it during the life of his father ; for it was not necessary
that he who was priest by virtue of his primogeniture, should
be also the eldest of the house. Jacob, who succeeded in his
brother's right, offered sacrifices in the life of his father Isaac ;
and Abraham was a priest, though Shem, the head of the family,
and ten degrees removed from him in a direct line, was then
alive, yea survived Abraham (as some learned men think) near
forty years. Every first-born had three great prerogatives : a
double portion of the paternal inheritance ; a lordship and prin-
cipality over his brethren ; and a right to the priesthood, to in-
struct them in the knowledge of divine things, and to manage
the common offices of religion. So that in those times there
was a particular priesthood in every family, the administration
whereof was usually appropriate to the first-born. Thus Noah,
Abraham, and Isaac offered sacrifices; and Job, (who lived
about that time, or not long after,) both for his children and his
friends. Thus Esau was a priest by his primogeniture ; and that
goodly raiment of her son Esau, which Rebekah put upon Jacob
when he went in to his father, is by many not improbably under-
stood of the sacerdotal vestments, wherein, as first-born, he was
wont to execute his office.* Of these priests we are to under-
stand that place, " Let the priests, which come near to the Lord,
sanctify themselves.'" 4 This could not be meant of the Levitical
priests, (the Aaronical order not being yet instituted,) and there-
fore must be understood of the priesthood of the first-born, and
so Solomon Jarchfs gloss expounds it. Thus when Moses had
built an altar at the foot of the mountain, he sent " young men
of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and sacri-
ficed peace-offerings unto the Lord."" Where, for "young men,"
the Ohaldee Paraphrase and the Jerusalem Targum have Iwttp
>:q *D"D, " the first-born of the children of Israel so has that of
Jonathan, who expressly adds this reason, " for unto that very
hour the worship remained among the first-born, the tabernacle
of the covenant not being yet made, nor the Aaronical priest-
1 Exod. xix. 22. u Exod. xxiv. 5.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 17
hood set up." So when Jacob bequeathed his blessing to Reuben,
" Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning
of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency
of power," w the same Jewish paraphrasts tell us, that there
were three things in this blessing conveyed and confirmed to
Reuben, the birthright, the kingdom, and the priesthood, but
that for his enormous and unnatural sin they were transferred
to others ; the primogeniture to Joseph, the kingdom to Judah,
and the priesthood to Levi. But though the sacerdotal function
ordinarily belonged to the first-born, yet was it not so wholly
invested in them, but that it might in some cases be exercised
by younger brothers, especially when passing into other families,
and themselves becoming heads of tribes and families. Abraham
we know was not a first-born, and it is highly probable that
Shem himself was not Noah's eldest son. Moses was a priest,
yea, D^ron fra, as the Jews call him, " the priest of priests," and
yet was but Amram^s second son, and Aaron's younger brother.
So that the case, in short, seemed to lie thus ; the patriarch, or
surviving head of every tribe, was a kind of high-priest over
all the families that were descended from him ; the first-born in
every family was the ordinary priest, who might officiate in his
father's stead, and who, after his decease, succeeded in his room ;
the younger brethren, when leaving their father's house, and
themselves becoming heads of families, and their seats removed
too far distant to make use of the ordinary priesthood, did
themselves take the office upon them, and exercise it over all
those that were under them, and sprung from them, though the
main honour and dignity was reserved for the priesthood of the
first-born. Thus Abraham, though but a second sod, yet when
become the jiead of a great family, and removed int& another
country, became a priest, and that not only during the life of
his father, but of Shem himself, the grand surviving patriarch
of that time. I observe no more concerning this, than that this
right of the first-born was a prime honour and privilege ; and
therefore the reason (say the Jews x ) why Jacob was so greatly
desirous ^of the birthright was because, in those days, the priest-
hood was entailed upon it. And for this chiefly, no doubt, it
was that Esau is called /3i/3rjkos,' "a profane person," for selling
w Gen. xlix. 3.
* Beresch. Rab. fol. 17. coL 1. ap. Selden. de success, ad leg. Ebr. c 5. * Heb. xii. 16.
C
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18 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
his birthright for a mess of pottage, because thereby he made so
light of the sacred honour of the priesthood, the venerable office
of ministering before God.
II. Having thus seen what were the laws, what the worship
of those times, it remains briefly to consider what was the face
of the church, and the state of religion under the several
patriarchs of this economy. Not to meddle with the story
either of the creation or apostacy of Adam, no sooner was he
fallen from that innocent and happy state wherein God had
placed him, but conscience began to stir, and he was sensible
that God was angry, and saw it necessary to propitiate the of-
fended Deity by prayer and invocation, by sorrow and repent-
ance, and, probably, by offering sacrifice ; a conjecture that hath
at least some countenance from those " coats of skins" 2 where-
with God clothed our first parents, which seem likely to have
been the skins of beasts slain for sacrifice ; for that they were
not killed for food is evident, because flesh was not the ordinary
diet (if it was at all) of those first ages of the world. And God
might purposely make choice of this sort of covering, to put our
first parents in mind of their great degeneracy, how deep they
were sunk into the animal life, and, by gratifying brutish and
sensual appetites at so dear a rate, how like they were become
to the beasts that perish. And if this were so, it possibly might
give birth to that law of Moses, a that every priest that offered
any man's burnt-offering should have to himself the skin of the
burnt-offering which he had offered. But however this was, it
is certain that Adam was careful to instruct his children in the
knowledge of divine things, and to maintain religion and the
worship of God in his family. For we find Cain and Abel
bringing their oblations, and that at a certain time, though they
had a different success. I omit the traditions of the East, that
the cause of the difference between Cain and Abel was about
a wife, and that they sought to decide the case by sacrifice ; and
that when Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Cain, out of envy and
indignation, fell upon his brother, struck his head with a stone,
and slew him. The present they brought was according to their
different ways and institutions of life : Cain, as an husbandman,
" brought of the fruit of the ground Abel, as a shepherd,
46 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof but
* Gen. iii. 21.
a Levit. vii. 8.
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 19
the one was accepted, and the other rejected. The cause whereof
certainly was, not that the one was little and inconsiderable, the
other large and noble ; the one only a dry oblation, the other a
burnt-offering; or that Cain had entertained a conceived pre-
judice against his brother ; the true cause lay in the different
temper and disposition of their minds. b Abel had great and
honourable thoughts of God, and therefore brought of the best
that he had ; Cain, mean and unworthy apprehensions, and ac-
cordingly took what came first to hand: Abel came with a
grateful sense of the goodness of heaven, with a mind piously
and heartily devoted to the divine majesty, and an humble re-
liance upon the divine acceptance ; Cain brought his oblation,
indeed, but looked no farther, was not careful to offer up himself
" a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God," as being " the
most reasonable service," too confidently bearing up himself, as
we may suppose, upon the prerogative of primogeniture. By
which means, Abel " offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice
than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous,
God testifying of his gifts." c For " he had respect unto Abel
and to his offering ; but unto Cain and to his offering he had
not respect." 4 And if in that fire by which God testified his
respect by consuming one oblation and not the other, there
was (as the Jews say) seen the face of a lion, it doubtless pre-
figured the late promised Messiah, " the Lion of the tribe of
Judah," e our great expiatory sacrifice, of whom all other sacri-
fices were but types and shadows, and in whom all our oblations
are rendered grateful unto God, " the odour of a sweet smell,
a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing unto God " f
XII. Abel being taken away by his envious and enraged
brother, God was pleased to repair the loss by giving his parents
another son whom they called Seth, and he accordingly proved
a very virtuous and religious man. He was (if we may believe
the ancients) a great scholar ; the first inventor of letters and
writing, an accurate astronomer, and taught his childien the
knowledge of the stars ; who having heard from their grand-
father Adam, that the world was ta be twice destroyed, once by
fire, and again by water, (if the story be true which Josephus
without any great warrant reports, g ) wrote their experiments
b Chrys. Horn, xviii. in Genes, s. 5. vol. iv. p. 157. c Heb. xi. 4.
d Gen. iv. 4, 5. < Rev. v. 5. f Phil. iv. 18. « Antiq. Jnd. 1. i. c 3.
o2
20 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
and the principles of their art upon two pillars, one of brick, the
other of stone, that if the one perished, the other might remain
and convey their notions to posterity; one of which pillars,
Josephns adds, was said to be standing in Syria in his time.
But that which rendered Seth most renowned, was his piety and
devotion ; a good man he was, one who asserted and propagated
religion and the true worship of God, as he had received it from
his father Adam, notwithstanding the declensions and degeneracy,
and possibly oppositions of his brother Cain and his party. The
Eastern writers, both Jews and Arabians, 11 confidently assure us
that Seth and his retinue withdrew from Cain, who dwelt in the
valley where he had killed his brother Abel, into a very high
mountain, (on the top whereof their father Adam was buried,) so
high, if we could believe them, that they could hear the angels
singing anthems, and did daily join in with that heavenly choir.
Here they wholly devoted themselves to the daily worship of
God, and obtained a mighty name and veneration for the holiness
and purity of their lives. When Seth came to lie upon his death-
bed, he summoned his children, their wives and families together,
blessed them, and as his last will commanded them to worship
God, adjuring them, by the blood of Abel, (their usual and solemn
oath,) that they should not descend from the holy mount to hold
any correspondence or commerce with Cain or his wicked faction ;
and then breathed his last. A command, say my authors, which
they observed for seven generations, and then came in the pro-
miscuous mixtures.
XIII. To Seth succeeded his son Enos, who kept up the glory
and purity of. religion and the honour of the holy line. Of his
time it is particularly recorded,* " then began men to call upon
the name of the Lord." The ambiguity of the word Smn,
signifying sometimes to profane, sometimes to begin, hath begotten
various apprehensions among learned men concerning this place,
and led them not only into different, but quite contrary senses.
The words are by some rendered thus, " then men profaned in
calling upon the name of the Lord," which they thus explain : that
at that time, when Enos was born, the true worship and service
of God began to sink and fail, corruption and idolatry mightily
prevailing by- reason of Cain's wicked and apostate family; and
h Vid. testimonia eorura citat ap. Hotting. Smeg. Orient c. 8. p. 226. et seq.
1 Gen. iv. 26.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 21
that, as a sad memorial of this corrupt and degenerate age, holy
Seth called his son's name Enos, which not only simply signifies
a man, but a poor, calamitous, miserable man. And this way
go many of the Jews, and some Christian writers of great name
and note. Nay, Maimonides, one of the wisest and soberest of
all the Jewish writers, begins his tract about idolatry, k urtiK ^do,
" from the times of Enos," referring to this very passage ; he tells
us, that men did then grievously err, and that the minds of the
wise men of those days were grown gross and stupid ; yea, that
Enos himself was CD^ton p, " among those that erred and that
their idolatry consisted in this, that they worshipped the stars
and the host of heaven. Others there are who expressly assert,'
that Enos was the first that invented " images, to excite the spirit
of the creatures, omyvDH} mhxb ibb&nntt, that by their mediation
men might invocate and call upon God." But how infirm a
foundation this text is to build all this upon is evident : for
besides what some have observed," 1 that the Hebrew phrase is
not tolerably reconcileable with such a sense, if it were, yet
ion ipWi, as one of the Rabbins has well noted," that there wants
a foundation for any such exposition ; no mention being made in
Moses's story of any such false gods as were then worshipped,
no footsteps of idolatry appearing in the world till after the flood.
Nor, indeed, is it reasonable to suppose, that the creation of the
world being yet fresh in memory, and divine traditions so lately
received from Adam, and God frequently communicating himself
to men, that the case being thus, men could in so short a time
be fallen under so great an apostacy as wholly to forget and
renounce the true God, and give divine honours to senseless and
inanimate creatures ; I can hardly think that the Cainites them-
selves should be guilty of this, much less Enos and his children.
The meaning of the words then is plainly this: that in Enos's
time, the holy line being greatly multiplied, they applied them-
selves to the worship of God in a more public and remarkable
manner, either by framing themselves into more distinct societies
for the exercise of public worship, or by meeting at more fixed
and stated times, or by invocating God under more solemn and
peculiar rites than they had done before. And this probably
k De Idol. c. 1. s. 1. 1 Vid. ap. Hotting. Smeg. Orient c. 8. p. 230.
m Dionys. Voss. not in Maimon. p. 4. Heideg. de Hist Patr. exerc. vi. p. 223.
n R. Eliez. Maas. Beret, c. 22.
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22 THE PATRI ARCHA L DISPENSATION.
they did the rather, to obviate that torrent of profaneness and
impiety which by means of the sons of Cain they saw flowing 1
in upon the world. This will be farther confirmed, if we take
the words, as by some they are rendered, " then men began to be
called by the name of the Lord ;" that is, the difference and
separation that was between the children of Seth and Cain every
day ripening into a wider distance, the posterity of Seth began
to take to themselves a distinctive title, that the world might the
better distinguish between those who kept to the service of God,
and those who threw off religion, and let loose the reins to dis-
order and impiety. And hereof we meet with clear intimation
in the story of those times, when we read of crrm " the sons
of God," (who doubtless were the pions and devont posterity of
Seth, calling themselves after the name of the Lord, whom they
- constantly and sincerely worshipped, notwithstanding the fancy
of Josephus and the fathers that they were angels, or that of
the Jewish paraphrasts that they were wr&\ " the sons of
great men and princes ;") in opposition to the tD-&* m, " the sons
of men," the impure and debauched posterity of Cain, who made
light of religion, and were wholly governed by earthly and
sensual inclinations. And the matching of these " sons of God "
with the " daughters of men," that is, those of the family of
Cain, and the fatal consequences of those unhappy marriages,
was that which provoked God to destroy the world. I have no
more to add concerning Enos, than that we are told, that dying
he gave the same commands to his children which he had received
of his father, that they should make religion their great care and
business, and keep themselves pure from society and converse
with the line of Cain.
XIV. After Enos was his son Kenan, who, as the Arabian his-
torian informs us, p ruled the people committed to him by a wise
and excellent government, and gave the same charge at his death
that had been given to him. Next Kenan comes Mahalaleel,' 1
who carries devotion and piety in his very name, signifying,
" one that praises God," of whom they say, that he trained up
the people in ways of justice and piety, blessed his children at
his death, and, having charged them to separate from the Cainites,
appointed his son Jared to be his successor; whose name denotes
° (Jen. vi. 2. P Elmacin. ap. Hotting. Smeg. Orient, c. 8. p. 233.
'J Id. ibid. p. 234.
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 23
a " descent," probably either because of the notable decrease and
declension of piety in his time, or because in his days some of
the Sethites descended from the holy mountain to mix with the
posterity of Cain. For so the Oriental writers inform us/ that a
great noise and shout coming up from the valley, an hundred of
the holy mountaineers agreed to go down to the sons of Cain,
whom Jared endeavoured to hinder by all the arts of counsel and
persuasion. But what can stop a mind bent upon an evil course ?
down they went, and being ravished with the beauty of the
Cainite women, promiscuously committed folly and lewdness
with them ; from whence sprang a race of giants, men of vast
and robust bodies, but of more vicious and ungovernable tempers,
who made their will their law, and might the standard and rule
of equity. Attempting to return back to the holy mount, heaven
had shut up their way, the stones of the mountain burning like
fire when they came upon them ; which whether the reader will
have faith enough to believe, I know not. Jared being near his
death, advised his children to be wise by the folly of their
brethren, and to have nothing to do with that profane generation.
His son Enoch followed in his steps, a man of admirable strict-
ness and piety, and peculiarly exemplary for his innocent and
holy conversation, it being particularly noted of him, that tc he
walked with God." 8 He set the divine majesty before him, as
the guide and pattern, the spectator and rewarder of his actions ;
in all his ways endeavoured to approve himself to his all-seeing
e ye, by doing nothing but what was grateful and acceptable to
him ; he was the great instance of virtue and goodness in an evil
age, and by the even tenor and constancy of a holy and religious
life, shewed his firm belief and expectation of a future state, and
his hearty dependence upon the divine goodness for the rewards
of a better life. And God, who is never behindhand with his
servants, crowned his extraordinary obedience with an uncommon
reward. " By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not
see death, and was not found, because God had translated him :
for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased
God."' And what that faith was, is plain by what follows after,
a belief of God^s being and his bounty. " Without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
r Elmac. et Patric. apud Hotting, c. 8. p. 235. • Gen. v. 24. 1 Heb. xi. 5, 6.
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24 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
him." What this translation was, and whither it was made,
whether into that terrestrial paradise out of which Adam was
expelled and banished, and whereunto Enoch had desired of God
he might be translated, as some fancy ; or whether placed among
the stars, as others ; or carried into the highest heavens, as
others will have it, were nice and useless speculations. It is
certain he was taken out of these mutable regions, and set beyond
the reach of those miseries and misfortunes to which a present
state of sin and mortality does betray us ; translated, probably,
both soul and body, that he might be a type and specimen of a
future resurrection, and a sensible demonstration to the world
that there is a reward for the righteous, and another state after
this wherein good men shall be happy for ever. I pass by the
fancy of the Jews, as vain and frivolous, that though Enoch was
a good man, yet was he very mutable and inconstant and apt to
be led aside, and that this was the reason why God translated
him so soon, lest he should have been debauched by the charms
and allurements of a wicked world. He was an eminent prophet,
and a fragment of his prophecy is yet extant in St. Jude's epistle ;
by which it appears, that wickedness was then grown rampant,
and the manners of men very corrupt and vicious, and that he as
plainly told them of their faults, and that divine vengeance that
would certainly overtake them. Of Methuselah his son nothing
considerable is upon record but his great age, living full nine
hundred and sixty-nine years, (the longest proportion which any
of the patriarchs arrived to,) and died in that very year wherein
the flood came upon the world.
XV. From his son Lamech, concerning whom we find nothing
memorable, we proceed to his grandchild Noah, by the very im-
position of whose name his parents presaged that he would be a
refreshment and comfort to the world, and highly instrumental
to remove that curse which God by an universal deluge was
bringing upon the earth : " He called his name Noah, saying,
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our
hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed :" u
he was one in whom his parents did acquiesce and rest satisfied,
that he would be eminently useful and serviceable to the world.
Indeed, he proved a person of incomparable sanctity and in-
tegrity, " a preacher of righteousness" to others, and who as care-
■ Gen. v. 29.
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 25
folly practised it himself. He " was a just man, and perfect in
his generation, and he walked with God." x He did not warp
and decline with the humour of the age he lived in, but main-
tained his station and kept his line. " He was upright in his
generation. 1 " It is no thanks to be religious, when it is the
humour and fashion of the times : the great trial is, when we
live in the midst of a corrupt generation. It is the crown of
virtue to be good, when there are all manner of temptations to
the contrary, when the greatest part of men go the other way,
when virtue and honesty are laughed and drolled on, and cen-
sured as an over- wise and affected singularity ; when lust and
debauchery are accounted the modes of gallantry, and pride and
oppression suffered to ride in prosperous triumphs without con-
trol. Thus it was with Noah ; he contended with the vices of
the age, and dared to own God and religion when almost all
mankind besides himself had rejected and thrown them off.
For in his time wickedness openly appeared with a brazen fore-
head, and violence had covered the face of the earth ; the pro-
miscuous mixtures of the children of Seth and Cain had pro-
duced giants and mighty men, men strong to do evil, and who
had as much will as power, vfipicrral TralBe^ teal wavTa? V7T€/o-
oirrai /cakov Sea rrjy 8% rf) Svvdfiei ir€7ro{0i]o-iv, as Josephus
describes them, y " a race of men insolent and ungovernable,
scornful and injurious, and who bearing up themselves in the
confidence of their own strength, despised all justice and equity,
and made every thing truckle under their extravagant lusts and
appetites." The very same character does Lucian give of the
men of this age, speaking of the times of Deucalion (their Noah)
and the flood ; v/3pt<rrai /cdpra eovre? (says he z ) aOe/iiara epya
eirpaacrov' ovre yap op/cca i<f>v\a<r<rov 9 ovre £evtoi/9 eSe^ovro,
ovre i/cerecw fjveiypyrOj avd' &v <r$l<n tj fieydXri avfi^oprj
aTrUero' avrv/ca yap 17 yfj iroWbv vScop i/cSiSol, &c. "Men
exceedingly scornful and contumelious, and guilty of the most
unrighteous and enormous actions, violating all oaths and co-
venants, throwing off kindness and hospitality, and rejecting all
addresses and supplications made to them." For which cause
great miseries overtook them: for heaven and earth, seas and
rivers, conspired together to pour out mighty floods upon the
world ; which swept all away, but Deucalion only, who for his
* Gen. vi. 9. * Antiq. Jtid. L i. c. 4. * Dc Dea Syria, vol ii. p. 882.
Digitized by
26 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
prudence and piety was left to repair mankind. And so he goes
on with the relation consonant to the accounts of the sacred
story. This infection had spread itself over all parts, and was
become so general and epidemical, that " all flesh had corrupted
their ways," and scarce any besides Noah left to keep up the
face of a church, and the profession of religion. Things being'
come to this pass, quickly alarmed the divine justice, and made
the world ripe for vengeance ; the patience of God was now-
tired out, and he resolved to make mankind feel the just effects
of his incensed severity. But yet in the midst of judgment he
remembers mercy: he tells them, that though he would not
suffer his patience to be eternally prostituted to the wanton
humours of wicked men, yet that he would bear with them an
hundred and twenty years longer,' in order to their reformation.
So loth is God to take advantage of the sins of men, " not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come unto re-
pentance." In the mean time righteous Noah found favour with
heaven, (a good man hath a peculiar guardianship and pro-
tection in the worst of times;) and God oriers him to " prepare
an ark for the saving of his house." An hundred years was
this ark in building, not but that it might have been finished in
a far less time, but that God was willing to give them so long a
space for wise and sober considerations, Noah preaching all the
while, both by his doctrine and his practice, that they would break
off their sins by repentance, and prevent their ruin. But " they
that are filthy will be filthy still :" the hardened world persisted
in their impieties, till the wrath of God came upon them to the
uttermost, and "destroyed the world of the ungodly." God
shut up Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, into the
ark, together with provisions, and so many creatures of every
sort as were sufficient, not only for food, but for reparation of
the kind, (miracles must not be expected where ordinary means
may be had,) and then opened the windows of heaven, and
broke up the fountains of the deep, and brought in the flood that
swept all away. Twelve months Noah and his family continued
in this floating habitation ; when the waters being gone, and the
earth dried, he came forth, and the first thing he did was to
erect an altar, and offer up an eucharistical sacrifice to God for
so remarkable a deliverance, (some of the Jews tell us, that
coming out of the ark he was bitten by a lion, and rendered
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 27
unfit for sacrifice, and that therefore Shem did it in his room ;)
he did not concern himself for food, or a present habitation, but
immediately betook himself to his devotion. God was infinitely-
pleased with the pious and grateful sense of the good man, and
openly declared that his displeasure was over, and that he would
no more bring upon the world such effects of his severity as he
had lately done, and that the ordinances of nature should duly
perform their constant t motions, and regularly observe their
periodical revolutions. And because man was the principal
creature in this lower world, he restored to him his charter of
dominion and sovereignty over the creatures, and by enacting
some laws against murder and cruelty, secured the peace and
happiness of his life : and then established a covenant with Noah
and all mankind, that he would no more drown the world ; for
the ratification and ensurance whereof he placed the rainbow in
the clouds, as a perpetual sign and memorial of his promise.
Noah after this betook himself to husbandry, and planting vine-
yards ; and being unwarily overtaken with the fruit of the vine,
became a scorn to Ham, one of his own sons, while the two
others piously covered their father's shame. Awaking out of his
sleep, and knowing what had been done, he prophetically cursed
Ham and his posterity, blessed Shem, and in Japhet foretold
the calling of the Gentiles to the worship of God and the know-
ledge of the Messiah ; that God should " enlarge Japhet, and he
should dwell in the tents of Shem." He died in the nine hun-
dred and fiftieth year of his age, having seen both worlds, that
before the flood and that which came after it.
XVI. Shem and Japhet were the two good sons of Noah, in
the assigning whose primogeniture, though the scripture be not
positive and decretory, yet do the most probable reasons appear
for Japhet, especially if we compute their age. Shem was an
hundred years old two years after the flood, 8 (for then he begat
Arphaxad ;) now the flood happened just in the six hundredth
year of NoalTs age; b whence it follows, that Shem was born
when his father was five hundred and two years old. But Noah
being expressly said to have begotten sons in the five hundredth
year of his age, c plain it is that there must be one son at least
two years older than Shem, which could be no other than J aphet,
Ham being acknowledged by all the younger brother. And
* Gen. xi. 10. b Gen. vii. 11. c Gen. v. 32.
28 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
hence it is that Shem is called the brother/ irun na% " of Japhet
the greater," or, as we render it, u the elder."" They were both
pious and devout men, having been brought up under the reli-
gions institutions, not only of their father Noah, but their grand-
father Lamech, and their great-grandfather Methuselah, who
had for some hundreds of years conversed with Adam. The
holy story records nothing concerning the state of religion in
their days, and little heed is to be given to the Eastern writers,
when they tell us of Shem, that, according to the command of
his father, he took the body of Adam, which Noah had secretly
hidden in the ark, and joining himself to Melchisedek, they
went and buried it in the heart of the earth, an angel going
before, and conducting them to the place, with a great deal
more, with little truth, and to as little purpose. As for the
patriarchs born after the flood, little notice is taken of them
besides the bare mention of their names, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber.
Of this last they say, that he was a great prophet ; that he in-
stituted schools and seminaries for the advancement and pro-
pagation of religion : and there was great reason for him to
bestir himself, if it be true, what the Arabian historians tell us, 6
that now idolatry began mightily to prevail, and men generally
carved to themselves the images of their ancestors, to which, upon
all occasions, they addressed themselves with the most solemn
veneration, the demons giving answers through the images which
they worshipped. Eber was the father of the Jewish nation,'
who from him are said to have derived the title of Hebrews,
"Efiepos, d<j> ov rou9 'IovSalovs 'Efipaiovs apxfjdev itcdkow,
as Josephus tells us/ (though there want not those who assign
other reasons of the name,) and that the Hebrew language was
preserved in his family, which till his time had been the mother-
tongue, and the common language of the world. To Eber suc-
ceeded his son Peleg, a name given him out of a prophetical fore-
sight of that memorable division that happened in his time. For
now it was that a company of bold daring persons, combining
themselves under the conduct and command of Nimrod, resolved
to erect a vast and stupendous fabric, partly to raise themselves
a mighty reputation in the world, partly to secure themselves
from the invasion of an after-deluge, and probably as a place of
d Gen. x. 21. e Elmac. et Patricid. apud Hotting. Smeg. Orient, c 8. p. 265.
f Antiq. Jud. L i. c. 7.
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 29
retreat and defence, the better to enable them to put in practice
that oppression and tyranny which they designed to exercise
over the fc world. But whatever it was, God was displeased with
the attempt, and to shew how easily he can baffle the subtlest
counsels, and in a moment subvert the firmest projects, on a
sudden he confounded the language of these foolish builders, so
that they were forced to desist from their vain and ambitious
design, as not being able to understand and converse with one
another. To Peleg succeeded his son Rehu, to Rehu Serug, to
, him Nachor, to Nachor Terah, who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldaeans,
where conversing with those idolatrous nations, he lapsed him-
self into the most gross idolatry. So apt are men " to follow a
multitude to do evil,'' so fatally mischievous is ill company and
a bad example. But the best way to avoid the plague, is to
remove out of the house of infection. Away goes Terah to
Haran, where by repentance he is said to have recovered himself
out of the " snare of the devil. 11
XVII. Abraham, the second son of Terah, succeeds in the
patriarchal line. In his minority he was educated in the idolatries
of his father's house, who, they say, was a maker of statues and
images : and the Jews tell us many pleasant stories of Abra-
ham's going into the shop in the absence of his father, 8 his
breaking the images, and jeering those that came to buy or
worship them ; of his father's carrying him to Nimrod to be
punished, his witty answers, and miraculous escapes. But God,
who had designed him for higher and nobler purposes, called him
at length out of his father's house, fully discovered himself to
him, and by many solemn promises and federal compacts pecu-
liarly engaged him to himself. He was a man entirely devoted
to the honour of God, and had consecrated all his services to
the interests of religion, scarce any duty either towards God or
men for which he is not eminent upon record. Towards God,
how great was his zeal and care to promote his worship ! erecting
altars almost in every place, whereon he publicly offered his
prayers and sacrifice. His love to God wholly swallowed up the
love and regard that he had to his dearest interests : witness his
entire resignation of himself, his cheerful renouncing all the con-
cernments of his estate and family, and especially his readiness
& Schalch. Hakk. p. 8. citante Hotting. Smeg. Orient, c. 8. p. 291. confer Maimon.
Mor. Nevoch. par. iii. c 29. p. 421.
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30 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
to sacrifice his only son, the son of his old age, and, which is
above all, the son of the promise, when God by way of trial re-
quired it of him. How vigorous and triumphant was his faith,
especially in the great promise of a son, which he firmly em-
braced against all human probabilities to the contrary ? " Against
hope he believed in hope, and being strong in faith, gave glory
to God." How hearty was his dependence upon the Divine Pro-
vidence, when called to leave his father's house, and to go into a
strange country ? how cheerfully did he " obey and go out, though
he knew not whither he went ?" How unconquerable was his
patience, how even the composure of his mind in all conditions ?
In fifteen several journeys that he undertook, and ten difficult
temptations which he underwent, he never betrayed the least
-murmuring or hard thought of God. Towards others he shewed
the greatest tenderness and respect, the most meek and unpas-
sionate temper, a mind inflamed with a desire of peace and con-
cord : admirable his justice and equity in all his dealings, his
great hospitality and bounty towards strangers, and for that
end (say the Jews) he got him an house near the entering into
Haran, that he might entertain strangers as they went in, or
came out of the city, at his own table ; as indeed he seems to
have had that most excellent and divine temper of mind, an
universal love and charity towards all men. But his greatest
charity appeared in the care that he took of the souls of men.
Maimonides tells us, h that he kept a public school of institution,
whither he gathered men together, and instructed them in that
truth which he himself had embraced,. and he gives us an ac-
count by what methods of reasoning and information he used to
convince and persuade them. But whatever he did towards
others, we are sure he did it towards those that were under his
own charge. He had a numerous family, and a vast retinue, and
he was as careful to inform them in the knowledge of the true
God, and to instruct them in all the duties of religion. It is the
character which God himself gave of him : " I know Abraham,
that he will command his children, and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and
judgment." And so he did, his house being a school of piety,
wherein religion was both taught and practised, many reclaimed
from the errors and idolatries of the times, and all his domestics
h Mor. Nevoch. par. ii. c. 39. p. 301.
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 31
and dependents solemnly dedicated to God by circumcision.
Therefore, when it is said, 1 that he' "brought with him all the
souls which they had gotten in Haran," the Paraphrase of
Onkelos renders it, pm »rm»l> wun xnwtn rv, " the souls which
they had subjected to the law in Haran ;" Jonathan's Targum,
and much at the same rate that of Jerusalem, YW1 Nnttf&J, the
souls which they had " made proselytes in Haran;" or as Solomon
Jarchi expresses it, k a little more after the Hebrew mode, the
souls which they had gathered, n^tim *B52 nnnn, "under the
wings of the Divine Majesty ;" and he farther adds, that Abra-
ham proselyted the men, and Sarah the women. So when else-
where we read of his " trained servants," some of the Jewish
masters expound it by t-\mb Dr^n, those that were " initiated
and trained up in the knowledge of the law." Such being the
temper of this holy man, God was pleased frequently to converse
with him, and to impart his mind to him, acquainting him with
the secret counsels and purposes of his providence, whence he is
styled " the friend of God." But that which shewed him to be
most dear to heaven, was the covenant which God solemnly
made with him, wherein binding Abraham and his seed to a
sincere and universal obedience, he obliged himself to become
" their God," to be his " shield and his exceeding great reward,"
to take his posterity for his peculiar people, to increase their
number and to enlarge their power, to settle them in a rich and
a pleasant country, (a type of that heavenly and better country
that is above,) and, which was the crown of all, that 44 in his
seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed ;" that is, the
promised Messiah should proceed out of his loins, who should be
a common blessing to mankind, in whom both Jew and Gentile
should be justified and saved, and he by that means become
(spiritually) 44 the father of many nations." This covenant was
ratified and ensured on God's part by a solemn oath: 44 for
when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear
by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will
bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." 1 On Abra-
ham's part it was sealed with the sacrament of circumcision,
which God instituted as a peculiar federal rite, to distinguish
Abraham's posterity from all other people. Abraham died in
the hundred and seventy-fifth year of his age, and was buried
* Gen. xii. 5. k Gen. xiv. 14. * Heb. vi. 13, 14.
32 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
in the sepulchre which himself had purchased of the sons of
Heth. Contemporary with Abraham was his nephew Lot, a just
man, but " vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked ;" m
for dwelling in the midst of an impure and debauched genera-
tion, " in seeing and hearing he vexed his righteous soul from
day to day with their unlawful deeds.'" This endeared him to
heaven, who took a particular care of him, and sent an angel on
purpose to conduct him and his family out of Sodom, before he
let loose that fatal vengeance that overturned it.
XVIII. Abraham being dead, Isaac stood up in his stead, the
son of his parents 1 old age, and the fruit of an extraordinary
promise. Being delivered from being a sacrifice, he frequented
(say the Jews) the school of Shem, wherein he was educated in
the knowledge of divine things, till his marriage with Rebekah.
But however that was, he was a good man : we read of his
" going out to meditate or pray in the field at even-tide,"* and
elsewhere we find him publicly sacrificing and calling upon God.
In all his distresses God still appeared to him, animated him
against his fears, and encouraged him to go on in the steps of
his father, renewing the same promises to him which he had
made to Abraham. Nay, so visible and remarkable was the
interest which he had in heaven, that Abimelech, king of the
Philistines, and his courtiers, thought it their wisest course to
confederate with him for this very reason, because " they saw
certainly that the Lord was with him, and that he was the
blessed of the Lord." ° Religion is the truest interest and the
wisest portion, it is the surest protection, and the safest refuge.
" When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his ene-
mies to be at peace with him.'" Isaac dying in the hundred and
eightieth year of his life, the patriarchate devolved upon his son
Jacob, by virtue of the primogeniture which he had purchased of
his brother Esau, and which had been confirmed to him by the
grant and blessing of his father, (though subtly procured by the
artifice and policy of his mother,) who also told him, that " God
Almighty would bless and multiply him and his seed after him,
and that the blessing of Abraham should come upon them." He
entirely devoted himself to the fear and service of God, kept up
his worship, and vindicated it from the encroachments of idolatry;
he erected altars at every turn, and zealously purged his house
"» Pet ii. 7, 8. n Gen. xxiv. 63. • Gen. xxvi. 28, 29.
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 33
from those teraphim or idols which Rachel had brought along
with her out of Laban's house, either to prevent her father's in-
quiring at them which way Jacob had made his escape, or to
take away from him the instruments of his idolatry, or possibly
that . she might have wherewith to propitiate and pacify her
father, in case he should pursue and overtake them, as Josephus
thinks, p though surely then she would have produced them,
when she saw her father so zealous to retrieve them. He had
frequent visions and divine condescensions; God appearing to him,
and ratifying the covenant that he had made with Abraham, and
changing his name from Jacob to Israel, as a memorial of the
mighty prevalency which he had with heaven. In his latter
time he removed his family into Egypt, where God had pre-
pared his way by the preferment of his son Joseph to be viceroy
and lord of that vast and fertile country, advanced to that place
of state and grandeur by many strange and unsearchable methods
of the Divine Providence. By his two wives, the daughters of
his uncle Laban, and his two handmaids, he had twelve sons,
who afterwards became founders of the twelve tribes of the
Jewish nation: to whom upon his death-bed he bequeathed his
blessings, consigning their several portions, and the particular
fates of every tribe ; among whom that of J udah is most re-
markable, to whom it was foretold, q that the Messiah should
arise out of that tribe, that the regal power and political sove-
reignty should be annexed to it, and remain in it till the Messiah
came, at whose coming the "sceptre should depart, and the
lawgiver from between his knees."" And thus all their own
paraphrasts, both Onkelos, Jonathan, and he of Jerusalem, do
expound it, that there should " not want kings or rulers of the
house of Judah, nor scribes to teach the law of that race,
wrote wrr ntti «m»D *ote ]di ry, until the time that
Messiah the king shall come, whose the kingdom is." And so it
accordingly came to pass, for at the time of Christ's birth, Herod,
who was a stranger, had usurped the throne, debased the autho-
rity of their great sanhedrim, murdered their senators, divested
them of all judiciary power, and kept them so low, that they
had not power left to put a man to death. "And unto him
shall the gathering of the people be." A prophecy exactly ac-
complished, when in the first ages of Christianity the nations of
P Antiq. Jud. 1. i. c. 19. « Gen. xlix. 10.
D
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34 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
the world flocked to the standard of Christ at the publication of
the gospel. Jacob died one hundred and forty-seven years old,
and was buried in Canaan, in the sepulchre of his fathers;
after whose decease his posterity for some hundreds of years
were afflicted under the Egyptian yoke : till God, remembering
the covenant he had made with their fathers, powerfully rescued
them from the iron furnace, and conducted them through the
wilderness into the land of promise, where he framed and or-
dered their commonwealth, appointed laws for the government
of the church, and settled them under a more fixed and certain
dispensation.
XIX. Hitherto we have surveyed the state of the church in
the constant succession of the patriarchal line. But if we step
a little farther into the history of those times, we shall find that
there were some extraordinary persons without the pale of that
holy tribe, renowned for the worship of God, and the profession
of religion ; among whom two are most considerable, Mel-
chisedek and Job. Melchisedek was king of Salem in the land
of Canaan, and " priest of the most high God." The short ac-
count which the scripture gives of him, hath left room for various
fancies and conjectures. The opinion that has most generally
obtained is, that Melchisedek was Shem, one of the sons of Noah,
who was of a great age, and lived above seventy years after
Abraham's coming into Canaan, and might therefore well enough
meet him in his triumphant return from his conquest over the
• kings of the plain. But notwithstanding the universal authority
which this opinion assumes to itself, it appears not to me with
any tolerable probability, partly • because Canaan, where Mel-
chisedek lived, was none of those countries which were allotted
to Shem and to his posterity, and unlikely it is that he should
be prince in a foreign country : partly, because those things
which the scripture reports concerning Melchisedek, do no ways
agree to Shem, as that "-he was without father and mother,
without genealogy," &c. whenas Moses does most exactly de-
scribe and record Shem and his family, both as to his ancestors
and as to his posterity. That therefore which seems most pro-
bable in the case is, that he was one of the reguli or petty
kings (whereof there were many) in the land of Canaan, but a
pious and devout man, and a worshipper of the true God, as
ihere were many others in those days among the idolatrous
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THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 35
nations ; he being extraordinarily raised up by God from among
the Canaanites, and brought in without mention of parents,
original or end, without any predecessor or successor in his
office, that he might be a fitter type of the royal and eternal
priesthood of Christ. And for any more particular account
concerning his person, it were folly and rashness over-curiously
to inquire after what God seems industriously to have concealed
from us. The great character under which the scripture takes
notice of him, is his relation to our blessed Saviour, who is more
than once said to " be a priest, " Kara Tagw, " after the order,' 1
in the same way and manner that Melchisedek was, or (as the
apostle explains himself") "after the similitude of Melchisedek. 17
Our Lord was such a priest as Melchisedek was, there being a
nearer similitude and conformity between them, than ever was
between any other priests whatsoever : a subject which St. Paul
largely and particularly treats of. Passing by the minuter
instances of the parallel, taken from the name of his person,
Melchisedek, that is, " King of righteousness," and his title to
his kingdom, " king of Salem," that is, " of peace ;" we shall
observe three things especially wherein he was a type of Christ.
First, in the peculiar qualification of his person, something being
recorded of him uncommon to the rest of men, and that is, that
he was " without father, without mother, and without descent." 5
Not that Melchisedek, like Adam, was immediately created, or
in an instant dropped down from heaven, but that he hath no
kindred recorded in the story, which brings him in without any
mention of father or mother, ov/c tafiev wore rlva irarepa eo-^ev,
rj rlva firjrepa^ as Chrysostom glosses, " we know not what
father or mother he had:"* he was (says St. Paul) ayeve-
oXoyrjro^ " without genealogy," without having any pedigree
extant upon record ; whence the ancient Syriac version truly
expresses the sense of the whole passage, thus, " Whose neither
father nor mother are written among the generations," that is,
the genealogies of the ancient patriarchs. And thus he emi-
nently typified Christ, of whom this is really true : he is without
father in respect of his human nature, begotten only of a pure
virgin ; without mother, in respect of his divinity, being begotten
of his Father before all worlds, by an eternal and ineffable ge-
neration. Secondly, Melchisedek typified our Saviour in the
r Heb. vii. 15. • Heb. vii. 3. 1 Horn. xii. in Hebr. s. 1. vol. xil p. 121.
D 2
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36 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
duration and continuance of his office ; for so it is said of him,
that he was " without descent, having neither beginning of days,
nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of Go'd, abideth a
priest continually :" by which we are not to understand that
Melchisedek never died, for being a man he was subject to the
same common law of mortality with other men ; but the mean-
ing is, that as he is said to be 44 without father and mother,"
because the scripture speaking of him makes no mention of his
parents, his genealogy, and descent, so he is said to " abide a
priest for ever, without any beginning of days, or end of life,"
because we have no account of any that either preceded or
succeeded him in his office, no mention of the time either when
he took it up or laid it down. And herein how lively and
eminent a type of Christ, the true Melchisedek, who, as to his
divine nature, was without beginning of days from eternal ages,
and who either in the execution or virtue of his office abides for
ever. There is no abolition, no translation of his office, no ex-
pectation of any to arise that shall succeed him in it : " He was
made a priest, not after the law of a carnal commandment," a
transient and mutable dispensation, " but after the power of an
endless life." Thirdly, Melchisedek was a type of Christ in hb
excellency above all other priests. St. Paul's great design is to
evince the preeminence and precedency of Melchisedek above
all the priests of the Mosaic ministration ; yea, above Abraham
himself, the founder and father of the' Jewish nation, from whom
they reckoned it so great an honour to derive themselves. And
this the apostle proves by a double instance. First, that
Abraham, in whose loins the Levitical priests then were, paid
tithes to Melchisedek, when he 44 gave him the tenth of all his
spoils," as due to God and his ministers, thereby confessing him-
self and his posterity inferior to him. 64 Now consider how
great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham
gave the tenth of the spoils."" Secondly, that Melchisedek con-
ferred upon Abraham a solemn benediction, it being a standing
part of the priest's office to bless the people. And this was an
undeniable argument of superiority. 44 He whose descent is not
counted from them (the legal priests) received tithes of Abra-
ham, and blessed him that had the promises : and without all
contradiction, the less is blessed of the better." x Whereby it
u Heb. vii. 4, 5, 6, etc. * Ibid. 6, 7.
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 37
evidently appears, that Melchisedek was greater than Abraham,
and consequently than all the Levitical priests that descended
from him. Now herein he admirably prefigured and shadowed
out our blessed Saviour, a person peculiarly chosen out by God,
sent into the world upon a nobler and a more important errand,
owned by more solemn and mighty attestations from heaven,
than ever was any other person ; his office incomparably beyond
that of the legal economy, his person greater, his undertaking
weightier, his design more sublime and excellent, his oblation
more valuable and meritorious, his prayers more prevalent and
successful, his office more durable and lasting, than ever any
whose business it was to intercede and mediate between God
and man.
XX. The other extraordinary person under this economy is
Job, concerning whom two things are to be inquired into — who
he was, and when he lived. For the first, we find him described
by his name, his country, his kindred, his quality, his religion,
and his sufferings, though in many of them we are left under
great uncertainties, and to the satisfaction only of probable con-
jectures. For his name, among many conjectures, two are
especially considerable, though founded upon very different rea-
sons; one, that it is from nv«, signifying one that " grieves 11 or
groans, mystically presaging those grievous miseries and suffer-
ings that afterwards came upon him ; the other, more probably,
from sn% to "love," or to desire, noting him the desire and delight
of his parents, earnestly prayed for, and affectionately embraced
with the tenderest endearments. His country was the land of
Uz, though where that was, is almost as much disputed as about
the source of Nilus: some will have it Armenia; others Palestine,
or the land of Canaan ; and some of the Jewish masters assure
us, that lurno rvn, u his school," or place of institution, was at
Tiberias, and nothing more commonly shewed to travellers than
Joh's well, in the way between Ramah and Jerusalem ; others
place it in Syria, near Damascus, so called from Uz, the supposed
founder of that city; others, a little more northward, at Apamea,
now called Hama, where his house is said to be shewed at this
day. Most make it to be part of IdumaBa, near mount Seir, or
else Arabia the Desert, (probably it was in the confines of both,)
this part of Arabia being nearest to the Sabaeans and Ghaldseans,
who invaded him, and most applicable to his dwelling among the
38 THE PATRIAECHAL DISPENSATION.
" sons of the East," to the situation of his friends who came to
visit him, and best corresponding with those frequent Arabisms
discernible both in the language and discourses of Job and his
friends ; not to say that this country produced persons exceed-
ingly addicted to learning and contemplation, and the studies of
natural philosophy, whence the wise men who came out of the
East to worship Christ are thought by many to have been
Arabians. For his kindred and his friends, we find four taken
notice of, who came to visit him in his distress : Eliphaz the
Temanite, the son probably of Teman, and grand-child of Esau
by his eldest son Eliphaz, the country deriving its name Teman
from his father, and was situate in Idumsea, in the borders of the
Desert Arabia ; Bildad the Shuhite, a descendant in all likelihood
of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham by his wife Keturah, whose
seat was in this part of Arabia; Zophar the Naamathite, a
country lying near those parts ; and Elihu the Buzite, of the
offspring of Buz, the son of Nahor, and so nearly related to Job
himself. He " was the son of Barachel, of the kindred of Ram,"
who was the head of the family, and his habitation was in the
parts of Arabia the Desert, near Euphrates, or at least in the
southern part of Mesopotamia bordering upon it. As for Job
himself, he is made by some a Canaanite, of the posterity of
Ham ; by others to descend from Shem, by his son Amram,
whose eldest son's name was Uz ; by most from Esau, the father
of the Idumsean nations : but most probably, either from Nahor,
Abraham's brother, whose sons were Huz, Buz, Chesed, &c, or
from Abraham himself by some of the sons which he had by his
wife Keturah ; whereby an account is most probably given, how
Job came to be imbued with those seeds of piety and true
religion for which he was so eminently remarkable, as deriving
them from those religious principles and instructions which
Abraham and Nahor had bequeathed to their posterity. His
quality and the circumstances of his external state were very
considerable, a man rich and honourable : " His substance was
seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five
hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very
great household," so that he was " the greatest of all the men of
the East ;" himself largely describes the great honour and pros-
perity of his fortunes, that " he washed his steps in butter, and
the rock poured out rivers of oil ; when he went out to the gate
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 39
through the city, and prepared his seat in the street, the young
men saw him and hid themselves, the aged arose and stood up,
the princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth,
&c. He delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and
him that had none to help him, the blessing of him that was ready
to perish came upon him, &c. He brake the jaws of the wicked,
and plucked the spoil out of their teeth," &c. Indeed, so great
his state and dignity, that it has led many into a persuasion
that he was king of Idumaea, a powerful and mighty prince :
a fancy that has received no small encouragement from the
common but groundless confounding of Job with Jobab, king of
Edom, of the race of Esau. For the story gives no intimation
of any such royal dignity to which Job was advanced, but always
speaks of him as a private person, though exceeding wealthy
and prosperous, and thereby probably of extraordinary power
and estimation in his country. Nay, that he might not want fit
companions in his regal capacity, three of his friends are made
kings as well as he, the Septuagint translators themselves styling
Eliphaz king of the Temanites, Bildad of the Shubites, and
Zophar king of the Minseans, though with as little, probably less,
reason than the former.
XXL But whatever his condition was, we are sure he was no
less eminent for piety and religion : he " was a man perfect and
upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil." Though living
among the idolatrous Gentiles, he kept up the true and sincere
worship of God, daily offered up sacrifices and prayers to heaven,
piously instructed his children and family, lived in an entire
dependence upon the Divine Providence, in all bis discourses ex-
pressed the highest and most honourable sentiments and thoughts
of God, and such as best became the majesty of an infinite being ;
in all transactions he was just and righteous, compassionate and
charitable, modest and humble ; indeed, by the character of God
himself, who knew him best, " there was none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, fearing God, and eschewing
evil;" his mind was submissive and compliant, his patience
generous and unshaken, great even to a proverb, " you have
heard of the patience of Job." And enough he had to try it to
the utmost, if we consider what sufferings he underwent ; those
evils which are wont but singly to seize upon other men, all
centred and met in him. Plundered in bis estate by the Saba?an
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40 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
and Chaldsean freebooters, (whose standing livelihood were spoils
and robberies,) and not an ox or ass left of all the herd, not a
sheep or a lamb either for food or sacrifice : undone in his pos-
terity, his seven sons and three daughters being all slain at once
by the fall of one house : blasted in his credit and good name,
and that by his nearest friends, who traduced and challenged him
for a dissembler and an hypocrite. Ruined in his health, being
smitten with sore boils from the crown of the head to the sole
of the foot, till his body became a very hospital of diseases:
tormented in his mind with sad and uncomfortable reflections,
" the arrows of the Almighty being shot within him, the poison
whereof drank up his spirit, the terrors of God setting themselves
in array against him all which were aggravated and set home
by Satan, the grand engineer of all those torments ; and all this
continuing for at least twelve months, (say the Jews,) probably
for a much longer time, and yet endured with great courage and
fortitude of mind, till God put a period to this tedious trial, and
crowned his sufferings with an ample restitution. We have seen
who this excellent person was, we are next to inquire when he
lived. And here we meet with almost an infinite variety of
opinions, 5 some making him contemporary with Abraham, others
with Jacob, which had he been, we should doubtless have found
some mention of him in their story, as well as we do of Mel-
chisedek ; others again refer him to the time of the law given at
mount Sinai, and the Israelites' travels in the wilderness ; others
to the times of the judges after the settlement of the Israelites in
the land of promise; nay, some to the reign of David and Solomon;
and I know not whether the reader will not smile at the fancy
of the Turkish chronologists, 2 who make Job major-domo to Solo-
mon, as they make Alexander the Great the general of his army.
Others go farther, and place him among those that were carried
away in the Babylonish captivity, yea, in the time of Aha-
suerus, and make his fair daughters to be of the number of those
beautiful young virgins that were sought for for the king : follies
•that need no confutation. It is certain that he was elder than
Moses : his kindred and family, his way of sacrificing, the idolatry
rife in his time, evidently placing him before that age ; besides
that there are not the least footsteps in all his book of any of the
y Vide Maimon. Mor. Nevoch. par. iii. c. 22.
* Aug. Busbeq. de Legat. Turnic. Epist i. p. 94. ed. 1605.
Digitized by
THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION. 41
great things done" for the Israelites 1 deliverance, which we can
hardly suppose should have been omitted, being examples so
fresh in memory, and so apposite to the design of that book. Most
probable therefore it is, that he lived about the time of the
Israelitish captivity in Egypt, though whether, as some Jews
will have it, born that very year that Jacob came down into
Egypt, and dying that year that they went out of Egypt, I dare
not peremptorily affirm. And this, no question, is the reason
why we find nothing concerning him in the writings of Moses ;
the history of those times being crowded up in a very .little room,
little being recorded even of the Israelites themselves for near
two hundred years, more than in general that they were heavily
oppressed under the Egyptian yoke. More concerning this great
and good man, and the things relating to him, if the reader desire
to know, he may among others consult the elaborate exercitations
of the younger Spanhemius in his Historia Job% where the largest
curiosity may find enough to satisfy it.
XXII. And now for a conclusion to this economy, if we
reflect a little upon the state of things under this period of the
world, we shall find that the religion of those early ages was
plain and simple, unforced and natural, and highly agreeable to
the common dictates and notions of men's minds. They were
not educated under any foreign institutions, nor conducted by
a body of numerous laws and written constitutions, but were
avrrfKoot koX avrofiaOefc, (as Philo says of them, 8 ) " tutored and
instructed by the dictates of their own minds," and the principles
of that law that was written in their hearts, following the order
of nature and right reason, as the safest and most ancient rule.
By which means, (as one of the ancients observes, b ) iXevOepov
koX aveifiivov evae^elas KarwpOovv Tpoirov, /3i<p fiev r<p Kara rqv
<j>v<riv fC€/co<TfjL7)fi€voi, " they maintained a free and uninterrupted
course of religion, conducting their lives according to the rules
of nature," so that having purged their minds from lust and
passion, and attained to the true knowledge of God, they had no
need of external and written laws. Their creed was short and
perspicuous, their notions of God great and venerable, their de-
votion and piety real and substantial, their worship grave and
serious, and such as became the grandeur and majesty of the
divine being ; their rites and ceremonies few and proper, their
a Lib. de Abrah. p. 350. b Euseb. Praepar. Evang. L vii. c. 6.
42 THE PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION.
obedience prompt and sincere, and, indeed, the whole conduct of
their conversation discovering itself in the most essential and im-
portant duties of the human life. According to this standard it
was that our blessed Saviour mainly designed to reform religion
in his most excellent institutions, to retrieve the piety and purity,
the innocency and simplicity of those first and more uncorrupted
ages of the world, to improve the laws of nature, and to reduce
mankind from ritual observances to natural and moral duties, as
the most vital and essential parts of religion, and was therefore
pleased to pharge Christianity with no more than two positive
institutions, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, that men might
learn that the main of religion lies not in such things as these.
Hence Eusebius c undertakes at large to prove the faith and
manners of the holy patriarchs who lived before the times of
Moses, and the belief and practice of Christians to be ha teal
rbv auTov, " one and the same which he does not only assert
and make good in general, but deduce from particular instances,
the examples of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Melchisedek, Job, &c.
whom he expressly proves to have believed and lived avri/cpv?
XpiarcaviKci^ " altogether after the manner of Christians
nay, that they had the name also as well as the thing, &are ical
rod Xpia-Tov irpoo-tjyopia? fifilv i>fioms eKOWtovovv, as he
shews from that place, (which he proves to be meant of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob), fit) airreaBe r&v XpicT&v fiov, " touch not
my Christians, mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."
And, in short, that as they had the same common religion, so
they had the common blessing and reward.
SECTION II.
OF THE MOSA1CAL DISPENSATION.
Moses the minister of this economy. His miraculous preservation. His learned and
noble education. The divine temper of his mind. His conducting the Israelites out
of Egypt Their arrival at mount Sinai. The law given, and how. Moral laws ; the
decalogue, whether a perfect compendium of the moral law. The ceremonial laws,
what. Reduced to their proper heads. Such as concerned the matter of their worship.
Sacrifices, and the several kinds of them. Circumcision. The passover, and its typical
relation. The place of public worship. The tabernacle and temple, and the several
« Demonstr. Evang. 1. i. c. 5, 6. et loc. supr. cit.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.- 43
parts of them, and their typical aspects considered. Their stated times and feasts,
weekly, monthly, annual. The sabbatical year. The year of jubilee. Laws con-
cerning the persons ministering; priests, Levites, the high-priest, how a type of
Christ The design of the ceremonial law, and its abolition. The judicial laws,
what The Mosaic law, how divided by the Jews into affirmative and negative pre-
cepts, and why. The several ways of divine revelation. Urim and Thummim, what,
and the manner of its giving answers. Bath-Col, whether any such way of revelation
among the Jews. Revelation by dreams: by visions. The revelation of the Holy
Spirit, what Moses, his way of prophecy wherein exceeding the rest The pacate
way of the spirit of prophecy. This spirit, when it ceased in the Jewish church. The
state of the church under this dispensation briefly noted. From the giving of the law
till Samuel. From Samuel to Solomon. Its condition under the succeeding kings till
the captivity. From thence till the coming of Christ. The state of the* Jewish church
in the time of Christ more particularly considered. The profanations of the temple.
The corruption of their worship. The abuse of the priesthood. The depravation of
the law by false glosses. Their oral and unwritten law. Its original and succession
according to the mind of the Jews. Their unreasonable and blasphemous preferring it
above the written law. Their religious observing the traditions of the elders.
The vow of Corban, what The superseding moral duties by it. The sects in the
Jewish church. The Pharisees, their denomination, rise, temper, and principles. Sad-
ducees, their impious principles and evil lives. The Essenes, their original, opinions,
and way of life. The Herodians, who. The Samaritans. Karraeans. The sect of the
Zealots. The Roman tyranny over the Jews.
The church, which had hitherto lain dispersed in private families,
and had often been reduced to an inconsiderable number, being
now multiplied into a great and a populous nation, God was
pleased to enter into covenant, not any longer with particular
persons, but with the body of the people, and to govern the
church by more certain and regular ways and methods, than it
had hitherto been. This dispensation began with the delivery
of the law, and continued till the finat period of the Jewish state,
consisting only " of meats and drinks, and divers washing, and
carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reforma-
tion." In the survey whereof we shall chiefly consider what
laws were given for the government of the church, by what
methods of revelation God communicated his mind and will to
them, and what was the state of the church, especially towards
the conclusion of this economy.
II. The great minister of this dispensation was Moses, the
son of Amram, of the house of Levi, a person whose signal pre-
servation when but an infant, presaged him to be born for great
and generous undertakings. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, desirous
to suppress the growing numbers of the Jewish nation, had af-
flicted and kept them under with all the rigorous severities of
A
44 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
tyranny and oppression. But this not taking its effect, he made
a law that all Hebrew male-children should be drowned as soon
as born, knowing well enough how to kill the root, if he could
keep any more branches from springing up. But the wisdom of
heaven defeated his crafty and barbarous designs. Among others
that were born at that time was Moses, a goodly child, and
whom his mother was infinitely desirous to preserve : but having
concealed him, till the saving of his might endanger the losing her
own life, her affection suggested to her this little stratagem ; she
prepared an ark made of paper-reeds, and pitched within, and so
putting hi,m aboard this little vessel, threw him into the river
Nilus, committing him to the mercy of the waves, and the con-
duct of the Divine Providence. God, who wisely orders all
events, had so disposed things, that Pharaoh's daughter, (whose
name, say the Jews, was Bithia; Thermuth, says Josephus; d say
the Arabians, Sihhoun,) being troubled with a distemper that
would not endure the hot baths, was come down at this time to
wash in the Nile, where the cries of the tender babe soon reached
her ears. She commanded the ark to be brought ashore, which
was no sooner opened, but the mournful oratory of the weeping
infant sensibly struck her with compassionate resentments : and
the Jews add, 6 that she no sooner touched the babe, but she was
immediately healed ; and cried out that he was a holy child, and
that she would save his life ; for which (say they) she obtained
the favour to " be brought under the wings of the Divine Ma-
jesty," and to be called the daughter of God. His sister Miriam,
who had all this while beheld the scene afar off, officiously prof-
fered her service to the princess to call an Hebrew nurse, and
accordingly went and brought his mother. To her care he was
committed, with a charge to look tenderly to him, and the pro-
mise of a reward. But the hopes of that could add but little,
where nature was so much concerned. Home goes the mother
joyful and proud of her own pledge and the royal charge, care-
fully providing for his tender years. His infant state being
passed, he was restored to the princess, who adopted him for
her own son, bred him up at court, where he was polished with
all the arts of a noble and ingenuous education, instructed in the
modes of civility and behaviour, in the methods of policy and
government, " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 11
d Antiq. Jud. 1. ii. c. 5. e R. Eliez. c. 48. apud Hotting. Smeg. Orient c. 8. p. 402.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 45
whose renown for wisdom is not only once and again taken
notice of in holy writ, hut their admirable skill in all liberal
sciences, natural, moral, and divine, beyond the rate and pro-
portion of other nations, is sufficiently celebrated by foreign
writers. To these accomplishments God was pleased to add a di-
vine temper of mind, a great zeal for God, not able to endure any
thing that seemed to clash with interests of the divine honour
and glory; a mighty courage and resolution in God's service,
whose edge was not to be taken off either by threats or charms ;
" He was not afraid of the king's commandment, nor feared the
wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him that is invisible." f
His contempt of the world was great and admirable, slighting
the honours of Pharaoh's court, and the fair probabilities of the
crown, the treasures and pleasures of that rich, soft, and luxurious
country, out of a firm belief of the invisible rewards of another
world ; " He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the re-
proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt :
for he had respect unto the recompenceof reward." 8 Josephus
relates, 11 that when but a child he was presented by the princess
to her father, as one whom she had adopted for her son, and
designed for his successor in the kingdom ; the king, taking him
up into his arms, put his crown upon his head, which the child
immediately pulled off again, and throwing it upon the ground,
trampled it under his feet: an action which, however looked
upon by some courtiers then present, o>? oltovbv iiri rfj fiaaCkeia
<£6/>€Bi/, " as portending a fatal omen to the kingdom," did, how-
ever, evidently presage his generous contempt of the grandeur
and honours of the court, and those plausible advantages of
sovereignty that were offered to him. His patience was in-
superable, not tired out with abuses and disappointments of the
king of Egypt, with the hardships and troubles of the wilder-
ness, and, which was beyond all, with the cross and vexatious
humours of a stubborn and unquiet generation. He was of a
most calm and tractable disposition, his spirit not easily ruffled
with passion ; he who in the cause of God # and religion could be
bold and fierce as- a lion, was in his own patient as a lamb, God
' Heb. xi. 27. * Heb. xi. 24, 25, 26. *
b Antiq. Jud. 1. ii. c. 5.
Digitized by
46 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
himself having given this character of him, " that he was the
meekest man upon the earth."
III. This great personage, thus excellently qualified, God made
choice of him to be the commander and conductor of the Jewish
nation, and his ambassador to the king of Egypt, to demand the
enfranchisement of his people, and free liberty to go serve and
worship the God of their fathers. And that he might not seem
a mere pretender to divine revelation, but that he really had an
immediate commission from heaven, God was pleased to furnish
him with extraordinary credentials, and to seal his commission
with a power of working miracles beyond all the arts of magic,
and those tricks for which the Egyptian sorcerers were so
famous in the world. But Pharaoh, unwilling to part with such
useful vassals, and having oppressed them beyond possibility of
reconcilement, would not hearken to the proposal, but sometimes
downright rejected it, otherwhiles sought by subtle and plausible
pretences to evade and shift it off ; till by many astonishing
miracles and severe judgments, God extorted at length a grant
from him. Under the conduct of Moses they set forwards, after
at least two hundred years servitude under the Egyptian yoke ;
and though Pharaoh, sensible of his error, with a great army
pursued them, either to cut them off, or bring them back, God
made way for them through the midst of the sea, the waters
becoming like a wall of brass on each side of them, till being all
passed to the other shore, those invisible cords which had
hitherto tied up that liquid element bursting in sunder, the
waters returned and overwhelmed their enemies that pursued
them. Thus God by the same stroke can protect his friends
and punish his enemies. Nor did the Divine Providence here
take its leave of them, but became their constant guard and de-
fence in all their journeys, waiting upon them through their
several stations in the wilderness ; the most memorable whereof
was that at mount Sinai in Arabia, the place where God de-
livered them " the pattern in the mount," according to which
the form both of their church and state was to be framed
and modelled. In order hereunto Moses is called up into the
mount, where by fasting and prayer he conversed with heaven,
and received the body of their laws. Three days the people
were, by a pious and devout care, to sanctify and prepare them-
selves for the promulgation of the law: they might not come near
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 47
their wives, were commanded to wash their clothes, as an emblem
and representation of that cleansing of the heart, and that in-
ward purity of mind, wherewith they were to entertain the di-
vine will. On the third day, in the morning, God descended
from heaven with great appearances of majesty and terror, with
thunders and lightnings, with black clouds and tempests, with
shouts and " the loud noise of a trumpet," (which trumpet, say
the Jews, was made of the horn of that ram that was offered
in the room of Isaac,) with fire and smoke on the top of the
mount, ascending up like " the smoke of a furnace ;" the moun-
tain itself greatly quaking, the people trembling ; nay, " so ter-
rible was the sight, that Moses (who had so frequently, so fa-
miliarly conversed with God) said, I exceedingly fear and
quake." 1 All which pompous trains of terror and magnificence
God made use of at this time, to excite the more solemn atten-
tion to his laws, and to beget a greater reverence and veneration
for them in the minds of the people, and to let them see how
able he was to call them to account, and by the severest penalties
to vindicate the violation of his law.
IV. The code and digest of those laws, which God now gave
to the Jews as the terms of that national covenant that he made
with them, consisted of three sorts of precepts, moral, ecclesi-
astical, and political ; which the Jews will have intimated by
those three words that so frequently occur in the writings of
Moses, laws, statutes, and judgments. By ItWi, "laws," they
understand the moral law, the notices of good and evil naturally
implanted in men's minds : by tD^ n > or " statutes," ceremonial
precepts, instituted by God with peculiar reference to his church :
by tDnoattfD, or "judgments," political laws concerning justice
and equity, the order of human society, and the prudent and
peaceable managery of the commonwealth. The moral laws in-
serted into this code are those contained in the decalogue, k
onim rrm% as they are called, "the ten words" that were
written upon the two tables of stone. These were nothing else but
a summary comprehension of the great laws of nature, engraven
at first upon the minds of all men in the world ; the most ma-
terial part whereof was now consigned to writing, and incorpo-
rated into the body of the Jewish law. I know the decalogue
is generally taken to be a complete system of all natural laws :
1 HcH.xii.21. k Deutiv. 13.
Digitized by
48 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
but whoever impartially considers the matter, will find that
there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded
in it, that they are not reducible to any part of it, unless hooked
in by subtleties of wit, and drawn thither by forced and un-
natural inferences. What provision, except in one case or two,
do any of those commandments make against neglects of duty ?
Where do they oblige us to do good to others, to love, assist,
relieve our enemies ? Gratitude and thankfulness to benefactors
is one of the prime and essential laws of nature, and yet no-
where, that I know of, (unless we will have it implied in the
preface to the law,) commanded or intimated in the decalogue :
with many other cases, which it is naturally evident are our
duty, whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this compendium,
unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings, and made
out by a long train of consequences, never originally intended
in the commandment, and which not one in a thousand are
capable of deducing from it. It is probable, therefore, that God
reduced only so many of the laws of nature into writing, as were
proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom
they were given ; superadding some, and explaining others by
the preaching and ministry of the prophets, who, in their several
ages, endeavoured to bring men out of the shades and thickets
into clear light and noon-day, by clearing up men's obligations
to those natural and essential duties, in the practice whereof
human nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment
and perfection. Hence it was that our Lord, who " came not
to destroy the law, but to fulfil " and perfect it, has explained
the obligations of the natural law more fully and clearly, more
plainly and intelligibly, rendered our duty more fixed and
certain, and extended many instances of obedience to higher
measures, to a greater exactness and perfection, than ever they
were understood to have before. Thus he commands a free and
universal charity, not only that we love our friends and re-
lations, but that " we love our enemies, bless them that curse
us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that
despitefully use and persecute us." He hath forbidden malice
and revenge with more plainness and smartness ; obliged us to
live not only according to the measures of sobriety, but extended
it to self-denial, and taking up the cross, and laying down our
lives, whenever the honour of God and the interest of religion
Digitized by
THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION. 49
calls for it ; he not only commands us to do no wrong, but when
we have done it, to make restitution ; not only to retrench our
irregular appetites, but " to cut off our right hand, and pluck
out our right eye, and cast them from us," that is, mortify and
offer violence to those vicious inclinations which are as dear to
us as the most useful and necessary parts and members of our
body. Besides all this, had God intended the decalogue for a
perfect summary of the laws of nature, we cannot suppose that
he would have taken any but such into the collection ; whereas
the fourth commandment, concerning the seventh day, is un-
questionably typical and ceremonial, and has nothing more of a
natural and eternal obligation in it, than that God should be
served and honoured both with public and private worship,
which cannot be done without some portions of time set apart
for it : but that this should be done just at such a time, and
by such proportions, upon the seventh rather than the sixth or
the eighth day, is no part of a natural religion. And indeed the
reasons and arguments that are annexed to it, to enforce the
observance of it, clearly shew that it is of a later date, and of
another nature than* the rest of those precepts in whose com-
pany we find it ; though it seems at first sight to pass without
any peculiar note of discrimination from the rest. As for the
rest, they are laws of eternal righteousness, and did not derive
their value and authority from the divine sanction which God
here gave them at mount Sinai, but from their own moral and
internal goodness and equity; being founded in the nature of
things, and the essential and unchangeable differences of good
and evil. By which means they always were, always will be,
obligatory and indispensable, being as eternal and immutable as
the nature of God himself.
V. The second sort of laws were ceremonial, divine constitu-
tions concerning ritual observances, and matters of ecclesiastical
cognizance and relation, and were instituted for a double end ;
partly for the more orderly government of the church, and the
more decent administration of the worship of God ; partly
that they might be types and figures of the evangelical state,
"shadows of good things to come," visible and symbolical
representments of the Messiah, and those great blessings and
privileges which he was to introduce into the world ; which
doubtless was the reason why God was so infinitely punctual
E
Digitized by
50 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
and particular in bis directions about these matters, giving
orders about the minutest circumstances of the temple-ministra-
tion, because every part of it had a glance at a future and better
ntate of things. The number of them was great, and the ob-
servation burdensome; the whole nation groaning under the
servility of that yoke. They were such as principally related to
God's worship, and may be reduced either to such as concerned the
worship itself, or the circumstances of time, place, and persons
that did attend it. Their worship consisted chiefly in three
things : prayers, sacrifices, and sacraments. Prayers were daily
put up together with their offerings ; and though we have very
few constitutions concerning them, yet the constant practice of
that church, and the particular forms of prayer yet extant in
their writings, are a sufficient evidence. Sacrifices were the
constant and more solemn part of their public worship; yea,
they had their Ton nby, "their continual burnt-offering," 1 a
lamb offered morning and evening, with a measure of flour, oil,
and wine, the charge whereof was defrayed out of the treasury
of the temple. The rest of their sacrifices -may be considered
either as they were expiatory or eucharistical. Expiatory, were
those that were offered as an atonement for the sins of the people,
to pacify the divine displeasure, and to procure his pardon;
which they did by virtue of their typical relation to that great
sacrifice which the Son of God was in the fulness of time to
offer up for the sins of the world. They were either of a more
general relation, for the expiation of sin in general, whole burnt-
offerings, which were entirely (the skin and the entrails only
excepted) burnt to ashes ; or of a more private and particular con-
cernment, designed for the redemption of particular offences,
whereof there were two sorts : rmton, or " the sin-offering, 11 for
involuntary offences committed through error or ignorance ;
which, according to the condition and capacity of the person,
were either for the priest, or the prince, or the whole body of
the people, or a private person : the other tDtim, or " the trespass-
offering, 11 for sins done wittingly, studied and premeditated trans-
gressions, and which the man could not pretend to be the effects
of surprise or chance. Eucharistical sacrifices were testimonies
of gratitude to God for mercies received, whereof three sorts
especially; 1. nriiD, or "the meat-offering, made up of things
1 Exod. xxix. 42.
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
51
without life, oil, fine flour, incense, &c. which the worshipper
offered as a thankful return for the daily preservation and pro-
visions of life, and therefore it consisted only of the fruits of
the ground. 2. traibttf fist, or "the peace-offering ;" this was
done either out of a gratefiil sense of some blessing conferred, or
as a voluntary offering to which the person had obliged himself
by vow, in expectation of some safety or deliverance which he
had prayed for. In this sacrifice God had his part, the fat,
which was the only part of it burnt by fire ; the priest his, as an
instrument of the ministration ; the offerer his, that he might have
wherewith to " rejoice before the Lord. 1 ' 3. n*mn, " a thanks-
giving-offering," or a sacrifice of praise ; it was a mixed kind of
sacrifice, consisting of living creatures and the fruits of the
earth, which they might offer at their own will, but it must be
eaten the same day, and none of it left until the morrow. What
other provisions we meet with concerning ceremonial unclean-
nesses, first-fruits, the first-born, tenths, &c. are conveniently
reducible to some of these heads which we have already men-
tioned. The last part of their worship concerned their sacra-
ments, which were two ; circumcision, and the paschal supper.
Circumcision was the federal rite annexed by God as a seal to
the covenant which he made with Abraham and his posterity,
and accordingly renewed and taken into the body of the Mo-
saical constitutions. It was to be administered the eighth day,
which the Jews understand not of so many days complete, but
the current time, six full days, and part of the other. In the
room of this, baptism succeeds in the Christian church. The
passover, which was the eating of the paschal lamb, was insti-
tuted as an annual memorial of their signal and miraculous de-
liverance out of Egypt, and as a typical representation of our
spiritual redemption by Christ from the bondage of sin and that
hell that follows it. It was to be celebrated with a male lamb,
without blemish, taken out of the flock ; to note " the Lamb of
God that takes away the sins of the world," who was taken
from among men, "a lamb without blemish and without spot,
holy, harmless, and separate from sinners." The door-posts of
the house were to be sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, to
signify our security from the divine vengeance by the " blood of
sprinkling." The lamb was to be roasted and eaten whole;
typifying the great sufferings of our blessed Saviour, who was to
e 2
52 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
pass through the fire of divine wrath, and to be wholly em-
braced and entertained by us in all his offices, as king, priest,
and prophet. None but those that were clean and circumcised
might eat of it ; to shew that only true believers, holy and good
men, can be partakers of Christ and the merits of his death : it
was to be eaten standing, with the loins girt, and their staff in
their hand, to put them in mind what haste they made out of
the house of bondage ; and to intimate to us what present dili-
gence we should use to get from under the empire and tyranny
of sin and Satan, under the conduct and assistance of the Captain
of our salvation. The eating of it was to be mixed with bitter
herbs ; partly as a memorial of that bitter servitude which they
underwent in the land of Egypt, partly as a type of that re-
pentance, and bearing of the cross, (duties difficult and un-
pleasant,) which all true Christians must undergo. Lastly, it
was to be eaten with unleavened bread ; all manner of leaven
being at that time to be banished out of their houses with the
most critical diligence and curiosity, to represent what infinite
care we should take to cleanse and purify our hearts, 44 to purge
out the old leaven, that we may be a new lump:" and that
since "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, therefore we
should keep the feast," (the festival-commemoration of his death,)
"not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth." 01
VI. The places of their public worship were either the taber-
nacle made in the wilderness, or the temple built by Solomon, be-
tween which in the main there was no other difference, than that
the tabernacle was an ambulatory temple, as the temple was a
standing tabernacle, together with all the rich costly furniture
that was in them. The parts of it were three : the holiest of all,
whither none entered but the high-priest, and that but once a
year, this was a type of heaven ; the holy place, whither the
priests entered every day to perform their sacred ministrations ;
and the outward court, whither the people came to offer up their
prayers and sacrifices. In the sanctum sanctorum, or holiest of
all, there was the golden censer, typifying the merits and inter-
cession of Christ ; the ark of the covenant, as a representation
of him who is the Mediator of the covenant between God and
™ 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 53
man ; the golden pot of manna, a type of our Lord, the true
manna, " the bread that came down from heaven the rod of
Aaron that budded, signifying the branch of the root of Jesse,
that though our Saviour's family should be reduced to a state of
so much meanness and obscurity, as to appear but like the trunk
or stump of a tree, yet " there should come forth a rod out of
the stem of Jesse, and a branch grow out of his roots, which
should stand for an ensign of the people, and in him should the
Gentiles trust. 1 ' n And within the ark were the two tables of
the covenant, to denote him " in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, 11 and who is the end and perfection
of the law : over it were the cherubims of glory shadowing the
mercy-seat, who looking towards each other, and both to the
mercy-seat, denoted the two testaments, or dispensations of the
church, which admirably agree, and both direct to Christ, the
Mediator of the covenant. The propitiatory, or mercy-seat, was
the golden covering to the ark, where God veiling his majesty
was wont to manifest his presence, to give answers, and shew
himself reconciled to the people ; herein eminently prefiguring our
blessed Saviour, who interposes between us and the Divine
Majesty, " whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through
faith in his blood for the remission of sins, 11 so that now " we
may come boldly to the throne of grace, and find mercy to help
us. 11 Within the sanctuary, or the holy place, was the golden
candlestick with seven branches, representing Christ, who is " the
light of the world, 11 and who " enlightens every one that comes
into the world and before whose throne there are said to be
"seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God: 110
the table, compassed about with a border and a crown of gold,
denoting the ministry, and the *hew-bread set upon it, shadow-
ing out Christ, " the bread of life, 11 who by the ministry of the
gospel is offered to the world : here also was the golden altar of
incense, whereon they burnt the sweet perfumes morning and
evening, to signify to us that our Lord is the true altar, by
whom all our prayers and services are rendered " the odour of a
sweet smell acceptable unto God; 11 to this the psalmist refers, p
" Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the
lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 11 The third part
of the tabernacle, as also of the temple, was the court of Israel,
n Isai. xi. 1, 10. Rom. xv. 12. ° Rev. iv. 5. p Ps. cxli. 2.
Digitized by
54
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
wherein stood the brazen altar, upon which the holy fire was
continually preserved, by which the sacrifices were consumed,
one of the five great prerogatives that were wanting in the
second temple. Here was the brazen laver, with its basis, made
of the brazen looking-glasses of the women that assembled at
the door of the tabernacle, wherein the priests washed their
hands and their feet, when going into the sanctuary, and both
they and the people, when about to offer sacrifice ; to teach us
to purify our hearts and to " cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of flesh and spirit," especially when we approach to offer up our
services to heaven ; hereunto David alludes, q " I will wash mine
hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, 0 Lord."
Solomon, in building the temple, made an addition of a fourth
court, the court of the Gentiles, whereinto the unclean Jews and
Gentiles might enter ; and in this was the corban, or treasury,
and it is sometimes in the New Testament called the temple.
To these laws concerning the place of worship we may reduce
those that relate to the holy vessels and utensils of the tabernacle
and the temple, candlesticks, snuffers, dishes, &c. which also had
their proper mysteries and significations.
VII. The stated times and seasons of their worship are next
to be considered, and they were either daily, weekly, monthly,
or yearly. Their daily worship was at the time of the morning
and evening sacrifice ; their weekly solemnity was the sabbath,
. which was to be kept with all imaginable care and strictness,
they being commanded to rest in it from all servile labours, and
to attend the duties and offices of religion, a type of that " rest
that remains for the people of God." Their monthly festivals
were the new-moons, wherein they were to blow the trumpets
over their sacrifices and oblations, and to observe them with
great expressions of joy and triumph, in a thankful resentment
of the blessings which all that month had been conferred upon
them. Their annual solemnities were either ordinary or extra-
ordinary : ordinary were those that returned every year, whereof
the first was the passover, to be celebrated upon the fourteenth
day of the first month, as a memorial of their great deliverance
out of Egypt. The second, pentecost, called also the feast of
weeks, because just seven weeks, or fifty days, after the passover :
instituted it was partly in memory of the promulgation of the
<i Psalm xxri. 6.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 55
law, published at mount Sinai fifty days after their celebration
of the passover in Egypt, partly as a thanksgiving for the in*
gathering of their harvest, which usually was fully brought in
about this time. The third was the feast of tabernacles, kept
upon the fifteenth day of the seventh month for the space of
seven days together ; at which time they dwelt in booths made
of green boughs, as a memento of that time when they sojourned
in tents and tabernacles in the wilderness, and a sensible demon*
stration of the transitory duration of the present life, that u the
earthly house of our tabernacle must ,be dissolved," and that
therefore " we should secure a building of God, an house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." These were the three
great solemnities wherein all the males were obliged to appear
at J erusalem, and to present themselves and their offerings in
testimony of their homage and devotion unto God : besides
which they had some of lesser moment, such as their feast -of
trumpets, and that of expiation. The annual festivals extra-
ordinary were those that recurred but once in the periodical
return of several years ; such was the sabbatical year, wherein
the land was to lie fallow, and to rest from ploughing and
sowing, and all manner of cultivation ; and this was to be every
seventh year, typifying the eternal sabbatism in heaven, where
good men shall w rest from their labours, and their works shall
follow them." But the great sabbatical year of all was that of
jubilee, which returned at the end of seven ordinary sabbatic
years, that is, every fiftieth year, the approach whereof was pro-
claimed by the sound of trumpets ; in it servants were released,
all debts discharged, and mortgaged estates reverted to their
proper heirs. And how evidently did this shadow out the state
of the gospel, and our Lord's being sent " to preach good tidings
to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to preach liberty to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that they
might lift up their heads, because their redemption drew nigh." r
VIII. Lastly, they had laws concerning the persons by whom
their public worship was administered ; and here there was ap-
pointed an high-priest, who had his proper offices and rules of
duty, his peculiar attire and consecration ; ordinary priests,
whose business was to instruct the people, to pray and offer
r Isai. lxi. 1, 2. Luk. iv. 18.
56 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
sacrifice, to bless the congregation and judge in cases of leprosy,
and such like ; at their ordination they were to be chosen before
all the people, to be sprinkled with the water of expiation, their
hair shaved, and their bodies washed, afterwards anointed, and
sacrifices to be offered for them, and then they might enter upon
their priestly ministrations. Next to these were the Levites,
who were to assist the priests in preparing the sacrifices, to bear
the tabernacle, (while it lasted,) and lay up its vessels and
utensils, to purify and cleanse the vessels and instruments, to
guard the courts and chambers of the temple, to watch weekly
in the temple by their turns, to sing and celebrate the praises of
God with hymns and musical instruments, and to join with the
priests in judging and determining ceremonial causes ; they were
not to be taken into the full discharge of their function till the
thirtieth, nor to be kept at it beyond the fiftieth year of their
age ; God mercifully thinking it fit to give them then a writ of
ease, whose strength might be presumed sufficiently impaired by
truckling for so many years under such toilsome and laborious
ministrations. Though the Levitical priests were types of Christ,
yet it was the high-priest who did eminently typify him, and
that in the unity and singularity of his office ; for though many
orders and courses of inferior priests and ministers, yet was there
but one high-priest, " there is one mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus in the qualifications necessary to
his election as to place, he was to be taken out of the tribe of
Levi ; as to his person, which was to be every way perfect and
comely, and the manner of his consecration ; in his singular
capacity, that he alone might enter into the holy of holies, which
he did once every year upon the great day of expiation, with a
mighty pomp and train of ceremonies, killing sacrifices, burning
incense, sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice before and upon the
mercy-seat, going within the veil and making an atonement
within the holy place : all which immediately referred to Christ,
who "by the sacrifice of himself, and through the veil of his
own flesh, entered," not into the holy place made with hands, but
" into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
All which might be represented more at large, but that I intend
not a discourse about these matters.
IX, Besides the laws which we have hitherto enumerated,
there were several other particular commands, ritual constitu-
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 57
tions about meats and drinks, and other parts of human life.
Such was the difference they were to make between the
creatures, some to be clean, and others unclean; such were
several sorts of pollution and uncleanness, which were not in
their own nature sins, but ceremonial defilements : of this kind
were several provisions about apparel, diet, and the ordering
family affairs, all evidently of a ceremonial aspect, but too long
to be insisted on in this place. The main design of this cere-
monial law was to point out to us the evangelical state : " the
law had only a shadow of good things to come, and not the very
image of the things themselves, the body was Christ ;" s and
therefore, though " the law came by Moses," yet " grace and
truth" (the truth of all those types and figures) "came by
Christ." 1 It was time for Moses to resign the chair, when once
this great prophet was come into the world. Ceremonies could
no longer be of use when once the substance was at hand : well
may the stars disappear at the rising of the sun : the u Messiah
being cut off, should cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."
At the time of Chrises death, the veil of the temple, from top
to bottom, rent in sunder, to shew that his death had revealed
the mysteries, and destroyed the foundations of the legal
economy, and put a period to the whole temple-ministration.
Nay, the Jews themselves confess, 11 that forty years before the
destruction of the temple, (a date that corresponds exactly with
the death of Christ,) the " lot did no more go up into the right
hand of the priest," (this is meant of his dismission of the scape-
goat,) " nor the scarlet ribbon," usually laid upon the forehead of
the goat, " any more grow white," (this was a sign that the goat
was accepted for the remission of their sins,) " nor the evening
lamp burn any longer, and that the gates of the temple opened
of their own accord." By which, as at once, they confirm what
the gospel reports of the opening of the sanctum sanctorum by
the scissure of the veil ; sa they plainly confess, that at that
very time their sacrifices and temple-services began to cease and
fail ; as indeed the reason of them then ceasing, the things them-
selves must needs vanish into nothing.
X. The third sort of laws given to the Jews were judicial
and political; these were the municipal laws of the nation,
8 Heb. x. 1. 1 John i. 17.
u Jom. cap. 4. foL 39. ap. Buxtorl Recens. Oper. Talm. p. 218.
58
THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
enacted for the good of the state, and were a kind of appendage
to the second table of the decalogue, as the ceremonial laws were
of the first. They might be reduced to four general heads:
such as respected men in their private and domestical capacities ;
concerning husbands and wives, parents and children, masters
and servants : such as concerned the public and the common-
wealth; relating to magistrates and courts of justice, to contracts
and matters of right and wrong, to estates and inheritances, to
executions and punishments, &c. : such as belonged to strangers,
and matters of a foreign nature, as laws concerning peace and
war, commerce and •dealing with persons of another nation: or
lastly, such as secured the honour and the interests of religion ;
laws against apostates and idolaters, wizards, conjurers, and false
prophets, against blasphemy, sacrilege, and such like ; all which,
not being so proper to my purpose, I omit a more particular
enumeration of them. These laws were peculiarly calculated
for the Jewish state, and that while kept up in that country
wherein God had placed them, and therefore must needs deter-
mine and expire with it. Nor can they be made a pattern and
standard for the laws of other nations ; for though proceeding
from the wisest lawgiver, they cannot reasonably be imposed
upon any state or kingdom, unless where there is an equal con-
currence of circumstances, as there were in that people for whom
God enacted them. They went off the stage with the Jewish
polity, and if any parts of them do still remain obligatory, they
bind not as judicial laws, but as branches of the law of nature,
the reason of them being immutable and eternal. I know not
whether it may here be useful to remark what the Jews so
frequently tell us of, that the entire body of the Mosaic law
consists of six hundred and thirteen precepts, intimated (say
they) in that place where it is said " Moses commanded ufe a
law,"* where the numeral letters of the word mift, or "law,"
make up the number of six hundred and eleven, and the two
that are wanting to make up the complete number are the two
first precepts of the decalogue, which were not given by Moses
to the people, but immediately by God himself. Others say, y
that there are just six hundred and thirteen letters in the deca-
logue, and that every letter answers to a law : but some that
have had the patience to tell them, assure us that there are two
x Deut. xxxiii. 4. ? Auth. Tzeror Hammor apud Vois. de Leg. Div. c. 23. p. 338.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 59
whole words consisting of seven letters supernumerary, which
in my mind quite spoils the computation. These six hundred
and thirteen precepts they divide into two hundred and forty-
eight affirmative, according to the number of the parts of man's
body, (which they make account are just so many,) to put him
in mind to serve God with all his bodily powers, as if every
member of his body should say to him, rrfito ^ nuw, " make use
of me to fulfil the command ;" z and into three hundred and
sixty-five negative, according to the number of the days of the
year, that so every day may call upon a man, and say to him,
rray ^ twyn " Oh, do not in me transgress the command
or, as others will have it, a they answer to the veins or nerves in
the body of man ; that as the complete frame and compages of
man's body is made up of two hundred and forty-eight members
and three hundred and sixty-five nerves, and the law of so many
affirmative and so many negative precepts, it denotes to us, that
the whole perfection and accomplishment of man lies in an
accurate and diligent observance of the divine law. Each of
these divisions they reduce under twelve houses, answerable to
the twelve tribes of Israel. In the affirmative precepts, the first
house is that of divine worship, consisting of twenty precepts ;
the second, the house of the sanctuary, containing nineteen ; the
third, the house of sacrifices, wherein are fifty-seven ; the fourth,
that of cleanness and pollution, containing eighteen ; the fifth,
of tithes and alms, under which are thirty-two; the sixth, of
meats and drinks, containing seven ; the seventh, of the pass-
over, concerning feasts, containing twenty ; the eighth, of
judgment, thirteen ; the ninth, of doctrine, twenty-five ; the
tenth, of marriage, and concerning women, twelve ; the eleventh,
of judgments criminal, eight ; the twelfth, of civil judgments,
seventeen. In the negative precepts, the first house is concern-
ing the worship of the planets, containing forty-seven commands ;
the second, of separation from the heathens, thirteen ; the third,
concerning the reverence due to holy things, twenty-nine ; the
fourth, of sacrifice and priesthood, eighty-two ; the fifth, of
meats, thirty-eight ; the sixth, of fields and harvest, eighteen ;
the seventh, of doctrine, forty-five; the eighth, of justice, forty-
seven ; the ninth, of - feasts, ten ; the tenth, of purity and
2 R. Moyses Tract de Num. praec. ap. Vois. ib.
* Vid. Manass. Ben Israel de Resurr. L iic. 18.
60 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
chastity, twenty-four ; the eleventh, of wedlock, eight ; the
twelfth, concerning the kingdom, four: a method not con-
temptible, as which might minister to a distinct and useful ex-
plication of the whole law of Moses.
XI. The next thing considerable under the Mosaical economy
was the methods of the divine revelation, by what ways God
communicated his mind to them, either concerning present
emergencies or future events; and this was done, iro\vfiep&<$
Kal 7ro\vTp6irm> as the apostle tells us, " at sundry times," or
by sundry degrees and parcels, and " in divers manners," by va-
rious methods of revelation; whereof three most considerable,
the Urim and Thummim, the audible voice, and the spirit of
prophecy, imparted in dreams, visions, &c. We shall make
some brief remarks upon them, referring the reader, who desires
fuller satisfaction herein, to those who purposely treat about
these matters. The Urim and Thummim was a way of revela-
tion peculiar to the high-priest : " Thou shalt put in the breast-
plate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall
be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord, and
Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his
heart before the Lord continually. 11 b Thus Eleazar the priest is
commanded to " ask counsel after the judgment of Urim before
the Lord."" c What this Urim and Thummim was, and what the
manner of receiving answers by it, is difficult, if not impossible
to tell, there being scarce any one difficulty that I know of in
the Bible that hath more exercised the thoughts either of
Jewish or Christian writers. Whether it was some addition to
the high-priest's breast-plate made by the hand of some curious
artist, or whether only those two words engraven upon it, or the
great name Jehovah carved and put within the foldings of the
breast-plate; or whether the twelve stones resplendent with
light, and completed to perfection with the tribes 1 names therein ;
or whether some other mysterious piece of artifice immediately
framed by the hand of heaven, and given to Moses when he de-
livered him the two tables of the law, is vain and endless to
inquire, because impossible to determine. Nor is the manner of
its giving answers less uncertain : whether at such times the
fresh and orient lustre of the stones signified the answer in the
affirmative, while their dull and dead colour spake the negative ;
b Exod. xxviii. 30. < Numb, xxvii. 21.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 61
or whether it was by some extraordinary protuberancy and
thrusting forth of the letters engraven upon the stones, from the
conjunction whereof the divine oracle was gathered ; or whether
probably it might be, that when the high-priest inquired of God,
with this breast-plate upon him, God did either by a lively voice,
or by immediate suggestions to his mind, give him a distinct and
perspicuous answer, illuminating his mind with the Urim, or the
light of knowledge of his will in those cases, and satisfying his
doubts and scruples with the Thummim, or a perfect and com-
plete determination of those difficulties that were propounded to
him, thereby enabling him to give a satisfactory and infallible
answer in all the particulars that lay before him. And this
several of the Jews seem to intend, when they make this way
of revelation one of the degrees of the Holy Ghost, and say, that
no sooner did the high-priest put on the pectoral, and had the
case propounded to him, but that he was immediately clothed
with thcHoly Spirit. But it is to little purpose to hunt after
that where fancy and conjecture must decide the case. Indeed,
among the various conjectures about this matter, none appears
with greater probability than the opinion of those who conceive
the Urim and Thummim to have been a couple of teraphim, d or
little images, (probably formed in human shape,) put within the
hollow foldings of the pontifical breast-plate, from whence God,
by the ministry of an angel, vocally answered those interrogato-
ries which the high-priest made : nothing being more common,
even in the early ages of the world, than such teraphim in those
Eastern countries, usually placed in their temples, and whence
the demon was wont oracularly to determine the cases brought
before him. And as God permitted the Jews the use of sacri-
fices, which had been notoriously abused to superstition and
idolatry in the heathen world, so he might indulge them these
teraphim, (though now converted to a sacred use,) that so he
might by degrees wean them from the rites of the Gentile
world, to which they had so fond an inclination. And this
probably was the reason why, when Moses is so particular in
describing the other parts of the sacerdotal ornaments, nothing
at all is said of this, because a thing of common use among the
nations with whom they had conversed, and notoriously known
among themselves. And such we may suppose the prophet in-
d Christoph. Castr. de Vaticin. 1. iii. c. 3.
Digitized by
62 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
tended when he threatened the Jews, that they "should abide
without a sacrifice, without an image, or altar, without an
ephod, and without a teraphim. 11 * A notion very happily im-
proved by an ingenious pen/ whose acute conjectures and
elaborate dissertations about this matter justly deserve com-
mendation, even from those who differ from it. It seems to have
been a kind of political oracle, and to be consulted only in great
and weighty cases, as the election of supreme magistrates, mak-
ing war, &c. ; and only by persons of the highest rank, none
being permitted (say the Jews 8 ) to inquire of it, mbi ^oi? wb«
ID llStfnw >dVi n, unless in a case wherein the king, or the
sanhedrim, or the whole congregation was concerned.
XII. A second way of divine revelation was by an " audible
voice, 11 accompanied many times with thunder, descending as it
were from heaven, and directing them in any emergency of
affairs. This the Jewish writers call Vtp ro, the "daughter 11 or
echo " of a voice which they confess to have been the lowest
kind of revelation, and to have been in use only in the times of
the second temple, when all other ways of prophecy were ceased.
But notwithstanding their common and confident assertions,
whether ever there was any such standing way of revelation as
this, is justly questionable, (nay, it is peremptorily denied by
one incomparably versed in the Talmudic writings, 11 who adds,
that if there was any such thing at any time, it was done by
magic arts and diabolical delusions,) partly, because it is only
delivered by Jewish writers, whose faith and honesty is too well
known to the world to be trusted in stories that make so much
for the honour of their nation, not to mention their extravagant
propension to lies and fabulous reports ; partly, because by their
own confession God had withdrawn all his standing oracles and
ordinary ways of revelation, their notorious impieties having
caused heaven to retire, and therefore much less would it cor-
respond with them by such immediate converses ; partly, be-
cause this seemed to be a way more accommodate to the evange-
lical dispensation at the appearance of the Son of God in the
world. A voice from heaven is the most immediate testimony,
and therefore fittest to do honour to him who came down from
heaven, and was sure to meet with an obdurate aud incredulous
e Hos. iii. 4. f Joan. Spencer. Dissertat. de Urim et Thum. edit. Cantab. 1670.
* Cod. Jom. c vii. sect 5. p. 167. h Lightf. Hor. Hebr. in Matth. iii. 17.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
63
generation, and to give evidence to that doctrine that he pub-
lished to the world. Thus by a bath-col, or a voice from heaven,
God bare witness to our Saviour at his baptism, and a second
time at his transfiguration, and again at the passover at Jeru-
salem, when there came a voice from heaven, which the people
took for thunder, or the communication of an angel, and most of
St. John's intelligences from above, recorded in his book of Re-
velation, are ushered in with an " I heard a voice from heaven.* 1
XIII. But the most frequent and standing method of divine
communications was that whereby God was wont to transact
with the prophets, and in extraordinary cases with other men,
which was either by dreams, visions, or immediate inspirations.
The way by dreams was when the person being overtaken with
a deep sleep, and all the exterior senses locked up, God pre-
sented the species and images of things to their understandings,
and that in such a manner, that they might be able to appre-
hend the will of God, which they presently did upon their
awaking out of sleep. These divine dreams the Jews dis-
tinguish into two sorts: monitory, such as were sent only by
way of instruction and admonition, to give men notice of what
they were to do, or warning of what they should avoid ; such
were the dreams of Pharaoh, Abimelech, Laban, &c. : or
else they were prophetical, when God, by such a powerful
energy acted upon the mind and imagination of the prophet,
as carried the strength and force of a divine evidence along
with it. This was sometimes done by a clear and distinct
impression of the thing upon the mind without any dark or
enigmatical representation of it, such as God made to Samuel,
when he first revealed himself to him in the temple ; sometimes
by apparition, yet so as the man, though asleep, was able to
discern an angel conversing with him. By visions, God usually
communicated himself two ways : first, when something really
appeared to the sight; thus Moses beheld the bush burning,
and stood there while God conversed with him ; Manoah and
his wife saw the angel, while he took his leave, and in a flaming
pyramid went up to heaven; the three angels appeared to
Abraham a little before the fatal ruin of Sodom ; all which ap-
paritions were unquestionably true and real, the angel assuming
an human shape, that he might the freelier converse with and
deliver his message to those to whom he was sent. Secondly,
Digitized by
64 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
by powerful impressions upon the imagination, usually done
while the prophet was awake, and had the free and uninter-
rupted exercise of his reason, though the vision oft overpowered,
and cast him into a trance, that the soul being more retired from
sensible objects might the closer intend those divine notices that
were represented to it. Thus all the prophets had the ideas of
those things that they were to deliver to the people the more
strongly impressed upon their fancies, and this commonly when
they were in the greatest solitude and privacy, and their powers
most called in, that the prophetical influx might have the
greater force upon them. In some such way St. Paul was
caught up into the third heaven, probably not so much by any
real separation of his soul from his body, or local translation of
his spirit thither, as by a profound abstraction of it from his
corporeal senses, God, during the time of the trance, entertaining
it with an internal and admirable scene of the glory and happi-
ness of that state, as truly and effectually as if his soul had
been really conveyed thither.
XIV. Thirdly, God was wont to communicate his mind by
immediate inspirations, whereby he immediately transacted with
the understandings of men, without any relation to their fancy
or their senses. It was the most pacate and serene way of pro-
phecy, God imparting his mind to the prophets, not by dreams or
visions, but while they were awake, their powers active, and
their minds calm and undisturbed. This the Jews call rm
unpn, " the Holy Spirit, 1 ' or that kind of revelation that was
directly conveyed into the mind by the most efficacious irradia-
tion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; God by these divine
illapses enabling the prophet clearly and immediately to appre-
hend the things delivered to him. And in this way the tMiro,
or " holy writings,' 1 were dictated and conveyed to the world ; 1
in which respect the apostle says, that " all scripture is deouvev-
crros, given by divine inspiration. 11 The highest pitch of this
prophetical revelation was rwn n*VQJ, the gradus Mosaicus, or
that way of prophecy that God used towards Moses ; of whom
it is particularly said, that " the Lord spake unto Moses face to
face, as a man speaketh'unto his friend :™ k and elsewhere it is
evidently distinguished from all inferior ways of prophecy, " If
there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known
» Vide Maimon. Mor. Nevoch. par. ii. cap. 45. p. 317. * Exod. xxxiii. 11.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 65
unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream : my
servant Moses is not so, with him I will speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of
the Lord shall he behold 1 clearly implying a mighty pre-
eminence in God's way of revelation to Moses above that of
other prophets, which the J ewish writers make to have lain in
four things. First, that in all God's communications to Moses,
he immediately spake to his understanding, without any im-
pressions upon fancy, any visible appearances, any dreams or
visions of the night. Secondly, that Moses had prophecies con-
veyed to him without any fears or consternations, whereas the
other prophets were astonished and weakened at the sight of .
God. Thirdly, that Moses had no previous dispositions or pre-
parations to make him capable of the divine revelation, but
could directly go to God and consult him, as " a man speaketh
with his friend;" other prophets being forced many times by
some preparatory arts to invite the prophetic spirit to come
upon them. Fourthly, that Moses had a freedom and liberty
of spirit to prophesy at all times, and could, when he pleased,
have recourse to the sacred oracle. But as to this the scripture
intimates no such thing, the spirit of prophecy retiring from him
at some times as well as from the rest of the prophets. And
indeed the prophetic spirit did not reside in the holy men by
way of habit, but occasionally, as God saw fitting to pour it out
upon them ; it was not in them as light is in the sun, but as
light is in the air, and consequently depended upon the imme-
diate irradiations of the Spirit of God.
XV. These divine communications were so conveyed to the
minds of the prophets and inspired persons, that they always
knew them to be divine revelations ; so mighty and perspicuous
was the evidence that came along with them, that there could
be no doubt, but they were the birth of heaven. It is true,
when the prophetic spirit at any time seized upon wicked men,
they understood not its effect upon them, nor were in the least
improved and bettered by it; the revelation passed through
them, as a sound through a trunk, or water through a leaden
pipe, without any particular and distinct apprehension of the
thing, or useful impression made upon their minds ; as is evident,
besides others, in the case of Caiaphas and Balaam, of which last
1 Numb. xii. 6, 7, 8.
F
66 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
the Jews say expressly, b-OJD jrr «!n D>n!?« pf *d km, that "he
prophesied according to the will of God, but understood not
what he prophesied." But it was otherwise with the true
prophets ; they always knew who it was that acted them, and
what was the meaning of that intelligence that was communi-
cated to them. In the Gentile world, when the demon entered
into the inspired person, he was usually carried out to the furious
transports of rage and madness. But in the prophets of God,
although the impulse might sometimes be very strong and vio-
lent, (whence the prophet Jeremy complains, " Mine heart
within me is broken, all my bones shake, I am like a drunken
man, like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the
Lord, and because of the words of his holiness,") so as a little
to ruffle their imagination, yet never so as to discompose their
reason, or hinder them from a clear perception of the notices
conveyed upon their minds; 6 irpo<f>i]Tr)<; fiera /caraardaew
Xoyiaficbv, /cat irapaKo\ovdrjaeto<; ekaket,, teal i<f>0€yy€ro i/c
irvev/MtTO? aylov, ra irdvra €ppa>fiev(o<; \€y<ov, says Ephi-
phanius : m " the prophet had his oracles dictated by the Holy
Spirit, which he delivered strenuously, and with the most firm
and unshaken consistency of his rational powers;" and after-
wards, 11 yeyovaat, 8& iv i/cardcrec oi irpo^rai, ovtc iv i/corao-ei,
\oyi<Tfi<Sv> " that the prophets were often in a bodily ecstacy, but
never in an ecstacy of mind," their understandings never being
rendered useless and unserviceable to them. Indeed, it was
absolutely necessary that the prophet should have a full satisfac-
tion of mind concerning the truth and divinity of his message ;
for how else should they persuade others that the thing was
from God, if they were not first sufficiently assured themselves I
and, therefore, even in those methods that were most liable to
doubts and questions, such as communications by dreams, we
cannot think but that the same spirit that moved and impressed
the thing upon them, did also, by some secret and inward opera-
tions, settle their minds in the firmest belief and persuasion of
what was revealed and suggested to them. All these ways of
immediate revelation ceased some hundreds of years before the
final period of the Jewish church : a thing confessed not only
by Christians, but by Jews themselves ;° rrn **b 9
m Adv. Montan. Haeres. xlviii. 8. 3. n Ibid. 8. 7.
• Nizz. p. 159. citante Hottipg. Thes. Phil. 1. ii. c. 3. p. 564.
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THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 67
"there was no prophet in the second temple indeed they
universally acknowledge, that there were five things wanting in the
second temple, built after their return from the Babylonish cap-
tivity, which had been in that of Solomon ; viz. the ark of the
covenant, the fire from heaven that lay upon the altar, the Shech-
inah, or presence of the divine majesty, the Urim and Thum-
mim, and the spirit of prophecy, which ceased (as they tell us)
about the second year of Darius; to be sure at the death of
Malachi, the last of that order, after whom there arose no
prophet in Israel, whom therefore the Jews call, tDWiarr omrr,
" the seal of the prophets. 11 Indeed it is no wonder that prophecy
should cease at that time, if we consider that one of the prime
ends of it did then cease, which was to be a seal and an as-
surance of the divine inspiration of the holy volumes ; now the
canon of the Old Testament being consigned and completed by
Ezra, with the assistance of Malachi, and some of the last
prophets, God did not think good any longer to continue this
divine and miraculous gift among them : but especially, if we
consider the great degeneracy into which that church was
falling, their horrid and crying sins having made God resolve
to reject them, the departure of the prophetic spirit shewed
that God had written them a bill of divorce, and would utterly
cast them off ; that by this means they might be awakened to
a more lively expectation of that new state of things, which the
Messiah was coming to establish in the world, wherein the
prophetic spirit should revive, and be again restored to the
church, which accordingly came to pass, as we shall elsewhere •
observe*.
XVI. The third thing propounded, was to consider the state
of religion and the church under the successive periods of this
economy. And here we shall only make some general remarks ;
a particular survey of those matters not consisting with the
design of this discourse. Ecclesiastical constitutions being made
in the wilderness, and the place for public worship framed and
erected, no sooner did they come into the promised land, but
the tabernacle was set down at Gilgal, where, if the Jewish
chronology say true, it continued fourteen years, till they had
subdued and divided the land ; then fixed at Shiloh, and the
priests and Levites had cities and territories assigned to them,
where it is not to be doubted but there were synagogues, or
f2
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68 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
places equivalent, for prayer and the ordinary solemnities of re-
ligion, and courts for the decision of ecclesiastical causes. Pros-
perity and a plentiful country had greatly contributed to the
depravation of men's manners, and the corruption of religion,
till the times of Samuel, the great reformer of that church, who
erected colleges and instituted schools of the prophets, reduced
the societies of the Levites to their primitive order and purity,
forced the priests to do their duty, diligently to minister in the
affairs of God's worship, and carefully to teach and instruct
the people: a piece of reformation no more than necessary,
"for the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there
was no open vision. 1 ' Three hundred and sixty-nine years (say
the Jews) the tabernacle abode at Shiloh, from whence it was
translated to Nob, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, probably
about the time that the ark was taken ; thence, after thirteen
years, to Gibeon, where it remained fifty years ; and lastly by
Solomon to Jerusalem. The ark being taken to carry along
with them for their more prosperous success in their war against
the Philistines, was ever after exposed to an ambulatory and un-
settled course: for being taken captive by the Philistines, it
was by them kept prisoner seven months ; thence removed to
Bethshemesh, and thence to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained
in the house of Abinadab twenty years ; thence solemnly fetched
by David, and after three months rest by the way in the house
of Obed-Edom, brought triumphantly to Jerusalem, and placed
under the covert of a tent which he had purposely erected for
it. David being settled in the throne, like a pious prince took
especial care of the affairs of religion : he fixed the high-priest
and his second, augmented the courses of the priests from eight
to four and twenty, appointed the Levites and singers and their
several turns and times of waiting, assigned them their proper
duties and ministeries, settled the nethinim or porters, the pos-
terity of the Gibeonites; made treasurers of the revenues be-
longing to holy uses, and of the vast sums contributed toward
the building of a temple, as a more splemn and stately place for
divine worship, which he was fully resolved to have erected,*
but that God commanded it to be reserved for the peaceable
and prosperous reign of Solomon; who succeeding in his father's
throne, accomplished it, building so stately and magnificent a
temple, that it became one of the greatest wonders of the world.
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THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION. 69
Under his son Rehoboam happened the fatal division of the
kingdom, when ten parts of twelve were rent off at once, and
brought under the empire of Jeroboam, who knew no better
way to secure his new-gotten sovereignty, than to take off the
people from hankering after the temple and the worship at Je-
rusalem ; and therefore, out of a cursed policy, erected two
golden calves at Dan and Bethel, persuading the people there
to pay their public adorations, appointing chaplains like him-
self, priests of the lowest of the people : and from this time re-
ligion began visibly to ebb and decline in that kingdom, and
idolatry to get ground amongst them.
XVII. The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were loyal
both to God and their prince, continuing obedient to their lawful
sovereign, and firmly adhering to the worship of the temple,
though even here too impiety in some places maintained its
ground, having taken root in the reign of Solomon, who, through
his over-great partiality and fondness to his wives, had been be-
trayed to give too much countenance to idolatry. The extirpa-
tion hereof was the design and attempt of all the pious and good
princes of Judah : Jehosaphat set himself in good earnest to re-
cover religion and the state of the church to its ancient purity
and lustre; he abolished the groves and high places, and ap-
pointed itinerant priests and Levites to go from city to city to
expound the law, and instruct the people in the knowledge of
their duty; nay, he himself held a royal visitation, "going
quite through the land, and bringing back the people to the
Lord God of their fathers." p But under the succeeding kings
religion again lost its ground, and had been quite extinct during
the tyranny and usurpation of Athaliah, but that good Jehoiada,
the high-priest, kept it alive by his admirable zeal and industry.
While he lived, his pupil Joas (who owed both his crown and
life to him) promoted the design, and purged the temple, though
after his tutor's death he apostatized to profaneness and idolatry.
Nor indeed was the reformation effectually advanced till the
time of Hezekiah, who no sooner ascended the throne, but he
summoned the priests and Levites, exhorted them to begin at
home, and first to reform themselves, then to cleanse and repair
the temple ; he resettled the priests and Levites in their proper
places and offices, and caused them to offer all sorts of sacrifices,
p 2 Chron. xix. 4.
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70
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
and the passover to be universally celebrated with great strict-
ness and solemnity; he destroyed the monuments of idolatry,
" took away the altars in Jerusalem,'' and having given com-
mission, the people did the like in all parts of the kingdom,
breaking the images, cutting down the groves, throwing down
the altars and high places, "until they had utterly destroyed
them all." But neither greatness nor piety can exempt any
from the common laws of mortality: Hezekiah dies, and his
son Manasseh succeeds, a wicked prince, under whose influence
impiety like a land-flood broke in upon religion, and laid all
waste before it. But his grandchild Josiah made some amends,
he gave signal instances of an early piety; for in the eighth year
of his reign, " while he was yet young," he began " to seek after
the God of David his father " q and in the twelfth year he began
to purge Judah and Jerusalem; he defaced whatever had been
abused and prostituted to idolatry and superstition throughout
the whole kingdom, repaired God's house, and ordered its wor-
ship according to the prescript of the Mosaic law, a copy
whereof they had found in the ruins of the temple, solemnly
engaged himself and his people to be true to religion and the
worship of God, and caused so great and solemn a passover to
be held, that u there was no passover like to it kept in Israel
from the days of Samuel." And more he had done, had not an
immature death cut him off in the midst both of his days and
his pious designs and projects. Not many years after, God
being highly provoked by the prodigious impieties of that na-
tion, delivered it up to the army of the king of Babylon, who
demolished the city, harassed the land, and carried the people
captive unto Babylon. And no wonder the divine patience
could hold no longer, when "all the chief of the priests and the
people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the
heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had
hallowed in Jerusalem." r Seventy years they remained under
this captivity, during which time the prophet Daniel gave lively
and particular accounts of the Messiah, that he should come
into the world to introduce a law of " everlasting righteousness,"
to die as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the people, and
to put a period to the Levitical sacrifices and oblations. And
whereas other prophecies had only in general defined the time
i 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. r 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14.
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
71
of the Messiah's coming, he" particularly determines the period,
that all this should be at the end of seventy weeks; that is, at the
expiration of four hundred and ninety years ; which exactly fell
in with the time of our Saviour's appearing in the world. The
seventy years captivity being run out, by the favour of the king
of Babylon they were set free, and by him permitted and as-
sisted to repair Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, which was
accordingly done under the government of Nehemiah and the
succeeding rulers, and the temple finished by Zorobabel, and
things brought into some tolerable state of order and decency,
and so continued till the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of
Syria, by whom the temple was profaned and violated, and the
Jewish church miserably afflicted and distressed; he thrust out
Onias the high-priest, and put in his brother Jason, a man lost
both to religion and good manners, and who, by a vast sum of
money, had purchased the priesthood of Antiochus. At this
time Matthias, a priest, and the head of the Asmonsean family,
stood up for his country; after whom came Judas Maccabseus,
avrjp yevvalo? koI /ieya\o7r6\€/MO^ koX iravO* vwep tt}9 t&v
irdXcT&v ikevOepia? xal hpacrai koX waduv vTroords, as Jo-
sephus truly characters him, 8 " a man of a generous temper, and
a valiant mind, ready to do or suffer any thing to assert the
liberties and religion of his country," followed both in his zeal
and prosperous success by his two brothers J onathan and Simon,
successively high-priests and commanders after him. Next him
came John, surnamed Hyrcanus ; then Aristobulus, Alexander,
Hyrcanus, Aristobulus junior, Alexander, Antigonus ; in whose
time Herod the Great having, by the favour of Antony, ob-
tained of the Roman senate the sovereignty over the Jewish
nation, and being willing that the priesthood should entirely
depend upon his arbitrary disposure, abrogated the succession
of the Asmonaaan family, and put in one Ananel, iepea t&v
aar)iioT&p<DV) as Josephus calls him,* " an obscure priest," of the
line of those who had been priests in Babylon. To him suc-
ceeded Aristobulus; to him Jesus the son of Phabes; to him
Simon, who being deposed, next came Matthias, deposed also by
Herod ; next him Joazar, who underwent the same fate from
Archelaus; then Jesus the son of Sie; after whom Joazar was
again restored to the chair, and under his pontificate (though
• Antki. Jud. 1. xii. c. 19. 1 Ibid. 1. xv. c 2.
72 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
before his first deposition) Christ was born ; things every day
growing worse among them, till about seventy years after the
wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, and brought
the Romans, who finally took away their place and nation.
XVIII. Before we go off from this part of our discourse, it
may not be amiss to take a more particular view of the state of
the Jewish church, as it stood at the time of our Saviours ap-
pearing in the world, as what may reflect some considerable
light upon the history of Christ and his apostles. And if we
cast our eyes upon it at this time, " how was the gold become
dim, and the most fine gold changed !" how miserably de-
formed was the face of the church, how strangely degenerated
from its primitive institution ! whereof we shall observe some
particular instances. Their temple, though lately repaired and
rebuilt by Herod, and that with so much pomp and grandeur,
that Josephus, u who yet may justly be presumed partial to the
honour of his own nation, says of it, that it was the most ad-
mirable structure that was ever seen or heard of, both for the
preparation made for it, the greatness and magnificence of the
thing itself, and the infinite expense and cost bestowed upon it,
as well as for the glory of that divine worship that was per-
formed in it ; yet was it infinitely short of that of Solomon ;
besides that it had been often exposed to rudeness and violence.
Not to mention the horrible profanations of Antiochus, it had
been of late invaded by Pompey, who boldly ventured into the
sanctum sanctorum, and without any scruple curiously contem-
plated the mysteries of that place, but suffered no injury to be
offered to it. After him came Crassus, who to the others bold-
ness added sacrilege, seizing what the other's piety and modesty
had spared, plundering the temple of its vast wealth and
treasure. Herod having procured the kingdom, besieged and
took the city and the temple ; and though, to ingratiate himself
with the people, he endeavoured what in him lay to secure it
from rapine and impiety, and afterwards expended incredible
sums in its reparation, yet did he not stick to make it truckle
under his wicked policies and designs. The more to endear him-
self to his patrons at Rome,* he set up a golden eagle of a vast
dimension (the arms of the Roman empire) over the great gate
» De Bell. Jud. 1. vii. c. 27.
* Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. xvii. c. 8. et de Bell. Jud. 1. i. c. 21.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 73
of the temple ; a thing /So expressly contrary to the law of
Moses, which forbids all images, and accounted so monstrous a
profanation of that holy place, that while Herod lay a dying,
the people, in a great tumult and uproar, gathered together and
pulled it down. A great part of it was become an exchange
and a market ; the place where men were to meet with God,
and to trade with heaven, was now turned into a warehouse for
merchants and a shop for usurers, and " the house of prayer into
a den of thieves." The worship formerly wont to be performed
there with pious and devout affections, was now shrunk into a
mere shell and outside; they "drew near to God with their
mouths, and honoured him with their lips, but their hearts were
far from him rites of human invention had jostled out those
of divine institution, and their very prayers were made traps to
catch the unwary people, and to devour the widow and the
fatherless. Their priesthood was so changed and altered, that
it retained little but its ancient name ; the high priests, who by
their original charter were lineally to succeed, and to hold their
place for life, were become almost annual, scarce a year passing
over wherein one was not thrust out and another put in : vtto
t£v ' Pa>fia'ife&v rjy€ji6va>v aWor aWoi dpj^iepaxrvvvjv iinrpeiro-
p€Poi y ov wKelov 6TOU9 6V09 iirl Tavrrjs Sierekovv, as Eusebius
notes out of their, own historian.* Nay, which was far worse, it
was become not only annual but venal, Herod exposing it to
sale, and scarce admitting any to the sacerdotal office, who had
not first sufficiently paid for his patent ; and, which was the
natural consequence of that, the place was filled with the refuse
of the people, men of mean abilities and debauched manners,
who had neither parts nor piety to recommend them, he being
the best and the fittest man that offered most. Nay, into so
strange a degeneracy were they fallen in this matter, that
Josephus reports, 2 that one Phannias was elected high-priest,
% not only a rustic and illiterate fellow, not only not of the sacer-
dotal line, but so intolerably stupid and ignorant, that when
they came to acquaint him, he knew not what the high-priest-
hood meant. And not content to be imposed upon, and tyran-
nized over by a foreign power, they fell a quarrelling among
themselves, and mutually preyed upon one another : a the high-
priests falling out with the inferior orders, and both parties
y Hist EccL 1. i. c 10. * De Bell Jud. 1. iv. c 12. • Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c 8.
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74 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
going with an armed retinue after them, ready to clash and
fight wherever they met ; the high-priest sending his servants
to fetch away the tithes due to the inferior priests, insomuch
that many of t*he poorest of them were famished for want of
necessary food.
XIX. Their law, which had been delivered with so much
majesty and magnificence, and for which they themselves pre-
tended so great a reverence, they had miserably corrupted and
depraved, (the moral part of it especially,) and that two ways.
First, by gross and absurd interpretations, which the teachers
of those times had put upon it. The scribes and pharisees,
who ruled the chair in the Jewish church, had by false and
corrupt glosses debased the majesty and purity of the law, and
made it to serve the purposes of an evil life : they had taught
the people, that the law required no more than external righteous-
ness ; that if there was but a visible conformity of the life, they
needed not be solicitous about the government of their minds,
or the regular conduct of their thoughts or passions; that so
men did but carry themselves fair to the eye of the world, it
was no great matter how things went in the secret and unseen
retirements of the soul; nay, that a punctual observance of some
external precepts of the law would compensate and quit scores
with God for the neglect or violation of the rest. They told
men, that when the law forbad murder, so they did not actually
kill another, and sheath their sword in their brother's bowels, it
was well enough ; men were not restrained from furious and
intemperate passions; they might be angry, yea, though by
peevish and uncomely speeches they betrayed the rancour and
malice of their minds. They confessed the law made it adultery
actually to embrace the bosom of a stranger, but would not have
it extend to wanton thoughts and unchaste desires, or that it
was adultery for a man to lust after a woman, and to commit
folly with her in his heart. They told them, that in all oaths
and vows, if they did but perform what they had sworn to God,
the law took no farther notice of it, whenas every vain and un-
necessary oath, all customary and trifling use of the name of
God, was forbidden by it. They made them believe that it was
lawful for them to proceed by the rigorous law of retaliation, to
exact their own to the utmost, and to right and revenge them-
selves; whenas the law requires a tender, compassionate, and
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION, 75
•
benevolent temper of mind, and is so far from owning the
rigorous punctilios of revenge, that it obliges to meekness and
patience, to forgiveness and charity, and, which is the very height
of charity, not only to pardon, but to' love and befriend our
greatest enemies, quite contrary to the doctrine which these men
taught, that though they were to love their neighbours, that is,
Jews, yet might they hate their enemies. In these and such-like
instances, they had notoriously abused and evacuated the law,
and in a manner rendered it of no effect : and therefore when
our Lord, as the great prophet sent from God, came into the
world, the first thing be did after the entrance upon his public
ministry, was to cleanse and purify the law, and to remove that
rubbish which the J ewish doctors had cast upon it. He rescued
it out of the hands of their poisonous and pernicious expositions,
restored it to its just authority, and to its own primitive sense
and meaning ; he taught them, that the law did not only bind
the external act, but prescribe to the most inward motions of
the mind, and that whoever transgresses here, is no less ob-
noxious to the divine justice, and the penalties of the law, than
he that is guilty of the most gross and palpable violations of it :
he shewed them how infinitely more pure and strict the command
was than these impostors had represented it ; and plainly told
them, that if ever they expected to be happy, they must look
upon the law with another-guise eye, and follow it after another
rate, than their blind and deceitful guides did ; " for I say unto
you, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and pharisees, ye can in no case enter into the kingdom
of God."
XX. The other way by which they corrupted and dishonoured
the law, and weakened the power and reputation of it, was by
preferring before it their oral and unwritten law. For besides
the law consigned to writing, they had their na httttf rmn, " their
law delivered by word of mouth," whose pedigree they thus de-
duce. They tell us, that when Moses waited upon God forty
days in the mount, he gave him a double law, one in writing, the
other traditionary, containing the sense and explication of the
former : being come down into his tent, he repeated it first to
Aaron, then to Ithamar and Eleazar his sons, then to the seventy
elders, and lastly to all the people, the same persons being all
this while present. Aaron, who had now heard it four times
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76 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
recited, Moses being gone out, again repeated it before them :
after his departure out of the tent, his two sons, who by this had
heard it as oft as their father, made another repetition of it, by
which means the seventy elders came to hear it four times ; and
then they also repeated it to the congregation, who had now also
heard it repeated four times together, once from Moses, then from
Aaron, then from his sons, and lastly from the seventy elders ;
after which the congregation broke up, and every one went home
and taught it his neighbour. b This oral law Moses upon his
death-bed repeated to Joshua, he delivered it to the elders, they
to the prophets, the prophets to the men of the great synagogue,
the last of whom was Simeon the Just, who delivered it to
Antigonus Sochaeus, and he to his successors, the wise men,
whose business it was to recite it, and so it was handed through
several generations ; the names of the persons who delivered it
in the several ages, from its first rise under Moses till above an
hundred years after Christ, being particularly enumerated by
Maimonides. At last it came to R. Jehuda, c commonly styled
by the Jews t&npn WT), " our holy master," the son of Rabban
Simeon, (who flourished a little before the time of the emperor
Antoninus,) who, considering the unsettled and tottering con-
dition of his own nation, and how apt these traditionary precepts
would be to be forgotten or mistaken by the weakness of men's
memories, or the perverseness of their wits, or the dispersion of the
J ews in other countries, collected all these laws and expositions,
and committed them to writing, styling his book Mishnaioth, or
the " repetition." This was afterwards illustrated and explained
by the Rabbins dwelling about Babylon, with infinite cases and
controversies concerning their law, whose resolutions were at last
compiled into another volume, which they called Gemara, or
" doctrine," and both together constitute the entire body of the
Babylonish Talmud, the one being the text, the other the com-
ment. The folly and vanity of this account, though it be
sufficiently evident to need no confutation with any wise and dis-
cerning man, yet have the Jews in all ages made great advantage
of it, magnifying and extolling it above the written law, with
titles and elogies that hyperbolize into blasphemy. They tell
b Pirk. Aboth. c. i. s. 1, 2, 3. p. 1.
c Jad. Chazak. ex quo loc. satis prolixum citat Jos. Vois. de leg. div. c. 9. et seqq.
ubi varias Judaeorum de Legis hujus origine et successione sententias videre est.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 77
us, d that this is minn ipy, " the foundation of the law, 11 for whose
sake it was that God entered into covenant with the Israelites :
that without this the whole law would lie in the dark ; yea, be
mere obscurity and darkness itself, as being contrary and repug-
nant to itself, and defective in things necessary to be known : that
it is joy to the heart and health to the bones ; that the words of
it are more lovely and desirable than the words of the law, and
a greater sin to violate the one than the other ; that it is little or
no commendation for a man to read the Bible, but to study the
Mishna is that for which a man shall receive a reward of the
other world ; and that no man can have a peaceable and quiet
conscience, who leaves the study of the Talmud to go to that of
the Bible ; that the Bible is like water, the Mishna like wine, the
Talmud like spiced wine ; that all the words of the Rabbins are
the very words of the living God, from which a man might not
depart, though they should tell him his right hand were his left,
and his left his right ; nay, they blush not nor tremble to assert,
ptn TDK kOpoi porn oat*, that " to study in the Holy Bible is
nothing else but to lose our time." I will mention but one bold
and blasphemous sentence more, that we may see how far these
desperate wretches are given over to a spirit of impiety and in-
fatuation : they tell us, that he that dissents from his Rabbin, or
teacher, nroun j>dkd3 Canaan *in*D pDNom rwn by pinna, " dis-
sents from the divine majesty, but he that believes the words of
the wise men, believes God himself."
XXI. Strange ! that men should so far offer violence to their
reason, so far conquer and subdue their conscience, as to be able
to talk at this wild and prodigious rate : and strange it would
seem, but that we know a generation of men, great patrons of
tradition too, in another church, who mainly endeavour to
debase and suppress the scriptures, and value their unwritten
traditions at little less rate than this. But I let them pass.
This is no novel and upstart humour of the Jews; they were
notoriously guilty of it in our Saviour's days, whom we find
frequently charging them with their superstitious observances
of many little rites and usages derived from the traditions of
the elders, wherein they placed the main of religion, and for
which they had a far more sacred regard than for the plain
4 Vid. Buxtorfc de Abbrev. p. 222. et de Synag. Jud. c. 3. Hotting. Thes. Phil.
1. ii. c. 3.
Digitized by
78 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
and positive commands of God. Such were their frequent wash-
ings of their pots and cups, their brazen vessels and tables,* the
purifying themselves after they came from market, (as if the
touching of others had defiled them,) the washing their hands
before every meal, and " many other things which they had re-
ceived to hold." In all which they were infinitely nice and
scrupulous, making the neglect of them of equal guilt with the
greatest immorality; not sticking to affirm, that he who eats
bread with unwashen hands/ mil TTWX bv »n iV^D, " is as if he
lay with an harlot." This, it is plain, they thought a sufficient
charge against our Lord's disciples, that they were not zealous
observers of these things. " When they saw some of his dis-
ciples eat bread with defiled (that is to say, with unwashen)
hands, they found fault ; and asked him, Why walk not thy
disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread
with unwashen hands F 1 To whom our Saviour smartly an-
swered, that they were the persons of whom the prophet had
spoken, who " honoured God with their lips, but their hearts
were far from him ; that in vain did they worship bim, while
for doctrines they taught the commandments of men, laying
aside and rejecting the commandments of God, that they might
hold the tradition of men." For they were not content to make
them of equal value and authority with the word of God, but
made them a means wholly to evacuate and supersede it.
Whereof our Lord gives a notorious instance in the case of
parents. They could not say but that the law obliged children
to honour and revere their parents, and to administer to their
necessities in all straits and exigencies ; but they had found out a
fine way to evade the force of the command, and that under a pious
and plausible pretence. " Moses said, Honour thy father and
thy mother : and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the
death. But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother,
It is Corlan, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest
be profited by me, he shall be free: and ye suffer him no
more to do aught for his father or mother by which is com-
monly understood, that when their parents required relief and
assistance from their children, they put them off with this ex-
• Mark vii. 2, 3. et seqq.
. f Matth. xv. 1. Talro. Tr. Sota, cap. 1. vid. Buxtorf, Syn. Jud. c. 1 1. p. 236. Mark
vii. 2—5.
THE MOSATOAL DISPENSATION. 79
cuse, that they had consecrated their estate to God, and might
not divert it to any other use. Though this seems a specious
and plausible pretence, yet it is not reasonable to suppose that
either they had, or would pretend that they had, entirely de-
voted whatever they had to God, and must therefore refer to
some other custom. Now among the many kinds of oaths and
vows that were among the Jews, they had one which they called
id*k Yti, "the vow of interdict," 8 whereby a man might restrain
himself as to this or that particular person, and this or that
particular thing; as, he might vow not to accept of such a
courtesy from this friend or that neighbour, or that he would
not part with this or that thing of his own to such a man, to
lend him his horse, or give him any thing towards his main-
tenance, &c. and then the thing became utterly unlawful, and
might not be done upon any consideration whatsoever, lest the
man became guilty of the violation of his vow. The form of
this vow frequently occurs in the Jewish writings, and even in
the very same words wherein our Lord expresses it, \T\p
*\b r-tti"ti, " be it corban, or a gift, (that is, a thing sacred,) whereby
I may be any ways profitable to thee that is, be that thing
unlawful or prohibited to me, wherein I may be helpful apd
assistant to thee. And nothing more common than this way of
vowing in the particular case of parents, whereof there are
abundant instances in the writings of the Jewish masters, who
thus explain the forementioned vow, nuny vxw no to nit unipn
kin "»& to ilbo, " whatever I shall gain hereafter shall be sacred,
as to the maintenance of my father or, as Maimonides ex-
presses it, " that what I provide, my father shall eat nothing of
it," th$it is, says he, " he shall receive no profit by it ;" and then,
as they tell us, l&nb w» tzmp*, "he that had thus vowed,
might not transgress or make void his vow." So that when
indigent parents craved relief and assistance from their children,
and probably wearied them with importunity, it was but vowing
in a passionate resentment, that they should not be better for
what they had, and then they were safe, and might no more
dispose any part of their estate to that use, than they might
touch the corban, that which was most solemnly consecrated to
God. By which means they were taught to be unnatural under
f Vid. Lud. Cappell. diatrib. de Corban. Grot Annot in Matth. xv. 5.- CocceL in
Excerpt Gemar. Sanhed. p. 273. Hotting. Thes. Phil. 1. i. c. 1. sect 5. p. 31.
80 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
a pretence of religion, and to suffer their parents to starve, lest
themselves should violate a senseless and unlawful vow. So that
though they were under the precedent obligations of a natural
duty, a duty as clearly commanded by God as words could ex-
press it, yet a blind tradition, a rash and impious vow, made
for the most part out of passion or covetousness, should cancel
and supersede all these obligations; it being unlawful hence-
forth to give them one penny to relieve them : " Ye suffer him no
more (says our Lord) to do aught for his father or his mother,
making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,
which ye have delivered."
XXII. The last instance that I shall note of the corruption
and degeneracy of this church, is the many sects and divisions
that were in it; a thing which the Jews themselves in their
writings confess would happen in the day§ of the Messiah, whose
kingdom should be overrun with heretical opinions. That church
which heretofore, like Jerusalem, had been "at unity within it-
self," was now miserably broken into sects and factions ; whereof
three most considerable, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes.
The Pharisees derive their name from una, which may admit of
a double signification, and either not unsuitable to them : it may
refer to them as tzwn&, "explainers " or interpreters of the law,
which was a peculiar part of their work, and for which they
were famous and venerable among the Jews ; or more probably
to their separation, (the most proper and natural importance of
the word,) so called, Sia to. atfxopiafievovs etvav avrovs dirb
rcSv a\X©v, as Epiphanius observed of old, h because separated
from all others in their extraordinary pretences of piety, the
very Jews themselves thus describing a Pharisee: 1 he is one
n«ono Hod raw ww, " that separates himself from all unclean-
ness, and from all unclean meats, and from the people of the
earth," (the common rout,) " who accurately observe not the
difference of meats." It is not certain when this sect first thrust
up its head into the world, probably not long after the. times of
the Maccabees ; it is certain they were of considerable standing,
and great account in the time of our Saviour : to be sure, strangely
wide of the mark are those Jewish chronologists who say, k
that the sect of the Pharisees arose in the times of Tiberius
h Haeres. xvi. s. I. 1 Baal Aruch in toc. U^HS).
k R. Ged Schal. Kabb. p. 104. citante Hotting. Thes. Phil. 1. i. c 1. p. 27.
Digitized by
THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION. 81
Caesar and Ptolemy the Egyptian, under whom the Septuagint
translation was accomplished ; as if Ptolemy Philadelphus and
Tiberius Caesar had been contemporaries, between whom there
is the distance of no less than two hundred and sixty years.
But whenever it began, a bold and daring sect it was, not fearing
to affront princes and persons of the greatest quality, crafty
and insinuative, and who by a shew of great zeal and infinite
strictness in religion, beyond the rate of other men, had procured
themselves a mighty reverence from the people ; so strict, that
(as a learned man observes 1 ) Pharisee is used in the Talmudick
writings to denote a pious and holy man; and Benjamin the
J ew, speaking of R. Ascher, says, m he was tm&Jttf tim&n, " a truly
devout man, separate from the affairs of this world." And yet
under all this seeming severity they were but religious villains,
spiteful and malicious, griping and covetous, great oppressors,
merciless dealers, heady and seditious, proud and scornful, in-
deed guilty of most kinds of immorality ; of whose temper and
manners I say the less in this place, having elsewhere given an
account of them. They held that the oral law was of infinitely
greater moment and value than the written word; that the
traditions of their forefathers were above all things to be em-
braced and followed, the strict observance whereof would entitle
a man to eternal life ; n that the souls of men are immortal, and
had their dooms awarded in the subterraneous regions; that
there is a metempsychosis, or transmigration of pious souls out of
one body into another ; that things come to pass by fate, and
an inevitable necessity, and yet that man's will is free, that by
this means men might be rewarded and punished according to
their works. I add no more concerning them, than that some
great men of the church of Rome say, with some kind of boast-
ing, that such as were the Pharisees among the Jews, such are
the religious (they mean the monastical orders of their church)
among Christians. Much good may it do them with the com-
parison, I confess myself so far of their mind, that there is too
great a conformity between them.
XXIII. Next the Pharisees come the Sadducees, as opposite
to them in their temper as their principles ; so called (as Epi-
phanius and some others will have it) from ply, "justice," as
k L'Emper. not. in Benjam. m Itiner. p. 147. Ibid. p. 6.
n Vid. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. L xviil c. 2. et de BelL Jud. L ii. c 12.
G
Digitized by A
82 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
pretending themselves to be very just and righteous men, but
this agrees not with the account given of their lives. They are
generally thought to have been denominated from Sadoc, the
scholar of Antigonus Sochaeus, who flourished about the year of
the world 3720, two hundred and eighty-four years before the
nativity of our Saviour. They pass under a very ill character
even among the writers of their own nation, nijn rmD »#un,
" impious men, and of very loose and debauched manners
which is no more than what might be expected as the natural
consequence of their principles, this being one of their main dog-
mata or opinions, that the soul is not immortal, and that there is
no future state after this life. The occasion of which desperate
principle is said to have been a mistake of the doctrine of their
master, Antigonus, 0 who was wont to press his scholars not to be
like mercenary servants, who serve their masters merely for what
they can get by them ; but to serve God for himself, without
expectation of rewards. This, Sadoc and Baithos, two of his
disciples, misunderstanding, thought their master had peremp-
torily denied any state of future rewards ; and having laid this
dangerous foundation, these unhappy superstructures were built
upon it : that there is no resurrection ; for if there be no reward,
what need that the body should rise again ? that the soul is not
immortal, nor exists in the separate state, for if it did, it must be
either rewarded or punished ; and if not the soul, then by the
same proportion of reason, no spiritual substance, neither angel
nor spirit ; that there is no Divine Providence, but that God is
perfectly placed as beyond the commission, so beyond the in-
spection and regard of what sins or evils are done or happen in
the world ; p as, indeed, what great reason to believe a wise and
righteous Providence, if there be no reward or punishment for
virtue and vice in another life I These pernicious and atheistical
opinions justly exposed them to the reproach and hatred of the
people, who were wont eminently to style them gwd, " the
heretics, infidels, epicureans,"" ilo words being thought bad enough
to bestow upon them. They rejected the traditions so vehe-
mently asserted by the Pharisees, and taught that men were to
keep to the letter of the law, and that nothing was to be imposed
either upon their behalf or practice, but what was expressly
owned and contained in it. Josephus observes, that they were
° Pirk. Aboth. c. i. s. 3. p. m. 1. p Joseph, de Bell Jud. 1. it c 12.
THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION. «3
the fewest of all the sects, q irp&rob Si rofc a^tco/jLacn, but usually
men of the better rank and quality; as what wonder, if rich and
great men, who tumble in the pleasures and advantages of a
prosperous fortune, be willing to take sanctuary at those opinions
that afford the greatest patronage to looseness and debauchery,
and care not to hear of being called to account in another world
for what they have done in this ? For this reason the Sadducees
ever appeared the greatest sticklers to preserve the peace, and
were the most severe and implacable justicers against the authors
or fomenters of tumults and seditions, lest they should disturb
and interrupt their soft and easy course of life, the only happi-
ness their principles allowed them to expect.
XXIV. The Essenes succeed, a sect probably distinct from
either of the former. Passing by the various conjectures con-
cerning the derivation of their name, which, when dressed up
with all advantages, are still but bare conjectures, they began
about the times of the Maccabees, when the violent persecutions
of Antiochus forced the Jews for their own safety to retire to the
woods and mountains. And though in time the storm blew over,
yet many of them were too well pleased with these undisturbed
solitudes to return, and therefore combined themselves into reli-
gious societies, leading a solitary and contemplative course of life,
and that in very great numbers, there being usually above four
thousand of them, as both Philo and Josephus tell us. Pliny
takes notice of them/ and describes them to be a solitary gene-
ration, remarkable above all others in this, that they live without
women, without any embraces, without money, conversing with
nothing but woods and palm-trees ; that their numbers increased
every day as fast as any died, persons flocking to them from all
. quarters to seek repose here, after they had been wearied with
the inquietudes of an improsperous fortune. They paid a due
reverence to the temple, 8 by sending gifts and presents thither,
but yet worshipped God at home, and used their own rites and
ceremonies. Every seventh day they publicly met in their syna-
gogues,* where, the younger seating themselves at the feet of the
elder, one reads some portions out of a book, which another,
eminently skilled in the principles of their sect, expounds to the
i Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. xviii. c. 2. r Hist. Nat 1. v. c. 17.
• Vid. Phil. lib. quod omnis probus liber, p. 876, 877.
1 Joseph. Antiq. Jud. L xviii. c. 2. preecipuc de Bell. Jud. L ii. c. 12.
g2
Digitized by
84 THE MOSAICAL DISPENSATION.
rest, (their dogmata, like the philosophy of the ancients, being
obscurely and enigmatically delivered to them,) instructing them
in the rules of piety and righteousness, and all the duties that
concerned God, others, or themselves. They industriously tilled
and cultivated the ground, and lived upon the fruits of their own
labours ; had all their revenues in common, there being neither
rich nor poor among them : their manners were very harmless
and innocent, exact observers of the rules of justice, somewhat
beyond the practice of other men. As for that branch of them
that lived in Egypt, whose excellent manners and institutions are
so particularly described and commended by Philo, and whom
Eusebius and others will needs have to have been Christians con-
verted by St. Mark, we have taken notice of elsewhere in St.
Mark's Life. We find no mention of them in the history of the
gospel, probably because, living remote from cities and all places
of public concourse, they never concerned themselves in the actions
of Christ and his apostles. What their principles were in matters
of speculation is not much material to inquire, their institutions
mainly referring to practice. Out of a great regard to wisdom and
virtue they neglected all care of the body, renounced all conjugal
embraces, abstained very much from meats and drinks, some of
them not eating or drinking for three, others for five or six days
together, accounting it unbecoming men of such a philosophical
temper and genius to spend any part of the day upon the neces-
sities of the body. Their way they called depaireiav, " worship,"
and their rules ao<f>ia<; 86y/j,ara, " doctrines of wisdom their
contemplations were sublime and speculative, and of things be-
yond the ordinary notions of other sects ; they traded in the
names and mysteries of angels, and in all their carriages bore a
great shew of modesty and humility. And, therefore, these in •
all likelihood were the very persons whom St. Paul primarily de-
signed, (though not excluding others who espoused the same
principles,) when he charges the Colossians" to let no man beguile
them of their reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of
angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly
puffed up by his fleshly mind, that being dead to the rudiments
of the world, they should no longer, Soyfiarl&dai, be subject to
these dogmata or ordinances, such as touch not, taste not, handle
not, (the main principles of the Essenian institution,) being the
u CoLii 18,20,21,22,23.
THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION. 85
commandments and doctrines of men ; which things have indeed
a shew of wisdom in will- worship and humility, and neglecting
of the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
Besides these three greater, there were several other lesser sects
in the Jewish church, such as the Herodians, supposed to have
been either part of Herod's guard, or a combination of men, who,
to ingratiate themselves with the prince, maintained Herod to be
the Messiah, and at their own charge celebrated his coronation
days, as also the sabbath, when they used to set lighted candles
crowned with violets in their windows ; an opinion which St.
Hierom justly laughs at as trifling and ridiculous/ Probably they
were a party that had espoused Herod's interest, and endeavoured
to support his new-gotten sovereignty. For Herod being a
stranger, and having by the Roman power usurped the kingdom,
was generally hateful and burdensome to the people, and there-
fore, besides the assistance of a foreign power, needed some to
stand by him at home. They were peculiarly active in pressing
people to pay tribute to Caesar, Herod being obliged, (as St.
Hierom observes,*) by the charter of his sovereignty, to look after
the tribute due to Caesar, and they could not do him a more ac-
ceptable service, by this means endearing him to his great pa-
trons at Rome. In matters of opinion, they seem to have sided
with the Sadducees: what St. Matthew calls " the leaven of the
Sadducees," 2 St. Mark styles the " leaven of Herod."* Probable
it is, that they had drawn Herod to be of their principles, that,
as they asserted his right to the kingdom, he might favour and
maintain their impious opinions : and it is likely enough, that a
man of so debauched manners might be easily tempted to take
shelter under principles that so directly served the purposes of a
•bad life. Another sect in that church were the Samaritans, the
posterity of those who succeeded in the room of the ten capti-
vated tribes, a mixture of Jews and Gentiles; they held, that
nothing but the Pentateuch was the word of God, that mount
Gerizim was the true place of public and solemn worship, that
they were the descendants of J oseph, and heirs of the Aaronical
priesthood, and that no dealing or correspondence was to be
maintained with strangers, nor any unclean thing to be touched.
The Karraeans were a branch of the Sadducees, but rejected after-
* Comm. in Matt. xxii. * Loc. citat.
* Mattxyi. 6. a Mark, viii. 15.
Digitized by
86 THE MOSAIOAL DISPENSATION.
wards their abominable and unsound opinions ; they are the true
Textualists, adhering only to the writings of Moses and the pro-
phets, and expounding the scripture by itself, peremptorily dis-
owning the absurd glosses of the Talmud, and the idle traditions
of the Rabbins ; insomuch, that they admit not so much as the
Hebrew points into their bibles, accounting them part of the oral
and traditionary law ; for which reason they are greatly hated
by the rest of the Jews. They are in great numbers about Con-
stantinople, and in other places, at this day. There was also the
sect of the Zealots, frequently mentioned by Josephus, a gene-
ration of men insolent and ungovernable, fierce and savage, who,
under a pretence of extraordinary zeal for God and the honour
of his law, committed the most enormous outrages against God
and man ; but of them we have given an account in the Life of
St. Simon the Zealot. And yet, as if all this had not been
enough to render their church miserable within itself, their sins
and intestine divisions had brought in the Roman power upon
them, who set magistrates and taskmasters over them, depressed
their great Sanhedrim, put in and out senators at pleasure, made
the temple pay tribute, and placed a garrison at hand to com-
mand it, abrogated a great part of their laws, and stripped them
so naked both of civil and ecclesiastical order and authority, that
they had not power left so much as to put a man to death. All
evident demonstrations that Shiloh was come, and the "sceptre
departed that " the sacrifice and oblation was to cease, the
Messiah being cut off, who came to finish transgression, to make
an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring
in everlasting righteousness."
The gradual revelations concerning the Messiah. John the Baptist Christ's forerunner.
His extraordinary birth. His austere education, and way of life. His preaching,
what His initiating proselytes by baptism. Baptism in use in the Jewish church.
Its original, whence. His resolution and impartiality. His martyrdom. The cha-
racter given him by Josephus and the Jews. The Evangelical dispensation, wherein
it exceeds that of Moses. Its perspicuity and perfection. Its agreeableness to human
nature. The evangelical promises better than those of the law, and in what respects.
SECTION III.
OF THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 87
The aids of the Spirit plentifully afforded under the gospel. The admirable confirma-
tion of this economy. The great extent and latitude of it Judaism not capable of
being communicated to all mankind. The comprehensiveness of the gospel. The
duration of the evangelical covenant The Mosaical statutes, in what sense said to be
" for ever." The typical and transient nature of that state. The great happiness of
Christians under the economy of the gospel
God having from the very infancy of the world promised the
Messiah, as the great Redeemer of mankind, was accordingly
pleased in all ages to make gradual discoveries and manifesta-
tions of him, the revelations concerning him in every dispensation
of the church still shining with a bigger and more particular
light, the nearer this "sun of righteousness " was to his rising.
The first gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the
fall of Adam, God, out of infinite tenderness and commiseration,
promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindicate
and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their ene-
mies, and that he should do this by taking the human nature
upon him, and being born of " the seed of the woman."" No further
account is given of him till the times of Abraham, to whom it
was revealed, that he should proceed out of his loins, and arise
out of the Jewish nation, though both Jew and Gentile should
be made happy by him. To his grandchild Jacob, God made
known out of what tribe of that nation he should rise, the " tribe
of J udah and what would be the time of his appearing, viz.
the "departure of the sceptre from Judah," the abrogation of
the civil and legislative power of that tribe and people, (accom-
plished in Herod the Idumaean, set over them by the Roman
power.) And this is all we find concerning him under that
economy. Under the legal dispensation, we find Moses fore-
telling one main errand of his coming, which was to be the great
Prophet of the church, 5 to whom all were to hearken, as an ex-
traordinary person sent from God to acquaint the world with
the counsels and the laws of heaven. The next news we hear
from him is from David, c who was told that he should spring
out of his house and family, and who frequently speaks of his
sufferings, and the particular manner of his death, by " piercing
his hands and his feet of his powerful resurrection, that " God
would not leave his soul in hell, nor suffer his holy one to see cor-
ruption ; " of his triumphant ascension into heaven, and glorious
b Deut xviiii. 15—19. c Psalm, xxii. 15. xvi. 10. lxviii. 18. ex. 1.
Digitized by
88 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
" session at God's right hand." From the prophet Isaiah d we
have an account of the extraordinary and miraculous manner
of his birth, that he should "be born of a virgin," and his name
be Immanuel ; of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces
for the execution of his office, of the entertainment he was to
meet with in the world, and of the nature and design of those
sufferings which he was to undergo. The place of his birth was
foretold by Micah, 6 which was to be Bethlehem-Ephratah, the
least of the cities of Judah, but honoured above all the rest with
the nativity of a prince, who was to be " ruler in Israel, whose
goings forth had been from everlasting." Lastly, the prophet
Daniel f fixes the particular period of his coming, expressly af-
firming, that the Messiah should appear in the world, and be
cut off as a victim and expiation for the sins of the people at the
expiration of seventy prophetical weeks, or four hundred and
ninety years, which accordingly punctually came to pass.
II. For the date of the prophetic scriptures concerning the
time of the Messiah's coming being now run out, " in the fulness
of time God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law :" this being the truth
of which " God spake by the mouth of all his holy prophets,
which have been since the world began." But because it was
not fit that so great a person should come into the world with-
out an eminent harbinger to introduce and usher in his arrival,
God had promised that he would "send his messenger, who
should prepare his way before him, even Elijah the prophet," g
whom he would send " before the coming of that great day of the
Lord, who should turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,"
&c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist,
who " came in the power and spirit of Elias." He t was the
morning-star to the Sun of righteousness, fiiya? ical ovk ayva>-
0-7-09 o 7rp6Spofio^ as St. Cyril says of him, h " the great and
eminent forerunner," a person remarkable upon several accounts.
First, for the extraordinary circumstances of his nativity, his
birth foretold by an angel sent on purpose to deliver this joyful
message, a sign God intended him for great undertakings, this
being never done but where God designed the person for some
uncommon services; his parents aged, and though "both righteous
d Isai. vii. 14. lxi. 1, 2. liii. 1, 2, 3, etc e Mic. v. 2. f Dan. ix. 24. 26.
* Mai. iii. 1. iv. 5, 6. h Comm. in Joan. i. 15.
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THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 89
before God," yet hitherto childless : heaven does not dispense all
its bounty to the same person ; children, though great and desir-
able blessings, are yet often denied to those for whom God has
otherwise very dear regards. " Elisabeth was barren, and they
were both well stricken in years." But " is any thing too hard
for the Lord?" said God to Abraham in the same case: God
has the key of the womb in his own keeping, it is one of the
divine prerogatives, that " he makes the barren woman to keep
house, and to be a joyful mother of children. 1 ' 1 A son is pro-
mised, and mighty things said of him : a promise which old
Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest, and therefore had
the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness im-
posed upon him till it was made good, the same miracle at once
confirming his faith and punishing his infidelity. Accordingly,
his mother conceived with child, and as if he would do part of
his errand before he was born, he " leaped in her womb " at her
salutation of the Virgin Mary, then newly conceived with child
of our blessed Saviour ; a piece of homage paid by one, to one,
yet unborn.
III. These presages were not vain and fallible, but produced a
person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and
austerity of his life. For having escaped Herod's butcherly and
merciless executioners, (the Divine Providence being a shelter
and a cover to him,) and been educated among the rudenesses
and solitudes of the wilderness, his manners and way of life
were very agreeable to his education. His garments borrowed
from no other wardrobe than the backs of his neighbour-crea-
tures, the skins of beasts, camel's hair, and a leathern girdle ;
and herein he literally made good the character of Elias,* who
is described as " an hairy man, girt with a leathern girdle about
his loins.'" His diet suitable to his garb, " his meat was locusts
and wild honey locusts, accounted by all nations among the
meanest and vilest sorts of food ; wild honey, such as the natural
artifice and labour of the bees had stored up in caverns and
hollow trees, without any elaborate curiosity to prepare and
dress it up. Indeed, his abstinence was so great, and his food
so unlike other men's, that the evangelist says of him, that " he
came neither eating nor drinking," as if he had eaten nothing,
or at least what was worth nothing. But " meat commends us
* 2 Kings I 8.
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90 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
not to God ; 11 it is the devout mind and the honest life that
makes us valuable in the eye of heaven. The place of his abode
was not in king's houses, in stately and delicate palaces, but
where he was born and bred, " the wilderness of Judea, he was
in the deserts until the time of his shewing unto Israel." k Divine
grace is not confined to particular places, it is not the holy city,
or the temple at mount Sion makes us nearer unto heaven ; God
can, when he please, consecrate a desert into a church, make
us gather grapes among thorns, and religion become fruitful in a
barren wilderness.
IV. Prepared by so singular an education, and furnished with
an immediate commission from God, he entered upon the actual
administration of his office : " In those days came John the
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying,
Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 11 He was
XpiaTov 7rpd>T7)q <f>av€pu><T€G><; icrjpv^ as Justin Martyr calls
him, 1 " the herald to proclaim the first approach of the holy
Jesus; 11 his whole ministry tending to prepare the way to his en-
tertainment, accomplishing herein what was of old foretold con-
cerning him : " For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet
Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 11 He
told the Jews, that the Messiah whom they had so long expected
was now at hand, and his kingdom ready to appear ; that the
Son of God was come down from heaven, a person as far beyond
him in dignity as in time and existence, to whom he was not
worthy to minister in the meanest offices; that he came to
introduce a new and better state of things ; to enlighten the
world with the clearest revelations of the divine will, and to
acquaint them with counsels brought from the bosom of the
Father ; to put a period to all the types and umbrages of the
Mosaic dispensation, and bring in the truth and substance of
all those shadows, and to open a fountain of grace and fulness
to mankind ; to remove that state of guilt into which human
nature was so deeply sunk, and, as the Lamb of God, by the
expiatory sacrifice of himself, to take away the sin of the world,
not like the continual burnt-offering, the lamb offered morning
and evening, only for the sins of the house of Israel, but for
Jew and Gentile, Barbarian and Scythian, bond and free. He
k Luke i 80.
1 Dial, cum Tryph. s. 49.
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 91
told them, that God had a long time borne with the sins of men,
and would now bring things to a quicker issue, and that there-
fore they should do well to break off their sins by repentance,
and by a serious amendment and reformation of life dispose
themselves for the glad tidings of the gospel ; that they should
no longer bear up themselves upon their external privileges, the
fatherhood of Abraham, and their being God's select and pe-
culiar people ; that God would raise up to himself another
generation, a posterity of Abraham from among the Gentiles,
who should walk in his steps, in the way of his unshaken faith
and sincere obedience ; and that if all this did not move them
to bring " forth fruits meet for repentance,*" the " axe was laid
to the root of the tree," to extirpate their church, and to hew
them down as fuel for the unquenchable fire. His free and re-
solute preaching, together with the great severity of his life,
procured him a vast auditory, and numerous proselytes, for
" there went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and the
region round about Jordan persons of all ranks and orders, of
all sects and opinions, Pharisees and Sadducees, soldiers and
publicans, whose vices he impartially censured and condemned,
and pressed upon them the duties of their particular places and
relations. Those whom he gained over to be proselytes to his
doctrine he entered into this new institution of life by baptism,
(and hence he derived his title of the Baptist,) a solemn and
usual way of initiating proselytes, no less than circumcision,
and of great antiquity in the Jewish church. " In all times,
(says Maimonides,"') if any Gentile would enter into covenant,
remain under the wings of the Shechinah, or Divine Majesty,
and take upon him the yoke of the law, he is bound to have
pip nnnm n^ntoi n^D, ' circumcision, baptism, and a peace-
offering and if a woman, baptism and an oblation, because it
is said, As ye are, so shall the stranger be ; as ye yourselves
entered into covenant by circumcision, baptism, and a peace-
offering, so ought the proselyte also, in all ages, to enter in."
Though this last, he confesses, is to be omitted during their pre-
sent state of desolation, and to be made when their temple shall
be rebuilt. This rite they generally make contemporary with
the giving of the law. So Maimonides : n " By three things
m Maim. Issur. Biah. c. 13. vid. Jac. Alting. Dissert. Philol. vii. de Prosolyt sect 25.
num. 15, 16. n Ibid. s. 24.
92 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
(says he) the Israelites entered into covenant," (he means the
national covenant at mount Sinai,) " by circumcision, baptism,
and an oblation ; baptism being used some little time before the
law ;" which he proves from that place, 0 " Sanctify the people
to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes." This
the Rabbins unanimously expound concerning baptism, and ex-
pressly affirm, that " wherever we read of the washing of clothes,
there an obligation to baptism is intended." Thus they entered
into the first covenant; upon the frequent violations whereof,
God having promised to make a new and solemn covenant with
them in the times of the Messiah, they expected a second bap-
tism, as that which should be the rite of their initiation kito it.
And this, probably, is the reason why the apostle, writing to the
Hebrews, 0 speaks of the " doctrine of baptisms" (in the plural
number) as one of the primary and elementary principles of the
faith, wherein the catechumens were to be instructed ; meaning,
that besides the baptism whereby they had been initiated into
the Mosaic covenant, there was another by which they were to
enter into this new economy that was come upon the world.
Hence the Sanhedrim, (to whom the cognizance of such cases
did peculiarly appertain,) when told of John's baptism, never
expressed any wonder at it, as a new upstart ceremony, it being
a thing daily practised in their church ; nor found fault with the
thing itself, which they supposed would be a federal rite under
the dispensation of the Messiah ; but only quarrelled with him
for taking upon him to administer it, when yet he denied him-
self to be one of the prime ministers of this new state. " They
said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that
Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet ?" q Either of which had
he owned himself, they had not questioned his right to enter
proselytes by this way of baptism. It is called the " baptism
of repentance," this being the main qualification that he required
of those who took it upon them, as the fittest means to dispose
them to receive the doctrine and discipline of the Messiah ; and
to entitle them to that pardon of sin which the gospel brought
along with it ; whence he is said to " baptize in the wilderness,"
and to " preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins." r And the success was answerable : infinite multitudes
° Exod. xix. 10. Vid. R. Bechai. foL 87. coL 2. ibid. p Heb. vi. 2.
q John i. 25. r Mark i. 4.
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THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 93
flocking to it, and " were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins." Nor is it the least part of his happiness, that he
had the honour to baptize his Saviour, which, though modestly
declined, our Lord put upon him, and was accompanied with the
most signal and miraculous attestations which heaven could
bestow upon it.
V. After his preparatory preaching in the wilderness, he was
called to court by Herod ; at least he was his frequent auditor,
was much delighted with his plain and impartial sermons, and
had a mighty reverence for him; the gravity of his person, the
strictness of his manners, the freedom of his preaching, command-
ing an awe and veneration from his conscience, and making him
willing in many things to reform : but the bluntness of the holy
man came nearer, and touched the king in the tenderest part,
smartly reproving his adultery and incestuous embraces ; for that
prince kept Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. And now all
corrupt interests were awakened to conspire his ruin. Ex-
travagant lusts love not to be controlled and checked : Herodias
resents the affront, cannot brook disturbance in the pleasures
of her bed, or the open challenging of her honour, and therefore,
by all the arts of feminine subtlety, meditates revenge. The
issue was, the Baptist is cast into prison, as the prceludium to a
sadder fate. For among other pleasures and scenes of mirth
performed upon the king's birth-day, Herod being infinitely
pleased with the dancing of a young lady, daughter of this
Herodias, promised to give her her request, and solemnly rati-
fied his promise with an oath. She, prompted by her mother,
asks the head of John the Baptist, which the king, partly out of
a pretended reverence to his oath, partly out of a desire not to
be interrupted in his unlawful pleasures, presently granted, and
it was as quickly accomplished. Thus died the holy man, a man
strict in his conversation beyond the ordinary measures of an
anchoret, bold and resolute, faithful and impartial in his office,
endued with the " power and spirit of Elias, a burning and a
shining light under whose light the Jews rejoiced to sit, ex-
ceedingly taken with his temper and principles. He was the
happy messenger of the evangelical tidings, and in that respect
" more than a prophet, a greater not arising among them that
were born of women. " In short, he was a man loved of his
friends, revered and honoured by his enemies. Josephus gives
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94 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
this character of him :* that "he was a good man, and pressed
the Jews to the study of virtue, to the practice of piety towards
God, and justice and righteousness towards men, and to join
themselves to his baptism ; which he told them would then be-
come effectual, and acceptable to God, when they did not only
cleanse the body, but purify the mind by goodness and virtue."
And though he gives somewhat a different account of Herod's
condemning him to die, from what is assigned in the sacred
history; yet he confesses, that the Jews universally looked
upon the putting him to death as the cause of the miscarriage
of Herod's army, and an evident effect of the divine vengeance
and displeasure. The Jews in their writings * make honourable
mention of his being put to death by Herod, because reproving'
him for the company of his brother Philip^s wife ; styling him
rabbi Johanan the high-priest, and reckoning him " one, SfcOitf*
>DDno, of the wise men of Israel." Where he is called high-
priest, probably with respect to his being the son of Zachariah,
head or chief of one of the twenty-four families or courses of the
priests, who are many times called chief or high-priests in scrip-
ture.
VI. The evangelical state being thus proclaimed and ushered
in by the preaching and ministry of the Baptist, our Lord him-
self appeared next more fully to publish and confirm it ; con-
cerning whose birth, life, death, and resurrection, the doctrine
he delivered, the persons he deputed to preach and convey it to
the world, and its success by the ministry of the apostles, large
and particular accounts are given in the following work. That
which may be proper and material to observe in this place is,
what the scripture so frequently takes notice of, the excellency
of this above the preceding dispensations ; especially that brought
in by Moses, so much magnified in the Old Testament, and so
passionately admired and adhered to by the Jews at this day.
" Jesus is the mediator," /c/mVrovo? BtaO^/crj^ as the apostle
calls it, u " of a better covenant." And better it is in several
regards ; besides the infinite difference between the persons who
were employed to introduce and settle them, Moses and our
• Antiq. Jud. 1. xviii. c 7.
« Zemach David, par. i. ad Ann. 770. Millen. 4. et Chron. Templi sccnnd. fol. 54.
coL 4.
u Heb. viii. 6.
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THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 95
Lord. The preeminence eminently appears in many instances,
whereof we shall remark the most considerable. And first, the
Mosaic dispensation was almost wholly made up of types and
shadows, the Evangelical has brought in the truth and substance:
" The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ." x Their ordinances were but "shadows of good
things to come, 11 sensible representations of what was to follow
after, " thei body is Christ, 11 the perfection and accomplishment
of their whole ritual ministration. Their ceremonies were
"figures of those things that are true: 11 the land of Canaan
typified heaven, Moses and Joshua were types of the blessed
Jesus, and the Israelites after the flesh of the true Israel which
is after the Spirit, and all their expiatory sacrifices did but
represent that great sacrifice whereby Christ offered up himself,
and by his own blood purged away the sins of mankind ; indeed
the most minute and inconsiderable circumstances of the legal
economy were intended as little lights, that might gradually
usher in the state of the gospel. A curious artist that designs a
famous and excellent piece, is not wont to complete and finish it
all at once, but first with his pencil draws some rude lines and
rough draughts before he puts his last hand to it. By such a
method the wise God seems to have delivered the first draughts
and images of those things by Moses to the church, the sub-
stance and perfection whereof he designed should be brought in
by Christ. And how admirably did God herein condescend to
the temper and humour of that people; for being of a more
rough and childish disposition, apt to be taken with gaudy and
and sensible objects, by the external and pompous institutions
of the ceremonial dispensation, he prepared them for better
things, as children are brought on by things accommodate to
their weak capacities. The church was then an heir under age,
and was to be trained up in such a way, as agreed best with its
infant-temper, till it came to be of a more ripe manly age, able
to digest evangelical mysteries; and then the cover and the
veil was taken off, and things made to appear in their own form
and shape.
VII. Hence in the next place appears our happiness above
them, that we are redeemed from those many severe and bur-
densome impositions wherewith they were clogged, and are now
* John L 17.
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96 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
obliged only to a more easy and reasonable service. That the
law was a very grievous and servile dispensation, is evident to
any that considers, how much it consisted of carnal ordinances,
costly duties, chargeable sacrifices, and innumerable little rites
and ceremonies. Under that state they were bound to undergo
(yea, even new-born infants) the bloody and painful ceremony of
circumcision, to abstain from many sorts of food, useful and plea-
sant to man's life, to keep multitudes of solemn and stated times,
new moons, and ceremonial sabbaths, to take long and tedious
journeys to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices at the temple, to
observe daily washings and purifications, to use infinite care and
caution in every place ; for if by chance they did but touch an
unclean thing, besides their present confinement, it put them to
the expenses of a sacrifice, with hundreds more troublesome and
costly observances required of them. A cruel bondage, " heavy
burdens, and grievous to be borne under the weight whereof
good men did then groan, and earnestly breathe after " the time
of reformation the very apostles complained that it was " a
yoke upon their necks, which neither their fathers nor they were
able to bear. 1,y But this yoke is taken off from our shoulders,
and the way open into the liberties of the children of God.
The law bore a heavy hand over them, as children in their mi-
nority : we are got from under the rod and lash of its tutorage
and paedagogy, and are no more subject to the severity of its com-
mands, to the exact punctilios and numerousness of its imposi-
tions. Our Lord has removed that low and troublesome religion,
and has brought in a more manly and rational way of worship,
more suitable to the perfections of God, and more accommodate
to the reason and understandings of men: a religion incom-
parably the wisest and the best that ever took place in the
world. God did not settle the religion of the Jews, and their
way of worship, because good and excellent in itself, but for its
suitableness to the temper of that people. Happy we, whom
the gospel has freed from those intolerable observances to which
they were obliged, and has taught us to serve God in a better
way, more easy and acceptable, more human and natural, and
in which we are helped forwards by greater aids of divine as-
sistance than were afforded under that dispensation. All
which conspire to render our way smooth and plain : " Take
y Acts xv. 10.
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THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 97
my yoke upon yon, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light."
VIII. Thirdly, the dispensation of the gospel is founded upon
more noble and excellent promises: "a better covenant, established
upon better promises."* And better promises they are, both for
the nature and clearness of their revelation. They are of a more
sublime and excellent nature, as being promises of spiritual and
eternal things, such as immediately concern N the perfection and
happiness of mankind, grace, peace, pardon, and eternal life.
The law strictly considered, as a particular covenant with the
Jews at mount Sinai, had no other promises but of temporal
blessings, plenty and prosperity, and the happiness of this life.
This was all that appeared above-ground, and that was expressly
held forth in that transaction, whatever might otherwise, by due
inferences and proportions of reason, be deduced from it. Now
this was a great defect in that dispensation, it being by this
means, considering the nature and disposition of that people, and
the use they would make of it, apt to entangle and debase the
minds of men, and to arrest their thoughts and desires in the
pursuit of more sublime and better things. I do not say but
that under the Old Testament there were promises of spiritual
things, and of eternal happiness, as appears from David's Psalms,
and some passages in the books of the prophets : but then these,
though they were wider the law, yet they were not of the law,
that is, did not properly belong to it as a legal covenant ; God
in every age of the Jewish church raising up some extraordinary
persons, who preached notions to the people above the common
standard of that dispensation, and who spoke things more
plainly, by how much nearer they approached the times of the
Messiah. But under the Christian economy the promises ar$
evidently more pure and spiritual ; not a temporal Canaan, ex-
ternal prosperity, or pardon of ceremonial uncleanness, but re-
mission of sins, reconciliation with God, and everlasting life, are
proposed and offered to us. Not but that in some measure tem-
poral blessings are promised to us as well as them, only with
this difference, to them earthly blessings were pledges of spiritual,
to us spiritual blessings are insurances of temporal, so far as the
divine wisdom sees fit for us. Nor are they better in them-
selves,, than they are clearly discovered and revealed to us.
« Heb. viii. 6.
H
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98 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
Whatever spiritual blessings were proposed under the former
state were obscure and dark, and very few of the people under-r
stood them: but to us "the veil is taken off, and we behold
the glory of the Lord with open face," especially the things that
relate to another world ; for " this is the promise that he hath
promised us, even eternal life."* Hence our Lord is said to
"have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel :" b
which he may be justly said to have done, inasmuch as he has
given the greatest certainty, and the clearest account of that
state. He hath given us the greatest assurance and certainty of
the thing, that there is such a state. The happiness of the other
world was a notion not so firmly agreed upon either amongst
the Jews or Gentiles. Among the Jews it was peremptorily
denied by the Sadducees, a considerable sect in that church,
which we can hardly suppose they would have done, had it
been clearly propounded in the law of Moses. And among the
heathens, the most sober and considering persons did at some
times at least doubt of it : witness that confession Socrates him-
self, the wisest and best man that ever was in the heathen
world, who, when he came to plead his cause before his judges,
and had bravely discoursed of the happy state of good men in
the other life, plainly confessed, 6 that he could be content iroX-
XiKi? reOvdvai, " to die a thousand times over," were he but as-
sured that those things were true ; and, being condemned, con-
cludes his apology with this farewell : " And now, gentlemen, I
am going off the stage, it is your lot to live, and mine to die,
but whether of us two shall fare better, is aSrjXov iravrl irXrjv rj
t$ 8e$, "unknown to any but to God alone." d But our blessed
Saviour has put the case past all perad venture, having plainly
published this doctrine to the world, and sealed the truth of it,
and that by raising others from the dead, and especially by his
own resurrection and ascension, which were the highest pledge
and assurance of a future immortality. But besides the security,
he hath given the clearest account of the nature of it. It is
very probable that the Jews generally had of old, as it is certain
they have at this day, the most gross and carnal apprehensions
concerning the state of another life. But to us the gospel has
perspicuously revealed the invisible things of the other world :
» 1 John ii. 25. * 2 Tub. i. 10.
« Apolog. Socrat ap. Platon. sect. 22. * Jb. sect 23. ad fin. ApoL
I
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
99
told us what that heaven is, which is promised to good men, a
state of spiritual joys, of chaste and rational delights, a eon-*
formity of ours to the divine nature, a being made like to God,
and an endless and uninterrupted communion with him.
IX. But because in our lapsed and degenerate state we are
very unable without some foreign assistance to attain the pro-
mised rewards, hence arises in the next place another great
privilege of the evangelical economy, that it is blessed with
larger and more abundant communications of the Divine Spirit
than was afforded under the Jewish state. Under the one it
was given by drops, under the other it was poured forth. The
law laid heavy and hard commands, but gave little strength to
do them ; it did not assist human nature with those powerful
aids that are necessary for us in our present state ; it could " do
nothing, in that it was weak through the flesh; 116 and " by reason
of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, it could make no-
thing perfect :" f it was this made it an "heavy yoke," when the
commands of it were uncouth and troublesome, and the as-
sistances so small and inconsiderable. Whereas now the gospel
does not only prescribe such laws as are happily accommodate
to the true temper of human nature, and adapted to the rear
son of mankind, such as every wise and prudent man must
have pitched upon, but it affords the influences of the Spirit
of God, by whose assistance our vitiated faculties are re-
paired, and we enabled under so much weakness, and in the
midst of so many temptations, to hold on in the paths of piety
and virtue. Hence it is that the plentiful effusions of the Spirit
were reserved as the great blessing of the evangelical state,
that God would then " pour water upon him that is thirsty, and
floods upon the dry ground ;" g that he "would pour out his
Spirit upon their seed, and his blessing upon their offspring,"
whereby they should " spring up as among the grass, as willows
by the water-courses that he would " give them a new heart,
and put his Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in his
statutes, and keep his judgments to do them : r>h And this is the
meaning of those branches of the covenant so oft repeated, " I
will put my law into their minds, and write it in their hearts
that is, by the help of my grace and spirit I will enable them to
• Rom. viii. 3.
* Isai. xliv. 3, 4.
' Hefc vii 18.
h Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27*.
H 2 *
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100 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
live according to my laws, as readily and willingly as if they
were written in their hearts. For this reason the law is com-
pared to a " dead letter," the gospel to the " Spirit that giveth
life," thence styled the "ministration of the Spirit,"* and as
such said to " exceed in glory," and that to such a degree, that
what glory the legal dispensation had in this case is eclipsed into
nothing. "For even that which was made glorious, had no
glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth, for if
that which was done away was glorious, much more that which
remaineth is glorious " k Hence the Spirit is said to be Christ's
peculiar mission : " I will pray the Father, and he will send you
another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth ;"* which was done
immediately after his ascension, when he u ascended up on high,
and gave gifts to men," m even u the Holy Ghost, which he shed
on them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour:" 11 for
"the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not
yet glorified. 110 Not but that he was given before, even under
the old economy, but not in those large and diffusive measures
wherein it was afterwards communicated to the world.
X. Fifthly, the dispensation of the gospel had a better
establishment and confirmation than that of the law ; for though
the law was introduced with great scenes of pomp and majesty,
yet was the gospel ushered in by more kindly and rational
methods, ratified by more and greater miracles, whereby our
Lord unquestionably evinced his divine commission, and shewed
that he came from God; doing more miracles in three years
ihsLU were done through all the periods of the Jewish church,
and many of them such as were peculiar to him alone. He
often raised the dead, which Moses never did ; commanded the
winds and waves of the sea ; expelled devils out of lunatics and
possessed persons, who fled as soon as ever he commanded them
to be gone; cured many inveterate and chronical distempers
with the speaking of a word, and some without a word spoken,
virtue silently going out from him. He searched men's hearts,
and revealed the most secret transactions of their minds ; had
this miraculous power always residing in him, and could exert
it when and upon what occasions he pleased, and impart it to
« 1 Cor.iii.6,7. k 1 Cor.iii.10,11.
1 John ziy. 16, 17. B Ephes. iv. 8.
* Tit Hi 5, 6. o j onn 39#
Digitized by
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 101
others, communicating it to his apostles and followers, and to
the primitive Christians of the three first ages of the church ;
he never exerted it in methods of dread and terror, but in doing
such miracles as were highly useful and beneficial to the world :
and as if all this had not been enough, he laid down his own life
after all to give testimony to it. Covenants were ever wont to be
ratified with blood, and the death of sacrifices : but when our
Lord came to introduce the covenant of the gospel, he did not
consecrate it with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own
most precious blood, as of a lamb without spot and blemish. And
could he give a greater testimony to the truth of his doctrine, and
those great things he had promised to the world, than to seal it
with his blood ! Had not these things been so, it were infinitely
unreasonable to suppose that a person of so much wisdom and
goodness as our Saviour was, should have made the world
believe so ; and much less would he have chosen to die for it,
and that the most acute and ignominious death. But he died
and rose again for us, and appeared after his resurrection. His
enemies had taken him away by a most bitter and cruel death ;
had guarded and secured his sepulchre with all the care, power,
and diligence which they could invent ; and yet he rose again
the third day in triumph, visibly conversed with his disciples for
forty days together, and then went to heaven. By which he
gave the most solemn and undeniable assurance to the world,
that he was the Son of God, (for " he was declared to be the Son
of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead," p ) and
the Saviour of mankind, and that those doctrines which he had
taught were most true, and did really contain the terms of that
solemn transaction which God by him had offered to men, in
order to their eternal happiness in another world.
XL The last instance I shall note of the excellency of this
above the Mosaical dispensation, is the univeral extent and
latitude of it, and that both in respect of place and time. First,
it is more universally extensive as to place : not confined, as the
former was, to a small part of mankind, but common unto all.
Heretofore " in Judah only was God known, and his name was
great in Israel ;'" q " he shewed his word unto Jacob, his sta-
tutes and his judgments unto Israel ; but he did not deal so
with any other nation, neither had the heathen knowledge of his
p Rom. i. 4. i Psalm lxxri. 1.
Digitized by
102 THE EVANGELICAE DISPENSATION.
laws." r In those times u salvation was only of the Jews ;" a few
acres of land, like Gideon's fleece, were watered with the dew
4>f heaven, while all the rest of the world, for many ages, lay
dry and barren round about it, God " suffering all nations in
times past to walk in their own ways," 8 the ways of their own
superstition and idolatry, " being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no
hope, and without God in the world that is, they were with-
out those promises, discoveries, and declarations which God
made to Abraham and his seed, and are therefore peculiarly
described under this character, " the Gentiles which knew not
God."" Indeed, the religion of the Jews was in itself incapable
to be extended over the world, many considerable parts of
it, as sacrifices, first-fruits, oblations, &c. (called by the Jews
themselves paa rrnbn nwo, "statutes belonging to that land,")
being to be performed at Jerusalem and the temple, which could
not be done by those nations that lay a considerable distance
from the land of promise. They had, it is true, now and then,
some few proselytes of the Gentiles, who came over and em-
bodied themselves into their way of worship ; but then they
either resided among the Jews, or by reason of their vicinity to
Judea were capable to make their personal appearance, and to
comply with the public institutions of the divine law. Other
proselytes they had, called proselytes of the gate, who lived
dispersed in all countries, whom the Jews call mm** *tdh, 66 the
pious of the nations," men of devout minds and religious lives;
but these were obliged to no more than the observation of the
" seven precepts of the sons of Noah;" that is, in effect, to the pre-
cepts of the natural law. But now the gospel has a much wider
sphere to move in, as vast and large as the whole world itself;
it is communicable to all countries, and may be exercised in any
part or corner of the earth. Our Lord gave commission to his
apostles to " go into all nations, and to preach the gospel to
every creature ;" w and so they did, "their sound went into all the
earth, and their words unto the ends of the world :" x by which
means, " the grace of God that brings salvation appeared unto
all men," y and " the gospel was preached unto every creature
under heaven." 2 So that now " there is neither Jew nor Greek,
r Psalm cxlvii. 19, 20. • Acts xiv. 16. 1 Ephes. ii. 12. "1 Thess. iv. 5.
w Mark xvi.. 15. * Rom. x. 18. * Tit ii. 11. 1 Colos. i. 2&
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 103
neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, bat we are all
one in Christ Jesus ;" a and " in every nation he that feareth
God, and worketh righteousnesses accepted with him. T>b The
prophet had long since foretold it of the times of Christ, that
"the house of God, (that is, his church,) should be called an
house of prayer for all people ;" c the doors should be open, and
none excluded that would enter in. And the divine providence
was singularly remarkable in this affair, that after our Lord's
ascension, when the apostles were going upon their commission,
and were first solemnly to proclaim it at Jerusalem, there were
dwelling there, at that time, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, &c.
persons out of every nation under heaven, that they might be
as the first-fruits of those several countries, which were to be
gathered in by the preaching of the gospel ; which was accord-
ingly done with great success, the Christian religion in a few
years spreading its triumphant banners over the greatest part of
the then known world.
XII. And as the true religion was in those days pent up
within one particular country, so the more public and ordinary
worship of God was confined only to one particular place of it,
•viz. Jerusalem, hence called the Holy City. Here was the
temple, here the priests that ministered at the altar, here all the
more public solemnities of divine adoration ; " thither the tribes
go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord." 4 Now this was not the least
part of the bondage of that dispensation, to be obliged thrice
every year to take such long and tedious journeys, many of the
Jews living some hundreds of miles distance from Jerusalem,
and so strictly were they limited to this place, that to build an
altar and offer sacrifices in any other place, (unless in a case or
two wherein God did extraordinarily dispense,) although it were
to the true God, was, though not false, yet unwarrantable wor-
ship ; for which reason the Jews at this day abstain from sacri-
fices, because banished from Jerusalem and the temple, the only
legal place of offering. But behold the liberty of the gospel in
this case ; we are not tied to present our devotions at Jerusalem,
a pious and sincere mind is the best sacrifice that we can offer up
to God, and this may be done in any part of the world, no less
acceptably than they of old sacrificed in the temple : " the hour
a Galat. iii. 2». b Act* x. 35. c Isai. hi 7. * Psalm exxii. 4.
A
104 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, (mount Gerizim,)
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father, when the true wor-
shippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,"* as our
Lord told the woman of Samaria : " in spirit and in truth ;" in
spirit, in opposition to that carnal and idolatrous worship that
was in use among the Samaritans, who worshipped God under
the representation of a dove ; in truth, in opposition to the typical
and figurative worship of the Jews, which was but a shadow of
the true worship of the gospel. The great sacrifice required in
the Christian religion, is not the fat of beasts/ or the first-fruits of
the ground, but an honest heart, and a pious life, and a grateful
acknowledgment of our dependence upon God in the public
solemnities of his praise and worship. For the law and the
gospel did not differ in this, that the one commanded publie
worship, the other not ; but that under the one, public worship
was fixed to one only place ; under the other, it is free to any
where the providence of God has placed us : it being part of the
duty bound upon us by natural and unalterable obligations, that
we should publicly meet together for the solemn celebration of
the divine honour and service.
XIII. Nor is the economy of the gospel less extensive in time
than place ; the Old Testament was only a temporary dispensa-
tion, that of the gospel is to last to the end of the world ; the law
was to continue only for a little time, the gospel is an everlasting
covenant ; the one to be quickly antiquated and abolished, the
other never to be done away by any other to succeed it. The
Jews, indeed, stickle hard for the perpetual and immutable ob-
ligation of the law of Moses, and frequently urge us with those
places, 6 where the covenant of circumcision is called an " ever-
lasting covenant,' 1 and God said to choose the temple at Jerusalem
to " place his name there for ever," to give the land of Canaan
to Abraham and his seed for " an everlasting possession :" thus
the law of the passover is called an " ordinance for ever," the
command of the first-fruits a " statute for ever," and the like in
other places, which seem to intimate a perpetual and unalterable
dispensation. But the answer is short and plain; that this phrase
Obi^, " for ever," (though when it is applied to God it always
denotes eternity,) yet when it is attributed to other things, it
« John iv. 21—23. f Vid. Philo de Spec Legg. p. 775.
9 Gen, xrii. 7. 1 Kings ix. 3. Gen. xvii. 8, Exod. xii. 14. Levit xxiii. 14.
THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION. 105
implies no more than a periodical duration, limited according
to the will of the lawgiver, or the nature of the thing : thus the
Hebrew servant was to serve his master " for ever ;" h that is, but
for seven years, till the next year of jubilee : " he shall walk
before mine anointed for ever,"' says God concerning Samuel ;
that is, be a priest all his days. Thus when the ritual services
of the Mosaic law are called statutes for ever, the meaning is,
that they should continue a long time obligatory, until the time
of the Messiah, in whose days " the sacrifice and oblation was to
cease," and those carnal ceremonies to give way to the more
spiritual services of the gospel. Indeed, the very typical nature
of that dispensation evidently argued it to be but for a time, the
shadow being to cease that the substance might take place ; and
though many of them continued some considerable time after
Chrises death, yet they lost their positive and obligatory power,
and were used only as things indifferent in compliance with the
inveterate prejudices of new converts, lately brought over from
Judaism, and who could not quickly lay aside that great vene-
ration which they had for the rites of the Mosaic institution :
though even in this respect it was not long before all Jewish
ceremonies were thrown off, and Moses quite turned out of doors.
Whereas the evangelical state is to run parallel with the age and
duration of the world, it is the '* everlasting covenant," k the
" everlasting gospel," 1 the last dispensation that God will make
to the world : " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in time past by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
to us by his Son;" m in which respect, the gospel, in opposition to
the law, is styled "a kingdom that cannot be moved." 0 The
apostle, in the foregoing verses, speaking concerning the Mosaic
state, " whose voice (says he) then shook the earth, but now he
hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only,
but also the heaven, (a phrase peculiar to the scripture to note
the introducing a new scene and state of things;) and this word,
Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are
shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can-
not be shaken may remain ;" that is, that the state of the gospel
may endure for ever. Hence Christ is said to have an " unchange-
able priesthood, to be a priest for ever," to be " consecrated for
h Exod. xxi. 6. 1 1 Sam. ii. 36. k Heb. xiiL 20.
1 Rev. 6. ■ Heb. L 1,2. n Heb. xii. 28.
Digitized by
106 THE EVANGELICAL DISPENSATION.
evermore." From all which it appears, how incomparably happy
we Christians are under the gospel, above what the Jews were
in the time of the law ; God having placed ns under the best of
dispensations, freed as from those many nice and troublesome
observances to which they were tied ; put us under the clearest
discoveries and revelations, and given us the most noble, rational,
and masculine religion, a religion the most perfective of our
natures, and the most conducive to our happiness ; while their
covenant at best was faulty, and after all could not " make him
that did the service perfect in things pertaining to the conscience."
" Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see : for I tell
you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those
things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those
things which ye hear, and have not heard them." 0
• Luke x. 23, 24.
Digitized by
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
Chrises faithfulness in appointing officers in his church. The dignity of the apostles
above the rest The importance of the word 'Air6<rroKos. The nature of the apostolic
office considered. Respect had in founding it to the custom among the Jews. Their
apostoli, who. The number of the apostles limited. Why twelve, the several conjec-
tures of the ancients. Their immediate election. Their work, wherein it consisted.
The universality of their commission. Apostolical churches, what How soon the
apostles propagated Christianity through the world. An argument for the divinity of
the Christian religion inferred thence. The power conveyed to the apostles, equally
given to all. Peter's superiority over the rest disproved both from scripture and
antiquity. The apostles, how qualified for their mission. Immediately taught the
doctrine they delivered. Infallibly secured from error in delivering it Their constant
and familiar converse with their master. Furnished with the power of working
miracles. The great evidence of it to prove a divine doctrine. Miraculous powers
conferred upon the apostles particularly considered. Prophecy, what, and when it
ceased. The gift of discerning spirits. The gift of tongues. The gift of interpreta-
tion. The unreasonable practice of the church of Rome in keeping the scriptures and
divine worship in an unknown tongue. The gift of healing greatly advantageous to
Christianity : how long it lasted. Power of immediately inflicting corporal punish-
ments ; and the great benefit of it in those times. The apostles enabled to confer mi-
raculous powers upon others. The duration of the apostolical office. What in it
extraordinary, what ordinary. Bishops, in what sense styled Apostles.
Jesus Christ, the great "apostle and high-priest of our pro-
fession, 11 being appointed by God to be the supreme ruler and
governor of his church, was, like Moses, "faithful in all his
house but with this honourable advantage, that Moses was
faithful as a servant, Christ as a Son over his own house, which
he erected, established, and governed, with all possible care and
diligence. Nor could he give a greater instance either of his
fidelity towards God, or his love and kindness to the souls of
men, than that after he had purchased a family to himself, and
108 INTRODUCTION TO THE
could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own
person, he would not return back to heaven till he had con-
stituted several orders and officers in his church, who might
superintend and conduct its affairs, and, according to the va-
rious circumstances of its state, administer to the needs and
exigencies of his family. Accordingly, therefore, " he gave some,
apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some,
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ :
till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ.'" a The first and prime class of
officers is that of apostles : " God hath set some in the church,
first, apostles, secondarily prophets,"" &c. First, apostles, as far
in office as honour before the rest, their election more immediate,
their commission more large and comprehensive, the powers and
privileges wherewith they were furnished greater and more
honourable: prophecy, the gift of miracles and expelling de-
mons : the order of pastors and teachers were all spiritual powers
and ensigns of great authority, dWa rovroav airavTwv petl&v
iarrlv dpxv V diroaroXi,^ says Chrysostom, b 44 but the apostolic
eminency is far greater than all these," which therefore he calls
a spiritual consulship ; an apostle having as great preeminence
above all other officers in the church, as the consul had above
all other magistrates in Borne. These apostles were a few
select persons whom our Lord chose out of the rest, to devolve
part of the government upon their shoulders, and to depute for
the first planting and settling Christianity in the world : " He
chose twelve, whom he named apostles c of whose lives and
acts being to give an historical account in the following work, it
may not possibly be unuseful to premise some general remarks
concerning them, not respecting this or that particular person,
but of a general relation to the whole ; wherein we shall espe-
cially take notice of the importance of the word, the nature of
the employment, the fitness and qualification of the persons, and
the duration and continuance of the office.
II. The word awoaroXo^ or 46 sent," is among ancient writers
applied either to things, actions, or persons. To things : thus
* Eph.iv. 11, 12, 13.
b Serm. de util. lection. S. Script, vol viii. p. 1 14. edit Savil. c Luke vi. 13.
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
109
those dimissory letters that were granted to such who appealed
from an inferior to a superior judicature, were in the language
of the Roman laws usually called apostoli : d thus a packet-boat
was styled, airoaroXov ttXoZov, because sent up and down for
advice and despatch of business : thus, though in somewhat a
different sense, the lesson taken out of the epistles is in the
ancient Greek liturgies called atroaroXo^ because usually taken
out of the apostles'* writings. Sometimes it is applied to actions,
and so imports no more than mission, or the very act of sending :
thus the setting out a fleet, or a naval expedition, was wont to
be called airoaroXo^ so Suidas tells us, f that as the persons
designed for the cure and management of the fleet were called
airoaroXel^ so the very sending forth of the ships themselves,
ai t&v ve&v iiarofiiraX^ were styled afroaroXov. Lastly, what
principally falls under our present consideration, it is applied to
persons, and so imports no more than a messenger, a person sent
upon some special errand, for the discharge of some peculiar
affair in his name that sent him. Thus Epaphroditus is called
the apostle or messenger of the Philippians, 8 when sent by them
to St. Paul at Rome : thus Titus and his companions are styled
airoaroXot,, " the messengers of the churches.'' h So our Lord ;
44 he that is sent, airooTciko^ an apostle or messenger, is not
greater than him that sent him." 1 This, then, being the common
, notion of the word, our Lord fixes it to a particular use, applying
it to those select persons whom he had made choice of to act by
that peculiar authority and commission which he had derived
upon them. 44 Twelve, whom he also named apoatles that is,
commissioners, those who were to be ambassadors for Christ, to
be sent up and down in the world in his name, to plant the
faith, to govern and superintend the church at present, and, by
their wise and prudent settlement of affairs, to provide for the
fiiture exigencies of the church.
III. The next thing then to be considered, is the nature of
their office ; and under this inquiry we shall make these following
remarks. First, it is not to be doubted but that our Lord, in
d L. Unic & lib. xlix. Tit. vi. vid. lib. cvi Tit. xyi. lib. L ct Paul. JC. Sentent
lib. ix. Tit. xxxix.
* Vid. Chrysost Liturg. in Ritual. Greec
f Suidas in voc. hrojroXoi. ex Demosth. vid. Harpocr. Lex. in Dec. Rhet.
f Phil. ii. 25. h 2 Cor. viii. 23. 1 John xiii. 16.
Digitized by
110 INTRODUCTION TO THE
founding this office, had some respect to the state of things in
the J e wish church ; I mean, not only in general, that there should
be superior and subordinate officers, as there were superior and
inferior orders under the Mosaic dispensation, but that herein
he had an eye to some usage and custom common among them.
Now among the Jews, as all messengers were called tDTrfafr, or
" apostles," k so were they wont to despatch some with peculiar
letters of authority and commission, whereby they acted as
proxies and deputies of those that sent them, thence their pro-
verb, vyid3 cdi« hw irnhtf, " every man's apostle is as himself
that is, whatever he does is looked upon to be as firm and valid
as if the person himself had done it. Thus when Saul was sent
by the Sanhedrim to Damascus to apprehend the Jewish con-
verts, he was furnished with letters from the high-priest, enabling
him to act as his commissary in that matter. Indeed, Epiphanius
tells us of a sort of persons called apostles, 1 who were assessors
and counsellors to the Jewish patriarch, constantly attending
upon him to advise him in matters pertaining to the law, and
sent by him (as he intimates™) sometimes to inspect and reform
the manners of the priests and Jewish clergy, and the irregu-
larities of country-synagogues, with commission to gather the
tenths and first-fruits due in all the provinces under his jurisdic-
tion. Such apostles we find mentioned both by Julian, the
emperor, in an epistle to the Jews," and in a law of the emperor
Honorius, 0 employed by the patriarch to gather once a year the
aurum coronarium, or crown-gold, a tribute annually paid by
them to the Roman emperors. But these apostles could not
under that notion be extant in our Saviour's time ; though sure
we are there was then something like it, Philo the Jew more
than once mentioning the Upoirofiirol icaff $ica<rrov iviavrbv
Kpvaov teal apyvpov ir\elarov tcofj,l£ovT€<; ek to Upov, rbv
adpoiadivTa i/c ra>v airapx&vv " the sacred messengers annually
sent to collect the holy treasure paid by way of first-fruits, and
to carry it to the temple at Jerusalem." However, our Lord, in
conformity to the general custom of those times, of appointing
apostles or messengers, as their proxies and deputies to act in
k Euseb. in Caten. MS. apud Heins. exercit. in Luc. vi. 1 Haeres. xxx. c. 4.
m Ibid. c. 11. n Epist xxv. p. 153.
° Cod. Theodos. lib. xvi. Tit viiL L 14. de Judaeis.
* Lib. de legat. ad Caiura, p. 1023. Vid. p. 1035.
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. Ill
their names, called and denominated those apostles, whom he
peculiarly chose to represent his person, to communicate his mind
and will to the world, and to act as ambassadors or commissioners
in his room and stead.
IV. Secondly, we observe that the persons thus deputed by
our Saviour were not left uncertain, but reduced to a fixed de-
finite number, confined to the just number of twelve : " he or-
dained twelve, that they should be with him a number that
seems to carry something of mystery and peculiar design in it,
as appears in that the apostles were so careful upon the fall of
Judas immediately to supply it. The fathers are very wide and
different in their conjectures about the reason of it. St. Augustine
thinks our Lord herein had respect to the four quarters of the
world/ which were to be called by the preaching of the gospel,
which being multiplied by three, (to denote the Trinity, in whose
name they were to be called,) make twelve. Tertullian will
have them typified by the, twelve fountains in Elim, 8 the apostles
being sent out to water and refresh the dry thirsty world with
the knowledge of the truth ; by the twelve precious stones in
Aaron's breast-plate, to illuminate the church, the garment which
Christ, our great high-priest, has put on ; by the twelve stones
which Joshua chose out of Jordan to lay up within tlie ark of
the testament, respecting the firmness and solidity of the apostles'
faith, their being chosen by the true Jesus or Joshua at their
baptism in Jordan, and their being admitted in the inner
sanctuary of his covenant. By others we are told, that it was
shadowed out by the twelve spies taken out of every tribe, and
sent to discover the land of promise; or by the twelve gates of
the city in EzekieFs vision ; or by the twelve bells appendant to
Aaron's garment, " their sound going out into all the world, ajid
their words unto the ends of the earth." 1 But it were endless,
and to very little purpose, to reckon up all the conjectures of
this nature, there being scarce any one number of twelve men-
tioned in the scripture, which is not by some of the ancients
adapted and applied to this of the twelve apostles, wherein an
ordinary fancy might easily enough pick out a mystery. That
which seems to put in the most rational plea, is, that our Lord,
4 Mark iii. 14.
r In Psalm, ciii. enarr. Serm. iii. s. 2. vol. iv. p. 1150. Vid. in Psalm, lix. enarr. s. 2.
vol. iv. p. 578.
■ Adv. Marcion. 1. iv. c. 13. 1 J. Mart. dial, cum Tryph. s. 42.
112 INTRODUCTION TO THE
being now about to form a new spiritual commonwealth, a kind
of mystical Israel, pitched upon this number, in conformity either
to the twelve patriarchs, as founders of the twelve tribes of
Israel, or to the twelve ^uXap^at, or chief heads, as standing
rulers of those tribes among the Jews, as we shall afterwards
possibly more particularly remark." Thirdly, these apostles
were immediately called and sent by Christ himself, elected out
of the body of his disciples and followers, and received their
commission from his own mouth. Indeed, Matthias was not one
of the first election, being taken in upon Judas's apostacy after
our Lord's ascension into heaven. But besides that he had been
one of the seventy disciples, called and sent out by our Saviour,
that extraordinary declaration of the divine will and pleasure
that appeared in determining his election, was in a manner
equivalent to the first election. As for St. Paul, he was not one
of the twelve, taken in as a supernumerary apostle, but yet an
apostle as well as they, and that " not of men, neither by man,
but by Jesus Christ," x as he pleads his own cause against the
insinuations of those impostors who traduced him as an apostle
only at the second hand ; whereas he was immediately called
by Christ as well as they, and in a more extraordinary manner :
they were called by him, while he was yet in his state of mean-
ness and humiliation ; he, when Christ was now advanced upon
the throne, and appeared to him encircled with those glorious
emanations of brightness and majesty which he was not able to
endure. I observe no more concerning this, than that an imme-
diate call has ever been accounted so necessary to give credit
and reputation to their doctrine, that the most notorious im-
postors have pretended to it. Thus Manes, the founder of the
Manichsean sect, y was wont in his epistles to style himself the
Apostle of Jesus Christ; as pretending himself to be the person
whom the Lord had promised to send into the world, and that
accordingly the Holy Ghost was actually sent in him ; and there-
fore he constituted twelve disciples always to attend his person,
in imitation of the number of the apostolic college. And how
often the Turkish impostor does, upon this account, call himself
the Apostle of God, every one that has but once seen the Alcoran
is able to tell.
u See St Peter's Life, sect. iii. num. 2. * Gal. i. 1.
y August de Haeres. c. 46. yoI. viii. p. 17.
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LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
113
V. Fourthly, the main work and employment of these apostles
was to preach the gospel, to establish Christianity, and to govern
the church that was to be founded, as Christ's immediate deputies
and vicegerents : they were to instruct men in the doctrines of'
the gospel, to disciple the world, and to baptize and initiate men
into the faith of Christ; and to constitute and ordain guides
and ministers of religion, persons peculiarly set apart for holy
ministrations, to censure and punish obstinate and contumacious
offenders, to compose and over-rule disorders and divisions, to
command or countermand, as occasion was, being vested with
an extraordinary authority and power of disposing things for
the edification of the_church. This office the apostles never
exercised in its full extent and latitude during Christ's residence
upon earth ; for though upon their election he sent them forth
to preach and to baptize, yet this was only a narrow and
temporary employment, and they quickly returned to their
private stations, the main power being still executed and ad-
ministered by Christ himself, the complete exercise whereof was
not actually devolved upon them, till he was ready to leave the
world : for then it was that he told tbem, z " as my father hath
sent me, even so send I you: receive ye the Holy Ghost:
whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted ; and whose soever
sins ye retain, they are retained." Whereby he conferred, in
some proportion, the same authority upon them which he him-
self had derived from his Father. Fifthly, this commission given
to the apostles was unlimited and universal, not only in respect
of power, as enabling them to discharge all acts of religion re-
lating either to ministry or government, but in respect of place ; a
not confining them to this or that particular province, but leav-
ing them the whole world as their diocese to preach in, they
being destinati nationibus magistri; in Tertullian's phrase, b de^
signed to be the masters and instructors of all nations : so runs
their commission ; c " Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature," that is, to all men ; the iraaa tcrCcis
of the evangelist answering to the mmrT tab amongst the Jews,
" to all creatures," whereby they used to denote all men in
* John xx. 21—23.
a Chrysost. Serm. ircp. rod, tin xrfvifios y r<av ypwfwv twayvdffis. yol. viii. p. 115.
efiit. Savil.
b De prescript Haeret c. 20. c Mark xvi. 15.
Digitized by
114
INTRODUCTION TO THE
general, but especially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews.
Indeed, while our Saviour lived, the apostolical ministry ex-
tended no further than Judea ; but he being gone to heaven, the
"partition wall was broken down," and their way was open into all
places and countries. And herein how admirably did the Chris-
tian economy transcend the Jewish dispensation! The preach-
ing of the prophets, like the light that comes in at the window, d
was confined only to the house of Israel, while the doctrine of
the gospel preached by the apostles was like the light of the
sun in the firmament, that diffused its beams and propagated its
heat and influence into all quarters of the world ; " their sound
going out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of
the world." It is true, for the more prudent and orderly
management of things, they are generally said by the ancients
to have divided the world into so many quarters and portions,
to which they were severally to betake themselves; Peter to
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, &c, St. John to Asia, St. An-
drew to Scythia, &c. But they did not strictly tie themselves
to those particular provinces that were assigned to them, but, as
occasion was, made excursions into other parts ; though for the
main they had a more peculiar inspection over those parts that
were allotted to them, usually residing at some principal city of
the province, as St. John at Ephesus, St. Philip at Hierapolis,
&c. whence they might have a more convenient prospect of
affairs round about them. And hence it was that these places
more peculiarly got the title of apostolical churches, because
first planted, or eminently watered and cultivated by some
apostle, matrices et originates fidei, as Tertullian calls them, 6
" mother-churches, and the originals of the faith because here
the Christian doctrine was first sown, and hence planted and
propagated to the countries round about, ecclesias apud unam-
quamque civitatem condiderunt, a quibus traducem fidei et semina
doctrince, cceterce exinde eeclesice mutuatce stmt, T as his own words
are.
VI. In pursuance of this general commission, we find the
apostles, not long after our Lord^s ascension, traversing almost
all parts of the then known world ; St. Andrew in Scythia and
those northern countries, St. Thomas and Bartholomew in India,
d Macar. HomiL xiv. p. 77. ed. 1621.
* De prescript. Haeret. c. 21. ' Ibid. c. 20.
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LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
115
St. Simon and St. Mark in Africa, Egypt, and the parts of
Libya and Mauritania ; St. Paul, and probably Peter and some
others, in the farthest regions of the West : and all this done in
the space of less than forty years, viz. before the destruction of
the Jewish state by Titus and the Roman army. For so our
Lord had expressly foretold, that " the gospel of the kingdom
should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations,
before the end came;" 6 that is, the end of the Jewish state,
which the apostles a little before had called "the end of the
world," h avvriXeia tov al&vos, the shutting up or consumma-
tion of the age, the putting a final period to that present state
and dispensation that the Jews were under. And indeed strange
it is to consider, that in so few years these evangelical messengers
should overrun all countries ; with what an incredible swiftness
did the Christian faith, like lightning, pierce from east to west,
and diffuse itself over all quarters of the world ; and that not
only unassisted by any secular advantages, but in defiance of
the most fierce and potent opposition, which every where set
itself aginst it i It is true, the impostures of Mohammed in a
very little time gained a great part of the East. But besides
that this was not comparable to the universal spreading of Chris-
tianity, his doctrine was calculated on purpose to gratify men's
lusts; and especially to comply with the loose and wanton
manners of the East, and, which is above all, had the sword to
hew out its way before it : and we know how ready, even without
force, in all changes and revolutions of the world, the conquered
have been to follow the religion of the conquerors. Whereas the
apostles had no visible advantages, nay, had all the enraged
powers of the world to contend against them. And yet in despite
of all went on in triumph, and quickly made their way into those
places where, for so many ages, no other conquest ever came ;
"those parts of Britain (as Tertullian observes 1 ) which were un-
conquerable and unapproachable by the power of the Roman
armies, submitting their necks to the yoke of Christ a mighty
evidence (as he there argues) of Christ's divinity, and that he
was the true Messiah. And indeed no reasonable account can
be given of the strange and successful progress of the Christian
religion in those first ages of it, but that it was the birth of
heaven, and had a divine and invisible power going along with
* Matt xxiy. 14. h Matt. xxiy. 3. ' Adv. Jud. c. 7.
i2
Digitized by
116 INTRODUCTION TO THE
it to succeed and prosper it. St. Chrysostoni discourses this
argument at large, j some of whose elegant reasonings I shall
here transcribe. He tells the Gentile, (with whom he was dis^
puting,) that he would not prove Christ's deity by a demonstra-
tion from heaven, by his creation of the world, his great and
stupendous miracles, his raising the dead, curing the blind, ex-
pelling devils, nor from the mighty promises of a future state, and
the resurrection of the dead, (which an infidel might easily not
only question, but deny,) but from what was sufficiently evident
and obvious to the meanest idiot, his planting and propagating
Christianity in the world. " For it is not (says he) in the power
of a mere man, in so short a time to encircle the world, to
compass sea and land, and in matters of so great importance
to rescue mankind from the slavery of absurd and unreasonable
customs, and the powerful tyranny of evil habits ; and these
not Romans only, but Persians, and the most barbarous nations
of the world : a reformation which he wrought not by force and
the power of the sword, nor by pouring into the world numerous
legions and armies; but by a few inconsiderable men, (no more
at first than eleven,) a company of obscure and mean, simple
and illiterate, poor and helpless, naked and unarmed persons,
who had scarce a shoe to tread on, or a coat to cover them. And
yet by these he persuaded so great a part of mankind to be able
freely to reason, not only of things of the present, but of a
future state ; to renounce the laws of their country, and throw
off those ancient and inveterate customs, which had taken root
for so many ages, and planted others in their room ; and re-
duced men from those easy ways, whereinto they were hurried,
into the more rugged and difficult paths of virtue : all which he
did, while he had to contend with opposite powers, and when
he himself had undergone the most ignominious death, 6 even
the death of the cross." " Afterwards he addresses himself to the
Jew, and discourses with him much after the same rate. " Con-
sider, (says he, k ) and bethink thyself, what it is in so short a time
to fill the whole world with so many famous churches, to convert
so many nations to the faith, to prevail with men to forsake the
religion of their country, to root up their rites and customs, to
shake off the empire of lust and pleasure, and the laws of vice,
like dust ; to abolish and abominate their temples and their altars,
3 Lib. quod Chr. sit Deua, s. 1. yol. i. p. 558. k Ibid. s. 12. p. 575.
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 117
their idols and their sacrifices, their profane and impious festivals,
as dirt and dung ; and instead thereof to set up Christian altars
in all places, among the Romans, Persians, Scythians, Moors,
and Indians ; and not there only, but in the countries beyond
this world of ours. For even the British islands that lie be-
yond the ocean, and those that are in it, have felt the power of
the Christian faith ; churches and altars being erected there to
the service of Christ. A matter truly great and admirable, and
which would clearly have demonstrated a divine and super-
eminent power, although there had been no opposition in the
case, but that all things had run on calmly and smoothly, to
think that in so few years the Christian faith should be able to
reclaim the whole world from its vicious customs, and to win
them over to other manners, more laborious and difficult, re-
pugnant both to their native inclinations and to the laws and
principles of their education, and such as obliged them to a more
strict and accurate course of life ; and these persons not one or
two, not twenty or an hundred, but in a manner all mankind :
and this brought about by no other instruments than a few rude
and unlearned, private and unknown tradesmen, who had neither
estate nor reputation, learning nor eloquence, kindred nor country,
to recommend them to the world ; a few fishermen and tent-
makers, and whom, distinguished by their language as well as
their religion, the rest of the world scorned as barbarous. And
yet these were the men by whom our Lord built up his church,
and extended it from one end of the world unto the other,'"
Other considerations there are with which the father does urge
and illustrate this argument, which I forbear to insist on in
this place.
VII. Sixthly, the power and authority conveyed by this com-
mission to the apostles, was equally conferred upon all of them.
They were all chosen at the same time, all equally empowered to
preach and baptize, all equally intrusted with the power of binding
and loosing, all invested with the same mission, and all equally
furnished with the same gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost. In-
deed, the advocates of the church of Rome do with a mighty zeal
and fierceness contend for St. Peter's being head and prince of
the apostles, advanced by Christ to a supremacy and prerogative
not only above, but over the rest of the apostles ; and not with-
out reason, the fortunes of that church being concerned in the
118 INTRODUCTION TO THE
supremacy of St. Peter. No wonder, therefore, they ransack all
corners, press and force in whatever may but seem to give coun-
tenance to it : witness those thin and miserable shifts, which
Bellarmine calls arguments, to prove and make it good; so utterly
devoid of all rational conviction, so unable to justify themselves
to sober and considering men, that a man would think they had
been contrived for no other purpose than to cheat fools, and
make wise men laugh. And the truth is, nothing with me more
shakes the reputation of the wisdom of that learned man than his
making use of such weak and trifling arguments in so important
and concerning an article, so vital and essential to the constitu-
tion of that church. As when he argues Peter's superiority from
the mere changing of his name, 1 (for what is this to supremacy t
besides, that it was not done to him alone, the same being done
to James and John,) from his being first reckoned up in the
catalogue of apostles, his walking with Christ upon the water,
his paying tribute for his master and himself, his being com-
manded to let down the net, and Christ's teaching in Peter's
ship, (and this ship must denote the church, and Peter's being
owner of it, entitle him to be supreme ruler and governor of the
church ; so Bellarmine, in terms as plain as he could well express
it,) from Christ's first washing Peter's feet, (though the story
recorded by the evangelist says no such thing,) and his fore-
telling only his death : all which, and many more prerogatives
of St. Peter, to the number of no less than twenty-eight, are
summoned in to give in evidence in this cause; and many of these
too drawn out of apocryphal and supposititious authors, and not
only uncertain, but absurd and fabulous ; and yet upon such
arguments as these do they found this paramount authority : a
plain evidence of a desperate and sinking cause, when such twigs
must be laid hold on to support and keep it above water. Had
they suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of order,
(which his age and gravity seemed to challenge for him,) no wise
and peaceable man would have denied it, as being a thing ordi-
narily practised among equals, and necessary to the well-governing
a society ; but when nothing but a primacy of power will serve
the turn, as if the rest of the apostles had been inferior to him,
this may by no means be granted, as being expressly contrary to
the positive determination of our Saviour, when the apostles werb
• De Rom. Pontif. Lie. 17, 18. et seq.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 119
contending about this very thing, "which of them should be
accounted the greatest,' 1 he thus quickly decides the case : In " The
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and they that
are great exercise authority upon them. But ye shall not be so :
but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister,
and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant."
Than which nothing could have been more peremptorily spoken,
to rebuke this naughty spirit of preeminence. Nor do we ever find
St. Peter himself laying claim to any such power, or the apostles
giving him the least shadow of it. In the whole course of his
affairs there are no intimations of this matter ; in his epistle he
styles himself but their fellow-presbyter, and expressly forbids
the governors of the church to " lord it over God's heritage."
When despatched by the rest of the apostles upon a message to
Samaria, he never disputes their authority to do it ; when accused
by them for going in unto the Gentiles, does he stand upon his
prerogative? no, but submissively apologizes for himself; nay,
when smartly reproved by St. Paul at Antioch, (when, if ever,
his credit lay at stake,) do we find him excepting against it as an
affront to his supremacy, and a saucy controlling his superior ?
surely the quite contrary ; he quietly submitted to the reproof,
as one that was sensible how justly he had deserved it. Nor can
it be supposed but that St* Paul would have carried it towards
him with a greater reverence, had any such peculiar sovereignty
been then known to the world. How confidently does St. Paul
assert himself to be no whit " inferior to the chiefest apostles,"
not to Peter himself? the gospel of the uncircumcision being
committed to him, as that of the circumcision was to Peter. Is
Peter oft named first among the apostles ? elsewhere others, some-
times James, sometimes Paul and A polios, are placed before him.
Did Christ honour him with some singular commendations ? an
honourable elogium conveys no supereminent power and sove-
reignty. Was he dear to Christ ? We know another, that was the
beloved disciple. So little warrant is there to exalt one above the
rest, where Christ made all alike. 0 If from scripture we descend
to the ancient writers of the church, we snail find, that though the
fathers bestow very great and honourable titles upon Peter, yet
m Matt xx. 25, 26, 27. Luke xxii. 24, 25, 26.
n "Hoc erant utique et cateri apastoli, quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio praeiiti et
honoris et potestatis." Cyprian, de Unitat Eccles. p. 107, 8.
120 INTRODUCTION TO THE
they give the same, or what are equivalent, to others of the
apostles. Hesychius ° styles St. James the Great, " the brother
of our Lord, the commander of the new J erusalem, the prince of
priests, the exarch or chief of the apostles, iv K€<f>a\ol<; Kopv<f>rjv,
the top or crown amongst the heads, the great light amongst the
lamps, the most illustrious and resplendent amongst the stars :
it was Peter that preached, but it was James that made the
determination," &c. Of St. Andrew he gives this encomium, p
that " he was the sacerdotal trumpet, the first-born of the apos-
tolical choir, irpfOTOtrarfi)^ Tr}$ i/cK\r)(Tui<; arvXos, the prime and
firm pillar of the church, Peter before Peter, the foundation of
the foundation, the first fruits of the beginning." Peter and
John are said to be urorifioi dWjyXots, " equally honourable,"
by St. Cyril, q with his whole synod of Alexandria. " St. John
(says Chrysostom 1 ) was Chrises beloved, the pillar of all the
churches in the world, who had the keys of heaven, drank of the
Lord^s cup, was washed with his baptism, and with confidence
lay in his bosom." And of St. Paul he tells us, 8 that he was
" the most excellent of all men, the teacher of the world, the
bridegroom of Christ, the planter of the church, the wise master-
builder, greater than the apostles," and much more to the same
purpose. Elsewhere he says,* that the care of the world was
committed to him, that nothing could be more noble or illus-
trious ; yea, that (his miracles considered) he was more excellent
than kings themselves. And a little after, he calls him " the
tongue of the earth, the light of the churches, tov defiiXiov T779
7r/o-T€0)9, rbv crvkov teal iSpaicofia tt}? akrjdeias, the foundation
of the faith, the pillar and ground of truth."" And in a discourse
on th*e purpose, wherein he compares Peter and Paul together,
he makes them of equal esteem and virtue : x " ri Itirpov fiel^oy ;
rt IlavXov laov ; what greater than Peter ? what equal to
Paul ? a blessed pair ! fj ireirLarevOeiaa o\ov rod Koafiov ra?
^i/%a9, who had the souls of the whole world committed to their
charge." But instances of this nature were endless and infinite.
0 Orat in S. Jac. apud Phot Cod. CCLXXV. col. 1525.
p Encom. S. Thorn, ibid. Cod. CCLXIX. col. 1488.
1 In Cone. Ephes. Concil. vol. ii. p. 209.
r Prolog, in Joan. Horn. i. s. L vol. viii. p. 2. • De Pet fil. Zeb. s. 3. vol. i. p. 517.
1 In illud, sal. Aquil. et Prise, s. 2. vol. iii. p. 174. ■ Ibid. s. 3. p. 176.
* Serm. in Petr. et Paul. s. 1. vol. viii. p. 8. inter spuria.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 121
If the fathers at any time style Peter " prince of the apostles,"
they mean no more by it, than the best and purest Latin writers
mean by princess, the first or chief person of the number, more
considerable than the rest, either for his age or zeal. Thus
Eusebius tells us, y Peter was " r&v Xolit&v airavrcov irporjyopo^
the prolocutor of all the rest, aperr}? eve/ca, for the greatness
and generosity of his mind that is, in Chrysostom's language, 3
he was " the mouth and chief of the apostles, 6 iravra^ov
0e/)/iO5, because eager and forward at every turn, and ready to
answer those questions which were put to others." In short, as
he had no prerogative above the rest, besides his being the chair-
man and president of the assembly, so was it granted to him
upon no other considerations than those of his age, zeal, and
gravity, for which he was more eminent than the rest.
VIII. We proceed next to inquire into the fitness and quali-
fication of the persons commissionated for this employment ; and
we shall find them admirably qualified to discharge it, if we con-
sider this following account. First, they immediately received
the doctrine of the gospel from the mouth of Christ himself;
he intended them for legati a latere, his peculiar ambassadors to
the world, and therefore furnished them with instructions from
his own mouth ; and in order hereunto, he trained them up for
some years under his own discipline and institution: he made
them to understand the " mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
when to others it was not given treated them with the
affection of a father, and the freedom and familiarity of a friend :
" Henceforth I call you pot servants, for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth, but I have called you friends : for all
things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known
unto you." 8 They heard all his sermons, were privy both to his
public and private discourses ; what he preached abroad, he ex-
pounded to them at home ; he gradually instructed them in the
knowledge of divine things, and imparted to them the notions
and mysteries of the gospel, not all at once, but " as they were
able to bear them :" by which means they were sufficiently
capable of giving a satisfactory account of that doctrine to
others, which had been so immediately, so frequently communi-
cated to themselves. Secondly, they were infallibly secured
y Hist Eccl. 1. ii. c. 14. * In Matt Horn. liv. s. 1. vol. vii. p. 54G.
a John xv. 15.
122 INTRODUCTION TO THE
from error in delivering the doctrines and principles of Chris-
tianity : for though they were not absolutely privileged from
failures and miscarriages in their lives, (these being of more per-
sonal and private consideration,) yet were they infallible in their
doctrine, this being a matter whereupon the salvation and
eternkl interests of men did depend. And for this end, they
had the " spirit of truth' 1 promised to them, who should "guide
them into all truth. 1 ' b Under the conduct of this unerring
guide, they all steered .the same course, taught and spake the
same things, though at different times, and in distant places ; and
for what was consigned to writing, "all scripture was given by
inspiration of God, and the holy men spake not, but as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. 11 Hence that exact and admirable
harmony that is in all their writings and relations, as being all
equally dictated by the same spirit of truth. Thirdly, they had
been eyewitnesses of all the material passages of our Saviour's
life, continually conversant with him from the commencing of
his public ministry till his ascension into heaven ; they had sur-
veyed all his actions, seen all his miracles, observed the whole
method of his conversation, and some of them attended him in
his most private solitudes and retirements. And this could not
but be a very rational satisfaction to the minds of men, when
the publishers of the gospel solemnly declared to the world, that
they reported nothing concerning our Saviour but what they
had seen with their own eyes, and of the truth whereof they
were as competent judges as the acutest philosopher in the
world. Nor could there be any just reason to suspect that they
imposed upon men in what they delivered ; for besides their
naked plainness and simplicity in all other passages of their
lives, they cheerfully submitted to the most exquisite hardships,
tortures, and sufferings, merely to attest the truth of what they
published to the world. Next to the evidence of our own senses,
no testimony is more valid and forcible, than his who relates
what himself has seen. Upon this account our Lord told his
apostles, " that they should be witnesses to him, both in Judea
and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. 110 And
so necessary a qualification of an apostle was this thought to be,
that it was almost the only condition propounded in the choice
of a new apostle after the fall of Judas : " Wherefore (says
b John xvi 13. c Acts i. 8.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 12S
Peter) of these men that have companied with us all the time
that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from
the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up
from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his
resurrection/"* 1 Accordingly, we find the apostles constantly
making use of this argument as the most rational evidence to
convince those whom they had to deal with : " We are witnesses
of all things which Jesus did both in the land of the Jews, and
in Jerusalem ; whom they slew and hanged on a tree : him God
raised up the third day, and shewed him openly ; not to all the
people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us,
who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify
that it is he that is ordained of God to be judge of the quick
and dead. 11 ' Thus St. John, after the same way of arguing,
appeals to sensible demonstration : " That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,
of the word of life ; (for the life was manifested, and we have
seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us ;) that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also
may have fellowship with us. 11f This, to name no more, St.
Peter thought a sufficient vindication of the apostolical doctrine
from the suspicion of forgery and imposture : " We have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto
you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. 11 g God had frequently given tes-
timony to the divinity of our blessed Saviour, by visible mani-
festations and appearances from heaven, and particularly by an
audible voice, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. 11 Now " this voice which came from heaven (says he)
we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 11
IX. Fourthly, the apostles were invested with a power of
working miracles, as the readiest means to procure their religion
a firm belief and entertainment in the minds of men. For
miracles are the great confirmation of the truth of any doctrine,
and the most rational evidence of a divine commission. For
d Acts I 21, 22. « Acts x. 39, 40, &c.
f 1 John LI, 2, 3. «2 Pet. i. 16, 17.
Digitized by
124 INTRODUCTION TO THE
seeing God only can create, and control the laws of nature,
produce something out of nothing, and call things that are not,
as if they were, give eyes to them that were born blind, raise
the dead, &c. things plainly beyond all possible powers of nature;
no man that believes the wisdom and goodness of an infinite
being, can suppose that this God of truth should affix his seal to
a lie, or communicate this power to any that would abuse it, to
confirm and countenance delusions and impostures. Nicodemus's
reasoning was very plain and convictive, h when he concludes
" that Christ must needs be a teacher come from God, for that
no man could do those miracles that he did, except God were
with him." The force of which argument lies here, that nothing
but a divine power can work miracles, and that Almighty God
cannot be supposed miraculously to assist any but those whom
he himself sends upon his own errand. The stupid and bar-
barous Lycaonians, when they beheld the man who had been a
cripple from his mother's womb, cured by St. Paul in an instant,
only with the speaking of a word, saw that there was something
in it more than human, and therefore concluded that " the gods
were come down to them in the likeness of men." 1 Upon this
account St. Paul reckons miracles among the ra ay/Mela rod
airoaroXovi the "signs" and evidences "of an apostle ;" k whom
therefore Chrysostom brings in elegantly pleading for himself, 1
that though he could not shew, as the signs of his priesthood and
ministry, long robes and gaudy vestments, with bells sounding
at their borders, as the Aaronical priests did of old, though he
had no golden crowns or holy mitres, yet could he produce what
was infinitely more venerable and regardable than all these, un-
questionable signs and miracles : he came not with altars and
oblations, with a number of strange and symbolical rites ; but
what was greater, raised the dead, cast out devils, cured the
blind, healed the lame, " making the Gentiles obedient by word
and deed, through many signs and wonders wrought by the
power of the Spirit of God." These were the things that clearly
shewed that their mission and ministry was not from men, nor
taken up of their own heads, but that they acted herein by a
divine warrant and authority. That therefore it might plainly
appear to the world, that they did not falsify in what they said,
b John iii. 4. 1 Acts xiv. 10, 11. * 2 Cor. xii. 12.
1 Chrys. Horn. xxix. in Rom. s. 2. vol. ix. p. 731.
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LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
125
or deliver any more than God had given them in commission, he
enabled them to do strange and miraculous operations, u bearing
them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost." m This was a power put
into the first draught of their commission, when confined only
to the cities of Israel : " As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom
of heaven is at hand ; heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the
dead, cast out devils ; freely ye have received, freely give :" n but
more fully confirmed upon them, when our Lord went to heaven,
then he told thera,° that " these signs should follow them that
believe ; that in his name they should cast out devils, and speak
with new tongues; that they should take up serpents, and if
they drank any deadly thing, it should not hurt them ; that
they should lay hands on the sick, and they should recover:"
and the event was accordingly, " for they went forth, and
preached every where, the Lord working with them, and con-
firming the word with signs following." When Paul and Bar-
nabas came up to the council at Jerusalem, this was one of the
first things they gave an account of, p " all the multitude keeping
silence, while they declared what miracles and wonders God had
wrought among the Gentiles by them." Thus the very " shadow
of Peter, as he passed by, cured the sick :" thus " God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul; so that from his body
were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs, or aprons, and the
diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of
,them." q So that besides the innate characters of divinity which
the Christian religion brought along with it, containing nothing
but what was highly reasonable, and very becoming God to re-
veal ; it had the highest external evidence that any religion was
capable of, the attestation of great and unquestionable miracles,
done not once or twice, not privately and in corners, not before a
few simple and credulous persons, but frequently and at every
turn, publicly and in places of the most solemn concourse, before
the wisest and most judicious inquirers, and this power of
miracles continued not only during the apostles'* time, but for
some ages after.
X. But because, besides miracles in general, the Scripture
takes particular notice of many gifts and powers of the Holy
» Heb. ii. 4. n Matt x. 7, 8. * ° Mark xvi. 17—20.
p Acts xv. 12. i Acts xix. 11, 12.
126 INTRODUCTION TO THE
Ghost conferred upon the apostles and first preachers of the
gospel, it may not be amiss to consider some of the chiefest and
most material of them, as we find them enumerated by the
apostle/ only premising this observation, that though these gifts
were distinctly distributed to persons of an inferior order, so
that one had this, and another that, yet were they (probably)
all conferred upon the apostles, and doubtless in larger propor-
tions than upon the rest. First, we take notice of the " gift of
prophecy," a clear evidence of divine inspiration, and an extra-
ordinary mission, " the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro-
phecy.' 1 8 It had been for many ages the signal and honourable
privilege of the Jewish church, and that the Christian economy
might challenge as sacred regards from men, and that it might
appear that God had not withdrawn his spirit from his church
in this new state of things, it was revived under the dispensation
of the gospel, according to that famous prophecy of Joel, exactly
accomplished (as Peter told the Jews) upon the day of pentecost,
when the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost were so plentifully
shed upon the apostles and primitive Christians ; " this is that
which was spoken by the prophet Joel, It shall come to pass in
the last days, (saith God,) I will pour out of my spirit upon all
flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and
your young men shall see visions, and your old men shaH dream
dreams; and on my servants, and on my handmaidens, I will
pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy 1
It lay, in general, in revealing and making known to others the
mind of God, but discovered itself in particular instances ; partly
in foretelling things to come, and what should certainly happen
in aftertimes : a thing set beyond the reach of any finite under-
standing ; for though such effects as depend upon natural agents,
or moral and political causes, may be foreseen by studious and
considering persons, yet the knowledge of futurities, things purely
contingent, that merely depend upon men's choice, and their
mutable and uncertain wills, can only fall under his view, who
at once beholds things past, present, and to come. Now this
was conferred upon the apostles and some of the first Christians,
as appears from many instances in the history of the apostolic
acts, and we find the apostles 1 writings frequently interspersed
with prophetical predictions concerning the great apostacy from
' 1 Cor. xii. 9, 10. • Rev. xix. 10. * Joel ii. 28, 29. Acts ii. 16, 17, 18.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 127
the faith, the universal corruption and degeneracy of manners,
the rise of particular heresies, the coming of Antichrist, and
several other things "which the spirit said expressly should
come to pass in the latter times ;" besides that St. John^s whole
book of Revelation is almost entirely made up of prophecies con-
cerning the future state and condition of the church. Sometimes
by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of
present concernment to the exigencies of the church, as when he
signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas
for the conversion of the Gentiles, and many times immediately
designed particular persons to be pastors and governors of the
church. Thus we read of " the gift that was given to Timothy
by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery,"
that is, his ordination, to which he was particularly pointed out
by some prophetic designation. But the main use of this pro-
phetic gift in those times, was to explain some of the more
difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine, especially
to expound and apply the ancient prophecies concerning the
Messiah and his kingdom in their public assemblies; whence
the " gift of prophecy " is explained by " understanding all myste-
ries, and all knowledge," u that is, the most dark and difficult
places of scripture, the types and figures, the ceremonies and
prophecies of the Old Testament. And thus we are commonly
to understand those words, "prophets" and "prophesying," that so
familiarly occur in the New Testament. " Having gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith ;" x that is,
expound scripture according to the generally received principles
of faith and life. So the apostle elsewhere prescribing rules for
the decent and orderly managing of divine worship in their
public assemblies, "let the prophets (says he y ) speak two or
three," (that is, at the same assembly,) "and let the other
judge:" and if, while any is thus expounding, another has a
divine afflatus, whereby he is more particularly enabled to ex-
plain some difficult and emergent passage, " let the first hold his
peace : for ye may all," all that have this gift, " prophesy one
by one," that so thus orderly proceeding, " all may learn, and all
may be comforted." Nor can the first pretend that this in-
terruption is an unseasonable check to his revelation, seeing he
» 1 Cor. xiii. 2. * Rom. xii. 6. * 1 Cor. xiv. 29.
128 INTRODUCTION TO THE
may command himself; for though among the Gentiles the
prophetic and ecstatic impulse did so violently press upon the
inspired person, that he could not govern himself, yet in the
church of God " the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets," may be so ruled and restrained by them, as to make
way for others. This order of Christian prophets considered
as a distinct ministry by itself, is constantly placed next to the
apostolical office, and is frequently by St. Paul preferred before
any other spiritual gifts then bestowed upon the church. When
this spirit of prophecy ceased in the Christian church, we cannot
certainly find. It continued some competent time beyond the
apostolic age. Justin Martyr expressly tells Trypho the Jew, 8
Uapu rifilv zeal pi^pi vvv irpo<fyrfTL/ca ^apia/Mard iariv^ " the
gifts of prophecy are even yet extant among us ; " an argument,
as he there tells him, that those things which had of old been
the great privileges of their church, were now translated into the
Christian church. And Eusebius, 8 speaking of a revelation made
to one Alcibiades, who lived about the time of Irenaeus, adds,
that the divine grace had not withdrawn its presence from the
church, but that they still had the Holy Ghost as their counsellor
to direct them.
XL Secondly, they had "the gifts of discerning spirits,"
whereby they were enabled to discover the truth or falsehood of
men's pretences, whether their gifts were real or counterfeit, and
their persons truly inspired or not. For many men, acted only
by diabolical impulses, might entitle themselves to divine in-
spirations, and others might be imposed upon by their delusions,
and mistake their dreams and fancies for the Spirit's dictates
and revelations ; or might so subtly and artificially counterfeit
revelations, that they might with most pass for current, espe-
cially in those times when these supernatural gifts were so
common and ordinary ; and our Lord himself had frequently
told them that " false prophets would arise," and that many .
would confidently plead for themselves before him, that they
had " prophesied in his name." That therefore the church might
not be imposed upon, God was pleased to endue the apostles,
and it may be some others, with an immediate faculty of dis-
cerning the chaff from the wheat, true from false prophets ;
nay, to know when the true prophets delivered the revelations
z Dial, cum Tryph. s. 82. » Hist. Eccl. 1. v. c. 3.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 129
of the Spirit, and when they expressed only their own con-
ceptions. This was a mighty privilege, but yet seems to me to
have extended farther, to judge of the sincerity or hypocrisy of
men's hearts in the profession of religion, that so bad men being
discovered, suitable censures and punishments might be passed
upon them, and others cautioned to avoid them. Thus Peter
at first sight discovered Ananias and Sapphira, and the rotten
hypocrisy of their intentions, before there was any external
evidence in the case ; and told Simon Magus, though baptized
before, upon his embracing Christianity, " that his heart was not
right in the sight of God ! for I perceive (says he) that thou art
in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.'" b Thirdly,
the apostles had the " gift of tongues," furnished with variety of
utterance, able to speak on a sudden several languages which
they had never learnt, as occasion was administered, and the
exigencies of persons and nations, with whom they conversed,
did require. For the apostles being principally designed to
convert the world, and to plant Christianity in all countries and
nations, it was absolutely necessary that they should be able
readily to express their minds in the languages of those countries
to which they addressed themselves : seeing otherwise it would
have been a work of time and difficulty, and not consistent with
the term of the apostles'* lives, had they been first to learn the
different languages of those nations, before they could have
preached the gospel to them. Hence this gift was diffused upon
the apostles in larger measures and proportions than upon other
men : " I speak with tongues more than ye all," says St. Paul ; c
that is, than all the gifted persons in the church of Corinth. Our
Lord had told the apostles before his departure from them, " that
they should be endued with power from on high*" which upon
the day of pentecost was particularly made good in this instance,
when in a moment they were enabled to speak almost all the
languages of the then known world, and this as a specimen and
first-fruits of the rest of those miraculous powers that were con-
ferred' upon them.
XII. A fourth gift was that of interpretation, or unfolding to
others what had been delivered in an unknown tongue. For
the Christian assemblies in those days were frequently made up
of men of different nations, and who could not understand what
b Acts viii. 21. 2S. c 1 Cor. xiv. 18.
K
Digitized by
130 INTRODUCTION TO THE
the apostles or others had spoken to the congregation ; this God
supplied by this gift of interpretation, enabling some to interpret
what others did not understand, and to speak it to them in their
own native language. St. Paul largely discourses the necessity
of this gift, in order to the instructing and edifying of the
church, d seeing without it their meetings could be no better than
the assembly of Babel after the confusion of languages, where
one man must needs be a barbarian to another, and all the
praying and preaching of the minister of the assembly be, to
many, altogether fruitless and unprofitable, and no better than
a " speaking into the air." What is the speaking, though with
the " tongue of angels," to them that do not understand it ?
How can the idiot and unlearned say Amen, who understands
not the language of him that giveth thanks ? The duty may be
done with admirable quaintness and accuracy, but what is he
the better, from whom it is locked up in an unknown tongue ? A
consideration that made the apostle solemnly profess, that " he
had rather speak five words in the church with his under^
standing, that by his voice he may teach others also, than ten
thousand words in an unknown tongue. Therefore if any man
speak in an unknown tongue, let it be but by two, or at most
by three, and let one interpret' 1 what the rest have spoken :
" but if there be no interpreter, 11 none present able to do this,
" let him keep silence in the church, and speak to himself and
to God. 116 A man that impartially reads this discourse of the
apostle, may wonder how the church of Borne, in defiance of it,
can so openly practise, so confidently defend their Bible and
divine services in an unknown tongue, so flatly repugnant to the
dictates of common reason, the usage of the first Christian
church, and these plain apostolical commands. But this is not
the only instance wherein that church has departed both from
scripture, reason, and the practice of the first and purest ages
of Christianity. Indeed, there is some cause why they are so
zealous to keep both scripture and their divine worship in a
strange language, lest by reading the one, the people should
become wise enough to discover the gross errors and corruptions
of the other. Fifthly, the apostles had the " gift of healing, 11 of
curing diseases without the arts of physic ; the most inveterate
distempers being equally removable by an Almighty power, and
* 1 Cor. xiy. e 1 Cor. siv. 19. 27, 28.
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 131
vanishing at their speaking of a word. This begot an extra-
ordinary veneration for them and their religion among the
common sort of men, who, as they are strongliest moved with
sensible effects, so are most taken with those miracles that are
beneficial to the life of man. Hence the infinite cures done in
every place, God mercifully providing that the body should par-
take with the soul in the advantages of the gospel, the cure of
the one ushering in, many times, the conversion of the other.
This gift was very common in those early days, bestowed not
upon the apostles only, but the ordinary governors of the church,
who were wont " to lay their hands upon the sick," f and some-
times to " anoint them with oil." (a symbolic rite in use among
the Jews, to denote the grace of God,) and " to pray over," and
for " them, in the name of the Lord Jesus," whereby, upon a
hearty confession and forsaking of their sins, both health and
pardon were at once bestowed upon them. How long this gift,
with its appendant ceremony of unction, lasted in the church,
is not easy to determine ; that it was in use inTTertullian^s time, 8
we learn from the instance he gives us of Proculus, a Christian,
who cured the emperor Severus by anointing him with oil ; for
which the emperor had him in great honour, and kept him with
him at court all his life : it afterwards vanishing by degrees, as
all other miraculous powers, as Christianity gained firm footing
in the world. As for extreme unction, so generally maintained
and practised in the church of Borne, nay, and by them made a
sacrament, I doubt it will receive very little countenance from
this primitive usage. Indeed, could they as easily restore sick
men to health, as they can anoint them with oil, I think nobody
would contradict them ; but till they can pretend to the one, I
think it unreasonable they should use the other. The best is,
though founding it upon this apostolical practice, they have
turned it to a quite contrary purpose, instead of recovering men
to life and health, to dispose and fit them for dying, when all
hopes of life are taken from them.
XIII. Sixthly, the apostles were invested with a power of
immediately inflicting corporal punishments upon great and no*
torious sinners ; and this probably is that which he means by
his ivepywara Swa/iew, " operations of powers," or " working
miracles," h which surely cannot be meant of miracles in general,
f Jam. v. 14, 15, 16. * AdScapuL c 4. h I Cor. xii. 10.
k2
Digitized by
132 INTRODUCTION TO THE
being reckoned up amongst the particular gifts of the Holy
Ghost, nor is there any other to which it can with equal pro-
bability refer. A power to inflict diseases upon the body, as
when St. Paul struck Elymas the sorcerer with blindness : and
sometimes extending to the loss of life itself, as in the sad
instance of Ananias and Sapphira. This was the virga apostoliea^
the rod (mentioned by St. Paul 1 ) which the apostles held and
shaked over scandalous and insolent offenders, and sometimes
laid upon them : " What will ye i shall I come to you with a
rod? or in love, and the spirit of meekness ?" Where observe
(says Chrysostom k ) how the apostle tempers his discourse ; the
love and meekness, and his desire to know, argued care and
kindness ; but the rod spake dread and terror : a rod of severity
and punishment, and which sometimes mortally chastised the
offender. Elsewhere he frequently gives intimations of this
power, when he has to deal with stubborn and incorrigible per-
sons : " Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when
your obedience is fulfilled ; for though I should boast something
more of our authority, (which the Lord hath given us for edifi-
cation, and not for your destruction,) I should not be ashamed ;
that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters." 1 And
he again puts them in mind of it at the close of his epistle : " I
told you before, and foretell you as if I were present the second
time, and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore
have sinned, and to all others, that if I come again I will not
spare." 1 " But he hoped these smart warnings would supersede
all farther severity against them : " Therefore I write these
things, being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness,
according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edifica-
tion, and not to destruction." 11 Of this nature was the " deliver-
ing over persons unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh," 0
the chastising the body by some present pain or sickness, " that
the spirit might be saved" by being brought to a seasonable
repentance. Thus he dealt with Hymenaeus and Alexander,
who had " made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience ; he
delivered them unto Satan, that they might learn not to bias-
1 1 Cor. iv. 21.
k Chrysost. Horn. xiv. in I ad Cor. s. 2. vol. x. p. 119. et rid. Hieron. in loc.
1 2 Cor. x. 6, 8, 9. » 2 Cor. xiii. 2. n 2 Cor. xiii. 10.
* 1 Cor. 5. vid. Chrysost et Hieron. in loc.
Digitized by
LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. 133
pheme." p Nothing being more usual in those times than for
persons excommunicate, and cut off from the body of the church,
to be presently arrested by Satan, as the common Serjeant and
executioner, and by him either actually possessed, or tormented
in their bodies by some diseases which he brought upon them.
And indeed this severe discipline was no more than necessary in
those times, when Christianity was wholly destitute of any civil
or coercive power to beget and keep up a due reverence and
regard to the sentence and determinations of the church, and to
secure the laws of religion and the holy censures from being
slighted by every bold and contumacious offender. And this
effect we find it had after the dreadful instance of Ananias and
Sapphira : 44 Great fear came upon all the church, and upon as
many as heard these things.^ To what has been said concerning
these apostolical gifts, let me farther observe, that they had not
only these gifts residing in themselves, but a power to bestow
them upon others, so that by imposition of hands, or upon hear-
ing and embracing the apostles^ doctrine, and being baptized into
the Christian faith, they could confer these miraculous powers
upon persons thus qualified to receive them, whereby they were
in a moment enabled to speak divers languages, to prophesy, to
interpret, and do other miracles, to the admiration and astonish-
ment of all that heard and saw them : a privilege peculiar
to the apostles ; for we do not find that any inferior order
of gifted persons were intrusted with it. And therefore, as
Chrysostom well observes/ though Philip the deacon wrought
great miracles at Samaria, to the conversion of many, yea, to
the conviction of Simon Magus himself, " yet the Holy Ghost
fell upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of
the Lord Jesus," till Peter and John came down to them, who
having " prayed for them that they might receive the Holy
Ghost, they laid their hands upon them, and they received the
Holy Ghost which when the magician beheld, he offered the
apostles money to enable him, that on whomsoever he laid his
hands he might derive these miraculous powers upon them.
XIV. Having seen how fitly furnished the apostles were for
the execution of their office, let us in the last place inquire into
its duration and continuance. And here it must be considered,
p l Tim. i. 20. «» Acts v. 11.
r Chrysost. Horn, xviii. in Act. s. 3. vol. ix. p. 146.
134
INTRODUCTION.
that in the apostolical office there was something extraordinary,
and something ordinary. What was extraordinary was their
immediate commission derived from the mouth of Christ him-
seFP, their unlimited charge to preach the gospel up and down
the world, without being tied to any particular places ; the
supernatural and miraculous powers conferred upon them as
apostles; their infallible guidance in delivering the doctrines
of the gospel ; and these all expired and determined with their
persons. The standing and perpetual part of it was to teach
and instruct the people in the duties and principles of religion,
to administer the sacraments, to constitute guides and officers,
and to exercise the discipline and government of the church :
and in these they are succeeded by the ordinary rulers and ec-
clesiastic guides, who were to superintend and discharge the
affairs and offices of the church, to the end of the world.
Whence it is that bishops and governors came to be styled
apostles, as being their successors in ordinary ; for so they fre-
quently are in the writings of the church. Thus Timothy, who
was bishop of Ephesus, is called an apostle ; 9 Clemens of Borne,
Clemens the apostle ; ' St. Mark, bishop of Alexandria, by Eu-
sebius styled both an apostle and evangelist ; u Ignatius, a bishop
and apostle. x A title that continued in after-ages, especially
given to those that were the first planters or restorers of Chris-
tianity in any country. In the Coptic Kalendar, published by
Mr. Selden, y the seventh day of the month Baschnes, answering
to our second of May, is dedicated to the memory of St. Atha-
nasius the apostle. Acacius and Paulus, in their letter to Epi-
phanius, 2 style him viov airoaroKov zeal /ctfpv/ca, " a new apostle
and preacher and Sidonius Apollinaris,* writing to Lupus,
bishop of Troyes in France, speaks of " the honour due to his
eminent apostleship." An observation which it were easy
enough to confirm by abundant instances, were it either doubt-
ful in itself, or necessary to my purpose ; but being neither, I
forbear.
■ Philostorg. Hist. EccL L iil c. 2. 1 Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. iv. c. 17.
■ Hist. EccL 1. ii. c. 24. s Chrysost Encom. S. Ignat s. 1. toL ii. p. 593.
y De Synedr. L iil c. 15. z Prefix. Oper. de Hares.
* Lit), ep. 4. vid. ep. 7.
THE LIFE OF SAINT PETER.
SECTION I.
OF ST. PETER, FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HIS FIRST COMING TO CHRIST.
Bethsaida, St Peter's birth-place : its dignity of old, and fete at this day. The time of
his birth inquired into. Some errors noted concerning it His names ; Cephas, the
imposing of it notes no superiority over the rest of the apostles. The custom of popes
assuming a new name at their election to the papacy, whence. His kindred and re-
lations ; whether he or Andrew the elder brother. His trade and way of life, what,
before his coming to Christ The Sea of Galilee, and the conveniency of it The
meanness and obscurity of his trade. The remarkable appearances of the Divine Pro-
vidence in propagating Christianity in the world by mean and unlikely instruments.
The land of Palestine was, fit and before the coming of our
blessed Saviour, distinguished into three several provinces,
Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. This last was divided into the
Upper and the Lower. In the Upper, called also Galilee of the
Gentiles, within the division anciently belonging to the tribe of
Naphthali, stood Bethsaida, formerly an obscure and inconsider-
able village, till lately re-edified and enlarged by Philip the
Tetrarch,* by him advanced to the place and title of a city,
replenished with inhabitants, and fortified with power and
strength, and in honour of Julia, the daughter of Augustus
Caesar, by him styled Julias. Situate it was upon the banks of
the Sea of Galilee, and had a wilderness on the other side, thence
called the Desert of Bethsaida, whither our Saviour used often
to retire, the privacies and solitudes of the place advantageously
ministering to divine contemplations. But Bethsaida was not so
remarkable for this adjoining wilderness, as itself was memorable
for a worse sort of barrenness, ingratitude and unprofitableness!
under the influences of Christ's sermons and miracles, thence
severely upbraided by him, and threatened with one of his
* Joseph. Antiq. Jud. L viii c 3.
136
THE LIFE OF
deepest woes, b " Woe unto thee, Chorazin ; woe unto thee, Beth-
saida," &c. A woe that it seems stuck close to it, for whatever
it was at this time, one who surveyed it in the last age tells us, c
that it was shrunk again into a very mean and small village,
consisting only of a few cottages of Moors and wild Arabs ; and
later travellers have since assured us, that even these are
dwindled away into one poor cottage at this day. So fatally
does sin undermine the greatest, the goodliest places; so cer-
tainly does God's word take place, and not one iota, either of his
promises or threatenings, fall to the ground. Next to the honour
that was done it by our Saviour's presence, who living most in
these parts, frequently resorted hither, it had nothing greater to
recommend it to the notice of posterity, than that (besides some
others of the apostles) it was the birth-place of St. Peter; a
person how inconsiderable soever in his private fortunes, yet of
great note and eminency as one of the prime ambassadors of
the Son of God, to whom both sacred and ecclesiastical stories
give, though not a superiority, a precedency in the college of
apostles.
II. The particular time of his birth cannot be recovered, no
probable footsteps or intimations being left of it : in the general
we may conclude him at least ten years elder than his master ;
his married condition, and settled course of life at his first
coming to Christ, and that authority and respect which the
gravity of his person procured him amongst the rest of the
apostles, can speak him no less : but for any thing more particular
and positive in this matter, I see no reason to affirm. Indeed,
might we trust the account which one (who pretends to cal-
culate his nativity with ostentation enough) has given of it, we
are told that he was born three years before the blessed Virgin,
and just seventeen before the incarnation of our Saviour. But
let us view his account. 11
u L ab Orbe cond. ( 4034 ) ( Oct. August ( 8 ) ( Herodis Reg. ) 20
J ^ \ a Diluvio \ 2378 \ Ann. < a 1° ejus consul. \ 24 [ Ann. < ante B. Virg. > a
*|( V. C, ( 734 ) ( a pugna Actiac. ( 12 ) ( ante Cbr. nat ) 17
When I met with such a pompous train of epochas, the least
I expected was truth and certainty- This computation he
grounds upon the date of St. Peters death, placed (as elsewhere
b Matt xi. 21. * J. Cotovic, Itin. Hieros. 1. iii. c. 8,
* Stengel, de S. Petru. c l t
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SAINT PETER.
137
he tells us') by Bellarmine in the eighty-sixth year of his age ;
so that recounting from the year of Christ 69, when Peter is
commonly said to have suffered, he runs up his age to his birth,
and spreads it out into so many several dates. But, alas, all is
built upon a sandy bottom. For besides his mistake about the
year of the world, few of his dates hold due correspondence.
But the worst of it is, that after all this, Bellarmine (upon whose
single testimony all this fine fabric is erected) says no such
thing,' but only supposes, merely for argument's sake, that St.
Peter might very well be eighty-six (it is erroneously printed
seventy-six) years old at the time of his martyrdom. So far
will confidence or ignorance, or both, carry men aside, if it could
be a mistake, and not rather a bold imposing upon the world.
But of this enough, and perhaps more than it deserves.
III. Being circumcised according to the rites of the Mosaic law,
the name given him at his circumcision was Simon or Symeon,
a name common amongst the Jews, especially in their latter
times. This was afterwards by our Saviour not abolished, but
additioned with the title of Cephas, which in Syriac (the vulgar
language of the Jews at that time) signifying a stone or rock,
was thence derived into the Greek, TLkrpos, and by us Peter : so
far was Hesychius out, 8 when rendering nirpo? by 6 y E7n\va>v %
an expounder or interpreter, probably deriving it from *W15),
which signifies to explain and interpret. By this new imposition
our Lord seemed to denote the firmness and constancy of his
faith, and his vigorous activity in building up the church, as a
44 spiritual house" upon the 44 true rock, the living and corner-
stone, chosen of God, and precious," as St. Peter himself ex-
presses it. h Nor can our Saviour be understood to have hereby
conferred upon him any peculiar supremacy or sovereignty above,
much less over, the rest of the apostles ; for in respect of the
great trust committed to them, and their being sent to plant
Christianity in the world, they are all equally styled 44 founda-
tions:"* nor is it accountable either to scripture or reason to
suppose, that by this name our Lord should design the person of
Peter to be that very rock, upon which his church was to be
built. In a fond imitation of this new name given to St. Peter, j
• Stengel, de S. Petro. c. 49. f Bellarm, de Rom. Pontif. L ii. c 9.
* Hesych. in toc. Tlerpos, h 1 Pet ii 4, 5, 6. » Rev. xxi. 14,
j Pap. Maeson. de Episc Urb. in Serg. iv. foL 172. p. 2. ex AnnaL Vict
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those who pretend to be his successors in the see of Borne,
usually lay by their own, and assume a new name upon their
advancement to the apostolic chair, it being one of the first
questions which the cardinals put to the new-elected pope, k " by
what name he will please to be called." This custom first began
about the year 844, when Peter di Bocca-Porco (or Swine V
mouth) being chosen pope, changed his name into Sergius the
Second : probably not so much to avoid the uncomeliness of his
own name, as if unbefitting the dignity of his place, (for this
being but his paternal name would after have been no part of
his pontifical style and title,) as out of a mighty reverence to
St. Peter, accounting himself not worthy to bear his name,
though it was his own baptismal name. Certain it is, that none
of the bishops of that see ever assumed St. Peters name, and
some who have had it as their Christian name before, have laid
it aside upon their election to the papacy. But to return to our
apostle.
IV. His father was Jonah, probably a fisherman of Bethsaida,
for the sacred story takes no further notice of him, than by the
bare mention of his name; and I believe there had been no
great danger of mistake, though Metaphrastes had not told us 1
that it was not Jonas the prophet, who came out of the belly of
the whale. Brother he was to St. Andrew the apostle, and
some question there is amongst the ancients which was the elder
brother. Epiphanius (probably from some tradition current in
his time) clearly adjudges it to St. Andrew, m herein universally
followed by those of the church of Home, that the precedency
given to St. Peter may not seem to be put upon the account of
his seniority. But to him we may oppose the authority of
St. Chrysostom, 0 a person equal both in time and credit, who
expressly says, that though Andrew came later into life than
Peter, yet he first brought him to the knowledge of the gospel,
which Baronius, against all pretence of reason, would understand
of his entering into eternal life. Besides St. Hierom,° Cassian, p
Bede, q and others, are for St. Peter being elder brother, ex-
k Sac Cerem. Eccles. Rom. sect. 1. foL 18.
1 Com. de Petr. et Paul, apud Sur. ad diem 29 Jun. m H acres, li. c 17.
b germ, de S. Andr. quern recitat Metaphrast ap. Sur. seu potius, Lippoman. vol vl
▼id. Baron, not ad Martyrol. Noremb. 30. p. 737.
• Hieron. lib. i. adx. Jovin. voL iv. par. ii. p. 168.
p Cassian. de Incarn. Dom. L in. e. 12. ? Bed. Comment, in tap. i. Joan.
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SAINT PETER.
189
pressly ascribing it to his age, that he, rather than any other,
was president of the college of the apostles. However it was,
it sounds not a little to the honour of their father, (as of Zebedee
also in the like case,) that of but twelve apostles two of his sons
were taken into the number. In his youth he was brought up
to fishing", which we may guess^to have been the staple-trade of
Bethsaida, (which hence, probably, borrowed its name, signifying
an house or habitation of fishing, though others render it by
hunting, the word ITT¥ equally being either,) much advantaged
herein by the neighbourhood of the Lake of Gennesareth, (on
whose banks it stood,) called also the Sea of Galilee, and the
Sea of Tiberias, according to the mode of the Hebrew language,
wherein all great confluences of waters are called seas. Of this
lake the Jews have a saying/ that "of all the seven seas which
God created, he made choice of none but the Sea of Gennesareth :
which however intended by them, is true only in this respect,
that our blessed Saviour made choice of it, to honour it with
the frequency of his presence, and the power of his miraculous
operations. In length it was an hundred furlongs, and about
forty over; 8 the water of it pure and clear, sweet and most fit
to drink ; stored it was with several sorts of fish, and those dif-
ferent both in kind and taste from those in other places. Here
it was that Peter closely followed the exercise of his calling ;
from whence it seems he afterwards removed to Capernaum/
(probably upon his marriage, at least frequently resided there,)
for there we meet with his house, and there we find him paying
tribute: an house over which, Nicephorus tells us, u that Helen,
the mother of Gonstantine, erected a beautiful church to the
honour of St. Peter. This place was equally advantageous for
the managery of his trade, standing upon the influx of Jordan
into the Sea of Galilee, and where he might as well reap the
fruits of an honest and industrious diligence. A mean, I con-
fess, it was, and a more servile course of life, as which, besides
the great pains and labour it required, exposed him to all the
injuries of ^vind and weather, to the storms of the sea, the dark-
ness and tempestuousness of the night, and all to make a very
small return: an employment, whose restless troubles, constant
r Midr. Tiffin. foL 41. ap. Light£ Cent Chorogiaph. in Matth. c. 70. p. 131.
• Joseph, de BelL Jud. L iii. c. 35. 1 Matth. viii. 1 4. rrii. 24.
■ Hiit Eccl. 1. viii. c. 30.
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hardships, frequent dangers, and amazing horrors, are (for the
satisfaction of the learned reader) thus elegantly described by
one whose poems may be justly styled golden verses, receiving
from the emperor Antoninus a piece of gold for every verse. x
TXrjanrovot? 8' aXtevaiv aretcfiapTOi fiev ae0\oi,
'E\ttU 8' ov (rraOeptj aalvet <f>peva$ fjir ovetpos,
Ov yap aKwrjTov yalrj? virep aOXevovavv '
alel Kpvepcp re ical aa^era fiapyalvovrc
"TSaTi av/A<f)opeovTai, b ical yalrjOev ISeaOai
Aet^a <f>epei, teal /jlovvov vtt ofifiaat, ireipr\aaaQai. .
Aovpaai V ev fiaiolaiv aeWdwv depairovres
n\a£6fievoi, /cal Ovjjlov iv olB/JLaaiv alev l^orre?,
Alel fiev ve<f>e\rjv iocSea irairralvovaLv '
Alel Tpofieovau fieXacvofievov irbpov aXfirj? '
OvSi ti <j>oiTa\ea)v avifjucov tricktra^ ovSe riv o/j,/3pa>v
*A\kyiv ' ov 7rupo9 ak/cap oiraypLvolo <f>epovrai.
But meanness is no bar in God^s way : the poor, if virtuous, are
as dear to heaven as the wealthy and the honourable, equally
alike to him, with whom " there is no respect of persons." Nay,
our Lord seemed to cast a peculiar honour upon this profession,
when afterwards calling him and some others of the same trade
from catching of fish, to be (as he told them) " fishers of men."
V. And here we may justly reflect upon the wise and ad-
mirable methods of the Divine Providence, which, in planting
and propagating the Christian religion in the world, made choice
of such mean and unlikely instruments, that he should hide these
things from the wise and prudent, and reveal them unto babes,
men that had not been educated in the academy and the schools
of learning, but brought up to a trade, to catch fish and mend
nets ; most of the apostles being taken from the meanest trades,
and all of them (St. Paul excepted) unfurnished of all arts of
learning, and the advantages of liberal and ingenuous education :
and yet these were the men that were designed to run down
the world, and to overturn the learning of the prudent. . Certainly
had human wisdom been to manage the business, it would have
taken quite other measures, and chosen out the profoundest
rabbins, the acutest philosophers, the smoothest orators; such
as would have been most likely, by strength of reason and arts
* Oppian. 'AAttvr. BiQ\. a\ non longe ab init.
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141
of rhetoric, to have triumphed over the minds of men, to grapple
with the stubbornness of the Jews, and baffle the finer notions
and speculations of the Greeks. We find that those sects of
philosophy that gained most credit in the heathen world, did it
this way, by their eminency in some arts and sciences, whereby
they recommended themselves to the acceptance of the wiser
and more ingenious part of mankind. J ulian the Apostate thinks
it a reasonable exception against the Jewish prophets/ that they
were incompetent messengers and interpreters of the divine
will, because they had not their minds cleared and purged, by
passing through the circle of polite arts and learning. Why,
now, this is the wonder of it, that the first preachers of the
gospel should be such rude unlearned men, and yet so suddenly,
so powerfully prevail over the learned world, and conquer so
many, who had the greatest parts and abilities, and the strongest
prejudices against it, to the simplicity of the gospel. When
Celsus objected that the apostles were but a company of mean
and illiterate persons, sorry mariners and fishermen, Origen
quickly returns upon him with this answer: 8 "That hence it
was plainly evident, that they taught Christianity by a divine
power, when such persons were able, with such an uncontrolled
success, to subdue men to the obedience of his word ; for that
they had no eloquent tongues, no subtle and discursive head, none
of the refined and rhetorical arts of Greece, to conquer the minds
of men." " For my part, (says he, in another place, 8 ) 1 verily
believe that the holy Jesus purposely made use of such preachers
of his doctrine, that there might be no suspicion that they came
instructed with arts of sophistry ; but that it might be clearly
manifest to all the world, that there was no crafty design in it,
and that they had a divine power going along with them,* which
was more efficacious than the greatest volubility of expression,
or ornaments of speech, or the artifices which were used in the
Grecian compositions."" Had it not been for this divine power
that upheld it, (as he elsewhere argues, b ) the Christian religion
must needs have sunk under those weighty pressures that lay
upon it ; having not only to contend with the potent opposition
of the senate, emperors, people, and the whole power of the
Soman empire, but to conflict with those homebred wants and
y Fragm. Epist. vol. i. p. 541. * Contr. Cels. lib. i. s. 62.
* Lib. Hi. s. 39. b Lib. i. 8. 3.
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necessities, wherewith its own professors were oppressed and
burthened.
VI. It could not but greatly vindicate the apostles from all
suspicion of forgery and imposture in the thoughts of sober and
unbiassed persons, to see their doctrine readily entertained by
men of the most discerning and inquisitive minds. Had they
dealt only with the rude and the simple, the idiot and the un-
learned, there might have been some pretence to suspect, that
they lay in wait to deceive, and designed to impose upon the
world by crafty and insinuative arts and methods. But, alas !
they had other persons to deal with ; men of the acutest wits
and most profound abilities, the wisest philosophers, and most
subtle disputants, able to weigh an argument with the greatest
accuracy, and to decline the force of the strongest reasonings,
and who had their parts edged with the keenest prejudices of
education, and a mighty veneration for the religion of their
country ; a religion that for so many ages had governed the world,
and taken firm possession of the minds of men. And yet, not-
withstanding all these disadvantages, these plain men conquered
the wise and the learned, and brought them over to that doctrine
that was despised and scorned, opposed and persecuted, and that
had nothing but its own native excellency to recommend it : a
clear evidence that there was something in it beyond the craft
and power of men. " Is not this (says an elegant apologist, 6
making his address to the heathens) enough to make you believe
and entertain it, to consider that in so short a time it has dif-
fused itself over the whole world, civilized the most barbarous
nations, softened the roughest and most intractable tempers; that
the greatest wits and scholars, orators, grammarians, rhetoricians,
lawyers, physicians, and philosophers, have quitted their formerly
dear and beloved sentiments, and heartily embraced the precepts
and doctrines of the gospel V Upon this account Theodoret
does with no less truth than elegancy insult and triumph over
the heathens : d he tells them, that whoever would be at the pains
to compare the best law-makers, either among the Greeks or
Romans, with our fishermen and publicans, would soon perceive
what a divine virtue and efficacy there was in them above all
others, whereby they did not only conquer their neighbours, not
c Arnob. adv. Gent lib. ii p. 21.
d De CurancL Graec. Affect Serm. ix. de Leg.
SAINT PETER.
143
only the Greeks and Romans, but brought over the most barbarous
nations to a compliance with the laws of the gospel ; and that,
not by force of arms, not by numerous bands of soldiers, 8 not by
methods of torture and cruelty, but by meek persuasives, and a
convincing the world of the excellency and usefulness of those
laws which they propounded to them : a thing which the wisest
and best men of the heathen world could never do, to make their
dogmata and institutions universally obtain; nay, that Plato
himself could never, by all his plausible and insinuative arts,
make his laws to be entertained by his own dear Athenians/
He farther shews them, g that the laws published by our fisher-
men and tent-makers could never be abolished (like those made
by the best amongst them) by the policies of Caius, the power
of Claudius, the cruelties of Nero, or any of the succeeding em-
perors ; but still they went on conquering and to conquer, and
made millions, both of men and women, willing to embrace
flames, and to encounter death in its most horrid shapes, rather
than disown and forsake them: h whereof he calls to witness
those many churches and monuments every where erected to the
memory of Christian martyrs, no less to the honour than ad-
vantage of those cities and countries, and in some sense to all
mankind.
VII. The sum of the discourse is, in the apostle's words, 1 that
"God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
the weak to confound those that are mighty ; the base things of
the world, things most vilified and despised, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to nought things that are.'" These were
the things, these the persons, whom God sent upon this errand,
to silence the " wise, the scribe, and the disputer of this world ;
and to make foolish the wisdom of this world." k For though
"the Jews required a sign, and the Greeks sought after wisdom,
though the preaching a crucified Saviour was a scandal to the
Jews, and foolishness to the (learned) Grecians, yet by this
foolishness of preaching God was pleased to save them that be-
lieved and in the event made it appear that " the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger
than men." That so the honour of all might entirely redound
« Dc Curand. Graec Affect Serai, ix. de Leg. p. 125. f Ibid. p. 128.
* Ibid. p. 126. >» Ibid. p. 135.
» 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. * 1 Cor. i 22, 28, 24.
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to himself, so the apostle concludes, " that no flesh should glory
in his presence, but that he that glorieth, should glory in the
OP ST. PETER, FROM HIS FIRST COMING TO CHRIST TILL HIS BEING
Peter, before his coming to Christ, a disciple, (probably) of John the Baptist. His first
approaches to Christ Our Lord's communication with him. His return to his trade.
Christ's entering into Peter's ship, and preaching to the people at the Sea of Galilee.
The miraculous draught of fishes. Peter's great astonishment at this evidence of our
Lord's divinity. His call to be a disciple. Christ's return to Capernaum, and healing
Peter's mother-in-law.
Though we find not whether Peter, hefore his coming to Christ,
was engaged in any of the particular sects at this time in the
Jewish church, yet it is greatly probahle, that he was one of the
disciples of John the Baptist. For, first, it is certain that his
brother Andrew was so, and we can hardly think these two
brothers should draw contrary ways, or that he, who was so
ready to bring his brother the early tidings of the Messiah, that
the " Sun of righteousness " was already risen in those parts,
should not be as solicitous to bring him under the discipline and
influences of J ohn the Baptist, the day-star that went before him.
Secondly* Peter's forwardness and curiosity at the first news of
Christ's appearing, to come to him, and converse with him, shew
that his expectations had been awakened, and some light in this
matter conveyed to him by the preaching and ministry of John,
who was " the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye
1 the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," shewing them
who it was that was coming after him.
II. His first acquaintance with Christ commenced in this
manner. The blessed Jesus having for thirty years passed
through the solitudes of a private life, had lately been baptized
in Jordan* and there publicly owned to be the Son of God,
by the most solemn attestations that heaven could give him ;
1 Isti primi vocati sunt, ut Doroinum sequerentur : piscatores et illiterati mittuntur
ad praedicandum, ne fides credentium non virtute Dei, sed eloquentia atque doctrina fieri
putarentur. Hieron. comm. in Matt c. iv.
Lord."'
SECTION II.
CALLED TO BE A DISCIPLE.
SAINT PETER.
145
whereupon he was immediately hurried into the wilderness to a
personal contest with the devil for forty days together. So na-
tural is it to the enemy of mankind to malign our happiness,
and to seek to blast our joys, when we are under the highest in-
stances of the divine grace and favour. His enemy being con-
quered in three set battles, and fled, he returned hence, and
came down to Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was bap-
tizing his proselytes, and endeavouring to satisfy the Jews, who
had sent to him curiously to inquire concerning this new Messiah
that appeared among them. Upon the great testimony which
the Baptist gave him, and his pointing to our Lord then passing
by him,* two of John's disciples, who were then with him, pre-
sently followed after Christ, one of which was Andrew, Simon's
brother. It was towards evening when they came, and there-
fore, probably, they stayed with him all night, during which
Andrew had opportunity to inform himself, and to satisfy his
most scrupulous inquiries. Early the next morning (if not that
very evening) he hastened to acquaint his brother Simon with
these glad tidings. It is not enough to be good and happy
alone ; religion is a communicative principle, that, like the circles
in the water, delights to multiply itself, and to diffuse its in-
fluences round about it, and especially upon those whom nature
has placed nearest to us. b He tells him, they had found the
long-looked-for Messiah, him whom Moses and the prophets had
so signally foretold, and whom all the devout and pious of that
nation had so long expected.
III. Simon, (one of those who "looked for the kingdom of
God," and " waited for the redemption of Israel,") ravished with
this joyful news, and impatient of delay, presently follows his
brother to the place : whither he was no sooner come, but our
Lord, to give him an evidence of his divinity, 0 salutes him at
first sight by name, tells him what and who he was both as to
his name and kindred, what title should be given him, that he
should be called Cephas, or Peter ; a name which he afterwards
actually conferred upon him. What passed farther between
them, and whether these two brothers henceforward personally
attended our Saviour's motions in the number of his disciples,
» John i. 37.
b Vid. Comm. dc S. Andr. in Menais Grsecor. fifity. A'. Noefipp. sub. lit V.
« John i. 42.
L
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the sacred story leaves us in the dark. It seems probable, that
they stayed with him for some time, till they were instructed
in the first rudiments of his doctrine, and by his leave departed
home. For it is reasonable to suppose, that our Lord being un-
willing, at this time especially, to awaken the jealousies of the
state by a numerous retinue, might dismiss his disciples for some
time, and Peter and Andrew amongst the rest, who hereupon
returned home to the exercise of their calling, where he found
them afterwards.
IV. It was now somewhat more than a year since our Lord,
having entered upon the public stage of action, constantly
"went about doing 7 good, healing the sick, and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom," 11 residing usually at Capernaum, and the
parts about it ; where, by the constancy of his preaching and
the reputation of his miracles, his fame spread about all those
countries, by means whereof multitudes of people from all parts
flocked to him, greedily desirous to become his auditors. And
what wonder if the parched and barren earth thirsted for the
showers of heaven ? It happened that our Lord retiring out of
the city, to enjoy the privacies of contemplation upon the banks
of the Sea of Galilee, it was not long before the multitude found
him out ; to avoid the crowd and press whereof he stepped into a
ship, or fisher-boat,° that lay near to the shore, which belonged
to Peter, who together with his companions, after a tedious and
unsuccessful night, were gone ashore to wash and dry their nets.
He, who might have commanded, was yet pleased to entreat
Peter (who by this time was returned into his ship) to put a
little from the shore. Here being sat, he taught the people,
who stood along upon the shore to hear him. Sermon ended,
he resolved to seal up his doctrine with a miracle, that the
people.might be the more effectually convinced, that "he was a
teacher come from God." To this purpose, he bade Simon
launch out farther, and cast his net into the sea: Simon tells
hjm, they had done it already; that they had been fishing all the
last night, but in vain ; and if they could not succeed then, (the
most proper season for that employment,) there was less hope to
speed now, it being probably about noon. But because where
God commands, it is not for any to argue, but obey; at our
Lord's instance he let down the net, which immediately inclosed
n Matth. iv. 23.
° Luke v. I.
SAINT PETER.
147
so great a multitude of fishes, that the net began to break, and
they were forced to call to their partners, who were in a ship
hard by them, to come in to their assistance. A draught so
great, that it loaded both their boats, and that so fall, that it
endangered their sinking before they could get safe to shore:
an instance wherein our Saviour gave an ocular demonstration
that, as Messiah, God had " put all things under his feet, not
only fowls of the air, bat the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passed through the paths of the seas." p
V. Amazed they were all at this miraculous draught of fishes,
whereupon Simon, in an ecstacy of admiration, and a mixture of
humility and fear, threw himself at the feet of Christ, and
prayed him to depart from him, as a vile and a sinful person.
So evident were the appearances of divinity in this miracle, that
he was overpowered and dazzled with its brightness and lustre,
and reflecting upon himself, could not but think himself un-
worthy the presence of so great a person, so immediately sent
from God; and considering his own state, (conscience being
hereby more sensibly awakened,) was afraid that the divine
vengeance might pursue and overtake him. But our Lord, to
abate the edge of his fears, assures him that this miracle was
not done to amaze and terrify him, but to strengthen and con-
firm his faith ; that now he had nobler work and employment
for him; instead of "catching fish,"" he should, by persuading
men to the obedience of the gospel, " catch the souls of men
and accordingly commanded him and his brother to follow him,
(the same command which presently after he gave to the two
sons of Zebedee.) The word was no sooner spoken, and they
landed, but disposing their concerns in the hands of friends, (as
we may presume prudent and reasonable men would,) they im-
mediately left all, and followed him ; and from this time Peter
and the rest became his constant and inseparable disciples, living
under the rules of his discipline and institutions.
VI. From hence they returned to Capernaum, where our
Lord entering into Simon's house (the place, in all likelihood,
where he was wont to lodge during his residence in that city,)
found his mother-in-law visited with a violent fever. q No privi-
leges afford an exemption from the ordinary laws of human
nature; Christ, under her. roof, did not protect this woman from
P Ps. viii. 6, 7, 8. 1 Matt viii. 14. Mark I 29. Luke iv. 38. John xi. 3.
L2
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the assaults and invasions of a fever. " Lord, behold, he whom
thou lovest is sick," as they said concerning Lazarus. Here a
fresh opportunity offered itself to Christ of exerting his divine
power. No sooner was he told of it, but he came to her bed-
side, rebuked the paroxisms, commanded the fever to be gone,
and, taking her by the hand to lift her up, in a moment restored
her to perfect health, and ability to return to the business of her
family, all cures being equally easy to Omnipotence.
OP ST. PETER, FROM HIS ELECTION TO THE APOSTOLATE TILL THE
Tlie election of the apostles ; and our Lord's solemn preparation for it The powers and
commission given to them. Why twelve chosen. Peter the first in order, not power.
The apostles, when and by whom baptized. The tradition of Euodius, of Peter's being
immediately baptized by Christ, rejected, and its authorities proved insufficient.
Three of the apostles more intimately conversant with our Saviour. Peter's being
with Christ at the raising Jairus's daughter. His walking with Christ upon the sea.
The creatures at God's command act contrary to their natural inclinations. The
weakness of Peter's faith. Christ's power in commanding down the storm, an evidence
of his divinity. Many disciples desert our Saviour's preaching. Peter's profession of
constancy in the name of the rest of the apostles.
Our Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons, as his im-
mediate vicegerents upon earth, to whose care and trust he
might commit the building up of his church, and the planting
that religion in the world for which he himself came down from
heaven ; in order to it he privately over-night withdrew himself
into a solitary mountain/ (commonly called "the mount of
Christ," from his frequent repairing thither, though some of the
ancients will have it to be mount Tabor,) there to make his so-
lemn address to heaven for a prosperous success on so great a
work. Hereim leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the
governors of his church, how to proceed in setting apart persons
to so weighty and difficult an employment. Upon this mountain
we may conceive there was an oratory, or place of prayer, (pro-
bably intimated by St. Luke's f] irpoaevj(ri^ such proseuchas,
or houses of prayer, usually uncovered, and standing in the fields,
r Luke *L 12.
SECTION III.
CONFESSION WHICH HE MADE OP CHRIST.
SAINT PETER.
149
the Jews had in several places,) wherein our Lord continued all
night, not in one continued and entire act of devotion, but pro-
bably by intervals and repeated returns of duty.
II. Early the next morning his disciples came to him, out of
whom he made choice of twelve to be his apostles, 8 that they
might be the constant attendants upon his person, to hear, his
discourses, and be eyewitnesses of his miracles ; to be always
conversant with him while he was upon earth, and afterwards
to be sent abroad up and down the world, to carry on that work
which he himself had begun ; whom therefore he invested with
the power of working miracles, which was more completely con-
ferred upon them after his ascension into heaven. Passing by
the seveTal fancies and conjectures of the ancients, why our
Saviour pitched upon the just number of twelve, (whereof be-
fore,) it may deserve to be considered, whether our Lord being
now to appoint the supreme officers and governors of his church,
which the apostle styles, the "commonwealth of Israel,"' might
not herein have a more peculiar allusion to the twelve patriarchs,
as founders of their several tribes, or to the constant heads and
rulers of those twelve tribes of which the body of the Jewish
nation did consist : especially since he himself seems elsewhere
to give countenance to it, when he tells the apostles, that " when
the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory," that is, be
gone back to heaven, and have taken full possession of his evan-
gelical kingdom, which principally commenced from his resur-
rection, that then " they also should sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel," that is, they should have
great powers and authorities in the church, such as the power of
the keys, and other rights of spiritual judicature and sovereignty,
answerable in some proportion to the power and dignity which
the heads and rulers of the twelve tribes of Israel did enjoy.
III. In the enumeration of these twelve apostles, all the
evangelists constantly place St. Peter in the front ; and St.
Matthew expressly tells us, x that he was the first, that is, he was
the first that was called to be an apostle : his age also, and the
gravity of his person, more particularly qualifying him for a pri-
macy of order amongst the rest of the apostles, as that without
which no society of men can be managed or maintained. Less
• Matt x. 1. Mark iii. 14. Luke ri. 13. 4 Ephet. ii. 12.
u Matt. xix. 28. * Matt x. 2.
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than this, as none will deny him, so more than this, neither
scripture nor primitive antiquity do allow him. And now it was
that our Lord actually conferred that name upon him, which
before he had promised him; ** Simon he surnamed Peter." y It
may here be inquired, when and by whom the apostles were
baptized. That they were is unquestionable, being themselves
appointed to confer it upon others; but when, or how, the
scripture is altogether silent. Nicephorus, 1 from no worse an
author, as he pretends, than Euodius, St. Peter's immediate
successor in the see of Antioch, tells us, that of all the apostles
Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands ; that Peter
baptized Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee, and they the
rest of the apostles. This, if so, would greatly make for the
honour of St. Peter ; but, alas, his authority is not only sus-
picious, but supposititious, in a manner deserted by St. Peters
best friends, and the strongest champions of his cause ; Baronius
himself, however sometimes willing to make use of him, a else-
where confessing, 5 that this epistle of Euodius is altogether un-
known to any of the ancients. As for the testimony of Clemens j
Alexandrinus, which to the same purpose he quotes out of
Sophronius, c (though not Sophronius, but Johannes Moschus, as
is notoriously known, is the author of that book,) besides that
it is delivered upon an uncertain report, pretended to have been
alleged in a discourse between one Dionysius, bishop of Ascalon,
and his clergy, out of a book of Clemens, not now extant ; his
authors are much alike, that is, of no great value and authority.
IV. Amongst these apostles our Lord chose a triumvirate,
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, to be his more intimate
companions, whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest
unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his life ;
the first instance of which was on this occasion : d Jairus, a ruler
of the synagogue, had a daughter desperately sick, whose
disease having baffled all the arts of physic, was only curable
by the immediate agency of the God of nature. He there-
fore, in all humility, addresses himself to our Saviour; which
he had no sooner done, but servants came post to tell him, that
y Mark iii. H>. • 2 Hist Eccl. 1. ii. c. 3.
a Ad Ann. 31. num. 40. b Ad Ann. 71. num. 13.
c Vid. Jos. Moschi Prat. Spir. cap. 176. BibL patr. Gr. Lat. vol. ii. p. 1 133. ed. 1624.
J Mark v. '2'2.
SAINT PETER.
it was in vain to trouble our Lord, for that his daughter was
dead. Christ bids him not despond ; if his faith held out, there
was no danger: and suffering none to follow him but Peter,
James, and John, goes along with him to the house, where he
was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours, for telling
them that she was not perfectly dead : but our Lord entering
in, with the commanding efficacy of two words, restored her at
once both to life and perfect health.
V. Our Lord after this preached many sermons, and wrought
many miracles ; amongst which, none more remarkable than his
feeding a multitude of five thousand men, e besides women and
children, with but five loaves and two fishes ; of which, never-
theless, twelve baskets of fragments were taken up : which being
done, and the multitude dismissed, he commanded the apostles
to take ship, it being now near night, and to cross over to
Capernaum, whilst he himself, as his* manner was, retired to a
neighbouring mountain to dispose himself to prayer and con-
templation. The apostles were scarce got into the middle of the
sea, when on a sudden a violent storm and tempest began to
arise, whereby they were brought into present danger of their
lives. Our Saviour, who knew how the case stood with them,
and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears,
having himself caused this tempest for the greater trial of their
faith, a little before morning (for so long they remained in this
imminent danger) immediately conveyed himself upon the sea,
where the waves received him, being proud to carry their master.
He who refused to gratify the devil, when tempting him to
throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, did here
commit himself to a boisterous and unstable element, and that
in a violent storm, walking upon the water as if it had been dry
ground. But that infinite power that made and supports the
world, as it gave rules to all particular beings, so can, when it
pleaseth, countermand the laws of their creation, &nd make them
act contrary to their natural inclinations. If Ood say the word,
the sun will stand still in the middle of the heavens ; if, Go back,
it will retrocede, as upon the dial of Ahaz : if he command it,
the heavens will become as brass, and the earth as iron, and that
for three years and a half together, as in the case of Elijah's
prayer; if he say to the sea, Divide, it will run upon heaps, and
« Matt. xiv. 17.
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become on both sides as firm as a wall of marble. Nothing can
be more natural than for the fire to burn, and yet at God's com-
mand it will forget its nature, and become a screen and a fence
to the three children in the Babylonian furnace. What heavier
than iron, or more natural than for gravity to tend downwards !
and yet, when God will have it, iron shall float like cork on the
top of the water. The proud and raging sea, that naturally
refuses to bear the bodies of men while alive, became here as
firm as brass when commanded to wait upon and do homage to
the God of nature. Our Lord walking towards the ship, as if
he had an intention to pass by it, was espied by them, who
presently thought it to be the apparition of a spirit. Hereupon
they were seized with great terror and consternation, and their
fears, in all likelihood, heightened by the vulgar opinion, that
they are evil spirits that choose rather to appear in the night
than by day. While they were in this agony, our Lord, taking
compassion on them, calls to them, and bids them not be afraid,
for that it was no other than he himself. Peter (the eagerness
of whose temper carried him forward to all bold and resolute
undertakings) entreated our Lord, that if it was he, he might
have leave to come upon the water to him. Having received
his orders, he went out of the ship, and walked upon the sea to
meet his master; but when he found the wind to bear hard
against him, and the waves to rise round about him, whereby,
probably, the sight of Christ was intercepted, he began to be
afraid ; and the higher his fears arose, the lower his faith began
to sink, and, together with that, his body began to sink under
water : whereupon, in a passionate fright, he cried out to our
Lord to help him, who, reaching out his arm, took him by the
hand, and set him again upon the top of the water, with this
gentle reproof, "0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt 2" it being the weakness of our faith that makes the in-
fluences of the divine power and goodness to have no better
effect upon us. Being come to the ship, they took them in,
where our Lord no sooner arrived, but the winds and waves,
observing their duty to their sovereign Lord, and having done
the errand which they came upon, mannerly departed, and
vanished away, and the ship in an instant was at the shore.
All that were in the ship being strangely astonished at this
miracle, and fully convinced of the divinity of his person, came
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153
and did homage to him, with this confession, " Of a truth thou
art the Son of God :* after which they went ashore, and landed
in the country of Gennesareth, and there more fully acknow-
ledged him before all the people.
VI. The next day, great multitudes flocking after him, he
entered into a synagogue at Capernaum,' and taking occasion
from the late miracle of the loaves, which he had wrought
amongst them, he began to discourse concerning himself as the
" true manna, 1 ' and the " bread that came down from heaven
largely opening to them many of the more *sublime and spiritual
mysteries, and the necessary and important duties of the gospel.
Hereupon a great part of his auditory, who had hitherto followed
him, finding their understandings gravelled with these difficult
and uncommon notions, and that the duties he required were
likely to grate hard upon^them, and perceiving now that he was
not the Messiah they took him for, whose kingdom should con-
sist in an external grandeur and plenty, but was to be managed
and transacted in a more inward and spiritual way, hereupon
fairly left him in open field, and henceforth quite turned their
backs upon him. Whereupon our Lord, turning about to his
apostles, asked them, whether " they also would go away from
him r Peter (spokesman generally for all the rest) answered,
Whither should they go to mend and better their condition!
should they return back to Moses ? Alas ! he " laid a yoke upon
them, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.'"
Should they go to the Scribes and Pharisees ? they would feed
them with stones instead of bread, obtrude human traditions
upon them for divine dictates and commands. Should they be-
take themselves to the philosophers amongst the Gentiles? they
were miserably blind and short-sighted in their notions of things,
and their sentiments and opinions not only different from, but
contrary to one another. No, it was " he only had the words of
eternal life, 11 whose doctrine could instruct them in the plain way
to heaven ; that they had fully assented to what both John and
he had said concerning himself; that they were fully persuaded,
both from the efficacy of his sermons, which they had heard, and
the powerful conviction of his miracles, which they had seen, that
he was " the Son of the living God, 11 the true Messiah and Saviour
of the world. But notwithstanding this fair and plausible testi-
John vi. 24.
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mooy, he tells them, that they were not all of this mind ; that
there was a Satan amongst them, one that was moved by the
spirit and impulse, and that acted according to the rules and
interest of the devil ; intimating J udas who should betray him.
So hard is it to meet with a body of so just and pure a consti-
tution, wherein some rotten member or distempered part is not
to be found.
SECTION IV.
OF ST. PETER, FROM THE TIME OF HIS CONFESSION TILL OUR
LORDS LAST PASSOVER.
Our Saviour's journey with his apostles to Caesarea. The opinions of the people con-
cerning him. Peter's eminent confession of Christ, and our Lord's great commen-
dation of it " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock," &c The keys of the- kingdom
of heaven, how given. The advantage the church of Rome makes of these passages.
This confession made by Peter in the name of the rest, and by others before him. No
personal privilege intended to St Peter : the same things elsewhere promised to the
other apostles. Our Lord's discourse concerning his passion. Peter's unseasonable
zeal in dissuading him from it, and our Lord's severe rebuking him. Christ's trans-
figuration, and the glory of it : Peter, how affected with it Peter's paying tribute for
Christ and himself! This tribute, what Our Saviour's discourse upon it Offending
brethren, how oft to be forgiven. The young man commanded to sell all. What
compensation made to the followers of Christ Our Lord's triumphant entrance into
Jerusalem. Preparation made to keep the passover.
It was some time since our Saviour had kept his third passover
at Jerusalem, when he directed his journey towards Caesarea
Philippi ; * where, by the way, having like a careful master of his
family first prayed with his apostles, he began to ask them
(having been more than two years publicly conversant amongst
them) what the world thought concerning him 2 They answered,
that the opinions of men about him were various and different ;
that some took him for John the Baptist, lately risen from the
dead, between whose doctrine, discipline, and way of life, in the
main, there was so great a correspondence. That others thought
be was Elias ; probably judging so from the gravity of his person,
freedom of his preaching, the fame and reputation of his miracles,
especially since the scriptures assured them he was not dead, but
taken up into heaven; and had so expressly foretold that he
« Mark viii. 27. Matt xvi. 21. Luke ix. 18.
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should return back again. That others looked upon him as the
prophet Jeremiah alive again, of whose return the Jews had
great expectations, insomuch that some of them thought the soul
of Jeremiah was reinspired into Zacharias. Or if not thus, at
least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient pro-
phets, or that the souls of some of these persons had been breathed
into him ; the doctrine of the fierefiyfrv^eoaL^ or " transmigration
of souls," first broached and propagated by Pythagoras, being at
this time current amongst the Jews, and owned by the Pharisees
as one of their prime notions and principles.
II. This account not sufficing, our Lord comes closer and
nearer to them; tells them, it was no wonder if the common people
were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him ; but since
they had been always with him, had been hearers of his sermons,
and spectators of his miracles, he inquired, what they themselves
thought of him ? Peter, ever forward to return an answer, and
therefore by the fathers frequently styled, 46 the mouth of the
apostles," h told him, in the name of the rest, that he was the
Messiah, " the Son of the living God," promised of old in the law
and the prophets, heartily desired and looked for by all good
men, anointed and set apart by God to be the King, Priest, and
Prophet of his people. To this excellent and comprehensive con-
fession of St. Peter's, our Lord returns this great eulogy and
commendation : u Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven." That is, this faith which thou hast now confessed, is
not human, contrived by man's wit, or built upon his testimony,
but upon those notions and principles which I was sent by God
to reveal to the world, and those mighty and solemn attestations
which he has given from heaven to the truth both of my person
and my doctrine. And because thou hast so freely made this
confession, therefore " I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it." That is, that as thy name signifies
a stone or rock, such shalt thou thyself be ; firm, solid, and im-
movable, in building of the church, which shall be so orderly
erected by thy care and diligence, and so firmly founded upon
h Tb ffT6fia twv h.iroirr6\<av 6 Tl&pos, 6 xavraxov depths, 6 rod x°P°v T « y faro<rr6\(av
Kopwf>aios, irimwv ipccTrjOeuTuu, afobs faroKplutrai. Cbrysost in Matt. Horn. liv. (aL
lv.) s. 1. vol vii. p. 54b".
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that faith which thou hast now confessed, that all the assaults
and attempts which the powers of hell can make against it, shall
not be able to overturn it. Moreover, " I will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." That is, thou shalt
have that spiritual authority and power within the church,
whereby, as with keys, thou shalt be able to shut and lock out
obstinate and impenitent sinners, and upon their repentance to
unlock the door, and take them in again : and what thou shalt
thus regularly do, shall be owned in the court above, and ratified
by God in heaven.
III. Upon these several passages, the champions of the
church of Rome mainly build the unlimited supremacy and
infallibility of the bishops of that see ; with how much truth,
and how little reason, it is not my present purpose to discuss.
It may suffice here to remark, that though this place does very
much tend to exalt the honour of St. Peter, yet is there nothing
herein personal and peculiar to him alone, as distinct from, and
preferred above the rest of the apostles. Does he here make
confession of Christ's being " the Son of God ?" Yet, besides
that herein he spake but the sense of all the rest, this was no
more than what others had said as well as he, yea, before he
was so much as called to be a disciple. Thus Nathanael, at his
first coming to Christ, expressly told him, " Rabbi, thou art the
Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." 1 Does our Lord here
style him a "rock?" All the apostles are elsewhere equally-
called " foundations," yea, said to be the " twelve foundations
upon which the wall of the new Jerusalem," that is, the
evangelical church, is erected ; k and sometimes others of them
besides Peter are called " pillars," as they have relation to the
church already built. Does Christ here promise the " keys " to
Peter? that is, power of governing, and of exercising church-
censures, and of absolving penitent sinners ? The very same is
elsewhere promised to all the apostles, and almost in the very-
same terms and words. "If thine offending brother prove
obstinate, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to hear the
church, let him be unto thee an heathen and a publican. Verily
I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be
8 John i. 49. k Rev. xxi. 14. Eph. ii. 20. Gal. ii. 9.
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157
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven." 1 And elsewhere, when ready to leave
the world, he tells them, " As my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you : whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto
them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." m By
all which it is evident, that our Lord did not here give any
personal prerogative to St. Peter, as universal pastor and head
of the Christian church, much less to those who were to be his
successors in the see of Rome ; but that as he made his confes-
sion in the name of the rest of the apostles, so what was here
promised unto him, was equally intended unto all. Nor did the
more considering and judicious part of the fathers (however
giving a mighty reverence to St. Peter) ever understand it in
any other sense. Sure I am that Origen tells us, n that every
true Christian that makes this confession with the same spirit
and integrity which St. Peter did, shall have the same blessing
and commendation from Christ conferred upon him.
IV. The Holy Jesus, knowing the time of his passion to
draw on, began to prepare the minds of his apostles against
that fatal hour ; 0 telling them what hard and bitter things he
should suffer at Jerusalem, what affronts and indignities he must
underg-o, and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture
and disgrace, by the decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim. Peter,
whom our Lord had infinitely encouraged and endeared to him,
by the great things which he had lately said concerning him, so
that his spirits were now afloat, and his passions ready to over-
run the banks, not able to endure a thought that so much evil
should befall his master, broke out into an over-confident and
unseasonable interruption of him : " He took him, and began to
rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be
unto thee" Besides his great kindness and affection to his
Master, the minds of the apostles were not yet throughly purged
from the hopes and expectations of a glorious reign of the
Messiah, so that Peter could not but look upon these sufferings
as unbecoming and inconsistent with the state and dignity of
the Son of God; and therefore thought good to advise his
Lord, to take care of himself, and, while there was time, to pre-
vent and avoid them. This, our Lord, who valued the re-
1 Matt xviii. 17, 18. m John xx. 21—23.
■ Comment, in loc. ° Matt. xri. 21. Mark viii, 31. Luke ix. 22. -
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demption of mankind infinitely before his own ease and safety,
resented at so high a rate, that he returned upon him with this
tart and stinging reproof, " Get thee behind me, Satan the
very same treatment which he gave once to the devil himself,
when he made that insolent proposal to him, " to fall down and
worship him p though in Satan it was the result of pure
malice and hatred ; in Peter, only an error of love and great
regard. However, our Lord could not but look upon it as a
mischievous and diabolical counsel, prompted and promoted by
the great adversary of mankind. Away therefore, says Christ,
with thy hellish and pernicious counsel, "thou art an offence
unto me; 11 in seeking to oppose and undermine that great
design, for which I purposely came down from heaven: in this
" thou savourest not the things 4 of God, but those that be of
men," in suggesting to me those little shifts and arts of safety
and self-preservation which hutnan prudence, and the love of
men's own selves, are wont to dictate to them : by which, though
we may learn Peter's mighty kindness to our Saviour, yet that
herein he did not take his measures right ; a plain evidence that
his infallibility had not yet taken place.
V. About a week after this, q our Saviour being to receive a
type and specimen of his future glorification, took with him his
three more intimate apostles, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and went up into a very high mountain, which the ancients ge-
nerally conceive to have been mount Tabor, a round and very
high mountain, situate in the plains of Galilee. And now was
even literally fulfilled what the Psalmist had spoken, " Tabor
and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name r for what greater joy
and triumph, than to be peculiarly chosen to be the holy mount,
whereon our Lord in so eminent a manner " received from God
the Father honour and glory," and made such magnificent dis-
plays of his divine power and majesty ? For while they were
here earnestly employed in prayer, (as seldom did our Lord
enter upon any eminent action but he first made his addres^ to
heaven,) he was suddenly transformed into another manner of
appearance ; such a lustre and radiancy darted from his face,
that the sun itself shines not brighter at noon-day ; such beams
of light reflected from his garments, as outdid the light itself
that was round about them, so exceeding pure and white, that
p Luke iv. 8. i Matt, xvii 1. Mark ix, % Luke ix. 28. ' Ps. lxxxix. 12.
SAINT PETER.
159
the snow might blush to compare with it ; nor could the fuller's
art purify any thing into half that whiteness ; an evident and
sensible representation of the glory of that state, wherein the
"just shall walk in white, and shine as the sun in the kingdom
of the Father." During this heavenly scene, there appeared
Moses and Elias, (who, as the Jews say, shall come together,)
clothed with all the brightness and majesty of a glorified state,
familiarly conversing with him, and discoursing of the death
and sufferings which he was shortly to undergo, and his de-
parture into heaven. Behold here together the three greatest
persons that ever were the ministers of heaven : Moses, under
God, the institutor and promulgator of the law; Elias, the
great reformer of it, when under its deepest degeneracy and
corruption ; and the blessed Jesus, the Son of God, who came
to take away what was weak and imperfect, and to introduce a
more manly and rational institution, and to communicate the
last revelation which God would make of his mind to the world.
Peter and the two apostles that were with him, were in the
mean time fallen asleep, heavy through want of natural rest, (it
being probably night when this was done,) or else overpowered
with these extraordinary appearances, which the frailty and
weakness of their present state could not bear, were fallen into
a trance: but now awaking, were strangely surprised to behold
our Lord surrounded with so much glory, and those two great
persons conversing with him ; knowing who they were, probably,
by some particular marks and signatures that were upon them,
or else by immediate revelation, or from the discourse which
passed betwixt Christ and them, or possibly from some commu-
nication which they themselves might have with them. While
these heavenly guests were about to depart, Peter, in a great
rapture and ecstacy of mind, addressed himself to our Saviour,
telling him how infinitely they were pleased and delighted with
their being there ; and to that purpose desiring his leave, that
they might erect three tabernacles, one for Him, one for Moses,
and one for Elias. While he was thus saying, a bright cloud sud-
denly overshadowed the two great ministers, and wrapped them
up ; out of which came a voice, " This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased, hear ye him which when the apostles
heard, and saw the cloud coming over themselves, they were
seized with a great consternation, and fell upon their faces to
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the ground, whom our Lord gently touched, bade them arise, and
disband their fears : whereupon looking up, they saw none but
their Master, the rest having vanished and disappeared. In me-
mory of these great transactions, Bede tells us,* that in pursuance
of St. Peter's petition about the three tabernacles, there were
afterwards three churches built upon the top of this mountain,
which in after-times were had in great veneration, which might
possibly give some foundation to that report which one makes,*
that in his time there were shewed the ruins of those three ta-
bernacles which were built according to St. Peter's desire.
VI. After this, our Lord and his apostles, having travelled
through Galilee, the gatherers of the tribute-money came to
Peter, and asked him, u whether his master was not obliged to
pay the tribute which God, under the Mosaic law, commanded
to be yearly paid by every Jew above twenty years old, to
the use of the temple, which so continued to the times of
Vespasian, under whom the temple being destroyed, it was by
him transferred to the use of the capitol at Rome, being to the
value of half a shekel, or fifteen pence of our money. To this
question of theirs, Peter positively answers, Yes ; knowing his
Master would never be backward, either to u give unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, or to God the things that are
God's." Peter going into the house to give an account to his
Master, and to know his mind concerning it, Christ prevented
him with this question, " What thinkest thou, Simon, of whom
do earthly kings exact tribute," of their own children and
family, or from other people ! Peter answered, Not from their
own servants and family, but from strangers. To which our
Lord presently replied, that then, according to his own argument
and opinion, both he himself, as being the Son of God, and they
whom he had taken to be his menial and domestic servants, were
free from this tax of head-money, yearly to be paid to God.
But rather than give offence, by seeming to despise the temple,
and to undervalue that authority that had settled this tribute,
he resolves to put himself to the expense and charges of a
miracle, and therefore commanded Peter to go to the sea, and
take up the first fish which came to his hook, in whose mouth he
• De Loc. Sanct c. 17.
1 Bern, a Bridenb. Itiner. Terrae Sanct Vid. J. Cotovic. Itm. 1. iii. c. 7.
■ Matt, xrii 24.
SAINT PETER.
161
should find a piece of money, (a stater, in value a shekel, or half
a crown,) which he took, and gave to the collectors, both for his
master and himself.
VII. Our Lord, after this, discoursing to them, how to carry
themselves towards their offending brethren, Peter, x being de-
sirous to be more particularly informed in this matter, asked our
Saviour, how oft a man was obliged to forgive his brother, iii
case of offence and trespass, whether seven times was not enough?
He told him, that upon his neighbour's repentance, he was not
only bound to do it " seven times," but " until seventy times
seven;" that is, he must be indulgent to him, as oft as the
offender returns and begs it, and heartily professes his sorrow
and repentance : which he further illustrates by a plain and ex-
cellent parable, and thence draws this conclusion, that the same
measures, either of compassion or cruelty, which men shew to
their fellow brethren, they themselves shall meet with at the
hands of God, the supreme ruler and justiciary of the world.
It was not long after, when a brisk young man addressed himself
to our Saviour, to know of him by what methods he might best
attain eternal life. y Our Lord, to humble his confidence, bade
him " sell his estate, and give it to the poor and, putting him-
self under his discipline, he should have a much better " treasure
in heaven." The man was rich, and liked not the counsel, nor
was he willing to purchase happiness at such a rate ; and ac-
cordingly went away under great sorrow and discontent : upon
which Christ takes occasion to let them know, how hardly those
men would get to heaven, who built their comfort and happiness
upon the plenty and abundance of these outward things. Peter,
taking hold of this opportunity, asked, what return they them-
selves should make, who had quitted and renounced whatever
they had for his sake and service ? Our Saviour answers, that
no man should be a loser by his service ; that, for their parts,
they should be recompenced with far greater privileges; and
that whoever should forsake houses or lands, kindred and
relations, out of love to him and his religion, should enjoy
them again, with infinite advantages in this world, if con-
sistent with the circumstances of their state, and those troubles
and persecutions which would necessarily arise from the pro-
fession of the gospel : however, they should have what would
* Matt xviii. 21. ' Matt. xix. 16. Mark z. 17. Luke xyiii. 16.
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make infinite amends for all ; " eternal life in the other
world.' 1
VIII. Our Saviour, in order to his last fatal journey to Jeru-
salem, that he might the better comply with the prophecy that
went before of him, sent two of his apostles, who in all proba-
bility were Peter and John, with an authoritative commission to
fetch him an ass to ride on, z (he had none of his own ; he, who
" was rich, for our sakes made himself poor he lived upon
charity all his life; had neither an ass to ride on, nor a house
where to lay his head ; no, nor after his death, a tomb to lie in,
but what the charity of others provided for him,) whereon being
mounted, and attended with the festivities of the people, he set
forward in his journey ; wherein there appears an admirable
mixture of humility and majesty : the ass he rode on became
the meanness and meekness of a prophet ; but his arbitrary
commission for the fetching it, and the ready obedience of its
owners, spake the prerogative of a king : the palms borne before
him, the garments strewed in his way, and the joyful hosannahs
and acclamations of the people, proclaim at once' both the ma-
jesty of a prince, and the triumph of a Saviour : for such ex-
pressions of joy we find were usual in public and festival solem-
nities ; thus the historian,* describing the emperor Commodus's
triumphant return to Borne, tells us, that the senate and whole
people of Rome, to testify their mighty kindness and veneration
for him, came out of the city to meet him, 8a<f)vr)if>6pol t€ teal
iravra iira^epofievoi av0t} totc aKfid^ovra^ " carrying palms and
laurels along with them, and throwing about all sorts of flowers
that were then in season. 11 In this manner our Lord being entered
the city, he soon after retired to Bethany, whence he despatched
Peter and John to make preparations for the passover ; b giving
them instructions where he would have it kept. Accordingly,
they found the person he had described to them, whom they
followed home to his house. Whether this was the house of
John the Evangelist, (as Nicephorus tells us, c ) situate near mount
Sion, or of Simon the Leper, or of Nicodemus, or of Joseph of
Arimathea, as others severally conjecture, seeing none of the
evangelists have thought fit to tell us, it may not become us
curiously to inquire.
1 Matt. xxi. 1. » Herod. 1. i. s. 17. in vit Comm.
b Matt, *xvi. 17. Mark xiv. 12. I<uke audi. 7. * Hist. Ecci Lie 28.
SAINT PETER.
163
SECTION V.
OF ST. PETER, FROM THE LAST PASSOVER TILL THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
The passover celebrated by our Lord and his apostles. His washing their feet. Peter's
imprudent modesty. The mystery and meaning of the action. The traitor, who.
The Lord's supper instituted. Peter's confident promise of suffering with and for
Christ Our Lord's dislike of his confidence, and foretelling his denial Their going to
the Mount of Olives. Peter renews his resolution. His indiscreet zeal and affection.
Our Saviour's passion, why begun in a garden. The bitterness of his ante-passion.
The drowsiness of Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Our Lord's great candour
towards them, and what it ought to teach us. Christ's apprehension, and Peter's bold
attempt upon Malchus. Christ deserted by the apostles. Peter's following his Master
to the high-priest's hall, and thrice denying him with oaths and imprecations. The
Galilean dialect, what The cock-crowing, and Peter's repentance upon it.
All things being now prepared, our Saviour, with his apostles,
comes down for the celebration of the passover : and being
entered into the house, they all orderly took their places. Our
Lord, who had always taught them by his practice, no less than
by his doctrine, did now particularly design to teach them hu-
mility and charity by his own example ; and that the instance
might be the greater, he underwent the meanest offices of the
ministry. Towards the end, therefore, of the paschal supper,
he arose from the table, and laying aside his upper garment, d
(which, according to the fashion of those eastern countries,
being long, was unfit for action,) and himself taking a towel, and
pouring water into a bason, he began to wash all the apostles'*
feet, not disdaining those of Judas himself. Coming to Peter,
he would by. no means admit an instance of so much condescen-
sion. What ? the master do this to the servant ? the Son of
God to so vile a sinner? This made him a second time refuse it :
" thou shalt never wash my feet." But our Lord soon corrects
his imprudent modesty, by telling him, that " if he washed him
not, he could have no part with him insinuating the mystery
of this action, which was to denote remission of sin, and the
purifying virtue of the Spirit of Christ to be poured upon all
true Christians. Peter, satisfied with the answer, soon altered
his resolution ; " Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and
my head if the case be so, let me be washed all over, rather
than come short of my portion in thee. This being done, he
d John xiii. 4.
M 2
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returned again to the table, and acquainted them with the mean-
ing and tendency of this mystical action, and what force it ought
to have upon them towards one another.* The washing itself
denoted their inward and spiritual cleansing by the blood and
Spirit of Christ, symbolically typified and represented by all the
washings and baptisms of the Mosaic institution : the washing
of the feet respected our entire sanctification of our whole spirit,
soul and body, no part being to be left impure. And then, that all
this should be done by so great a person, their Lord and Master,
preached to their very senses a sermon of the greatest humility
and condescension, and taught them how little reason they bad
to boggle at the meanest offices of kindness and.charity towards
others, when he himself had stooped to so low an abasure to-
wards them. And now he began more immediately to reflect
upon his sufferings, and upon him who was to be the occasion of
them ; telling them, that one of them would be the traitor to
betray him : whereat they were strangely troubled, and every
one began to suspect himself, till Peter (whose love and care for
his Master commonly made him start sooner than the rest) made
signs to St. John, who lay in our Saviour's bosom, to ask him
particularly who it was? which our Saviour presently did, by
making them understand that it was Judas Iscariot ; who not
long after left the company.
II. And now our Lord began the institution of his supper,
that great solemn institution which he was resolved to leave
behind him, to be constantly celebrated in all ages of the church,
as the standing monument of his love in dying for mankind.
For now he told them, that he himself must leave them, and
that " whither he went, they could not come." f Peter, not well
understanding what he meant, asked him, whither it was that
he was going ? Our Lord replied, it was to that place, whither
he could not now follow him ; but that he should do it afterwards:
intimating the martyrdom he was to undergo for the sake of
Christ. To which Peter answered, that he knew no reason why
he might not follow him ; seeing that if it was even to the
laying down of his life for his sake, he was most ready and re-
solved to do it. Our Lord liked not this over-confident pre-
sumption, and therefore told him, they were great things which
he promised, but that he took not the true measures of his
• Vid. Nonn. Paraphr. in loc. f John xiii. 36. Luke xxii. 31.
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SAINT PETER.
J65
own strength, nor espied the snares and designs of Satan, who
desired no better an occasion than this, to sift and winnow them.
But that he prayed to heaven for him, " that his faith might not
fail by which means being strengthened himself, he should be
obliged to strengthen and confirm his brethren. And whereas
he so confidently assured him, that he was ready to go along
with him, not only into prison, but even to death itself ; our
Lord plainly told him, that notwithstanding all his confident
and generous resolutions, before " the cock crowed twice," that
is, before three of the clock in the morning, he would that very
night three several times deny his Master. With which answer
our Lord wisely rebuked his confidence, and taught him (had he
understood the lesson) not to trust to his own strength, but
entirely to depend upon him, who is able to keep us from falling :
withal insinuating, that though by his sin he would justly for-
feit the divine grace and favour, yet upon his repentance he
should be restored to the honour of the apostolate, as a certain
evidence of the divine goodness and indulgence to him. g
III. Having sung an hymn, and concluded the whole affair,
he left the house where all these things had been transacted,
and went with his apostles unto the Mount of Olives : h where
he again put them in mind how much they would be offended at
those things which he was now to suffer ; and Peter again re-
newed his resolute and undaunted promise of suffering, and
dying with him ; yea, out of an excessive confidence, told him,
that " though all the rest should forsake and deny him, yet
would not he deny him." How far will zeal and an indiscreet
affection transport even a good man into vanity and presump-
tion ! Peter questions others, but never doubts himself. So
natural is self-love, so apt are we to take the fairest measures of
ourselves. Nay, though our Lord had, but a little before, once
and again reproved this vain humour, yet does he still not only
persist, but grow up in it : so hardly are we brought to espy
our own faults, or to be so thoroughly convinced of them, as to
correct and reform them. This confidence of his inspired all
the rest with a mighty courage, all the apostles likewise assuring
him of their constant and unshaken adhering to him ; our Lord
returning the same answer to Peter which he had done before;
* Vid. Tit. Bostr, Com. in Luc. xxii. in BiU. patr. Gr. Lat vol. ii. p. 029. ed. 1G24,
h Matt, xxvi. 30. Mark xiv. 26.
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From hence they went down into the village of Gethsemane,
where, leaving the rest of the apostles, he, accompanied with
none but Peter, James, and John, retired into a neighbouring
garden, (whither, Eusebius tells us, 1 Christians even in his time
were wont to come, solemnly to offer up their prayers to heaven ;
and where, as the Arabian geographer informs us, k a fair and
stately church was built to the honour of the Virgin Mary,) to
enter upon the ante-scene of the fatal tragedy that was now
approaching; it bearing a very fit proportion, (as some of the
fathers have observed, 1 ) that as the first Adam fell and ruined
mankind in a garden, so a garden should be the place where the
second Adam should begin his passion, in order to the redemp-
tion of the world. Gardens, which to us are places of repose
and pleasure, and scenes of divertisement and delight, were to
our Lord a school of temptation, a theatre of great honours and
sufferings, and the first approaches of the hour of darkness.
IV. Here it was that the blessed Jesus laboured under th«
bitterest agony that could fall upon human nature, which the
holy story describes by words sufficiently expressive of the
highest grief and sorrow, he was afraid, sorrowful, and very
heavy ; yea, his soul was irepiXwrros, " exceeding sorrowful,™
and that even unto death ; he was u sore amazed, and very
heavy ;" he was " troubled," irapaxdij, his soul was shaken with
a vehement commotion ; yea, he was " in an agony," a word by
which the Greeks were wont to represent the greatest conflicts
and anxieties. The effect of all which was, that " he prayed
more earnestly," offering up " prayers and supplications with
strong cries and tears," as the apostle expounds it, and u sweat
as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground." What
this bloody sweat was, and how far natural or extraordinary, I
am not now concerned to inquire. Certain it is, it was a plain
evidence of the most intense grief and sadness * for if an ex-
treme fear or trouble will many times cast us into a cold sweat,
how great must be the commotion and conflict of our Saviour's
mind, which could force open the pores of his body, locked up
by the coldness of the night, and make not drops of sweat, but
"great drops" or (as the word dpopftoi signifies) "clods" of
blood to issue from them. While our Lord was thus contending
1 De loc. Hebr. in voc. rcBtrcfiowri. k Geogr. Nub. Clim. Hi. par. v. p. 114.
1 Cyril. Comment, in Joan, xviii. Thcophylact. in Joan, xviii.
SAINT PETER.
167
with these ante-passions, the three apostles, whom he had left
at some distance from him, being tired out with watching, and
disposed by the silence of the night, were fallen fast asleep. Our
Lord, who had made three several addresses unto heaven, that;
if it might consist with his Fathers will, this bitter " cup might
pass from him," (expressing herein the harmless and innocent
desires of human nature, which always studies its own preserva-
tion,) between each of them came to visit the apostles; and
calling to Peter, asked him, " whether they could not watch
with him one hour? 1 ' advising them "to watch and pray, that
they entered not into temptation adding this argument, that
44 the spirit indeed was willing, but that the flesh was weak,"
and that therefore there was the more need that they should
stand upon their guard. Observe here the incomparable sweet-
ness, the generous candour of our blessed Saviour, to pass so
charitable a censure upon an action, from whence malice and
ill-nature might have drawn monsters and prodigies, and have
represented it black as the shades of darkness. The request
which our Lord made to these apostles was infinitely reasonable,
to watch with him in his bitter agony, their company at least
being some refreshment to one under such sad fatal circum-
stances ; and this, but for a little time, one hour, it would soon
be over, and then they might freely consult their own ease and
safety : it was their dear Lord and Master whom they now
were to attend upon, ready to lay down his life for them,
sweating already under the first skirmishes of his sufferings, and
expecting every moment when all the powers of darkness would
fall upon him. But all these considerations were drowned in a
profound security ; the men were fast asleep, and though often
awakened and told of it, regarded it not, as if nothing but ease
and softness had been then to be dreamed of : an action that
looked like the most prodigious ingratitude, and the highest m>
concernedness for their Lord and Master, and which one would
have thought had argued a very great coldness and indifferency
of affection towards him. But he would not set it upon the
tenters, nor stretch it to what it might easily have been drawn
to : he imputes it not to their un thankfulness, or want of
affection, nor to their carelessness of what became of him, but
merely to their infirmity, and the weakness of their bodily temper,
himself making the excuse, when they could make none for
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themselves, " the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.* 1
Hereby teaching us, to put the most candid and favourable con-
struction upon those actions of others, which are capable of
various interpretations ; and rather with the bee to suck honey,
than with the spider to draw poison from them. His last prayer
being ended, he came to them, and told them, with a gentle
rebuke, that now they might 44 sleep on" if they pleased ; that
44 the hour was at hand that he should be betrayed, and delivered
into the hands of men."
V. While he was thus discoursing to them, a band of soldiers,
sent from the high-priests, with the traitor Judas to conduct
and direct them, rushed into the garden and~ seized upon him ;
which when the apostles saw, they asked him whether they
should attempt his rescue? Peter, (whose ungovernable zeal
put him upon all dangerous undertakings,) without staying for
an answer, drew his sword, and espying one more busy than the
rest in laying hold upon our Saviour, which was Malchus, (who,
though carrying kingship in his name, was but servant to the
high-priest,) struck at him, with an intention to despatch him ;
but God overruling the stroke, it only cut off his right ear.
Our Lord liked not this wild and unwarrantable zeal, and there-
fore entreated their patience, whilst he miraculously healed the
wound. And turning to Peter, bade him put up his sword again ;
told him, that they who unwarrantably used the sword, should
themselves perish by it ; that there was no need of these violent
and extravagant courses ; that if he had a mind to be rid of his
keepers, he could ask his Father, who would presently send more
than twelve legions of angels to his rescue and deliverance : but
he must drink the cup which his father had put into his hand :
lor how else should the scriptures be fulfilled, which had expressly
foretold, 44 that these things must be?" Whereupon all the
apostles forsook him, and fled from him ; and they who before
in their promises were as bold as lions, now it came to it, like
fearful and timorous hares, ran away from him : Peter and John,
though staying last with him, yet followed the same way with
the rest, preferring their own safety before the concernments of
iheir Master.
YI. No sooner was he apprehended by the soldiers, and
brought out of the garden, but he was immediately posted from
duo tribunal to another: brought first to Annas, then carried to
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169
Caiaphas, where the J ewish Sanhedrim met together in order to his
trial and condemnation." 1 Peter having a little recovered himself,
and gotten loose from his fears, probably encouraged by his com-
panion St. John, returns back to seek his Master ; and finding
them leading him to the high-priest's hall, followed afar off, to
see what would be the event and issue. But coming to the
door, could get no admittance, till one of the disciples, who was
acquainted there, went out and persuaded the servant who kept
the door to let him in. Being let into the hall, where the
servants and officers stood round the fire, Peter also came thither
to warm himself ; where being espied by the servant-maid that
Jet him in, she, earnestly looking upon him, charged him with
being one of Christ's disciples ; which Peter publicly denied be-
fore all the company, positively affirming that "he knew him
not ;" and presently withdrew himself into the porch, where he
heard the cock crow: an intimation which, one would have
thought, should have awakened his conscience into a quick sense
of his duty, and the promise he had made unto his Master. In
the porch, another of the maids set upon him, charging him that
" he also was one of them that had been with Jesus of Nazareth :"
which Peter stoutly denied, saying, that " he knew not Christ ;"
and the better to gain their belief to what he said, ratified it
with an oath. So natural is it for one sin to draw on another.
VII. About an hour after, he was a third time set upon by
a servant of the high-priest, Malchus's kinsman, whose ear
Peter had lately cut off : by him he was charged to be one of
Christ's disciples ; yea, " that his very speech betrayed him to
be a Galilean." For the Galileans, though they did not speak
a different language, had yet a different dialect, using a more
confused and barbarous, a broader and more unpolished way of
pronunciation than the rest of the Jews, whereby they were
easily distinguishable in their speaking from other men; abundant
instances whereof there are extant in the Talmud at this day.
Nay, not only gave this evidence, but added, that he himself
had seen him with Jesus in the garden. Peter still resolutely
denied the matter; and to add the highest accomplishment to
his sin, ratified it not only with an oath, but a solemn curse and
execration, that "he was not the person," that "he knew not
the man." It is but a very weak excuse which St. Ambrose
m Matt, xx vi. 57. Mark xiv. 53. Luke xxii. 54. John xviii. 12.
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and some others make for this act of PeterV in saying, w I knew
not the man.*" " He did well (says he) to deny him to be man,
whom he knew to be God." St. Hierom takes notice of this
pious and well-meant excuse made for Peter, 0 though out of
modesty he conceals the name of its author, but yet justly
censures it as trifling and frivolous, and which, to excuse man
from folly, would charge God with falsehood : for if he did not
deny him, then our Lord was out, when he said, that " that
night he should thrice deny him," that is, his person, and not
only his humanity. Certainly the best apology that can be
made for Peter is, that he quickly repented of this great sin ;
for no sooner had he done it, but the cock crew again ; at which
intimation our Saviour turned about, and earnestly looked upon
him : a glance that quickly pierced him to the heart, and brought
to his remembrance what our Lord had once and again foretold
him of, how foully and shamefully he should deny him : where-
upon, not being able to contain his sorrow, he ran out of doors
to give it vent, and wept bitterly, passionately bewailing his
folly, and the aggravations of his sin ; thereby endeavouring to
make some reparation for his fault, and recover himself into
the favour of heaven, and to prevent the execution of divine
justice, by taking a severe revenge upon himself: by these
penitential tears he endeavoured to wash off his guilt, as indeed
repentance is the next step to innocence.
SECTION VI.
OF ST. PETER, FROM CHRISTS RESURRECTION TILL HIS ASCENSION.
Our Lord's care to acquaint Peter with his resurrection. His going to the sepulchre*
Christ's appearance to Peter, when, and the reasons of it. The apostle's journey into
Galilee. Christ's appearing to them at the sea at Tiberias. His being discovered by
the great draught of fishes. Christ's questioning Peter's love, and why. u Feed my
sheep," commended to Peter, imports no peculiar supereminent power and sovereignty.
Peter's death and sufferings foretold. Our Lord takes his last leave of the apostles at
n Bene negavit hominem, quern sciebat Deum. Ambr. in Luc. xxii. vid. Hilar, com-
ment in Matt. c. xxxii. s. 5.
° Hier. in Matt, xxvi vol. iv. par. i. p. 132. vid. August, in Joan. Tract, lxvi. s. 2.
vol Hi. par. ii. p. 676.
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SAINT PETER.
171
Bethany. His ascension into heaven. The chapel of the ascension. The apostles'
joy at their Lord's exaltation.
What became of Peter after his late prevarication, whether he
followed our Saviour through the several stages of his trial, and
personally attended as a mourner at the funeral of his Master,
we have no account left upon record. No doubt he stayed at
Jerusalem, and probably with St. John, together with whom
we first find him mentioned, when both setting forwards to the
sepulchre: which was in this manner. Early on that morning, p
whereon our Lord was to return from the grave, Mary Magdalen,
and some other devout and pious women, brought spices and oint-
ments, with a design to embalm the body of our crucified Lord.
Coming to the sepulchre at sun-rising, and finding the door open,
they entered in, where they were suddenly saluted by an angel,
who told them that Jesus was risen, and bade them go and ac-
quaint his apostles, and particularly Peter, that he was returned
from the dead ; and that he would go before them into Galilee,
where they should meet with him. Hereupon they returned
back, and acquainted the apostles with what had passed : who
beheld the story as the product of a weak frighted fancy. But
Peter and John presently hastened towards the garden ; q John,
being the younger and nimbler, outran his companion, and came
first thither, where he only looked, but entered not in, either out
of fear in himself or a great reverence to our Saviour. Peter,
though behind in space, was before in zeal, and being elder and
more considerate, came and resolutely entered in, where they
found nothing but the linen clothes lying together in one place,
and the napkin that was about his head wrapped together in
another ; which being disposed with so much care and order,
shewed (what was falsely suggested by the Jews) that our
Saviour's body was not taken away by thieves, who are wont
more to consult their escape, than how to leave things orderly
disposed behind them.
II. The same day, about noon we may suppose it was that,
our Lord himself appeared alone to Peter ; being assured of the
thing, though not so precisely of the time. That he did so, St.
Paul expressly tells us ; r and so did the apostles to the two
disciples that came from Emmaus, 8 " the Lord is risen, and hath
P Mark xvi. 1. 9 Luke xxiv. 12. John xx. 2.
r 1 Cor. xv. 5. 8 Luke xxiv. 34.
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appeared unto Simon which probably intimates, that it was
before his appearing to those two disciples. And, indeed, we
cannot but think that onr Lord wonld hasten the manifestation
of himself to him, as compassionating his case, being over-
whelmed with sorrow for the late shameful denial of his Master :
and was therefore willing in the first place to honour him with
his presence, at once to confirm him in the article of his resur-
rection, and to let him see that he was restored to the place
which before he had in his grace and favour. St. Paul, men-
tioning his several appearances after his resurrection, seems to
make this the first of them, " that he was seen of Cephas." Not
that it was simply the first, for he first appeared to the women.
But, as Chrysostom observes,* it was the first that was made to
men. He was first seen by him who most desired to see him.
He also adds several probable conjectures, why our Lord first
discovered himself to Peter : as, that it required a more than
ordinary firmness and resolution of mind, to be able to bear such a
sight ; for they who beheld him after others had seen him, and had
heard their frequent testimonies and reports, had had their faith
greatly prepared and encouraged to entertain it ; but he who was
to be honoured with the first appearance had need of a bigger
and more undaunted faith, lest he should be overborne, t&
irapaZ61;<p T779 Oeas, " with such a strange and unwonted sight
that Peter was the first that had made a signal confession of his
Master, and therefore it was fit and reasonable that he should
first see him alive after his resurrection : that Peter had lately
denied his lord, the grief whereof lay hard upon him, that there-
fore our Saviour was willing to administer some consolation to
him, and, as soon as might be, to let him see that he had not cast
him off : like the kind Samaritan, he made haste to help him, and
to pour oil into his wounded conscience.
IIL Some time after this, the apostles began to resolve upon
their journey into Galilee, as # he himself had commanded thein<
If it be inquired, why they went no sooner, seeing this was the
first iriessage and intimation they had received from him ; St.
Ambrose^ resolution seems very rational," that our Lord indeed
had commanded them to go thither, but that their fears for some
1 'Ev fohpd<ri Tointf rrpdoTy, r$ fid\i<rra aurbu troBovvri l$uu. Chrys. in 1 ad Cor.
c. xv. Horn, xxxviii. s. 4. vol. x. p. 355, 6.
u Comm. in Luc. xxiv. in fin.
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SAINT PETER.
173
time kept them at home ; not being as yet fully satisfied in the
truth of his resurrection, till our Lord, by often appearing to them,
had confirmed their minds, and put the case beyond all dispute.
They went, as we may suppose, in several companies, lest going
all in one body they should awaken the power and malice of
their enemies, and alarm the care and vigilancy of the state,
which, by reason of the noise that our Saviour's trial and execu-
tion had made up and down the city and country, was yet full
of jealousies and fears. We find Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, w
and the two sons of Zebedee, and two more of the disciples,
arrived at some town about the sea of Tiberias ; where, the pro-
vidence of God guiding the instance of their employment, Peter,
accompanied with the rest, returns to his old trade of fishing.
They laboured all night, but caught nothing. Early in the morn-
ing, a grave person, probably in the habit of a traveller, presents
himself upon the shore ; and calling to them, asked them whether
they had any meat : when they told him, No ; he advised them
to cast the net on the right side of the ship, that so the miracle
might not seem to be the effect of chance, and they should not
fail to speed. They did so, and the net presently inclosed so
great a draught, that they were scarce able to drag it ashore. St.
John, amazed with the strangeness of the matter, told Peter that
surely this must be the Lord, whom the winds and the sea, and
all the inhabitants of that watery region, were so ready to obey.
Peter's zeal presently took fire, notwithstanding the coldness of
the season, and impatient of the least moments being kept from
the company of his dear Lord and Master, without any consi-
deration of the danger to which he exposed himself, he girt his
fisher's coat about him, and throwing himself into the sea, swam
to shore, not being able to stay till the ship could arrive, which
came presently after. x Landing, they found a fire ready made,
and fish laid upon it, either immediately created by his divine
power, or which came to the shore of its own accord, and offered
itself to his hand : which notwithstanding, he commands them
to bring of the fish which they had lately caught, and prepare it
for their dinner, he himself dining with them ; both that he
might give them an instance of mutual love and fellowship, and
also assure them of the truth of his human nature, since his re-
turn from the dead.
* John xxi. 1. * Vid. Norm. Paraphs in loc.
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IV. Dinner being ended, our Lord more particularly addressed
himself to Peter, urging him to the utmost diligence in his care
of souls : and because he knew that nothing but a mighty love
to himself could carry him through the troubles and hazards of
so dangerous and difficult an employment, an employment at-
tended with all the impediments which either the perverseness
of men or the malice and subtilty of the devil could cast in the
way to hinder it, therefore he first inquired of him, whether he
loved him more than the rest of the apostles ? herein mildly re-
proving his former over-confident resolution, that " though all
the rest should deny him, yet would not he deny him." Peter
modestly replied, not censuring others, much less preferring him-
self before them, that our Lord knew the integrity of his affec-
tion towards him. This question he puts three several times to
Peter, who as often returned the same answer: it being but just
and reasonable, that he who by a threefold denial had given so
much cause to question, should now by a threefold confession
give more than ordinary assurance of his sincere affection to his
Master.* Peter was a little troubled at his frequent questioning
of his love, and therefore more expressly appeals to our Lord's
omnisciency, that he, who knew all things, must needs know that
he loved him. To each of these confessions, our Lord added this
signal trial of his affection, then " Feed my sheep that is*
faithfully instruct and teach them, carefully rule and guide
them; persuade, not compel them; feed, not fleece, nor kill
them. And so it is plain St. Peter himself understood it, by the
charge which he gives to the guides and rulers of the church,
that " they should feed the flock of God, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but
of a ready mind ; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
as examples to the flock." z But that u by feeding Christ's sheep
and lambs," here commended to St. Peter, should be meant an
universal and uncontrollable monarchy and dominion over the
whole Christian church, and that over the apostles themselves and
their successors in ordinary, and this power and supremacy
solely invested in St. Peter, and those who were to succeed him
in the see of Eome, is so wild an inference, and such a melting
? Isid. Pelus. L i. ep. 103. Redditur riegationi trinae trina confessio, ne minus amori
linguae serviat, quam timori ; et plus vocis elicuisse videatur mors imminens, quam vita
preesens. Aug. in Joan. Tract, exxiii. s. 5. vol iii. par. ii. p. 817. z 1 Pet. v. 1, 8, 3.
SAINT PETER.
175
down words to run into any shape, as could never with any face
have been offered, or been possible to have been imposed upon
the belief of mankind, if men had not first subdued their reason
to their interest, and captivated both to an implicit faith and a
blind obedience. For granting that our Lord here addressed
his speech only unto Peter, yet the very same power in equivalent
terms is elsewhere indifferently granted to all the apostles, and
in some measure to the ordinary pastors and governors of the
church : as when our Lord told them, that " all power was given
him in heaven and in earth, 11 by virtue whereof " they should
go teach and baptize all nations, 11 and "preach the gospel to
every creature that " they should feed God's flock, 11 " rule
well, 11 inspect and " watch over 11 those over whom they had the
authority and rule : words of as large and more express signi-
fication, than those which were here spoken to St. Peter.
V. Our Lord having thus engaged Peter to a cheerful com-
pliance with the dangers that might attend the discharge and
execution of his office, now particularly intimates to him what
that fate was that should attend him : telling him, that though
when he was young he girt himself, lived at his own pleasure,
and went whither he pleased ; yet when he was old, he should
stretch forth his hands, and another should gird and bind him,
and lead him whither he had no mind to go : intimating, as the
evangelist tells us, " by what death he should glorify God, 11 that
is by crucifixion, the martyrdom which he afterward underwent:
and then rising up, commanded him to follow him; by this
bodily attendance mystically implying his conformity to the
death of Christ, that he should follow him in dying for the truth
and testimony of the gospel. It was not long after, that our
Lord appeared to them to take his last farewell of them ; a when
leading them out unto Bethany, a little village upon the Mount
of Olives, he briefly told them, that they were the persons whom
he had chosen to be the witnesses both of his death and resur-
rection ; a testimony which they should bear to him in all parts
of the world : in order to which he would after his ascension
pour out his Spirit upon them in larger measures than they had
hitherto received, that they might be the better fortified to
grapple with that violent rage and fury wherewith both men
and devils would endeavour to oppose them ; and that in the
a Acts i. 8. Luke xxiv. 49.
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mean time they should return to Jerusalem, and stay till these
miraculous powers were from on high conferred upon them. His
discourse being ended, laying his hands upon them, he gave them
his solemn blessing; which done, he was immediately taken from
them, and,being attended with a glorious guard and train of angels,
was received up into heaven. Antiquity tells us, b that in the place
where he last trod upon the rock, the impression of his feet did
remain, which could never afterwards be filled up or impaired,
over which Helena, mother of the great Constantine, afterwards
built a little chapel, called the Chapel of the Ascension : in the
floor whereof, upon a whitish kind of stone, modern travellers
tell us, c that the impression of his foot is shewed at this day ;
but it is that of his right foot only, the other being taken away
by the Turks, and, as it is said, kept in the temple at Jerusalem.
Our Lord being thus taken from them, the apostles were filled
with a greater sense of his glory and majesty, than while he was
wont familiarly to converse with them ; and having performed
their solemn adorations to him, returned back to Jerusulem,
waiting for the promise of the Holy Ghost, which was shortly
after conferred upon them, "They worshipped him, and re^
turned to Jerusalem with great joy." d They who lately were
overwhelmed with sorrow at the very mention of their Lord^s
departure from them, entertained it now with joy and triumph;
being fully satisfied of his glorious advancement at God's right
hand, and of that particular care and providence which they
were sure he would exercise towards them, in pursuance of those
great trusts he had committed to them.
SECTION VII.
ST. PETER 1 S ACTS FROM OUR LORd's ASCENSION TILL THE DISPERSION OF
THE CHURCH.
The apostles return to Jerusalem. The inrtpwow, or " upper room," where they assembled,
what. Peter declares the necessity of a new apostle's being chosen in the room of
Judas. The promise of the Holy Ghost made upon the day of pentecost The Spirit
descended in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues, and why. The greatness of the
miracle. Peter's vindication of the apostles from the slanders of the Jews, and proving
b Paulin. Epist. iii. ad Sever, de invent cruris. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. L ii. c 33.
Hieron. de loc Heb. in Act App.
c J. Cotovic. Itin. L ii. c. 11. vid Sands. Relat. 1. iii. p. 156. d Luke x»y. 52.
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SAINT PETER.
177
Christ to be the promised Messiah. Great numbers converted by his sermon. His
going up to the temple. What their stated hours of prayer. His curing the impotent
cripple there, and discourse to the Jews upon it. What numbers converted by him.
Peter and John seized, and cast into prison. Brought before the Sanhedrim, and their
resolute carriage there. Their refusing to obey, when commanded not to preach
Christ The great security the Christian religion provides for subjection to magistrates
in all lawful instances of obedience. The severity used by Peter towards Ananias and
Sapphire. The great miracles wrought by him. Again cast into prison, and delivered
by an angel. Their appearing before the Sanhedrim; and deliverance, by the
prudent counsels of Gamaliel.
The holy Jesus being gone to heaven, the apostles began to
act according to the power and commission he had left with
them. In order whereunto, the first thing they did after his
ascension, was to fill up the vacancy in their college, lately
made by the unhappy fall and apostacy of Judas. To which
end, no sooner were they returned to Jerusalem, but they went
€49 virep&oV) " into an upper room." Where this virep&ov was,
whether in the house of St. John, or of Mary, John Mark's
mother, or in some of the out-rooms belonging to the temple,
(for the temple had, over the cloisters, several chambers for the
service of the priests and Levites, and as respositories where
the consecrated vessels and utensils of the temple were laid up ;
though it be not probable that the Jews, and especially the
priests, would suffer the apostles and their company to be so
near the temple,) I stand not to inquire. It is certain that the
Jews usually had their virep&a, " private oratories," in the upper
parts of their houses, called m*by, for the more private exercises
of their devotions. Thus Daniel 6 had his m»by, "upper-
chamber," (ra virep&a, the Seventy render it,) whither he was
wont to retire to pray to his God : and Benjamin the Jew tells
us/ that in his time, (Ann. Chr. 1172,) the Jews at Babylon
were wont to pray, both in their synagogues, tow ni^bin, and
in that ancient upper-room of Daniel which the prophet him-
self built. Such an vTrep&ov, or " upper chamber," was that
wherein St. Paul preached at Troas : g and such probably this,
where the apostles were now met together, and in all likelihood
the same where our Lord had lately kept the passover, where
the apostles and the church were assembled on the day of pente-
cost, and which was then the usual place of their religious as-
semblies, as we have elsewhere observed more at large. h Here
• Dan. vL 10. f Benj. Itin. p. 76. * Acts xx. 8. h Prim. Christ par. i. c 6.
N
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the church being met, to the number of about one hundred and
twenty, Peter, as president of the assembly, began to speak,
and, applying himself to the whole congregation, proposed to
them the choice of a new apostle. And it is the remark which
St. Chrysostom makes upon this passage, 1 that Peter herein
would do nothing without the common consent and approbation,
ovBkv av0€VTL/cm, ovBe apxi/c&s, assuming no peculiar super-
eminent power and authority to himself. He put them in mind,
that Judas, j one of our Lord's apostles, being betrayed by his
own covetous and insatiable mind, had lately fallen from the
honour of his place and ministry : that this was no more than
what the prophet had long since foretold should come to pass,
and that the rule and oversight in the church, which had been
committed unto him, should be devolved upon another: that
therefore it was highly necessary, that one should be substituted
in his room, and especially such a one as had been familiarly
conversant with our Saviour, from first to last, that so he might
be a competent witness both of his doctrine and miracles, his
life and death, but especially of his resurrection from the dead.
For, seeing no evidence is so valid and satisfactory as the testi-
mony of an eyewitness, the apostles all along mainly insisted
upon this, that they delivered no other things concerning our
Saviour to the world, than what they themselves had seen and
heard. And seeing his rising from the dead was a principle
likely to meet with a great deal of opposition, and which would
hardliest gain belief and entertainment with the minds of men,
therefore they principally urged this at every turn, that " they
were eyewitnesses of his resurrection that they had seen, felt,
eaten, and familiarly conversed with him after his return from
the grave. That therefore such an apostle might be chosen, two
candidates were proposed: Joseph, called Barsabas, and Matthias.
And having prayed that the divine providence would immediately
guide and direct the choice, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon
Matthias, who was accordingly admitted into the number of the
twelve apostles.
II. Fifty days since the last passover being now run out,
made way for the feast of pentecost : k at what time the great
promise of the Holy Ghost was fully made good unto them. The
Christian assembly being met together for the public services
1 Homil. iii. in Act. J Acts i. 15 k Acts ii. 1.
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SAINT PETER.
179
of their worship, on a sudden a sound, like that of a mighty
wind, rushed in upon them ; representing the powerful efficacy
of that Divine Spirit that was now to be communicated to them;
after which there appeared little flames of fire, which, in the
fashion of cloven tongues, not only descended, but sat upon each
of them, probably to note their perpetual enjoyment of this gift
upon all occasions, that, when necessary, they should never be
without it ; not like the prophetic gifts of old, which were con-
ferred but sparingly, and only at some particular times and
seasons ; as the 44 seventy elders prophesied and ceased not," 1
but it was only at such times " as the Spirit came down and
rested upon them. ,, Hereupon they were all immediately filled
with the Holy Ghost, which enabled them in an instant to speak
several languages, which they had never learned, and probably
never heard of, together with other miraculous gifts and powers.
Thus as the confounding of languages became a curse to the old
world, separating men from all mutual offices of kindness and
commerce, rendering one part of mankind barbarians to another ;
so here, the multiplying several languages became a blessing,
being intended as the means to bring men of all nations " into
the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,"
into the fellowship of that religion that would banish discords,
cement differences, and unite men's hearts in the bond of peace.
The report of so sudden and strange an action presently spread
itself into all corners of the city, and there being at that time at
Jerusalem multitudes of Jewish proselytes, " devout men out of
every nation under heaven;" "Parthians, Medes, Elamites, (or
Persians,) the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia,
Pontus, and Asia Minor, from Phrygia and Pamphylia, from
Egypt and the parts of Libya and Cyrene, from Rome, from
Crete, from Arabia, Jews and proselytes;" (probably drawn
thither by the general report and expectation which had spread
itself over all the Eastern parts, *> and in a manner over all places
of the Roman empire, of the Jewish Messiah, that about this
time should be born at Jerusalem;) they no sooner heard of
it, but universally flocked to this Christian assembly; where
1 Numb. xi. 25.
m Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore
Judaea profecti rerum potirentur. Id de Imperatore, etc. Sueton. in vit Vespas. c. 4.
eadem habet Tacitus Histor. 1. v. c. 13.
N 2
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they were amazed to hear these Galileans speaking to them in
their own native languages, so various, so vastly different from
one other. And it could not but exceedingly increase the
wonder, to reflect upon the meanness and inconsiderableness of
the persons, neither assisted by natural parts, nor polished by
education, nor improved by use and custom : which three things
philosophers require to render a man accurate and extraordinary
in any art or discipline: <f)v<ri$ yap avev fiaOriaem rv<f>\6v
fiddrjcrts §i%a <f>v<reoi><; aXXuri^' ac/crjo'i? x&pl? afi<f>ow areX^
says Plutarch ; n "natural disposition, without institution, is blind;
instruction, without a genius and disposition, is defective ; and
exercise, without both, is lame and imperfect.' ,, Whereas^ these
disciples had not one of these to set them off : their parts were
mean, below the rate of the common people, the Galileans being
generally accounted the rudest and most stupid of the whole
Jewish nation : their education had been no higher than to
catch fish, and to mend nets ; nor had they been used to plead
causes, or to deliver themselves before great assemblies; but
spoke on a sudden, not premeditated discourses, not idle stories,
or wild roving fancies, but the great and admirable works of
God, and the mysteries of the gospel beyond human apprehen-
sions to find out ; and this delivered in almost all the languages
of the then known world. Men were severally affected with it,
according to their different tempers and apprehensions: some
admiring, and not knowing what to think of it ; others, deriding
it, said, that it was nothing else but the wild raving effect of
drunkenness and intemperance. At so wild a rate are men of
profane minds wont to talk, when they take upon them to pass
their censure in the things of God.
III. Hereupon the apostles rose up, and Peter, in the name of
the rest, took this occasion of discoursing to them : he told them,
that this scandalous slander proceeded from the spirit of malice
and falsehood ; that their censure was as uncharitable as it was
unreasonable ; that " they that are drunken are drunk in the
night ;" that it was against nature and custom for men to be in
drink so soon, too early for such a suspicion to take place, it
being now but about nine of the clock, the hour for morning
prayer, till when men, even of ordinary sobriety and devotion, on
festival-days were wont to fast; 0 that these extraordinary and
n Ilep. volt, kyury. p. 2. ° Vid. Joseph, de vit. sua, p. 1020.
SAINT PETER.
181
miraculous passages Were but the accomplishment of an ancient
prophecy, the fulfilling of what God had expressly foretold should
come to pass in the times of the Messiah : that Jesus of Naza-
reth had evidently approved himself to be the Messiah sent from
God, by many unquestionable miracles, of which they themselves
bad been eyewitnesses : and though, by God's permission, who
had determined by this means to bring about the salvation of
mankind, they had wickedly crucified and slain him, yet that
God had raised him from the dead : that it was not possible he
should be holden always under the dominion of the grave ; nor
was it consistent with the justice and goodness of God, and
especially with those divine predictions which had expressly
foretold he should rise again from the dead : David having more
particularly foretold, " that his flesh should rest in hope that
" God would not leave his soul in hell, neither suffer his Holy One
to see corruption, 11 but " would make known to him the ways of
life that this prophecy could not be meant concerning David
himself, by whom it was spoken, he having many ages since been
turned to ashes, his body resolved into rottenness and putre-
faction, his tomb yet visible among them, from whence he never
did return ; that therefore it must needs have been prophetically
spoken concerning Christ, having never been truly fulfilled in
any but him, who both died, and was risen again, whereof they
Were witnesses ; yea, that he was not only risen from the dead,
but ascended into heaven, and, according to David's prediction,
" sat down on God's right hand, until he made his enemies his
footstool which could not be primarily meant of David, he
never having yet bodily ascended into heaven; that therefore
the whole house of Israel ought to believe and take notice, that
this very Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the person whom
God had appointed to be the Messiah and the Saviour of his
church.
IV. This discourse, in every part of it, like so many daggers,
pierced them to the heart ; who thereupon cried out to Peter and
his brethren, to know what they should do. Peter told them, that
there was no other way, than by an hearty and sincere repentance,
and a being baptized into the religion of this crucified Saviour,
to expiate their guilt, to obtain pardon of sin, and the gifts and
benefits of the Holy Ghost. That upon these terms, #ie promises
of the new covenant, which was ratified by the death of Christ,
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did belong to them and their children, and to all that should
effectually believe and embrace the gospel : farther pressing and
persuading them, by doing thus to save themselves from that
unavoidable ruin and destruction which this wicked and unto-
ward generation of obstinate unbelieving Jews were shortly to be
exposed to. The effects of his preaching were strange and won-
derful : as many as believed were baptized ; there being that day
added to the church no less than three thousand souls : a quick
and plentiful harvest ; the late sufferings of our Saviour, as yet
fresh bleeding in their memories, the present miraculous powers of
the Holy Ghost that appeared upon them, the zeal of his auditors,
though heretofore misplaced and misguided, and, above all, the
efficacy of divine grace, contributing to this numerous conversion.
V. Though the converting so vast a multitude might justly
challenge a place amongst the greatest miracles, yet the apostles
began now more particularly to exercise their miraculous power.
Peter and John., going up to the temple, p about three of the
clock in the afternoon, towards the conclusion of one of the solemn
hours of prayer, (for the Jews divided their day into four greater
hours, each quarter containing three lesser under it, three of
which were public and stated times of prayer, instituted, say
they, q by the three great patriarchs of their nation : the first,
from six of the clock in the morning until nine, called hence, " the
third hour of the day," instituted by Abraham ; this was called
rmrw nban, or " morning prayer :" the second, from nine till
twelve, called " the sixth hour," and this hour of prayer ordained
by Isaac ; this was called tD^rftf nban, or " mid-day prayer :"
the third, from twelve till three in the afternoon, called "the
ninth hour," appointed by Jacob, called TOUl nb&n, or " evening
prayer ;" and at this hour it was that these two apostles went
up to the temple, where) they found a poor impotent cripple,
who, though above forty years old, had been lame from his birth,
lying at the beautiful gate of the temple, and asking an alms of
them. Peter, earnestly looking on him, told him, he had no
money to give him, but that he would give him that which was
a great deal better, restore him to his health ; and lifting him up
by the hand, commanded him, in the n#me of " Jesus of Naza-
reth, to rise up and walk." The word was no sooner said, than
the thing was done: immediately the nerves and sinews were
p Acts iii. 1. *> Vid. Drus. in Act. iii. 1.
SAINT PETER.
183
enlarged, and the joints returned to their proper use : the man
standing up, went into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising
God. The beholding so sudden and extraordinary a cure begot
great admiration in the minds of the people, whose curiosity
drew them to the apostles, to see those who had been the authors
of it : which Peter taking notice of, began to discourse to them
to this effect : that there was no reason why they should wonder
at them, as if by their own skill and art they had wrought this
cure, it being entirely done in the name of their crucified Master,
by the power of that very Christ, that holy and just person,
whom they themselves had denied and delivered up to Pilate,
and preferred a rebel and a murderer before him, when his judge
was resolved to acquit him ; and that though they had put him
to death, yet that they were witnesses that God had raised him
up again, and that he was gone to heaven, where he must remain
till the times of the general restitution : that he presumed that
this in them, as also in their rulers, was, in a great measure,
the effect of ignorance, and the not being throughly convinced
of the greatness and divinity of his person ; which yet God
made use of for the bringing about his wise and righteous de-
signs, the accomplishing of what he had foretold, concerning
Christ's person and sufferings, by Moses and Samuel, and all the
holy " prophets which had been since the world began that,
therefore it was no\j& high time for them to repent, and turn to
God, that their great wickedness might be expiated, and that
when Christ should shortly come in judgment upon the Jewish
nation, it might be a time of comfort and refreshing to them,
what would be of vengeance and destruction to other men : that
they were the peculiar persons to whom the blessings of the
promises did primarily appertain, and unto whom God in the
first place sent his Son, that he might derive his blessing upon
them, by " turning them away from their iniquities.'" While
Peter was thus discoursing to the people in one place, we may
suppose that John was preaching to tbem in another ; and the
success was answerable : the apostles cast out the seed, and God
immediately " gave the increase there being by this means no
fewer than five thousand brought over to the faith : r though it
is possible the whole body of believers might be comprehended
in that number.
r Acts iv. 4.
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VI. While the apostles were thus preaching, 8 the priests and
Sadducees, (who particularly appeared in this business, as being
enemies to all tumults, or whatever might disturb their present
ease and quiet, the only portion of happiness they expected ;
besides that they hated Christianity, because so expressly as-
serting the resurrection,) being vexed to hear this doctrine
vented amongst the people, intimated to the magistrate that
this concourse might probably tend to an uproar and insurrec-
tion: whereupon they came with the captain of the temple,
(commander of the tower of Antonia, which stood close by, on
the north side of the temple, wherein was a Roman garrison to
prevent or suppress, especially at festival times, popular tumults
and uproars,) who seized on the apostles, and put them into
prison. The next day they were convented before the Jewish
Sanhedrim ; and, being asked by what power and authority they
had done this? Peter resolutely answered, that as to the cure
done to this impotent person, be it known to them and all the
Jews, that it was perfectly wrought in the name of that Jesus
of Nazareth whom they themselves had crucified, and God had
raised from the dead, and whom, though they had thrown him
by, as waste and rubbish, yet God had made u head of the
corner and that there was no other way wherein they or
others could expect salvation, but by this crucified Saviour.
Great was the boldness of the apostles, admired by the Sanhe-
drim itself, in this matter ; especially if we consider that this
probably was the very court that had so lately sentenced and
condemned their Master, and being fleshed in such sanguinary
proceedings, had no other way but to go on and justify one
cruelty with another : that the apostles did not say these things
in corners and behind the curtain, but to their very faces, and
that in the open court of judicature, and before all the people :
that the apostles had not been used to plead in such public
places, nor had been polished with the arts of education, but
were ignorant, unlearned men, known not to be versed in the
study of the Jewish law.
VII. The council (which all this while had beheld them with
a kind of wonder, and now remembered that they had been the
companions and attendants of the late crucified Jesus) com-
manded them to withdraw, and debated amongst themselves
• Acts iv. 1.
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SAINT PETER.
185
what they should do with them. The miracle they could not
deny, the fact being so plain and evident, and therefore resolved
strictly to charge them, that they should preach no more in the
name of Jesus. Being called in again, they acquainted them
with the resolution of the council : to which Peter and John re-
plied, that they could by no means yield obedience to it, ap- •
pealing to themselves, whether it was not more fit that 44 they
should obey God rather than them and that they could not
but 44 testify what they had seen and heard." Nor did they in
this answer make any undue reflection upon the power of the
magistrates, and the obedience due to them, it being a ruled case
by the first dictates of reason, and the common vote and suffrage
of mankind, that parents and governors are not to be obeyed
when their commands interfere with the obligations under which
we stand to a superior power. 1 All authority is originally de-
rived from God, and our duty to him may not be superseded by
the laws of any authority deriving from him : and even Socrates
himself, in a parallel instance, when persuaded to leave off his
excellent way of institution and instructing youth, and to comply
with the humour of his Athenian judges to save his life, returned
this answer : that 44 indeed he loved and honoured the Athenians ;
but yet resolved to obey God rather than them:" u an answer
almost the same, both in substance and words, with that which
was here given by our apostles. In all other cases, where the
laws of the magistrate did not interfere with the commands of
Christ, none more loyal, more compliant than they : as indeed
no religion in the world ever secured the interests of civil au-
thority like the religion of the gospel. It positively charges
every soul, of what rank or condition soever, 44 to be subject to
the higher powers," as a divine ordinance and institution ; and
that 44 not for wrath only, but for conscience sake it 44 puts
men in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, and to
obey magistrates, to submit to every ordinance of man for the
Lord's sake, both to the king as supreme, and unto governors as
unto them that are sent by him : for so is the will of God." So
far is it from allowing us to violate their persons, that it suffers
us not boldly to censure their actions, 44 to revile the gods,
despise dominions, and speak evil of dignities or to vilify and
* Vid. Muson. apud Stob. Serm. 77. de honor, et obed. parent debit p. 458. ubi
pluribus strenue et eleganter hac de re dissent 0 goer. in. ApoL apud Plat n. U,
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THE LIFE OF
injure them so much as by a dishonourable thought; com-
manding us, when we cannot obey, to suffer the most rigorous
penalties imposed upon us with calmness, and " to possess our
souls in patience." Thus when these two apostles were shortly
after again summoned before the council, commanded no more
to preach the Christian doctrine, and to be scourged for what
they had done already, though they could not obey the one,
they cheerfully submitted to the other, without any peevish or
tart reflections, but went away rejoicing. But what the carriage
of Christians was in this matter in the first and best ages of the
gospel, we have in another place sufficiently discovered to the
world. x We may not withhold our obedience, till the magistrate
invades God's throne, and countermands his authority, and may
then appeal to the sense of mankind, whether it be not most rea-
sonable, that God's authority should first take place, as the apo-
stles here appealed to their very judges themselves. Nor do we find
that the Sanhedrim did except against the plea. At least, what-
ever they thought, yet not daring to punish them for fear of the
people, they only threatened them, and let them go : who there-
upon presently returned to the rest of the apostles and believers.
VIII. The church exceedingly multiplied by these means :
and that so great a company (most whereof were poor) might be
maintained, they generally sold their estates, and brought the
money to the apostles, to be by them deposited in one common
treasury, and thence distributed according to the several exi-
gencies of the church : which gave occasion to this dreadful in-
stance/ Ananias and his wife Sapphira, having taken upon them
the profession of the gospel, according to the free and generous
spirit of those times, had consecrated and devoted their estate
to the honour of God and the necessities of the church; and
accordingly sold their possessions, and turned them into money.
But as they were willing to gain the reputation of charitable
persons, so were they loath wholly to cast themselves upon the
divine providence, by letting go all at once, and therefore pri-
vately withheld part of what they had devoted, and bringing
the rest, laid it at the apostles' feet : hoping herein they might
deceive the apostles, though immediately guided by the Spirit
of God. But Peter, at his first coming in, treated Ananias with
these sharp inquiries: why he would suffer Satan to fill his
x Prim. Christ, par. iii. c. 4. y Acts v. 1.
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SAINT PETER.
187
heart with so big a wickedness, as, by keeping back of his estate,
to think to " deceive the Holy Ghost !" That before it was
sold, it was wholly at his own disposure; and after, nt was per-
fectly in his own power fully to have performed his vow: so
th at it was capable of no other interpretation, than that herein
he had not only abused and injured men, but mocked God, and,
what in him lay, lied to and cheated the Holy Ghost ; who, he
knew, was privy to the most secret thoughts and purposes of his
heart. This was no sooner said, but suddenly, to the great terror
and amazement of all that were present, Ananias was arrested
with a stroke from heaven, and fell down dead to the ground.
Not long after, his wife came in, whom Peter entertained
with the same severe reproofs wherewith he had done her hus-
band; adding, that the like sad fate and doom should imme-
diately seize upon her, who thereupon dropped down dead ; as
she had been copartner with him in the sin, becoming sharer
with him in the punishment : an instance of great severity, filling
all that heard of it with fear and terror, and became a seasonable
prevention of that hypocrisy and dissimulation wherewith many
might possibly think to have imposed upon the church.
IX. This severe case being extraordinary, the apostles usually
exerted their power in such miracles as were more useful and
beneficial to the world ; curing all manner of diseases, and dis-
possessing devils : z insomuch that they brought the sick into the
streets, and laid them upon beds and couches, that at least
Peter's shadow, as he passed by, might come upon them. These
astonishing miracles could not but mightily contribute to the
propagation of the gospel, and convince the world that the apo-
stles were more considerable persons than they took them for,
poverty and meanness being no bar to true worth and greatness.
And, methinks, Erasmus's reflection is here not unseasonable:*
that no honour or sovereignty, no power or dignity, was com-
parable to this glory of the apostle ; that the things of Christ,
though in another way, were more noble and excellent than any
thing that this world could afford. And therefore he tells us,
that when he beheld the state and magnificence wherewith pope
Julius the Second appeared first at Bononia, and then at Borne,
equalling the triumphs of a Pompey or a Caesar, he could not
but think how much all this was below the greatness and
* Acts v. 12.
* Annot. in loc.
188
THE LIFE OF
majesty of St. Peter, who converted the world, not by power or
armies, not by engines or artifices of pomp and grandeur, but by
faith in the power of Christ, and drew it to the admiration of
himself ; and the same state (says he) would no doubt attend
the apostles'* successors, were they men of the same temper and
holiness of life. The Jewish rulers, alarmed with this news, and
awakened with the growing numbers of the church, send to ap-
prehend the apostles, and cast them into prison. But God, who
is never wanting to his own cause, sent that night an angel from
heaven to open the prison doors, commanding them to repair to
the temple, and to the exercise of their ministry : which they
did early in the morning, and there taught the people. How
unsuccessful are the projects of the wisest statesmen, when God
frowns upon them ! how little do any counsels against heaven
prosper ! In vain is it to shut the doors, where God is resolved
to open them: the firmest bars, the strongest chains, cannot
hold, where once God has designed and decreed our liberty.
The officers returning the next morning, found the prison shut
and guarded, but the prisoners gone : wherewith they ac-
quainted the council, who much wondered at it : but being told
where the apostles were, they sent to bring them, without any
noise or violence, before the Sanhedrim ; where the high-priest
asked them, how they durst go on to propagate that doctrine
which they had so strictly commanded them not to preach!
Peter, in the name of the rest, told them, that they must in this
case "obey God rather than men:" that though they had so
barbarously and contumeliously treated the Lord Jesus, yet that
God had raised him up, and exalted him to be a prince and a
Saviour, to give both " repentance and remission of sins :" that
they were witnesses of these things, and so were those miracu-
lous powers which the Holy Ghost conferred upon all true Chris-
tians. Vexed was the council with this answer, and began to
consider how to cut them off. But Gamaliel, a grave and learned
senator, having commanded the apostles to withdraw, bade the
council take heed what they did to them; putting them in
mind, that several persons had heretofore raised parties and fac-
tions, and drawn vast numbers after them ; but that they had
miscarried, and they and their designs come to nought: that
therefore they should do well to let these men alone: that if
their doctrines and designs were merely human, they would in
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SAINT RETER.
189
time of themselves fall to the ground ; but if they were of God,
it was not all their power and policies would be able to defeat
and overturn them : and that they themselves would herein ap-
pear to oppose the counsels and designs of heaven. With this
prudent and rational advice they were satisfied; and having
commanded the apostles to be scourged, and charged them no
more to preach this doctrine, restored them to their liberty:
who, notwithstanding this charge and threatening, returned
home in a kind of triumph, that they were accounted worthy to
suffer in so good a cause, and to undergo shame and reproach
for the sake of so good a master. b Nor could all the hard usage
they met with from men discourage them in their duty to God,
or make them less zealous and diligent both publicly and pri-
vately to preach Christ in every place.
SECTION VIII.
op st. Peter's acts, from the dispersion of the church at
jerusalem till his contest with st. paul at antioch.
The great care of the Diyine Providence over the church. Peter despatched by the
apostles to confirm the chnrch newly planted at Samaria. His baffling and silencing
Simon Magus there. His going to Lydda, and curing iEneas. His raising Dorcas at
Joppa. The vision of all sorts of creatures presented to him, to prepare him for the
conversion of the Gentiles. His going to Cornelius, and declaring God's readiness to
receive the Gentiles into the church. The baptizing Cornelius and his family. Peter
censured by the Jews for conversing with the Gentiles. The mighty prejudices of
the Jews against the Gentiles noted out of heathen writers. Peter cast into prison by
Herod Agrippa : miraculously delivered by an angel. His discourse in the synod at
Jerusalem, that the Gentiles might be received without being put under the obliga-
tion of the law of Moses. His unworthy compliance with the Jews at Antioch, in
opposition to the Gentiles, severely checked and resisted by St PauL The ill use
Porphyry makes of this difference. The conceit of some that it was not Peter the
apostle, but one of the Seventy.
The church had been hitherto tossed with gentle storms, but
now a more violent tempest overtook it, which began in the
protomartyr Stephen, 6 and was more vigorously carried on
afterwards ; by occasion whereof the disciples were dispersed :
and God, who always brings good out of evil, hereby provided
that the gospel should not be confined only to Jerusalem.
. b Vid. Arrian. dissert 1. i. c 29. c Acta viii. 1.
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THE LIFE OF
Hitherto the church had been crowded up within the city Walk,
and the religion had crept up and down in private corners ; but
the professors of it being now dispersed abroad by the malice
and cruelty of their enemies, carried Christianity along with
them, and propagated it into the neighbour countries, accom-
plishing hereby an ancient prophecy, d that " out of Sion should
go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
Thus God overrules the malice of men, and makes intended
poison to become food or physic. That Divine Providence that
governs the world, more particularly superintends the affairs
and interests of his church, so that no weapon formed against
Israel shall prosper ; curses shall be turned into blessings, and
that become an eminent means to enlarge and propagate the
gospel, which they designed as the only way to suppress and
stifle it. Amongst those that were scattered, Philip the deacon
was driven down unto Samaria ; where he preached the gospel,
and confirmed his preaching by many miraculous cures, and dis-
possessing devils. In this city there was one Simon, who, by
magic arts and diabolical sorceries sought to advance himself
into a great fame and reputation with the people, insomuch that
they generally beheld him as the great power of God ; for so
the ancients tell us, e he used to style himself, giving out himself
to be the first and chiefest deity, the Father, who is God over
all ; that is, that he was that which in every nation was ac-
counted the supreme deity. This man hearing the sermons,
and beholding the miracles that were done by Philip, gave up
himself amongst the number of believers, and was baptized with
them. The apostles, who yet remained at Jerusalem, having
heard of the great success of Philip's ministry at Samaria,
thought good to send some of their number to his assistance ;
and accordingly deputed Peter and John, who came thither :
where having prayed for, and laid their hands upon these new
converts, they presently received the Holy Ghost. Simon the
magician, observing that by laying on of the apostles' hands
miraculous gifts were conferred upon men, offered them a con-
siderable sum of money to invest him with this power, that on
whom he laid his hands they might receive the Holy Ghost.
Peter perceiving his rotten and insincere intentions, rejected his
d Isai. ii. 3.
e Just. Mart. Apol. L b. 11. Iren. 1. i. c. 20. Tertull. de prescript. Haeret. c. 46.
SAINT PETER.
191
impious motion with scorn and detestation : " thy money perish
with thee" He told him that his heart was naught and hypo-
critical ; that he could have no share nor portion in so great a
privilege ; that it more concerned him to repent of so great a
wickedness, and sincerely seek to God, that so the thought of his
heart might he forgiven him ; for that he perceived that he had
a very vicious and corrupt temper and constitution of mind, and
was as yet bound up under a very wretched and miserable
state, displeasing to God, and dangerous to himself. The con-
science of the man was a little startled with this, and he prayed
the apostles to intercede with heaven, that God would pardon
his sin, and that none of these things might fall upon him.
But how little cure this wrought upon him, we shall find else-
where, when we shall again meet with him afterwards. The
apostles having thus confirmed the church at Samaria, and
preached up and down in the villages thereabouts, returned
back to Jerusalem, to join their counsel and assistance to the
rest of the apostles.
II. The storm, though violent, being at length blown over, the
church enjoyed a time of great calmness and serenity ; during
which Peter went out to visit the churches lately planted in
those parts by those disciples who had been dispersed by the
persecution at Jerusalem. Coming down to Lydda, the first
thing he did was to work a cure upon one JEneas/ who being
crippled with the palsy, had lain bed-rid for eight years to-
gether. Peter coming to him, bade him, in the name of Christ,
to arise; and the man was immediately restored to perfect
health : a miracle that was not confined only to his person, for,
being known abroad, generally brought over the inhabitants of
that place. The fame of this miracle having flown to Joppa, a
sea-port town, some six miles thence, the Christians there
presently sent for Peter upon this occasion. Tabitha, whose
Greek name was Dorcas, a woman venerable for her piety and
diffusive charity, was newly dead, to the great lamentation of
all good men, and much more to the loss of the poor that had
been relieved by her. Peter, coming to the house, found her
dressed up for her funeral solemnity, and compassed about with
the sorrowful widows, who shewed the coats and garments
wherewith she had clothed them, the badges of her charitable
f Acts ix. 32.
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192
THE LIFE OP
liberality. Peter, shutting all out, kneeled down and prayed,
and then turning him to the body, commanded her to arise ; and
lifting her up by the hand, presented her in perfect health to
her friends, and those that were about her : by which he con-
firmed many, and converted more to the faith : after which he
stayed seme considerable time at Joppa, lodging in the house of
Simon, a tanner*
III. While he abode in this city, 8 retiring one morning to the
house-top to pray, (as the Jews frequently did, having thence a
free and open prospect towards Jerusalem and the temple,) it
being now near noon, which was the conclusion of one of their
stated times of prayer, he found himself hungry, and called for
meat ; but while it was preparing, he himself fell into a trance,
wherein was presented to him a large sheet let down from
heaven, containing all sorts of creatures, clean and unclean ; a
voice at the same time calling to him, that he should rise, kill
freely, and indifferently feed upon them. Peter, tenacious as yet
of the rites and institutions of the Mosaic law, rejoined, that he
could not do it, having never eaten any thing that was common
or unelean : to which the voice replied, that what God had
cleansed he should not account or call common : which being
done thrice, the vessel was again taken up into heaven, and the
vision presently disappeared. By this symbolic representment,
though Peter at present knew not what to make of it, God was
teaching him a new lesson, and preparing him to go upon an
errand and embassy, which the Spirit at the same time expressly
commanded him to undertake. While he was in this doubtful
posture of mind, three messengers knocked at the door, inquiring
for him, from whom he received this account : that Cornelius, a
Roman, captain of a band of Italian soldiers at Csesarea, a person
of great piety and religion, (being a proselyte at the gate, who,
though not observing an exact conformity to the rites of the
Mosaic law, did yet maintain some general correspondence with
it, and lived under the obligation of the seven precepts of the
sons of Noah,) had by an immediate command from God sent
for him. The next day, Peter, accompanied with some of the
brethren, went along with them, and the day after they came to
Csesarea: against whose arrival Cornelius had summoned his
friends and kindred to his house. Peter arriving, Cornelius
s Acts z. 9.
SAINT PETER.
193
(who was affected with a mighty reverence for so great a person)
fell at his feet and worshipped him ; a way of address frequent
in those eastern countries towards princes and great men, but
by the Greeks and Romans appropriated as a peculiar honour
to the gods. Peter, rejecting the honour, as due only to God,
entered into the house ; where he first made his apology to the
company, that though they could not but know that it was not
lawful for a Jew to converse in the duties of religion with those
of another nation, yet that now God had taught him another
lesson ; and then proceeded particularly to inquire the reason of
Cornelius's sending for him. Whereupon Cornelius told him, that
four days since, being conversant in the duties of fasting and
prayer, an angel had appeared to him, and told him that his
prayers and alms were come up for a memorial before God ; that
he should send to Joppa for one Simon Peter, who lodged in a tan-
ner's house by the sea-side, who should farther make known his
mind to him : that accordingly he had sent; and being now come,
they were there met to hear what he had to say to them. Where
we see, that though God sent an angel to Cornelius, to acquaint
him with his will, yet the angel was only to direct him to the
apostle for instruction in the -faith : which no doubt was done,
partly that God might put the greater honour upon an institu-
tion, that was likely to meet with contempt and scorn enough
from the world ; partly to let us see, that we are not to expect
extraordinary and miraculous ways of teaching and information,
where God affords ordinary means.
IV. Hereupon Peter began this discourse : that by comparing
things, it was now plain and evident, that the partition-wall
was broken down ; that God had no longer a particular kindness
for nations or persons ; that it was not the nation, but the re-
ligion; not the outward quality of the man, but the inward
temper of the mind, that recommends men to God ; that the
devout and the pious, the righteous and the good man, where-
ever he be, is equally dear to heaven ; b that God has as much
respect for a just and virtuous man in the wilds of Scythia, as
upon Mount Sion; that the reconciling and making peace between
God and man by Jesus Christ, was the doctrine published by the
prophets of old, and of late, since the times of John, preached
through Galilee and Judea, viz. that God had anointed and con-
h Vid.'Hieron. ad Paulin. p. 102. torn. L
O
f
194 THE LIFE OF
secrated Jesus of Nazareth with divine powers and graces, in the
exercise whereof he constantly went about to do good to men :
that they had seen all he had done amongst the Jews, whom
though they had slain and crucified, yet that God had raised him
again the third day, and had openly shewed him to his apostles
and followers, whom he had chosen to be his peculiar witnesses,
and whom, to that end, he had admitted to eat and drink with
him after his resurrection, commanding them to preach the gospel
to mankind, and to testify that he was the person whom God had
ordained to be the great judge of the world: that all the prophets,
with one consent, bore witness of him : that this Jesus is he, in
whose name whosoever believes, should certainly receive remis-
sion of sins. While Peter was thus preaching to them, the Holy
Ghost fell upon a great part of his auditory, enabling them to
speak several languages, and therein to magnify the giver of
them : whereat the Jews who came along with Peter did suffici-
ently wonder, to see that the gifts of the Holy Ghost should be
poured upon the Gentiles. Peter seeing this, told the company*
that he knew no reason why these persons should not be bap-
tized, having received the Holy Ghost as well as they ; and ac-
cordingly commanded them to be baptized : for whose farther
confirmation he stayed some time longer with them. This act of
Peter's made a great noise among the apostles and brethren at
Jerusalem, who, being lately converted from their Judaism, were
as yet zealous for the religion of their country, and therefore se-
verely charged Peter, at his return, for his too familiar conversing
with the Gentiles. 1 See here the powerful prejudice of educa-
tion. The Jews had, for several ages, conceived a radicated and
inveterate hatred against the Gentiles : indeed, the law of Moses
commanded them to be peculiarly kind to their own nation ; and
the rites and institutions of their religion, and the peculiar form
of their commonwealth, made them different from the fashion of
other countries : a separation which in after times they drew
into a narrower compass. Besides, they were mightily puffed
up with their external privileges, that they were the seed of
Abraham, the people whom God had peculiarly chosen for him-
self, above all other nations of the world, and therefore, with a
lofty scorn, proudly rejected the Gentiles as dogs and reprobates,
utterly refusing to shew them any office of common kindness and
1 Acts xi. l.
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SAINT PETER.
195
converse. We find the heathens frequently charging them with
this rudeness and inhumanity. Juvenal accuses them, k that they
would not shew a traveller the right way, nor give him a draught
of water, if he were not of their religion. Tacitus tells us, 1 that
they had adversus omnes alios hostile odium, " a bitter hatred of
all other people." Haman represented them to Ahasuerus,"* as
eOvos afii/CTOv, aavfMpvXov, &c. ; u a people that would never
kindly mix and correspond with any other, as different in their
manners as in their laws and religion from other nations.'" The
friends of Antiochus (as the historian reports") charged them,
fiovovs airdvTtov eOv&v a/coivavqTovs etvai rr}? irpb? aWo eOvos
i7rifii^la^ teal TroXejjLiovs viroXafi^dvecv iravra^ jirjSevl aXkqy
eOvei TpaTrifr? KOLvcovelv to irapamav, firjBe evvoelv, " that they
alone, of all others, were the most unsociable people under
heaven : that they held no converse or correspondence with any
other, but accounted them as their mortal enemies ; that they
would not eat or drink with men of another nation, no, nor so
much as wish well to them, their ancestors having leavened them
with a hatred of all mankind." This was their humour ; and that
the Gentiles herein did not wrong them, is sufficiently evident
from their ordinary practice, and is openly avowed by their own
writings :° nay, at their first coming over to Christianity, though *
one great design of it was to soften the manners of men, and to
oblige them to a more extensive and universal charity, yet could
they hardly quit this common prejudice, quarrelling with Peter
for no other reason but that he had eaten and drunken with the
Gentiles ; insomuch that he was forced to apologize for himself,
and to justify his actions, as immediately done by divine warrant
and authority. And then, no sooner had he given them a naked
and impartial account of the whole transaction, from first to
last, but they presently turned their displeasure against him into
thanks to God, that had granted to the Gentiles also repentance
unto life.
V. It was now about the end of Caligula's reign, when Peter,
having finished his visitation of the new-planted churches, was
returned unto Jerusalem. Not long after, Herod Agrippa, grand-
child to Herod the Great, having attained the kingdom, the
k Satyr, xiv. 103, 4. 1 Hist. 1. v. c. 4, 5. ™ Ap. Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. xi. c. 6.
n Diod. SicuL 1. xxxiv. apud Phot. Cod. CCXLIV. col. 1149.
e Vid. Maiman. in WH cap. 12. et in Gezelah. cap. 11.
o 2
196
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better to ingratiate himself with the people, had lately put St.
James to death and finding that this gratified the vulgar,
resolved to send Peter the same way after him. In order where-
unto he apprehended him, cast him into prison, and set strong
guards to watch him : the church in the mean time being very
instant and importunate with heaven for his life and safety.
The night before his intended execution, God purposely sent an
angel from heaven, who coming to the prison, found him fast
asleep between two of his keepers : so soft and secure a pillow
is a good conscience, even in the confines of death, and the
greatest danger. The angel raised him up, knocked off his
chains, bade him gird on his garments, and follow him. He did
so ; and having passed the first and second watch, and entered
through the iron-gate into the city, (which opened to them of
its own accord,) after having passed through one street more,
the angel departed from him. By this time Peter came to him-
self, and perceived that it was no vision, but a reality that had
happened to him. Whereupon he came to Mary's house, where
the church were met together at prayer for him. Knocking at
the door, the maid, who came to let him in, perceiving it was his
voice, ran back to tell them that Peter was at the door : which
they at first looked upon as nothing but the effect of fright or
fancy ; but she still affirming it, they concluded that it was his
angel, or some peculiar messenger sent from him. The door
being open, they were strangely amazed at the sight of him :
but he briefly told them the manner of his deliverance, and
charging them to acquaint the brethren with it, presently with-
drew into another place. It is easy to imagine what a bustle
and stir there was the next morning among the keepers of the
prison, with whom Herod was so much displeased, that he com-
manded them to be put to death.
VI. Some time after this, it happened that a controversy
arising between the Jewish and the Gentile converts, q about the
observation of the Mosaic law, the minds of men were ex-
ceedingly disquieted and disturbed with it ; the Jews zealously
contending for circumcision, and the observance of the ceremonial
law to be joined with the belief and profession of the gospel, as
equally necessary to salvation. To compose this difference, the
best expedient that could be thought on was to call a general
p Acts xii. 1. i Acts xv. 1.
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SAINT PETER.
197
council of the apostles and brethren to meet together at Je-
rusalem, which was done accordingly, and the case throughly
scanned and canvassed. At last Peter stood up, and acquainted
the synod, that God having made choice of him, among all the
apostles, to be the first that preached the gospel to the Gentiles ;
God, who was best able to judge of the hearts of men, had borne
witness to them, that they were accepted of him, by giving them
his Holy Spirit as well a& he had done to the Jews ; having put
no difference between the one and the other. That therefore it
was a tempting and a provoking God, to put a yoke upon the
necks of the disciples, which neither they themselves nor their
fathers were able to bear : there being ground enough to believe,
that the Gentiles as well as the Jews should be saved by the
grace of the gospel. After some other of the apostles had de-
clared their judgments in the case, it was unanimously decreed,
that except the temporary observance of some few particular
things, equally convenient both for Jew and Gentile, no other
burthen should be imposed upon them. And so the decrees of
the council being drawn up into a sy nodical epistle, were sent
abroad to the several churches, for allaying the heats and con-
troversies that had been raised about this matter,
VII. Peter, a while after the celebration of this council, left
Jerusalem, and came down to Antioch/ where, using the liberty
which the gospel had given him, he familiarly ate and conversed
with the Gentile converts, accounting them, now that the " parti-
tion-wall was broken down," no longer strangers and foreigners,
" but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God this he had been taught by the vision of the sheet let
down from heaven ; this had been lately decreed, and he himself
had promoted and subscribed it in the synod at Jerusalem ; this
he had before practised towards Cornelius and his family, and
justified the action to the satisfaction of his accusers ; and this
he had here freely and innocently done at Antioch, till some of
the Jewish brethren coming thither, for fear of offending and
displeasing them, he withdrew his converse with the Gentiles,
as if it had been unlawful for him to hold communion with un-
circumcised persons, when yet he knew, and was fully satisfied,
that our Lord had wholly removed all difference, and broken
down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. In
which affair, as he himself acted against the light of his own
* GaLii. 11.
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mind and judgment, condemning what he had approved, and de-
stroying what he had before built up, so hereby he confirmed
the Jewish zealots in their inveterate error, cast infinite scruples
into the minds of the Gentiles, filling their consciences with
fears and dissatisfactions, reviving the old feuds and prejudices
between Jew and Gentile ; by which means many others were
ensnared; yea, the whole number of Jewish converts followed
his example, separating themselves from the company of the
Gentile Christians. Yea, so far did it spread, that Barnabas
himself was carried away with the stream and torrent of this
unwarrantable practice. St. Paul, who was at this time come
to Antioch, unto whom Peter gave the " right hand of fellow-
ship," acknowledging his apostleship of the circumcision, ob-
serving these evil and unevangelical actings, resolutely withstood
Peter to the face, and publicly reproved him as a person worthy
to be blamed for his gross prevarication in this matter ; severely
expostulating and reasoning with him, that he who was himself
a Jew, and thereby under a more immediate obligation to the
Mosaic law, should cast off that yoke himself, and yet endea-
vour to impose it upon the Gentiles, who were not in the least
under any obligation to it : a smart, but an impartial charge ;
and indeed so remarkable was this carriage of St. Paul towards
our apostle, that though it set things right for the present, yet
it made some noise abroad in the world. Yea, Porphyry him-
self, 5 that acute and subtle enemy of Christianity, makes use of
it as an argument against them both : charging the one with
error and falsehood, and the other with rudeness and incivility ;
and that the whole was but a compact of forgery and deceit,
while the princes of the church did thus fall out among them-
selves. And so sensible were some of this in the first ages of
Christianity, that rather than such a dishonour and disgrace, as
they accounted it, should be reflected upon Peter, they tell us
of two several Cephases,* one the apostle, the other one of the
seventy disciples ; and that it was the last of these that was
guilty of this prevarication, and whom St. Paul so vigorously
resisted and reproved at Antioch. But for this plausible and
well-meant evasion the champions of the Romish church conn
them no great thanks at this day. Nay, St. Jerome long since
fully confuted it in his notes upon this place.
* Apud Hieron. prooera. in Ep. .id Gal. 1 Hieron. Com. in Gal. ii.
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SAINT PETER.
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SECTION IX.
of st. Peter's acts, from the end of the sacred story till
Peter's story prosecuted out of ecclesiastical writers. His planting of a church and an
episcopal see at Antioch, when said to be. His first journey to Rome, and the happi-
ness it brought to the Roman empire. His preaching in other places, and return to
Rome. His encounter with Simon Magus. The impostures of the magician. His
familiarity with the emperors, and the great honours said to be done to him. His
statue and inscription at Rome. . Peter's victory over him by raising one from the
dead. Simon attempting to fly, is by Peter's prayers hindered, fells down, and dies.
Nero's displeasure against Peter, whence. His being cast into prison. His flight
thence, and being brought back by Christ appearing to him. Crucified with his head
downwards, and why. The place of his martyrdom and burial. The original and
greatness of St Peter's church in Rome. His episcopal chair pretended to be still
kept there.
Hitherto, in drawing up the life of this great apostle, we have
had an infallible guide to conduct and lead us : but the sacred
story breaking off here, forces us to look abroad, and to pick up
what memoir the ancients have left us in this matter : which
we shall for the main digest according to the order # wherein
Baronius and other ecclesiastical writers have disposed the series
of St. Peter's life ; reserving what is justly questionable, to a
more particular examination afterward. And that we may pre-
sent the account more entire and perfect, we must step back a
little in point of time, that so we may go forward with greater
advantage. We are to know, therefore, that during the time of
peace and calmness which the church enjoyed after Saul's per-
secution, when St. Peter went down to visit the churches, he is
said to have gone to Antioch, where great numbers of Jews in-
habited, and there to have planted the Christian faith. That he
founded a church here, Eusebius expressly tells us; u and by others
it is said, x that he himself was the first bishop of this see. Sure
I am that St. Chrysostom7 reckons it one of the greatest honours
of that city that St. Peter stayed so long there, and that the
bishops of it succeeded him in that see. The care and pre-
cedency of the church he had between six and seven years. Not
that he stayed there all that time, but that having ordered and
u Chron. ad Ann. Chr. 43. * Ilieron. Comment, in ii. ad Galat.
y Encom. S. Ignat, Mart. p. 503. torn. i.
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disposed things to the best advantage, he returned to other
affairs and exigencies of the church : confirming the new planta-
tions, bringing in Cornelius and his family, and in him the first-
fruits of the Gentiles'* conversion to the faith of Christ : after
which he returned unto Jerusalem, where he was imprisoned
by Herod, and miraculously delivered by an angel sent from
heaven.
II. What became of Peter after his deliverance out of prison
is not certainly known : probably he might preach in some parts
a little farther distant from Judea, as we are told he did at
Byzantium/ and in the countries thereabout ; (though, I confess,
the evidence to me is not convincing.) After this, he resolved
upon a journey to Rome ; where most agree he arrived about the
second year of the emperor Claudius. Orosius tells us, a that
coming to Rome, he brought prosperity along with him to that
city : for besides several other extraordinary advantages which
at that time happened to it, this was not the least observable,
that Camillus Scribonianus, governor of Dalmatia, soliciting the
army to rebel against the emperor, the eagles, their military
standard, remained so fast in the ground, that no power nor
strength was able to pluck them up : with which unusual acci-
dent the minds of the soldiers were surprised and startled, and
turning their swords against the author of the sedition, continued
firm and loyal in their obedience : whereby a dangerous rebellion
was prevented, likely enough otherwise to have broken out. This
he ascribes to St. Peter's coming to Rome, and the first planta-
tion of the Christian faith in that city : heaven beginning more
particularly to smile upon that place at his first coming thither.
It is not to be doubted, but that at his first arrival, he disposed
himself amongst the Jews, his countrymen, who,- ever since the
time of Augustus, had dwelt in the region beyond Tiber. But
when afterwards he began to preach to the Gentiles, he was
forced to change his lodging, and was taken in by one Pudens,
a senator, lately converted to the faith. Here he closely plied
his main office and employment to establish Christianity in that
place. Here, we are told, b he met with Philo the Jew, lately
come on his second embassy unto Rome, in the behalf of his
2 Bar. ad Ann. ,Chr. 44. num. 12. Vid. Epist Agap. ad Petr. Hieros. in v. Synod,
sub Men. Cone. a Hj 8t# j vii. c. 6.
b Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 17. Hieron. de script. Eccl. in Phil.
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SAINT PETER. 201
countrymen at Alexandria, and to Lave contracted an intimate
friendship and acquaintance with him. And now it was, says
Baronius, c that Peter being mindful of the churches which he had
founded in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia the
Less, wrote his first epistle to them, which he probably infers
hence, that St. Mark being yet with him at the time of the date
of this epistle, it must be written at least some time this year,
for that now it was that St. Mark was sent to preach and pro-
pagate the faith in Egypt. Next to the planting religion at
Rome, he took care to propagate it in the western parts. And
to that end, (if we may believe one of those that pretend to be
his succe8Sors, d ) he sent abroad disciples into several provinces,
that so u their sound might go into all the earth, and their words
into the ends of the world."
III. It happened that after St. Peter had been several years
at Rome, Claudius, the emperor, taking advantage of some sedi-
tions and tumults raised by the Jews, by a public edict banished
them out of Rome. 6 In the number of whom, St. Peter (they
say) departed thence, and returned back to Jerusalem, where he
was present at that great apostolical synod, of which before.
After this we are left under great uncertainties how he disposed
of himself for many years. Confident we may be, that he was
not idle, but spent his time sometimes in preaching in the eastern
parts, sometimes in other parts of the world, as in Africa, Sicily,
Italy, and other places/ And here it may not be amiss to insert
a claim in behalf of our own country : Eusebius telling us (as
Metaphrastes reports it 8 ) that Peter was not only in these
western parts, but particularly that he was a long time in
Britain, where he converted many nations to the faith. But we
had better be without the honour of St. Peter's company, than
build the story upon so sandy a foundation: Metaphrastes's
authority being of so little value in this case, that it is slighted
by the more learned and moderate writers of the church of Rome.
But wherever it was that St. Peter employed his time, towards the
letter part of Nero's reign he returned to Rome ; where he found
the minds of the people strangely bewitched and hardened against
the embracing of the Christian religion by the subtleties and
c Ad Ann. 45. num. 16. d Innoc. Ep. i. ad Dec. Eug.
e Vid. Oros. 1. vil c. 6. f Vid. Innoc. Epist ubi supra.
k De Petr. et Paul ad diem 29 Jun. num. 23. Vid. etiam n. 10. ibid.
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magic arts of Simon Magus, whom (as we have before related)
he had formerly baffled at Samaria. This Simon was bora at
Gitton, a village of Samaria, 1 * bred up in the arts of sorcery and
divination, and by the help of the diabolical powers performed
many strange feats of wonder and activity, insomuch that
people generally looked upon him as some great deity come down
from heaven : but being discovered and confounded by Peter at
Samaria, he left the East and fled to Borne ; where, by witch-
craft and sorceries, he insinuated himself into the favour of the
people, and at last became very acceptable to the emperors them-
selves, insomuch that no honour and veneration was too great for
him. Justin Martyr assures us, 1 that he was honoured as a deity ;
that a statue was erected to him in the Insula Tyberina, between
two bridges, with this inscription, simoni deo sancto ; " To
Simon, the holy God that the Samaritans generally, and very
many of other nations, did own and worship him as the chief
principal deity. I know the credit of this inscription is shrewdly
shaken by some later antiquaries, who tell us, that the good
father being a Greek, might easily mistake in a Latin inscription,
or be imposed upon by others; and that the true inscription was
simoni sango deo fidio, &c, such an inscription being in the
last age dug up in the Tyberine island, and there preserved to
this day. It is not impossible but this might be the foundation
of the story ; but sure I am, that it is not only reported by the
Martyr, who was himself a Samaritan, and lived but in the next
age, but by others almost of the same time, Irenseus, k Tertullian, 1
and by others after them. m It farther deserves to be considered,
that Justin Martyr was a person of great learning and gravity, in-
quisitive about matters of this nature ; at this time at Rome,
where he was capable fully to satisfy himself in the truth of
things ; that he presented this apology to the emperor and the
senate of Borne, to whom he would be careful what he said ; and
who, as they knew whether it was true or no, so, if false, could
not but ill resent to be so boldly imposed upon by so notorious a
fable : but, be it as it will, he was highly in favour both with
the people and their emperors, especially Nero, who was the
great patron of magicians, and all who maintained secret ways
h J. Mart. Apol. ii. p. 69—91. Vid. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 349.
1 Ubi supra, Apol. ii. k Iren. adv. Hser. 1. i. c. 20. p. 115. 1 Tertull. Apol. c. 13.
m Euseb.l. ii. c. 14. Aug. dc Hueres. in Simon, torn. vi. col. 13. Niceph. 1. ii. c. 14.
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SAINT PETER.
203
of commerce with the infernal powers." With him St. Peter
thought fit in the first place to encounter, 0 and to undeceive
the people, by discovering the impostures and delusions of that
wretched man.
IV. That he did so, is generally affirmed by the ancient
fathers; 0 who tell us of some particular instances, wherein he
baffled and confounded him. But because the matter is more
entirely drawn up by Hegesippus 0 - the younger, an author con-
temporary with St. Ambrose, if not (which is most probable) St.
Ambrose himself, we shall from him represent the summary of
the story. There was at this time at Borne an eminent young
gentleman, and a kinsman of the emperor's, lately dead. The
fame which Peter had for raising persons to life, persuaded his
friends that he might be called : others also prevailing that
Simon the magician might be sent for, Simon, glad of the
occasion to magnify himself before the people, propounded to
Peter, that if he raised the gentleman unto life, then Peter, who
had so injuriously provoked the " great power of God," (as he
styled himself,) should lose his life: but if Peter prevailed, he
himself would submit to the same fate and sentence. Peter
accepted the terms, and Simon began his charms and enchant-
ments ; whereat the dead gentleman seemed to move his hand.
The people that stood by, presently cried out, that he was alive,
and that' he talked with Simon, and began to fall foul upon
Peter, for daring to oppose himself against so great a power.
The apostle entreated their patience ; told them that all this was
but a phantasm and appearance ; that if Simon was but taken
from the bed-side, all this pageantry would quickly vanish : who
being accordingly removed, the body remained without the least
sign of motion. Peter, standing at a good distance from the
bed, silently made his address to heaven, and then before them
all commanded the young gentleman, in the name of the Lord
Jesus, to arise : who immediately did so, spoke, walked, aud ate,
and was by Peter restored to his mother. The people who saw
this, suddenly changed their opinions, and fell upon the magician
with an intent to stone him: but Peter begged his life; and
n Vid. Plin. Nat Hist 1. xxx. c 2. 0 Euseb. Hist EccL L ii. c. 14.
p Damasc. in vit Petr. Cone. voL i. Const Apost L vi. c. 8, 9. Arnob. adv. Gent
L ii. p. 23. Epiph. Haeres. xxi. c. 1. Sulp. Sev. L ii. p. 137. et alii.
* Heges. dc Excid. Hieros. 1. iii. c. 2.
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told them, that it would be a sufficient punishment to him to
live and see that, in despite of all his power and malice, the
kingdom of Christ should increase and flourish. The magician
was inwardly tormented with this defeat, and vexed to see the
triumph of the apostle; and therefore mustering up all his powers,
summoned the people, told them that he was offended at the
Galileans, whose protector and guardian he had been, and there-
fore set them a day, when he promised that they should see him
fly up into heaven. At the time appointed he went up to the
mount of the capitol, and throwing himself from the top of the
rock, began his flight : a sight which the people entertained
with great wonder and veneration, affirming that this must be
the power of God, and not of man. Peter, standing in the
crowd, prayed to our Lord, that the people might be undeceived,
and that the vanity of the impostor might be discovered in such
a way that he himself might be sensible of it. Immediately
the wings which he had made himself began to fail him, and he
fell to the ground, miserably bruised and wounded with the fall:
whence being carried into a neighbouring village, he soon after
died. This is the story, for the particular circumstances whereof
the reader must rely upon the credit of my author, the thing in
general being sufficiently acknowledged by most ancient writers.
This contest of Peter's with Simon Magus is placed by Eusebius
under the reign of Claudius, but by the generality both of ancient
and later authors, it is referred to the reign of Nero.
V. Such was the end of this miserable and unhappy man :
which no sooner came to the ears of the emperor, to whom by
wicked artifices he had endeared himself, but it became an
occasion of hasteniug Peter's ruin. The emperor probably had
been before displeased with Peter, not only upon the account of
the general disagreement and inconformity of his religion, but
because he had so strictly pressed temperance and chastity/ and
reclaimed so many women in Rome from a dissolute and vicious
life, thereby crossing that wanton and lascivious temper, to which
that prince was so immoderate a slave and vassal. And being
now by his means robbed of his dear favourite and companion,
he resolved upon revenge, commanded Peter (as also St. Paul,
who was at this time at Borne) to be apprehended, and cast into
the Mamertine prison : where they spent their time in the
r Vid. Ambr. Orat in Auxent. Ep. L v. p. 125. torn. iii.
SAINT PETER.
205
exercises of religion, 3 and especially in preaching to the prisoners,
and those who resorted to them. And here we may suppose
it was (if not a little before) that Peter wrote his second epistle
to the dispersed Jews, wherein he endeavours to confirm them
in the belief and practice of Christianity, and to fortify them
against those poisonous and pernicious principles and practices
which even then began to break in upon the Christian church.
VI. Nero returning from Achaia, and entering Borne with a
great deal of pomp and triumph, resolved now the apostles
should fall as a victim and sacrifice to his cruelty and revenge.
While the fatal stroke was daily expected, the Christians in
Borne did by daily prayers and importunities solicit St. Peter to
make an escape,* and to reserve himself to the uses and services
of the church. This at first he rejected, as what would ill
reflect upon his courage and constancy, and argue him to be
afraid of those sufferings for Christ to which he himself had so
often persuaded others ; but the prayers and tears of the people
overcame him, and made him yield. Accordingly, the next
night, having prayed with and taken his farewell of the brethren,
he got over the prison wall ; and coming to the city gate, he is
there said to have met with our Lord, who was just entering
into the city.. Peter asked him, " Lord, whither art thou going V
from whom he presently received this answer, " I am come to
Borne, to be crucified a second time/' By which answer Peter
apprehended himself to be reproved, and that our Lord meant it
of his death, that he was to be crucified in his servant. Where-
upon he went back to the prison, and delivered himself into the
hands of his keepers, shewing himself most ready and cheerful
to acquiesce in the will of God. And we are told," that in the
stone whereon our Lord stood while he talked with Peter, he
left the impression of his feet ; which stone has been ever since
preserved as a very sacred relic, and after several translations
was at length fixed in the church of St. Sebastian the martyr,
where it is kept and visited with great expressions of reverence
and devotion at this day. Before his suffering he was, no
question, scourged, according to the manner of the Bomans, who
were wont first to whip those malefactors who were adjudged
" Vid. Martyr. Rom. ad diem 14 Mart p. 165.
1 Vid. Ambr. ut supra et Heges. de ezcid. Hieros. 1. iii. c. 2.
u Rom. Subteran. 1. iii. c. 21. n. 15.
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to the most severe and capital punishments. Having saluted his
brethren, and especially having, taken his last farewell of St.
Paul, he was brought out of the prison, and led to the top of
the Vatican mount, near to Tiber, the place designed for his
execution. The death he was adjudged to was crucifixion, as
of all others accounted the most shameful, so the most severe
and terrible. But he entreated the favour of the officers, that
he might not be crucified in the ordinary way, but might suffer
with his head downwards, 1 and his feet up to heaven, affirming
that he was unworthy to suffer in the same posture wherein his
Lord had suffered before him. Happy man, (as Chrysostom
glosses,*) to be set in the readiest posture of travelling from
earth to heaven. His body being taken from the cross, is said
to have been embalmed by Marcellinus, the presbyter, after the
Jewish manner, and was then buried in the Vatican, near the
Triumphal Way. Over his grave a small church was soon after
erected ; z which being destroyed by Heliogabalus, his body was
removed to the cemetery in the Appian Way, two miles from
Rome ; where it remained till the time of pope Cornelius, who
reconveyed it to the Vatican, where it rested somewhat ob-
scurely until the reign of Constantine : who, out of the mighty
reverence which he had for the Christian religion, caused many
churches to be built at Rome, but especially rebuilt and enlarged
the Vatican to the honour of St. Peter; in the doing whereof
himself is said to have been the first that began to dig the
foundation, and to have carried thence twelve baskets of rubbish
with his own hands, in honour, as it should seem, of the twelve
apostles. He infinitely enriched the church with gifts and
ornaments, which in every age increased in splendour and riches,
till it is become one of 4he wonders of the world at this day.
Of whose glories, stateliness, and beauty, and those many
venerable monuments of antiquity that are in it,^hey who desire
to know more, may be plentifully satisfied by Onuphrius.* Only
one amongst the rest must not be forgotten : there being kept that
very wooden chair wherein St. Peter sat when he was at Rome,
* Orig. L iii. in Genes, apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. L iii. c. 1. Hieron. de Script Eccl. in
Petr. Heges. de excid. Hieros. 1. iii. c. 2. Prudent. Peristeph. Hymn. xi. in Pass. Pet et
Paul
y Serm. in Petr. et Paul p. 267. torn. vi.
* Vid. Onuphr. de vii. Urb. Basil, c. 4.
* Loc. supra laudat
SAINT PETER.
207
by the only touching whereof many miracles are said to be
performed. But, surely, Baronius's wisdom and gravity were
from home, b when, speaking of this chair, and fearing that here-
tics would imagine that it might be rotten in so long a time, he
tells us, that it is no wonder that this chair should be preserved
so long, when Eusebius affirms, that the wooden chair of St.
James, bishop of Jerusalem, was extant in the time of Oon-
stantine. But the cardinal, it seems, forgot to consider, that
there is some difference between three and sixteen hundred years.
But of this enough. St. Peter was crucified, according to the
common computation, in the year of Christ sixty-nine, and the
thirteenth (or, as Eusebius, the fourteenth) of Nero ; how truly
may be inquired afterwards.
SECTION X,
THE CHARACTER OP HIS PERSON AND TEMPER, AND AN ACCOUNT OP
HIS WRITINGS.
The description of St Peter's person. An account of his temper. A natural fervour and
eagerness predominant in him. Fierceness and animosity peculiarly remarkable in the
Galileans. The abatements of his zeal and courage. His humility and lowliness of
mind. His great love to, and zeal for Christ. His constancy and resolution in con-
fessing of Christ His faithfulness and diligence in his office. His writings, genuine
and supposititious. His first epistle, what the. design of it What meant by Ba-
bylon, whence it was dated. His second epistle a long time questioned, and why.
Difference in the style, no considerable objection. Grotius's conceit of its being
written by Symeon, bishop of Jerusalem, exploded. A concurrence of circumstances
to entitle St Peter to it Some things in it referred to, which he had preached at
Home, particularly the destruction of Jerusalem, written but a little before his death.
The spurious writings attributed to him, mentioned by the ancients. His Acts.
GospeL Petri Prcedicatio. His Apocalypse. Judicium Petri. Peter's married re-
lation. His wife the companion of his travels. Her martyrdom. His daughter
Petronilla.
Having run through the current history of St. Peter's life, it
may not be amiss in the next place to survey a little his person
and temper. His body (if we may believe the description given .
of him by Nicephorus c ) was somewhat slender, of a middle size,
but rather inclining to tallness ; his complexion very pale, and
almost white : the hair of his head and beard curled and thick,
b Ad Ann. 45. num. 11. c Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 37.
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but withal short ; though St. Jerome tells us, d out of Clemens's
Periods, that he was bald, which probably might be in his de-
clining age ; his eyes black, but specked with red, which Ba-
ronius will have to proceed from his frequent weeping; 6 his
eye-brows thin, or none at all ; his nose long, but rather broad
and flat than sharp : such was the case and outside. Let us next
look inwards, and view the jewel that was within. Take him
as a man, and there seems to have been a natural eagerness pre-
dominant in his temper, which as a whetstone sharpened his soul
for all bold and generous undertakings. It was this in a great
measure that made him so forward to speak, and to return an-
swers, sometimes before he had well considered them. f It was
this made him expose his person to the most eminent dangers,
promise those great things in behalf of his Master, and resolutely
draw his sword in his quarrel against a whole band of soldiers,
and wound the high-priest's servant ; and possibly he had at-
tempted greater matters, had not our Lord restrained, and
taken him off by that seasonable check that he gave him.
II. This temper he owed in a great measure to the genius
and nature of his country, of which Josephus gives this true
character^ that it naturally bred in men a certain fierceness
and animosity, whereby they were fearlessly carried out upon
any action, and in all things shewed a great strength and courage
both of mind and body. The Galileans (says he) being fighters
from their childhood, the men being as seldom overtaken with
cowardice as their country with want of men. And yet, not-
withstanding this, his fervour and fierceness had its intervals ;
there being some times when the paroxisms of his heat and
courage did intermit, and the man was surprised and betrayed
by his own fears. Witness his passionate crying out, when he
was upon the sea in danger of his life, and his fearful deserting
his Master in the garden ; but especially his carriage in the high-
priest's hall, when the confident charge of a sorry maid made
him sink so far beneath himself, and, notwithstanding his great
and resolute promises, so shamefully deny his Master, and that
with curses and imprecations. But he was in danger, and pas-
sion prevailed over his understanding, and " fear betrayed the
d Com. in Gal. ii. p. 164. vol. ix. ex lib. dicto, Tlpd^eis, seu Tie piotioi T\4rpov.
e Ad Ann. 69. n. 31. f Chrysost. Horn, xxxii. in Joan. p. 170.
8 De Bello Jud. L iii. c. 4.
SAINT PETER.
209
succours which reason offered and, being intent upon nothing
but the present safety of his life, he heeded not what he did,
when he disowned his Master, to save himself; so dangerous is
it to be left to ourselves, and to have our natural passions let
loose upon us.
III. Consider him as a disciple and a Christian, and we shall
find him exemplary in the great instances of religion. Singular
his humility and lowliness of mind. With what a passionate
earnestness, upon the conviction of a miracle, did he beg of our
Saviour to depart from him: accounting himself not worthy
that the Son of God should come near so vile a sinner. When
our Lord, by that wonderful condescension, stooped to wash his
apostles' feet, he could by no means be persuaded to admit it,
not thinking it fit that so great a person should submit himself
to so servile an office towards so mean a person as himself;
nor could he be induced to accept it, till our Lord was in a
manner forced to threaten him into obedience. When Cornelius,
heightened in his apprehensions of him by an immediate com-
mand from God concerning him, would have entertained him
with expressions of more than ordinary honour and veneration,
so far was he from complying with it, that he plainly told him,
he was no other than such a man as himself. With how much
candour and modesty does he treat the inferior rulers and mi-
nisters of the church ? He, upon whom antiquity heaps so many
honourable titles, styling himself no other than their fellow-
presbyter. Admirable his love to, and zeal for his Master,
which he thought he could never express at too high a rate:
for his sake venturing on the greatest dangers, and exposing
himself to the most imminent hazards of life. It was in his
quarrel that he drew his sword against a band of soldiers, and
an armed multitude ; and it was love to his Master drew him
into that imprudent advice, that he should seek to save himself,
and avoid those sufferings that were coming upon him; that
made him promise and engage so deep, to suffer and die with
him. Great was his forwardness in owning Christ to be the
Messiah and Son of God; which drew from our Lord that
honourable encomium, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah."
But greater his courage and constancy in confessing Christ be-
fore his most inveterate enemies, especially after he had re-
covered himself of his fall. With how much plainness did he
p
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tell the Jews at every turn to their very faces, that they were
the murderers and crucifiers of the Lord of glory? Nay, with
what an undaunted courage, with what an heroic greatness of
mind, did he tell that very Sanhedrim, that had sentenced and
condemned him, that they were guilty of his murder, and that
they could never be saved any other way than by this very
Jesus whom they had crucified and put to death ?
IV. Lastly, let us reflect upon him as an apostle, as a pastor
and guide of souls. And so we find him faithful and diligent in
his office, with an infinite zeal endeavouring to instruct the ig-
norant, reduce the erroneous, to strengthen the weak, and confirm
the strong, to reclaim the vicious, and " turn souls to righteous-
ness." We find him taking all opportunities of preaching to the
people, converting many thousands at once. How many voyages
and travels did he undergo ? with how unconquerable a patience
did he endure all conflicts and trials, and surmount all difficulties
and oppositions, that he might plant and propagate the Christian
faith ? not thinking much to lay down his own life to promote
and further it. Nor did he only do his duty himself, but as one
of the prime superintendents of the church, and as one that was
sensible of the value and the worth of souls, he was careful to
put others in mind of theirs, earnestly pressing and persuading
the pastors and governors of it, " to feed the flock of God, to
take upon them the rule and inspection of it freely and willingly , r>h
not out of a sinister end, merely of gaining advantages to them-
selves, but out of a sincere design of doing good to souls ; that
they would treat them mildly and gently, and be themselves ex-
amples of piety and religion to them, as the best way to make
their ministry successful and effectual. And because he could
not be always present to teach and warn men, he ceased not by
letters " to stir up their minds" to the remembrance and practice
of what they had been taught : a course, he tells them, 1 which
he was resolved to hold as long as he lived, as " thinking it meet,
while he was in this tabernacle, to stir them up, by putting them
in mind of these things ; that so they might be able after his
decease, to have them always in remembrance." And this may
lead us to the consideration of those writings which he left be-
hind him for the benefit of the church.
V. Now the writings that entitle themselves to this apostle,
h 1 Pet v. 3, 4. 1 2 Pet. i. 12, 13, 15.
SAINT PETER.
211
were either genuine, or supposititious. The genuine writings are
his two epistles, which make up part of the sacred canon. For
the first of them, no certain account can be had when it was
written ; though Baronius and most writers commonly assign it
to the year of Christ forty-four : but this cannot be, Peter not
being at Rome (from whence it is supposed to have been written)
at that time, as we shall see anon. He wrote it to the Jewish
converts dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, and the countries
thereabouts, chiefly upon the occasion of that persecution which
had been raised at Jerusalem ; and accordingly, the main design
of it is to confirm and comfort them under their present sufferings
and persecutions, and to direct and instruct them how to carry
themselves in the several states and relations, both of the civil
and the Christian life. For the place whence it was written, it is
expressly dated from Babylon ; but what, or where this Babylon
is, is not so easy to determine : some think it was Babylon in
Egypt, and probably Alexandria, and that there Peter preached
the gospel ; others will have it to have been Babylon, the ancient
metropolis of Assyria, and where great numbers of Jews dwelt
ever since the times of their captivities. But we need not send
Peter on so long an errand, if we embrace the notion of a learned
man, k who, by Babylon, will figuratively understand Jerusalem,
no longer now the " holy city, 11 but a kind of spiritual Babylon, in
which the church of God did at this time groan under great ser-
vitude and captivity : and this notion of the word he endeavours
to make good, by calling in to his assistance two of the ancient
fathers, 1 who so understand that of the prophet, "We have healed
Babylon, but she was not healed ; 11 where the prophet (say they)
by Babylon means Jerusalem, as differing nothing from the
wickedness of the nations, nor conforming itself to the law of God.
But, generally, the writers of the Romish church, and the more
moderate of the reformed party, acquiescing herein in the judg-
ment of antiquity, by Babylon understand Rome ; and so, it is
plain, St. John calls it in his Revelation," 1 either from its con-
formity in power and greatness to that ancient city, or from that
great idolatry which at this time reigned in Rome : and so we may
suppose St. Peter to have written it from Rome, not long after
his coming thither, though the precise time be not exactly known.
k L. Capell. Append, ad Hist. Apost p. 42.
1 Cyril. Alex, et Procop. Gaz. in Esa. liii. m Chap, xviii. 2, 10, 21.
P 2
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VI. As for the second epistle, it was not accounted of old of
equal value and authority with the first, and therefore, for some
ages, not taken into the sacred canon ; as is expressly affirmed by
Eusebius," and many of the ancients before him. The ancient
Syriac church did not receive it ; and accordingly it is not to be
found in their ancient copies of the New Testament :° yea, those
of that church at this day do not own it as canonical, but only
read it privately, as we do the apocryphal books. The greatest
exception that I can find against it, p was the difference of its
style from the other epistle ; and therefore it was presumed that
they were not both written by the same hand. But St. Jerome,
who tells us the objection, does elsewhere himself return the
answer, q that the difference in the style and manner of writing
might very well arise from hence, that St. Peter, according to his
different circumstances, and the necessity of affairs, was forced
to use several amanuenses and interpreters; sometimes St. Mark,
and after his departure some other person ; which might justly
occasion a difference in the style and character of these epistles :
not to say, that the same person may vastly alter and vary his
style, according to the times when, or the persons to whom> or
the subjects about which he writes, or the temper and disposition
he is in at the time of writing, or the care that is used in doing
it. Who sees not the vast difference of Jeremy's writing in his
prophecy and in his book of Lamentations ? between St. John's
in his gospel, his epistles, and apocalypse ? How oft does St.
Paul alter his style in several of his epistles, in some more lofty
and elegant, in others more rough and harsh S besides hundreds
of instances that might be given, both in ecclesiastical and foreign
writers, too obvious to need insisting on in this place. The learned
Grotius r will have this epistle to have been written by Symeon,
St. James's immediate successor in the bishopric of Jerusalem,
and that the word [Peter] was inserted into the title by another
hand : but, as a judicious person of our own observes, 8 these were
but his posthume annotations, published by others, and no doubt
never intended as the deliberate result of that great man's judg-
ment ; especially since he himself tacitly acknowledges, that all
n Hist EccL L iii. c. 3. Orig. apud Niceph. 1. v. c. 16.
° Vid. Edv. Pocock. Praefat ad Epist. Syr. a se edit.
p Hier. de script. Eccl. in Petr. i Qusest. 11. ad Hedib. torn. iii. p. 151.
' Annot. in 2 Pet. c. i. ■ Dr. Ham. in Argum. Epist.
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SAINT PETER.
213
copies extant at this day read the title and inscription as it is in
our books. And indeed there is a concurrence of circumstances
to prove St. Peter to be the author of it : it bears his name in
the front and title ; yea, somewhat more expressly than the
former, which has only one, this, both his names. There is a
passage in it that cannot well relate to any but him : when he tells
us,* that he was present with Christ in the holy mount ; " when
he received from God the Father honour and glory ; where he
heard the voice which came from heaven, from the excellent
glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
This evidently refers to Christ's transfiguration, where none were
present but Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, neither of which
were ever thought of to be the author of this epistle. Besides,
that there is an admirable consent and agreement in many pas-
sages between these two epistles, as it were easy to shew in par-
ticular instances. Add to this, that St. Jude, u speaking of the
" scoffers who should come in the last time, walking after their own
ungodly lusts," cites this as that which had been " before spoken
by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ wherein he plainly
quotes the words of this second epistle of Peter, affirming,
44 that there should come in the last days scoffers, walking after
their own lusts."* And that this does agree to Peter, will farther
appear by this, that he tells us of these scoffers that should come
in the last days, that is, before the destruction of Jerusalem, (as
that phrase is often used in the New Testament,) that they should
say, 44 Where is the promise of his coming ?" which clearly re-
spects their making light of those threatenings of our Lord,
whereby he had foretold, that he would shortly come in judg-
ment for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation.
This he now puts them in mind of, as what probably he had before
told them of viva voce, when he was amongst them : for so we
find he did elsewhere ; Lactantius assuring us, y 44 that amongst
many strange and wonderful things which Peter and Paul
preached at Borne, and left upon record, this was one : that
within a short time God would send a prince, who should destroy
the Jews, and lay their cities level with the ground ; straitly be-
siege them, destroy them with famine, so that they should feed
upon one another: that their wives and daughters should be
« 2 Pet. i. 16, 17, 18. u Jude v. 17, 18.
* 2 Pet iii. 2, 3. * Lib. iv, c. 21.
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ravished, and their children's brains dashed out before their
faces : that all things should be laid waste by fire and sword,
and themselves perpetually banished from their own country :
and this for their insolent and merciless usage of the innocent
and dear Son of God." All which, as he observes, came to pass
soon after their death, when Vespasian came upon the J ews, and
extinguished both their name and nation. And what Peter here
foretold at Borne, we need not question but he had done before
to those Jews to whom he wrote this epistle : wherein he es-
pecially antidotes them against those corrupt and poisonous prin-
ciples wherewith many, and especially the followers of Simon
Magus, began to infect the church of Christ ; and this but a
little time before his death, as appears from that passage in it,
where he tells them, 2 " that he knew he must shortly put off his
earthly tabernacle."
VII. Besides these divine epistles, there were other suppositi-
tious writings which in the first ages were fathered upon St. Peter.
Such was the book called " his Acts," mentioned by Origen, a
Eusebius, b and others, but rejected by them. Such was his gospel,
which probably at first was nothing else but the gospel written by
St. Mark, dictated to him (as is generally thought) by St. Peter :
and, therefore, as St. Jerome tells us, c said to be his. Though
in the next age there appeared a book under that title, mentioned
by Serapion, bishop of Antioch, d and by him at first suffered to
be read in the church ; but afterwards, upon a more careful
perusal of it, he rejected it as apocryphal, as it was by others
after him. Another was the book styled " his Preaching,"
mentioned and quoted both by Clemens Alexandrinus 6 and by
Origen/ but not acknowledged by them to be genuine; nay,
expressly said to have been forged by heretics, by an ancient
author contemporary with St. Cyprian. g The next was his
Apocalypse, or Revelation, rejected, as Sozomen tells us, h by the
ancients as spurious, but yet read in some churches in Palestine
in his time. The last was the book called, " his Judgment,"
which probably was the same with that called Hermes,* or Pastor,
* Chap. i. 14. * Orig. torn. xx. in Joan. b Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. iii. c. 3.
c De Script Eccl in Petr. * Apud Euseb. I vi. c. 12.
e Strom. L vi. p. 635. et in Excerpt Graec. ex Hypotyp. p. 809,
f Orig. torn. xiii. in Joan. * De Haeret non rebapt. apud Cypr. p. 142.
»' Hist. Eccl. 1. vii. c. 19.
* Vid. Rufin. Exposit. Symbol, inter Oper. Hier. tom.iv. p. 113.
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SAINT PETER.
215
a book of good use and esteem in the first times of Christianity,
and which, as Eusebius tells ns, k was not only frequently cited
by the ancients, but also publicly read in churches.
VIII. We shall conclude this section by considering Peter
with respect to his several relations. That he was married is
unquestionable, the sacred history mentioning his wife's mother ;
his wife (might we believe Metaphrastes 1 ) being the daughter
of Aristobulus, brother to Barnabas the apostle. And though
St. Jerome would persuade us, m that he left her behind him,
together with his nets, when he forsook all to follow Christ ; yet
we know that father too well, to be over-confident upon his word
in a case of marriage or single life, wherein he is not over-scru-
pulous sometimes to strain a point, to make his opinion more fair
and plausible. The best is, we have an infallible authority which
plainly intimates the contrary, the testimony of St. Paul ; n who
tells us of Cephas, that " he led about a wife, a sister," along
with him, who, for the most part, mutually cohabited and lived
together, for aught that can be proved to the contrary. Clemens
Alexandrinus gives us this account, 0 though he tells us not the
time or place ; that Peter, seeing his wife going towards martyr-
dom, exceedingly rejoiced that she was called to so great an
honour, and that she was now returning home, encouraging and
earnestly exhorting her, and calling her by her name, " bade her
to be mindful of out Lord." Such (says he) was the wedlock of
that blessed couple, and the perfect disposition and agreement in
those things that were dearest to them. By her he is said to
have had a daughter called Petronilla, p (Metaphrastes adds a
son, q ) how truly I know not. This only is certain, that Clemens
of Alexandria/ reckons Peter for one of the apostles that was
married and had children. And surely he who was so good a
man, and so good an apostle, was as good in the relation both of
an husband and a father.
k Hist Eccl. 1. iii. c. 3. 1 Comment de S. Pet apud Sur. ad diem 29 Jun. n. 2.
m Ep. ad Julian, torn. i. p. 207.
M 1 Cor. ix. 5. Vid. Clem. Recognit 1. vii. foL 76. p. 2. ° Strom. 1. vii. p. 736.
p Bar. ad Ann. 60. n. 32. i Ubi supra. r Strom. L iiL p. 448.
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SECTION XI.
AN INQUIRY INTO ST. PETER S GOING TO ROME.
Peter's being at Rome granted in general The account of it given by Baronius, and the
writers of that church, rejected and disproved. No foundation for it in the history of
the apostolic acts. No mention of it in St Paul's Epistle to the Romans. No news
of his being there at St. Paul's coming to Rome, nor intimation of any such thing in
the several epistles which St. Paul wrote from thence. St Peter's first being at Rome
inconsistent with the time of the apostolical synod at Jerusalem ; and with an ancient
tradition, that the apostles were commanded to stay twelve years in Judea after Christ's
death. A passage out of Clemens Alexandrinus noted and corrected to that purpose.
Difference among the writers of the Romish church in their accounts. Peter's being
twenty-five years bishop of Rome, no solid foundation for it in antiquity. The planting
and governing that church equally attributed to Peter and PauL St Peter, when
(probably) came to Rome. Different dates of his martyrdom assigned by the ancients.
A probable account given of it
It is not my purpose to swim against the stream and current of
antiquity in denying St. Peter to have been at Rome ; an asser-
tion easilier perplexed and entangled, than confuted and dis-
proved : we may grant the main, without doing any great service
to that church, there being evidence enough to every impartial
and considering man to spoil that smooth and plausible scheme
of times, which Baronius and the writers of that church hath
drawn with so much care and diligence. And in order to this
we shall first inquire, whether that account which Bellarmine
and Baronius give us of Peter's being at Borne be tolerably re-
concileable with the history of the apostles'' acts recorded by St.
Luke, which will be best done by briefly presenting St. Peter's
acts in their just series and order of time, and then see what
countenance and foundation their account can receive from
hence.
II. After our Lord's ascension, we find Peter, for the first year
at least, staying with the rest of the apostles at Jerusalem. In
the next year he was sent, together with St. John, by the com-
mand of the apostles, to Samaria, to preach the gospel to that
city, and the parts about it. About three years after, St. Paul
meets him at Jerusalem, with whom he stayed some time. In
the two following years he visited the late planted churches,
preached at Lydda and Joppa, where having " tarried many
days," he thence removed to Caesarea, where he preached to
SAINT PETER.
217
and baptized Cornelius and his family : whence, after some time,
he returned to Jerusalem, where he probably stayed, till cast into
prison by Herod, and delivered by the angel. After which we
hear no more of him, till three or four years after we find him in
the council at Jerusalem : after which he had the contest with
St. Paul at Antioch, and thenceforward the sacred story is
altogether silent in this matter : so that in all this time we find
not the least footstep of any intimation that he went to Borne.
This Baronius well foresaw, 8 and therefore once and again inserts
this caution, that St. Luke did not design to record all the
apostles' acts, and that he has omitted many things which were
done by Peter: which surely no man ever intended to deny.
But then that he should omit a matter of such vast moment and
importance to the whole Christian world, that not one syllable
should be said of a church planted by Peter at Rome ; a church
that was to be paramount, the seat of all spiritual power and
infallibility, and to which all other churches were to veil and do
homage ; nay, that he should not so much as mention that ever
he was there, and yet all this said to be done within the time
he designed to write of, is by no means reasonable to suppose ;
especially considering, that St. Luke records many of his
journeys and travels, and his preaching at several places, of far
less consequence and concernment. Nor let this be thought the
worse of, because a negative argument, since it carries so much
rational evidence along with it, that any man, who is not plainly
biassed by interest, will be satisfied with it.
III. But let us proceed a little further to inquire, whether we
can meet any probable footsteps afterwards. About the year
53, towards the end of Claudius's reign, St. Paul is thought to
have writ his epistle to the church of Rome, wherein he spends
the greatest part of one chapter in saluting particular persons
that were there ; amongst whom it might reasonably have been
expected, that St. Peter should have had the first place. And
supposing with Baronius, 1 that Peter at this time might be
absent from the city, preaching the gospel in some parts in the
West, yet we are not sure that St. Paul knew of this ; and if
he did, it is strange that in so large an epistle, wherein he had
occasion enough, there should be neither direct nor indirect
mention of him, or of any church there founded by him : nay,
* Ad Ann. 39. num. 12. ad Ann. 34. num. 285. 1 Ad Ann. 58. num. 51.
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St. Paul himself intimates, 0 what an earnest desire he had to
come thither, that he might " impart unto them some spiritual
gifts, to the end they might be established in the faith for
which there could have been no such apparent cause, had Peter
been there so lately, and so long before him. Well, St. Paul
himself, not many years after, is sent to Borne, Ann. Chr. 56, or,
as Eusebius, 57, (though Baronius makes it two years after,)
about the second year of Nero ; when he comes thither, does he
go to sojourn with Peter, as it is likely he would, had he been
there ? No ; but dwelt by himself, in his own hired house. No
sooner was he come, x but he called the chief of the Jews to-
gether, acquainted them with the cause and end of his coming,
explains the doctrine of Christianity, which when they rejected,
he tells them, that " henceforth the salvation of God was sent
unto the Gentiles," who would hear it, to whom he would now
address himself : which seems to intimate, that however some
few of the Gentiles might have been brought over, yet that no
such harvest had been made before his coming, as might reason-
ably have been expected from St. Peter's having been so many
years amongst them. Within the two first years after St. Paul's
coming to Rome, he wrote epistles to several churches ; to the
Golossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and one to Philemon ; in
none whereof there is the least mention of St. Peter, or from
whence the least probability can be derived that he had been
there. In that to the Golossians, 7 he tells them, that of the
Jews at Rome, he had " no other fellow- workers unto the king-
dom of God, which had been a comfort unto him, save only
Aristarchus, Marcus, and Jesus who was called J ustus," which
evidently excludes St. Peter. And in that to Timothy, which
Baronius confesses to have been written a little before his mar-
tyrdom, (though probably it was written the same time with the
rest above mentioned,) he tells him, z that, " at his first answer
at Rome, no man stood with him, but that all men forsook him
which we can hardly believe St. Peter would have done, had he
then been there. He farther tells him, that " only Luke was
with him that Oresceus was gone to this place, Titus to that,
and Tychicus left at another. Strange ! that if Peter was at
this time gone from Rome, St. Paul should take no notice of it
« Rom. i. 10, 11, 12. x Acts xxviii. 17.
y Chap. iv. 10, 11. •* 2 Tim. iv. 16.
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SAINT PETER.
219
as well as the rest. Was he so inconsiderable a person, as not
to be worth the remembering? or his errand of so small im-
portance, as not to deserve a place in St. Paul's account, as well
as that of Orescens to Galatia, or of Titus to Dalmatia ? Surely,
the true reason was, that St. Peter as yet had not been at Rome,
and so there could be no foundation for it,
IV. It were no hard matter farther to demonstrate the incon-
sistency of that account which Bellarmine and Baronius give us
of Peter's being at Rome, from the time of the apostolical synod
at Jerusalem. For if St. Paul went up to that council fourteen
years after his own conversion, as he plainly intimates; 8 and
that he himself was converted anno 35, somewhat less than two
years after the death of Christ ; then it plainly appears, that this
council was holden anno 48, in the sixth year of Claudius, if not
somewhat sooner : for St. Paul's Sia Bexareaadpayv ir&v does not
necessarily imply, that fourteen years were completely past, Bta
signifying circa, as well as post, but that it was near about that
time. This being granted, (and if it be not, it is easy to make
it good,) then three things, amongst others, will follow from it.
First, that whereas, according to Bellarmine 5 and Baronius, 0
St. Peter, after his first coming to Rome, (which they place anno
44, and the second of Claudius,) was seven years before he re-
turned thence to the council at Jerusalem, they are strangely
out in their story, there being but three, or at most four years,
between his going thither and the celebration of that council.
Secondly, that when they tell us, d that St. Peter's leaving Rome
to come to the council, was upon the occasion of the decree of
Claudius, banishing all Jews out of the city, this can no ways
be. For Orosius does not only affirm,* but prove it from
Josephus, that Claudius's decree was published in the ninth year
of his reign, or Ann. Chr. 51, three years at least after the cele-
bration of the council. Thirdly, that when Baronius tells us, f
that the reason why Peter went to Rome after the breaking up
of the synod, was because Claudius was now dead, he not daring
to go before for fear of the decree ; this can be no reason at all,
the council being ended at least three years before that decree
took place ; so that he might safely have gone thither, without
a Gal. ii. 1. b Bellarmin. de Rom. Pontif. 1. ii. c. 6.
c Bar. ad Ann. 39. num. 15. d Bellarmin. ut supra, et Bar. ad Ann. 51. num. 1. 3.
« Lib. vil c. 6.
v Ad Ann. 58. num. 51.
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the least danger from it. It might farther be shewed, (if it were
necessary,) that the account which even they themselves give us,
is not very consistent with itself : so fatally does a bad cause
draw men, whether they will or' no, into errors and mistakes.
V. The truth is, the learned men of that church are not well
agreed among themselves to give in their verdict in this case.
And, indeed, how should they, when the thing itself affords no
solid foundation for it ? Onuphrius, a man of great learning and
industry in all matters of antiquity, and who (as the writer of
Baronius's Life informs us g ) designed before Baronius to write the
history of the church, goes a way by himself in assigning the time
of St. Peter's founding his see both at Antioch and Rome. h For
finding, by the account of the sacred story, that Peter did not
leave Judea for the ten first years after our Lord's ascension,
and consequently could not in that time erect his see at Antioch,
he affirms, that he went first to Borne ; whence returning to the
council at Jerusalem, he thence went to Antioch, where he re-
mained seven years, till the death of Claudius ; and having spent
almost the whole reign of Nero in several parts of Europe, re-
turned, in the last of Nero's reign, to Borne, and there died : an
opinion for which he is sufficiently chastised by Baronius and
others of that party. 1 And here I cannot but remark the in-
genuity (for the learning sufficiently commends itself) of Monfeieur
Valois, k who freely confesses the mistake of Baronius, Petavius,
&c, in making Peter go to Borne, anno 44, the second year of
Claudius, whenas it is plain (says he) from the history of the
Acts, that Peter went not out of Judea and Syria till the death of
Herod, Claudil anno 4, two whole years after. Consonant to
which, as he observes, is what Apollonius, a writer of the second
century, reports from a tradition current in his time, that the
apostles did not depart asunder till the twelfth year after Christ's
ascension, our Lord himself having so commanded them. In con-
firmation whereof, let me add a passage that I met with in Clemens
of Alexandria, 1 where from St. Peter he records this speech of our
Saviour to his apostles, spoken probably either a little before his
death, or after his resurrection : 'Eav fikv oZv rt? Oekrjar) rov
*I<rparj\ fA€Tavofj<rai,, Sea rov ovofiaro^ fjuov Tnarevew iwl rov
* Hier. Barnab. de vit Bar. 1. i. c. 1 8.
h Onuphr. Annot ad Plat in vit Petr. p. 9. et in Fast 1 Ad Ann. 39. n. 12.
k Annot ad Euseb. lii.c.16. i Stromat L vi. p. 636.
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SAINT PETER.
221
Oeov, a<fyr)0icrovrai avrfi ai dfjuapriat jjuerct, ScoSe/ca erfj' igiX-
0€T€ €19 rbv /coa/AOV, fMTi Tt9 €?7ri7, ovtc rj/covcrafiev. 44 If any
Israelite shall repent, and believe in God through my name, his
sins shall be forgiven him after twelve years. Go ye into the
world, lest any should say, we have not heard This passage,
as ordinarily pointed in all editions that I have seen, is scarce
capable of any tolerable sense : for what is the meaning of a
penitent Israelite's being pardoned after twelve years? It is
therefore probable, yea, certain with me, that the stop ought to
be after afiaprla^ and /jlctu Sa>Se/ca errj joined to the following
clause, and then the sense will run clear and smooth : 44 If any
Jew shall repent, and believe the gospel, he shall be pardoned ;
but after twelve years go ye into all the world, that none may
pretend that they have not heard the sound of the gospel." The
apostles were first to preach the gospel to the Jews for some con-
siderable time, twelve years after Christ's ascension, in and about
Judea, and then to betake themselves to the provinces of the
Gentile world, to make known to them the glad tidings of salva-
tion ; exactly answerable to the tradition mentioned by Apol-
lonius. Besides, the Ghronicon Alexandrinum tells us, that Peter
came not to Borne til] the seventh year of Claudius, anno Christi
49 : so little certainty can there be of any matter, wherein there
is no truth. Nay, the same excellent man before mentioned does
not stick elsewhere to profess, 1 " he wonders at Baronius, that
he should make Peter come from Borne, banished thence by
Claudius's edict to the synod at Jerusalem, the same year, viz.
anno Claudii 9 : a thing absolutely inconsistent with that story
of the apostles' acts, recorded by St. Luke, wherein there is the
space of no less than three years from the time of that synod to
the decree of Claudius. It being evident, what he observes, that
after the celebration of that council, St. Paul went back to
Antioch, afterwards into Syria and Cilicia, to preach the gospel ;
thence into Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia ; from whence he went
into Macedonia, and first preached at Philippi, then at Thes-
salonica and Bercea, afterwards stayed some considerable time at
Athens, and last of all went to Corinth, where he met with
Aquila and Priscilla, lately come from Italy, banished Borne with
the rest of the Jews by the decree of Claudius : all which, by an
m H. Vales. Annot in Euseb. 1. ii. c 18.
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easy and reasonable computation, can take up no less than three
years at least.
VI. That which caused Baroniusto split upon so many rocks,
was not so much want of seeing them, which a man of his parts
and industry could not but ia a great measure see, as the
unhappy necessity of defending those unsound principles which he
had undertaken to maintain. For being to make good Peter's five
and twenty years presidency over the church of Borne, he was
forced to confound times, and dislocate stories, that he might bring
all his ends together. What foundation this story of Peter's
being five and twenty years bishop of Rome has in antiquity, I
find not, unless it sprang from hence, that Eusebius places Peters
coming to Rome in the second year of Claudius, and his martyr-
dom in the fourteenth of Nero, between which there is the just
space of five and twenty years. Whence those that came after
concluded, that he sat bishop there all that time. It cannot be
denied, but that in St. Jerome's translation it is expressly said,
that he continued five and twenty years bishop of that city ;
but then it is as evident, that this was his own addition, who
probably set things down as the report went in his time, no such
thing being to be found in the Greek copy of Eusebius. 0 Nor,
indeed, does he ever there or elsewhere positively affirm St. Peter
to have been bishop of Rome, but only that he preached the
gospel there ; and expressly affirms, 0 that he and St. Paul being
dead, Linus was the first bishop of Rome. To which I may add,
that when the ancients speak of the bishops of Rome, and the
first originals of that church, they equally attribute the founding
and the episcopacy and government of it to Peter and Paul,
making the one as much concerned in it as the other. Thus
Epiphanius, p reckoning up the bishops of that see, places Peter
and Paul in the front, as the first bishops of Rome : iv 'Pcbfiy
yap yeyovaai irp&roL Uerpo? koX UavXo9, oi airooToXoi avrol
zeal iirlaicoTroi, "Peter and Paul, apostles, became the first bishops
of Rome, then Linus," &c. And again, a little after, rj t£v iv
e Pd)firj iircafcoircov SiaBo^rf ravrrjv fyec rfjv a/co\ov0iav, " the
succession of the bishops of Rome was in this manner, Peter and
Paul, Linus, Cletus," &c. And Hegesippus, q speaking of their
n Xpov. Kav. ad num. 1050. p. 204. 0 Hist Eccl. 1. iii. c. 2.
p Contr. Carpocrat. Haeres. xxvii. s. 6. i De excid. Jud. 1. iii. c. 2.
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SAINT PETER.
223
coming to Borne, equally says of them, that they were doctores
Christianorum, sublimes operibus^ clari magisterio, " the instruc-
tors of the Christians, admirable for miracles, and renowned for
their authority However, granting not only that he was there,
but that he was bishop, and that for five and twenty years
together, yet what would this make for the unlimited sovereignty
and universality of that church, unless a better evidence than
" feed my sheep " could be produced for its uncontrollable supre-
macy and dominion over the whole Christian world ?
VII. The sum is this : granting, what none that has any reve-
rence for antiquity will deny, that St. Peter was at Rome, he
probably came thither some few years before his death, joined
with and assisted St. Paul in preaching of the gospel, and then
both sealed the testimony of it with their blood. The date of
bis death is differently assigned by the ancients. Eusebius
places it anno 69/ in the fourteenth of Nero ; Epipbanius in the
twelfth. 8 That which seems to me most probable is, that it was
in the tenth, or the year 65, which I thus compute : Nero's
burning of Rome is placed by Tacitus,* under the consulship of
C. Lecanius and M. Licinius, about the month of July, that is,
Ann. Chr. 64. This act procured him the infinite hatred and
clamours of the people, which having in vain endeavoured several
ways to remove and pacify, he at last resolved upon this project,
to derive the odium upon the Christians ; whom, therefore, both
to appease the gods and please the people, he condemned as
guilty of the fact, and caused to be executed with all manner of
acute and exquisite tortures. This persecution we may suppose
began about the end of that, or the beginning of the following
year. And under this persecution, I doubt not, it was, that
St. Peter suffered, and changed earth for heaven.
AN APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING SECTION,
CONTAINING A VINDICATION OF ST. PETERS BEING AT ROME.
St. Peter's being at Rome unjustly questioned. The thing itself sufficiently attested by
the authority of the ancients. The express testimonies of Papias, Irenseus, Dionysius
of Corinth, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Caius, and Origen, produced to that pur-
pose. The exceptions made to these testimonies shewed to be weak and trifling by a
r Chron. p. 162. * Haeres. xxvii. s. 6. 1 Annal. 1. xv. c. 38, 41.
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particular examination of each of them. A good cause needs not be supported by in-
direct methods. The church of Rome not much advantaged by allowing this story.
The needless questioning a story so well attested makes way for shaking the faith of
all ancient history.
Finding the truth of what is supposed and granted in the fore-
going section, to wit, St. Peter s going to, and suffering at Borne,
not only doubted of heretofore in the beginning of the Reforma-
tion, while the paths of antiquity were legs frequent and beaten
out, but now again lately in this broad day-light of ecclesiastical
knowledge not only called in question, but exploded as most vain
and fabulous, and that especially by a foreign professor" of name
and note ; it may not be amiss, having the opportunity of this
impression, to make some few remarks for the better clearing of
this matter.
II. And first, I observe that this matter of fact is attested by
witnesses of the most remote antiquity, persons of great emi-
nency and authority, and who lived near enough to those times
to know the truth and certainty of those things which they re-
ported. And perhaps there is scarce any one piece of ancient
church-history, for which there is more clear, full, and constant
evidence, than there is for this. Not to insist on that passage
of Ignatius,* in his epistle to the Romans, which seems yet to
look this way; it is expressly asserted by Papias, bishop of
Hierapolis in Phrygia, who (as Irenseus tells us y ) was scholar to
St. John, and fellow-pupil with St. Polycarp ; and though we
should with Eusebius suppose, 2 that it was not St. John the
apostle, whose scholar he was, but another, surnamed the Elder,
that lived at Ephesus, yet will this set him very little lower in
point of time. Now Papias says, a not only that St. Peter was at
Rome, and preached the Christian faith there, but that he wrote
thence his first epistle, and by his authority confirmed the gospel,
which St. Mark, his disciple and follower, at the request of the
Romans, had drawn up. And that we may see that he did not
carelessly take up these things as common hearsays, it was his
u Fred. Spanhem. Diss, de temere credita Petri in urh. Romam profectione. Lugd.
Bat. edit. 1679. vid. etiam Brutum Fulmen, or observations on the Bull against Q. Mix.
p. 88. etc. Lond. 1681.
x Oi>x &s Tl4rpos Kai Tlav\os 9iardcr<xofxai iiccTroi 'AirArroAo*, Kardxptros.
Ep. ad Rom. p. 23.
y Advers. Haeres. 1. v. c. 33. p. 498. * Hist. Eccl. 1. iii. c. 39.
a Ap. Euseb. ibid. 1. ii. c. 15.
SAINT PETER.
225
custom, wherever he met with any that had conversed with the
apostles, to pick up what memoirs he could meet with concerning
them, and particularly to inquire what Andrew, what Peter,
what Philip, what Thomas, or James, or the rest of the disciples
of our Lord, had either said or done : which sufficiently shews
what care he took to derive the most accurate notices of these
matters.
III. Next Papias comes Irenaeus, a man, as St. Jerome styles
him, b of the apostolic times, and was, he tells us, Papias's own
scholar: however, it is certain from his own account 0 that he
was disciple to St. Polycarp, a man famous for his learning, pru-
dence, gravity, and piety, throughout the whole Christian world.
Ahout the year 179, he was made bishop of the metropolitan
church of Lyons in France, a little before which he had been
despatched upon a message to Home, and had conversed with
the great men there. Now his testimony in this case is uncon-
trollable ; for he says, that Peter and Paul preached the gospel
at Rome, d and founded a church there; and elsewhere, that the
great and most ancient church of Borne was founded and con-
stituted by the two glorious apostles Peter and Paul ; e and that
these blessed apostles, having founded this church, delivered the
episcopal care of it over unto Linus. Contemporary with Irenaeus,
or rather a little before him, was Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, a
man of singular eminency and authority in those times, who in
an epistle which he wrote to the church of Rome/ compares the
plantation of Christianity, which Peter and Paul had made, both
at Rome and Corinth ; and says farther, that after they had
sown the seeds of the evangelical doctrine at Corinth, they went
together into Italy, where they taught the faith, and suffered
martyrdom.
IV. Toward the latter end of the second century flourished
Clemens of Alexandria, presbyter of that church, and regent of
the catechetic school there; who, in his book of Institutions, gives
the very same testimony which we quoted from Papias before ; g
they being both brought in by Eusebius as joint-evidence in this
matter. Tertullian, who lived much about the same time at
Carthage that Clemens did at Alexandria, and had been, as is
b Epist ad Theodor. p. 196. c Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. v. c 20.
d Adv. Hseres. L iii. c. 1. e Ibid. c. 3.
f Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. ii. c. 25. * Loc. supra citato.
Q
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probable, more than once at Borne, affirms most expressly more
than once and again, b that the church of Borne was happy in
having its doctrine sealed with apostolic blood, and that Peter
was crucified in that place ; or, as he expresses it, passioni Domi-
nicce adcequatus: that Peter baptized in Tiber, 1 as John the
Baptist had done in Jordan, and elsewhere ; that when Nero first
dyed the yet tender faith at Bome with the blood of its pro-
fessors, k then it was that Peter was girt by another, and bound
to the cross.
V. Next to Tertullian succeeds Caius, an ecclesiastical person,
as Eusebius calls him, flourishing anno 214, in the time of pope
Zephyrin ; who in a book which he wrote against Proclus, one
of the heads of the Cataphrygian sect, speaking concerning the
places where the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul were buried,
has these words, 1 "I am able to shew the very tombs of the
apostles ; for whether you go into the Vatican, or into the Via
Ostiensis, you will meet with the sepulchres of those that founded
that church," meaning the church of Bome. The last witness
whom I shall produce in this case is Origen, a man justly reve-
renced for his great learning and piety, and who took a journey
to Bome while pope Zephyrin yet lived, on purpose, as himself
tells us, m to behold that church, so venerable for its antiquity ;
and therefore cannot but be supposed to have been very in-
quisitive to satisfy himself in all, especially the ecclesiastical
antiquities of that place. Now he expressly says of Peter, n that
after he had preached to the dispersed Jews of the Eastern
parts, he came at last to Bome, where, according to his own re-
quest, he was crucified with his head downwards. Lower than
Origen I need not descend, it being granted by those who op-
pose this story, 0 that in the time of Origen, the report of St.
Peters going to, and suffering martyrdom at Bome, was com-
monly received in the Christian church. And now I would fain
know, what one passage of those ancient times can be proved
either by more, or by more considerable evidence than this is:
and indeed, considering how small a portion of the writings of
those first ages of the church has been transmitted to us, there
h De prescript. Haeret c. 36. 1 De Baptism, c. 4.
k Scorpiac. c. ult 1 Ap. Euseb. Hist Eccl. L ii. c. 25.
m Ibid. 1. vi. c. 14. n Vol. iii. Exposit in Gen. ap. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 1.
° Spanh. Diss, de temere credita Petri in Urb. Romam profectione, c. 3. n. 34,. 35.
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SAINT PETER.
227
is much greater cause rather to wonder that we should have so
many witnesses in this case, than that we have no more.
VI. Secondly, I observe, that the arguments brought to shake
the credit of this story, and the exceptions made to these ancient
testimonies, are very weak and trifling, and altogether unbecoming
the learning and gravity of those that make them. For argu-
ments against it, what can be more weak and inconcluding than
to assert the fabulousness of this story, p because no mention is
made of it by St. Luke in the apostolical history, no footsteps
of it to be found in any of St. Paul's epistles written from Borne ;
as if he might not come thither time enough after the accounts
of the sacred story do expire : that St. Peter was never at Rome, q
because Clemens Romanus says nothing of it in his epistle to the
Corinthians, when yet he mentions St. Paul's coming to the
bounds of the West ; and what yet is more absurd, because no
notice is taken of it by the Roman historians who wrote the acts
of that age, r especially Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio ; as* if these
great writers had had nothing else to do but to fill their com-
mentaries with accounts concerning Christians, whom, it is plain,
they despised and scorned, and looked upon as a contemptible,
execrable sort of men, and therefore very little beside the bare
mention of them, and that too but rarely, is to be met with in
any of their writings ; much less can it be expected that they
should give an account of the accidents and circumstances of
particular Christians : besides that, this whole way of reasoning
is negative, and purely depends upon the silence of some few
authors, which can signify nothing, where there is such a current
and uncontrollable tradition, and so many positive authorities to
the contrary : and yet these are the best, and almost only argu-
ments that are offered in this matter.
VII. And of no greater force or weight are the exceptions
made to the testimonies of the ancients, which we have produced,
as will appear by a summary enumeration of the most material
of them. Against Papias's evidence it is excepted, 8 that he was
S<t>68pa <rfii/cpb$ tov vovv, as Eusebius characters him, " a man of
a very weak and undiscerning judgment," and that he derived
several things strange and unheard-of from mere tradition. But
all this is said of him by Eusebius only upon the account of some
p Id. ibid. c. 2. n. 3. i Ibid. n. 16.
r Ibid. n. 17. • Ibid. c. 3. n. 8.
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doctrinal principles and opinions, and some rash and absurd ex-
positions of our Saviours doctrine, carelessly taken up from
others, and handed down without due examination ; particularly
his millenary, or chiliastic notions : but what is this to invalidate
his testimony in the case before us, a matter of a quite different
nature from those mentioned by Eusebius ? May not a man be
mistaken in abstruse speculations, and yet be fit enough to judge
in ordinary cases ? as if none but a man of acute parts and a
subtle apprehension, one able to pierce into the reasons, consist-
ency, and consequences of doctrinal conclusions, were capable to
deliver down matters of fact, things fresh in memory, done within
much less than an hundred years, in themselves highly probable,
and wherein no interest could be served, either for him to deceive
others, or for others to deceive him.
VIII. Against Irenaeus it is put in bar, that he gave not this
testimony till after his return from Rome,' that is, about an
hundred and forty years after St. Peter's first pretended coming
thither ; which is no great abatement in a testimony of so remote
antiquity, when they had so many evidences and opportunities
of satisfying themselves in the truth of things which to us are
utterly lost ; that before his times, many frivolous traditions began
to take place, and that he himself is sometimes mistaken : the
proper inference from which, if pursued to its just issue, must be
this, either that he is always mistaken, or at least that he is so
in this.
IX. The authority of Dionysius of Corinth is thrown off with
this : u that it is of no greater value than that of Irenaeus ; that
churches then began to emulate each other, by pretending to be
of apostolical foundation ; and that Dionysius herein consulted
the honour of his own church, by deriving upon it the authority
of those two great apostles Peter and Paul, and in that respect
setting it on the same level with Borne ; which yet is a mere sug-
gestion of his own, and so far as it respects Dionysius, is said
without any just warrant from antiquity : besides, his testimony
itself is called in question,* for affirming that Peter and Paul
went together from Corinth into Italy, and there taught, and
suffered martyrdom at the same time. Against their coming
together to Corinth, and thence passing into Italy, nothing is
1 Spanh. Diss, de teroere credita Petri in Urb. Romara profectione, c. 3. n. 20.
» Ibid. n. 26. * Ibid. n. 27.
Digitized by
SAINT PETER.
229
brought, but that the account which St. Luke gives of the travels
and preachings of these apostles is not consistent with St. Peter's
coming to Rome under Claudius ; which let them look to, whose
interest it is that it should be so, I mean them of the church of
Rome. And for his saying that they suffered martyrdom icara
tov avrbv icaipov, " at the same time," it does not necessarily
imply their suffering the same day and year, but admits of some
considerable distance of time ; it being elsewhere granted by our
author,* that this phrase, Kara tovtov tov /epovov, is oft used in
Josephus in a lax sense, as including what happened within the
compass of some years.
X. To enervate the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, it is
said, 2 (with how little pretence of reason, let any man judge,)
that Eusebius quotes it out of a book of Clemens that is now
lost, and that he tells us not whence St. Clemens derived the
report ; that abundance of apocryphal writings were extant in
his time, and that he himself inserts a great many frivolous
traditions into his writings : which if it were granted, would do
no service in this cause, unless it were asserted that all things he
says are doubtful or fabulous because some few are so.
XI. Much after the same rate it is argued against Tertullian, a
that he was a man of great credulity ; that he sets down some
passages concerning St. John which are not related by other
writers of those times; that he was mistaken in our Saviour's
age at the time of his passion ; b that he was imposed upon in
the account which he says Tiberius the emperor sent to the
senate concerning Christ ; which, forsooth, must needs be false,
because no mention is made of it by Suetonius, Tacitus, or Dio.
XII. The exceptions to Caius are no whit stronger than the
former, viz. that he flourished but in the beginning of the third
century, 0 when many false reports were set on foot, and that it
is not reasonable to believe that, in those times of persecution
the tombs of the apostles should be undefaced, and had in such
public honour and veneration : as if the places where the
apostles were buried could not be familiarly known to Chris-
tians, without being commonly shewn to their heathen perse-
y Dissert, de Anno Convers. Paul. n. 17.
z Spanh. Diss, ut supra, c. 3. n. 7.
b Ibid. n. 32.
» Ibid. n. 31.
c Ibid. n. 28, 29.
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230 THE LIFE OF
cntors, or without erecting pompous and stately monuments over
their graves, to provoke the rage and malice of their enemies to
fall foul upon them.
XIII. Against Origen nothing is pretended, but what is no-
toriously vain and frivolous ; d as that perhaps his reports con-
cerning the travels of the apostles are not sufficiently certain ;
that in some other cases he produces testimonies out of apocry-
phal writings ; and that many things are reported concerning
himself, which are at best obscure and ambiguous; and that
Baronius and Valesius cannot agree about the time of his journey
to Borne. I have but lightly touched upon most of these ex-
ceptions, because the very mention of them is enough to super-
sede a studied and operose confutation : and indeed they are
generally such as may with equal force be levelled almost against
any ancient history.
XIV. Thirdly, I observe how far zeal, even for the best cause,
may sometimes transport learned men to secure it by undue and
imprudent methods, and such as one would think were made
use of rather to shew the acumen and subtlety of the author,
than any strength or cogency in the arguments. Plain it is,
that they who set themselves to undermine this story, design
therein to serve the interests of the Protestant cause, against
the vain and unjust pretences of the see of Borne, and utterly to
subvert the very foundations of that title whereby they lay claim
to St. Peter's power. This indeed, could it be fairly made good,
and without offering violence to the authority of those ancient
and venerable sages of the Christian church, would give a mortal
blow to the Bomish cause, and free us from several of their
groundless and sophistical allegations. But when this cannot be
done without calling in question the first and most early records
of the church, and throwing off the authority of the ancients,
non tali auxilio, truth needs no such weapons to defend itself,
but is able to stand up, and triumph in its own strength, without
calling in such indirect artifices to support it. We can safely
grant the main of the story, that St. Peter did go to Bome, and
came thither iv reXei, (as Origen expressly says he did, e ) about
the latter end of his life, and there suffered martyrdom for the
faith of Christ: and yet this is no disadvantage to ourselves; nay,
d Spanh. Diss, ut supra, c 3. n. 34. e Expos, in Genes, ubi supra.
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SAINT PETER.
231
it is that which utterly confounds all their accounts of things,
and proves their pretended story of St. Peter's being twenty-five
years bishop of that see to be not only vain, but false, as has
been sufficiently shewn in the foregoing section. But to deny
that St. Peter ever was at Rome, contrary to the whole stream
and current of antiquity/ and the unanimous consent of the
most early writers, and that merely upon little surmises, and
trifling cavils ; and in order thereunto to treat the reverend
fathers, whose memories have ever been dear and sacred in the
Christian church, with rude reflexions and spiteful insinuations,
is a course I confess not over ingenuous, and might give too much
occasion to our adversaries of the church of Rome to charge us
(as they sometimes do, falsely enough) with a neglect of an-
tiquity and contempt of the fathers ; but that it is notoriously
known, that all the great names of the Protestant party, men
most celebrated for learning and piety, have always paid a most
just deference and veneration to antiquity, and upon that account
have freely allowed this story of St. Peter's going to Rome, as
our author, who opposes it, is forced to grant. 8
XV. Fourthly, it deserves to be considered, whether the
needless questioning a story so well attested, may not in time
open too wide a gap to shake the credit of all history. For if
things done at so remote a distance of time, and which have all
the evidence that can be desired to make them good, may be
doubted of or denied, merely for the sake of some few weak and
insignificant exceptions which may be made against them, what
is there that can be secure ? There are few passages of ancient
history, against which a man of wit and parts may not start
some objections, either from the writers of them, or from the
account of the things themselves ; and shall they therefore be
presently discarded, or condemned to the number of the false or
fabulous ? If this liberty be indulged, farewell church-history ;
nay, it is to be feared, whether the sacred story will be able
long to maintain its divine authority. We live in an age of
great scepticism and infidelity, wherein men have in a great
measure put off the reverence due to sacred things ; and witty
f Vid. J. G. Voss. Harm. Evangel. 1. iii c. 4. et Chamier. Panstrat. Cath. de R. Pontif,
1. xiii. c. 4.
* Spanh. Diss, ut supra, c. 1. n. 11.
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232 THE LIFE OF SAINT PETER.
men seem much delighted to hunt out objections, bestow their
censures, expose the credit of former ages, and to believe little
but what themselves either see or hear. And therefore it
will become wise and good men to be very tender, how they
loosen, much more " remove the old land-marks, which the
fathers have set, " lest we run ourselves, before we be aware,
into a labyrinth and confusion, from whence it will not be easy
to get out.
Digitized by
THE LIFE OF SAINT PAUL.
SECTION I.
OP ST. PAUL, FROM HIS BIRTH TILL HIS CONVERSION.
St Paul, why placed next Peter. Tarsus the place of his birth ; an university, and a
Roman corporation. His parents of the old stock of Israel ; descended of the tribe of
Benjamin. Jacob's prophecy applied to him by the ancients. His names: Saul,
-whence ; Paul, when assumed, and why. His education in the schools of Tarsus, and
in the trade of tent-making. The custom of the Jews in bringing up their youth to
manual trades. His study of the law under the tutorage of Gamaliel. This Gamaliel,
who. Why said to have been a Christian. Sitting at the feet of their masters, the
posture of learners. His joining himself to the sect of the Pharisees. An inquiry into
the temper and manners of that sect The fiery zeal and activity of his temper. His
being engaged in Stephen's martyrdom. His violent persecution of the church. His
journey to Damascus. His conversion by the way, and the manner of it His blind-
ness. His rapture into the third heaven, when (probably.) His sight restored. His
being baptized, and preaching Christ
Though St. Paul was none of the twelve apostles, yet had he the
honour of being an apostle extraordinary, and to be immediately
called in a way peculiar to himself. He justly deserves a place
next St. Peter ; for as " in their lives they were pleasant and
lovely,*" so " in their death they were not divided i° especially if
it be true, that they both suffered not only for the same cause,
but at the same time as well as place. St. Paul was born at
Tarsus, the metropolis of Gilicia: a city infinitely rich and
populous, and what contributed more to the fame and honour of
it, an academy, furnished with schools of learning, where the
scholars so closely plied their studies, that, as Strabo informs us, a
they excelled in all arts of polite learning and philosophy those
of other places, yea, even of Alexandria and Athens itself ; and
that even Rome was beholden to it for many of its best profes-
sors. It was a Roman municipium, or free corporation, invested
with many franchises and privileges by J ulius Csesar and Augus-
tus, who granted to the inhabitants of it the honours and im-
« Geograph. 1. xiv. p. 403.
234
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munities of citizens of Rome. In which respect St. Paul owned
and asserted it as the privilege of his birth-right, b that he was
a Roman, and thereby free from being bound or beaten. True
it is, that St. Jerome 0 (followed herein by one d who himself
travelled in these parts^ makes him born at Gischalis, a well-
fortified town in Judea ; which being besieged and taken by the
Roman army, his parents fled away with him, and dwelt at
Tarsus. But besides that this contradicts St. Paul, who expressly
affirms, that he was born at Tarsus, there needs no more to con-
fute this opinion, than that St. Jerome elsewhere slights it as a
fabulous report. 6
II. His parents were Jews, and that of the ancient stock, not
entering in by the gate of proselytism, but originally descended
from that nation, which surely he means, when he says, that he
"was an Hebrew of the Hebrews,'" either because both his
parents were Jews, or rather that all his ancestors had been so.
They belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, whose founder was the
youngest son of the old patriarch Jacob, who thus prophesied of
him : f " Benjamin shall raven as a wolf, in the morning he shall
devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.'" This
prophetical character, Tertullian, 8 and others after him, will have
to be accomplished in our apostle. As a " ravening wolf in the
morning devouring the prey that is, as a persecutor of the
churches, in the first part of his life destroying the flock of God :
" in the evening dividing the spoil that is, in his declining and
reduced age, as doctor of the nations, feeding and distributing
to Christ's sheep.
III. We find him described by two names in scripture, one
Hebrew and the other Latin; probably referring both to his
Jewish and Roman capacity and relation. The one Saul,
a name frequent and common in the tribe of Benjamin ever
since the first king of Israel, who was of that name, was chosen
out of that tribe ; in memory whereof they were wont to give
their children this name at their circumcision. His other name
was Paul, assumed by him, as some think, at his conversion,
to denote his humility; as others, in memory of his convert-
ing Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor, in imitation of the
b Acts xxii. 25, 26. c j) e Script EccL in Paul.
d Bellbn. Observ. L ii. c 99. e Com. in Philem. p. 263. torn. ix.
' Gen. xlix. 27. 8 Adv. Marc L v. c. 1.
Digitized by
SAINT PAUL.
235
generals and emperors of Borne, who were wont, from the
places and nations that they conquered, to assume the name,
as an additional honour and title to themselves; as Scipio
Africanus, Caesar Germanicus, Parthicus, Sarmaticus, &c. But
this seems noway consistent with the great humility of this
apostle. More probable, therefore, it is, what Origen thinks, 11
that he had a double name given him at his circumcision :
Saul, relating to his Jewish original; and Paul, referring to
the Roman corporation, where he was born. And this the
scripture seems to favour, when it says, " Saul, who also is called
Paul.'" * And this, perhaps, may be the reason why St. Luke,
so long as he speaks of him as conversant among the Jews in
Syria, styles him Saul ; but afterwards, when he left those parts
and went among the Gentiles, he gives him the name of Paul, as a
name more frequent and familiarly known to them. And for the
same reason, no doubt, he constantly calls himself by that name
in all his epistles written to the Gentile churches. Or if it was
taken up by him afterwards, it was probably done at his conver-
sion, according to the custom and manner of the Hebrews ; who
used many times, upon solemn and eminent occasions, especially
upon their entering upon a more strict and religious course of
life, to change their names, and assume one which they had not
before.
IV. In his youth he was brought up in the schools of Tarsus,
fully instructed in all the liberal arts and sciences, whereby he
became admirably acquainted with foreign and external authors.
Together with which he was brought up to a particular trade and
course of life ; according to the great maxim and principle of the
Jews, that " he who teaches not his son a trade, teaches him to
be a thief.' 1 k They thought it not only fit, but a necessary part
of education, for their wisest and most learned rabbins to be
brought up to a manual trade ; whereby, if occasion was, they
might be able to maintain themselves. Hence (as Drusius ob-
serves 1 ) nothing more common in their writings, than to have
them denominated from their callings : Rabbi Jose, the tanner ;
Rabbi Jochanan, the shoemaker ; Rabbi Juda, the baker, &c. ;
a custom taken up by the Christians, especially the monks and
ascetics of the primitive times, who, together with their strict
h Praefat. in Ep. ad Rom. 1 Vid. D. Lightf. Hor. Heb. in 1 Cor. i. 1.
k Talm. Tract. Kiddusch. c. i. ap. Buxtorfc in voc. rTODIN.
1 Annot, in Act xviiL 3.
236
THE LIFE OF
profession, and almost incredible exercises of devotion, each took
upon him a particular trade, whereat he daily wrought, and by his
own hand-labour maintained himself. m And this course of life
the Jews were very careful should be free from all suspicion of
scandal : TT»p) niaom, (as they call it, n ) a " clean," that is honest
" trade being wont to say, that he was happy that had his
parents employed in an honest and commendable calling ; as he
was miserable, who saw them conversant in any sordid and dis-
honest course of life. The trade our apostle was put to was that
of tent-making, ° whereat he wrought, for some particular reasons,
even after his calling to the apostolate: an honest, but mean
course of life, and, as Chrysostom observes, 15 an argument that his
parents were not of the nobler and better rank ; however, it was
an useful and gainful trade, especially in those warlike countries,
where armies had such frequent use of tents.
V. Having run through the whole circle of the sciences, and
laid the sure foundations of human learning at Tarsus, he was
by his parents sent to Jerusalem, to be perfected in the study of
the law, and put under the tutorage of Rabban Gamaliel. 11 This
Gamaliel was the son of Rabban Symeon, (probably presumed to
be the same Symeon that came into the temple and took Christ
into his arms,) president of the court of the Sanhedrim : he was
a doctor of the law, a person of great wisdom and prudence, and
head at that time of one of the families of the schools at Jeru-
salem : a man of chief eminency and authority in the Jewish
Sanhedrim, and president of it at that very time when our blessed
Saviour was brought before it. He lived to a great age, and was
buried by Onkelos the proselyte, author of the Chaldee Para-
phrase, (one who infinitely loved and honoured him,) at his own
vast expense and charge. He it was that made that wise and
excellent speech in the Sanhedrim, in favour of the apostles and
their religion. Nay, he himself is said (though I know not why)
to have been a Christian/ and his sitting amongst the senators
to have been connived at by the apostles, that he might be the
better friend to their affairs. Chrysippus, presbyter of the church
of Jerusalem, 9 adds, that he was brother's son to Nicodemus,
m Epiph. lxxx. c. 4. n Buxtorfl ubl supr. ° Acts xviii. 3.
P De Laud. S. Paul torn. v. p. 512. q Acts xxii. 3, 4.
r Clem. Recognit. 1. i. p. 16, 17.
• Ap. Phot. cod. CLXXI. Col. 304. extat Luciani hac de re Epist. ap. Sur. ad 3
Aug. p. 31. et Bar. ad Ann. 415.
Digitized by
SAINT PAUL.
237
together with whom he and his son Abib were baptized by Peter
and John. This account he derives from Lucian, a presbyter
also of that church under John, patriarch of Jerusalem, who, in
an epistle of his still extant, tells us, that he had this, together
with some other things, communicated to him in a vision by
Gamaliel himself: which if triie, no better evidence could be
desired in this matter. At the feet of this Gamaliel, St. Paul
tells us, he was " brought up," alluding to the custom of the J ewish
masters, who were wont to sit while their disciples and scholars
stood at their feet : which honorary custom continued till the
death of this Gamaliel, and was then left off ; their own Talmud
telling us,* that " since our old Rabban Gamaliel died, the honour
of the law was perished, purity and pharisaism were destroyed :"
which the gloss thus explains, " that whilst he lived, men were
sound, and studied the law standing ; but he being dead, weak-
ness crept into the world, and they were forced to sit."
VI. Under the tuition of this great master, St. Paul was edu-
cated in the knowledge of the law, wherein he made such quick
and vast improvements, that he soon outstripped his fellow-dis-
ciples. 11 Amongst the various sects at that time in the Jewish
church, he was especially educated in the principles and institu-
tions of the Pharisees : of which sect was both his father and his
master, whereof he became a most earnest and zealous professor;
this being, as himself tells us, the " strictest sect of their re-
ligion." For the understanding whereof, it may not be amiss a
little to inquire into the temper and manners of this sect.
Josephus,* though himself a Pharisee, gives this character of
them : that " they were a crafty and subtle generation of men,
and so perverse, even to princes themselves, that they would not
fear many times openly to affront and oppose them." And so
far had they insinuated themselves into the affections and esti-
mations of the populacy, y that their good or ill word was enough
to make or blast any one with the people, who would implicitly
believe them, let their report be never so false or malicious:
and therefore Alexander Jannaeus, when he lay a dying, wisely
advised his queen by all means to comply with them, and to seem
to govern by their counsel and direction ; affirming that this had
been the greatest cause of his fatal miscarriage, and that which
1 Sotah. c. 9. halac. 1 5. apud Lightfc Hor. H. in Matt. xiii. 2.
■ Gal. i. 14. * Antiq. Jnd. 1. xvii. c 3. » Id. ibid. 1. xiii. c. 23.
238
THE LIFE OF
had derived the odium of the nation upon him, that he had
offended this sort of men. Certain it is, that they were infinitely
proud and insolent, surly and ill-natured ; that they hated all
mankind but themselves, and censured whoever would not be of
their way, as a villain and reprobate ; greatly zealous to gather
proselytes to their party, not to make them more religious, but
more fierce and cruel, more carping and censorious, more heady
and high-minded ; in short, " twofold more the children of the
devil than they were before." All religion and kindness was
confined within the bounds of their own party, and the first
principles wherewith they inspired their new converts were, that
none but they were the godly party, and that all other persons
were slaves and sons of the earth ; and therefore especially en-
deavoured to inspire them with a mighty zeal and fierceness
against all that differed from them, so that if any one did but
speak a good word of our Saviour, he should be presently ex-
communicated and cast out, persecuted -and devoted to the death.
To this end they were wont not only to separate, but discrimi-
nate themselves from the herd and community, by some peculiar
notes and badges of distinction ; such as their long robes, broad
phylacteries, and their large fringes and borders of their gar-
ments, whereby they made themselves known from the rest of
men. These dogged and ill-natured principles, together with
their seditious, unnatural, unjust, unmerciful, and uncharitable
behaviour, which otherwise would have made them stink above
ground in the nostrils of men, they sought to palliate and varnish
over with a more than ordinary pretence and profession of re-
ligion : but were especially active and diligent in what cost them
little, the outward instances of religion, such duties especially
as did more immediately refer to God ; as frequent fasting and
praying, which they did very often and very long, with demure
and mortified looks, in a whining and an affected tone, and this
almost in every corner of the streets ; and, indeed, so contrived
the scheme of their religion, that what they did might appear
above ground, where they might be seen of men to the best ad-
vantage.
VII. Though this seems to have been the general temper and
disposition of the party, yet doubtless there were some amongst
them of better and honester principles than the rest. In which
number we have just reason to reckon our apostle : who yet was
SAINT PAUL.
239
deeply leavened with the active and fiery genius of the sect ; not
able to brook any opposite party in religion, especially if late
and novel. Insomuch that when the Jews were resolved to do
execution upon Stephen, he stood by and kept the clothes of
them that did it. Whether he was any farther engaged in the
death of this innocent and good man, we do not find. However
this was enough loudly to proclaim his approbation and consent ;
and therefor!! elsewhere we find him indicting himself for this fact,
and pleading guilty : " when the blood of thy martyr Stephen
was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death,
and kept the raiment of them that slew him." 2 God chiefly in-
spects the heart, and if the vote be passed there, writes the man
guilty, though he stir no farther. It is easy to murder another
by a silent wish, or a passionate desire. In all moral actions
God values the will for the deed, and reckons the man a com-
panion in the sin, who, though possibly he may never actually
join in it, does yet inwardly applaud and like it. The storm,
thus begun, increased apace, and a violent persecution began to
arise, which miserably afflicted and dispersed the Christians at
Jerusalem : in which our apostle was a prime agent and mi-
nister, raging about in all parts with a mad and ungovernable
zeal, searching out the saints, beating them in the synagogues,
compelling many to blaspheme, imprisoning others, and procuring
them to be put to death. Indeed, he was a kind of inquisitor
hcereticce pravitatis to the high-priest, by whom he was employed
to hunt and find out these upstart heretics, who preached against
the law of Moses and the traditions of the fathers. Accordingly,
having made strange haVoc at Jerusalem, 8 he addressed himself
to the Sanhedrim, and there took out a warrant and commission
to go down and ransack the synagogues at Damascus. How
eternally insatiable is fury and a misguided zeal ! how restless
and unwearied in its designs of cruelty ! It had already suffi-
ciently harassed the poor Christians at Jerusalem, but not con-
tent to have vexed them there, and to have driven them thence,
it persecuted them unto strange cities, following them even to
Damascus itself, whither many of these persecuted Christians
had fled for shelter, resolving to bring up those whom he found
there to Jerusalem, in order to their punishment and execution.
For the Jewish Sanhedrim had not only power of seizing and
. 2 Acts xxii. 20. * Acts ix. 1.
Digitized by
240
THE LIFE OF
scourging offenders against their law within the bounds of their
own country, but, by the connivance and favour of the Romans,
might send into other countries, where there were any syna-
gogues that acknowledged a dependence in religious matters
upon the council at Jerusalem, to apprehend them ; as here they
sent Paul to Damascus to fetch up what Christians he could find,
to be arraigned and sentenced at Jerusalem.
VIII. But God, who had designed him for work of another
nature, and "separated him from his mothers womb to the
preaching of the gospel," b stopped him in his journey. For while
he was, together with his company, travelling on the road, not far
from Damascus, on a sudden a gleam of light, beyond the splendour
and brightness of the sun, was darted from heaven upon them,
whereat being strangely amazed and confounded, they all fell to
the ground, a voice calling to him, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me T To which he replied, " Lord, who art thou V* Who told
him, that " he was Jesus whom he persecuted that what was
done to the members was done to the head ; that it was hard for
him to kick against the pricks ; that he now appeared to him, to
make choice of him for a minister, and a witness of what he had
now seen, and should after hear; that he would stand by him,
and preserve him, and make him a great instrument in the con-
version of the Gentile world. This said, he asked our Lord,
what he would have him to do ; who bade him go into the city,
where he should receive his answer. St. PauFs companions,
who had been present at this transaction, heard the voice, 0 but
saw not him that spoke to him : though elsewhere the apostle
himself affirms, that they saw the light, but heard not the voice
of him that spake ; that is, they heard a confused sound, but not
a distinct and articulate voice ; or, more probably, being igno-
rant of the Hebrew language, wherein our Lord spake to St.
Paul, they heard the words, but knew not the sense and the
meaning of them.
IX. St. Paul by this time was gotten up ; but though he found
his feet, yet he had lost his eyes, being stricken blind with the
extraordinary brightness of the light, and was accordingly led
by his companions into Damascus : in which condition he there
remained, fasting three days together. At this time, we may
probably suppose it was, that he had that vision and ecstacy,
b Gal i. 15. c Acts xxii. 9.
Digitized by
SAINT PAUL.
241
wherein he was taken up into the "third heaven," 11 where he
«aw and heard things great and unutterable, and was fully in-
structed in the mysteries of the gospel, and hence expressly
affirms, that he was not " taught the gospel which he preached
by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." 6 There was at
this time at Damascus one Ananias, a very devout and religious
man, (one of the seventy disciples, as the ancients inform us,
and probably the first planter of the Christian church in this
city,) and though a Christian, yet of great reputation amongst
all the Jews. To him our Lord appeared, commanding him to
go into such a street, and to such an house, and there inquire for
one Saul of Tarsus, who was now at prayer, and had seen him in
a vision coming to him, to lay his hands upon him, that he might
receive his sight. Ananias started at the name of the man,
having heard of his bloody temper and practices, and upon what
errand he was now come down to the city. But our Lord, to
take off his fears, told him, that he mistook the man ; that he
had now taken him to be a chosen vessel, to preach the gospel
both to Jews and Gentiles, and before the greatest potentates
upon earth, acquainting him with what great things he should
both do and suffer for his sake, what chains and imprisonments,
what racks and scourges, what hunger and thirst, what ship-
wrecks and death he should undergo. Upon this, Ananias went,
laid his hands upon him, told him that our Lord had sent him
to him, that he might receive his sight, and be filled with the
Holy Ghost ; which was no sooner done, but thick films like
scales fell from his eyes, and his sight returned. And the next
thing he did was to be baptized, and solemnly initiated into the
Christian faith : after which he joined himself to the disciples
of that place, to the equal joy and wonder of the church, that
the wolf should so soon lay down its fierceness, and put on the
meek nature of a lamb ; that he who had lately been so violent
a persecutor, should now become not a professor only, but a
preacher of that faith which before he had routed and de-
stroyed.
« 2 Cor. sill. • Gaii.10,11.
it
Digitized by
242
THE LIFE OF
SECTION II.
OP ST. PAUL, PROM HIS CONVERSION TILL THE COUNCIL OP JERUSALEM;
St. Paul's leaving Damascus, and why. His three years ministry in Arabia. His return
to Damascus. The greatness of that city. The design of the Jews to surprise
St. Paul, and the manner of his escape. His coming to Jerusalem, and converse with
Peter and James. His departure thence. The disciples first styled Christians at
Antioch. This when done, and by whom. The solemnity of it The importance of
the word xPW ar ^ ffai - Xpif/AaTicr/ubs 'Kmu>x*l<*v* what St Paul's journey to Je-
rusalem with contributions. His voyage to Cyprus, and planting Christianity there.
The opposition made by Elymas, and his severe punishment The proconsul's con-
version. His preaching to the Jews at Antioch of Pisidia. His curing a cripple at
Lystra ; and discourse to the people about their idolatry. The apostle's way of arguing
noted ; and his discourse concerning the Being and Providence of God illustrated. His
confirming the churches in the faith. The controversy at Antioch ; and St Paul's
account of it in the synod at Jerusalem.
St. Paul stayed not long at Damascus after his conversion, but
having received an immediate intimation from heaven, probably
in the ecstacy wherein he was caught up thither, he waited for
no other counsel or direction in the case, lest he should seem to
derive his mission and authority from men ; and " being not dis-
obedient to the heavenly vision," he presently retired out of the
city ; and the sooner, probably to decline the odium of the Jews,
and the effects of that rage and malice which he was sure
would pursue and follow him. He withdrew into the parts of
Arabia/ (those parts of it that lay next to the %^? a dajiaartcrivti,
the 46 region of Damascus nay, Damascus itself was sometimes
accounted part of Arabia, as we shall note by-and-by from Ter-
tullian,) where he spent the first fruits of his ministry, preaching
up and down for three years together. After which he returned
back to Damascus, preached openly in the synagogues, and con-
vinced the Jews of Christ's Messiahship, and the truth of his
religion. Angry and enraged hereat, they resolved his ruin,
which they knew no better way to effect, than by exasperating
and incensing the civil powers against him. 8 Damascus was a
place not more venerable for its antiquity, (if not built by, at
least it gave title to Abraham's steward, hence called " Eliezer of
Damascus,") than it was considerable for its strength, stateliness,
and situation : it was the noblest city of all Syria, (as Justin of
f Gal. i. 17, 18. ft Acts be. 23. 2 Cor. xi; 32, 33.
SAINT PAUL.
243
old h and the Arabian geographer has since informed us,* and
the prophet Isaiah, j before both, calls it, tn» uwr, " the head of
Syria,") seated in a most healthful air, in a most fruitful soil,
watered with most pleasant fountains and rivers, rich in mer-
chandise, adorned with stately buildings, goodly and magnificent
temples, and fortified with strong guards and garrisons : in all
which respects Julian calls it the holy and great Damascus ; k
Kal rbv T?)? 'EoSa? iunaa^ 6<f>0aXfibv, " the eye of the whole
East." Situate it was between Libanus and Mount Hermon,
and though properly belonging to Syria, yet Arabics retro de~
putabatur, (as Tertullian tells us, 1 ) was anciently reckoned to
Arabia. Accordingly at this time it was under the government
of Aretas, (father-in-law to Herod Antipas the tetrarch, whose
daughter the said Herod had married, but afterwards turned
off, m which became the occasion of a war between those two
princes,) king of Arabia Petraea, a prince tributary to the Roman
empire. By him there was an iOvdpxn^ or governor, who had
jurisdiction over the whole Syria Damascena, placed over it, who
kept constant residence in the city, as a place of very great im-
portance. To him the Jews made their address, with crafty and
cunning insinuations persuading him to apprehend St. Paul,
possibly under the notion of a spy, there being war at this
time between the Romans and that king. Hereupon the gates
were shut, and extraordinary guards set, and all engines that
could be laid to take him. But the disciples, to prevent their
cruel designs, at night put him into a basket, and let him down
over the city wall. And the place, we are told," is still shewed
to travellers, not far from the gate, thence called St. Paul's Gate
at this day.
II. Having thus made his escape, he set forwards for J erusalem,
where, when he arrived, he addressed himself to the church. 0
But they r knowing the former temper and principles of the man,
universally shunned his company ; till Barnabas brought him to
Peter, who was not yet cast into prison, and to James our Lord's
brother, bishop of Jerusalem, acquainting them with the manner
of hia conversion and by them he wad familiarly entertained.
h Just L xxxvi. c 2. 1 Geograph. Nub. Clim. iii. par. v. p. 116.
J Isai. viL 7. k Epist xxiv. p. 145.
1 Adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. 13. m Vid. Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 7.
n G. Sion. et J. Hesron. de Urb. Orient, c. 4. ° Acts ix. 26. Gal. L 18, 19.
R 2
244
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Here he stayed fifteen days, preaching Christ, and confuting the
Hellenist Jews with a mighty courage and resolution. But
snares were here again laid to entrap him, as malice can as well
cease to be, as to be restless and active. Whereupon he was
warned by God in a vision, that his testimony would not find
acceptance in that place ; that therefore he should leave it, and
betake himself to the Gentiles. Accordingly, being conducted
by the brethren to Caesarea, p he set sail for Tarsus, his native
city, from whence, not long after, he was fetched by Barnabas to
Antioch, to assist him in propagating Christianity in that place :
in which employment they continued there a whole year. q And
now it was that the disciples of the religion were at this place
first called Christians ; according to the manner of all other in-
stitutions, who were wont to take their denominations from the
first authors and founders of them. Before this thev were
usually styled Nazarenes, r as being the disciples and followers of
Jesus of Nazareth, a name by which the Jews in scorn call them
to this day, with the same intent that the Gentiles of old used
to call them Galileans. The name of Nazarenes was henceforward
fixed upon those Jewish converts who mixed the law and the
gospel, and compounded a religion out of Judaism and Chris-
tianity. The fixing this honourable name upon the disciples of
the crucified Jesus was done at Antioch (as an ancient historian
informs us 8 ) about the beginning of Claudius's reign, ten years
after Christ's ascension; nay, he farther adds, that Euodius,
lately ordained bishop of that place, was the person that imposed
this name upon them, styling them Christians, who before
were called Nazarenes and Galileans: rod avrov hrtaieoirov
EvoBlov 7Tpo<rofiiXijaavTO^ avrois, zeal i.iri0r\cravTO^ avrois to
Svojia tovto' irpwqv yap Na&pcuoi itcaXovvro, teal TaXtkaloi
iieaXovvro oi Xptaridvo\ as my author's words are. I may
not omit, what a learned man has observed/ that the word
j(pr)fiarl<ra^ used by St. Luke, " they were called," implies the
thing to have been done by some public and solemn act and de-
claration of the whole church, such being the use of the word
in the imperial edicts and proclamations of tfrose times, the
p Acts ix. 30. 9 Acts xi. 26. r Euseb. de loc Hebr. in voc Nafapeff.
• Joan. Antiochen. in ChronoL MS. a Selden. cit. de Synedr. 1. i. c. 8. Vid. Suid. in
toc. Nofapaloy.
1 J. Greg. not. et obs. cap. 36.
SAINT PAUL.
245
emperors being said xPVMwt&Wi " to style themselves,"" when
they publicly proclaimed by what titles they would be called.
When any province submitted itself to the Roman empire, the
emperor was wont, by public edict, xPVf iaT ^ €iy eavrov, " to
entitle himself " to the government and jurisdiction of it, and
the people to several great privileges and immunities. In a
grateful sense whereof the people usually made this time the
solemn date of their common epocha, or computation : thus (as
the forementioned historian informs us u ) it was in the par-
ticular case of Antioch ; and thence their public era was called
XprifiaTi<rfib<; r&v * AvTioxeloav, " the ascription of the people at
Antioch Such being the general acceptation of the word, St.
Luke (who was himself a native of this city) makes use of it to
express that solemn declaration, whereby the disciples of the
religion entitled themselves to the name of Christians.
III. It happened about this time that a terrible famine, fore-
told by Agabus, x afflicted several parts of the Roman empire, but
especially Judea; the consideration whereof made the Christians
at Antioch compassionate the case of their suffering brethren, and
accordingly they raised considerable contributions for their relief
and succour, which they sent to Jerusalem by Barnabas and
Paul, who, having despatched their errand in that city, went
back to Antioch ; where, while they were joining in the public
exercises of their religion, it was revealed to them by the Holy
Ohost, y that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas to preach
the gospel in other places: which was done accordingly; and
they, by prayer, fasting, and imposition of hands, immediately
deputed for that service. Hence they departed to Seleucia, and
thence sailed to Cyprus, where at Salamis, a great city in that
island, they preached in the synagogues of the Jews : hence they
removed to Paphos, the residence of Sergius Paulus, the pro-
consul of the island, a man of great wisdom and prudence, but
miserably seduced by the wicked artifices of Bar- Jesus, a Jewish
impostor, who called himself Elymas, or the Magician, vehemently
opposed the apostles, and kept the proconsul from embracing of
the faith. Nay, one,* who pretends to be ancient enough to know
it, seems to intimate, that he not only spake, but wrote against
St. Paul's doctrine and the faith of Christ. However, the pro-
u J. Antioch. Chron. L ix. * Acts xi. 28. 1 Acts xiii. 2.
■ Dionys. Areop. de divin. norain. c. 8.
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consul calls for the apostles, and St. Paul first takes Elymas to
task, and having severely checked him for his malicious opposing
of the truth, told him, that the divine vengeance was now ready
to seize upon him ; upon which he was immediately struck blind.
The vengeance of God observing herein a kind of just propor-
tion, that he should be punished with the loss of his bodily eyes,
who had so wilfully and maliciously shut the eyes of his mind
against the light of the gospel, and had endeavoured to keep not
only himself but others under so much blindness and darkness.
This miracle turned the scale with the proconsul, and quickly
brought him over a convert to the faith.
IV. After this success in Cyprus, he went to Perga in Pam-
phylia,* where taking Titus along with him in the room of Mark,
who was returned to Jerusalem, they went to Antioch, the me-
tropolis of Pisidia ; where entering into the Jewish synagogue
on the sabbath day, after some sections of the law were read,
they were invited by the rulers of the synagogue to discourse a
little to the people : which St. Paul did, in a large and eloquent
sermon, wherein he put them in mind of the many great and
particular blessings which God had heaped upon the Jews, from
the first originals of that nation ; that he had crowned them qll,
with the sending of his Son to be the Messiah and the Saviour ;
that though the Jews had ignorantly crucified this just, innocent
person, yet that God, according to his own predictions, had raised
him up from the dead ; that through him they preached forgive-
ness of sins ; and that by him alone it was that men, if ever,
must be justified and acquitted from that guilt and condemna-
tion, which all the pompous ceremonies and ministries of the
Mosaic law could never do away ; that therefore they should do
well to take heed, lest by their opposing this way of salvation,
they should bring upon themselves that prophetical curse which
God had threatened to the Jews of old, for their great contumacy
and neglect. This sermon wanted not its due effects : the pro-
selyte Jews desired the apostles to discourse again to them of
this matter the next sabbath day, the apostles also persuading
them to continue firm in the belief of these things. The day
was no sooner come, but the whole city almost flocked to be
their auditors : which when the Jews saw, acted by a spirit of
envy, they began to blaspheme and to contradict the apostles ;
• Acts xiii. 13, 14.
SAINT PAUL.
247
who, nothing daunted, told them that our Lord had charged
them first to preach the gospel to the Jews, which since they
so obstinately rejected, they were now to address themselves to
the Gentiles : who hearing this, exceedingly rejoiced at the good
news, and magnified the word of God, and as many of them as
were thus prepared and disposed towards eternal life, heartily
closed with it and embraced it ; the apostles preaching not there
only, but through the country round about. The Jews, more
exasperated than before, resolved to be rid of their company,
and to that end persuaded some of the more devout and honour-
able women to deal with their husbands, persons of prime rank
and quality in the city* by whose means they were driven out of
those parts. Whereat Paul and Barnabas, shaking off the dust
of their feet as a testimony against their ingratitude and infi-
delity, departed from them.
V. The next place they went to was Iconium, b where at first
they found kind entertainment and good success, God setting a
seal to their doctrine by the testimony of his miracles. But here
the Jewish malice began again to ferment, exciting the people
to sedition and a mutiny against them': insomuch that hearing
o£a design to stone them, they seasonably withdrew to Lystra ;
where they first made their way by a miraculous cure : for St.
Paul seeing an impotent cripple that had been lame from his
mother's womb, cured him with the speaking of a word. The
people who beheld the miracle, had so much natural logic as to
infer, that there was a divinity in the thing ; though mistaking
the author, they applied it to the instruments, crying out, that
the gods in human shape were come down from heaven : Paul,
as being chief speaker, they termed Mercury, the god of speech
and eloquence ; Barnabas, by reason of his age and gravity, they
called Jupiter, the father of their gods : accordingly the Syriac
interpreter here renders Jupiter by " the lord, or sovereign of
the gods." The fame of this being spread over the city, the
priest of Jupiter brought oxen dressed up with garlands, after
the Gentile rites, to the house where the apostles were, to do
sacrifice to them : which they no sooner understood, but in de-
testation of those undue honours offered to them, they rent their
clothes, and told them that they were men of the same make
and temper, of the same passions and infirmities with themselves ;
b Act* xiv. 1.
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that the design of their preaching was to convert them from
these vain idolatries and superstitions to the worship of the true
God, the great Parent of the world, who though heretofore he
had left men to themselves, to go on in their own ways of
idolatrous worship, yet had he given sufficient evidence of him-
self in the constant returns of a gracious and benign providence
in crowning the year with fruitful seasons, and other acts of
common kindness and bounty to mankind.
VI. A short discourse, but very rational and convictive, which
it may not be amiss a little more particularly to consider, and
the method which the apostle uses to convince these blind
idolaters. He proves divine honours to be due to God alone, as
the sovereign Being of the world ; and that there is such a su-
preme infinite Being, he argues from his works both of creation
and providence. 0 Creation : " He is the living God that made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein."
Providence : " He left not himself without witness, in that he
did good, and gave rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling
our hearts with food and gladness than which no argument
can be more apt and proper to work upon the minds of men.
" That which may be known of God is manifest to the Gentiles,
for God bath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of
him, from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and
godhead, are clearly seen and understood by the things that are
made it being impossible impartially to survey the several
parts of the creation, and not see in every place evident foot-
steps of an infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. Who can look
up unto the heavens, and not there discern an Almighty Wisdom,
beautifully garnishing those upper regions, distinguishing the
circuits, and perpetuating the motions of the heavenly lights ?
placing the sun in the middle of the heavens, that he might
equally dispense and communicate his light and heat to all parts
of the world, and not burn the earth with the too near approach
of his scorching beams: by which means the creatures are
refreshed and cheered, the earth impregnated with fruits and
flowers by the benign influence of a vital heat, and the vicissitudes
and seasons of the year regularly distinguished by their constant
and orderly revolutions. Whence are the great orbs of heaven
kept in continual motion, always going in the same tract, but
c Arrian. dissert. 1, i c. 16.
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SAINT PAUL.
249
because there is a superior power that keeps these great wheels
a going? Who is it that "poises the balancings of the clouds;
that divides a water-course for the overflowing of waters, and a
way for the lightning of the thunder !" Who can "bind the
sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion T Or
who can " bring forth Mazaroth in his season, or guide Arcturus
with his sons?" Do these come by chance? or by the secret ap-
pointment of Infinite Wisdom ? Who can consider the admirable
thinness and purity of the air, its immediate subserviency to the
great ends of the creation, its being the treasury of vital breath
to all living creatures, without which the next moment must
put a period to our days, and not reflect upon that Divine Wisdom
that contrived it ? If we come down upon the earth, there we
discover a Divine Providence, supporting it with the pillars of
an invisible power, " stretching the north over the empty space,
and hanging the earth upon nothing ;" filling it with great va-
riety of admirable and useful creatures, and maintaining them
all according to their kinds at his own cost and charges. It is
he that clothes the grass with a delightful verdure, that " crowns
the year with his loving kindness, and makes the valleys stand
thick with corn " that causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food
out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth
man's heart ;" that beautifies the lilies that neither toil nor spin,
and that with a glory that outshines Solomon in all his pomp
and grandeur. From land let us ship our observations to sea,
and there we may descry the wise effects of infinite under-
standing : a wide ocean fitly disposed for the mutual commerce
and correspondence of one part of mankind with another ; filled
with great and admirable fishes, and enriched with the treasures
of the deep. What but an almighty arm can shut in the sea
with doors, bind it by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass,
and tie up its wild raging waves with no stronger cordage than
ropes of sand ? Who but he commands the storm, and stills the
tempest ; and brings the mariner, when at his wits end in the
midst of the greatest dangers, to his desired haven ? " They that
go down to the sea in ships, and do business in great waters ;
these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep,"
So impossible is it for a man to stand in any part of the creation,
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wherein he may not discern evidences enough of an infinitely
wise, gracious, and omnipotent Being. Thus much I thought
good to add, to illustrate the apostle's argument; whence he
strongly infers, that it is very reasonable that we should worship
and adore this great Creator and Benefactor, and not transfer
the honours due to him alone upon men of frail and sinful
passions, and much less upon dumb idols, unable either to make
or to help themselves : an argument, which though very plain
and plausible, and adapted to the meanest understandings, yet
was all little enough to restrain the people from offering sacrifice
to them. But how soon was the wind turned into another
corner ? The old spirit of the Jews did still haunt and pursue
them : who, coming from Antioch and Iconium, exasperated and
stirred up the multitude ; and they who just before accounted
them as gods, used them now worse, not only than ordinary men,
but slaves. For in a mighty rage they fall upon St. Paul, stone
him, as they thought, dead, and then drag him out of the city ;
whither the Christians of that place coming, probably to inter
him, he suddenly revived, and rose up amongst them, and the
next day went thence to Derbe.
VII. Here they preached the gospel, and then returned to
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, confirming the Chris-
tians of those places in the belief and profession of Christianity ;
earnestly persuading them to persevere, and not be discouraged
with those troubles and persecutions which they must expect
would attend the profession of the gospel. And that all this
might succeed the better, with fasting and prayer they ordained
governors and pastors in every church ; and having recommended
them to the grace of God, departed from them. From hence
they passed through Pisidia, and thence came to Pamphylia ; and
having preached to the people at Perga, they went down to At-
talia. And thus having at this time finished the whole circuit of
their ministry, they returned back to Antioch in Syria, the place
whence they had first set out. Here they acquainted the church
with the various transactions and successes of their travels, and
how great a door had hereby been opened to the conversion of
the Gentile world.
VIII. While St. Paul stayed at Antioch, there arose that
famous controversy about the observation of the Mosaic rites, d
d Acts xv. 1.
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SAINT PAUL. t 251
set on foot and brought in by some Jewish converts that came
down thither, whereby great disturbances and distractions were
made in the minds of the people: for the composing whereof
the church of Antioch resolved to send Paul and Barnabas to
consult with the apostles and church at Jerusalem. In their way
thither, they declared to the brethren as they went along, what
success they had had in the conversion of the Gentiles. Being
come to Jerusalem, they first addressed themselves to Peter,
James, and John, the pillars and principal persons in that place :
by whom they were kindly entertained, and admitted to the
right hand of fellowship. And perceiving, by the account which
St. Paul gave them, that the gospel of the uncircumcision was
committed to him, as that of the circumcision was to Peter,
they ratified it by compact and agreement, that Peter should
preach to the Jews, and "Paul unto the Gentiles. Hereupon a
council was summoned, wherein Peter having declared his sense
of things, Paul and Barnabas acquainted them what great things
Go'd by their ministry had done among the Gentiles. A plain
evidence, that though uncircumcised they were accepted by God,
as well as the Jews with all their legal rites and privileges. The
issue of the debate was, that the Gentiles were not under the
obligation of the law of Moses, and that therefore some persons
of their own should be joined with Paul and Barnabas, to carry
the canons and decrees of the council down to Antioch, for their
fuller satisfaction in this matter* But of this affair we shall give
the reader a more distinct and particular account in another
place.
SECTION III.
OF ST. PAUL, FROM THE TIME OF THE SYNOD AT JERUSALEM
TILL HIS DEPARTURE FROM ATHENS.
St. Paul's carrying the apostolic decree to Antioch. His contest with Peter. The dis-
sension between him and Barnabas. His travels to confirm the new planted churches.
The conversion of Lydia at Philippi. The Jewish proseucha, what ; the frequency of
them in all places. The dispossessing of a Pythoness. St Paul's imprisonment and
ill usage at Philippi. The great provision made by the Roman laws for the security
of its subjects. His preaching at Thessalonica and Beroea. His going to Athens.
The fame of that place. His doctrine opposed by the Stoics and Epicureans, and why.
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The great idolatry and superstition of that city. The altar to the Unknown God.
This Unknown God, who. The superstition of the Jews in concealing the name of
God. This imitated by the Gentiles. Their general forms of invocating their deities
noted. The particular occasion of these altars at Athens, whence. St. Paul's discourse
to the philosophers in the Areopagus concerning the Divine Being and Providence.
The different entertainment of his doctrine. Dionysius the Areopagite, who. His
learning, conversion, and being made bishop of Athens. The difference between him
and St Denys of Paris. The books published under his name.
St. Paul and his companions having received the decretal
epistle, returned back to Antioch ; where they had not been long,
before Peter came thither to them ; and, according to the de-
cree of the council, freely and inoffensively conversed with the
Gentiles : till some of the Jews coming down thither from Jeru-
salem, he withdrew his converse, as if it were a thing unwarrant-
able and unlawful. By which means the minds of many were
dissatisfied, and their consciences very much ensnared. Whereat
St. Paul being exceedingly troubled, publicly rebuked him for it,
and that, as the case required, with great sharpness and severity.
It was not long after, that St. Paul and Barnabas resolved upon
visiting the churches,* which they had lately planted among the
Gentiles : to which end Barnabas determined to take his cousin
Mark along with them. This, Paul would by no means agree
to, he having deserted them in their former journey. A little
spark, which yet kindled a great feud and dissension between
these two good men, and arose to that height, that in some discon-
tent they parted from each other. So natural is it for the best of
men sometimes to indulge an unwarrantable passion, and so far to
espouse the interest of a private and particular humour, as rather
to hazard the great law of charity, and violate the bands of
friendship, than to recede from it. The effect was, Barnabas,
taking his nephew, went for Cyprus, his native country; St.
Paul made choice of Silas, and the success of his undertaking
being first recommended to the divine care and goodness, they
set forwards on their journey.
II. Their first passage was into Syria and Oilicia, confirming
the churches as they went along: and to that end they left
with them copies of the synodical decrees, lately ordained in the
council at Jerusalem. Hence we may suppose it was that he
set sail for Crete, where he preached and propagated Christianity,
and constituted Titus to be the first bishop and pastor of that
« Acts zt. 36.
SAINT PAUL.
253
island, whom lie left there to settle and dispose those affairs
which the shortness of his own stay in those parts would not
suffer him to do. Hence he returned back into Cilicia, and came
to Lystra, where he found Timothy, whose father was a Greek,
his mother a Jewish convert, by whom he had been brought up
under all the advantages of a pious and religious education, and
especially an incomparable skill and dexterity in the holy scrip-
tures. St. Paul designed him for the companion of his travels,
and a special instrument in the ministry of the gospel: and
knowing that his being uncircumcised would be a mighty pre-
judice in the opinion and estimation of the Jews, caused him to
be circumcised ; being willing in lawful and indifferent matters
(such was circumcision now become) to accommodate himself to
men's humours and apprehensions for the saving of their souls.
III. From hence with his company he passed through Phrygia/
and the country of Galatia, where he was entertained by them
with as mighty a kindness and veneration, as if he had been an
angel immediately sent from heaven. And being by revelation
forbidden to go into Asia, by a second vision he was commanded
to direct his journey for Macedonia : and here it was that St.
Luke joined himself to his company, and became ever after his
inseparable companion. Sailing from Troas, they arrived at the
island Samothracia, and thence to Neapolis, from whence they
went to Philippi, the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and
a Roman colony: where he stayed some considerable time to
plant the Christian faith, and where his ministry bad more par-
ticular success on Lydia, a purple-seller, born at Thyatira,
baptized together with her whole family; and with her the
apostle sojourned during his residence in that place. A little
without this city there was a proseucha, as the Syriac renders it,
an " oratory or 46 house of prayer," whereto the apostle and
his company used frequently to retire, for the exercise of their
religion, and for preaching the gospel to those that resorted
thither. The Jews had three sorts of places for their public
worship : the temple at Jerusalem, which was like the cathedral,
or mother-church, where all sacrifices and oblations were offered,
and where all males were bound three times a year personally
to pay their devotion : their synagogues, (many whereof they
had almost in every place, not unlike our parochial churches,)
f Acts xvi. 6.
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where the scriptures were read and expounded, and the people
taught their duty : " Moses of old time hath in every city them
that preach him, being read in the synagogue every sabbath
day." g And then they had their proseuchce, (ra /cara iroXeU
irpoaevKTTjpia^ as Philo sometimes calls them, h ) or " oratories,"
which were like chapels of ease to the temple and the synagogues,
whither the people were wont to come solemnly to offer up their
. prayers to heaven. They were built (as Epiphanius informs us 1 )
e£a> Tr}<t tt6\€(»9, iv aepi /cat aWpitp Toirq*, " without the city,
in the open air and uncovered," rotrot trXaTeis <f>6po)v hlicqv^
trpoaevx^ ravra^ itcakovv, " being large spacious places, after
the manner of fora, or market-places, and these they called
proBeuchcer k And that the Jews and Samaritans had such places
of devotion, he proves from this very place at Philippi, where St.
Paul preached : for they had them not in Judea only, but even
at Borne itself, where Tiberius (as Philo tells Caius the emperor 1 )
suffered the Jews to inhabit the Transtyberine region, and un-
disturbedly to live according to the rites of their institutions,
teal irpoaev^a^ e^eiv, teal avvikvai eh avras, xal fidXiara iv
ra?9 lepai? ij3$6fiai$, ore Srjfiotria ttjv ir&rpiov iraiSevovrai,
<f>iKoo-o<f)lav, " and also to have their proseuchce, and to meet in
them, especially upon their holy sabbaths, that they might be
familiarly instructed in the laws and religion of their country."
Such they had also in other places, especially where they had
not, or were not suffered to have synagogues for their public
worship. But to return.
IV. As they were going to this oratory, they were often fol-
lowed by a Pythoness, a maid servant, acted by a spirit of divi-
nation, who openly cried out, that " these men were the servants
of the most high God, who came to shew the way of salvation n
to the world : so easily can heaven extort a testimony from the
mouth of hell. But St. Paul, to shew how little he needed
Satan to be his witness, commanded the demon to come out ;
which immediately left her. The evil spirit thus thrown out
of possession, presently raised a storm against the apostles ; for
the masters of the damsel, who used by her diabolical arts to
* Acts xv. 21. h De vit Mos. L iii. p. 685. 1 Hares, lxxx. c. 1.
k In qua te quaero Proseucha ? Juvenal. Satyr, iii. 296. Proseucha] locus Judaeorum,
ubi oranti Vet SchoL ibid.
1 De Legat ad Caium, p. 1014.
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SAINT PAUL.
255
raise great advantages to themselves, being sensible that now
their gainful trade was spoiled, resolved to be revenged on them
that had spoiled it. Accordingly, they laid hold upon them,
and dragged them before the seat of judicature, insinuating to
the governors that these men were Jews, who sought to in-
troduce different customs and ways of worship, contrary to the
laws of the Roman empire. The magistrates and people were
soon agreed, the one to give sentence, the other to set upon the
execution. In fine, they were stripped, beaten, and then com-
manded to be thrown into prison, and the gaoler charged to keep
them with all possible care and strictness ; who, to make sure of
his charge, thrust them into the inner dungeon, and made their
feet fast in the stocks. But a good man can turn a prison into a
chapel, and make a " den of thieves" to be "an house of prayer
our feet cannot be bound so fast to the earth, but that still our
hearts may mount up to heaven. At midnight the apostles were
overheard by their fellow-prisoners praying and singing hymns
to God. But after the still voice came the tempest : an earth-
quake suddenly shook the foundations of the prison, the doors
flew open, and their chains fell off. The gaoler awaking with
this amazing accident, concluded with himself that the prisoners
were fled, and to prevent the sentence of public justice, was
going to lay violent hands upon himself, 111 which St. Paul espy-
ing, called out to him to hold his hand, and told him they were
all there : who thereupon came in to them, with a greater earth-
quake in his own conscience, and falling down before them, asked
them, " what he should do to be saved ?" They told him there
was no other way of salvation for him or his, than an hearty
and sincere embracing of the faith of Christ. What a happy
change does Christianity make in the minds of men ! how plain,
does it smooth the roughest tempers, and instil the sweetest
principles of civility and good nature ! He who but a little be-
fore had tyrannized over the apostles with the most merciless
and cruel usage, began now to treat them with all the arts of
kindness and charity, bringing them out of the dungeon, and
washing their stripes and wounds; and being more fully in-
structed in the principles of Christianity, was, together with his
whole family, immediately baptized by them. Early in the
m Milites si amiscrint cust^Jias, ipsi in periculum deducuntur, 1. xii. ff. de cuatod. et
exhib. reor. tit iii. k
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morning, the magistrates sent officers privately to release them :
which the apostles refused ; telling them, that they were not only
innocent persons, but Romans ; that they had been illegally con-
demned and beaten ; that therefore their delivery should be as
public as the injury, and an open vindication of their innocency ;
and that they themselves that had sent them thither should
fetch them thence : for the Roman government was very tender
of the lives and liberties of its own subjects, 11 those especially
that were free denizens of Borne ; every injury offered to a
Roman being looked upon as an affront against the majesty of
the whole people of Borne. Such a one might not be beaten :
but to be scourged, or bound, without being first legally heard and
tried, was not only against the Roman, but the laws of all na-
tions ; and the more public any injury was,° the greater was its
aggravation, and the laws required a more strict and solemn
reparation. St. Paul, who was a Boman, and very well under-
stood the laws and privileges of Borne, insisted upon this, to the
great startling and affrighting of the magistrates ; who, sensible
of their error, came to the prison and entreated them to depart.
Whereupon, going to Lydia's house, and having saluted and en-
couraged the brethren, they departed from that place.
V. Leaving Philippi, they came next to Thessalonica, the
metropolis of Macedonia ; where Paul, according to his custom,
presently went to the Jewish synagogue for three sabbath days,
reasoning and disputing with them, proving, from the predictions
of the Old Testament, that the Messiah was to suffer, and to
rise again, and that the blessed Jesus was this Messiah. Great
numbers, especially of religious proselytes, were converted by his
preaching: while, like the sun, that melts wax but hardens clay,
it wrought a quite contrary effect in the unbelieving Jews; who
presently set themselves to blow up the city into a tumult and
an uproar, and missing St. Paul (who had withdrawn himself)
they fell foul upon Jason, in whose house he lodged ; representing
to the magistrates, that they were enemies to Caesar, and sought
n lata laus primum est majorum nostrorum, Quirites, qui lenitate legum vestram liber-
tatem munitam esse voluerunt. Quamobrem inviolatura corpus omnium cmum Romano-
rum integrum libertatis defendo servari oportere. Porcia Lex virgas ab omnium civium
Rom. corpora amovit. C. Gracchus legem tulit, ne de capite civium Rom. injussu
vestro judicaretur. — Cicer. Orat pro C. Rabir.
° L. vii. ff. de injuriis. 1. xlix. tit 10.
SAINT PAUL.
257
to undermine the peace and prosperity of the Roman empire.
At night, Paul and Silas were conducted by the brethren to
Beroea ; where, going to the synagogue, they found the people
of a more noble and generous, a more pliable and ingenuous
temper, ready to entertain the Christian doctrine, but yet not
willing to take it merely upon the apostle's word, till they had
first compared his preaching with what the scriptures say of the
Messiah and his doctrine. And the success was answerable, in
those great numbers that came over to them. But the Jewish
malice pursued them still : for hearing at Thessalonica what en-
tertainment they had found in this place, they presently came
down, to exasperate and stir up the people : to avoid which/
St. Paul, leaving Silas and Timothy behind him, thought good
to withdraw himself from that place.
VI. From Beroea he went to Athens, p one of the most re-
nowned cities in the world, excelling all others (says an ancient
historian* 1 ) in antiquity, humanity, and learning. Indeed, it was
the great seat of arts and learning, and, as Cicero will have it, r
the fountain whence civility, learning, religion, arts, and laws
were derived into all other nations. So universally flocked to
by all that had but the least kindness for the Muses, or good
manners, that he who had not seen Athens, was accounted a
block ; he who haviug seen it, was not in love with it, a dull
stupid ass ; and he who after he had seen it, could be willing to
leave it, fit for nothing but to be a pack-horse. 8 Here, among
the several sects of philosophers, he had more particular con-
tests with the Stoics and Epicureans, who beyond all the rest
seemed enemies to Christianity. The Epicureans, because they
found their pleasant and jovial humour, and their loose and ex-
orbitant course of life, so much checked and controlled by the
strict and severe precepts of Christ, and that Christianity so
plainly and positively asserted a Divine Providence, that governs
the world, and that will adjudge to men suitable rewards and
punishments in another world. The Stoics, on the other hand,
though pretending to principles of great and uncommon rigour
and severity, and such as had nearest affinity to the doctrines of
the Christian religion, yet found themselves aggrieved with it :
that meek and humble temper of mind, that modesty and self-
p Acts xviL 15. i C. Nep. in vit. Attic c. 3. r Orat pro Flac.
• Vid. Lysipp. Comic, apud Dicaarch. de vit. Graec. a Steph. edit. c. 3. p. 18.
S
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denial, which the gospel so earnestly recommends to us, and so
strictly requires of us, being so directly contrary to the immo-
derate pride and ambition of that sect, who, beyond all propor-
tions of reason, were not ashamed to make their wise man equal
to, and in some things to exceed, God himself. 1
VII. While St. Paul stayed at Athens, in expectation of Silas
and Timothy to come to him, he went up and down to take a
more curious view and survey of the city; which he found
miserably overgrown with superstition and idolatry : as indeed
Athens was noted by all their own writers for far greater
numbers of deities and idols than all Greece besides." They
^vere oxrirep irepl tcl aXXa <f>i\of;€VOvvT€<;, ovtg> koX irepl tovs
0eov<? 7ro\\a yap t&v gevifeoiv iepcov irapehe^avro^ as Strabo
notes ; x not more fond of strangers and novelties in other things,
than forward to comply with novelties in religion, ready to en-
tertain any foreign deities and rites of worship ; no divinity that
was elsewhere adored, coming amiss to them. Whence Athens
is by one of their own orators styled/ to fieytarov Trjs ivaefteias
K€<f>d\cuov 9 " the great sum and centre of piety and religion
and he there aggravates the impiety of Epicurus, in speaking
unworthily and irreverently of the gods, from the place where
he did it ; at Athens, a place so pious, so devoted to them. In-
deed herein justly commendable, that they could not brook the
least dishonourable reflection upon any deity, and therefore Apol-
lonius Tyanseus tells Timasion, 2 that the safest way was to speak
well of all the gods, and especially at Athens, where altars were
dedicated even to unknown gods. And so St. Paul here fouud
it ; for among the several shrines and places of worship and de-
votion, he took more particular notice of one altar inscribed " To
the Unknown God." The entire inscription, whereof the apostle
' Tan turn sapienti sua, quantum Deo omnia aetas patet Est aliquid, quo sapiens an-
tecedat Deum : ille naturae beneficio non timet, suo sapiens. Ecce res magna, habere
imbecillitatem hominis, securitatem Dei. — Senec. Epist. Hit Solebat Sextius dicere,
Jovem plus non posse, quam bonum virum. Plura Jupiter habet, quae praestet ho-
minibus : sed inter duos bonos non est melior, qui locupletior. Jupiter quo antecedit
virum bonum ? diutius bonus est Sapiens nihilo se minoris aestimat, quod virtutes ejus
spatio breviore clauduntur. — Id. Epist. lxxiii.
u Pausan. 1. i. p. 42. Hesych. in voc. ©cof. Nonn. Dionys. 1. xxxviii. p. 542. .
x Geograph. 1. x. p. 325.
y Himer. Orat in Epicur. ap. Phot Cod. CCXLIII. coL 1086.
2 Philostr. de vit Apollon. 1. vi. c 2. et ex eo. Suid. in voc. Tifxcuriw.
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SAINT PAUL.
259
quotes only part of the last words, is thought to have been this :
GEOIZ ASIAS KAI ETPnilHZ KAI AIBTH2 GEI2
ArNflSTSlc KAI EENfl : a "To the gods of Asia, Europe,
and Africa, to the stra'nge and unknown god." St. Jerome
represents it in the same manner, 5 only makes it gods, in the
plural number, which because, says he, St. Paul needed not, he
only cited it in the singular : which surely he affirms without
any just ground and warrant ; though it cannot be denied, but
that heathen writers make frequent mention of the altars of un-
known gods, that were at Athens, as there want not others who
speak of some erected there to an unknown god. This notion
the Athenians might probably borrow from the Hebrews, who
had the name of God in great secrecy and veneration. This
being one of the titles given him by the prophet, 0 "V^P? f$ " a
hidden God," or " a God that hides himself." Sure I am that
Justin Martyr tells us, d that one of the principal names given to
God by some of the heathens, was Har/icpv<f>o<;, " one altogether
hidden." Hence the Egyptians probably derived their great
God Ammon, e or more truly Amun, which signifies occult, or
hidden. Accordingly, in this passage of St. Paul, the Syriac in-
terpreter renders it, "the altar of the hidden God." The Jews
were infinitely superstitious in concealing the name of God/ not
thinking it lawful ordinarily to pronounce it. This made the
Gentiles, strangers at best both to the language and religion of
the Jews, at a great loss by what name to call him, only styling
him in general an uncertain, unspeakable, invisible deity: whence
Caligula/ in his ranting oration to the Jews, told them, that
wretches as they were, though they refused to own him, whom
all others had confessed to be a deity, yet they could worship
tov d/caravofiaarov vfilv, " their own nameless God." And hence
the Gentiles derived their custom of keeping secret the name of
their gods: thus Plutarch tells us h of the tutelar deity of Rome,
* Oecumen. SchoL in Act xvii. p. 137.
b Com. in Tit. cap. L ad Paul, et Eustoch. c Isai. xlv. 15.
d Paraen. ad Graec p. 37. e Plutarch, lib. de laid, et Osir. p. 354.
f Dedita sacris Incerti Judaea Dei. Lucan. Pharsal. lib. ii. incertum Mosis numen.
Tribel. Poll, in vit Claud, c. 2. Judaei mente sola, unumque numen intelligent;
Bummura illud et aeternum, neque rautabile, neque interiturum. Tacit Histor.
L v. c. 5.
* Phil, de legat ad Cai. p. 1041.
h Quaest Rom. p. 279. vid. Serv. ad illud Virgil. Georgic. 1. i. Dii patrii indigitca, etc.
s 2
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that it was not lawful to name it, or so much as to inquire what
sex it was of, whether god or goddess ; and that for once re-
vealing it, Valerius Soranus, though tribune of the people, came
to an untimely end, and was crucified, the vilest and most dis-
honourable kind of death : whereof, among other reasons, he as-
signs this, that by concealing the author of their public safety, fitj
fjuovov toutov, aWa TravTas airo r&v irokir&v T0O9 0€oi><; Ttfiaa-
0ai, " not he only, but all the other gods might have due honour
and worship paid to them." Hence in their public adorations,
after the invocation of particular deities, they were wont to add
some more general and comprehensive form ; as when Cicero had
been making his address to most of their particular gods, he
concludes with a Cceteros item Deos, Deasque omnes imploro atque
obtestor. 1 Usually the form was mi de^eque omnes. The reason
whereof was this, that not being assured many times what that
peculiar deity was, that was proper to their purpose, or what
numbers of gods there were in the world, they would not affront
or offend any, by seeming to neglect and pass them by. And
this Chrysostom j thinks to have been particularly designed in
the erection of this Athenian altar, firjirore ical dXXo? ri<; rj
afoot? fikv ovBeTTO) yvdpifio^ 0epa7T€v6fi€vo<s Be aXXa^oO, "they
were afraid lest there might be some other deity (besides those
whom they particularly worshipped) as yet unknown to them,
though honoured and adored elsewhere ;" and therefore, virkp
vrktlovo? aatydkelas, " for the more security," they dedicated an
altar to the unknown god. As for the particular occasion of
erecting these altars at Athens, (omitting that of Pan's appearing
to Philippides, mentioned by Oecumenius,) the most probable
seems to be this. When a great plague raged at Athens, k and
several means had been attempted for the removal of it, they
were advised by Epimenides, the philosopher, to build an altar,
and dedicate it tw trpo<rr\KovTi Oefi, " to the proper and pe-
culiar deity to whom it did appertain," be he what he would.
A course which proving successful, no doubt gave occasion to
them, by way of gratitude, to erect more shrines to this unknown
1 In Verr. Accus. 7. Post specialem invocationem, transit ad generalitatem, ne quod
numen praetereat, more Pontificum per quos ritu veteri in omnibus sacris, post spe-
ciales Deos, quos ad ipsum sacrum, quod fiebat, necesse erat invocari, generaliter omnia
numina invocabantur. Serr. in illud Virgil Georgk. lib. i. Diique Deaeque omnes.
J Homil xxxviii. in Act k Laert. L i. in vit. Epimen. p. 78.
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SAINT PAUL.
261
god. And accordingly Laertius, who lived long after St. PauFs
time, tells us that there were such nameless altars (he means
such as were not inscribed to any particular deity) in and about
Athens in his days, as monuments of that eminent deliverance.
VII. But whatever the particular cause might be, hence it
was that St. Paul took occasion to discourse of the true, but to
them unknown God. For the philosophers had before treated
him with a great deal of scorn and derision, asking what that
idle and prating fellow had to say to them ? Others looking
upon him as a propagator of new and strange gods, because he
preached to them Jesus and Anastasis, or the resurrection,
which they looked upon as two upstart deities, lately come into
the world. Hereupon they brought him to the place where
stood the famous senate-house of the Areopagites, and according
to the Athenian humour, which altogether delighted in curious
novelties, running up and down the forum* and places of public
concourse, to see any strange accident, or hear any new report,
(a vice which their own great orator long since taxed them
with, 1 ) they asked him, what that new and strange doctrine
was, which he preached to them ? Whereupon, in a neat and
elegant discourse, he began to tell them, he had observed how
much they were overrun with superstition, that their zeal for
religion was indeed generous and commendable, but which
miserably overshot its due measures and proportions ; that he
had taken notice of an altar among them, inscribed, " To the
unknown God, 1 ' and therefore, in compassion to their blind and
misguided zeal, he would declare unto them the deity which
they ignorantly worshipped ; and that this was no other than
the great God, the Creator of all things, the Supreme Governor
and Ruler of the world, who was incapable of being confined
within any temple or human fabric : that no image could be
made as a proper instrument to represent him ; that he needed
no gifts or sacrifices, being himself the fountain from whence life,
breath, and all other blessings were derived to particular beings ;
that from one common original he had made the whole race of
mankind, and had wisely fixed and determined the times and
bounds of their habitation ; and all to this end, that men might
be the stronglier obliged to seek after liim, and sincerely to serve
1 Too-ovtov XP& V0V <nmv8d(m 9 &<rov &y #ca04<r0c, ikKofovres V ■*pocraryy*\&jj rt
vc&repov. Demosth. Philip, iv.
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and worship him: a doty which they might easily attain to,
(though otherwise sunk into the deepest degeneracy, and over-
spread with the grossest darkness,) he every where affording
such palpable evidences of his own being and providence, that
he seemed to stand near, and touch us ; it being entirely from
him that we derive our life, motion, and subsistence. A thing
acknowledged even by their own poet, m that " we also are his
offspring." If therefore God was our Creator, it was highly un-
reasonable to think that we could make any image or repre-
sentation of him : that it was too long already that the divine
patience had borne with the manners of men, and suffered them
to go on in their blind idolatries ; that now he expected a general
repentance and reformation from the world, especially having
by the publishing of his gospel put out of all dispute the case of
a future judgment, and particularly appointed the holy Jesus to
be the person that should sentence and judge the world: by
whose resurrection he had given sufficient evidence and assurance
of it. No sooner had he mentioned the resurrection, but some
of the philosophers (no doubt Epicureans, who were wont to
laugh at the notion of a future state) mocked and derided him ;
others more gravely answered, that they would hear him again
concerning this matter. But his discourse, however scorned and
slighted, did not wholly want its desired effect, and that upon
some of the greatest quality and rank among them. In the
number of whom was Dionysius, one of the grave senators and
judges of the Areopagus, and Damaris, whom the ancients, not
improbably, make his wife. n
VIII. This Dionysius was bred at Athens, in all the learned
arts and sciences : at five and twenty years of age, he is said to
have travelled into Egypt, to perfect himself in the study of
astrology, for which that nation had the credit and renown. 0
Here beholding the miraculous eclipse that was at the time of
our Saviour's passion, he concluded that some great accident
must needs be coming upon the world. Returning to Athens, he
became one of the senators of the Areopagus, disputed with St.
Paul, and was by him converted from his errors and idolatry ;
and being throughly instructed, was by him (as the ancients
m Arat. Phse. in prin. et vid. Schol. ibid.
" Chrywst de Sacerdot. 1. iv. c. 7.
° Vid. inter alios Suid. in voc. Aiovfotos.
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SAINT PAUL.
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inform us p ) made the first bishop of Athens. As for those that
tell us, q that he went afterwards into France by the direction of
Clemens of Rome, planted Christianity at and became bishop of
Paris, of his suffering martyrdom there under Domitian, his
carrying his head for the space of two miles in his hand after it
had been cut off, and the rest of his miracles done before and
after his death, I have as little leisure to inquire into them, as I
have faith to believe them. Indeed, the foundation of all is
justly denied, viz. that ever he was there : a thing never heard of
till the times of Charles the Great, though since that, volumes
have been written of this controversy, both heretofore and of
later times, among which J. Sirmondus the Jesuit, and Monsieur
Launoy, one of the learned doctors of the Sorbonne, have un-
answerably proved the Athenian and Parisian Dionysius to be
distinct persons. For the books that go under his name,
M. Daille' has sufficiently evinced them to be of a date many
hundred years younger than St. Denys, though I doubt not but
they may claim a greater antiquity than what he allows them.
But whoever was their author, I am sure Suidas r has over-
stretched the praise of them beyond all proportion, when he gives
them this character : el tl$ airtBoi irpbs ra /eaWrj r£v avT&v
\6y<ov, teal ra fidOi? r<Sv vorffidroDV, ov/c dvOpwrrlvq? (frvaecos
ravra vofiiaot yevtffiara, dWd two? d/crfpdrov koI deia?
8vvdfie<0<; : " that whoever considers the elegancy of his dis-
courses, and the profoundness of his notions and speculations,
must needs conclude that they are not the issue of any human
understanding, but of some divine and immaterial power." But
to return to our apostle.
St. Paul's arrival at Corinth. The opposition made by the Jews. The success of his
preaching upon others. His first epistle to the Thessalonians, when written. His
arraignment before Gallio. The second epistle to the Thessalonians, and the design
P Dionys. Corinth. Episc. ap. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 4. et 1. iv. c. 22.
i Martyrium S. Dionys. per S. Metaphr. ap. Sur. ad diem 9 Octob. Epist. Hilduin.
Abb. et Hincm. Rhem. item Passio ejus, aliaque ibid. Niceph. 1. ii. c. 20.
r In voc. Aiovvaios.
SECTION IV.
op 8T. Paul's acts at cobinth and ephesus.
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of it St Paul's voyage to Jerusalem. His coming to Ephesus. Disciples baptized
into John's baptism. St. Paul's preaching at Ephesus, and the miracles wrought by
him. Ephesus noted for the study of magic. Jews eminently versed in charms and
enchantments. The original of the mystery, whence pretended to have been derived.
The ill attempt of the sons of Sceva to dispossess demons in the name of Christ
St Paul's doctrine greatly successful upon this sort of men. Books of magic forbidden
by the Roman laws. St Paul's epistle to the Galatians, why and when written.
Diana's temple at Ephesus, and its great stateliness and magnificence. The mutiny
against St Paul raised by Demetrius and his party. St Paul's first epistle to the
Corinthians, upon what occasion written. His epistle to Titus. Apollonius Tyanaeus,
whether at Ephesus at the same time with St PauL His miracles pretended to be
done in that city.
After his departure from Athens, he went to Corinth, 8 the me-
tropolis of Greece, and the residence of the proconsul of Achaia ;
where he found Aquila and Priscilla lately come from Italy,
banished out of Borne by the decree of Claudius. And they
being of the same trade and profession, wherein he had been
educated in his youth, he wrought together with them, lest he
should be unnecessarily burdensome unto any, which for the
same reason he did in some other places. Hither, after some
time, Silas and Timothy came to him. In the synagogue he
frequently disputed with the J ews and proselytes, reasoning and
proving that Jesus was the true Messiah. They, according to
the nature of the men, made head and opposed him ; and what
they could not conquer by argument and force of reason, they
endeavoured to carry by noise and clamour, mixed with blas-
phemies and revilings, the last refuges of an impotent and baffled
cause: whereat to testify his resentment, he shook his gar-
ments, and told them, since he saw them resolved to pull down
vengeance and destruction upon their own heads, he for his part
was guiltless and innocent, and would henceforth address himself
unto the Gentiles. Accordingly he left them, and went into the
house of J ustus, a religious proselyte, where, by his preaching
and the many miracles which he wrought, he converted great
numbers to the faith: amongst which were Crispus, the chief
ruler of the synagogue, Gaius, and Stephanus, who, together
with their families, embraced the doctrine of the gospel, and
were baptized into the Christian faith. But the constant returns
of malice and ingratitude are enough to tire the largest cha-
rity, and cool the most generous resolution : therefore, that the
apostle might not be discouraged by the restless attempts and
• Acts xviii. 1,
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machinations of his enemies, our Lord appeared to him in a
vision ; told him, that notwithstanding the had success he had *
hitherto met with, there was a great harvest to be gathered in
that place ; that he should not be afraid of his enemies, but go
on to preach confidently and securely, for that he himself would
stand by him and preserve him.
II. About this time, as is most probable, he wrote this first
epistle to the Thessalonians, Silas and Timothy being lately re-
turned from thence, and having done the message for which he
had sent them thither. The main design of the epistle is to
confirm them in the belief of the Christian religion, and that
they would persevere in it, notwithstanding all the afflictions
and persecutions which he had told them would ensue upon
their profession of the gospel, and to instruct them in the main
duties of a Christian and religious life. While the apostle was
thus employed, the malice of the Jews was no less at work
against him ; and universally combining together, they brought
him before Gallio, the proconsul of the province, elder brother
to the famous Seneca : before him they accused the apostle as an
innovator in religion, that sought to introduce a new way of
worship, contrary to what was established by the Jewish law,
and permitted by the Roman powers. The apostle was ready
to have pleaded his own cause ; but jthe proconsul told them, that
had it been a matter of right or wrong, that had fallen under
the cognizance of the civil judicature, it had been very fit and
reasonable that he should have heard and determined the case ;
but since the controversy was only concerning the punctilios and
> niceties of their religion, it was very improper for him to be a
judge in such matters. And when they still clamoured about it,
he threw out their indictment, and commanded his officers to
drive them out of court : whereupon some of the townsmen
seized upon Sosthenes, one of the rulers of the J ewish consistory,
a man active and busy in this insurrection, and beat .him even
before the court of judicature, the proconsul not at all concerning
himself about it. A year and an half St. Paul continued in this
place, and, before his departure thence, wrote his second epistle
to the Thessalonians, to supply the want of his coming to them,
which in his former he had resolved on, and for which, in a
manner, he had engaged his promise. In this, therefore, he en-
deavours again to confirm their minds in the truth of the gospel,
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and that they would not be shaken with those troubles which
the wicked unbelieving Jews would not cease to create them ; a
lost and undone race of men, and whom the divine vengeance
was ready finally to overtake. And because some passages in
his former letter relating to this destruction had been misunder-
stood, as if this day of the Lord were just then at hand, he rec-
tifies those mistakes, and shews what must precede our Lord's
coming unto judgment.
III. St. Paul having thus fully planted and cultivated the
church at Corinth, resolved now for Syria;* and taking along
with him Aquila and Priscilla, at Cenchrea, the port and harbour
of Corinth, Aquila (for of him it is certainly to be understood)
shaved his head, in performance of a Nazarite vow he had for-
merly made, the time whereof was now run out. In his passage
into Syria he came to Ephesus, where he preached a while in
the synagogue of the J ews ; and though desired to stay with
them, yet having resolved to be at Jerusalem at the passover,
(probably that he might have the fitter opportunity to meet his
friends, and preach the gospel to those vast numbers that usually
flocked to that great solemnity,) he promised, that in his return
he would come again to them. Sailing thence, he landed at
Caesarea, and thence went up to Jerusalem, where having visited
the church, and kept the feast, he went down to Antioch. Here
having stayed some time, he traversed the countries of Galatia
and Phrygia, confirming, as he went, the new-converted Chris-
tians, and so came to Ephesus ; where finding certain Christian
disciples," he inquired of them, whether, since their conversion,
they had received the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy
Ghost ? They told him, that the doctrine which they had re-
ceived had nothing in it of that nature, nor had they ever heard
that any such extraordinary spirit had of late been bestowed
upon the church. Hereupon he farther inquired, unto what they
had been baptized ? (the Christian baptism being administered
in the name of the Holy Ghost.) They answered, they had re-
ceived no more than John's baptism ; which though it obliged
men to repentance, yet did it explicitly speak nothing of the
Holy Ghost, or its gifts and powers. To this the apostle replied,
that though John's baptism did openly oblige to nothing but
repentance, yet that it did implicitly acknowledge the whole
1 Acts xviii. 18. M Acts xix. 1.
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doctrine concerning Christ and the Holy Ghost : whereto they
assenting, were solemnly initiated by Christian baptism, and the
apostle laying his hands upon them, they immediately received
the Holy Ghost, in the gift of tongues, prophecy, and other
miraculous powers conferred upon them.
IV. After this he entered into the Jewish synagogues, where
for the first three months he contended and disputed with the
Jews; endeavouring, with great earnestness and resolution, to
convince them of the truth of those things that concerned the
Christian religion. But when, instead of success, he met with
nothing but refractoriness and infidelity, he left the synagogue,
and taking those with him whom he had converted, instructed
them, and others that resorted to him, in the school of one
Tyrannus, a place where scholars were wont to be educated and
instructed. In this manner he continued for two years together :
in which time the Jews and proselytes of the whole proconsular
Asia had opportunity of having the gospel preached to them.
And because miracles are the clearest evidence of a divine com-
mission, and the most immediate credentials of heaven, those
which do nearliest affect our senses, and consequently have the
strongest iufluence upon our minds, therefore God was pleased
to ratify the doctrine which St. Paul delivered by great and
miraculous operations ; and those of somewhat a more peculiar
and extraordinary nature : insomuch that he did not only heal
those that came to him, but if napkins or handkerchiefs were
but touched by him, and applied unto the sick, their diseases
immediately vanished, and the demons and evil spirits departed
out of those that were possessed by them.
V. Ephesus, above all other places in the world, was noted of
old for the study of magic, and all secret and hidden arts ;
whence the 'EQiaia ypdfifiara, so often spoken of by the an-
cients," which were certain obscure and mystical spells and
charms, by which they endeavoured to heal diseases and drive
away evil spirits, and do things beyond the reach and appre-
hensions of common people. Besides other professors of this
black art, there were at this time at Ephesus certain Jews, who
dealt in the arts of exorcism and incantation ; a craft and mys-
tery which Josephus y affirms to have been derived from So-
* Suid. in voc. *E<f>t<r. ypdfifi. et Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. i. 8. 15.
y Antiq. Jud. 1. viii. c. 2.
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lomon ; who, he tells us, did not only find it out, but composed
forms of exorcism and enchantment, whereby to cure diseases
and expel demons, so as they should never return again ; and
adds, fcal avrtf p&'xpi vvv trap fffilv r) Bepavela irkelarov layysi,
" that this art was still in force among the Jews:" instances
whereof, he tells us, he himself had seen, having beheld one
Eleazar, a Jew, in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the
great officers of his army, curing demoniacs, by holding a ring
to their nose, under whose seal was hid the root of a certain
plant, prescribed by Solomon, at the scent whereof the demon
presently took leave and was gone, the patient falling to the
ground, while the exorcist, by mentioning Solomon, and reciting
some charms made by him, stood over him, and charged the
evil spirit never to return. And to let them see that he was
really gone, he commanded the demon, as he went out, to over-
turn a cup full of water, which he had caused to be set in the
room before them. In the number of these conjurors now at
Ephesus, there were the seven sons of Sceva, one of the chief
heads of the families of the priests, who, seeing what great
things were done by calling over demoniacs the name of Christ,
attempted themselves to do the like, conjuring the evil spirit in
the name of that Jesus, whom Paul preached, to depart. But
the stubborn demon would not obey the warrant, telling them,
he knew who Jesus and Paul were, but did not understand what
authority they had to use his name. And not content with
this, forced the demoniac violently to fall upon them, to tear
their clothes, and wound their bodies, scarce suffering them to
escape with the safety of their lives: an accident that begot
great terror in the minds of men, and became the occasion of
converting many to the faith ; who came to the apostle, and con-
fessed the former course and manner of their lives. Several
also, who had traded in curious arts, and the mysterious me-
thods of spells and charms, freely brought their books of magic
rites, (whose price, had they been to be sold, according to the
rates which men who dealt in those cursed mysteries put upon
them, would have amounted to the value of above one thou-
sand five hundred pounds,) 2 and openly burnt them before the
*Actsxix. 19. Xvve^rft<pi<rav t&s rifxh.s avr&v, not tvpov itpyvplou /xvpidtias Wire*
*Apy6piov Graecorum valuit drachmam Atticam, adeoque nostri 7d. ob. Ac proinde 'Af>-
yvplov myriadea quinque nummi nostri suramam conficiunt 1562/. 10*.
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SAINT PAUL.
269
people, themselves adjudging them to those flames to which they
were condemned by the laws of the empire. For so we find
the Roman laws prohibiting any to keep books of magic arts,*
and that where any such were found, their goods should be for-
feited, the books publicly burned, the persons banished, and, if
of a meaner rank, beheaded. These books the penitent converts
did of their own accord sacrifice to the fire, not tempted to
spare them either by their former love to them, or the present
price and value of them. With so mighty an efficacy did the
gospel prevail over the minds of men.
VI. About this time it was that the apostle writ his epistle to
the Galatians. For he had heard that, since his departure,
corrupt opinions had got in amongst them about the necessary
observation of the legal rites, and that several impostors were
crept into that church, who knew no better way to undermine
the doctrine he had planted there, than by vilifying his person,
slighting him as an apostle only at the second hand, not to be
compared with Peter, James, and John, who had familiarly con-
versed with Christ in the days of his flesh, and been immediately
deputed by him. In this epistle therefore he reproves them with
some necessary smartness and severity, . that they had been so
soon led out of that right way wherein he had set them, and
had so easily suffered themselves to be imposed upon by the
crafty artifices of seducers. He vindicates the honour of his
apostolate, and the immediate receiving his commission from
Christ, wherein he shews, that he came not behind the very best
of those apostles. He largely refutes those Judaical opinions
that had tainted and infected them, and in the conclusion in-
structs them in the rules and duties of an holy life. While the
apostle thus stayed at Ephesus, he resolved with himself to pass
through Macedonia and Achaia, thence to Jerusalem, and so to
Rome : but for the present altered his resolution, and continued
still at Ephesus.
VII. During his stay in this place, an accident happened, that
involved him in great trouble and danger. Ephesus, above all
the cities of the East, was renowned for the famous temple of
Diana, one of the stateliest temples of the world. It was (as
• PauL JC. Sentent 1. v. sent 21. sect 4. tit xxiii. ad leg. Cornel, de Sicar. et Venefic
Vid. leg. 4. ff. fiunil. hercisc. sect 1. 1. x. tit. ii. et Cod. Theod. de Malef. et Mathem.
L iz. tit xri. 1. 12.
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Pliny tells us 5 ') the very wonder of magnificence, built at the
common charges of all Asia properly so called, two hundred and
twenty years (elsewhere he says four hundred 0 ) in building,
which we are to understand of its successive rebuildings and
reparations, being often wasted and destroyed. It was four
hundred and twenty-five feet long, two hundred and twenty
broad, supported by one hundred and twenty-seven pillars, sixty
feet high : for its antiquity, it was in some degree before the
times of Bacchus, equal to the reign of the Amazons, d (by whom
it is generally said to have been first built,) as the Ephesian
ambassadors told Tiberius,* till by degrees it grew up into that
greatness and splendour, that it was generally reckoned one of
the seven wonders of the world. But that which gave the
greatest fame and reputation to it, was an image of Diana kept
there, made of no very costly materials, but which the crafty
priests persuaded the people was beyond all human artifice or
contrivement, and that it was immediately formed by Jupiter,
and " dropped down from heaven," having first killed, or banished
the artists that made it, (as Suidas informs us/) that the cheat
might not be discovered ; by which means, they drew not Ephesus
only, but the whole world into a mighty veneration of it.
Besides, there were within this temple multitudes of silver
cabinets, or chapelets, little shrines, made in fashion of the
temple, wherein was placed the image of Diana. For the making
of these holy shrines, great numbers of silversmiths were employed
and maintained, among whom one Demetrius was a leading man,
who, foreseeing that, if the Christian religion still got ground,
their gainful trade would soon come to nothing, presently called
together the men of his profession, especially those whom he
himself set on work ; told them, that now their welfare and live-
lihood were concerned, and that the fortunes of their wives and
children lay at stake ; that it was plain that this Paul had per-
verted city and country, and persuaded the people that the
images which they made and worshipped were no real gods ; by
which means their trade was not only like to fall to the ground,
but also the honour and magnificence of the great goddess Diana,
whom not Asia only, but the whole world did worship and adore.
b Hist Nat. 1. xxxvi c 14. c Lib. xvi. c. 40.
d Vid. Callym. in Dian. Hymn. ii. et Dionys. Perieg. v. 289.
« Tacit Annal. L iii. c. 61. f Suid. in voc. AwwfWs.
SAINT PAUL.
271
Enraged with this discourse, they cried out with one voice, that
" Great was Diana of the Ephesians." The whole city was pre-
sently in an uproar, and seizing upon two of St. Paul's com-
panions, hurried them into the theatre, probably with a design
to have cast them to the wild beasts. St. Paul hearing of their
danger, would have ventured himself among them, had not the
Christians, nay, some even of the Gentile priests, governors of
the popular games and sports, earnestly dissuaded him from it ;
well knowing that the people were resolved, if they could meet
with him, to throw him to the wild beasts, that were kept there
for the disport and pleasure of the people. And this doubtless
he means, when elsewhere he tells us, that "lie fought with
beasts at Ephesus," probably intending what the people designed,
though he did not actually suffer ; though the brutish rage, the
savage and inhuman manners of this people did sufficiently de-
serve that the censure and character should be fixed upon them-
selves.
VIII. Great was the confusion of the multitude, the major
part not knowing the reason of the concourse. In which dis-
traction, Alexander, a Jewish convert, being thrust forward by
the Jews to be questioned and examined about this matter, he
would accordingly have made his apology to the people, intending
no doubt to clear himself by casting the whole blame upon St.
Paul : this being very probably that Alexander the copper-smith,
of whom our apostle elsewhere complains, 8 " that he did him
much evil, and greatly withstood his words," and " whom he de-
livered over unto Satan" for his apostacy, for blaspheming Christ,
and reproaching Christianity. But the multitude perceiving him
to be a Jew, and thereby suspecting him to be one of St. Paul's
associates, began to raise an outcry for near two hours together,
wherein nothing could be heard, but " Great is Diana of the
Ephesians." The noise being a little over, the recorder, a discreet
and prudent man, came out, and calmly told them, that it was
sufficiently known to all the world, what a mighty honour and
veneration the city of Ephesus had for the great goddess Diana,
and the famous image which fell from heaven, that therefore
there needed not this stir to vindicate and assert it : that they
had seized persons who were not guilty either of sacrilege or
blasphemy towards their goddess ; that if Demetrius and his
« 2 Tim. iv. 14, 15. 1 Tim. i. 20.
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company had any just charge against them, the courts were
sitting, and they might prefer their indictment ; or if the con-
troversy were about any other matter, it might be referred to
such a proper judicature as the law appoints for the determina-
tion of such cases : that therefore they should do well to be
quiet, having done more already than they could answer, if called
in question, (as it is like they would,) there being no cause
sufficient to justify that day's riotous assembly : with which
prudent discourse he appeased and dismissed the multitude.
IX. It was about this time that St. Paul heard of some dis-
turbance in the church at Corinth, hatched and fomented by a
pack of false heretical teachers, crept in among them, who en-
deavoured to draw them into parties and factions, by persuading
one party to be for Peter, another for Paul, a third for A polios ;
as if the main of religion consisted in being of this or that deno-
mination, or in a warm active zeal to decry and oppose whoever
is not of our narrow sect. It is a very weak and slender claim,
when a man holds his religion by no better a title than that he
has joined himself to this man's church, or that man's congrega-
tion, and is zealously earnest to maintain and promote it ; to be
childishly and passionately clamorous for one man's mode and
way of administration, or for some particular humour or opinion,
as if religion lay in nice and curious disputes, or in separating
from our brethren, and not rather " in righteousness, peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost." By this means schisms and factions
broke into the Corinthian church, whereby many wild and ex-
travagant opinions, and some of them such as undermined the
fundamental articles of Christianity, were planted, and had
taken root there : as the envious man never fishes more suc-
cessfully than in troubled waters. To cure these distempers,
St. Paul (who had received an account of all these by letters,
which Apollos and some others had brought to him from the
church of Corinth) writes his first epistle to them : wherein he
smartly reproves them for their schisms and parties, conjures
them to peace and unity, corrects those gross corruptions that
were introduced among them, and particularly resolves those
many cases and controversies wherein they had requested his
advice and counsel. x Shortly after Apollos designing to go for
Crete, by him and Zenas St. Paul sends his epistle to Titus,
whom he had made bishop of that island, and had left there for
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273
the propagating of the gospel. Herein he fully instructs him in
the execution of his office, how to carry himself, and what di-
rections he should give to others, to all particular ranks and re-
lations of men, especially those who were to be advanced to
places of office and authority in the church.
X. A little before St. Paul's departure from Ephesus, we may
not improbably suppose that Apollonius Tyanaeus, the famous
philosopher and magician of the heathen world, (a man remark-
able for the strictness of his manners, and his sober and regular
course of life, but especially for the great miracles said to have
been done by him ; whom therefore the heathens generally set
up as the great corrival of our Saviour, though some of his own
party, and particularly Euphratus the philosopher,* 1 who lived
with him at the same time at Rome, accused him for doing his
strange feats by magic,) came to Ephesus. The enemy of man-
kind probably designing to obstruct the propagation of Christi-
anity, by setting up one who by the arts of magic might, at
least in the vogue and estimation of the people, equal or eclipse
the miracles of St. Paul. Certain it is, if we compare times and
actions set down by the writer of his Life,' we shall find that he
came hither about the beginning of Nero's reign ; and he par-
ticularly sets down the strange things that were done by him,
especially his clearing the city of a grievous plague, for which
the people of Ephesus had him in such veneration, that they
erected a statue to him as to a particular deity, and di£ divine
honour to it. k But whether this was before St. Paul's going
thence, I will not take upon me to determine ; it seems most
probable to have been done afterwards.
ST. PAULS ACTS, FROM HIS DEPARTURE FROM EPHESUS TILL HIS
St. Paul's journey into Macedonia. His preaching as far as Illyricum, and return into
Greece. His second epistle to the Corinthians, and what the design of it. His first
h Euseb. 1. iv. contra Hierocl. p. 530. ad calc. Demonstr. Evang.
1 Philostr. de vit. Apoll. Tyan. 1. iv. c. 1. et c. 12. confer. 1. \.
k Ibid. 1. iv. c. 3. Vid. Euseb. in Hierocl. 1. iv. apud Philostr. p. 4.57.
SECTION V.
ARRAIGNMENT BEFORE FELIX.
T
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epistle to Timothy. His epistle to the Romans, whence written, and with what de-
sign. St Paul's preaching at Troas, and raising Eutychus. His summoning the
Asian bishops to Miletus, and pathetical discourse to them. His stay at Caesarea with
Philip the Deacon. The church's passionate dissuading him from going to Jerusalem.
His coming to Jerusalem, and compliance with the indifferent rites of the Mosaic law,
and why. The tumults raised against him by the Jews, and his rescue by the Roman
captain. His asserting his Roman freedom. His carriage before the Sanhedrim. The
difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees about him. The Jews' conspiracy
against his life discovered His being sent unto Caesarea.
It was not long after the tumult at Ephesus, when St. Paul,
having called the church together, and constituted Timothy
bishop of that place, took his leave, and departed by Troas for
Macedonia. 1 And at this time it was that, as he himself tells
us, he " preached the gospel round about unto Illyricum," since
called Sclavonia, some parts of Macedonia bordering on that
province. From Macedonia he returned back unto Greece,
where he abode three months, and met with Titus, lately come
with great contributions from the church at Corinth : by whose
example he stirred up the liberality of the Macedonians, who
very freely, and somewhat beyond their ability, contributed to
the poor Christians at Jerusalem. From Titus he had an ac-
count of the present state of the church at Corinth; and by him
at his return, together with St. Luke, he sent his second epistle
to them: wherein he endeavours to set right what his former
epistle had not yet effected, to vindicate his apostleship from
that contempt and scorn, and himself from those slanders and
aspersions, which the seducers, who had found themselves lashed
by his first epistle, had cast upon him, together with some other
particular cases relating to them. Much about the same time he
writ his first epistle to Timothy, whom he had left at Ephesus,
wherein at large he counsels him how to carry himself in the
discharge of that great place and authority in the church, wkich
he had committed to him; instructs him in the particular
qualifications of those whom he should make choice of, to be
bishops and ministers in the church. How to order the deaconesses,
and to instruct servants ; warning him withal of that pestilent
generation of heretics and seducers that would arise in the
church. During his three months stay in Greece, he went to
Corinth, whence he wrote his famous epistle to the Romans,
which he sent by Phoebe, a deaconess of the church of Cenchrea,
1 Acts xx. 1.
SAINT PAUL.
275
nigh Corinth : wherein his main design is fully to state and de-
termine the great controversy between the Jews and Gentiles,
about the obligation of the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish
law, and those main and material doctrines of Christianity which
did depend upon it, such as of Christian liberty, the use of in-
different things, &c. : and, which is the main end of all religion,
instructs them in, and presses them to the duties of an holy and
good life, such as the Christian doctrine does naturally tend to
oblige men to.
II. St. Paul being now resolved for Syria, to convey the con-
tributions to the brethren at Jerusalem, was a while diverted
from that resolution, by a design he was told of which the Jews
had to kill and rob him by the way. Whereupon he went back
into Macedonia, and so came to Philippi, and thence went to
Troas ; where having stayed a week, on the Lord's day the church
met together to receive the holy sacrament. Here St. Paul
preached to them, and continued his discourse till midnight, the
longer probably, being the next day to depart from them. The
length of his discourse, and the time of the night, had caused
some of his auditors to be overtaken with sleep and drowsiness ;
among whom a young man called Eutychus being fast asleep,
fell down from the third story and was taken up dead, but whom
St. Paul presently restored to life and health. How inde-
fatigable was the industry of our apostle ! how close did he tread
in his Master's steps, who went about doing good ! He com-
passed sea and land, preached and wrought miracles wherever
he came. In every place, like a wise master-builder, he either
laid a foundation, or raised a superstructure. He was instant in
season and out of season, and spared not his pains either night or
day, that he might do good to the souls of men. The night being
thus spent in holy exercises, St. Paul in the morning took his
leave, and went on foot to Assos, a sea-port town, whither he had
sent his company by sea. Thence they set sail to Mitylene ; from
thence to Samos ; and having stayed some little time at Trogyl-
lium, the next day came to Miletus, not so much as putting in
at Ephesus, because the apostle was resolved, if possible, to be at
Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost.
III. At Miletus he sent to Ephesus,™ to summon the bishops
and governors of the church ; who being come, he put them in
m Acts xx. 17.
t2
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mind with what uprightness and integrity, with what affection
and humility, with how great trouble and danger, with how
much faithfulness to their souls he had been conversant among
them, and had preached the gospel to them, ever since his first
coming into those parts : that he had not failed to acquaint them
both publicly and privately with whatever might be useful and
profitable to them, urging both upon Jews and Gentiles repent-
ance and reformation of life, and an hearty entertainment of the
faith of Christ : that now he was resolved to go to Jerusalem,
where he did not know what particular sufferings would befall
him, more than this, that it had been foretold him in every place,
by those who were endued with the prophetical gifts of the Holy
Ghost, that afflictions and imprisonment would attend him there:
but that he was not troubled at this, no, nor unwilling to lay
down his life, so he might but successfully preach the gospel, and
faithfully serve his Lord in that place and station wherein he had
set him : that he knew that henceforth they should see his face
no more ; but that this was his encouragement and satisfaction,
that they themselves could bear him witness, that he had not, by
concealing from them any parts of the Christian doctrine, be-
trayed their souls : that as for themselves, whom God had made
bishops and pastors of his church, they should be careful to
feed, guide, and direct those Christians under their inspection,
and be infinitely tender of the good of souls, for whose redemp-
tion Christ laid down his own life : that all the care they could
use was no more than necessary, it being certain, that after his
departure, heretical teachers would break in among them, and
endanger the ruin of men's souls ; nay, that even among them-
selves there would some arise, who by subtle and crafty methods,
by corrupt and pernicious doctrines, would gain proselytes to
their party, and thereby make rents and schisms in the church :
that therefore they should watch, remembering with what tears
and sorrow he had for three years together warned them of these
things : that now he recommended them to the divine care and
goodness, and to the rules and instructions of the gospel, which,
if adhered to, would certainly dispose and perfect them for that
state of happiness which God had prepared for good men in
heaven. In short, that he had all along dealt faithfully and
uprightly with them, they might know from hence, that in all his
preaching he had no crafty or covetous designs upon any man's
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277
estate or riches, having (as themselves could witness) indus-
triously laboured with his own hands, and by his own work
maintained both himself and his company : herein leaving them
an example, what pains they ought to take to support the weak
and relieve the poor, rather than to be themselves chargeable
unto others; according to that incomparable saying of our Saviour,
(which surely St. Paul had received from some of those that had
conversed with him in the days of his flesh,) " it is more blessed
to give than to receive." This concio ad clerum, or visitation-
sermon, being ended, the apostle kneeled down, and concluded all
with prayer : which done, they all melted into tears, and with
the greatest expressions of sorrow attended him to the ship;
though that which made the deepest impression upon their minds
was, that he had told them u that they should see his face no
more."
IV. Departing from Miletus they arrived at Coos ; n thence
came to Rhodes, thence to Patara, thence to Tyre ; where meet-
ing with some Christians, he was" advised by those among them,
who had the gift of prophecy, that he should not go up to Jeru-
salem : with them he stayed a week, and then going all together
to the shore, he kneeled down and prayed with them ; and having
mutually embraced one another, he went on board, and came to
Ptolemais, where only saluting the brethren, they came next day
unto Caesarea. Here they lodged in the house of Philip the
Evangelist, one of the seven deacons that were at first set apart
by the apostles, who had four virgin-daughters, all endued with
the gift of prophecy. During their stay in this place, Agabus, a
Christian prophet, came down hither from Judea ; who taking
Paul's girdle, bound with it his own hands and feet, telling them,
that by this external symbol the Holy Ghost did signify and
declare that St. Paul should be thus served by the Jews at
Jerusalem, and be by them delivered over into the hands of the
Gentiles. Whereupon they all passionately besought him that
he would divert his course to some other place. The apostle
asked them, what they meant, by these compassionate dissua-
sives to add more affliction to his sorrow ? that he was willing and
resolved not only to be imprisoned, but, if need were, to die at
Jerusalem for the sake of Christ and his religion. Finding his
resolution fixed and immoveable they importuned him no farther*
0 Acts xxi. 1.
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but left the event to the divine will and pleasure. All things
being in readiness, they set forwards on their journey; and being
come to Jerusalem, were kindly and joyfully entertained by the
Christians there.
V. The next day after their arrival, 0 St. Paul and his company
went to the house of St. James the Apostle, where the rest of
the bishops and governors of the church were met together:
after mutual salutations, he gave them a particular account with
what success God had blessed him in propagating Christianity
among the Gentiles, for which they all heartily blessed God : but
withal told him, that he was now come to a place where there
were many thousands of Jewish converts, who all retained a
mighty zeal and veneration for the law of Moses, and who had
been informed of him, that he taught the Jews, whom he had
converted in every place, to renounce circumcision and the cere-
monies of the law : that as soon as the multitude heard of his
arrival, they would come together to see how he behaved him-
self in this matter ; and therefore, to prevent so much disturb-
ance, it was advisable, that there being four men there at that
time who were to accomplish a vow, (probably not the Nazarite
vow, but some other, which they had made for deliverance from
sickness, or some other eminent danger and distress; for so,
Josephus tells us, p they were wont to do in such cases, and
before they came to offer the accustomed sacrifices, to abstain
for some time from wine, and to shave their heads,) he would
join himself to them, perform the usual rites and ceremonies
with them, and provide such sacrifices for them as the law
required in that case, and that in discharge of their vow they
might shave their heads; whereby it would appear, that the
reports which were spread concerning him were false and ground-
less, and that he himself did still observe the rites and orders
of the Mosaical institution : that as for the Gentile converts,
they required no such observances at their hands, nor expected
any thing more from them in these indifferent matters, than what
had been before determined by the apostolical synod in that
place. St. Paul (who in such things was willing " to become
all things to all men, that he might gain the more") consented
to the counsel which they gave him; and taking the persons
along with him to the temple, told the priests, that the time of
° Acts xxi. 18.
P DeBell. Jud. Lii. c. 15.
SAINT PAUL.
279
a vow which they had made being now run out, and having
purified themselves as the nature of the case required, they were
come to make their offerings according to the law.
VI. The seven days, wherein those sacrifices were to be
offered, being now almost ended, some Jews that were come
from Asia, (where probably they had opposed St. Paul,) now
finding him in the temple, began to raise a tumult and uproar,
and laying hold of him, called out to the rest of the Jews for
their assistance : telling them, that this was the fellow that
everywhere vented doctrines derogatory to the prerogative of
the Jewish nation, destructive to the institutions of the law, and
to the purity of that place, which he had profaned by bringing
in uncircumcised Greeks into it ; positively concluding, that be-
cause they had seen Trophimus, a Gentile convert of Ephesus,
with him in the city, therefore he had brought him also into the
temple. So apt is malice to make any premises, from whence it may
infer its own conclusion. Hereupon the whole city was presently
in an uproar; and seizing upon him, they dragged him out of the
temple, the doors being presently shut against him. Nor had
they failed there, to put a period to all his troubles, had not
Claudius Lysias, commander of the Roman garrison in the
tower of Antonia, come in with some soldiers to his rescue and
deliverance ; and supposing him to be a more than ordinary
malefactor, commanded a double chain to be put upon him,
though as yet altogether ignorant, either who he, or what his
crime was, and wherein he could receive little satisfaction from
the clamorous multitude, who called for nothing but his. death,
following the cry with such crowds and numbers, that the
soldiers were forced to take him into their arms, to secure him
from the present rage and violence of the people. As they were
going up into the castle, St. Paul asked the governor, whether he
might have the liberty to speak to him ? who, finding him to
speak Greek, inquired of him whether he was not that Egyptian
which a few years before had raised a sedition in Judea, and
headed a party of four thousand debauched and profligate
wretches ? The apostle replied, that he was a Jew of Tarsus, a
freeman of a rich and honourable city, and therefore begged of
him that he might have leave to speak to the people ; which
the captain readily granted : and standing near the door of the
castle, and making signs that they would hold their peace, he
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began to address himself to them in the Hebrew language;
which when they heard, they became a little more calm and
quiet, while he discoursed to them to this effect.
VII. He gave them an account of himself from his birth, q of
his education in his youth, of the mighty zeal which he had for
the rites and customs of their religion, and with what a pas-
sionate earnestness he persecuted and put to death all the
Christians that he met with, whereof the high-priest and the
Sanhedrim could be sufficient witnesses. He next gave them an
entire and punctual relation of the way and manner of his con-
version, and how that he had received an immediate command
from God himself, to depart Jerusalem, and preach unto the
Gentiles. At this word, the patience of the Jews could hold no
longer, but they unanimously cried out to have him put to
death, it not being fit that such a villain should live upon the
earth. And the more to express their fury, they threw off
their clothes, and cast dust into the air, as if they immediately
designed to stone him : to avoid which, the captain of the guard
commanded him to be brought within the castle, and that he
should be examined by whipping, till he confessed the reason of
so much rage against him. While the lictor was binding him
in order to it, he asked the centurion that stood by, whether
they could justify the scourging a citizen of Eome, r and that
before any sentence legally passed upon him! This the cen-
turion presently intimated to the governor of the castle, bidding
him have a care what he did, for the prisoner was a Roman.
Whereat the governor himself came, and asked him whether he
was a free denizen of Rome ? and being told that he was, he
replied, that it was a great privilege, a privilege which he him-
self had purchased at a considerable rate : to whom St. Paul
answered, that it was his birth-right, and the privilege of the
place where he was born and bred. Hereupon they gave over
their design of whipping him, the commander himself being a
little startled, that he had bound and chained a denizen of Rome.
i Acts xxii. 1.
r Csedebatur virgis in medio foro Messanae civis Romanus, cum interea nullus gemitus,
nulla vox alia istius miseri audiebatur, nisi hsec, civis Romanus sum. Hac se comme-
moratione civitatis omnia verbera depulsurum arbitrabatur. 0 nomen dulce libertatis !
0 jus eximium nostrae civitatis ! O lex Porcia, legesque Sempronije ! — Cicer. in Verr.
1. vii. Facinus est vincire civem Romanum, scelus verberare. — Id. ib. vid. supra sect. iii.
num. 4.
SAINT PAUL.
281
VIII. The next day, the governor commanded his chains to
be knocked off ; and that he might throughly satisfy himself in
the matter, commanded the Sanhedrim to meet, and brought
down Paul before them : 8 where being set before the council, he
told them, that in all passages of his life he had been careful to
act according to the severest rules and conscience of his duty : *
44 Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before
God until this day." Behold here the great security of a good
man, and what invisible supports innocency affords under greatest
danger. With how generous a confidence does virtue and honesty
guard the breast of a good man ! as indeed nothing else can lay a
firm basis and foundation for satisfaction and tranquillity, when
any misery or calamity does overtake us. Religion and a good
conscience beget peace and a heaven in the man's bosom, beyond
the power of the little accidents of this world to ruffle and dis-
compose. Whence Seneca compares the mind of a wise and good
man to the state of the upper region, which is always serene and
calm." The high-priest, Ananias, being offended at the holy and
ingenuous freedom of our apostle, as if by asserting his own inno-
cency he had reproached the justice of their tribunal, commanded
those that stood next him, to strike him in the face ; whereto
the apostle tartly replied, that God would smite him, hypocrite
as he was, who, under a pretence of doing justice, had illegally
commanded him to be punished, before the law condemned him
for a malefactor. Whereupon they that stood by, asked him,
how he durst thus affront so sacred and venerable a person as
God's high-priest ? He calmly returned, that 44 he did not know
[or own] Ananias to be an high-priest " [of God's appointment.]*
However, being a person in authority, it was not lawful to revile
him, God himself having commanded, that 44 no man should speak
• Acts xxiii. 1.
1 Els a&rhv <rvv€i\ov, ipvtriv t\ €l T ^ ^oyiKbv fiycfioviicbv, iavr$ kpusiaOai Zikolio-
irpayovmi kolI irap* avrb rovro yaX-fivyy tx oVTl ' M» Anton. iw els kavr. 1. vii. sect. 28.
Vid. Horat Carm. 1. iii. od. 3.
u Senec. Epist lix.
x Haec Pauli verba Ananias et apparitores sic accipiebant, quasi excusaret Paulus
quod sibi in istis malis constitute non satis in mentem vcnisset, quicum sibi res esset
Vcrum latentior 'sensus suberat, non esse eum sacerdotum, aut principem senatus,
qui eas dignitates pretio comparasset Didicerat enim hoc a Gamaliele Paulus: "Ju-
dicem qui honoris consequendi causa pecunias dederit, revera neque judicem esse, neque
honorandum, sed asini habendum loco," ut est in Titulo Talmudico de Synedrio. Grot
in loe.
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evil of the ruler of the people." The apostle, who as he never
laid aside the innocency of the dove, so knew how, when occasion
was, to make use of the wisdom of the serpent, perceiving the
council to consist partly of Sadducees and partly of Pharisees,
openly told them that he was a Pharisee, and the son of a Phari-
see, and that the main thing he was questioned for was his be-
lief of a future resurrection. This quickly divided the council ;
the Pharisees being zealous patrons of that article, and the Saddu-
cees as stiffly denying that there is either angel (that is, of a
spiritual and immortal nature, really subsisting of itself, for other-
wise they cannot be supposed to have utterly denied all sorts of
angels, seeing they owned the Pentateuch, wherein there is fre-
quent mention of them) or spirit, or that human souls do exist in
a separate state, and, consequently, that there is no resurrection.
Presently, the doctors of the law, who were Pharisees, stood
up to acquit him, affirming he had done nothing amiss ; that
it was possible he had received some intimation from heaven
by an angel, or the revelation of the Holy Spirit ; and if so,
then, in opposing his doctrine, they might fight against God
himself.
IX. Great were the dissensions in the council about this
matter, insomuch that the governor, fearing St. Paul would be
torn in pieces, commanded the soldiers to take him from the bar,
and return him back into the castle. That night, to comfort him
after all his frights and fears, God was pleased to appear to him
in a vision, encouraging him to constancy and resolution ; assuring
him, that as he had borne witness to his cause at Jerusalem, so,
in despite of all his enemies, he should live to bear his testimony
even at Rome itself. The next morning, the Jews, who could as
well cease to be, as to be mischievous and malicious, finding that
these dilatory proceedings were not like to do the work, resolved
upon a quicker despatch. To which end, above forty of them
entered into a wicked confederacy, which they ratified by oath
and execration, never to eat or drink till they had killed him :
and having acquainted the Sanhedrim with their design, they
entreated them to importune the governor, that he might again
the next day be brought down before them, under pretence of a
more strict trial of his case, and that they themselves would lie
in ambush by the way, and not fail to despatch him. But that
Divine Providence that peculiarly superintends the safety of good
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283
men, disappoints the devices of the crafty. The design was dis-
covered to St. Paul by a nephew of his, and by him imparted to
the governor, who immediately commanded two parties of foot
and horse to be ready by nine of the clock that night, and pro-
vision to be made for St. Paul's carriage to Felix, the Roman
governor of that province : to whom also he wrote, signifying
whom he had sent, how the Jews had used him, and that his
enemies also should appear before him to manage the charge and
accusation. Accordingly, he was by night conducted to Anti-
patris, and afterwards to Cajsarea ; where the letters being de-
livered to Felix, the apostle was presented to him : and finding
that he belonged to the province of Cilicia, he told him, that as
soon as his accusers were arrived, he should have an hearing ;
commanding him, in the mean time, to be secured in the place
called Herod's hall.
SECTION VI.
OP ST. PAUL, FROM HIS FIRST TRIAL BEFORE FELIX TILL HIS COMING
TO ROME.
St Paul impleaded before Felix by Tertullus the Jewish advocate. His charge of sedi-
tion, heresy, and profanation of the temple. St Paul's reply to the several parts of
the charge. His second hearing before Felix and Drusilla. His smart and impartial
reasonings. Felix's great injustice and oppression : his luxury and intemperance,
bribery and covetousness. St Paul's arraignment before Festus, Felix's successor, at
Caesarea. His appeal to Caesar. The nature and manner of those appeals. He is
again brought before Festus and Agrippa. His vindication of him&elfj and the good-
ness of his cause. His being acquitted by his judges of any capital crime. His voyage
to Rome. The trouble and danger of it Their shipwreck, and being cast upon the
island Melita. Their courteous entertainment by the Barbarians, and their different
censure of St Paul. The civil usage of the governor, and his conversion to Chris-
tianity. St Paul met and conducted by Christians to Rome.
Not many days after, down comes Ananias the high-priest/ with
some others of the Sanhedrim, to Caesarea, accompanied with
Tertullus their advocate ; who in a short but neat speech, set off
with all the flattering and insinuative arts of eloquence, began to
implead our apostle, charging him with sedition, heresy, and the
profanation of the temple : that they would have saved him the
y Acts xxiv. 1.
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trouble of this hearing, by judging him according to their own
law, had not Lysias the commander violently taken him from
them, and sent both them and him down thither: to all which
the Jews that were with him gave in their vote and testimony.
St. Paul, having leave from Felix to defend himself, and having
told him, how much he was satisfied that he was to plead before
one who for so many years had been governor of that nation,
distinctly answered to the several parts of the charge.
II. And first for sedition, he point-blank denied it, affirming
that they found him behaving himself quietly and peaceably in
the temple, not so much as disputing there, nor stirring np the
people either in the synagogues, or any other place of the city.
And though this was plausibly pretended by them, yet were
they never able to make it good. As for the charge of heresy,
that he was a " ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes," he in-
genuously acknowledged, that after the way which they counted
heresy, so he worshipped God, the same way in substance wherein
all the patriarchs of the Jewish nation had worshipped God be-
fore him, taking nothing into his creed but what the authentic
writings of the Jews themselves did own and justify: that he
firmly believed, what the better of themselves were ready to
grant, another life and a future resurrection : in the hope and
expectation whereof he was careful to live unblamable, and con-
scientiously to do his duty both to God and men. As for the
third part of the charge, his profaning of the temple, he shews
how little foundation there was for it ; that the design of .his
coming to Jerusalem was to bring charitable contributions to his
distressed brethren ; that he was indeed in the temple, but not
as some Asiatic Jews falsely suggested, either with tumult or
with multitude, but only purifying himself according to the rites
and customs of the Mosaic law : and that if any would affirm
the contrary, they should come now into open court and make
it good. Nay, that he appealed to those of the Sanhedrim that
were there present, whether he had not been acquitted by their
own great council at Jerusalem, where nothing of moment had
been laid to his charge, except by them of the Sadducean party,
who quarrelled with him only for asserting the doctrine of the
resurrection. Felix having thus heard both parties argue, re-
fused to make any final determination in the case, till he had
more fully advised about it, and spoken with Lysias, commander
SAINT PAUL.
285
of the garrison, who was best able to give an account of the se-
dition and the tumult; commanding, in the mean time, that
St. Paul should be under guard, but yet in so free a custody,
that none of his friends should be hindered from visiting him, or
performing any office of kindness and friendship to him.
III. It was not long after this, before his wife Drusilla (a
Jewess, daughter of the elder Herod, and whom Tacitus, I fear
by a mistake for his former wife Drusilla, daughter to Juba
king of Mauritania, makes niece to Antony and Cleopatra)
came to him to Caesarea : who being present, he sent for St.
Paul to appear before them, and gave him leave to discourse
concerning the doctrine of Christianity. In his discourse, he
took occasion particularly to insist upon the great obligation
which the laws of Christ lay upon men to justice and righteous-
ness toward one another, to sobriety and chastity both towards
themselves and others, withal urging that severe and impartial
account that must be given in the judgment of the other world,
wherein men shall be arraigned for all the actions of their past
life, and be eternally punished or rewarded according to their
works: a discourse wisely adapted by the apostle to Felix's
state and temper. But corrosives are very uneasy to a guilty
mind : men naturally hate that which " brings their sins to their
remembrance," and sharpens the sting of a violated conscience.
The prince was so nettled with the apostle's reasonings, that he
fell a trembling, and caused the apostle to break off abruptly,
telling him, he would hear the rest at some other season. And
good reason there was that Felix's conscience should be sensibly
alarmed with these reflections, being a man notoriously infamous
for rapine and violence. Tacitus tells us of him, 2 that he made
his will the law of his government, practising all manner of
cruelty and injustice. And then for incontinency, he was given
over to luxury and debauchery, for the compassing whereof he
scrupled not to violate all laws both of God and man ; whereof
this very wife Drusilla was a famous instance : 8 for being mar-
ried by her brother to Azis king of the Emisenes, Felix, who
had heard of her incomparable beauty, by the help of Simon the
magician, a Jew of Cyprus, ravished her from her husband's bed,
and in defiance of all law and right kept her for his own wife.
To these qualities he had added bribery and covetousness, and
* Histor. 1. v. c. 9. vid. Annal. 1. xii. c. 54. a Joseph. Antiq. Jud. 1. xx. c. 5.
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therefore frequently sent for St. Paul to discourse with him, ex-
pecting that he should have given him a considerable sum for
his release ; and the rather probably, because he had heard that
St. Paul had lately brought up great sums of money to Jeru-
salem. But finding no offers made, either by the apostle or his
friends, he kept him prisoner for two years together, so long as
himself continued procurator of that nation ; when being displaced
by Nero, he left St. Paul still in prison, on purpose to gratify
the Jews, and engage them to speak better of him after his de-
parture from them.
IV. To him succeeded Portius Festus in the procuratorship
of the province, at whose first coming to Jerusalem, 5 the high-
priest and Sanhedrim presently began to prefer to him an in-
dictment against St. Paul, desiring that, in order to his trial, he
might be sent for up from Csesarea; designing, under this pre-
tence, that some assassinates should lie in the way to murder
him. Festus told them, that he himself was going shortly for
Csesarea, and that if they had any thing against St. Paul, they
should come down thither and accuse him. Accordingly, being
come to Csesarea, and sitting in open judicature, the Jews began
to renew the charge which they had heretofore brought against
St. Paul : of all which he cleared himself, they not being able to
make any proof against him. However, Festus, being willing to
oblige the Jews in the entrance upon his government, asked him,
whether he would go up and be tried before him at Jerusalem!
The apostle, well understanding the consequences of that pro-
posal, told him, that he was a Roman, and therefore ought to be
judged by their laws ; that he stood now at Caesar's own judg-
ment-seat, (as indeed what was done by the emperor's procurator
in any province, the law reckoned as done by the emperor him-
self, 0 ) and though he should submit to the Jewish tribunal, yet
he himself saw, that they had nothing which they could prove
against him : that if he had done any thing which really deserved
capital punishment, he was willing to undergo it ; but if not, he
ought not to be delivered over to his enemies, who were before-
hand resolved to take away his life. However, as the safest
course, he solemnly made his appeal to the Roman emperor, who
should judge between them : whereupon Festus, advising with
the Jewish Sanhedrim, received his appeal, and told him he
b Acts xxv. 1. c L. i. ff. de Offic. Procur. Caesar, lib. i. tit xix.
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SAINT PAUL.
287
should go to Caesar. This way of appealing was frequent among
the Romans; introduced to defend and secure the lives and
fortunes of the populacy from the unjust encroachments and
over-rigorous severities of the magistrates, whereby it was lawful,
in cases of oppression, to appeal to the people for redress and
rescue, a thing more than once and again settled by the sanction
of the Valerian laws. These appeals were wont to be made in
writing, d by appellatory libels given in, wherein was contained
an account of the appellant, the person against whom, and from
whose sentence he did appeal : but where the case was done in
open court, it was enough for the criminal verbally to declare
that he did appeal. In great and weighty cases appeals were
made to the prince himself, and that not only at Rome, but in
the provinces of the empire; all proconsuls and governors of
provinces being strictly forbidden to execute, 6 scourge, bind, or
put any badge of servility upon a citizen, or any that had the
privilege of a citizen of Rome, who had made his appeal, or any
ways to hinder him from going thither to obtain justice at the
hands of the emperor, who had as much regard to the liberty of
his subjects, (says the law itself,) as they could have of their
good-will and obedience to him. And this was exactly St. Paul's
case, who knowing that he should have no fair and equitable
dealing at the hands of the governor, when once he came to be
swayed by the Jews, his sworn and inveterate enemies, appealed
from him to the emperor ; the reason why Festus durst not deny
his demand, it being a privilege so often, so plainly settled and
confirmed by the Roman laws.
V. Some time after, king Agrippa, who succeeded Herod in
the tetrarchate of Galilee, and his sister Bernice came to Caesarea,
to make a visit to the new-come governor. To him Festus gave
an account of St. Paul, and the great stir and trouble that had
been made about him, and how, for his safety and vindication, he
had immediately appealed to Csesar. Agrippa was very desirous
to see and hear him, and accordingly the next day, the king and
his sister, accompanied with Festus the governor, and other
persons of quality, came into the court with a pompous and
magnificent retinue, where the prisoner was brought forth be-
fore him. Festus having acquainted the king and the assembly,
d Leg. i. sect. 4. ff. de appeUat. lib. xlix. tit i. Leg. ii. et iii. ibid.
e Ibid. Leg. xxv. et 1. vii. ff. ad Leg. Jul de vi public, lib. xlviii. tit. vi.
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how much he had heen solicited hy the Jews, both at Csesarea and
Jerusalem, concerning the prisoner at the bar, that as a notorious
malefactor he might be put to death; but that having found
him guilty of no capital crime, and the prisoner himself having
appealed to Caesar, he was resolved to send him to Borne ; but
yet was willing to have his case again discussed before Agrippa,
that so he might be furnished with some material instructions to
send along with him, since it was very absurd to send a prisoner
without signifying what crimes were charged upon him.
VI. Hereupon Agrippa told the apostle, f he had liberty ta
make his own defence : to whom, after silence made, he parti-
cularly addressed his speech. He tells him, in the first place,
what a happiness he had, that he was to plead before one so
exactly versed in all the rites and customs, the questions and the
controversies of the Jewish law ; that the Jews themselves knew
what had been the course and manner of his life, how he had
been educated under the institutions of the Pharisees, the strictest
sect of the whole Jewish religion, and had been particularly dis-
quieted and arraigned for what had been the constant belief of
all their fathers, what was sufficiently credible in itself, and
plainly enough revealed in the scripture, the resurrection of the
dead. He next gave him an account with what a bitter and
implacable zeal he had formerly persecuted Christianity; told
him the whole story and method of his conversion ; and that in
compliance with a particular vision from heaven, he had preached
repentance and reformation of life, first to the Jews, and then
after to the Gentiles : that it was for no other things than these
that the Jews apprehended him in the temple, and designed to
murder him ; but being rescued and upheld by a divine power,
he continued in this testimony to this day, asserting nothing but
what was perfectly agreeable to Moses and the prophets, who
had plainly foretold that the Messiah should both be put to
death and rise again, and by his doctrine enlighten both the
Jewish and the Gentile world. While he was thus discoursing,
Festus openly cried out, that he talked like a madman; that
his over-much study had put him beside himself. The apostle
calmly replied, he was far from being transported with idle and
distracted humours; that he spake nothing but what was most
true and real in itself, and what very well became that grave
f Acts xzvi. 1.
SAINT PAUL.
289
sober auditory. And then again, addressing himself to Agrippa,
told him, that these things having been open and public, he could
not but be acquainted with, them ; that he was confident that he
believed the prophets, and must needs therefore know that
those prophecies were fulfilled in Christ. Hereat Agrippa re-
plied, that he had in some degree persuaded him to embrace the
Christian faith. To which the apostle returned, that he heartily
prayed, that not only he, but the whole auditory were, not only
in some measure, but altogether, though not prisoners, yet as
much Christians as he himself was. This done, the king and
the governor and the rest of the council withdrew a while, to
confer privately about this matter ; and finding, by the accusa-
tions brought against him, that he was not guilty by the Roman
laws of any capital offence, no nor of any that deserved so much
as imprisonment, Agrippa told Festus, that he might have been
released, if he had not appealed unto Caesar. For the appeal
being once made, the judge had then no power either to absolve
or condemn ; the cause being entirely reserved to the cognizance
of that superior to whom the criminal had appealed.
VII. It was now finally resolved that St. Paul should be
sent to Rome : 8 in order whereunto he was, with some other
prisoners of remark, committed to the charge of Julius, com-
mander of a company belonging to the legion of Augustus ;
accompanied in this voyage by St. Luke, Aristarchus, Trophimus,
and some others. In September, Ann. Chr. 56, or, as others, 57,
they went on board a ship of Adramyttium and sailed to Sidon,
where the captain civilly gave the apostle leave to go ashore to
visit his friends and refresh himself : hence to Cyprus, till they
came to the Fair-Havens, a place near Myra, a city of Lysia.
Here winter growing on, and St. Paul, foreseeing it would be a
dangerous voyage, persuaded them to put in and winter : but
the captain preferring the judgment of the master of the ship,
and especially because of the incommodiousness of the harbour,
resolved, if possible, to reach Pboenice, a port of Crete, and to
winter there. But it was not long before they found themselves
disappointed of their hopes : for the calm southerly gale, that blew
before, suddenly changed into a stormy and blustering north-east
wind, which so bore down all before it, that they were forced to
let the ship drive at the pleasure of the wind ; but, as much as
* Acts xxvii. 1.
U
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might be, to prevent splitting or running aground, they threw
out a great part of their lading and the tackle of the ship.
Fourteen days they remained in this desperate and uncomfort-
able condition, neither sun nor stars appearing for a great part of
the time ; the apostle putting them in mind how ill-advised they
were in not taking his counsel : howbeit they should be of good
cheer, for that that God whom he served and worshipped, had
the last night purposely sent an angel from heaven to let him
know, that notwithstanding the present danger they were in, yet
that he should be brought safe before Nero ; that they should be
shipwrecked, indeed, and cast upon an island, but that for his
sake God had spared all in the ship, not one whereof should mis-
carry ; and that he did not doubt but that it would accordingly
come to pass. On the fourteenth night, upon sounding, they
found themselves nigh some coast ; and therefore, to avoid rocks,
thought good to come to an anchor, till the morning might give
them better information. In the mean time, the seamen (who best
understood the danger) were preparing to get into the skiff, to
save themselves : which St. Paul espying, told the captain, that
unless they all stayed in the ship, none could be safe : whereupon
the soldiers cut the ropes, and let the skiff fall off into the sea.
Between this and daybreak, the apostle advised them to eat and
refresh themselves, having all this time kept no ordinary and
regular meals, assuring them they should all escape : himself first
taking bread, and having blessed God for it before them all, the
rest followed his example, and cheerfully fell to their meat :
which done, they lightened the ship of what remained, and en-
deavoured to put into a creek which they discovered not far off.
But falling into a place where two seas met, the fore part of the
ship ran aground while the hinder part was beaten in pieces with
the violence of the waves. Awakened with the danger they
were in, the soldiers cried out to kill the prisoners, to prevent
their escape : which the captain, desirous to save St. Paul, and
probably in confidence of what he had told them, refused to do j
commanding that every one should shift for himself: the issue
was, that part by swimming, part on planks, part on pieces of
the broken ship, they all, to the number of two hundred three-
score and sixteen, (the whole number in the ship,) got safe to
shore.
VIII. The island upon which they were cast was Melita,
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SAINT PAUL.
291
(now Malta h ), situate in the Libyan sea, between Syracuse and
Africa. Here they found civility among barbarians, and the
plain acknowledgments of a divine justice written among the
naked and untutored notions of men's minds. The people treated
them with great humanity, entertaining them with all necessary
accommodations ; but while St. Paul was throwing sticks upon
the fire, a viper, dislodged by the heat, came out of the wood,
and fastened on his hand. This the people no sooner espied, but
presently concluded that surely he was some notorious murderer,
whom though the divine vengeance had suffered to escape the
hue and cry of the sea, yet had it only reserved him for a more
public and solemn execution. But when they saw him shake it
off into the fire, and not presently swell and drop down, they
changed their opinions, and concluded him to be some god. So
easily are light and credulous minds transported from one ex-
treme to another. Not far off lived Publius, a man of great estate
and authority, and (as we may probably guess from an in-
scription found there, and set down by Grotius,* wherein the
nPflTOS MEAITAII2N is reckoned amongst the Roman
officers,) governor of the island, by him they were courteously
entertained three days at his own charge ; and his father lying at
that time sick of a fever and a dysentery, St. Paul went in, and
having prayed, and laid his hands upon him, healed him ; as he did
also many of the inhabitants, who by this miracle were encouraged
to bring their diseased to him: whereby great honours were heaped
upon him, and both he and his company furnished with provisions
necessary for the rest of their voyage. Nay, Publius himself is
said by some to have been hereby converted to the faith, k and by
St. Paul to have been constituted bishop of the island ; and that
this was he that succeeded St. Denys, the Areopagite, in the
see of Athens, and was afterwards crowned with martyrdom.
IX. After three months 1 stay in this island, they went aboard
the Castor and Pollux, a 6hip of Alexandria, bound for Italy.
At Syracuse they put in, and stayed three days ; thence sailed to
Rhegium, and so to PuteoK, where they landed, and finding some
Christians there, stayed a week with them, and then set forward
in their journey to Rome. The Christians at Rome having heard
h Acts xxviii. 1. 1 Annot in loc.
k Bar. ad Ann. 58. n. 173. Vid. Adon. martyr, ad 12 KaL Febr. Martyr. Rom. ad
diem 21 Jan. Euseb. Hist Eccl. 1. iv. c. 23.
u 2
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of their arrival, several of them came part of the way to meet
them : some as far as the Three Taverns, a place thirty-three miles
from Rome ; others as far as Appii Forum, fifty-one miles distant
thence. Great was their mutual salutation, and the encourage-
ment which the apostle received by it, glad no doubt to see that
Christians found so much liberty at Borne. By them he was
conducted in a kind of triumph into the city : where, when they
were arrived, the rest of the prisoners were delivered over to the
captain of the guard, and by him disposed in the common gaol,
while St. Paul (probably at Julius's request and recommenda-
tion) was permitted to stay in a private house, only with a
soldier to secure and guard him.
SECTION VII.
ST. PAUL S ACTS, FROM HIS COMING TO ROME TILL HIS MARTYRDOM,
St Paul's summoning the chief of the Jews at Rome, and his discourse to them. Their
refractoriness and infidelity. His first hearing before Nero. The success of his
preaching. Poppaea Sabina, Nero's concubine, one of his converts. Tacitus's character
of her. Onesimus converted by St. Paul at Rome, and sent back with an epistle to
Philemon his master. The great obligation which Christianity lays upon servants to
diligence and fidelity in their duty. The rigorous and arbitrary power of masters over
servants by the Roman laws. This mitigated by the laws of the gospeL St. Paul's
epistle to the Philippians, upon what occasion sent His epistle to the Ephesians,
and another to the Colossians. His second epistle to Timothy written (probably) at
his first being at Rome. The epistle to the Hebrews, by whom written, and in what
language. The aim and design of it St Paul's preaching the gospel in the West,
and in what parts of it His return to Rome, when. His imprisonment under Nero,
and why. His being beheaded. Milk instead of blood said to flow from his body.
Different accounts of the time of his suffering. His burial, where ; and the great
church erected to his memory.
The first thing St. Paul did after he came to Borne was to sum-
mon the heads of the Jewish consistory there, whom he ac-
quainted with the cause and manner of his coming, that though
he had been guilty of no violation of the law of their religion,
yet had he been delivered by the Jews into the hands of the
Roman governors ; who would have acquitted him once and
again, as innocent of any capital offence, but by the perverseness
of the Jews he was forced, not with an intention to charge his
own nation, (already sufficiently odious to the Romans,) but
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only to vindicate and clear himself, to make his appeal toCsBsar;
that being come, he had sent for them, to let them know, that
it was for his constant asserting the resurrection, the hope of all
true Israelites, that he was bound with that chain which they
saw upon him. The Jews replied, that they had received no
advice concerning him, nor had any of the nation that came
from Judea brought any charge against him : only for the reli-
gion which he had espoused, they desired to be a little better
informed about it, it being every where decried both by Jew
and Gentile. Accordingly, upon a day appointed, he discoursed
to them from morning to night concerning the religion and doc-
trine of the holy Jesus, proving from the promises and pre-
dictions of the Old Testament, that he was the true Messiah.
His discourse succeeded not with all alike ; some being con-
vinced, others persisted in their infidelity : and as they were
departing, in some discontent at each other, the apostle told
them, it was now too plain, God had accomplished upon them
the prophetical curse of being left to their own wilful hardness
and impenitency, to be blind at noon-day, and to run themselves
against all means and methods into irrecoverable ruin. That
since the case was thus with them, they must expect, that
henceforth he should turn his preaching to the Gentiles, who
would be most ready to entertain what they had so scornfully
rejected, the glad tidings of the gospel.
II. It was not, probably, long after this, that he was brought
to his first hearing before the emperor, where those friends,
whom he most expected should stand by him, plainly deserted
him ; afraid, it seems, of appearing in so ticklish a cause before
so unreasonable a judge, who governed himself by no other mea-
sures than the brutish and extravagant pleasure of his lust or
humour. But God stood by him, and encouraged him ; as in-
deed divine consolations are many times then nearest to us,
when human assistances are farthest from us. This cowardice
of theirs the apostle had a charity large enough to cover, heartily
praying, that it might not be brought in against them in the
accounts of the great day. Two years he dwelt at Rome in an
house which he hired for his own use, wherein he constantly
employed himself in preaching and writing for the good of the
church. He preached daily, without interruption, to all that
came to him, and with good success; yea, even upon some
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of the better rank and quality, and those belonging to the
court itself. Among which the Soman Martyrology 1 reckons
Torpes, an officer of prime note in Nero's palace, and afterwards
a martyr for the faith ; and Chrysostom (if Baronius cite him
right) m tells us of Nero's cupbearer, and one of his concubines,
supposed by some to have been Poppeea Sabina, of whom Ta-
citus gives this character, 11 that she wanted nothing to render
her one of the most accomplished ladies in the world, but a
chaste and virtuous mind : and I know not how far it may seem
to countenance her conversion, at least inclination, to a better
religion than that of paganism, that Josephus styles her a pious
woman, 0 and tells us that she effectually solicited the cause of
the Jews with her husband Nero ; and what favours Josephus
himself received from her at Rome, he relates in his own Life. p
III. Amongst others of our apostle's converts at Borne was
Onesimus, who had formerly been servant to Philemon, a person
of eminency in Oolosse, but had run away from his master, and
taken things of some value with him. Having rambled as far as
Rome, he was now converted by St. Paul, and by him returned
with recommendatory letters to Philemon his master, to beg
his pardon, and that he might be received into favour, being
now of a much better temper, more faithful, and diligent, and
useful to his master, than he had been before : as indeed Chris-
tianity, where it is heartily entertained, makes men good in all
relations, no laws being so wisely contrived for the peace and
happiness of the world as the laws of the gospel, as may appear
by this particular case of servants ; what admirable rules, what
severe laws does it lay upon them for the discharge of their
duties ! it commands them to honour their masters as their su-
periors, and to take heed of making their authority light and
cheap by familiar and contemptible thoughts and carriages ; to
obey them in all honest and lawful things ; and that " not with
eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart as unto
God;" that they be faithful to the trust committed to them,
and manage their masters' interest with as much care and con-
science as if it were their own ; that they entertain their re-
proofs, counsels, corrections, with all silence and sobriety, not
1 Ad diem 17 Maii, p. 308.
m Ad Ann. 59, n. 9. Vid. Chryeost. adv. vituper. vit Monast L i, c. 4.
" Anna!. 1. xiii. c, 45, 0 Antiq. Jud. 1. xx. c. 7, p De vit sua, p. 999.
SAINT PAUL.
295
returning any rude surly answers ; and this carriage to be ob-
served, not only to masters of a mild and gentle, but of a cross
and peevish disposition ; that " whatever they do, they do it
heartily, not as to men only, but to the Lord ; knowing that of
the Lord they shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for
that they serve the Lord Christ." Imbued with these excellent
principles, Onesimus is again returned unto his master ; for
Christian religion, though it improve men's tempers, does not
cancel their relations ; it teaches them to abide in their callings,
and " not to despise their masters, because they are brethren,
but rather do them service, because they are faithful." And
being thus improved, St. Paul the more confidently begged his
pardon. And, indeed, had not Philemon been a Christian, and
by the principles of his religion both disposed and obliged to
mildness and mercy, there had been great reason why St. Paul
should be thus importunate with him for Onesimus's pardon, the
case of servants in those days being very hard; for all masters were
looked upon as having an unlimited power over their servants,
and that not only by the Roman, q but by the laws of all nations,
whereby, without asking the magistrate's leave, or any public
and formal trial, they might adjudge and condemn them to what
work or punishment they pleased, even to the taking away of
life itself. But the severity and exorbitancy of this power was
afterwards somewhat curbed by the laws of succeeding emperors,
especially after the empire submitted itself to Christianity, which
makes better provision for persons in that capacity and relation,
and, in case of unjust and over-rigorous usage, enables them to
appeal to a more righteous and impartial tribunal, where master
and servant shall both stand upon even ground, " where he that
doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done ;
and there is no respect of persons."
IV. The Christians at Philippi having heard of St. Paul's
imprisonment at Borne, and not knowing what straits he might
be reduced to, raised a contribution for him, and sent it by
Epaphroditus their bishop, who was now come tp Borne, where
he shortly after fell dangerously sick : but being recovered, and
upon the point to return, by him St. Paul sent his epistle to the
Philippians, wherein he gives them some account of the state of
4 L. i. et iL ff. de his, qui sui vel alieni juris sunt, lib. i. tit vi. Vid. Instit. lib. i.
tit. viii.
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affairs at Rome, gratefully acknowledges their kindness to him,
and warns them of those dangerous opinions which the Judaizing
teachers began to vent among them. The apostle had heretofore
for some years lived at Ephesus, and perfectly understood the
state and condition of that place ; and therefore now by Tychicus
writes his epistle to the Ephesians, endeavouring to countermine
the principles and practices both of Jews and Gentiles, to con-
firm them in the belief and obedience of the Christian doctrine,
to represent the infinite riches of the divine goodness in admitting
the Gentile world to the unsearchable treasures of Christianity,
especially pressing them to express the life and spirit of it in
the general duties of religion, and in the duties of their particular
relations. Much about the same time, or a little after, he wrote
his epistle to the Colossians, where he had never been, and sent
it by Epaphras, who for some time had been his fellow-prisoner
at Rome. The design of it is, for the greatest part, the same with
that to the Ephesians, to settle and confirm them in the faith of
the gospel, against the errors both of Judaism and the super-
stitious observances of the heathen world, some whereof had
taken root amongst them.
V. It is not improbable, but that about this, or rather some
considerable time before, St, Paul wrote his second epistle to
Timothy. I know Eusebius and the ancients, and most moderns
after them, will have it written a little before his martyrdom,
induced thereunto by that passage in it, that he was then " ready
to be offered, and that the time of his departure was at hand. 11
But surely it is most reasonable to think, that it was written at
his first being at Rome, and that at his first coming thither, pre-
sently after his trial before Nero. Accordingly, the passage
before mentioned may import no more, than that he was in
imminent danger of his life, and had received the sentence of
death in himself, not hoping to escape out of the paws of Nero ;
but that " God had delivered him out of the mouth of the lion, 11
i. e. the great danger he was in at his coming thither : which
exactly agrees to his case at his first being at Rome, but cannot
be reconciled with his last coming thither ; together with many
more circumstances in this epistle, which render it next door to
certain. In it he appoints Timothy shortly to come to him ; who
accordingly came, whose name is joined together with his in the
front of several epistles, to the Philippians, Colossians, and to
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Philemon. The only thing that can be levelled against this is,
that, in his epistle to Timothy, he tells him, that he had sent
Tychicus to Ephesus, by whom it is plain that the epistles to the
Ephesians and Philippians were despatched ; and that therefore
this to Timothy must be written after them. But I see no in-
convenience to affirm, that Tychicus might come to Rome pre-
sently after St. PauPs arrival there, be by him immediately sent
back to Ephesus upon some emergent affair of that church ; and
after his return to Rome be sent with those two epistles. The
design of the epistle was to excite the holy man to a mighty zeal
and diligence, care and fidelity in his office, and to antidote the
people against those poisonous principles that in those parts
especially began to debauch the minds of men.
VI. As for the epistle to the Hebrews, it is very uncertain
when, or whence, and (for some ages doubted) by whom it was
written. Eusebius tells us, r it was not received by many, because
rejected by the church of Rome as none of St. Paul's genuine
epistles. Origen affirms the style and phrase of it to be more
fine and elegant, 8 and to contain in it a richer vein of purer
Greek than is usually found in St. PauFs epistles ; as every one,
that is able to judge of a style, must needs confess : that the
sentences indeed are grave and weighty, and such as breathe the
spirit and majesty of an apostle : that therefore it was his judg-
ment, that the matter contained in it had been dictated by some
apostle, but that it had been put into phrase, form, and order
by some other person that did attend upon him : that if any
church owned it for St. Paul's, they were not to be condemned,
it not being without reason by the ancients ascribed to him ;
though God only knew who was the true author of it. He
farther tells us, that report had handed it down to his time, that
it had been composed partly by Clemens of Rome, partly by
Luke the Evangelist. Tertullian adds, 1 that it was writ by
Barnabas What seems most likely, in such variety of opinions,
is, that St. Paul originally wrote it in Hebrew, it being to be sent
to the Jews, his countrymen ; and by some other person, probably
St. Luke or Clemens Romanus, translated into Greek ; especially
since both Eusebius" and St. Jerome x observed of old such a
r Hist EccL L iii. c. 3. » Apud Euseb. ibid. 1. vi. c. 25.
1 De Pudicit. c. 20. Vid. Clem. Alex, in lib. Hyp. apud Euseb. 1. vi. c. 14.
u Euseb. 1. iii. c. 38. * Hier. de Scrip. EccL in Clem.
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great affinity, both in style and sense, between this and Clement's
epistle to the Corinthians, as thence positively to conclude him
to be the translator of it. It was written, as we may conjecture,
a little after he was restored to his liberty, and probably while
he was yet in some parts of Italy,* whence he dates his saluta-
tions. The main design of it is to magnify Christ and the
religion of the gospel, above Moses and the Jewish economy and
ministration ; that by this means he might the better establish
and confirm the convert Jews in the firm belief and profession of
Christianity, notwithstanding those sufferings and persecutions
that came upon them; endeavouring throughout to arm and
fortify them against apostacy from that noble and excellent
religion, wherein they had so happily engaged themselves. And
great need there was for the apostle severely to urge them to it,
heavy persecutions, both from Jews and Gentiles, pressing in upon
them on every side, besides those trains of specious and plausible
insinuations that were laid to reduce them to their ancient
institutions. Hence the apostle calls apostacy " the sin which
did so easily beset them," 2 to which there were such frequent
temptations, and into which they were so prone to be betrayed
in those suffering times. And the more to deter them from it,
he once and again sets before them the dreadful state and con-
dition of apostates,* those who have been once enlightened, and
baptized into the Christian faith, tasted the promises of the
gospel, and been made partakers of the miraculous gifts of the
Holy Ghost, those powers which in the world to come, or this
new state of things were to be conferred upon the church, if
after all this these men fall away, and renounce Christianity,
it is very hard, and even impossible, to renew them again unto
repentance. For by this means they trod under foot, and
crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame,
profaned the blood of the covenant, and did despite to the spirit
of grace. So that to sin thus wilfully after they had received the
knowledge of the truth, there could remain for them no more
sacrifice for sins, nothing but a certain fearful looking for of
judgment and fiery indignation which should devour these ad-
versaries. And a fearful thing it was in such circumstances to
fall into the hands of the living God, who had particularly said
of this sort of sinners, that "if any man drew back, his soul
y Cap. xiii. 24. * Heb. xii. 1. a Cap. vi. 4—6. cap. x. 26—29.
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should have no pleasure in him." Hence it is, that every where
in this epistle he mixes exhortations to this purpose : that " they
would give earnest heed to the things which they had heard, lest
at any time they should let them slip : that they would hold
fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the
end, and beware lest by an evil heart of unbelief they departed
from the living God : that they would labour to enter into his
rest, lest any man fall after the example of unbelief: that
leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, they would
go on to perfection, shewing diligence to the full assurance of
hope unto the end; not being slothful, but followers of them,
who through faith and patience inherit the promises : that they
would hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering, not
forsaking the assembling of themselves together, (as the manner
of some was,) nor cast away their confidence, which had great
recompense of reward : that they had need of patience, that
after they had done the will of God, they might receive the
promise : that they would not be of them who drew back unto
perdition, but of them that believed to the saving of the soul :
that being encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,"
who with the most unconquerable constancy and resolution had
all holden on in the way to heaven, 44 they would lay aside every
weight, and the sin which did so easily beset them, and run with
patience the race that was set before them, especially looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, who endured
the cross, and despised the shame ; that therefore they should
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest they should be wearied and faint in their minds ;
for that they had not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin ; looking diligently lest any man should fail of the grace of
God, lest any root of bitterness springing up should trouble them,
and thereby many be defiled.'" By all which, and much more
that might be observed to this purpose, it is evident, what our
apostle's great design was in this excellent epistle.
VII. Our apostle being now, after two years' custody, perfectly
restored to liberty, remembered that he was 44 the apostle of the
Gentiles," and had therefore a larger diocese than Rome, and
accordingly prepared himself for a greater circuit, though which
way he directed his course is not absolutely certain. By some
he is said to have returned back into Greece, and the parts of
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Asia, upon do other ground, that I know of, than a few intima-
tions in some of his epistles that he intended to do so. By
others he is thought to have preached both in the Eastern and
Western parts, which is not inconsistent with the time he had
after his departure from Borne. But of the latter we have better
evidence. Sure I am, an author beyond all exception, St. Paul's
contemporary and fellow-labourer, I mean Clemens, b in his
famous epistle to the Corinthians, expressly tells us, that being
a preacher both in the East and West, he taught righteousness
to the whole world, and went to the utmost bounds of the
West. Which makes me the more wonder at the confidence of
one, c (otherwise a man of great parts and learning,) who so
peremptorily denies that ever our apostle preached in the West,
merely because there are no monuments left in primitive an-
tiquity of any particular churches there founded by him : as if
all the particular passages of his life, done at so vast a distance,
must needs have been recorded, or those records have come
down to us, when it is so notoriously known, that almost all the
writings and monuments of those first ages of Christianity are
long since perished ; or as if we were not sufficiently assured of
the thing in general, though not of what particular he did there.
Probable it is, that he went into Spain, d a thing which himself
tells us he had formerly once and again resolved on. Certain it
is, that the ancients do generally assert it,' without seeming in
the least to doubt of it. Theodoret and others tell us, that he
preached not only in Spain, but that he went to other nations,
and brought the gospel into the isles of the sea ; by which he
undoubtedly means Britain, and therefore elsewhere reckons the
Gauls and Britains among the nations, which the apostles, and
particularly the tent-maker, persuaded to embrace the law of
Christ. Nor is he the only man that has said it, others having
given in their testimony and suffrage in this case. f
VIII. To what other parts of the world St. Paul preached
b Ep. ad Corinth. s. 5.
c L. CappelL Append, ad Hist. Apost. p. 33. d Rom. xy. 24 — 28.
e Epiphan. Haeres. xxvii. 8. 6. Chrysost. de Laud. Paul Horn. Yii. toL ii. p. 516.
CyriL Catech. xvii. s. 13. Theod. in 2 Tim. iv. 16. et in Psalm, cxvi. id. de cur. Graec.
Affect. Serm. ix. Athan. Epist ad Dracont s. 4.
f Sophron. Serm. de natali. App. u Transit et Oceanum, vel qua fecit insula portum,
Quasque Britannus habet terras atque ultima Thule." Venant. Fortun. do vit Martin.
1. iii. non procul a fin.
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301
the gospel, we find no certain footsteps in antiquity, nor any
farther mention of him till his return to Rome, which probably
was about the eighth or ninth year of Nero's reign. Here he
met with Peter, and was, together with him, thrown into prison,
no doubt in the general persecution raised against the Christians,
under the pretence that they had fired the city. Besides the
general, we may reasonably suppose there were particular causes
of his imprisonment. Some of the ancients make him engaged
with Peter in procuring the fall of Simon Magus, and that that
derived the emperor's fury and rage upon him : St. Chrysostom
gives us this account ; g that having converted one of Nero's con-
cubines, a woman of whom he was infinitely fond, and reduced
her to a life of great strictness and chastity, so that now she
wholly refused to comply with his wanton and impure embraces ;
the emperor stormed hereat, calling the apostle a villain and im-
postor, a wretched perverter and debaucher of others, giving
order that he should be cast into prison, and, when he still per-
sisted to persuade the lady to continue her chaste and pious re-
solutions, commanding him to be put to death.
IX. How long he remained in prison is not certainly known ;
at last his execution was resolved on: what his preparatory
treatment was, whether scourged, as malefactors were wont to
be in order to their death, we find not. As a Soman citizen,
by the Valerian and the Porcian law he was exempted from it :
though by the law of the twelve tables, notorious malefactors,
condemned by the centuriate assemblies, were first to be scourged,
and then put to death : and Baronius tells us, h that in the church
of St. Mary, beyond the bridge in Borne, the pillars are yet ex-
tant, to which both Peter and Paul are 6aid to have been bound
and scourged. As he was led to execution, he is said to have
converted three of the soldiers that were sent to conduct and
guard him, who within few days after, by the emperor's com-
mand, became martyrs for the faith. Being come to the place,
which was the Aquae Salvise, three miles from Borne, after some
solemn preparation, he cheerfully gave his neck to the fatal
stroke. As a Boman, he might not be put upon the cross, too
infamous a death for any but the worst of slaves and malefactors,
and therefore was beheaded ; accounted a more noble kind of
death, not among the Bomans only, but among other nations,
* Adv. vit. Monast vituperat 1. i. c. 4. h Ad Ann. 69. n. 8.
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as being fitter for persons of better quality, and more ingenuous
education : 1 and from this instrument of his execution the custom,
no doubt, first arose, that in all pictures and images of this apo-
stle, he is constantly represented with a sword in his right hand.
Tradition reports, (justified herein by the suffrage of many of
the fathers, k ) that when he was beheaded, a liquor more like milk
than blood flowed from his veins, and spirted upon the clothes
of his executioner ; and had I list or leisure for such things, I
might entertain the reader with the little glosses that are made
upon it. St. Chrysostom adds, that it became a means of con-
verting his executioner and many more to the faith ; and that
the apostle suffered in the sixty-eighth year of his age. Some
question there is whether he suffered at the same time with
Peter ; many of the ancients positively affirm, 1 that both suffered
on the same day and year : but others,™ though allowing the same
day, tell us that St. Paul suffered not till the year after; nay, some
interpose the distance of several years. A manuscript writer of
the lives and travels of Peter and Paul," brought amongst other
venerable monuments of antiquity out of Greece, will have Paul
to have suffered no less than five years after Peter, which he
justifies by the authority of no less than Justin Martyr and
Irenaeus. But what credit is to be given to this nameless au-
thor, I see not, and therefore lay no weight upon it, nor think it
lit to be put into the balance with the testimonies of the ancients.
Certainly, if he suffered not at the very same time with Peter, it
could not be long after, not above a year at most. The best is,
which of them soever started first, they both came at last to the
same end of the race, to those palms and crowns which are re-
served for all good men in heaven, but most eminently for the
martyrs of the Christian faith.
X. He was buried in the Via Ostiensis, about two miles from
1 Zenoph. de Exped. Cyri. L ii. in fin. Servi sunt in crucem sublati, militibus cervices
abscissae. Hist, de Bell. Hispan. p. 460.
k Ambr. de nat Petr. et Paul. Serm. lxviii. Chrys. Serm. in Petr. et PauL s. 2. yol.
viii. p. 10. inter spuria.
1 Dion. Corinth, ap. Euseb. L ii. c. 25. Ambr. ib. Serm. lxvi. Max. Taur. Horn,
v. de Petr. et Paul. p. 231.
m Prudent. Peristeph. in Pass. Petr. et Paul. Hymn. xii. Arat. Act Apost L ii. in
fin. Aug. in natal Petri et Pauli, Serm. ccv. s. 4. in append. vol. v. p. 340. Greg. Turon.
de glor. Martyr. 1. i. c. 29.
n Apud P. Jun. not. in Clem. Ep. ad. Cor. ad p. 8. forsan. ex S. Metaphr. qui totidem
verbis eadem babet ap. Sur. ad 29 Jun. n. 23.
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Borne, over whose grave, about the year 318,° Constantine the
Great, at the instance of pope Sylvester, built a stately church,
within a farm which Lucina, a noble Christian matron of Borne,
had long before settled upon that church. He adorned it with
an hundred of the best marble columns, and beautified it with
the most exquisite workmanship : the many rich gifts and en*
dowments which he bestowed upon it being particularly set down
in the Life of Sylvester. This church, as too narrow and little
for the honour of so great an apostle, Valentinian, or rather
Theodosius the emperor, (the one but finishing what the other
began,) by a rescript directed to Sallustius, p prefect of the city,
caused to be taken down, and a larger and more noble church to
be built in the room of it : farther beautified (as appears from
an ancient inscription q ) by Placidia, the empress, at the persua-
sion of Leo, bishop of Borne. What other additions of wealth,
honour, or stateliness it has received since, concerns not me to
inquire.
SECTION VIII.
THE DESCRIPTION OF HIS PERSON AND TEMPER, TOGETHER WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS WRITINGS.
The person of St. Paul described. His infirm constitution. His natural endowments.
His ingenuous education, and admirable skill in human learning and sciences. The
divine temper of his mind. His singular humility and condescension. His temperance
and sobriety, and contempt of the world. Whether he lived a married or a single life.
His great kindness and compassion. His charity to men's bodies and souls. His
mighty zeal for religion. His admirable industry and diligence in his office. His
unconquerable patience. The many great troubles he underwent. His constancy and
fidelity in the profession of Christianity. His writings. His style and way of writing,
what St Jerome's bold censure of it The perplexedness and obscurity of his discourses,
whence. The account given of it by the ancients. The order of his epistles, what
Placed not according to the time when, but the dignity of persons or places to which
they were written. The subscriptions at the end of them, of what value. The writings
fathered upon St Paul. His gospel. A third epistle to the Corinthians. The epistle to
the Laodiceans. His Apocalypse. His Acts. The epistles between him and Seneca.
Though we have drawn St. Paul at large, in the account we have
given of his life, yet may it be of use to represent him in little,
° Damas. Pontif. in vit Sylvest. i. vid. Onuphr. de 7. Urb. Basil.
P Apud Bar. ad Ann. 386. ex Cod. Vatic. i Ibid, in Addend, ad vol. iv. p. 12.
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in a brief account of his person, parts, and those graces and
virtues for which he was more peculiarly eminent and remark-
able. For his person, we find it thus described/ He was low
and of little stature, and somewhat stooping ; his complexion
fair ; his countenance grave ; his head small ; his eyes carrying
a kind of beauty and sweetness in them ; his eyebrows a little
hanging over ; his nose long, but gracefully bending ; his beard
thick, and, like the hair on his head, mixed with gray hairs.
Somewhat of this description may be learnt from Lucian, 8
when in the person of Trypho, one of St. Paul's disciples, he
calls him, by way of derision, " the high-nosed bald-pated Gali-
lean , 11 that was caught up through the air unto " the third
heaven, 11 where he learned great and excellent things. That he
was very low, himself plainly intimates, when he tells us,* they
were wont to say of him, that " his bodily presence was weak,
and his speech contemptible in which respect he is styled by
Chrysostom," 6 rplinjx v ^ avOptoiro^ " a man three cubits- [or a
little more than four feet] high, and yet tall enough to reach
heaven. 11 He seems to have enjoyed no very firm and athletic
constitution, being often subject to distempers ; St. Jerome par-
ticularly reports,* that he was frequently afflicted with the head-
ache, and that this was thought by many to have been " the
thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him
and that probably he intended some such thing by " the tempta-
tion in his flesh, 11 which he elsewhere speaks of : y which how-
ever it may in general signify those afflictions that came upon
him, yet does it primarily denote those diseases and infirmities
that he was obnoxious to.
II. But how mean soever the cabinet was, there was a treasure
within more precious and valuable, as will appear, if we survey
the accomplishments of his mind. For as to his natural abilities
and endowments, he seems to have had a clear and solid judg-
ment, quick invention, a prompt and ready memory ; all which
were abundantly improved by art, and the advantages of a more
liberal education. The schools of Tarsus had sharpened his dis-
cursive faculty by logic and the arts of reasoning, instructed him
in the institutions of philosophy, and enriched him with the
r Niceph. Hist Eccl. lib. ii. c 37. 8 Philopatr. voL ii. p. 999.
1 2 Cor. x. 10. M Serm. in Petr. et Paul. s. 1. vol. viii. p. 8. inter spuria.
* Com. in Gal. iv. * Gal. iv. 14.
SAINT PAUL.
305
furniture of all kinds of human learning. This gave him great
advantage above others, and ever raised him to a mighty repu-
tation for parts and learning ; insomuch that St. Chrysostom tells
us of a dispute between a Christian and a Heathen, 8 whereif the
Christian endeavoured to prove against the Gentile, that St. Paul
was more learned and eloquent than Plato himself. How well
he was versed, not only in the law of Moses and the writings of
the prophets, but even in classic and foreign writers, he has left
us sufficient ground to conclude, from those excellent sayings
which here and there he quotes out of heathen authors : which
as at once it shews that it is not unlawful to bring the spoils of
Egypt into the service of the sanctuary, 8 and to make use of the
advantages of foreign studies and human literature to divine
and excellent purposes, so does it argue his being greatly con-
versant in the paths of human learning, which upon every occa-
sion he could so readily command. Indeed, he seemed to have
been furnished out on purpose to be the doctor of the Gentiles,
to contend with and confute the grave and the wise, the acute
and the subtle, the sage and the learned of the heathen world,
and to wound them (as Julian's word was) with arrows drawn
out of their own quiver : though we do not find that, in his dis-
putes with the Gentiles, he made much use of learning and philo-
sophy ; it being more agreeable to the designs of the gospel, to
confound the wisdom and learning of the world by the plain
doctrine of the cross.
III. These were great accomplishments, and yet but a shadow
to that divine temper of mind that was in him, which discovered
itself through the whole course and method of his life. He was
humble to the lowest step of abasure and condescension, none
ever thinking better of others, or more meanly of himself. And
though when he had to deal with envious and malicious adver-
saries, who, by vilifying his person, sought to obstruct his mi-
nistry, he knew how to magnify his office, and to let them know
that he was " no whit inferior to the very chiefest apostles yet
out of this case he constantly declared to all the world, that he
looked upon himself as an abortive, and an untimely birth ; as
" the least of the apostles, not meet to be called an apostle and,
as if this were not enough, he makes a word on purpose to ex-
1 In 1 ad Cor. c. i. Horn. iii. s. 4. vol. x. p. 20. * Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. i. c. 14.
X
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press his humility, styling himself eXaj^ororepov, " less than thd
least of all saints," yea, " the very chief of sinners." How freely,
and that at every turn, does he confess what he was before his
conversion ; a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious both to God
and men ! Though honoured with peculiar acts of the highest
grace and favour, taken up to an immediate converse with God
in heaven, yet did not this swell him with a supercilious loftiness
over the rest of his brethren : entrusted he was with great power
and authority in the church, but never affected dominion over
men's faith ; nor any other place, than to be an helper of their
joy ; nor ever made use of his power but to the edification, not
destruction of any. How studiously did he decline all honours
and commendations that were heaped upon him ? When some
in the church of Corinth cried him up beyond all measures, and
under the patronage of his name began to set up for a party, he
severely rebuked them ; told them that it was Christ, not he, that
was crucified for them ; that they had not been baptized into his
name, which he was so far from, that he did not remember that
he had baptized above three or four of them, and was heartily
glad he had baptized no more, lest a foundation might have been
laid for that suspicion ; that this Paul, whom they so much ex-
tolled, was no more than a minister of Christ, whom our Lord
had appointed to plant and build up his church.
IV. Great was his temperance and sobriety, so far from going
beyond the bounds of regularity, that he abridged himself of the
conveniences of lawful and necessary accommodations ; frequent
his hungerings and thirstings, not constrained only, but volun-
tary : it is probably thought that he very rarely drank any wine ;
certain, that by abstinence and mortification he kept under and
subdued his body, reducing the extravagancy of the sensual ap-
petites to a perfect subjection to the laws of reason. By this
means he easily got above the world, and its charms and frowns ;
and his mind continually conversant in heaven, his thoughts were
fixed there, his desires always ascending thither : what he taught
others he practised himself ; his conversation was in heaven, and
his desires were to depart and to be with Christ ; this world did
neither arrest his affections nor disturb his fears, he was not taken
with its applause nor frighted with its threatenings ; he studied
not to please men, nor valued the censures and judgments which
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307
they passed upon him; he was not greedy of a great estate, or
titles of honour, or rich presents from men, not seeking theirs
but them : food and raiment was his bill of fare, and more
than this he never cared for; accounting, that the less he
was clogged with these things, the lighter he should march
to heaven, especially travelling through a world overrun with
troubles and persecutions. Upon this account, it is probable
he kept himself always within a single life, though there want
not some of the ancients who expressly reckon him in the number
of the married apostles, as Clemens Alexandrinus, b Ignatius, 0 and
some others. It is true, that passage is not to be found in the
genuine epistle of Ignatius, but yet is extant in all those that are
owned and published by the church of Borne, though they have
not been wanting to banish it out of the world, having expunged
St. Paul's name out of some ancient manuscripts, as the learned
bishop Usher d has, to their shame, sufficiently discovered to the
world. But for the main of the question we can readily grant it,
the scriptures seeming most to favour it, that though he asserted
his power and liberty to marry as well as the rest, yet that he
lived always a single life.
V. His kindness and charity was truly admirable ; he had a
compassionate tenderness for the poor, and a quick sense of the
wants of others : to what church soever he came, it was one of
his first cares to make provision for the poor, and to stir up the
bounty of the rich and wealthy ; nay, himself worked often with
his own hands, not only to maintain himself, but to help and
relieve them. But infinitely greater was his charity to the souls
of men, fearing no dangers, refusing no labours, going through
good and evil report, that he might gain men over to the know-
ledge of the truth, reduce them out of the crooked paths of vice
and idolatry, and set them in the right way to eternal life ; nay,
so insatiable his thirst after the good of souls, that he affirms,
that rather than his countrymen, the Jews, should miscarry by
not believing and entertaining the gospel, he could be content,
nay wished, that himself " might be accursed from Christ for their
sake," i. e. that he might be anathematized and cut off from the
b Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. iii. c. 6.
c Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelph. a. 4. vol. ii. p. 146. Euseb. 1. iii. c. 30.
d Usser. not in Ignat. Epist ad Philadelph. vid. James, his Corrupt of the Faith, part
ii p. 57.
x2
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church of Christ, and not only lose the honour of the apostolate,
but be reckoned in the number of the abject and execrable
persons, such as those who are separated from the communion of
the church : an instance of so large and passionate a charity,
that lest it might not find room in men's belief, he ushered it in
with his solemn appeal and attestation, that " he said the truth
in Christ and lied not, his conscience bearing him witness in the
Holy Ghost." And as he was infinitely solicitous to gain men
over to the best religion in the world, so was he not less careful
to keep them from being seduced from it, ready to suspect every
thing that might " corrupt their minds from the simplicity that
is in Christ." " I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy,"
as he told the church of Corinth : e an affection of all others the
most active and vigilant, and which is wont to inspire men with
the most passionate care and concernment for the good of those
for whom we have the highest measures of love and kindness.
Nor was his charity to men greater than his zeal for God, endea-
vouring with all his might to promote the honour of his Master.
Indeed, zeal seems to have had a deep foundation in the natural
forwardness of his temper. How exceedingly zealous was he, while
in the Jews 1 religion, of the traditions of his fathers ; how earnest
to vindicate and assert the divinity of the Mosaic dispensation,
and to persecute all of a contrary way, even to rage and mad-
ness ? And when afterwards turned into a right channel, it ran
with as swift a current ; carrying him out against all opposition
to ruin the kingdom and the powers of darkness, to beat down
idolatry, and to plant the world with right apprehensions of God
and the true notions of religion. When at Athens he saw them
so much overgrown with the grossest superstition and idolatry,
giving the honour that was alone due to God to statues and
images, his zeal began to ferment, and to boil up into paroxisms
of indignation ; and he could not but let them know the resent-
ments of his mind, and how much herein they dishonoured God,
the great Parent and Maker of the world.
VI. This zeal must needs put him upon a mighty diligence
and industry in the execution of his office : warning, reproving,
entreating, persuading, " preaching in season and out of season,"
by night and by day, by sea and land ; no pains too much to be
taken, no dangers too great to be overcome. For five and thirty
« 2 Cor. xi. 2. ct vid. Chrysost. Horn, xxiii. s. 1. in 2 ad Cor. vol. x. p. 595.
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years after his conversion, he seldom stayed long in one place ;
from Jerusalem, through Arabia, Asia, Greece, round about to
Illyricum, to Rome, and even to the utmost bounds of the
Western world, " fully preaching the gospel of Christ running
(saith St. Jerome) from ocean to ocean, like the sun in the
heavens, of which it is said, " his going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it sooner wanting
ground to tread on, than a desire to propagate the faith of Christ.
Nicephorus compares him to a bird in the air, f that in a few
years flew round the world ; Isidore the Pelusiot, e to a winged
husbandman, that flew from place to place to cultivate the world
with the most excellent rules and institutions of life. And while
the other apostles did, as it were, choose this or that particular
province as the main sphere of their ministry, St. Paul overran
the whole world to its utmost bounds and corners, planting all
places where he came with the divine doctrines of the gospel.
Nor in this course was he tired out with the dangers and diffi-
culties that he met with, the troubles and oppositions that were
raised against him : all which did but reflect the greater lustre
upon his patience, whereof, indeed, (as Clement observes, 11 ) he
became /jLiyiaros viroypafifjub^, " a most eminent pattern and ex-
emplar," enduring the biggest troubles and persecutions with a
patience triumphant and unconquerable ; as will easily appear,
if we take but a survey of what trials and sufferings he under-
went, some part whereof are briefly summed up by himself : 1
" In labours abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons fre-
quent, in deaths oft ; thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day in the deep : in journey-
ings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among
false brethren ; in weariness, in painfullness, in watchings often,
in hunger and thirst ; in fastings often, in cold and nakedness :
and besides these things that were without, that which daily came
upon him, the care of all the churches.'" An account, though
very great, yet far short of what he endured ; and wherein, as
Chrysostom observes, k he does o-<f>68pa fjuerptd^eiv, "modestly
keep himself within his measures for had he taken the liberty
f Lib. iii. c 1. * Lib. iii. Epist. 176. ad Isid. Diac. h Epist. ad Cor. s. 5.
1 2 Cor. xi. 23. et seq. k Chrysost. Horn. xxv. s. 3. in 2 ad Cor. vol. x. p. 617.
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fully to have enlarged himself, he might have filled hundreds of
martyrologie8 with his sufferings. A thousand times was his
life at stake ; in every suffering he was a martyr ; and what fell
but in parcels upon others, came all upon him ; while they
skirmished only with single parties, he had the whole army of
sufferings to contend with. All which he generously underwent,
with a soul as calm and serene as the morning sun ; no spite or
rage, no fury or storms, could ruffle and discompose his spirit :
nay, those sufferings which would have broken the back of an
ordinary patience, did but make him rise up with greater eager-
ness and resolution for the doing of his duty.
VII. His patience will yet farther appear from the considera-
tion of another, the last of those virtues we shall take notice of
in him, his constancy and fidelity in the discharge of his place,
and in the profession of religion. Could the powers and policies
of men and devils, spite and oppositions, torments and threaten-
ings, have been able to baffle him out of that religion wherein he
had engaged himself, he must have sunk under them, and left
his station : but his soul was steeled with a courage and resolu-
tion that was impenetrable, and which no temptation, either from
hopes or fears, could make any more impression upon, than an
arrow can that is shot against a wall of marble. He wanted
not solicitation on either hand, both from Jews and Gentiles, and
questionless might, in some degree, have made his own terms,
would he have been false to his trust, and have quitted that way
that was then everywhere spoken against. But, alas ! these
things weighed little with our apostle, who " counted not his life
to be dear unto him, so that he might finish his course with joy,
and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus
and therefore, when under the sentence of death in his own appre-
hensions, could triumphingly say, " I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith and so indeed
he did ; kept it inviolably, undauntedly, to the last minute of his
life. The sum is, he was a man in whom the divine life did
eminently manifest and display itself ; he lived piously and de-
voutly, soberly and temperately, justly and righteously ; careful
"alway to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God
and man," This, he tells us, was his support under suffering ;
this the foundation of his confidence towards God, and his firm
hopes of happiness in another world : " this is our rejoicing, the
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testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sin-
cerity we have had our conversation in the world." 1
VIII. It is not the least instance of his care and fidelity in
his office, that he did not only preach and plant Christianity in
all places whither he came, but what he could not personally do,
he supplied by writing. Fourteen epistles he left upon record,
by which he was not only instrumental in propagating Christian
religion at first, but has been useful to the world ever since in
all ages of the church. We have all along, in the history of his
life, taken particular notice of them in their due place and order ;
we shall here only make some general observations and remarks
upon them, and that as to the style and way wherein they are
written, their order, and the subscriptions that are added to
them. For the apostle's style and manner of writing, it is plain
and simple ; and though not set off with the elaborate artifices,
and affected additional of human eloquence, yet grave and
majestical ; and that by the confession of his very enemies : " his
letters (say they) are weighty and powerful."" 1 Nor are there
wanting in them some strains of rhetoric, which sufficiently
testify his ability that way, had he made it any part of his
study and design. Indeed, Jerome is sometimes too rude and
bold in his censures of St. Paul's style and character." He tells
us, that being an Hebrew of the Hebrews, and admirably skilled
in the language of his nation, he was greatly defective in the
Greek tongue, (though a late great critic is of another mind, 0 af-
firming him to have been as well or better skilled in Greek, than
in Hebrew or in Syriac,) wherein he could not sufficiently express
his conceptions in a way becoming the majesty of his sense and
the matter he delivered, nor transmit the elegancy of his native
tongue into another language: that hence he became obscure
and intricate in his expressions, guilty many times of solecisms,
and scarce tolerable syntax s and that therefore it was not his
humility, but the truth of the thing, that made him say, that
" he came not with the excellency of speech, but in the power
of God." A censure from any other than St. Jerome that
would have been justly wondered at : but we know the liberty
that he takes to censure any, though the reverence due to so
1 2 Cor. i 12. m 2 Cor. x. 10.
n Ad Algas. Quaest 11. Quaest. 11. ad Hedib. In Eph. iii. Com. in Gal. iii.
° Salmas. de Hellenist, par. i. quaest. 6.
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great an apostle might, one would think, have challenged a more
modest censure at his hands. However, elsewhere he cries him
up as a great master of composition : p that as oft as he heard him,
he seemed to hear not words, but thunder ; that in all his cita-
tions he made use of the most prudent artifices, using simple
words, and which seemed to carry nothing but plainness along
with them, but which way soever a man turned, breathed force
and thunder : he seems entangled in his cause, but catches all
that comes near him ; turns his back, as if intending to fly, when
it is only that he may overcome.
IX. St. Peter long since observed,* 1 that in Paul's epistles
there were Svavorjrd rcva, " some things hard to be understood
which surely is not altogether owing to the profoundness of his
sense and the mysteriousness of the subject that he treats of,
but in some degree to his manner of expression ; his frequent
Hebraisms, (common to him with all the holy writers of the
New Testament,) his peculiar forms and ways of speech, his often
inserting Jewish opinions, and yet but tacitly touching them,
his using some words in a new and uncommon sense ; but, above
all, his frequent and abrupt transitions, suddenly starting aside
from one thing to another, whereby his reader is left at a loss,
not knowing which way to follow him, not a little contributing
to the perplexed obscurity of his discourses. Irenaeus took
notice of old/ that St. Paul makes frequent use of these hyperbata,
by reason of the swiftness of his arguings, and the great fervour
and impetus that was in him ; leaving many times the designed
frame and texture of his discourse, not bringing in what should
have immediately connected the sense and order, till some dis-
tance after : which indeed, to men of a more nice and delicate
temper, and who will not give themselves leave patiently to trace
out his reasonings, must needs create some obscurity. Origen
and St. Jerome sometimes observe, that besides this, he uses
many of his native phrases of the Oilician dialect ; which being
iu a great measure foreign and exotic to the ordinary Greek, in-
troduces a kind of strangeness into his discourse, and renders it
less intelligible. Epiphanius tells us, 8 that by these methods he
acted like a skilful archer, hitting the mark before his adversaries
p Epist. xxx. pro libb. adv. Jovin. vol. iv. par. ii. p. 236.
i 2 Pet. iii. 16. r Adv. Haer. L iii. c. 7. p. 248.
• Hacres. lxiv. c. '29.
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SAINT PAUL.
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were aware of it ; by words misplaced, making the frame of his
discourse seem obscure and entangled, while in itself it was not
only most true, but elaborate, and not difficult to be understood ;
that to careless and trifling readers it might sometimes seem
dissonant and incoherent, but to them that are diligent, and will
take their reason along with them, it would appear full of truth,
and to be disposed with great care and order.
X. As for the order of these epistles, we have already given
a particular account of the times when, and the places whence
they were written. That which is here considerable, is the
order according to which they are disposed in the sacred canon.
Certain it is that they are not placed according to the just order
of time wherein they were written; the two epistles to the
Thessalonians being on all hands agreed to have been first
written, though set almost last in order. Most probable, there-
fore, it is, that they were placed according to the dignity of
those to whom they were sent : the reason why those to whole
churches have the precedency of those to particular persons,
and among those to churches that to the Romans had the first
place and rank assigned to it, was because of the majesty of the
imperial city, and the eininency and honourable respect which
that church derived thence ; and whether the same reason do
not hold in others, though I will not positively assert, yet I
think none will over-confidently deny. The last inquiry con-
cerns the subscriptions added to the end of these epistles;
which, were they authentic, would determine some doubts con-
cerning the time and place of their writing. But, alas, they
are of no just value and authority, not the same in all copies ;
different in the Syriac and Arabic versions, nay, wholly wanting
in some ancient Greek copies of the New Testament, and were
doubtless at first added at best upon probable conjectures. When
at any time they truly represent the place whence, or the person
by whom the epistle was sent, it is not that they are to be
relied upon in it, but because the thing is either intimated or
expressed in the body of the epistle. I shall add no more but
this observation, that St. Paul was wont to subscribe every epistle
with his own hand,* " which is my token in every epistle ; so I
write: " which was done (says one of the ancients") to prevent
impostures, that his epistles might not be interpolated and cor-
* 2 Thess. iii. 17. u Ambr. in loc.
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rupted; and that if any vented epistles under his name, the
cheat might be discovered by the apostle's own hand not being
to them : and this brings me to the last consideration, that shall
conclude this chapter.
XI. That there were some, even in the most early ages of
Christianity, who took upon them (for what ends I stand not
now to inquire) to write books, and publish them under the
name of some apostle, is notoriously known to any, though but
never so little conversant in church antiquities. Herein St. Paul
had his part and share; several supposititious writings being
fathered and thrust upon him. We find a gospel ascribed by
some of the ancients to him, which surely arose from no other
cause, than that in some of his epistles he makes mention of my
gospel : which, as St. J erome observes," can be meant of no
other than the gospel of St. Luke, his constant attendant, and
from whom he chiefly derived his intelligence. If he wrote an-
other epistle to the Corinthians, precedent to those two extant
at this day, as he seems to imply in a passage in his first epistle,*
" I have wrote unto you in an epistle, not to keep company," &c.
a passage not conveniently applicable to any other part either in
that or the other epistle, nay, a verse or two after, the first
epistle is directly opposed to it : y all that can be said in the case
is, that it long since perished, the Divine Providence not seeing
it necessary to be preserved for the service of the church. Fre-
quent mention there is also of an epistle of his to the Laodiceans,
grounded upon a mistaken passage in the epistle to the Co-
lossians : z but besides that the apostle does not there speak of an
epistle written to the Laodiceans, but of one from them, Tertullian
tells us, a that by the epistle to the Laodiceans is meant that to
the Ephesians, and that Marcion the heretic was the first that
changed the title ; and therefore, in his enumeration of St. Paul's
epistles, he omits that to the Ephesians, for no other reason,
doubtless, but that according to Mansion's opinion he had
reckoned it up under the title of that to the Laodiceans : which
yet is more clear, if we consider that Epiphanius, citing a place
quoted by Marcion out of the epistle to the Laodiceans, 6 it is in
the very same words found in that to the Ephesians at this day.
n De Script. EccL in Luc.
y 1 Cor. v. 11.
* Ad?. Marc. Lv.c 11. ibid, c 17.
* 1 Cor. v. 9.
* Coliv. 16.
b Hares, xlii. p. 319.
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However, such an epistle is still extant, forged no doubt before
St. Jerome's time ; who tells us, c that it was read by some, but
yet exploded and rejected by all. Besides these, there was
his Eevelation, d called also ' Ava&aritcbv, or his " ascension
grounded on his ecstacy or rapture into heaven, first forged by
the Cainian heretics, and in great use and estimation among the
Gnostics. Sozomen tells us, e that this apocalypse was owned
by none of the ancients, though much commended by some
monks in his time : and he farther adds, that in the time of the
emperor Theodosius, it was said to have been found in an
underground chest of marble in St. Paul's house at Tarsus, and
that by a particular revelation : a story which upon inquiry he
found to be as false, as the book itself was forged and spurious.
The Acts of St. Paul are mentioned both by Origen f and Eu-
sebius, 8 but not as writings of approved and unquestionable credit
and authority. The epistles that are said to have passed be-
tween St. Paul and Seneca, how early soever they started in
the church, yet the falsehood and fabulousness of them is now
too notoriously known, to need any farther account or descrip-
tion of them.
SECTION IX.
THE PRINCIPAL CONTROVERSIES THAT EXERCISED THE CHURCH IN
HIS TIME.
Simon Magus, the father of heretics. The wretched principles and practices of him and his
followers. Their asserting angel-worship ; and how countermined hy St Paul Their
holding it lawful to sacrifice to idols, and abjure the faith in times of persecution, dis-
covered and opposed by St Paul. Their maintaining an universal licence to sin.
Their manners and opinions herein described by St Paul in his epistles. The great
controversy of those times about the obligation of the law of Moses upon the Gentile
converts. The original of it, whence. The mighty veneration which the Jews had
for the law of Moses. The true state of the controversy, what The determination
made in it by the apostolic synod at Jerusalem. Meats offered to idols, what Ab-
stinence from blood, why enjoined of old. Things strangled, why forbidden. Forni-
cation commonly practised and accounted lawful among the Gentiles. The hire of the
harlot, what How dedicated to their deities among the heathens. The main passages
in St Paul's epistles concerning justification and salvation shewed to have respect to
this controversy. What meant by law, and what by faith, in St Paul's epistles. The
c De Script Eccl. in Paulo.
d Epiph. Haeres. xxxviii. c 2. August in Joan. Tract xcviiL s. 8. vol. iii. par. ii. p. 743.
« Hist Eccl. 1. vil c. 19. f Orig. x*p. *Apx« L i. c 2. * Euseb. 1. iii. c. 3.
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persons whom he had to deal with in this controversy, who. The Jews' strange doting
npon circumcision. The way and manner of the apostle's reasoning in this controversy
considered. His chief arguments shewed immediately to respect the case of the
Jewish and Gentile converts. No other controversy in those times which his dis-
courses could refer to. Two consectaries from this discourse. I. That works of evan-
gelical obedience are not opposed to faith in justification. What meant by works of
evangelical obedience. This method of justification excludes boasting, and entirely
gives the glory to God. II. That the doctrines of St Paul and St James about
justification are fairly consistent with each other. These two apostles shewed to
pursue the same design. St James's excellent reasonings to that purpose.
Though our Lord and his apostles delivered the Christian re-
ligion, especially as to the main and essential parts of it, in
words as plain as words could express it, yet were there men of
perverse and " corrupt minds, and reprobate concerning the faith,"
who, from different causes, some ignorantly or wilfully mistaking
the doctrines of Christianity, others to serve ill purposes and de-
signs, began to introduce errors and unsound opinions into the
church, and to debauch the minds of men from the simplicity of the
gospel, hereby disquieting the thoughts and alienating the affec-
tions of men, and disturbing the peace and order of the church.
The first ringleader of this heretical crew was Simon Magus, who
not being able to attain his ends of the apostles, by getting a
power to confer miraculous gifts, whereby he designed to greaten
and enrich himself, resolved to be revenged of them; scattering the
most poisonous tares among the good wheat that they had sown,
bringing in the most pernicious principles, and, as the natural
consequent of that, patronizing the most debauched villanous
practices, and this under a pretence of still being Christians. To
enumerate the several dogmata and damnable heresies, first
broached by Simon, and then vented and propagated by his dis-
ciples and followers, who, though passing under different titles,
yet all centred at last in the name of Gnostics, (a term which
we shall sometimes use for conveniency, though it took not place
till after St. PauFs time,) were as needless as it is alien to my
purpose. I shall only take notice of a few of more signal re-
mark, and such as St. Paul in his epistles does eminently reflect
upon.
II. Amongst the opinions and principles of Simon and his
followers, this was one : h that God did not create the world ;
h Iren. 1. i. c. 20. Epiph. Haer. xxi. Tert de Prsescr. Haeret c. 33. et c. 4G. Aug. de
Haeres. Haar. xxxix.
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817
that it was made by angels ; that divine honours were due to
them, and they to be adored as subordinate mediators between
God and us. This our apostle saw growing up apace, and struck
betimes at the root, in that early caution he gave to the Colos-
sians, to " let no man beguile them in a voluntary humility, and
worshipping of angels ; intruding into those things which he
hath not seen ; vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind ; and not
holding the head;" 1 i. e. hereby disclaiming Christ, the head of
the church. But notwithstanding this warning, this error still
continued, and spread itself in those parts for several ages, till
expressly condemned by the Laodicean council. j Nay, Theodoret
tells us, k that in his time there were still oratories erected to the
archangel Michael in those places, wherein they were wont to
meet and pray to angels. Another Gnostic principle was, that
men might freely and indifferently eat what had been offered in
sacrifice to idols ; 1 yea, sacrifice to the idol itself, it being lawful
confidently to abjure the faith in time of persecution. The first
part whereof St. Paul does largely and frequently discuss up and
down his epistles : the latter, wherein the sting and poison was
more immediately couched, was craftily adapted to those times of
suffering, and greedily swallowed by many, hereby drawn into
apostacy. Against this our apostle antidotes the Christians, espe-
cially the Jewish converts, among whom the Gnostics had mixed
themselves, that they would not suffer themselves to be drawn
aside by " an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living
God ;" ra that, notwithstanding sufferings and persecutions, they
would 44 hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering ;
not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, as the
manner of some is," (the Gnostic heretics,) remembering how se-
verely God has threatened apostates, that 44 if any man draw back,
his soul shall have no pleasure in him ;" and 44 what a fearful
thing it is, thus to fall into the hands of the living God." n
III. But besides this, Simon and his followers made the gate
yet wider, maintaining an universal license to sin, that men were
free to do whatever they had a mind to ;° that to press the ob-
servance of good works was a bondage inconsistent with the
liberty of the gospel ; that so men did but believe in him, arid
1 CoL ii. 18. J Can. xxxv.
1 Orig. adv. Cels. L vi. s. 11. Euseb. 1. iv. c. 7.
■ Heb.x. 23. 25. 31.38.
k Theod. comment in Col. ii.
m Heb. iii. 12.
• Iren. ady. Haer. 1. i. c. 20,
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his dear Helen, they had no reason to regard law or prophets,
but might do what they pleased; they should be saved by his
grace, and not according to good works. Irenseus adds, (what a
man might easily have inferred, had he never been told it,) that
they lived in all lust and filthiness ; as, indeed, whoever will
take the pains to peruse the account that is given of them, will
find that they wallowed in the most horrible and unheard-of
bestialities. These persons St. Paul does as particularly describe
as if he had named them, having once and again, with tears,
warned the Philippians of them,? that they " were enemies of
the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose God is
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
things." And elsewhere, to the same effect, q that they would
" mark them that caused divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which they had learned, and avoid them : for they that
were such, served not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly;
by good words and fair speeches deceiving the hearts of the
simple. 11 This, I doubt not, he had in his eye, when he gave those
caveats to the Ephesians/ that " fornication, and all uncleanness,
and inordinate desires, should not be once named amongst them, as
became saints ; nor filthiness, nor unclean talking being assured
by the Christian doctrine, that " no whoremonger, nor unclean
person," &c. could be saved : that therefore " they should let no
man deceive them with vain words ; these being the very things
for which the wrath of God came upon the children of disobedi-
ence, 11 and, accordingly, it became them " not to be partakers
with them plainly intimating that this impure Gnostic crew
(whose doctrines and practices he does here no less truly than
lively represent) had begun, by crafty and insinuative arts, to
screw itself into the church of Ephesus, cheating the people
with subtle and flattering insinuations, probably persuading them
that these things were but indifferent, and a part of that Chris-
tian liberty wherein the gospel had instated them. By these
and such like principles and practices (many whereof might be
reckoned up) they corrupted the faith of Christians, distracted
the peace of the church, stained and defiled the honour and
purity of the best religion in the world.
IV. But the greatest and most famous controversy that of all
others, in those times, exercised the Christian church, was con-
p Phil. iii. 17, 1R. « Rom. xvl 17, 18. r Eph. v. 3, 4, etc.
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cerning the obligation that Christians were under to observe the
law of Moses, as necessary to their justification and salvation :
which because a matter of so much importance, and which takes
up so great a part of St. Paul's epistles, and the clearing whereof
will reflect a great light upon them, we shall consider more at
large. In order whereunto, three things especially are to be in-
quired after : the true state of the controversy ; what the apostles
determined in this matter ; and what respect the most material
passages in St. Paul's epistles about justification and salvation
bear to this controversy. First we shall inquire into the true
state and nature of the controversy; and for this we are to
know, that when Christianity was published to the world, it
mainly prevailed among the Jews, they being generally the first
converts to the faith. But having been brought up in a mighty
reverence and veneration for the Mosaic institutions, and looking
upon that economy as immediately contrived by God himself,
delivered by angels, settled by their great master Moses, re-
ceived with the most solemn and sensible appearances of divine
power and majesty, ratified by miracles, and entertained by all
their forefathers as the peculiar prerogative of that nation for so
many ages and generations, they could not easily be brought off
from it, or behold the gospel but with an evil eye, as an enemy
that came to supplant and undermine this ancient and excellent
institution. Nay, those of them that were prevailed upon, by
the convictive power and evidence of the gospel, to embrace the
Christian religion, yet could not get over the prejudice of educa-
tion, but must still continue their observance of those legal rites
and customs wherein they had been brought up : and, not con-
tent with this, they began magisterially to impose them upon
others, even all the Gentile converts, as that without which they
could never be accepted by God in this, or rewarded by him in
another world. This controversy was first started at Antioch,
a place not more remarkable for its own greatness, than the vast
numbers of Jews that dwelt there, enjoying great immunities,
granted them by the king of Syria \* for after that Antiochus
Epiphanes had destroyed Jerusalem, and laid waste the temple,
the Jews generally flocked hither, where they were courteously
entertained by his successors, the spoils of the temple restored
to them for the enriching and adorning of their synagogue, and
■ Joseph, de Bell. Jud. 1. vii. c. 21.
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they made equally with the Greeks freemen of that city: by
which means their numbers increased daily, partly by the resort
of others from Judea, partly by a numerous conversion of pro-
selytes, whom they gained over to their religion. Accordingly,
Christianity, at its first setting out, found a very successful en-
tertainment in this place. And hither it was that some of the
Jewish converts being come down from Jerusalem, taught the
Christians,* that unless they observed circumcision, and the whole
law of Moses, they could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas, then
at Antioch, observing the ill influence that this had upon the
minds of men, (disturbing many at present, and causing the
apostacy of some afterwards,) began vigorously to oppose this
growing error ; but not able to conjure down this spirit that had
been raised up, they were despatched by the church at Antioch
to consult the apo&tles and governors at Jerusalem about this
matter: whither being come, they found the quarrel espoused
among others by some converts of the sect of the Pharisees, (of
all others the most zealous assertors of the Mosaic rites,) stiffly
maintaining, that besides the gospel, or the Christian religion, it
was necessary for all converts, whether Jews or Gentiles, to keep
to circumcision, and the law of Moses. So that the state of the
controversy between the orthodox and these Judaizing Christians
was plainly this, " Whether circumcision and the observation of
the Mosaic law, or only the belief and practice of Christianity, be
necessary to salvation ?" The latter part of the question was
maintained by the apostles, the former asserted by the J udaizing
zealots, making the law of Moses equally necessary with the law
of Christ: and no doubt pretending, that whatever these men
might preach at Antioch, yet the apostles were of another mind ;
whose sentence and resolution it was therefore thought necessary
should be immediately known.
XV. We are then next to consider what determination the
apostolic synod at Jerusalem made of this matter. For a council
of the apostles and rulers being immediately convened, and the
question by Paul and Barnabas brought before them, the case
was canvassed and debated on all hands : and at last it was re-
solved upon, by their unanimous sentence and suffrage, that the
Gentile converts were under no obligation to the Jewish law;
that God had abundantly declared his acceptance of them, though
* Acts xv. 1.
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strangers to the Mosaical economy; that they were sufficiently
secured of their happiness and salvation by the grace of the
gospel, wherein they might be justified and saved without cir-
cumcision or legal ceremonies, a yoke from which Christ had now
set us free. But because the apostles did not think it prudent,
in these circumstances, too much to stir the exasperated humour
of the Jews, (lest by straining the string too high at first, they
should endanger their revolting from the faith,) therefore they
thought of some indulgence in the case ; St. J ames, then bishop
of Jerusalem, and probably president of the council, propounding
this expedient : that for the present the Gentile converts should
so far only comply with the humour of the Jews, as to " abstain
from meats offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled,
and from fornication. 11 Let us a little more distinctly survey the
ingredients of this imposition. ' " Meats offered to idols, 11 or, as
St. James in his discourse styles them, aXiay^fiara t&v elB6\cov y
"the pollution of idols; 11 the word aXKry^fiara properly de-
noting, the meats that were polluted by being consecrated to the
idol. Thus we read of SfcUD tonb, apro? rjXiayr) pivot, (as the
Seventy render it,) " polluted bread upon God's altar, 11 i. e. such
probably as had been before offered to idols. So that these
meats offered to the idols were parts of those sacrifices which
the heathens offered to their gods, of the remaining portions
whereof they usually made a feast in the idol-temple, inviting
their friends thither, and sometimes their Christian friends to
come along with them. This, God had particularly forbidden the
Jews by the law of Moses, u " thou shalt worship no other God :
lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and
go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods,
and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice. 11 And the not
observing this prohibition cost the Jews dear: when invited by
the Moabites to the sacrifices of their gods, x " they did eat
with them, and bowed down to their gods. 11 Sometimes these
remaining portions were sold for common use in the shambles,
and bought by Christians. Both which gave great offence to
the zealous Jews, who looked upon it as a participation in the
idolatries of the heathen : of both which our apostle discourses
elsewhere at large, pressing Christians to " abstain from idolatry, 11
both as to the idol-feasts, and the remainders of the sacrifice :
u Exod. xxxiv. 14, 15. x Numb. xxv. 2—4.
Y
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from the former, as more immediately unlawful ; from the latter,
the sacrificial meats sold in the shambles, as giving offence to
weak and undiscerning Christians. For though in itself u an
idol was nothing in the world, " and consequently no honour
could be done it by eating what was offered to it, yet was it
more prudent and reasonable to abstain, partly because flesh-
meats have no peculiar excellency in them to commend us to
God ; partly because all men were not alike instructed in the
knowledge of their liberty, their minds easily puzzled, and their
consciences entangled, the Gentiles by this means hardened in
their idolatrous practices, weak brethren offended ; besides,
though these things were in their own nature indifferent, and in
a man's own power to do, or to let alone, yet was it not con-
venient to make our liberty a snare to others, and to venture
upon what was lawful, when it was plainly unedifying and in-
expedient. "From blood this God forbad of old, and that
sometime before the giving of the law by Moses, y that " they
should not eat the flesh with the blood, which was the life
thereof. 11 The mystery of which prohibition was to instruct men
in the duties of mercy and tenderness even to brute beasts, but
(as appears from what follows after) primarily designed by God
as a solemn fence and bar against murder, and the effusion of
human blood : a law afterwards renewed upon the Jews, and
inserted into the body of the Mosaic precepts. " From things
strangled: 11 that is, that they should abstain from eating of
those beasts that died without letting blood, where the blood
was not throughly drained from them ; a prohibition grounded
upon the reason of the former, and indeed was greatly abominable
to the Jews, being so expressly forbidden in their law. 2 But it
was not more offensive to the Jews than acceptable to the
Gentiles, 11 who were wont with great art and care to strangle
living creatures, that they might stew or dress them with their
blood in them, as a point of curious and exquisite delicacy. This
and the foregoing prohibition, abstinence from blood, died not
with the apostles, nor were buried with other Jewish rites, but
were inviolably observed for several ages in the Christian church,
as we have elsewhere observed from the writers of those times. b
y Gen. ix. 4. * Levit xvii. 10, 11, 12, etc.
* Athen. Deipnos. L ii. c. 24. ubi vid. Casaub. in loc.
b Prim. Christ, par. iii. c. 1.
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Lastly, "From fornication :" this was a thing commonly prac-
tised in the heathen world, who generally beheld simple fornica-
tion as no sin, c and that it was lawful for persons, not engaged
in wedlock, to make use of women that exposed themselves. A
custom justly offensive to the Jews, and therefore, to cure two
evils at once, the apostles here solemnly declare against it. Not
that they thought it a thing indifferent, as the rest of the pro-
hibited rites were, for it is forbidden by the natural law, (as
contrary to that chasteness and modesty, that order and come-
liness, which God has planted in the minds of men,) but they
joined it in the same class with them, because the Gentiles looked
upon it as a thing lawful and indifferent. It had been expressly
forbidden by the Mosaic law, d " there shall be no whore of the
daughters of Israel ;" and because the heathens had generally
thrown down this fence and bar set by the law of nature, it was
here again repaired by the first planters of Christianity, as by
St. Paul elsewhere, 6 " Ye know what commandments we gave
you by the Lord J esus ; for this is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication : that every
one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification
and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles
which know not God." Though, after all, I must confess myself
inclinable to embrace Heinsius^s ingenious conjecture, that by
wopvela, " fornication," we are here to understand ir6pvrj<;
fil<rOa)fia, " the harlot's hire," or the iropviicr) Ov<rca, " the offering
which those persons were wont to make." For among the Gentiles,
nothing was more usual than for the common women, that prosti-
tuted themselves to lewd embraces, (those especially that attended
at the temples of VenuSj) to dedicate some part of their gain, and
present it to the gods. Athanasius has a passage very express
to this purpose : f Twalices yovv iv elSaXehis 7779 $oivl/cri$
iraKai Trpoe/caOi&vro, airap'xpfievcu rot? itcei Oeoi? iavr&v rt}v
rod o-wfiaro? luaOapviaV) vofil£ov<rai rfj iropveiq rrjv Oeov iavr&v
i\da/ce<rOai, teal eh evfiiveiav a^/etv avrrjv Bta tovtwv : " The
women of old were wont to sit 'in the idol temples of Phoenicia,
and to dedicate the gain which they got by the prostitution of
c Vid. Cicer. pro Ccelio, Orat xxxiv. Terent Adelph. act i. sc. 2. Philem. Comic,
in Delph. ap. Athen. 1. xiii. c. 3. Vid. Leg. Attic 1. vi. tit. v. p. 41. et Petit. Comm.
p. 474.
d Deut xxiii. 17. « 1 Thess. iv. 2—5. f Orat adv. Gent s. 2b\
Y 2
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their bodies, as a kind of first-fruits to the deities of the place ;
supposing that by fornication they should pacify their goddess,
and by this means render her favourable and propitious to them."
Where it is plain he uses iropvela^ or " fornication," in this very
sense, for that gain or reward of it which they consecrated to
their gods. Some such thing Solomon had in his eye, g when he
brings in the harlot thus courting the young man, " I have peace-
offerings with me, this day have I paid my vows." These pre-
sents were either made in specie, the very money thus un-
righteously gotten, or in sacrifices bought with it, and offered at
the temple, the remainders whereof were taken and sold among
the ordinary sacrificial portions. This as it holds the nearest
correspondence with the rest of the rites here forbidden, so could
it not choose but be a mighty scandal to the Jews, it being so
particularly prohibited in their law, h " Thou shalt not bring the
hire of an whore into the house of the Lord thy God for any
vow, for it is an abomination to the Lord."
VI. These prohibitions, here laid upon the Gentiles, were by
the apostles intended only for a temporary compliance with the
Jewish converts, till they could by degrees be brought off from
their stiffness and obstinacy, and then the reason of the thing
ceasing, the obligation to it must needs cease and fail. Nay, we
may observe, that even while the apostolical decree lasted in its
greatest force and power, in those places where there were few or
no Jewish converts, the apostle did not stick to give leave, that,
except in case of scandal, any kind of meats, even the portions
of the idol-sacrifices, might be indifferently bought and taken by
Christians as well as Heathens. These were all which, in order
to the satisfaction of the Jews, and for the present peace of the
church, the apostles thought necessary to require of the converted
Gentiles, but that for all the rest they were perfectly free from
legal observances, obliged only to the commands of Christianity.
So that the apostolical decision that was made of this matter
was this : " that (besides the temporary observation of those few
indifferent rites before mentioned) the belief and practice of the
Christian religion was perfectly sufficient to salvation, without
circumcision, and the observation of the Mosaic law." This
synodical determination allayed the controversy for a while,
being joyfully received by the Gentile Christians. But, alas ! the
- s Prov. vii. 14. »> Deut. xxiii. 18.
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Jewish zeal began again to ferment and spread itself; they could
not with any patience endure to see their beloved Moses deserted,
and those venerable institutions trodden down, and therefore la-
boured to keep up their credit, and still to assert them as ne-
cessary to salvation : than which nothing created St. Paul
greater trouble at every turn, being forced to contend against
these Judaizing teachers almost in every church where he came ;
as appears by that great part that they bear in all his epistles,
especially that to the Romans, and Galatians, where this leaven
had most diffused itself: whom the better to undeceive, he dis-
courses at large of the nature and institution, the end and design,
the antiquating and abolishing of that Mosaic covenant, which
these men laid so much stress and weight upon.
VII. Hence then we pass to the third thing considerable for
the clearing of this matter, which is to shew, that the main pas-
sages in St. Paul's epistles, concerning justification and salvation,
have an immediate reference to this controversy. But before we
enter upon that, something must necessarily be premised for the
explicating some terms and phrases frequently used by our apo-
stle in this question ; these two especially, what he means by law,
and what by faith. By law, then, it is plain, he usually under-
stands the Jewish law, which was a complex body of laws, con-
taining moral, ceremonial, and judicial precepts, each of which
had its use and office as a great instrument of duty. The judicial
laws, being peculiar statutes accommodated to the state of the
Jews 1 commonwealth, as all civil constitutions, restrained men
from the external acts of sin : the ceremonial laws came some-
what nearer, and besides their typical relation to the evangelical
state, by external and symbolical representments signified and
exhibited that spiritual impurity from which men were to ab-
stain : the moral laws, founded in the natural notions of men's
minds concerning good and evil, directly urged men to duty,
and prohibited their prevarications. These three made up the
entire code and pandects of the Jewish statutes; all which our
apostle comprehends under the general notion of " the law," and
not the moral law singly and separately considered, in which
sense it never appears that the Jews expected justification and
salvation by it, nay, rather, that they looked for it merely from 1
the observance of the ritual and ceremonial law: so that the
moral law is no farther considered by him in this question, than
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as it made up a part of the Mosaical constitution, of that na-
tional and political covenant which God made with the Jews at
Mount Sinai. Hence the apostle all along in his discourses con-
stantly opposes the law and the gospel, and the observation of
the one to the belief and practice of the other ; which surely he
would not have done, had he simply intended the moral law, it
being more expressly incorporated into the gospel than ever it
was into the law of Moses. And that the apostle does thus op-
pose the law and gospel, might be made evident from the con-
tinued series of his discourses ; but a few places shall suffice :
" By what law (says the apostle) is boasting excluded? 1 by the
law of works f 1 i. e. by the Mosaic law, in whose peculiar privi-
leges and prerogatives the Jews did strangely flatter and pride
themselves ? " Nay, but by the law of faith i. e. by the gospel,
or the evangelical way of God's dealing with us. And elsewhere, k
giving an account of this very controversy between the Jewish
and Gentile converts, he first opposes their persons, "Jews by
nature, 11 and " sinners of the Gentiles, 11 and then infers, " that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, 11 by those legal ob-
servances, whereby the J ews expected to be justified, " but by
the faith of Christ, 11 by a hearty belief of, and compliance with
that way which Christ has introduced ; " for by the works of the
law, 11 by legal obedience, "no flesh, 11 neither Jew nor Gentile,
" shall 11 now " be justified. 11 " Fain would I learn, whether you
received the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith? 111 that is, whether you became partakers of the miraculous
powers of the Holy Ghost, while you continued under the legal
dispensation, or since you embraced the gospel and the faith of
Christ : and speaking afterwards of the state of the Jews before
the revelation of the gospel, says he, m " before faith came, we
were kept under the law ; 11 i. e. before the gospel came, we were
kept under the discipline of the legal economy, " shut up unto
the faith, 11 reserved for the discovery of the evangelical dis-
pensation, "which should afterwards [in its due time] be re-
vealed 11 to the world. This in the following chapter he dis-
courses more at large: 0 " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the
law, 11 i. e. ye Jews that so fondly dote upon the legal state,
" Do ye not hear the law, 11 i. e. understand what your own law
1 Rom. iii. 27. k GaL ii. 15, 16. » Gal. iii. 2—5.
» Gal. iii. 23. •« Gal. iv. 21. et seq.
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does so clearly intimate ? and then goes on to unriddle what was
wrapt up in the famous allegory of Abraham's two sons by his
two wives : the one, Ishmael, born of Hagar, the bond-woman,
who denoted the Jewish covenant made at Mount Sinai, which,
according to the representation of her condition, was a servile
state ; the other, Isaac, born of Sarah, the free- woman, was the
son of the promise, denoting "Jerusalem that is above, and is
free, the mother of us all :" i. e. the state and covenant of the
gospel, whereby all Christians, as the spiritual children of Abra-
ham, are set free from the bondage of the Mosaic dispensation.
By all which it is evident, that by law and the works of the
law, in this controversy, the apostle understands the law of
Moses, and that obedience which the legal dispensation required
at their hands.
VIII. We are secondly to inquire, what the apostle means by
faith ; and he commonly uses it two ways. 1. More generally for
the gospel, or that evangelical way of justification and salvation
which Christ has brought in, in opposition to circumcision, and
the observation of those rites by which the Jews expected to be
justified : and this is plain from the preceding opposition, where
faith, as denoting the gospel, is frequently opposed to the law of
Moses. 2. Faith is taken more particularly for a practical be-
lief, or such an assent to the evangelical revelation as produces a
sincere obedience to the laws of it ; and, indeed, as concerned in
this matter, is usually taken not for this or that single virtue, but
for the entire, condition of the new covenant, as comprehending
all that duty that it requires of us : than which nothing can be
more plain and evident; "in Christ Jesus," i. e. under the
gospel, " neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum-
cision ;" it is all one to justification whether a man be circum-
cised or no ; what then ? " but faith, which worketh by love :" 0
which afterwards he explains thus ; " in Christ Jesus neither cir-
cumcision availeth any thing, nor un circumcision, but a new
creature," p a renewed and divine temper of mind, and a new
course and state of life. And lest all this should not be thought
plain enough, he elsewhere tells us, q that " circumcision is
nothing, and un circumcision is nothing; but the keeping the
commandments of God." From which places there needs no
skill to infer, that that faith whereby we are justified contains
° GaL v. 6. p Gal. vi. 15. <i 1 Cor. vii. 19.
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in it a new disposition and state both of heart and life, and an
observation of the laws of Christ ; in which respect the apostle
does in the very same verse expound " believing," by " obeying
of the gospel." r Such, he assures us, was that very faith by
which Abraham was justified, who against all probabilities of
reason believed in God's promise ; " he staggered not at the pro-
mise of God through unbelief, but was strong," &c. : that is, he so
firmly believed what God had promised, that he gave him the
glory of his truth and faithfulness, his infinite power and ability
to do all things. And how did he that ? by acting suitably in a
way of entire resignation, and sincere obedience to the divine
will and pleasure : so the apostle elsewhere more expressly, 8 " by
faith he obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went."
This faith (he tells us 1 ) " was imputed to Abraham for righteous-
ness ;" that is, God, by virtue of the new covenant made in Christ,
was graciously pleased to look upon this obedience (though in
itself imperfect) as that for which he accounted him, and would
deal with him as a just and a righteous man. And upon this
account we find Abraham's faith opposed to a perfect and unsin-
ning obedience, for thus the apostle tells us, u that Abraham was
justified by faith, in opposition to his being justified by such an
absolute and complete obedience, as might have enabled him to
challenge the reward by the strict laws of justice : whereas now
his being pardoned and accepted by God in the way of a mean
and imperfect obedience, it could not claim impunity, much
less a reward, but must be entirely owing to the, divine grace
and favour.
IX. Having thus cleared our way, by restoring these words
to their genuine and native sense, we come to shew^ how the
apostle in his discourses does all along refer to the original con-
troversy between the Jewish and Gentile converts, whether justi-
fication was by the observation of the Mosaic law, or by the
belief and practice of the gospel ; and this will appear, if we con-
sider the persons that he has to deal with, the way and manner
of his arguing, and that there was then no other controversy on
foot to which these passages could refer. The persons whom he
had to deal with were chiefly of two sorts, pure Jews, and Jewish
converts. Pure Jews were those that kept themselves wholly to
the legal economy, and expected to be justified and saved in no
r Rom. x. 16. 8 Heb. xi. 8. 1 Rom. iv. 22. 0 Rom. iv. 2, 3, &c.
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other way, than the observation of the law of Moses. Indeed,
they laid a more peculiar stress upon circumcision, because this
having been added as the seal of that covenant which God made
with Abraham, and the discriminating badge whereby they were
to be distinguished from all other nations, they looked upon it
as having a special efficacy in it to recommend them to the divine
acceptance. Accordingly, we find in their writings that they
make this the main basis and foundation of their hope and con-
fidence towards God. For they tell us, that the precept of cir-
cumcision is greater than all the rest, and equivalent to the whole
law ; that the reason why God hears the prayers of the Israelites,
but not tDW, " of the Gentiles'" or Christians, is iron nb^n, "for
the virtue and merit of circumcision yea, that " so great is the
power and efficacy of the law of circumcision, that no man that
is circumcised shall go to hell."* Nay, according to the idle and
trifling humour of these men, y they fetch down Abraham from
the seat of the blessed, and place him as porter at the gates of
hell, upon no other errand than to keep circumcised persons from
entering into that miserable place. However nothing is more
evident, than that circumcision was the fort and sanctuary
wherein they ordinarily placed their security : and, accordingly,
we find St. Paul frequently disputing against circumcision, as
virtually comprising, in their notion, the keeping of the whole
Jewish law. Besides, to these literal impositions of the law of
Moses, the Pharisees had added many vain traditions and several
superstitious usages of their own contrivance, in the observance
whereof the people placed not a little confidence, as to that
righteousness upon which they hoped to stand clear with heaven.
Against all these our apostle argues, and sometimes by arguments
peculiar to them alone. Jewish converts were those, who having
embraced the Christian religion, did yet, out of a veneration to
their ancient rites, make the observance of them equally necessary
with the belief and practice of Christiapity both to themselves
and others. These last were the persons, who as they first
started the controversy, so were those against whom the apostle
mainly opposed himself, endeavouring to dismount their pre-
tences, and to beat down their opinions level with the ground.
X. This will yet farther appear from the way and manner of
the apostle^s arguing, which plainly respects this controversy, and
* Cad. Hakkem. ap. Buxtorf. F. praef. ad Syn. Jud. y Synag. Jud. c. 4.
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will be best seen in some particular instances of his reasonings.
And, first, he jtrgues, that this way of justification, urged by
Jews and Jewish converts, was inconsistent with the goodness of
God, and his universal kindness to mankind ; being so narrow
and limited, that it excluded the far greatest part of the world.
Thus, in the three first chapters of his epistle to the Romans,
having proved at large that the whole world, both Jew and
Gentile, were under a state of guilt, and consequently liable to
the Divine sentence and condemnation, he comes next to inquire
by what means they may be delivered from this state of ven-
geance, and shews that it could not be but by legal observances ; a
but that now there was a way of righteousness or justification
declared by Christ in the gospel (intimated also in the Old Tes-
tament) extending to all, both Jews and Gentiles, whereby God,
with respect to the satisfaction and expiation of Christ, is ready
freely to pardon and justify aH penitent believers : that there-
fore there was a way revealed in the gospel, whereby a man
might be justified, without being beholden to the rites of the
Jewish law, otherwise it would argue that God had very little
care of the greatest part of men. " Is he God of the Jews only ?
Is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also : seeing
it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and
the uncircumcision through faith Jew and Gentile in the same
evangelical way. The force of which argument lies in this : that
that cannot be necessary to our justification, which excludes the
greatest part of mankind from all possibility of being justified,
(and this justification by the Mosaic law plainly does ;) a thing
by no means consistent with God's universal love and kindness
to his creatures. Hence the apostle magnifies the grace of the
gospel, that it has broken down the partition-wall, and made
way for all nations to come in; a that "now there is neither
Greek nor J ew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor
Scythian no difference in this respect, b but " all one in Christ
Jesus, 11 all equally admitted to terms of pardon and justification : c
" in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness,
being accepted with him. 11
XI. Secondly, he argues, that this Jewish way of justification
could not be indispensably necessary, in that it had not been the
constant way whereby good men in all ages had been justified and
z Rom. iii. 20, 21, &c. a Gal Hi. 28. b Col. iii. 11. c Acts x. 35.
SAINT PAUL.
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accepted with heaven. This he eminently proves from the in-
stance of Abraham, whom the scripture sets forth as the father
of the faithful, and the great exemplar of that way, wherein all
his spiritual seed, all true believers, were to be justified. Now
of him it is evident, that he was justified and accepted with
God upon his practical belief of God's power and promise, be-
fore ever circumcision, and much more before the rest of the
Mosaic institution, was in being. " Cometh this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also?
for we say that faith was reckoned unto Abraham for righteous-
ness. How was it then reckoned, , when he was in circumcision,
or in uncircumcision ? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteous-
ness of the faith, which he had, being yet uncircuuicised," d &c.
The meaning whereof is plainly this, that pardon of sin cannot be
entailed upon the way of the Mosaic law ; it being evident, that
Abraham was justified and approved of God before he was cir-
cumcised, which was only added as a seal of the covenant be-
tween God and him, and a testimony of that acceptance with
God which he had obtained before. And this way of God's
dealing with Abraham, and in him with all his spiritual children,
the legal institution could not make void ; it being impossible that
that dispensation, which came so long after, should disannul the
covenant which God had made with Abraham and his spiritual
seed four hundred and thirty years before.* Upon this account,
as the apostle observes, the scripture sets forth Abraham as the
great type and pattern of justification, as " the father of all them
that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness
might be imputed to them also ; and the father of circumcision,
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but also walk in
the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had
being yet uncircumcised. 11f "They therefore that are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham : and the scripture, fore-
seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the gospel (this evangelical way of justifying) unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then
they which be of faith (who believe and obey, as Abraham did)
shall be blessed (pardoned and saved) with faithful Abraham." 8
d Rom. iv. 9, 10, 11, &c.
f Rom. iv. 11, 12.
e Gal. iii. 17.
* Gal. iii. 7—9.
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It might farther be demonstrated, that this has ever been God's
method of dealing with mankind ; our apostle, in the eleventh
chapter to the Hebrews, proving all along, by particular instances,
that it was by such a faith as this, without any relation to the
law of Moses, that good men were justified and accepted with
God in all ages of the world.
XII. Thirdly, he argues against this Jewish way of justifica-
tion from the deficiency and imperfection of the Mosaic economy,
not able to justify and save sinners. Deficient, as not able to
assist those that were under it with sufficient aids to perform
what it required of them ; h " this the law could not do, for that
it was weak through the flesh, till God sent his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, (to enable us,) that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. " And, indeed, " could the law have given
life, verily righteousness should have been by the law:"* but,
alas! the scripture having concluded all mankind, Jew and
Gentile, under sin, and consequently incapable of being justified
upon terms of perfect and entire obedience, there is now
no other way but this, that "the promise by the faith of
Christ be given to all them that believe,' 1 i. e. this evangelical
method of justifying sincere believers. Besides, the Jewish
economy was deficient in pardoning sin, and procuring the grace
and favour of God ; it could only awaken the knowledge of sin,
not remove the guilt of it. " It was not possible that the blood
of bulls and goats should take away sin;" k all the sacrifices of
the Mosaic law were no farther available for the pardon of sin,
than merely as they were founded in, and had respect to that
great sacrifice and expiation, which was to be made for the sins
of mankind by the death of the Son of God. "The priests,
though they daily ministered, and oftentimes offered the same
sacrifices, yet could they never take away sins:" 1 no, that was
reserved for a better and a higher sacrifice, even that of our
Lord himself, who " after he had offered one sacrifice for sins,
for ever sat down on the right hand of God ;" having completed
that which the repeated sacrifices of the law could never effect.
So that all men being under guilt, and no justification where
there was no remission, the Jewish economy, being in itself
unable to pardon, was incapable to justify. This St. Paul else-
h Rom. viiL 3, 4. * Gal. iii. 21. k Hcb. x. 4. Heb. x. 11, 12.
SAINT PAUL.
333
where declared in an open assembly before Jews and Gentiles ;
" be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this
man [Christ Jesus] is preached unto you forgiveness of sins:
and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. 11 ™
XIII. Fourthly, he proves, that justification by the Mosaic
law could not stand with the death of Christ, the necessity of
whose death and sufferings it did plainly evacuate and take
away. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is
dead in vain : n if the Mosaical performances be still necessary to
our justification, then certainly it was to very little purpose, and
altogether unbecoming the wisdom and goodness of God, to send
his own Son into the world, to do so much for us, and to suffer
such exquisite pains and tortures. Nay, he tells them, that
while they persisted in this fond obstinate opinion, all that
Christ had done and suffered could be of no advantage to them.
" Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,
and be not again entangled in the yoke of bondage," the bondage
and servitude of the Mosaic rites; "Behold, I Paul solemnly
say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing : for I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law ; Christ is become of
none effect to you ; whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace. 110 The sum of which argument is, that
whoever lay the stress of their justification upon circumcision,
and the observances of the law, do thereby declare themselves
to be under an obligation of perfect obedience to all that the law
requires of them, and accordingly supersede the virtue and effi-
cacy of Christ's death, and disclaim all right and title to the grace
and favour of the gospel. For since Christ's death is abundantly
sufficient to attain its ends, whoever takes in another, plainly
renounces that, and rests upon that of his own choosing. By
these ways of reasoning it is evident what the apostle drives at
in all his discourses about this matter. More might have been
observed, had I not thought, that these are sufficient to render
his design, especially to the unprejudiced and impartial, obvious
and plain enough.
XIV. Lastly, That St. Paul's discourses about justification
and salvation do immediately refer to the controversy between
m Acts xiii. 38, 39. » Gal. ii. 21. ° Gal. v. 1—4.
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the orthodox and J udaizing Christians, appears hence, that there
was no other controversy then on foot, but concerning the way
of justification, whether it was by the observation of the law of
Moses, or only of the gospel and the law of Christ. For we must
needs suppose, that the apostle wrote with a primary respect to
the present state of things, and so as they whom he had to deal
with might, and could not but understand him: which yet
would have been impossible for them to have done, had he in-
tended them for the controversies which have since been bandied
with so much zeal and fierceness, and to give countenance to
those many nice and subtle propositions, those curious and ela-
borate schemes, which some men in these later ages have drawn
of these matters.
XV. From the whole discourse, two consectaries especially
plainly follow. Consect. 1. That works of evangelical obedience
are not opposed to faith in justification. By works of evangelical
obedience, I mean such Christian duties as are the fruits, not of
our own power and strength, but God^ Spirit, done by the as-
sistance of his grace. And that these are not opposed to faith,
is undeniably evident, in that (as we observed before) faith, as
including the new nature, and the keeping God's commands, is
made the usual condition of justification. Nor can it be other-
wise, when other graces and virtues of the Christian life are
made the terms of pardon and acceptance with heaven, and of
our title to the merits of Christ's death, end the great promise
of eternal life. Thus repentance, which is not so much a single
act, as a complex body of Christian duties : " Repent and be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost ;" p "Repent and be con-
verted, that your sins may be blotted out." q So charity and
forgiveness of others : " Forgive, if ye have aught against any,
that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses : for if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father also will forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours." r Sometimes
evangelical obedience in general : " God is no respecter of per-
sons, but in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him." 8 " If we walk in the light,
p Acts iL 38. q Acts iii. 19.
r Mark xi. 25, 26. Matt. vi. 14, 15. » Acts x. 34, 35.
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SAINT PAUL.
335
as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. ,n
What privilege then has faith above other graces in this matter ?
are we justified by faith ? We are pardoned and accepted with
God upon our repentance, charity, and other acts of evangelical
obedience. Is faith opposed to the works of the Mosaic law in
justification ? so are works of evangelical obedience : " circum-
cision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping
of the commandments of God. 1 ' u Does faith give glory to God,
and set the crown upon his head ? Works of evangelical obe-
dience are equally the effects of divine grace, both preventing
and assisting of us ; and indeed are not so much our works as
his : so that the glory of all must needs be entirely resolved into
the grace of God, nor can any man in such circumstances, with
the least pretence of reason, lay claim to merit, or boast of his
own achievements. Hence the apostle magnifies the evangelical
method of justification above that of the law, that it wholly ex-
cludes all proud reflections upon ourselves : " where is boasting
then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by
the law of faith The Mosaical economy fostered men up in
proud and high thoughts of themselves, they looked upon them-
selves as a peculiar people, honoured above all other nations of
the world ; the seed of Abraham, invested with mighty privileges,
&c: whereas the gospel, proceeding upon other principles, takes
away all foundations of pride, by acknowledging our acceptance
with God, and the power whereby we are enabled to make good
the terms and conditions of it, to be the mere result of the Divine
grace and mercy, and that the whole scheme of our salvation,
as it was the contrivance of the Divine Wisdom, so is the pur-
chase of the merit and satisfaction of our crucified Saviour. Nor
is faith itself less than other graces an act of evangelical obe-
dience, and if separated from them, is of no moment or value in
the accounts of heaven : " though I have all faith, and have no
charity, I am nothing.' 1 y All faith, be it of what kind soever.
To this may be added, that no tolerable account can be given
why that which is on all hands granted to be the condition of
our salvation (such is evangelical obedience) should not be the
condition of our justification : and at the great day, Christians
shall be acquitted or condemned according as in this world they
1 1 John i. 7. "1 Cor. vii. 19. * Rom. iii. 27. * 1 Cor. xiii. 2.
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have fulfilled or neglected the conditions of the gospel : the de-
cretory sentence of absolution that shall then be passed upon
good men, shall be nothing but a public and solemn declaration
of that private sentence of justification that was passed upon
them in this world : so that upon the same terms that they are
justified now, they shall be justified and acquitted then; and upon
the same terms that they shall then be judged and acquitted, they
are justified now, viz. an hearty belief, and a sincere obedience
to the gospel. From all which, I hope, it is evident, that when
St. Paul denies men to be justified by the works of the law ; by
works, he either means works done before conversion, and by the
strength of men's natural powers, such as enabled them to pride
and boast themselves, and lay claim to merit, or (which most-
what includes the other) the works of the Mosaic law. And
indeed, though the controversies on foot in those times did not
plainly determine his reasonings that way, yet the considerations
which we have now suggested, sufficiently shew that they could
not be meant of any other sense.
XVI. Oonsect. 2. That the doctrines of St. Paul and St.
James about justification are fairly consistent with each other.
For seeing St. Paul's design in excluding works from justifica-
tion, was only to deny the works of the Jewish law, or those
that were meritorious, as being wrought by our own strength ;
and in asserting, that, in opposition to such works, we are "justi-
fied by faith he meant no more, than that either we are justified
in an evangelical way, or more particularly by faith intended a
practical belief, including evangelical obedience : and seeing, on
the other hand, St. James, in affirming " that we are justified by
works, and not by faith only by works, means no more than
evangelical obedience, in opposition to a naked and an empty
faith ; these two are so far from quarrelling, that they mutually
embrace each other, and both, in the main, pursue the same de-
sign : and, indeed, if any disagreement seem between them, it is
most reasonable that St. Paul should be expounded by St. James,
not only because his propositions are so express and positive,
and not justly liable to ambiguity, but because he wrote some
competent time after the other ; and, consequently, as he perfectly
understood his meaning, so he was capable to countermine those
ill principles which some men had built upon St. Paul's assertions..
For it is evident, from several passages in St. Paul's epistles,
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337
that even then many began to mistake his doctrine, and from
his assertions about justification by faith and not by works, to
infer propositions that might serve the purposes of a bad life :
" they slanderously reported him to say, that we might do evil,
that good might come ; that we might continue in sin, that the
grace of the gospel might the more abound :" z they thought, that
so long as they did but believe the gospel in the naked notion
and speculation of it, it was enough to recommend them to the
favour of God, and to serve all the purposes of justification and
salvation, however they shaped and steered their lives. Against
these men, it is beyond all question plain that St. James levels
his epistle, to batter down the growing doctrines of libertinism
# and profaneness ; to shew the insufficiency of a naked faith and
an empty profession of religion, that it is not enough to recom-
mend, us to the divine acceptance, and to justify us in the sight
of heaven, barely to believe the gospel,* unless we really obey
and practise it; that a faith destitute of this evangelical obedi-
ence is fruitless and unprofitable to salvation ; that it is by these
works that faith must appear to be vital and sincere ; that
not only Rahab, but Abraham, the father of the faithful, was
justified, not by a bare belief of God's promise, but an hearty
obedience to God's command, in the ready offer of his son,
whereby it appears that his faith and obedience did cooperate
and conspire together, to render him capable of God's favour
and approbation ; and that " herein the Scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, that Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
to him for righteousness," (whence, by the way, nothing can be
clearer, than that both these apostles intend the same thing by
faith, in the case of Abraham's justification, and its being
" imputed to him for righteousness," viz. a practical belief and
obedience to the commands of God,) that it follows hence, that
faith is not of itself sufficient to justify and make us acceptable
to God, unless a proportionable obedience be joined with it ;
without which, faith serves no more to these ends and pur-
poses, than a body, destitute of the soul to animate and enliven
it, is capable to exercise the functions and offices of the na-
tural life : his meaning, in short, being nothing else, than that
good works, or evangelical obedience, is, according to the divine
* Rom. iii. 8. vi. 1. * Vid. chap. ii. 14, 15, ct seq.
Z
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appointment, the condition of the gospel-covenant, without
which it is in vain for any to hope for that pardon which
Christ hath purchased, and the favour of God, which is ne-
cessary to eternal life.
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The sacred history sparing in the acts of the succeeding apostles, and why. St Andrew's
birth-place, kindred, and way of life. John the Baptist's ministry and discipline.
St Andrew educated under his institution. His coming to Christ, and call to be
a disciple. His election to the apostolate. The province assigned for his ministry.
In what places he chiefly preached. His barbarous usage at Sinope. His planting
Christianity at Byzantium, and ordaining Stachys bishop there. His travels in
Greece, and preaching at Patrae in Achaia. His arraignment before the proconsul, and
resolute defence of the Christian religion. The proconsul's displeasure against him,
whence. An account of his martyrdom. His preparatory sufferings, and crucifixion.
On what kind of cross he suffered. The miracles reported to be done by his body.
Its translation to Constantinople. The great encomium given of him by one of the
ancients.
The sacred story, which has hitherto been very large and copious
in describing the acts of the two first apostles, is henceforward
very sparing in its accounts, giving us only now and then a few
oblique and accidental remarks concerning the rest, and some of
them no farther mentioned than the mere recording of their
names. For what reasons it pleased the divine wisdom and
providence, that no more of their acts should be consigned to
writing by the penmen of the holy story, is to us unknown.
Probably it might be thought convenient, that no more account
should be given of the first plantations of Christianity in the
world, than what concerned Judea and the neighbour-countries,
at least the most eminent places of the Roman empire, that so
the truth of the prophetical predictions might appear, which had
foretold, that the u law of the Messiah should come forth from
Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Besides, that
a particular relation of the acts of so many apostles, done in so
many several countries, might have swelled the holy volumes into
too great a bulk, and rendered them less serviceable and accom-
modate to the ordinary use of Christians. Among the apostles
that succeed, we first take notice of St. Andrew. He was born
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at Bethsaida, a city of Galilee, standing upon the banks of the
lake of Gennesareth, son to John or J onas, a fisherman of that
town ; brother be was to Simon Peter, but whether elder or
younger the ancients do not clearly decide, though the major
part intimate him to have been the younger brother, there being
only the single authority of Epiphanius on the other side, as we
have formerly noted. He was brought up to his fathers trade,
whereat he laboured, till our Lord called him from catching
fish to be a " fisher of men,'" for which he was fitted by some
preparatory institutions, even before his coming unto Christ.
II. John the Baptist was lately risen in the Jewish church: a
person whom for the efficacy and impartiality of his doctrine,
and the extraordinary strictness and austerities of his life, the
Jews generally had in great veneration. He trained up his pro-
selytes under the discipline of repentance ; and by urging upon
them a severe change and reformation of life, prepared them to
entertain the doctrine of the Messiah, whose approach, he told
them, was now near at hand; representing to them the greatness
of his person, and the importance of the design that he was come
upon. Beside the multitudes that promiscuously flocked to the
Baptist's discourses, he had, according to the manner of the
Jewish masters, some peculiar and select disciples, who more
constantly attended upon his lectures, and for the most part
waited upon his person. In the number of these was our
apostle, who was then with him about Jordan, when our
Saviour, who some time since had been baptized, came that
way: upon whose approach the Baptist told them, that this
was the Messiah, the great person whom he had so often spoken
of, to usher in whose appearing his whole ministry was but sub-
servient ; that this was the Lamb of God, the true sacrifice that
was to expiate the sins of mankind. Upon this testimony,
Andrew and another disciple (probably St. John) follow our
Saviour to the place of his abode : upon which account he is
generally by the fathers and ancient writers styled irp&ro-
/c\r)To<;* or the " first called disciple :" though in a strict sense he
was not so ; for though he was the first of the disciples that
came to Christ, yet was he not called till afterwards. After
some converse with him, Andrew goes to acquaint his brother
Simon, and both together came to Christ. Long they stayed not
a Menaeon Grgecor. Wp« Noc/aty. sub. lit. o'.
Digitized by
SAINT ANDREW.
341
with him, but returned to their own home, and to the exercise
of their calling ; wherein they were employed, when somewhat
more than a year after, our Lord, passing through Galilee, found
them fishing upon the sea of Tiberias, where he fully satisfied
them of the greatness and divinity of his person by the con-
victive evidence of that miraculous draught of fishes, which they
took at his command. And now he told them, he had other
work for them to do ; that they should no longer deal in fish,
but with men, whom they should catch with the efficacy and
influence of that doctrine that he was come to deliver to the
world ; commanding them to follow him, as his immediate
disciples and attendants, who accordingly left all and followed
him. Shortly after, St. Andrew, together with the rest, was
called to the office and honour of the apostolate, made choice of
to be one of those that were to be Christ's immediate vicegerents
for planting and propagating the Christian church. Little else is
particularly recorded of him in the sacred story, being compre-
hended in the general account of the rest of the apostles.
III. After our Lord's ascension into heaven, and that the Holy
Ghost had in its miraculous powers been plentifully shed upon
the apostles, to fit them for the great errand they were to go
upon, to root out profaneness and idolatry, and to subdue the
world to the doctrine of the gospel, it is generally affirmed by
the ancients, that the apostles agreed among themselves, (by
lot, say some, b ) probably not without the special guidance and
direction of the Holy Ghost, what parts of the world they should
severally take. In this division, St. Andrew had Scythia and
the neighbouring countries primarily allotted him for his pro-
vince. 6 First, then, he travelled through Cappadocia, Galatia, and
Bithynia, and instructed them in the faith of Christ ; passing all
along the Euxine sea, (formerly called Axenus, d from the bar-
barous and inhospitable temper of the people thereabouts, who
were wont to sacrifice strangers, and of their skulls to make cups
to drink in at their feasts and banquets,) and so into the solitudes
of Scythia. An ancient author 6 (though whence deriving his
b Socr. Hist Eccl. L i. c. 19.
c Orig. in Gen. L iii. ap. Euseb. Hist EccL 1. iii c. 1. Niceph. Hist EccL L ii. c. 39.
d Strab. Geogr. 1. vii. p. 206.
e Commentar. de S. Andr. Apost et T/wro«A^ry, extat Graec in Menaeo Graecor.
^fi4p. A.', rov Nof p&p. sub lit r.
342
THE LIFE OF
intelligence I know not) gives us a more particular account of
his travels and transactions in these parts. He tells us, that he
first came to Amynsus, where being entertained by a Jew, he
went into the synagogue, discoursed to them concerning Christ,
and from the prophecies of the Old Testament proved him to be
the Messiah, and the Saviour of the world. Having here con-
verted and baptized many, ordered their public meeting, and
ordained them priests, he went next to Trapezus, a maritime
city upon the Euxine sea, whence, after many other places, he
came to Nice, where he stayed two years, preaching and working
miracles with great success; thence to Nicomedia, and so to
Chalcedon ; whence, sailing through the Propontis, he came by
the Euxine sea to Heraclea, and from thence to Amastris : in all
which places he met with great difficulties and discouragements,
but overcame all with an invincible patience and resolution. He
next came to Sinope, a city situate upon the same sea, a place
famous both for the birth and burial of the great king Mithridates;
here, as my author reports from the ancients, (o>9 <f>aal \6yot
7ra\aio\) he met with his brother Peter, with whom he stayed
a considerable time at this place : as a monument whereof he
tells us, that the chairs made of white stone, wherein they were
wont to sit while they taught the people, were still extant, and
commonly shewed in his time. The inhabitants of this city
were mostly Jews, who partly through zeal for their religion,
partly through the barbarousness of their manners, were quickly
exasperated against the apostle, and contriving together at-
tempted to burn the house wherein he sojourned : however, they
treated him with all the instances of savage cruelty, throwing
him to the ground, stamping upon him with their feet, pulling
and dragging him from place to place ; some beating him with
clubs, others pelting him with stones, and some, the better to
satisfy their revenge, biting off his flesh with their teeth ; till
apprehending they had fully despatched him, they cast him out
of the city. But he miraculously recovered, and publicly re-
turned into the city, whereby, and by some other miracles which
he wrought amongst them, he reduced many to a better mind,
converting them to the faith. Departing hence, he went again
to Amynsus, and then to Trapezus ; thence to Neocsesarea, and
to Samosata, (the birth-place of the witty but impious Lucian,)
where having baffled the acute and wise philosophers, he pur-
Digitized by
SAINT ANDREW.
343
posed to return to Jerusalem : whence, after some time, he betook
himself to his former provinces, travelling to the country of the
Abasgi, where, at Sebastople, situate upon the eastern shore of
the Euxine sea, between the influx of the rivers Phasis and
Apsarus, he successfully preached the gospel to the inhabitants
of that city. Hence he removed into the country of the Zecchi,
and the Bosphorani, part of the Asiatic Scythia, or Sarmatia;
but finding the inhabitants very barbarous and intractable, he
stayed not long among them, only at Cherson, or Chersonesus, a
great and populous city within the Bosphorus, he continued some
time, instructing and confirming them in the faith. Hence
taking ship, he sailed across the sea to Sinope, situate in Paphla-
gonia, the royal seat of the great king Mithridates, to encourage
and confirm the churches which he had lately planted in those
parts ; and here he ordained Philologus, formerly one of St. Paul's
disciples, bishop of this city.
IV. Hence he came to Byzantium, (since called Constanti-
nople,) where he instructed them in the knowledge of the Chris-
tian religion, founded a church for divine worship, and ordained
Stachys (whom St. Paul calls his beloved Stachys) first bishop
of that place. Baronius/ indeed, is unwilling to believe this,
desirous to engross the honour of it to St. Peter, whom he will
have to have been the first planter of Christianity in these parts.
But besides that Baronius's authority is very slight and insigni-
ficant in this case, (as we have before noted in St. Peter's Life,)
this matter is expressly asserted, not only by NicephorusCallistus, 8
but by another Nicephorus, h patriarch of Constantinople, and who
therefore may be presumed knowing in his predecessors in that see.
Banished out of the city by him, who at that time usurped the
government, he fled to Argyropolis, a place near at hand, where
he preached the gospel for two years together with good success,
converting great numbers to the faith. After this, he travelled
over Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Achaia; Nazianzen adds
Epyrus : 1 in all which places for many years he preached and
propagated Christianity, and confirmed the doctrine that he
taught with great signs and miracles : at last he came to Patrse,
f Ad Ann. 44. n. 31. vid. ad Ann. 314. n. 94, 95, etc
* Hist Eccl. 1. ii. c. 39. L y. c. 6.
h Niceph. C. P. in Chronogr. a Seal edit. p. 309. vid. etiara Msen. Gr«c. ubi supr.
1 Orat. xxv. p. 438.
344
THE LIFE OF
a city of Achaia, where he gave his last and great testimony to
it ; I mean, laid down his own life to ratify and ensure it : in
describing whose martyrdom, we shall for the main follow the
account that is given us in the Acts of his Passion, k pretended
to have been written by the presbyters and deacons of Achaia,
present at his martyrdom ; which though I dare not, with some,
assert to be the genuine work of those persons, yet can it not be
denied to be of considerable antiquity, being mentioned by
Philastrius, 1 who flourished anno 380, and were no doubt written
long before his time. The sum of it is this.
V. jEgeas, proconsul of Achaia, came at this time to Patrae,
where observing that multitudes were fallen off from paganism,
and had embraced Christianity, he endeavoured, by all arts both
of favour and cruelty, to reduce the people to their old idolatries.
To him the apostle resolutely makes his address, calmly puts him
in mind, that he, being but a judge of men, should own and revere
him, who was the supreme and impartial judge of all ; that he
should give him that divine honour which was due to him, and
leave off the impieties of his false heathen worship. The pro-
consul derided him, as an innovator in religion, a propagator of
that superstition whose author the Jews had infamously put to
death upon a cross. Hereat the apostle took occasion to dis-
course to him of the infinite love and kindness of our Lord, who
came into the world to purchase the salvation of mankind, and
for that end did not disdain to die upon the cross. To whom the
proconsul answered, that he might persuade them so that would
believe him ; for his part, if he did not comply with him in doing
sacrifice to the gods, he would cause him to suffer upon that cross
which he had so much extolled and magnified. St. Andrew re-
plied, that he did sacrifice every day to God, the only true and
omnipotent Being, not with fumes and bloody offerings, but in the
sacrifice of the immaculate Lamb of God. The issue was, the
apostle was committed to prison ; whereat the people were so en-
raged, that it had broken out into a mutiny, had not the apostle
restrained them, persuading them to imitate the mildness and
patience of our meek humble Saviour, and not to hinder him
from that crown of martyrdom that now waited for him.
VI. The next day he was again brought before the proconsul,
who persuaded him that he would not foolishly destroy himself,
k Extant apud Sur. ad diem 30 Novemb. 1 De Hares, c. 89.
Digitized by
SAINT ANDREW.
345
but live and enjoy with him the pleasures of this life. The
apostle told him, that he should have with him eternal joys, if,
renouncing his execrable idolatries, he would heartily entertain
Christianity, which he had hitherto so successfully preached
amongst them. That, answered the proconsul, is the very reason
why I am so earnest with you to sacrifice to the gods, that those
whom you have every where seduced may, by your example, be
brought to return back to that ancient religion which they have
forsaken ; otherwise I will cause you, with exquisite tortures, to
be crucified. The apostle replied, that now he saw it was in vain
any longer to deal with him, a person incapable of sober counsels,
and hardened in his own blindness and folly; that, as for himself,
he might do his worst, and if he had one torment greater than
another, he might heap that upon him : the greater constancy he
shewed in his sufferings for Christ, the more acceptable he should
be to his Lord and Master. iEgeas could now hold no longer,
but passed the sentence of death upon him ; and Nicephorus gives
us some more particular account of the proconsul's displeasure and
rage against him ; m which was, that, amongst others, he had con-
verted his wife Maximilla, and his brother Stratocles, to the
Christian faith, having cured them of desperate distempers that
had seized upon them.
VII. The proconsul first commanded him to be scourged, seven
lictors successively whipping his naked body ; and seeing his in-
vincible patience and constancy, commanded him to be crucified,
but not to be fastened to the cross with nails but cords, that so
his death might be more lingering and tedious. As he was led
to execution, to which he went with a cheerful and composed
mind, the people cried out, that he was an innocent and good
man, and unjustly condemned to die." Being come within sight
of the cross, he saluted it with this kind of address : that he had
long desired and expected this happy hour, that the cross had
been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it, and adorned
with his members as with so many inestimable jewels ; that he
came joyful and triumphing to it, that it might receive him as a
disciple and follower of him who once hung upon it, and be the
means to carry him safe unto his Master, having been the instru-
m Lib. ii. c 39. vid. Menseon Graec. ad diem 30 Novemb. ubi eadem habent.
» Bern. Sermon, ii. de S. Andr. p. 327.
346
THE LIFE OF
ment upon wbich bis Master had redeemed him. Having prayed,
and exhorted the people to constancy and perseverance in that
religion which he had delivered to them, he was fastened to the
cross, whereon he hung two days, teaching and instructing the
people all the time ; and when great importunities in the mean
while were used to the proconsul to spare his life, he earnestly
begged of our Lord, that he might at this time depart, and seal
the truth of his religion with his blood. God heard his prayer,
and he immediately expired, on the last of November, though in
what year no certain account can be recovered.
VII. There seems to have been something peculiar in that
cross that was the instrument of his martyrdom, commonly
affirmed to have been a cross decussate, two pieces of timber
crossing each other in the middle, in the form of the letter X,
hence usually known by the name of St. Andrew's cross ; though
there want not those, 0 who affirm him to have been crucified
upon an olive tree. His body being taken down and embalmed,
was decently and honourably interred by Maximilla, a lady of
great quality and estate, and whom Nicephorus, I know not upon
what ground, makes wife to the proconsul. As for that report
of Gregory, 1 * bishop of Tours, that on the anniversary day of his
martyrdom, there was wont to flow from St. Andrew's tomb a
most fragrant and precious oil, which, according to its quantity,
denoted the scarceness or plenty of the following year ; and that
the sick being anointed with this oil, were restored to their
former health ; I leave to the reader's discretion, to believe what
he please of it : for my part, if any ground of truth in the story,
I believe it no more, than that it was an exhalation and sweating
forth at some times of those rich costly perfumes and ointments
wherewith his body was embalmed after his crucifixion. Though
I must confess this conjecture to be impossible, if it be true what
my author adds, that some years the oil burst out in such plenty,
that the stream arose to the middle of the church. His body
was afterwards, by Constantine the Great, q solemnly removed to
Constantinople, and buried in the great church which he had
built to the honour of the apostles : which being taken down
° Chrysost in S. Andr. Serm. cxxxiii. Hippol. Comment MS. Gr. ap. Bar. Not in
Martyr, ad 30 Novemb. p De Glor. Martyr. L i. c 31.
<i Hieron. adv. Vigil yoL iv. par. ii. p. 283.
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SAINT ANDREW.
347
some hundred years after by Justinian the emperor, r in order to
its reparation, the body was found in a wooden coffin, and again
reposed in its proper place.
IX. I shall conclude the history of this apostle with that en-
comiastic character which one of the ancients gives of him. 8 " St.
Andrew was the first-born of the apostolic choir, the main and
prime pillar of the church, a rock before the rock, (6 irpb Ilerpov
Tlerpo^) c the foundation of that foundation, 1 the first-fruits of
the beginning, a caller of others before he was called himself ; he
preached that gospel that was not yet believed or entertained ; re-
vealed and made known that life to his brother, which he had not
yet perfectly learned himself. So great treasures did that one
question bring him, 6 Master, where dwellest thou? 1 which he soon
perceived by the answer given him, and which he deeply pondered
in his mind, ' Come and see. 1 How art thou become a prophet ?
whence thus divinely skilful I what is it that thou thus soundest
in Peters ears ? [ ' We have found him, 1 &c] why dost thou
attempt to compass him, whom thou canst not comprehend ? how
can he be found, who is omnipresent ? But he knew well what
he said : We have found him, whom Adam lost, whom Eve in-
jured, whom the clouds of sin have hidden from us, and whom
our transgressions had hitherto made a stranger to us, 11 &c. So
that of all our Lord's apostles, St. Andrew had thus far the
honour to be the first preacher of the gospel.
r Procop. de aedi£ Justin. L i.
■ Hesych. Presb. Hierosolym. apud Phot cod. CCLXIX. col. 1488.
Digitized by
THE LIFE OF SAINT JAMES THE GREAT.
St James, why surnamed the Great His country and kindred. His alliance to Christ.
His trade and way of life. Our Lord brought up to a manual trade. The quick
repartee of a Christian schoolmaster to Libanius. His being called to be a disciple,
and great readiness to follow Christ His election to the apostolic office, and peculiar
favours from Christ Why our Lord chose some few of the apostles to be witnesses
of the more private passages of his life. The imposition of a new name at his election
to the apostleship. He and his brother styled Boanerges, and why. The zeal and
activity of their temper. Their ambition to sit on Christ's right and left hand in his
kingdom, and confident promise of suffering. This ill resented by the rest Our
Lord's discourse concerning the nature of the evangelical state. Where he preached
after Christ's ascension. The story of his going into Spain exploded. Herod Agrippa
in favour with the Roman emperors. The character of his temper. His zeal for the
law of Moses. His condemning St. James to death. The sudden conversion of his
accuser, as he was led to martyrdom. Their being beheaded. The divine justice
that pursued Herod. His grandeur and arrogance at Ceesarea. His miserable death.
The story of the translation of St. James's corpse to Compostella in Spain, and the
miracles said to be done there.
St. J ames, surnamed the Great, either because of his age, being
much older than the other, or for some peculiar honours and
favours which our Lord conferred upon him, was by country a
Galilean; born, probably, either at Capernaum or Bethsaida, being
one of Simon Peter's partners in the trade of fishing. He was the
son of Zebdai, or Zebedee,* (and probably the same whom the
Jews mention in their Talmud, nnt "in mpy* "rabbi James, or
Jacob, the son of Zebedee,") a fisherman, and the many servants
which he kept for that employment (a circumstance not taken
notice of in any other) speak him a man of some more consider-
able note in that trade and way of life ; eWtr^o? r&v iv TaXi-
\ala fieroLKovvrcov avSp&v, as Nicephorus notes. b His mother's
name was Mary, surnamed Salome, called first Taviphilia, says
an ancient Arabic writer, 0 the daughter, as is most probable, not
a Mark i. 20.
c Apud Kirsten. de vit. quat. Evangel, p. 47.
Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 3.
THE LIFE OF ST. JAMES THE GREAT. 349
wife, of Cleopas, sister to Mary the mother of our Lord ; d not her
own sister properly so called, (the blessed Virgin being in all
likelihood an only daughter,) but cousin-german, styled her
sister, according to the mode and custom of the J ews, who were
wont to call all such near relations by the names of brothers and
sisters ; and in- this respect he had the honour of a near relation
to our Lord himself. His education was in the trade of fishing :
no employment is base, that is honest and industrious, nor can
it be thought mean and dishonourable to him, when it is re-
membered that our Lord himself, the Son of God, stooped so
low, as not only to become the [reputed] son of a carpenter, but,
during the retirements of his private life, to work himself at his
father's trade ; not devoting himself merely to contemplations,
nor withdrawing from all useful society with the world, and
hiding himself in the solitudes of an anchoret, but busying
himself in an active course of life, working at the trade of a
carpenter, 6 and particularly (as one of the ancients tells us f )
making ploughs and yokes. And this the sacred history does
not only plainly intimate, but it is generally asserted by the
ancient writers of the church ; R a thing so notorious, that the
heathens used to object it as a reproach to Christianity : thence
that smart and acute repartee which a Christian schoolmaster
made to Libanius, the famous orator, at Antioch, h when upon
Julian's expedition into Persia, {where he was killed,) he asked
in scorn, what the carpenter's son was now a doing ? the Chris-
tian replied, with salt enough, that the great artificer of the
world, whom he scoffingly called the carpenter's son, was making
a coffin for his master Julian; the news of whose death was
brought soon after. But this only by the way.
II. St. James applied himself to his father's trade, not dis-
couraged with the meanness, not sinking under the difficulties
of it ; and, as usually the blessings of heaven meet men in the
way of an honest and industrious diligence, it was in the exer-
cise of this calling, when our Saviour, passing by the sea of
Galilee, saw him and his brother in the ship, and called them
to be his disciples. A divine power went along with the word,
d John xix. 25. e Mark vi. 3. Matt xiii. 55.
f Just Mart dial cum Tryph. s. 88.
* Bas. Constit Monast c. 4. Vid. Hilar, in Matt Can. 4.
h Theodor. Hist EccL 1. iii. c 18.
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350
THE LIFE OF
which they no sooner heard, but cheerfully complied with it,
immediately leaving all to follow him. They did not stay to
dispute his commands, to argue the probability of his promise, so-
licitously to inquire into the minute consequences of the under-
taking, what troubles and hazards might attend this new em-
ployment, but readily delivered up themselves to whatever
services he should appoint them. And the cheerfulness of their
obedience is yet farther considerable, that they left their aged
father in the ship behind them. For elsewhere we find others
excusing themselves from an immediate attendance upon Christ,*
upon pretence that they must go bury their father, or take their
leave of their kindred at home. No such slight and trivial pre-
tences could stop the resolution of our apostles, who broke
through these considerations, and quitted their present interests
and relations. Say not it was unnaturally done of them to
desert their father, an aged person, and in some measure unable
to help himself. For, besides that they left servants with him
to attend him, it is not cruelty to our earthly, but obedience to
our heavenly Father, to leave the one, that we may comply with
the call and summons of the other. It was the triumph of
Abraham^ faith, when God called him to leave his kindred and
his father 1 ® house, to go out and sojourn in a foreign country,
not knowing whither he went. Nor can we doubt but that
Zebedee himself would have gone along with them, had not his
age given him a supersedeas from such an active and ambulatory
course of life. But though they left him at this time, it is very
reasonable to suppose, that they took care to instruct him in
the doctrine of the Messiah, and to acquaint him with the glad
tidings of salvation ; especially since we find their mother Salome
so hearty a friend to, so constant a follower of our Saviour : but
this (if we may believe the account which one gives of it k ) was
after her husband's decease, who probably lived not long after,
dying before the time of our Saviour's passion.
III. It was not long after this, that he was called from the
station of an ordinary disciple to the apostolical office ; and not
only so, but honoured with some peculiar acts of favour beyond
most of the apostles, being one of the three whom our Lord
usually made choice of to admit to the more intimate trans-
actions of his life, from which the others were excluded.
1 Luke ix. 59 — 61. k Zachar. ChrysopoL Comm. in Concord. Evang. p. 111.
Digitized by
SAINT JAMES THE GREAT. 351
Tims, with Peter and his brother John, he was taken to the
miraculous raising of Jairus^ daughter; admitted to Christ's
glorious transfiguration upon the mount, and the discourses
that there passed between him and the two great ministers of
heaven ; taken along with him into the garden, to be a spectator
of those bitter agonies which the holy Jesus was to undergo,
as the preparatory sufferings to his passion. What were the
reasons of our Lord's admitting these three apostles to these
more special acts of favour than the rest, is not easy to de-
termine : though surely our Lord, who governed all his actions
by principles of the highest prudence and reason, did it for wise
and proper ends ; whether it was that he designed these three to
be more solemn and peculiar witnesses of some particular passages
of his life than the other apostles, or that they would be more
eminently useful and serviceable in some parts of the apostolic
office, or that hereby he would the better prepare and encourage
them against suffering, as intending them for some more eminent
kinds of martyrdom or suffering than the rest were to undergo.
IV. Nor was it the least instance of that particular honour
which our Lord conferred upon these three apostles, that at his
calling them to the apostolate, he gave them the addition of a
new name and title. A thing not unusual of old, for God to im-
pose a new name upon persons, when designing them for some
great and peculiar services and employments ; thus he did to
Abraham and Jacob : nay, the thing was customary among the
Gentiles, as, had we no other instances, might appear from those
which the scripture gives us, of Pharaoh's giving a new name to
Joseph when advancing him to be viceroy of Egypt, Nebuchad-
nezzar to Daniel, &c. Thus did our Lord in the election of these
three apostles: Simon he surnamed Peter; James the son of
Zebedee, and John his brother, he surnamed Boanerges ; which
is, the sons of thunder. 1 What our Lord particularly intended
in this title, is easier to conjecture than certainly to determine ;
some think it was given them upon the account of their being
present in the mount, when a voice came out of the cloud, and
said, " This is my beloved Son," m &c. The like whereto when
the people heard at another time, they cried out, that it thun-
1 Mark iii. 16, 17. Hieron. Comm. in Marc c. 3. Gaudent. Brix. Tract, i. de Lect.
Evang. seu, in ordine, viii.
m Matt. xvii. 5.
352
THE LIFE OF
dered." But besides that this account is in itself very slender
and inconsiderable, if so, then the title must equally have belonged
to Peter, who was then present with them. Others think it was
upon the account of their loud, bold, and resolute preaching*
Christianity to the world ;° fearing no threatenings, daunted
with no oppositions, but going on to thunder in the ears of the
secure sleepy world ; rousing and awakening the consciences of
men with the earnestness and vehemency of their preaching, as
thunder, which is called God's voice, powerfully shakes the
natural world, and breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon : or,
if it relate to the doctrines they delivered, it may signify their
teaching the great mysteries and speculations of the gospel in a
profounder strain than the rest ; wov? Be ovo fidget to £9
rod ZefieBalov, a>9 fieyaXo/cijpvKai; /cal BeXoyifccordTovs, as
Theophylact notes ; p which how true it might be of our St.
James, the scripture is wholly silent; but was certainly verified of
his brother J ohn, whose gospel is so full of the more sublime notions
and mysteries of the gospel concerning Christ's deity, eternal
preexistence, &c, that he is generally affirmed by the ancients,
not so much to speak, as thunder. Probably the expression may
denote no more, than that in general they were to be prime and
eminent ministers in this new scene and state of things ; the in-
troducing of the gospel, or evangelical dispensation, being called
" a voice shaking the heavens and the earth ;" q and so is exactly
correspondent to the native importance of the word signifying
an earthquake/ or a vehement commotion that makes a noise
like to thunder.
V. However it was, our Lord, I doubt not, herein had respect
to the furious and resolute disposition of those two brothers,
who seem to have been of a more fierce and fiery temper than
the rest of the apostles; whereof we have this memorable instance:
our Lord being resolved upon his journey to Jerusalem, sent
some of his disciples as harbingers to prepare his way, who
coming to a village of Samaria, were uncivilly rejected, and re-
fused entertainment ; probably, because of that old and inveterate
quarrel that was between the Samaritans and the Jews, and
■ John xii. 29. 0 Vict. Antioch. Comment in Marc. c. 2.
p Comm. in Marc. iii. * Heb. xii. 26.
r Hag. ii. 7. ubi ttttHD, " tremere faciam." W") M Filii commotionis seu magnae
concuwionis."
SAINT JAMES THE GREAT. 353
more especially at, this time, because that our Saviour seemed to
slight Mount Gerizim (where was their staple and solemn place
of worship) by passing it by, to go worship at Jerusalem ; the
reason, in all likelihood, why they denied him those common
courtesies and conveniences due to all travellers. This piece of
rudeness and inhumanity was presently so deeply resented by
St. James and his brother, that they came to their Master, to
know whether, as Elias did of old, they might not pray down
fire from heaven to consume these barbarous and inhospitable
people. 8 So apt are men for every trifle to call upon heaven, to
minister to the extravagancies of their own impotent and unrea-
sonable passions. But our Lord rebukes their zeal ; tells them
they quite mistook the case ; that this was not the frame and
temper of his disciples and followers, the nature and design of
that evangelical dispensation that he was come to set on foot in
the world; which was a more pure and perfect, a more mild and
gentle institution, than what was under the Old Testament in
the times of Moses and Elias, " the Son of man being come not
to destroy men's lives, but to save them.*"
VI. The holy J esus not long after set forward in his journey
to Jerusalem in order to his crucifixion, and the better to
prepare the minds of his apostles for his death and departure
from them, he told them what he was to suffer, and yet that
after all he should rise again. They, whose minds were yet big
with expectations of a temporal power and monarchy, understood
not well the meaning of his discourses to them. However,
St. James and his brother, supposing the resurrection that he
spoke of would be the time when his power and greatness would
commence, prompted their mother Salome to put up a petition
for them.* She, presuming probably on her relation to Christ,
and knowing that our Saviour had promised his apostles, " that
when he was come into his kingdom, they should sit upon twelve
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel," and that he already
honoured her two sons with an intimate familiarity, after leave
modestly asked for her address, begged of him, that when he
took possession of his kingdom, her two sons, James and John,
might have the principal places of honour and dignity next to
his own person, the one sitting on his right hand, and the other
on his left, as the heads of Judah and Joseph had the first
• Luke ix. 54. * Matt xx; 20.
2 a
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places among the rulers of the tribes in the Jewish nation. Our
Lord, directing his discourse to the two apostles, at whose sug-
gestion he knew their mother had made this address, told them,
they quite mistook the nature of his kingdom, which consisted
not in external grandeur and sovereignty, but in an inward life
and power, wherein the highest place would be to take the
greatest pains, and to undergo the heaviest troubles and sufferings;
that they should do well to consider, whether they were able to
endure what he was to undergo, to drink of that bitter cup
which he was to drink of, and to go through that baptism
wherein he was shortly to be baptized in his own blood. Our
apostles were not yet cured of their ambitious humour, but
either not understanding the force of our Saviours reasonings, or
too confidently presuming upon their own strength, answered,
that they could do all this. But he, the goodness of whose
nature ever made him put the best and most candid interpreta-
tion upon men's words and actions, yea, even those of his greatest
enemies, did not take the advantage of their hasty and inconsi-
derate reply, to treat them with sharp and quick reproofs, but
mildly owning their forwardness to suffer, told them, that as for
sufferings, they should indeed suffer as well as he, (and so we
accordingly find they did, St. James after all dying a violent
death, St. John enduring great miseries and torments, and, might
we believe Chrysostom and Theophylact, martyrdom itself,
though others nearer to those times assure us he died a natural
death,) but, for any peculiar honour or dignity, he would not, by
an absolute and peremptory favour of his own, dispose it any
otherwise than according to those rules and instructions which
he had received of his Father. The rest of the apostles were
offended with this ambitious request of the sons of Zebedee; but
our Lord, to calm their passions, discoursed to them of the
nature of the evangelic state, that it was not here, as in the
kingdoms and signories of this world, where the great ones
receive homage and fealty from those that are under them, but
that in his service humility was the way to honour; that whoever
took most pains, and did most good, would be the greatest
person, preeminence being here to be measured by industry and
diligence, and a ready condescension to the meanest offices that
might be subservient to the souls of men ; and that this was no
more than what he sufficiently taught them by his own example ;
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SAINT JAMES THE GREAT.
355
being come into the world, not to be served himself with any
pompous circumstances of state and splendour, but to serve
others, and to lay down his life for the redemption of mankind:
with which discourse the storm blew over, and their exorbitant
passions began on all hands to be allayed and pacified.
VII. What became of St. James after our Saviour's ascension
we have no certain account, either from sacred or ecclesiastical
stories. Sophronius tells us, u that he preached to the dispersed
Jews; which surely he means of that dispersion that was made
of the Jewish converts after the death of Stephen. The Spanish
writers generally contend, that having preached the gospel up
and down Judea and Samaria, after the death of Stephen, he
came to these western parts, and particularly into Spain, (some
add Britain and Ireland/) where he planted Christianity, and
appointed some select disciples to perfect what he had begun,
and then returned back to Jerusalem. Of this there are no
footsteps in any ancient writers earlier than the middle ages of
the church, when it is mentioned by Isidore/ the Breviary of
Toledo, 8 and Arabic book of Anastasius, 8 patriarch of Antioch,
concerning the passions of the martyrs, and some others after
them. Nay, Baronius himself, b though endeavouring to render
the account as smooth and plausible as he could, and to
remove what objections lay against it, yet after all confesses,
he did it only to shew that the thing was not impossible, nor to
be accounted such a monstrous and extravagant fable as some
men made it to be, as indeed elsewhere he plainly and peremp-
torily denies and disproves it. c He could not but see, that the
shortness of this apostle's life, the apostles continuing all in one
entire body at Jerusalem, even after the dispersing of the other
Christians, probably not going out of the bounds of Judea for
many years after our Lord's ascension, could not comport with
so tedious and difficult a voyage, and the time which he must
necessarily spend in those parts : and therefore it is safest to
u Apud Hieron. de Script. Eccles. in Jacob.
x Pseudo-Dextr. Chronic. Vincent Beilova. Spec. Historial. L viii. c. 7.
y De vit et obit SS. utriusque Test. c. 72. « Brev. Tol. Instit S. Isidori.
a Apud Marian, de adv. Jac in Hispan. c. 7. scd ex fide aliorum.
b In Not ad MartyroL ad 25 Jul. p. 452. Vid. Orat Roder. Archiep. Tol. in Not.
G. Loays. ad decret Gund. vol. iv. Concil. p. 548, 549.
c Ad Ann. 816. n 69, 70.
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confine his ministry to Judea, and the parts thereabouts, and
to seek for him at Jerusalem, where we are sure to find him.
VIIL Herod Agrippa, son of Aristobulus, and grandchild of
Herod the Great, (under whom Christ was born,) had been in
great favour with the late emperor Caligula, but much more with
his successor Claudius, who confirmed his predecessor's grant,
with the addition of Judea, Samaria, and Abylene, the remain-
ing portions of his grandfather's dominions. Claudius being
settle 
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