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 duration and continuance of the office. 2. The word aroσrodos, 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 styled anоOTOλov λolov, be 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 honorable 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 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 arooTodos; 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 anoTolos; 80 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 arоaroles, 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 axoroda "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, dla Tour ἀπαντων μείζων ἐσιν ἀρχὴ 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 arogoλos, 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 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 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 mention ing the ιεροπομποι καθ' εκαζον ενιαυτον χρυσον κι αργυρον πλείςον κομιζοντες 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 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 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 puλapya‹, 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;"+ 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 * See St. Peter's Life, sec. 3, num. 2. ↑ Gal. i. I. send into the world, and that accordingly the Holy Ghost was actually sent in him; and therefore 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. et originales fidei, as Tertullian calls them; "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 unamquamque civitatem condiderunt, à quibus traducem fidei et semina doctrinæ, cæteræ exinde ecclesia mutuata sunt," as his own words are. 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. 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 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 administered by Christ 6. In pursuance of this general commission, we himself, the complete exercise whereof was not ac- find the apostles, not long after our Lord's ascentually devolved upon them till he was ready to sion, traversing almost all parts of the then known leave the world: for then it was that he told them, world: St. Andrew in Scythia, and those northern "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you; countries; St. Thomas and Bartholomew in Inreceive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye dia; St. Simon and St. Mark in Africa, Egypt, rémit, they are remitted; and whose soever sins ye and the parts of Libya and Mauritania; St. Paul, retain, they are retained."* Whereby he conferred and probably Peter, and some others, in the farin some proportion the same authority upon them thest regions of the west; and all this done in the which he himself had derived from his Father. space of less than forty years; viz., before the deFifthly, this commission given to the apostles was struction of the Jewish state, by Titus and the unlimited and universal, not only in respect of Roman army. For so our Lord had expressly power, as enabling them to discharge all acts of foretold, that "the gospel of the kingdom should religion, relating either to ministry or government; be preached in all the world, for a witness unto but in respect of place, not confining them to this all nations, before the end came ;"* that is, the end or that particular province, but leaving them the of the Jewish state, which the apostles, a little bewhole world as their diocess to preach in, they be-fore, had called “the end of the world,”† œuvredeca ing 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 maca Krios of the Evangelist answering to the ܂ rou 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 swiftness did the Christian faith, like lightning, pierce from east to west, and diffuse itself over all quar amongst the Jews, "to all creatures;" whereby they used to denote all men in general, but especially 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 mi- any secular advantages, but in defiance of the nistry extended no farther than Judea; but he be- most fierce and potent opposition, which every ing gone to heaven, the partition wall was broken where set itself against it! It is true, the imdown, and their way was open into all places and postors of Mahomet in a very little time gained a countries. And herein how admirably did the great part of the East; but besides that this was Christian economy transcend the Jewish dispensa-not comparable to the universal spreading of tion! The preaching of the prophets, like the Christianity, his doctrine was calculated on purlight 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 pose 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, "which were unconquerable 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 it to succeed and prosper it. St. Chrysostom discourses this argument at large, some of whose elegant reasonings I shall here transcribe. He tells the Gentile (with whom he was disputing) that he would not prove Christ's Deity by a demonstration from heaven, by his creation of the world, his great and stupendous miracles, his raising the dead, curing the blind, expelling 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 word. 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, nak ed 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 reduced 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, even the death of the cross. Afterwards he addresses himself to the Jew, and discourses with him much after the same rate. Consider, says he, 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, their idols and their sacrifices, their profane and impious festivals, as dirt and dung; and instead hereof 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 beyond 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 supereminent 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, repugnant 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. 7. Sixthly the power and authority conveyed by this commission 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 equally furnished with the same gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost. Indeed 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 without reason, the fortunes of that church being concerned in the supremacy of St. Peter. No wonder, therefore, they ransack all corners, press and force in whatever may but seem to give countenance 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 constitution of that church. As when he argues Peter's superiority from the mere changing of his name, (for what is this to supremacy? 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 Peter often named first among the apostles?— tribute for his master and himself, his being com- elsewhere others; sometimes James, somemanded to let down the net, and Christ's teaching times Paul and Apollos are placed before him. a. in Peter's ship, (and this ship must denote the Did Christ honor him with some singular comchurch, and Peter's being owner of it, entitle him mendations? An honorable eulogium conveys no to be supreme ruler and governor of the church; supereminent power and sovereignty. Was he so Bellarmine, in terms as plain as he could well dear to Christ? We know another that was the express it,) from Christ's first washing Peter's feet, "beloved disciple." So little warrant is there to (though the story recorded by the evangelist says exalt one above the rest, where Christ made all no such thing,) and his foretelling only his death: alike. If from Scripture we descend to the anall which, and many more prerogatives of St. Peter, cient writers of the church, we shall find that to the number of no less than twenty-eight, are though the fathers bestow very great and honorasummoned in to give evidence in this cause; and ble titles upon Peter, yet they give the same, or many of these too drawn out of apocryphal and what are equivalent, to others of the apostles. supposititious authors, and not only uncertain, but Hesychius styles St. James the great, "the brother absurd and fabulous; and yet upon such argu- of our Lord, the commander of the new Jerusalem, ments as these do they found his paramount au- the prince of priests, the exarch (or chief) of the thority. A plain evidence of a desperate and sink- apostles, tv kepalais kopudny, the top (or crown) ing cause, when such twigs must be laid hold on amongst the heads, the great light amongst the to support and keep it above water. Had they lamps, the most illustrious and resplendent amongst suffered Peter to be content with a primacy of the stars: it was Peter that preached, but it was order, (which his age and gravity seemed to chal-James that made the determination," &c. Of St. lenge for him,) no wise and peaceable man would Andrew he gives this encomium; that "he was the have denied it, as being a thing ordinarily prac-sacerdotal trumpet, the first-born of the apostolical tised among equals, and necessary to the well choir, πρωτοπαγης της εκκλησίας ςυλος, the prime and governing of a society: but when nothing but a firm pillar of the church, Peter before Peter, the primacy of power will serve the turn, as if the rest foundation of the foundation, the first fruits of the of the apostles had been inferior to him, this may beginning." Peter and John are said to be orpo by no means be granted, as being expressly con- anλors, "equally honorable." by St. Cyril, with trary to the positive determination of our Saviour, his whole synod of Alexandria. "St. John," says when the apostles were contending about this very Chrysostom, "was Christ's beloved, the pillar of thing, "Which of them should be accounted the all the churches in the world, who had the keys greatest;"* he thus quickly decides the case of heaven; drank of the Lord's cup, was washed "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over with his baptism, and with confidence lay in his them, and they that are great, exercise authority bosom." And of St. Paul he tells us, that "he upon them. But ye shall not be so: but whosoever was the most excellent of all men, the teacher of will be great among you, let him be your minister; the world, the bridegroom of Christ, the planter of and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be the church, the wise master-builder, greater than your servant." Than which nothing could have the apostles;" and much more to the same purbeen more peremptorily spoken, to rebuke this pose. Elsewhere he says, that "the care of the naughty spirit of pre-eminence. Nor do we ever whole world was committed to him; that nothing find St. Peter himself laying claim to any such pow- could be more noble or illustrious: yea, that (his er, or the apostles giving him the least shadow of miracles considered) he was more excellent than it. In the whole course of his affairs there are no kings themselves." And a little after he calls him intimations of this matter: in his epistle he styles" the tongue of the earth, the light of the churches, himself but their " fellow presbyter ;” and express- του θεμέλιον της πίστεως, τον φύλον κι εδραίωμα τηστ αληθείας. ly forbids the governors of the church to "lord it the foundation of the faith, the pillar and ground over God's heritage." When despatched by the of truth." And in a discourse on purpose, wherein rest of the apostles upon a message to Samaria, he compares Peter and Paul together, he makes he never disputes their authority to do it: when them of equal esteem and virtue; τι Πετρου μείζον ; accused by them for going in unto the Gentiles, de Havλov 'too; What greater than Peter? What does he stand upon his prerogative? no, but sub-equal to Paul? a blessed pair! OTεvoica odov Tou missively apologizes for himself: nay, when smart-Kopov ras Yoxas, who had the souls of the whole ly 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 controling his superior? Surely quite the 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 world committed to their charge." But instances of this nature were endless and infinite. 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 princeps; the first or chief person of the number, more considerable than the rest, either for his age or zeal. Thus Eusebius tells us, "Peter was rwy doιawv akavтwy ponyopos, the prolocutor of all the rest, aperns sveka for the greatness and generosity of his mind:" that is, in Chrysostom's language, he was "the mouth and chief of the apostles, o navraxov depμos, 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 chairman and pre |