kind of Egyptian task, to make brick without unerring spirit that presided over them. Others straw, at least to pick it up where he can find it, such, of whose faith and testimony, especially in though after all it amounts to a very slender par- matters of fact, there is no just cause to doubt; I cel. Which as it greatly hinders the beauty and mean the genuine writings of the ancient fathers; completeness of the structure, so does it exceed- or those, which, though unduly assigned to this or ingly multiply the labor and difficulty. For by that particular father, are yet generally allowed to this means I have been forced to gather up those be ancient, and their credit not to be despised, belittle fragments of antiquity, that lie dispersed in cause their proper parent is not certainly known. the writings of the ancients, thrown some into this Next to these came the writers of the middle and corner, and others into that; which I have at later ages of the church, who, though below the length put together, like the pieces of a broken former in point of credit, have yet some particular statue, that it might have at least some kind of advantages that recommend them to us. Such I resemblance of the person whom it designs to re-account Symeon Metaphrastes, Nicephorus Calpresent. listus, the Menaa and Menologies of the Greek Had I thought good to have traded in idle and church, &c., wherein, though we meet with many frivolous authors, Abdias Babylonius, "The Pas- vain and improbable stories, yet may we rationalsions of Peter and Paul," Joachim Perionius, Peter ly expect some real and substantial accounts of de Natalibus, and such like, I might have present- things; especially seeing they had the advantage ed the reader with a larger, not a better account. of many ancient and ecclesiastical writings extant But, besides the averseness of my nature to false- in their times, which to us are utterly lost. Though hoods and trifles, especially wherein the honor of even these too I have never called in, but in the the Christian religion is concerned, I knew the want of more ancient and authentic writers. As world to be wiser at this time of day, than to be for others, if any passages occur either in themimposed upon by pious frauds, and cheated with selves of doubtful and suspected credit, or borrowecclesiastical romances and legendary reports. ed from spurious and uncertain authors, they are For this reason, I have more fully and particularly always introduced or dismissed with some kind of insisted upon the lives of the two first apostles, so censure or remark; that the most easy and credugreat a part of them being secured by an unques- lous reader may know what to trust to, and not tionable authority; and have presented the larger fear being secretly surprised into a belief of doubtportions of the sacred history, many times to very ful and fabulous reports. And now, after all, I minute circumstances of action. And I presume am sufficiently sensible how lank and thin this acthe wise and judicious reader will not blame me, count is, nor can the reader be less satisfied with for choosing rather to enlarge upon a story which it than I am myself; and I have only this piece of I knew to be infallibly true, than to treat him with justice and charity to beg of him, that he would those which there was cause enough to conclude suspend his censure till he has taken a little pains to be certainly false. to inquire into the state of the times and things I The reader will easily discern, that the authors write of; and then, however he may challenge I make use of are not all of the same rank and size. my prudence in undertaking it, he will not, I hope, Some of them are divinely inspired, whose autho- see reason to charge me with want of care and rity is sacred, and their reports rendered not only faithfulness in the pursuance of it. credible, but unquestionable, by that infallible and LIVES OF THE APOSTLES. INTRODUCTION. of a general relation to the whole: wherein we shall especially take notice of the importance of the word, the nature of the employment, the fitness and qualification of the persons, and the du ration and continuance of the office. 1. JESUS CHRIST, the great apostle and high. priest of our profession, being appointed by God to be the supreme ruler and governor of his church, was, like Moses, faithful in all his house; 2. The word aroσrodos, or sent, is among ancient but with this honorable advantage, that Moses writers applied either to things, actions, or perwas faithful as a servant, Christ as a son over his sons. To things: thus, those dimissory letters own house, which he erected, established, and that were granted to such who appealed from an governed with all possible care and diligence. inferior to a superior judicature, were in the lanNor could he give a greater instance either of guage of the Roman laws usually called apostoli ; his fidelity towards God or his love and kindness Thus, a packet-boat was styled arooTodov λocov, beto the souls of men, than that after he had pur-cause sent up and down for advice and despatch chased a family to himself, and could now no of business. Thus, though in somewhat a diflonger upon earth manage its interests in his own ferent sense, the lesson taken out of the epistles person, he would not return back to heaven till he is in the ancient Greek liturgies, called arooTudos; had constituted several orders and officers in his because usually taken out of the apostles' wrichurch, who might superintend and conduct its tings. Sometimes it is applied to actions, and so affairs, and according to the various circumstances imports no more than mission, or the very act of of its state, administer to the needs and exigen- sending. Thus the setting out a fleet or a naval cies of his family. Accordingly therefore, "he expedition, was wont to be called nooroos; so gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some Suidas tells us, that as the persons designed for the evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for care and management of the fleet were called the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the amorous, so the very sending forth of the ships ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; themselves, και των νέων εκπομπαι, were styled αποστολοι, till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of Lastly; what principally falls under our present the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect consideration, it is applied to persons; and so imman, unto the measure of the stature of the ful-ports no more than a messenger, a person sent ness of Christ."* The first and prime class of upon some special errand, for the discharge of officers is that of apostles: God had set some in some peculiar affair in his name that sent him. the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, Thus Epaphroditus is called the apostle or mes&c. First apostles, as far in office as honor be- senger of the Philippians,* when sent by them to fore the rest, their election more immediate, their St. Paul at Rome. Thus Titus and his comcommission more large and comprehensive, the panions are styled arosoda "the messengers of the powers and privileges wherewith they were fur-churches." So our Lord; "He that is sent," nished greater and more honorable. Prophecy, the gift of miracles and expelling dæmons, the order of pastors and teachers, were all spiritual powers, and ensigns of great authority, alla Tourav ἀπαντων μείζων ἐςιν άρχη ἡ ἀποςολική, says Chrysostom; "but the apostolic eminency is far greater than all these;" which therefore he calls a spirit-rived upon them. ual consulship: an apostle having as great preeminence above all other officers in the church, as the consul had above all other magistrates in Rome. 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;" 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 amosoдos, an apostle or messenger "is not greater than he that sent him." 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 deTwelve, whom he also named apostles; that is, commissioners, those who were to be ambassadors for Christ, to be sent up and down 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 future exigencies of the church. 3. 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 founding this office had some respect to the state of things in the Jewish church; I mean not only in general, * Phil. ii. 25; 2 Cor. viii. 23; John xiii. 16. that there should be superior and subordinate of- | being sent out to water and refresh the dry, ficers, as there were superior and inferior orders thirsty world with the knowledge of the truth; by 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 apostles; 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 proverb "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 converts, 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, 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 irregularities of country synagogues, with commission to gather the tenths and first-fruits due in all the provinces under his jurisdiction. Such apostles we find mentioned both by Julian the emperor,* in an epistle to the Jews, and in a law of the emperor Honorious, 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 ιεροπομποι καθ' εκαςον ενιαυτον χρυσον κι αργυρον πλείσον κομίζοντες ιες το ιερον, τον αθροισθέντα εκ των απαρχών, "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 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. 4. Secondly, we observe that the persons thus deputed by our Saviour were not left uncertain, but reduced to a fixed definite number, confined to the just number of twelve; "he ordained 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; the apostles 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 the 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 into 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 Ezekial's vision: or by the twelve bells appendent to Aaron's garment, "their sound going out into all the world, and their words unto the ends of the earth." 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 mentioned 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, 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 pulaoxai, 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 ;"'t 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 meanness 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 immediate call has ever been accounted so necessary to give credit and reputation to their doctrine, that the most notorious impostors have pretended to it. Thus Manes the founder of the Manichæan sect, was wont in his epistles to style himself the apostle of Jesus Christ, as pretending himself to be the person whom our Lord had promised to 3, num. 2. 1 Gal. i. 1. * See St. Peter's Life, sec. ci send into the world, and that accordingly the all quarters of the world; "their sound going out Holy Ghost was actually sent in him; and there-into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of fore he constituted twelve disciples always to at- the world.". It is true, for the more prudent and tend his person, in imitation of the number of the orderly management of things, they are generally apostolic college. And how often the Turkish said by the ancients to have divided the world into impostor does upon this account call himself the so many quarters and portions, to which they were apostle of God, every one that has but once seen severally to betake themselves; Peter to Pontus, the Alcoran is able to tell. Galatia, Cappadocia, &c.; St. John to Asia; St. 5. Fourthly, the main work and employment of Andrew to Scythia, &c. But they did not strictly these apostles was to preach the gospel, to estab- tie themselves to those particular provinces that lish Christianity, and to govern the church that were assigned them, but, as occasion was, made was to be founded, as Christ's immediate deputies excursions into other parts; though for the main and vicegerents: they were to instruct men in the they had a more peculiar inspection over those doctrines of the gospel, to disciple the world, and parts that were allotted to them, usually residing to baptize and initiate men into the faith of Christ; at some principal city of the province; as St. John and to constitute and ordain guides and ministers at Ephesus, St. Philip at Hierapolis, &c.; whence of religion, persons peculiarly set apart for holy they might have a more convenient prospect of ministrations, to censure and punish obstinate and affairs round about them; and hence it was that contumacious offenders, to compose and overrule these places more peculiarly got the title of aposdisorders and divisions, to command or counter-tolical churches, because first planted, or eminently mand as occasion was, being vested with an ex- watered and cultivated by some apostles, matrices traordinary authority and power of disposing things et originales fidei, as Tertullian calls them; "mofor the edification of the church. This office the ther churches and the originals of the faith;" beapostles never exercised in its full extent and lati- cause here the Christian doctrine was first sown, tude during Christ's residence upon earth; for and hence planted and propagated to the countries though upon their election he sent them forth to round about; "Ecclesias apud unamquamque preach and to baptize, yet this was only a narrow vitatem condiderunt, à quibus traducem fidei et seand temporary employment, and they quickly re- mina doctrina, cætera exinde ecclesia mutuata turned to their private stations; the main power sunt," as his own words are. being still executed and administered 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 them, "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 himself 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, relating either to ministry or government; but in respect of place, not confining them to this or that particular province, but leaving them the whole world as their diocess to preach in, they being destinati nationibus magistri, in Tertullian's phrase, designed to be the masters and instructors of all nations: so runs their commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature ;" that is, to all men, the Taca KTIGIS of the Evangelist answering to the 6. 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; 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 ;"* that is, the end of the Jewish state, which the apostles, a little before, had called "the end of the world,”† ouvredeia Tou alwvos, the shutting up or consummation 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 swiftamongst the Jews, "to all creatures;" whereby ness did the Christian faith, like lightning, pierce they used to denote all men in general, but espe- from east to west, and diffuse itself over all quarcially the Gentiles in opposition to the Jews. In-ters of the world; and that not only unassisted by deed, while our Saviour lived, the apostolical ministry extended no farther 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 Christian economy transcend the Jewish dispensation! The preaching of the prophets, like the light that comes in at the window, 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 any secular advantages, but in defiance of the most fierce and potent opposition, which every where set itself against it! It is true, the impostors of Mahomet in a very little time gained a great part of the East; but besides that this was not comparable to the universal spreading of Christianity, 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 |