because thou requirest it, and hath shewn me the way by thy own perfect example; who tookest pity upon fallen man, when he was in a state of enmity against thee; and without importunity or application didst admit him to terms of pardon and reconciliation, and didst pray for thy persecutors under the sense and smart of those sufferings they inflicted, in the very agony and bitterness of death. Teach me therefore to bear all their malice with meekness and patience, and to return all offices of charity for the affronts and indignities they offer to me. Make me placable and ready to forgive, and candid in interpreting all the marks and signs of their repentance. And do thou, O blessed Jesus, forgive them, and recover them to a right sense of things, and make them ready to be reconciled; that I, being enabled by thy grace to tread in the steps of thy first martyr St. Stephen, may receive that pardon from thee, which I readily grant to them, and without which I am undone to all eternity. Grant this, O Lord Jesus, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

FOR OUR PERSECUTORS.

GRACIOUS God, shew mercy, I humbly intreat thee, to all those that persecute me, though they neither shew justice nor mercy towards me; pity their ignorance, remove those prejudices that blind their eyes, sweeten and mollify their spirits, that they may no longer be carried away with malice and bitter passions: dispose them by humility and meekness, and by a sincere love of truth and righteousness, to a joyful reception and acknowledg ment thereof; that they may lay aside their errors, and instead of persecuting, resolutely profess thy holy religion. And by whatever means thou shalt think fit to

work their recovery, let their repentance prevent thine eternal vengeance, through the merits of our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAP. VII.

SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST, DECEMBER 27.

Q. What Festival does the church celebrate this day?

A. That of St. John the Evangelist.

Q. Who was St. John?

a

A. As to his country, he was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, younger brother to St. James, with whom he was brought up in the trade of fishing, and with whom he was called to be a disciple and an Apostle of our Saviour. He is thought by the ancients to be far the youngest of all the Apostles, being under thirty years old when he was first called to that dignity. And his great age seems to prove as much; for dying about an hundred years old in the third year of Trajan, he must have lived above seventy years after our Saviour's suffering.

Q. What new name did St. John receive from his master?

b

A. He with his brother James were styled Boanerges, that is the sons of thunder. This surname is thought more especially to be attributed to St. John, because he so clearly taught the divinity of Jesus Christ in sublime words, and delivered the mysteries of the Gospel in a profounder strain than the rest of the evangelists.

Q. What particular marks had St. John of our Saviour's esteem?

a

b

Mat. iv. 21.

Mark iii. 17.

not to have been so exact in their choice of persons, nor have used such solemn rites of consecration to ordain them to it. But the serving tables implied also their attendance at the table of the Lord's supper; for in those days their Agapæ, or love-feasts, where rich and poor sat down together, were at the same time with the holy eucharist, and both administered every day; so that their ministration respected the one and the other, and thus we find it was the practice in the primitive church afterwards; besides, they were allowed to preach and baptize, as is plain by Philip the deacon, who did both.f

Q. How were the first deacons ordained to their office?

A. Seven men of good report, full of wisdom and the Holy Ghost, were by the people presented to the Apostles; who first made their address to heaven for a blessing upon their undertaking, and then laid their hands upon them; an ancient symbolic rite of investiture and consecration to any extraordinary office.

Q. Who were those that opposed and disputed with St. Stephen?

A. Several of the members of five synagogues, of which there were very many at Jerusalem, established for expounding the law, and for prayer. In some apartments joining to these, were schools or colleges for the instruction and education of youth, which being built by Jews, who were foreigners, were called after the name of their countries. But notwithstanding their subtilty and learning, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

Q. What method did they take to suppress the doctrine he taught?

Acts viii. 12.

Acts vi. 3.

h

ver. 9.

ver. 10.