matters of fact, there is no just cause to doubt; I mean the genuine writings of the ancient fathers; or those, which, though unduly assigned to this or that particular father, are yet generally allowed to be ancient, and their credit not to be despised, because their proper parent is not certainly known. Next these come the writers of the middle and later ages of the church, who, though below the former in point of credit, have yet some particular advantages that recommend them to us. Such I account Symeon Metaphrastes, Nicephorus Callistus, the Menea and Menologies of the Greek church, &c. wherein, though we meet with many vain and improbable stories, yet may we rationally expect some real and substantial accounts of things; especially seeing they had the advantage of many ancient and ecclesiastical writings extant in their times, which to us are utterly lost. Though even these too I have never called in, but more ancient and authentic writers. As for others, if any passages occur either in themselves of doubtful and suspected credit, or borrowed from spurious and uncertain authors, they are always introduced or dismissed with some kind of censure or remark; that the most easy and credulous reader may know what to trust to, and not fear being secretly surprised into a belief of doubtful and fabulous reports. And now, after all, I am sufficiently sensible how lank and thin this account is, nor can the reader be less satisfied with it than I am myself; and I have only this piece of justice and charity to beg of him, that he would suspend his censure till

in the want of

he has taken a little pains to inquire into the state of the times and things I write of; and then, however he may challenge my prudence in undertaking it, he will not, I hope, see reason to charge me with want of care and faithfulness in the pursuance of it.

THE

LIVES OF THE APOSTLES.

INTRODUCTION.

1. JESUS CHRIST, the great apostle and highpriest 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; 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 could now no longer upon earth manage its interests in his own person, he would not return back to heaven till he had constituted several orders and officers in his church, who might superintend and conduct its affairs, and according to the various circumstances of its state, administer to the needs and exigencies of his family. Accordingly therefore, 'he gave some apostles, and some prophets,

VOL. I.

B

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." 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 dæmons, the order of pastors and teachers, were all spiritual powers, and ensigns of great authority, ἀλλὰ τούτων ἁπάντων μείζων ἐςίν ȧрxỳ ý ȧπо50λшký, says Chrysostom; "but the aposἀρχὴ ἀποτολικὴ, tolic eminency is far greater than all these;" which therefore he calls a spiritual consulship: an apostle having as great pre-eminence 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 ;'3 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 re

1 Eph. iv. 11, 12, 13.

2 Serm. de Util. Lection. Sac. Scrip. tom. viii. edit. Savil.

P. 114.

3 Luke, vi. 13.

specting this or that particular person, but 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 duration and continuance of the office.

2. The word ȧñósoλos, or sent, is among ancient writers applied either to things, actions, or persons. To things: thus, 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: Thus, a packet-boat was stiled åτósoλov πλotov, because sent up and down for advice and dispatch of business. Thus, though in somewhat a different sense, the lesson taken out of the epistles is in the ancient Greek liturgies, called åπósoλos; 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 åπósоλos; so Suidas tells us, that as the persons designed for the care and management of the fleet were called aπósoλes, so the very sending forth of the ships themselves, αἱ τῶν νεῶν ἐκπομπαί, were stiled arósоλo. 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

3

1 L. unic. ff. lib. xlix. tit. 6. Vide L. 106, tit. 16, lib. 1. et Paul. J. C. Sentent. lib. ix. tit. 39.

2 Vid. Chrysost. Liturg. in Ritual Græc. p. 68.

3 Suidas in voc. àñоsоλaí. ex Demosth. vid. Harpocr. Lex. in Dec. Rhet.